Warren ties California recall to ‘Trump Republicans’ in latest Newsom ad – POLITICO
Warren ties California recall to ‘Trump Republicans’ in latest Newsom ad – POLITICO

This is not the first time Warren has played a public role in the anti-recall campaign. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

OAKLAND — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is enlisting national Democratic star power to fight a looming recall vote by launching an ad Wednesday featuring Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

The Warren-starring spot is hitting the airwaves three weeks before ballots start landing in California voters’ mailboxes. The Massachusetts progressive warns that “Trump Republicans” who have been “attacking election results and the right to vote” are “coming to grab power in California,” before urging Californians to stymie conservatives by voting against the recall.

“Vote ‘no’ to protect California and our democracy,” Warren says.

This is not the first time Warren has played a public role in the anti-recall campaign. She has condemned it on social media and signed fundraising missives from the Newsom campaign.

But Warren’s appearance in a homestretch spot both demonstrates the recall’s national dimensions and underscores the risk to Newsom that unenthusiastic Democrats will not vote.

Republicans are far more motivated to participate in the recall election, which could help them surmount registration and fundraising disadvantages. A new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies/Los Angeles Times poll on Tuesday found that the recall is virtually tied among the voters most likely to turn out — a slice of the electorate that is more Republican than California’s overall, Democratic-dominated voting population.

That increases the urgency for Newsom to turn out his base and cut through complacency among Democrats who are confident the recall will fail. In the new advertisement, Warren specifically tells voters they will receive ballots in the mail.

Newsom immediately telegraphed the peril in a Wednesday email to supporters highlighting the tight polling.

“Let us be very direct and very honest: if we do not have the resources we need to turn out our voters, we could lose this recall,” a fundraising email warned.

Recall ballots contain two questions: whether to recall Newsom, and with whom he should be replaced. If a majority votes to keep Newsom on the first question the results of the second are moot.

The Berkeley/Los Angeles Times poll found that conservative talk show host Larry Elder is leading the replacement candidate field with 18 percent support, followed by former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and 2018 gubernatorial candidate John Cox, who each have 10 percent.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/07/28/warren-ties-california-recall-to-trump-republicans-in-latest-newsom-ad-1389148

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Republicans signal they will advance bipartisan infrastructure deal – POLITICO
Republicans signal they will advance bipartisan infrastructure deal – POLITICO

Portman added that he didn’t know “exactly what time a cloture vote might occur,” but guessed it would be “tonight sometime” based on Schumer’s comments. He said he was ready “to have a healthy debate here in the chamber.”

The possible Wednesday vote is a sign that negotiators are closing in on a final deal. Schumer held a vote last week to begin the process of passing a cross-aisle infrastructure plan but Senate Republicans blocked it, asking for more time to finalize a deal.

“Senators continue to make good progress on both tracks of legislation,” Schumer said Wednesday morning.

GOP negotiators huddled with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. But it’s not clear if 10 Senate Republicans will vote to proceed.

Senate Democrats will also meet for a special caucus meeting at 1 p.m., according to a Democratic aide.

The group, led by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), announced a framework with President Joe Biden last month that would include nearly $600 billion in new spending on roads, bridges and broadband. But translating that framework into legislative text has proven challenging.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a member of the group, said Wednesday that she planned to vote to move forward on the bipartisan bill. “There is a strong, solid number of folks on both sides of the aisle that want to get on an infrastructure package,” Murkowski told reporters. “In fairness there’s a lot that many of our colleagues have not been read into.” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), another bipartisan negotiator, said that he would do the same and was optimistic that the group would get the requisite 10 Republicans to sign on.

In a positive sign, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said that he would vote to move forward Wednesday, while Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that they were both inclined to do the same.

Some Senate Republicans, however, were more skeptical about the vote, saying they wanted to see legislative text and a score before moving forward. Committee chairs have also expressed frustration with the process.

“This idea of getting on a bill that’s still being written is still a bad idea,” said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a close McConnell adviser. “We’re going to insist upon amendments because this bill’s been negotiated by 20 people but there are 80 other senators.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi hasn’t been briefed on the bipartisan deal and wouldn’t commit to not changing it if it came over to the House, she told reporters at lunchtime Wednesday. Pelosi and other top House Democrats are under significant pressure from some within their caucus — like Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio — to ensure the Senate deal isn’t completely void of House priorities.

“I can’t commit to passing something that I don’t know what it is yet,” Pelosi told reporters Wednesday. “But I’m hoping for the best.”

Privately, though, Democrats admit it’s highly unlikely the House would try to make changes to the Senate deal, noting the White House’s opposition to reopening the negotiations after the fact. Pelosi also reiterated her promise to not even consider the bipartisan bill until the Senate passes a Democratically backed reconciliation package, leaving the timing in flux for when a deal would even reach Biden’s desk.

Schumer has long insisted that the Senate will pass the bipartisan infrastructure package and the budget blueprint for the $3.5 trillion social spending before leaving for the August recess. Earlier this week, he suggested the Senate could stay in through the weekend to finish up the bipartisan deal.

Tanya Snyder and Heather Caygle contributed to this report.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/28/bipartisan-infrastructure-deal-501278

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CDC guidance fallout: House, White House bring back mask mandates – Fox News
CDC guidance fallout: House, White House bring back mask mandates – Fox News
Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for July 28

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.

Capitol Attending Physician Brian Monahan said late Tuesday that the House of Representatives is reinstating its mask mandate – and therefore the threat of fines to members who don’t comply – following updated guidance from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the delta variant of the coronavirus.

The White House also appears to be going back to mandated masks. A White House press representative was seen Tuesday swapping a sign saying people are required to wear masks if unvaccinated with another saying masks are required regardless of vaccination status. 

The CDC said Tuesday that it is recommending people who are vaccinated and in areas with high COVID-19 spread wear masks indoors. The announcement was foreshadowed for days by top officials and demanded for weeks by some activists. The new recommendation is likely to prompt a raft of new mask mandates around the country and has already done so in the U.S. Capitol. 

“For the Congress, representing a collection of individuals traveling weekly from various risk areas (both high and low rates of disease transmission), all individuals should wear a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask (for example an ear loop surgical mask or a KN95 mask) when they are in an interior space,” Monahan said in a letter sent to congressional staffers. 

This, the attending physician added, includes the House chamber, committee meetings and all House office buildings. The only explicit exceptions Monahan mentioned were for those who are actively speaking, seeking recognition from a chair at a committee hearing or those who are alone in a room. 

WHITE HOUSE CALLS MASKS ‘EXTRA’ PROTECTION FOR VACCINATED WHILE REITERATING ‘THE VACCINES WORK’

“To be clear, for meetings in an enclosed US House of Representatives controlled space, masks are REQUIRED,” Monahan said. “Failure to wear a mask in the Hall of the House is subject to fines imposed for violation as contained in the previous House rule.”

Monahan explained the reasoning behind the decision in his letter, tracking closely with reasoning used by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in his announcement Tuesday that the CDC would again recommend masks for unvaccinated people. 

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wears a face mask as she hosts a visit by King Abdullah II of Jordan at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 22, 2021. 
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“In the past two weeks, USA coronavirus cases have significantly increased, now approaching 100,000 cases per day. The delta variant virus has been detected in Washington, DC and in the Capitol buildings,” Monahan said. “It represents a dire health risk to unvaccinated individuals and is not without some risk to the vaccinated individuals or their unvaccinated household contacts.”

He added: “Despite the excellent protective value of the coronavirus vaccine in preventing hospitalization and death, there is still a possibility a fully-vaccinated individual could acquire infection in their nose and throat, mild symptoms, or the ability to transmit the coronavirus infection to others.”

Monahan further warned about the possibility of “long COVID” and cited the fact that some local governments have either mandated masks or recommended them already in light of the delta variant. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Wednesday said that Monahan made the decision to bring back the mandate on his own and she was not involved.

The CDC’s decision Tuesday was highly controversial, with many alleging that it will undermine faith in vaccines – which prevent nearly all severe infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 – just as the U.S. is trying to increase vaccination rates among hesitant populations. 

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Others worried that local and state governments would use the new recommendation from the CDC as a reason to implement new mandates, requiring vaccinated people to wear masks indoors even if they are healthy, confident that their vaccines work and in a situation where they are comfortable not masking. 

But Walensky and the White House defended the new guidance as grounded in science and aimed at protecting Americans. 

“Information on the delta variant from several states and other countries indicate that in rare occasions, some vaccinated people infected with the delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others,” Walensky told reporters Tuesday. “This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations.”

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Jason Donner and Peter Doocy contributed to this report. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-mask-mandate-fines-return-capitol-hill

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Mandate the Covid-19 vaccine, not masks – Vox.com
Mandate the Covid-19 vaccine, not masks – Vox.com

All of a sudden, it looks like masks may have to be put back on.

With the rise of the delta variant and a rapid increase in Covid-19 cases, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling on vaccinated people to wear masks indoors again in places where the virus is quickly spreading. At least some school districts will likely require masks this fall. Local governments, from Massachusetts to California, are reviving mask mandates.

A year ago, requiring masks as cases spiked would have been an obviously smart decision. Mask mandates work, and for most of 2020, they were among the best methods we had to stop the spread of Covid-19. But masks were never meant to be the long-term solution; they were a stopgap until the US and the rest of the world could stamp out epidemics through vaccination.

Now those vaccines are here. And the changed circumstances of summer 2021 call for new approaches. Any entity thinking about a mask requirement — from private businesses to local, state, and federal governments — should consider mandating something else first: vaccination.

Demonstrators opposed to the Covid-19 vaccination and to mandates by governments hold a “freedom” rally in New York City on July 24.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

Unvaccinated people, whether they’re apathetic or resistant, are the reason the coronavirus remains a threat in the US. The country and everyone concerned about the rising case rate should do everything in their power to push these people to get a shot.

The federal government could require vaccination for its own employees, as President Joe Biden is reportedly considering, and offer incentives, financial or otherwise, for others to do the same. Local and state governments could require vaccines for their employees, health care workers, schools, and public spaces, from restaurants to museums. Even without any government support, private organizations could act alone, requiring vaccinations for their employees and, ultimately, proof of vaccination for anyone on their premises.

The US Department of Justice seemed to clear the way recently for vaccine mandates, declaring in a recent memo that “entities” can impose vaccine requirements for shots authorized under emergency use without full federal approval. And some government agencies, including New York City, California, and the US Department of Veteran Affairs, are now requiring public employees or health care workers to get vaccinated.

I’ve been talking to experts about mandating vaccines for months. Earlier this year, when I wrote about vaccine passports, many argued that mandates should only be tried as a last resort — we should try improving access and offering incentives first. Only if those options failed should we rely on the more drastic steps.

Well, we’re here. America has made the vaccines much more available to just about everyone who’s eligible. The nation has tried rewards, ranging from free beer to gift cards to a cash lottery, to nudge people to get a shot. Yet we’re stuck. Half of the US population still isn’t fully vaccinated.

It’s time to try that last resort.

Vaccine mandates work

France has historically been one of the more vaccine-skeptical countries in the West, and it’s struggled more than some of its peers to get people vaccinated. Two weeks ago, the country announced that it would require proof of vaccination for everyday activities, like restaurants and shopping centers. The news of the requirement led to a record rush for vaccine appointments, with 1.3 million people signing up in less than one day. (It also led to some protests.)

Israel has used “green passes,” proof of vaccination that’s required for everyday activities like restaurants and movie theaters, for as long as it’s been administering the vaccines. That requirement is cited as a key reason Israel has led much of the world in vaccination: More than two-thirds of its population has received at least one shot; more than 60 percent are fully vaccinated. (The US, by comparison, is less than 57 percent with at least one dose and below 50 percent fully vaccinated.) Israel recently reimposed some masking rules, but only after going hard on vaccination first.

Attendees show off their “green passes” or proof of vaccination as they arrive at a stadium in Tel Aviv.
Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

In the US, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s surveys have consistently found for months that about 20 percent of Americans are resistant to getting the vaccines. But even among these resisters, about 30 to 35 percent say they would get the shot if it was required. If a mandate would move even some of the most hardcore skeptics, then it would almost certainly boost vaccination rates across the country, also pushing the other 13 percent of the country who are still in “wait and see” or “as soon as possible” mode to get going.

In a follow-up interview, a 51-year-old man who said he would only get the vaccine if it was required told Kaiser he ultimately got it, and did so because he felt he had “limited options without it.” In New York, where he lives, the government has kept some restrictions for unvaccinated people, and employers have required the shot in some places as well.

None of this should be surprising. Vaccine mandates have been a part of American public health policy for decades, especially for health care workers and anyone attending school.

A 2019 review of the evidence on school mandates found that the requirements “appear largely associated with increased vaccination coverage” (while calling for better studies). And a 2015 review of the evidence on mandates in health care settings found they’re the most effective out of several options to encourage vaccination.

Meanwhile, the vaccination rate among American 2-year-olds for diseases like polio and measles — shots required for decades for public school attendance — surpasses 80 or even 90 percent.

Schools don’t require students to go through elaborate restrictions or rituals for these other diseases. They just require the vaccine. We can and should learn from that.

Universal vaccination would protect all of us

There’s also the less empirical case for requiring vaccination: It’s simply the right thing to do.

Based on all the evidence, the vaccines really work, including against the variants. Vaccinated people may still get infected by the coronavirus, leading to flu-like symptoms. But the vaccines nearly eliminate the risk of hospitalization and death — the real threat of Covid-19 — even with the variants.

The reason, then, that mask mandates are now coming into consideration is largely to protect unvaccinated people, who are truly at risk from the virus. As White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci declared in June, the Covid-19 epidemic in the US is really becoming the tale of “two Americas” — vaccinated and not.

A New York Times analysis in June found that places with more than 60 percent of their population vaccinated report about one-third of the cases as those with a lower vaccination rate of zero to 30 percent. And other data suggests that the current rise in coronavirus cases is almost entirely among the people who haven’t gotten vaccinated, with the new outbreaks hitting the low-vaccination states harder.

This presents a conundrum: Places that reinstate mask mandates are effectively asking vaccinated people to care more about unvaccinated people’s risk of Covid-19 than most of these unvaccinated people do (or else they’d get the vaccine).

There are important exceptions. Children under 12 are still unable to get the shot (and that will likely force mask mandates in K-6 schools this fall). The immunocompromised may not always get full protection from the vaccines. Yet the best evidence we have indicates these people would also be most protected if everyone who can get vaccinated did so, because it would reduce the spread of the virus.

The biggest hurdle to that kind of universal vaccination is no longer access. Vaccines are everywhere: I can, as I write this in Cincinnati, find appointments at multiple grocery stores and pharmacies in the next hour, including in some of the poorest neighborhoods, and appointments aren’t even needed in many of these places. The share of Americans who want to get vaccinated “as soon as possible” but have not is tiny: about 3 percent in June, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s surveys.

There’s more work to be done to make sure people have all of the information they need to get vaccinated and to actually access the shots. But the problem is no longer that people desperately want the vaccine and can’t get it; it’s that people need to be swayed to want it at all.

A mask mandate could even work against the vaccine campaign. Some research has found that people can be motivated to get vaccines with the promise that they’ll be able to stop masking up. As one vaccinated 52-year-old told the New York Times, “I just honestly got sick of wearing the mask. We had an event yesterday, and I had to wear it for five hours because I was around a lot of people. And I was sick of it.”

Requiring vaccinated people to keep masks removes an incentive for the shot.

And it doesn’t address the core problem: People who are eligible for the vaccine are still unvaccinated. That’s what needs to be fixed. If nothing else, all tools — up to and including mandates — should be used to move unvaccinated people before vaccinated people are asked to make more sacrifices.

A mandate could be a last resort — but it needs to be an option

For some of the population, a vaccine mandate would almost certainly produce a backlash. It could lead some of the resisters to harden in their refusal to get a vaccine, or polarize the US even further.

This is what some experts worry about. Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, has told me, “You take someone who is generally uncomfortable but willing to have a conversation, and you make it about them and an infringement on their liberties, and then they wind up getting more hardline on their views about the vaccines than they otherwise would have been.”

It’s a genuine public health conundrum. A mandate needs to lead to more people getting the shot than otherwise would, not fewer. And while the Kaiser Family Foundation surveys suggest that mandates would lead to more people overall getting the shot across the country, that may not be true in every town, city, county, or state.

Policymakers can address this by moving slowly, at first requiring public employees, health care workers, and schools to get the vaccine before phasing in mandates to the rest of the population. It may help these will likely be local and state decisions, given that the Biden administration has repeatedly resisted setting up a green pass–like system in the US. Different local and state governments may make different decisions about which settings require vaccination. And mandates should be treated as a last resort: The cities and states that, for example, haven’t tried cash incentives for vaccination could try that first.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki speaks to reporters on the correlation between deaths and unvaccinated people from the briefing room on July 27.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Even with all that, there may still be a backlash. Yet the mask mandates being discussed right now risk a backlash, too, in exchange for a much less permanent solution; many of the same people who refuse to get vaccinated are the same as those who most vehemently refuse to mask up. Ultimately, for cultural or political reasons, some places might not be able to impose a mandate of any kind.

But far more could than have tried so far, and far more should try. Even a patchwork system in which you need a vaccine to do some things in some places, but not everywhere to do everything, will push more people to get the shot than today’s reality, where you most likely don’t need a vaccine to do anything at all.

Yes, a vaccine mandate, like a mask mandate, infringes on a person’s ability to make their own personal health decisions.

But as Brown University School of Public Health dean Ashish Jha previously told me, “Freedom cuts in both directions.” If people’s resistance to getting vaccinated leads to more Covid-19 outbreaks and, worse, the rise of a variant that can overcome existing vaccines, the ensuing caution and restrictions would hinder people’s freedoms far more. That’s what we’re seeing right now as places consider adopting mask mandates again due to outbreaks caused by unvaccinated people.

To put the threat of Covid-19 behind us, people need to get vaccinated. As a country, the US has tried just about everything else in the toolbox. Before we go back to 2020’s policy ideas, we should make full use of the best tool we have in 2021.

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Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2021/7/28/22594637/vaccine-mandates-covid-19-masks-delta-variants

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England to Admit Vaccinated U.S. and E.U. Visitors Without Quarantine – The New York Times
England to Admit Vaccinated U.S. and E.U. Visitors Without Quarantine – The New York Times

As of next Monday, the rules will apply equally to all travelers from the United States, the European Union, Iceland, Norway or Switzerland who have been fully vaccinated with shots authorized by either American or European drug regulators, Mr. Shapps said. It is unclear how British authorities will verify travelers’ vaccination status if they got their shots elsewhere.

He said travelers will still need a negative coronavirus test before a trip, and will still have to take a PCR test after reaching England. It remains unclear whether the pre-departure test would be have to be for the virus, itself or for antibodies.

The tourism industry had long advocated the policy change. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said earlier on Wednesday that he wanted American travelers to come to England “freely.” The national government made the change for England, but Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland set their own policies. The Scottish government quickly followed London’s lead.

Most European countries have opened to American tourists after the European Union recommended lifting a ban on nonessential travel last month. Yet E.U. and British residents are still mostly banned from traveling to the United States, unless they are U.S. citizens.

The Biden administration said on Monday that it would continue to restrict the entry of Europeans and others into the United States, citing concerns that infected travelers may contribute to further spread of the contagious Delta variant. The State Department is advising American travelers not to go to Britain, Spain or Portugal, and to reconsider travel to other parts of Western Europe.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/world/uk-travel-quarantine.html

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Why Newsmax is failing, explained by an expert – Vox.com
Why Newsmax is failing, explained by an expert – Vox.com

Former President Donald Trump gave a speech over the weekend, but you might not have known it even if you are a regular Fox News viewer. Instead, you would’ve had to turn to Newsmax, the right-wing cable news channel that’s sticking to its old-school strategy of being the Trumpiest channel on TV.

But with Trump now more than seven months removed from the White House, out-Trumping the competition isn’t proving to be the ratings hit these days that it was in December and January.

The wall-to-wall coverage of Trump’s speech on Saturday at a Turning Point event in Phoenix was a snapshot of how Newsmax is trying to stay relevant. While Fox News continued with its regularly scheduled programming, Newsmax carried all of Trump’s nearly two-hour speech live. Not only that, but Newsmax led into the speech with a segment that pushed the former president’s big lies about the 2020 election.

“We’re beyond the ‘conspiracy theory’ nonsense. We all know, we’re not stupid, we know something happened,” said host Rob Carson, who went on to cite long-debunked claims of election fraud in Arizona to make a case that Trump was somehow cheated out of the presidency.

This approach was a hit for Newsmax in December and January, when Trump supporters felt burned by Fox News in the wake of its early (but ultimately accurate) call of Arizona for Joe Biden. Those anti-Fox grievances were promoted by Trump, who helped Newsmax by live-tweeting the channel instead of Fox News (before his Twitter banishment, of course), and even helping Newsmax best Fox News in the ratings in the key demographic.

But Newsmax’s effort to out-Trump the competition has been less successful since Trump left the White House for Mar-a-Lago. Newsmax’s viewership is down more than 50 percent from January (from an average of about 300,000 viewers then to about 114,000 on July 18), and following a significant slump in December and January, Fox News has reestablished itself as not just the most-watched right-wing cable news network but the most-watched cable news network, period.

With Trump once again holding political rallies ahead of a likely 2024 presidential run, I thought it was timely to talk to Media Matters for America’s resident Newsmax expert, Jason Campbell, about Newsmax’s place in the broader right-wing media ecosystem. Suffice it to say he’s bearish on Newsmax’s prospects of ever filling CEO Chris Ruddy’s vow to “overtake” Fox News.

“The issue that I always come back to … is that Newsmax is just not good,” Campbell told me. “It’s very dull, it’s very repetitive of conservative talking points I see everywhere else.”

So while Newsmax may be relevant enough to warrant occasional call-ins from Trump for extreme softball interviews, Campbell, whose areas of expertise also include Steven Crowder and Ben Shapiro, doesn’t foresee it becoming a major player heading into next year’s midterms — especially after it burned viewers with election fraud conspiracy theories that ended up not returning Trump to the White House for a second term after all.

“To steal a line from the movie Scarface, Newsmax had basically gotten high on its own supply, and their viewers were left holding nothing at the end of all that. I think that played a major role,” he told me.

A transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, follows.

Aaron Rupar

Newsmax’s ratings were down 50 percent from January to late June. As someone who has watched a lot of it, what do you think explains Newsmax’s inability to sustain the audience it had in the late days of the Trump presidency?

Jason Campbell

Fundamentally, what happened was on election night 2020, Fox News called the state of Arizona for Joe Biden, and they were ahead of a lot of other networks and outlets. Newsmax didn’t.

There was a huge sense of betrayal in the conservative base, and particularly among Trump voters, that Fox News did that. And it sort of put Newsmax in this position of being this standard-bearer in cable news for the Trump movement. And then as the months went on, that waned. And I think that what happened, fundamentally, is two things.

One, during the winter, Newsmax was just perpetually pushing a whole swath of conspiracy theories related to the election. They became a safe haven for President Trump’s big lie [that he had won the 2020 presidential election], and they were incredibly aggressive on pushing the point that President Trump would remain in office, that Joe Biden had not won the presidency.

And then, at noon on January 20 of 2021, Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, and Donald Trump went to Florida, and that was over. And I think that, to steal a line from the movie Scarface, Newsmax had basically gotten high on its own supply, and their viewers were left holding nothing at the end of all that. I think that played a major role.

The second big factor that I think happened is that at its most basic level, Newsmax is incredibly dull and incredibly boring. It’s not a particularly good news network, they don’t have nearly as big of a budget as Fox News does, and their hosts are just simply not as talented. It’s hard to sustain huge viewerships when you’re just not that good.

Aaron Rupar

Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy was saying in late June that he still thinks Newsmax is on track to overtake Fox News. There was a lot of reporting in December and January about Newsmax beating Fox News in a key demographic over an hour. Do you think Newsmax still represents a threat to Fox, or is it a deal where they had their moment in December and January thanks to a confluence of circumstances, and now that’s over? Could they cut back into Fox’s viewership heading into the midterms?

Jason Campbell

It’s an interesting question because the first surge they had after the election was so surprising and kind of came out of nowhere that it’s certainly possible for that to happen again. I would consider it to be unlikely. In a funny way, Chris Ruddy had made that prediction about the six months overtaking Fox News in December, and so that obviously didn’t happen. It is true that in December the Greg Kelly show did beat out Martha MacCallum one night, during the same hour — the 7 pm hour — which was a pretty remarkable accomplishment. Their ratings really, really spiked.

I think that Fox News responded to that. They saw it wasn’t happening in a vacuum, and Fox News made a lot of changes to their programming as well at the time, which might have stemmed off some of the issues they had on an internal level.

The issue that I always come back to is the one I made a bit ago, which is that Newsmax is just not good. It’s very dull, it’s very repetitive of conservative talking points I see everywhere else. They don’t even really take in much of a novel direction. Most of their lineup is Fox News flunkies, like Diamond and Silk, who were fired from Fox News last year; Trish Regan, who’s not a host, but she’s a very frequent guest — she was fired from Fox News; Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova, they don’t really appear on Fox News anymore, they go on Newsmax all the time; and Mark Halperin, obviously — he wasn’t at Fox News, but he’s now hosting a show during the weekend on Newsmax, and I see him every day as a contributor.

It’s just a lot of people who couldn’t make it at Fox News. They just don’t have any talent, and I don’t see much room for them to change that. It’s certainly possible that they could find a niche, but I think that they see themselves as the competitor to Fox News, and so they weigh themselves by the standard of Fox. That’s the image that they try to get across, and they consistently fail at doing so — minus that blip, which I’m now personally thinking was a relatively temporary surge that’s unlikely to happen again.

Aaron Rupar

One thing that occurred to me watching Newsmax over the weekend is that they’re still trying to position themselves as the Trumpiest network. They carried all of Trump’s speech live on Saturday, and Fox News didn’t carry any of it. I wonder if there’s a niche for them being even Tumpier than Fox.

Jason Campbell

I think it’s very fair to say that Newsmax is more Trumpy in a manifest way than Fox News is. The way that Newsmax talks about Fox News has been very interesting this year. During their ratings surge, there was frequent rhetoric coming from their hosts — Chris Salcedo one time said in early December that “dedicated Democrats” ran Fox News. They kept having all this rhetoric about how Fox News had betrayed Trump and, you know, people shouldn’t watch it because of that.

My personal favorite example of this is after Lou Dobbs’s Fox Business show was canceled in February, there was daily coverage — at least on several days in a row — of large segments dedicated to that particular story. One guest said that Lou Dobbs was too conservative for Fox News. There was speculation about whether Newsmax would hire Lou Dobbs. There was even a weird “man on the street” segment in April of a contributor to Newsmax walking around with a “where’s Lou?” sign. So they definitely tried to aestheticize themselves as the Trump-based network, and Fox as the betrayer of that.

I think a lot of it might have to do with what former President Trump does himself. During that ratings surge he was live-tweeting Newsmax — before he was removed from Twitter, he was live-tweeting Newsmax and OAN in a way that he was not for Fox News at the time. My colleague Matt Gertz really laid that out well. I think at his core, Trump is a TV guy who likes the big ratings, and would probably prefer Fox News over Newsmax since Newsmax doesn’t have the ratings.

Aaron Rupar

We all remember that viral clip from the winter of [MyPillow CEO] Mike Lindell getting kicked off Newsmax for lying about voting machines.

But one thing I noticed watching Newsmax over the weekend for Trump’s speech in Arizona is that it seemed like they were kinda leaning back into lies about the election. It seems like they’re staying away from the specific claims about voting machines that opened them up to litigation, but is that your impression, too — that as time has passed and we get further away from the election, Newsmax is more willing to indulge this false narrative that there was major election fraud?

Jason Campbell

The Dominion lawsuit that was filed against them in December finally got settled in April, and Newsmax had to issue a retraction [for on-air claims about Dominion voting machines manipulating votes for Biden] — which is sort of what sparked the famous moment where Bob Sellers walked off the studio when Mike Lindell was talking. And so they couldn’t talk about Dominion-related things, but they managed to pivot it to just generalized election fraud-related issues. I don’t think they’re significantly more heavy on that than I see virtually anywhere else. That’s not particularly novel or something they cover continuously — and it’s certainly dangerous for them to be doing that — but I see far more aggressive talking points about that on other platforms.

It might be kind of similar to their coverage of vaccines, which is also a mix of going out on a limb on some things — saying vaccines are dangerous and possibly will kill people — and then they’ll take a step back. They don’t really seem to have a consistent message.

Aaron Rupar

How is Newsmax covering Trump now that we’re more than six months removed from him leaving office?

Jason Campbell

I frequently laugh to myself while watching Newsmax that it’s very, very common — almost so common to the point of being ridiculous — that when someone on Newsmax references “the president,” it’s usually Donald Trump they’re talking about, not President Joe Biden.

To be fair to the network, there’s not as much of the “Donald Trump is the legitimate president”-type language, but it’s definitely signaled in a very tepid manner. It’s a network that’s entirely devoted to him, and I’ve never seen any serious dissension from him.

Aaron Rupar

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this as well, but it seems to me that Fox News has settled into a type of gadfly status with a renewed focus on attacking Democrats for being “woke” or for their alleged hypocrisy. Does Newsmax even acknowledge that Democrats are in power, or is it all Trump all the time?

Jason Campbell

They’ve definitely fallen in line with the rest of the conservative media apparatus with “Democrats are coming for you”-type rhetoric, and that Joe Biden is a communist and that’s the great threat. Usually it’s couched in a way where Donald Trump is the savior figure that had existed prior to all this, and there’s almost a nostalgic turning back to the Trump years as the good old times that have been destroyed by these Democrats.

They definitely play into the fearmongering about Democratic proposals that you see continuously on Fox News and other conservative programs, but they usually follow along with the talking points about it.

This is back to my original point about how Newsmax just is not particularly interesting or novel — they follow the rest of the conservative media ecosphere. When canceling Dr. Seuss is in vogue, that’s what they run with. When it’s canceling Aunt Jemima syrup, that’s what they run with. They follow along with the apparatus; they don’t particularly lead it.

And while Fox News oftentimes will serve as the place that talking points will filter to eventually, Newsmax doesn’t even place as an important vector along the line on that. So, for example, you’ll see sort of an extreme talking point begin lower down on the conservative media apparatus, and then it eventually filters its way up through online platforms, YouTube, podcasts. It might get to Newsmax, but if it gets to Newsmax before Fox News, it’s very briefly, and then eventually it’s on Fox News. So Newsmax doesn’t even play an important structural role in how talking points get filtered to conservative audiences.

Aaron Rupar

For your typical political news consumer, are there any reasons why it’s important to pay attention to Newsmax? Your last answer suggests maybe not.

Jason Campbell

It’s a hard question to answer because I’ve watched a lot of conservative media on a lot of different platforms over the last several years, and my initial instinct is to always think that it’s dangerous to allow outlets or specific figures to spew really dangerous talking points, misinformation, and conspiracy theories without, one, being challenged, and also, two, I think that ignoring can be dangerous. Things will surface and sort of take over that you hadn’t even known about.

On the other hand, there is so much conservative media out there, and as you know, conservative media is an incredibly competitive environment. There are a lot of platforms and a lot of people vying for the attention of the audience, and there’s only so much you can pay attention to. Sometimes, you need to see the networks as being what they are.

I would say at this moment, Newsmax is not that important of a network. The way they are important is insofar as just being another outlet of pushing the same misinformation, the same conspiracy theories, the same dangerous rhetoric as Fox News, as a series of podcasts, as a series of YouTube channels do. They should be checked on that ground, but in terms of being a major player in the conservative industry, I don’t really see that being the case right now. That may change, and it’s good to be prepared if that ever does happen, but I don’t see them having serious staying power.

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Source Article from https://www.vox.com/2021/7/28/22594550/newsmax-ratings-dive-explained

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New York State Workers Must Get Vaccine or Weekly Tests, Cuomo Says – The New York Times
New York State Workers Must Get Vaccine or Weekly Tests, Cuomo Says – The New York Times

The Biden administration is considering a requirement for all civilian federal employees, officials said on Tuesday. Such a policy would be a stark shift for a president who has grappled with the authority he has to force Americans to get vaccinated. Mr. Biden is expected to say more about his plans later this week.

The increasing support among government officials for vaccine mandates, which have met with pushback from some unions, underscores their concern with a far more contagious variant that poses a special threat to children, and older and unvaccinated people.

“We’re working with our unions to implement this quickly and fairly,” Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, said during remarks to a state business group on Wednesday.

The new state policy will go into effect by Labor Day, he said.

Earlier this week, Mr. Cuomo had shied away from imposing such a requirement on the state’s work force, arguing that most “public-facing” employees were municipal workers, and suggesting it was more of a decision for localities.

But Mr. Cuomo’s shift in stance appeared inevitable following Mr. de Blasio’s announcement and news that a similar move was under consideration at the federal level.

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/28/nyregion/ny-state-worker-vaccine-mandate.html

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‘The CDC hasn’t changed’: Biden’s top health officials try to sell new masking guidance – POLITICO
‘The CDC hasn’t changed’: Biden’s top health officials try to sell new masking guidance – POLITICO

“The CDC hasn’t changed, and the CDC hasn’t really flip-flopped at all,” Fauci told MSNBC in an interview. “What’s happened is that when that earlier recommendation was made, we were dealing predominantly with the Alpha variant,” as opposed to the highly transmissible Delta variant.

“The data are clear,” Fauci continued, that when a person who has been vaccinated becomes infected with the Delta variant in a so-called breakthrough infection, “the level of virus in their nasopharynx is about 1,000 times higher” than infection via the Alpha variant.

“It has been well-documented that — even though it’s a rare occurrence — those individuals can and have transmitted the virus to uninfected individuals,” Fauci said. “And for that reason, the recommendations and the guidelines have been changed.”

But Fauci noted that the changed CDC guidance was not only meant to benefit unvaccinated Americans. He said “people don’t fully appreciate” that unfettered circulation of the virus among unvaccinated individuals would give it an opportunity to mutate into a form more dangerous than the Delta variant — a new iteration of the virus that “even the vaccinated people may not be able to handle.”

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, seeking to explain her agency’s shift on masking, said Wednesday that when vaccinated people experienced breakthrough infections with prior coronavirus variants, “we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others.”

“But with the Delta variant … we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else,” Walensky told CNN in an interview.

“That was the new science that prompted the guidance,” she said, adding that the new recommendation was “weighed heavily” by federal health officials: “I know that this is not a message America wants to hear.”

Breakthrough infections remain relatively rare — roughly one or two cases out of every 20 vaccinated individuals, Walensky said — and their negative health effects for people who have already gotten their shots are comparatively mild.

Still, “they could bring it to others,” Walensky said. “They think they’re protected in terms of transmission. And we felt it was important that they know and understand — parents, families of immunocompromised people, families at risk of severe disease — that they should protect themselves so that they don’t bring that disease home.”

Both Walensky and Fauci also pushed back against criticism of one of the most controversial aspects of the new CDC guidance — the agency’s recommendation that local officials encourage universal masking indoors at schools for all teachers, staff, students and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.

Walenksy said it was “really important for people to understand that this is not a benign disease in kids, compared to other diseases that our kids see.” She reported that the mortality rate for Covid-19 among children over the past year was “more than twice the mortality rate that we see in influenza in a given year.”

“When you have a lot of dynamics of infection, children are going to get infected. There’s no doubt about that,” Fauci said. “And when children get infected … some of them are going to get a serious outcome. And some of them are going to die.”

“We have about 400 deaths among children right now with Covid-19,” he added. “So we shouldn’t make the false assumption that it’s okay for kids to get infected. … We need to protect the children.”

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/28/biden-health-officials-masking-guidance-501227

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Fox News Contributor Calls Police Officer Testifying About Jan. 6 a “Crisis Actor” – Slate
Fox News Contributor Calls Police Officer Testifying About Jan. 6 a “Crisis Actor” – Slate

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Source Article from https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/07/jan-6-hearing-julie-kelly-fanone-crisis-actor-whew.html

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Republicans dismiss Jan. 6 committee as police officers testify – The Washington Post
Republicans dismiss Jan. 6 committee as police officers testify – The Washington Post

“To me, it’s insulting, just demoralizing because of everything that we did to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt,” said Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. “And what he was doing, instead of sending the military, instead of sending the support or telling his people, his supporters, to stop this nonsense, he begged them to continue fighting.”

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/january-6-republicans-trump/2021/07/27/79a29e38-eef4-11eb-bf80-e3877d9c5f06_story.html

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Biden Is Considering A Vaccine Or Testing Mandate For Federal Workers – NPR
Biden Is Considering A Vaccine Or Testing Mandate For Federal Workers – NPR

President Biden delivers remarks during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images


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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Biden delivers remarks during an event in the Rose Garden of the White House on Monday.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Biden is said to be giving “strong consideration” to new requirements for federal employees to help arrest the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus.

One option under consideration: verifying that federal employees are vaccinated for COVID-19 using an “attestation of vaccination,” a source familiar with the deliberations tells NPR’s Tamara Keith.

Under the policy, federal employees who are not confirmed as vaccinated would be required to wear masks at all times while at work and be tested regularly for the virus, the source said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Completion of the review of the policy is expected later this week.

Biden was asked himself by reporters Tuesday whether he’s considering a vaccine mandate for the federal workforce. “It’s under consideration right now,” he replied.

In a statement, Biden said he would lay out his next steps on how to get more Americans vaccinated on Thursday, noting that vaccinations are the best way to protect against the delta variant.

“More vaccinations and mask wearing in the areas most impacted by the Delta variant will enable us to avoid the kind of lockdowns, shutdowns, school closures, and disruptions we faced in 2020,” he said.

New CDC guidance

The president’s statement followed revised guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday. The CDC reversed a position, recommending that fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors if they’re in places with “substantial” or “high” spread of the virus.

Most United States counties currently fall under those two categories.

Added Biden in his statement: “I hope all Americans who live in the areas covered by the CDC guidance will follow it; I certainly will when I travel to these areas.”

The delta variant is at least two times as contagious as the strain that first circulated in the U.S. and is the driving force behind a new surge in cases nationwide.

“This was not a decision that was taken lightly,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday, of the updated guidance.

But Walensky said the agency had to take into account the surge in cases, and data that shows that while rare, vaccinated people can still contract and spread the virus.

“The delta variant is showing every day its willingness to outsmart us,” she said.

Vaccine mandates are on the rise

On Monday, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs announced it will require all front-line health care workers to get vaccinated in the next two months.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced all city workers would have to either get vaccinated or tested weekly for the virus. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a similar policy for state employees and health care workers.

The CDC is also now recommending universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

NPR’s Roberta Rampton and Laurel Wamsley contributed.

Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2021/07/27/1021503999/biden-is-considering-a-vaccine-or-testing-mandate-for-federal-workers

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N.Y.C. Union Leaders Say Mayor’s Covid Mandate Took Them by Surprise – The New York Times
N.Y.C. Union Leaders Say Mayor’s Covid Mandate Took Them by Surprise – The New York Times

“I didn’t take it and I’m not going to take it,” he said, adding that city workers should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to get vaccinated, and the prospect of weekly testing would not change his mind.

“I’ll take a test every day if I have to,” he said.

Leaders of the city’s largest municipal union, District Council 37, had insisted on Monday that the new rules had to be part of collective bargaining negotiations, emphasizing that New York was still a “union town.”

But after District Council 37’s executive director, Henry Garrido, met with Dean Fuleihan, Mr. de Blasio’s deputy mayor, on Monday, the union leader said he believed they could figure out the details.

“We’re in support of vaccines — we’re in support of testing,” Mr. Garrido said in an interview on Tuesday. “We simply feel that we need to negotiate the impact.”

Officials still need to sort out details like how to handle scheduling for people who work in the field and need to get tested or who work alone and cannot leave their post unattended, and how to accommodate workers who are allergic to vaccines, Mr. Garrido said.

Gregory Floyd, the president of a major union that represents public housing workers, said he supports a vaccine requirement for city workers, but he was frustrated by Mr. de Blasio’s hasty announcement, and his members had concerns about the details.

“The mayor is doing a responsible thing by telling us all we have to get vaccinated or get tested every week, but he can’t do a responsible thing in a rational or reasonable way,” Mr. Floyd said. “He could have had meetings with all of the unions, set the policy, set the tone, answered questions and rolled this out in a cohesive way.”

Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/nyregion/vaccine-mandate-nyc-unions.html

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CDC Indoor Mask Guidelines Include NYC, LA, Major Cities in Covid Hot Spots – Bloomberg
CDC Indoor Mask Guidelines Include NYC, LA, Major Cities in Covid Hot Spots – Bloomberg

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Source Article from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-27/nyc-la-among-big-cities-joining-rural-states-in-cdc-mask-zone

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At least two dead and four injured after an acetic acid leak at a facility near La Porte, Texas – CNN
At least two dead and four injured after an acetic acid leak at a facility near La Porte, Texas – CNN

By Joe Sutton, CNN

Updated 11:58 PM ET, Tue July 27, 2021

Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/us/texas-chemical-leak-lyondellbasell/index.html

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Justice Department declines to defend Rep. Mo Brooks against Jan. 6 incitement lawsuit – POLITICO
Justice Department declines to defend Rep. Mo Brooks against Jan. 6 incitement lawsuit – POLITICO

Brooks cited the Westfall Act, which Trump himself had previously invoked during his presidency, with the Justice Department’s support, to obtain federal representation against a defamation lawsuit by New York writer E. Jean Carroll. The Biden administration has maintained that position.

But in Brooks’ case, the Justice Department rejected the notion that he was acting in his official capacity, noting that his remarks at Trump’s rally were almost entirely political.

“The record indicates that the January 6 rally was an electioneering or campaign activity that Brooks would ordinarily be presumed to have undertaken in an unofficial capacity,” Justice Department civil attorneys said in a 29-page filing late Tuesday.

Also, Brooks stands accused of fomenting violence against the Capitol, which would be contrary to his duties as a lawmaker.

Earlier in the day, House counsel Doug Letter offered a similar rejection, noting that the House rarely intervenes in legal disputes between individual lawmakers, particularly when they’re not related to official House business. In his filing, Letter appended a letter from Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), the chair of the House Administration Committee, urging the Justice Department to reject Brooks’ request for legal representation, as well.

The double-whiff from Brooks came on a day in which emotions surrounding the Jan. 6 attack were already running high. Four hours of riveting testimony from police officers wounded during the assault — they demanded accountability for lawmakers and Trump allies who they said bear responsibility for the violence — returned the issue to the forefront of the agenda in Washington. Trump himself delivered another public statement falsely claiming a left-wing role in the riots and reiterated his discredited claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

In his court filing, Brooks had argued that since his constituents largely supported Trump, speaking at a Trump rally could be construed as “official” business.

“But Brooks’s logic goes too far,” the Justice Department said. “Under his view, it is not clear what limit there would be to his legislative functions; so long as he could point to some desire on some part of his constituency, any purely electioneering or campaign activity would fall within the scope of his office or employment and require the United States to bear responsibility for any alleged tortious conduct.”

Department attorneys also said that if the allegations in Swalwell’s suit are true — that Brooks conspired with and instigated rioters to attack the Capitol — it would be so contrary to his official obligations that he could not have been acting as a lawmaker in doing so.

“Instigating such an attack plainly could not be within the scope of federal employment,” the Justice Department brief said. “Violent conduct deliberately undertaken to thwart the employer’s interests cannot be within the scope of employment.”

Department lawyers did not endorse Swalwell’s claims or offer an opinion on whether Brooks’ remarks alone could amount to what the law would view as instigation. Despite hundreds of arrests of participants in the Jan. 6 riot, there has been little public indication that federal investigators are pursuing potential links between those rioters and members of Congress, their staffs or Trump and his allies.

Trump’s lawyers have moved to dismiss Swalwell’s case against him but have not filed any motions seeking to have the U.S. government take over his defense. His attorneys have declined to explain their rationale.

Last month, the Justice Department angered some liberals and created tension with the White House by standing by a Trump administration decision to defend him against the suit filed by Carroll, who claims Trump raped her in a department store dressing room several decades ago. Carroll included the accusation in a 2019 book, and Trump criticized Carroll when asked about her in a subsequent interview. Trump’s comments prompted Carroll to file suit.

Lawyers for both administrations concluded that the statements Trump issued denying her claims were prompted by questions posed to him as a result of his office as president.

However, substituting the U.S. government for a party in a civil suit can have much broader implications than just who pays the legal bills. In many cases, such a substitution can end the suit because the move brings into play legal doctrines like sovereign immunity. For lawmakers like Brooks, it would also include the Constitution’s Speech or Debate clause, which generally provides significant protection against legal responsibility for things lawmakers do in the course of their business.

While suits over injuries and property damage due to negligence of a government worker or official often continue, those claiming injury or damages from an intentional act are typically dismissed outright after the U.S government steps in.

Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/27/justice-department-declines-mo-brooks-lawsuit-501103

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Political donor Ed Buck guilty on all counts related to 2 overdose deaths in his apartment – NBC News
Political donor Ed Buck guilty on all counts related to 2 overdose deaths in his apartment – NBC News
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Watch: Capitol Officer Gonell responds to Trump claim of ‘loving crowd’ – Business Insider
Watch: Capitol Officer Gonell responds to Trump claim of ‘loving crowd’ – Business Insider
  • A Capitol Police officer called Trump “pathetic” for claiming insurrectionists were a loving crowd.
  • “I’m still recovering from those hugs and kisses that day,” said Officer Aquilino Gonell.
  • He added that Trump’s comments were “insulting” and “demoralizing” and that he sacrificed the country “for his ego.”

Capitol Police Officer Aquinilo Gonell on Tuesday said it was “pathetic” that former President Donald Trump claimed the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 were a “loving crowd.”

Gonell was one of four witnesses who testified at the first hearing for the special committee Congress created to investigate the deadly insurrection.

At one point, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who is one of two Republicans serving on the committee, asked Gonell what he thought about former President Donald Trump’s claim that there was “a lot of love” among rioters who stormed the Capitol.

“When you think about that and share with us the vivid memory of the cruelty and the violence of the assault that day and then you hear former President Trump say, quote, ‘It was a loving crowd. There was a lot of love in the crowd,’ How does that make you feel?” Cheney asked.

“It’s upsetting,” Gonell said. “It’s a pathetic excuse for his behavior, for something that he himself helped to create, this monstrosity.”

“I’m still recovering from those hugs and kisses that day,” he continued. “If that was hugs and kisses, then we should all go to his house and do the same thing to him. To me, it’s insulting, it’s demoralizing because everything that we did was to prevent everyone in the Capitol from getting hurt. And what he was doing instead of sending the military, instead of sending the support, or telling his people, his supporters to stop this nonsense, he egged them to continue fighting.”

Gonell added that all the insurrectionists he encountered “were telling us, ‘Trump sent us.’ Nobody else — it was nobody else, it was not antifa, it was not Black Lives Matter, it was not the FBI. It was his supporters that he sent over to the Capitol that day.”

Trump “could have done a lot of things,” Gonell said, including telling the rioters to stop.

“He talks about sacrifices,” but “the only thing he has sacrificed is the institutions of the country, and the country itself only for his ego,” Gonell said. “He wants the job, but he doesn’t want to do the job. And that’s a shame on him.”

The officer later walked back his remarks and apologized for the “outburst.”

“By no means was I suggesting that we all go to his house,” he said.

Along with Gonell, Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police officers Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges also gave jarring and emotionally charged testimony recounting their experiences defending the Capitol on January 6.

Dunn choked up as he recalled being called a “f—ing n—–” by the Trump supporters who stormed the building, and Fanone was on the verge of tears while describing how he told rioters that he had kids while begging them to stop the onslaught.

Hodges’ struggle with the insurrectionists was caught on video, and the harrowing footage showed him being crushed in a doorway between the rioters and police officers who were trying to hold the line.

The officer said he remembered foaming at the mouth while being crushed and as rioters tried to rip his helmet off.

“I did the only thing I could do, scream for help,” Hodges said.

Source Article from https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-officer-gonell-responds-trump-claim-loving-crowd-insurrection-video-2021-7

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Biden considering vaccine mandate for federal workers, says unvaccinated not as ‘smart’ as he thought – Fox News
Biden considering vaccine mandate for federal workers, says unvaccinated not as ‘smart’ as he thought – Fox News
Video

Professor threatens to sue George Mason University over COVID vaccine mandate

Todd Zywicki joins ‘The Ingraham Angle’ to discuss the school’s refusal to accept natural immunity in place of the mandated COVID vaccine

President Biden said Tuesday he is considering requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated and questioned the intelligence of those who have yet to do so. 

“Will you require all federal employees to get vaccinated?” Biden was asked by a reporter after he spoke to members of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“That’s under consideration right now, but if you’re not vaccinated you’re not nearly as smart as I thought you were,” Biden replied, adding, “We have a pandemic because of the unvaccinated, and they’re sowing enormous confusion.”

WHITE HOUSE CALLS MASKS ‘EXTRA’ PROTECTION FOR VACCINATED WHILE REITERATING ‘THE VACCINES WORK’

The Biden administration had previously opposed federal agencies requiring employees to be vaccinated and said last week that White House staff is not being forced to take the vaccine. 

During his speech to members of the intelligence community, Biden praised the team for their important work while warning of the threats posed by China and Russia, particularly the threat of cyberattacks.

DOJ DECLARES VACCINE MANDATES LEGAL

“If we end up in a war, a real shooting war, with a major power, it’s going to be as a consequence of a cyber breach,” Biden said.

Biden had strong words for Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he “knows he’s in real trouble” economically. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Biden also told the room that Putin is aware that the United States has a better national security team than he does and it “bothers the hell out of him.”

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-federal-vaccine-mandate

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What happened during Jan. 6 commission’s first hearing – The Washington Post
What happened during Jan. 6 commission’s first hearing – The Washington Post

Gonell, a naturalized American citizen and Iraq War veteran, characterized the bedlam as like something from “a medieval battle.” He described how his hands, shoulder, calf and foot were hurt in the attack — and wept while explaining how he couldn’t even hug his wife upon returning home, fearing the chemicals that had seeped into his clothes and were burning his skin would make her sick, too.

Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2021/07/27/january-6-commission-hearing/

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Cops blame Trump, Republicans for allegedly inspiring and then downplaying Jan. 6 Capitol attack – Fox News
Cops blame Trump, Republicans for allegedly inspiring and then downplaying Jan. 6 Capitol attack – Fox News
Video

GOP rep pulled from Jan 6 commission doubts questions will be answered about lack of security

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who was tapped for the House panel on the Capitol attack, reacts to testimony from the commission’s first hearing.

Four police officers who defended the Capitol from the pro-Trump mob that invaded it on Jan. 6 criticized the former president and Republicans who are loyal to him for allegedly inspiring and then downplaying the attack. 

They asked members of the House select committee investigating the events of that day to get to the bottom of their culpability. 

“You guys are the only ones we’ve got to deal with crimes that occur above us,” Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) Officer Daniel Hodges said. “I need you guys to address if anyone in power had a role in this. If anyone in power coordinated, or aided abetted or tried to downplay, tried to prevent the investigation of this terrorist attack.”

The officers made the comments before a panel with no hostile questioners. Republicans pulled all of their appointees to the committee after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., blocked two of them for being too closely aligned with Trump.

The fact the only Republicans on the committee – Reps. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. – were selected by Pelosi made for a hearing with little dissent or fireworks. But with graphic body camera video and emotional testimony, the hearing was still gripping and at times jarring television.

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell left, and U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn stand after the House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. 
(AP Photo/ Andrew Harnik, Pool)

LIVE UPDATES: PLAY-BY-PLAY OF JAN. 6 SELECT COMMITTEE HEARING

“The mob of terrorists were coordinating their efforts… shouting ‘heave, ho,’ as they synchronized pushing their weight forward crushing me further against the metal doorframe,” Hodges said. “A man in front of me grabbed my baton… he bashed me in the head and face with it, rupturing my lip and adding additional injury to my skull.” 

MPD Officer Michael Fanone, meanwhile, detailed how he was “electrocuted again and again and again with a taser. I am sure I was screaming, but I don’t think I could hear my own voice.” 

At least two lawmakers – Kinzinger and Rep. Adam Schiff, R-Ill. – were choked up listening to the officers’ testimony.

The committee members, led by Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., asked the police for details on a handful of fronts. Besides aiming to emphasize the severe violence from Jan. 6 – to push back on claims that the attack was like a “normal tourist visit” – they asked the officers for details about who the rioters were, and for what they would like to see the committee accomplish.

U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) Private First Class Harry Dunn talked about how the attackers hurled the N-word at him. USCP Sergeant Aquilino Gonell meanwhile emphasized that the mob “was not Antifa. It wat not Black Lives Matter. It was not the FBI. It was [Trump’s] supporters that he sent them over to the Capitol that day.”

BRET BAIER: JAN. 6 TESTIMONY WAS EMOTIONAL, JARRING AND AT TIMES DAMNING

On what he would like the committee to accomplish, Fanone said he wanted it to dig beyond the security failures at the Capitol and the USCP budget – ground he said has already been covered – and ask more fundamental questions. 

“While I understand there have been investigations [on] the events of Jan. 6, my understanding is that those have addressed some of the micro-level concerns,” he said.

“We had violent political rhetoric. We had the organization of a rally whose title was ‘Stop the Steal’ and that rally occurred on Jan. 6, which I don’t believe was a coincidence,” he continued. “The circumstances of that rhetoric and those events leads in the direction of our president and other members… of Congress and the Senate.”

Fanone added: “What I am looking for is an investigation into those actions… and also whether there was collaboration between those members, their staff, and these terrorists.”

USCP Private First Class Harry Dunn asked the committee not to shy away from the political causes of the attack. 

“It’s not a secret that it was political. They were literally there to ‘stop the steal,’” Dunn said. “Telling the truth shouldn’t be hard.”

JAN. 6 COMMITTEE, AFTER PARTISAN BATTLE OVER APPOINTEES, HOLDS FIRST HEARING ON CAPITOL ATTACK

The officers were also harsh on Republicans who are downplaying the violence, which forced hundreds of lawmakers and former Vice President Mike Pence into hiding. 

“It’s disgraceful that members of our government I believe were responsible for inciting that behavior and then continue to propagate those statements. Things like this was 1776,” Fanone later said. “To me those individuals are representative of the worst that America has to offer.”

U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn testifies during the House select committee hearing on the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. 
(Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool via AP)

“You’re talking about people who claim that they are pro-law enforcement, pro-police, pro-law and order,” Gonell also said. “And yet when they have the chance and the opportunity to do something about it, to hold people accountable, you don’t. You pass the buck like nothing happened.”

It’s not clear how long the select committee’s investigation will last, although it’s expected to go on for months. Thompson said that there could be another hearing by the committee next month. Punchbowl News reported that Thompson plans to issue promptly issue subpoenas to get witnesses before the committee. 

It’s likely those subpoenas will include some congressional Republicans, high-profile Trump allies, and maybe even the former president himself. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Republicans, however, argue that the committee is asking the wrong questions. Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who was blocked from the committee by Pelosi, said the officers were not asked, “Why were they not prepared for Jan. 6 when there was intelligence… that told them something dangerous was going to happen.”

“This is politically designed by the Democrats to stop Republicans from winning back the majority in the midterm election,” Banks alleged. 

Meanwhile, Dunn put the responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack at the feet of Trump and Trump’s allies. 

“This wasn’t the first time that… the MAGA people came up here to the Capitol,” Dunn said. “There were some skirmishes but it was never an attempt to overthrow democracy.”

Dunn added: “The only difference that I see in [Jan. 6] is that they had marching orders so to say. When people feel emboldened by people in power, they assume that they’re right.”

Fox News’ Jason Donner and Chad Pergram contributed to this report. 

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/jan-6-commission-hearing-cops-trump-republicans-capitol-attack

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Heartbroken mom pushes for vaccines after unvaccinated daughter dies of COVID-19 – ABC News
Heartbroken mom pushes for vaccines after unvaccinated daughter dies of COVID-19 – ABC News

Erica Thompson, a mother of three in St. Louis County, Missouri, died of COVID-19 on July 4 — a death her mother said could have been prevented.

Thompson, 37, was unvaccinated, said her mother, Kimberle Jones.

“Had my daughter been vaccinated, I think she would still be here with us,” Jones said.

Thompson leaves behind a husband and three sons, ages 8, 11, and 17. Jones, speaking to ABC News as she prepared for her daughter’s funeral, said she hopes their story will convince others, especially Black Americans, to get vaccinated.

Thompson, who had asthma, went to the hospital on May 16 with chest pains and tested positive for COVID-19 days later, her mother said.

Thompson’s health declined quickly and doctors recommended she go on a ventilator, Jones said.

“She cried and cried and said, ‘I want to live,'” Jones recalled.

Thompson was transferred to another hospital on June 1 and put on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a specialized form of life support — but her lungs were not healing, Jones said.

“She developed a lot of infections, blood clots, her kidneys started shutting down,” Jones said. “Her skin got real dark. It was just heartbreaking to watch her body not respond to any medication. I just felt like my daughter, it wasn’t even her.”

She went on: “Day after day after day I would go to the hospital and my daughter was really slipping away.”

As Thompson’s condition worsened, family members, including her oldest son, accompanied Jones to the hospital to say goodbye.

Thompson died on July 4. She had spent 50 days in the hospital — which Jones called the “most grueling, excruciating 50 days of my life.”

“I just sit and cry thinking about my daughter and how much pain she was in,” Jones said. “Preparing for her funeral has been so taxing on me.”

Jones said her mission now is to promote vaccinations because she said her daughter “adamantly did not believe” in the COVID-19 vaccine.

Thompson wasn’t scared of contracting the deadly virus, her mother said, because “she didn’t think it would ever happen to her.”

Thompson is now one of more than 611,000 Americans who have died from COVID-19. Just 57% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jones said she’s vaccinated, as is the rest of the family, and she wants to tell all Americans: “Don’t be selfish. Get vaccinated because it’s not only showing you love yourself, you love your community … your neighbors, your employers, your co-workers.”

“That’s my prayer. I want everybody to get vaccinated. And especially African Americans,” she continued. “Use this as a way to help others.”

Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/US/heartbroken-mom-pushes-vaccines-unvaccinated-daughter-dies-covid/story?id=78965674

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