GOP senator Ron Johnson amplifies false claims about pro-Trump rioters during committee hearing on attack
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has strongly criticised the Biden administration after reports they are reopening a child migration detention facility in Texas, as Mitt Romney claims Donald Trump would easily win the 2024 GOP nomination.
Mr Biden has previously called the child camps on the US-Mexico border “horrific” and promised during his 2020 election campaign to end the use of the facilities, but The Washington Post reported that the child detention centre in Texas is being reopened due capacity at other facilities due to Covid.
Taking to Twitter AOC said: “This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party.”
It comes as Senator Mitt Romney has predicted that Donald Trump would win the 2024 presidential nomination for the Republican party, if he chose to run.
‘I don’t know if he’ll run in 2024 or not, but if he does, I’m pretty sure he will win the nomination,’ the senator stated.
Meanwhile, Senators on Tuesday heard harrowing testimonies from top security officials as they probe the law enforcement failures that allowed a mob of Trump supporters to storm the Capitol building on January 6.
Daniel Prude officers to face no charges
In other major US news today, the New York police officers involved in the death of unarmed Black man Daniel Prude last year will not face any criminal charges, the state’s attorney general announced on Tuesday.
Officers restrained Prude and put a mesh “spit hood” over his head while holding him down during his arrest in March, with his death sparking a wave of outrage and protests in Rochester, New York.
Adam Withnall24 February 2021 07:08
‘This is not okay’
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has joined the mounting backlash against president Joe Biden over recent reports that his administration is reopening a child migration detention facility in Texas.
The New York Democrat said such a measure “is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party”.
It isn’t the first time AOC has refused to mince words when asked her opinion of Biden, figures on either side of the wide progressive-moderate divide in the party.
Adam Withnall24 February 2021 06:14
InfoWars pushes conspiracy that Biden cut power to Texas
As millions of Texans were battling a severe winter weather crisis without steady electricity, heat, or running water, InfoWars, the American far-right website run by Alex Jones, floated another conspiracy theory.
Adam Withnall24 February 2021 05:24
The very convenient personal reason why Trump actually wants to run in 2024
For Independent Voices, Andrew Feingberg writes Trump will be driven to at least continue to tease a 2024 run because it will enable him to claim that any moves to prosecute him by state or federal prosecutors is nothing more than an attempt to keep him from reclaiming the presidency.
“In a phone interview, a source close to the former president largely confirmed Monday’s report, calling Trump’s upcoming speech a “display of dominance” in which he’ll reclaim his status as the ultimate outsider and remind the GOP of his kingmaker status, all while going on the attack against enemies old and new, real and perceived. Trump’s plans, they said, are largely driven by his desire for revenge against Republican members of Congress who have either voted to impeach or remove him from office, publicly criticized him, or given aid and comfort to those who’ve done either.”
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 04:50
Ex-CIA chief releases new theory on JFK assassination
A new book from a former CIA chief and another high-ranking intelligence official from communist Romania has presented a new theory of the assassination of former president John F Kennedy.
The new book, seen by The New York Post, claims that Lee Harvey Oswald was instructed by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to assassinate President Kennedy.
According to the newspaper, the book says the Soviets later changed their minds about the assassination but that Oswald refused to stand down and went through with the plan as initially instructed.
The new book by R James Woolsey and Lt Gen Ion Mihai Pacepa is titled Operation Dragon: Inside The Kremlin’s Secret War on America and is set to be released in March.
Louise Hall goes down the rabbit hole.
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 04:00
Who is Ron Johnson?
After amplifying Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from his supporters, a prominent GOP senator has aired a baseless conspiracy theory that “plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs” and “fake Trump supporters” were responsible for a deadly pro-Trump riot at the US Capitol on 6 January that sought to overturn election results, writes The Independent’s Alex Woodward.
“Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin was among several senators – including Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz – who objected to election results on 6 January and appeared at a Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday about the assault, inspired by a months-long campaign by the former president and his supporters to undermine the votes of millions of Americans.”
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 03:00
Trump, Sessions, Grenell: Critics say Senate didn’t worry about mean tweets until Neera Tanden
Of all Joe Biden’s nominees, one was always going to have the hardest time. Neera Tanden, nominated to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was already controversial before Mr Biden picked her – and her hearings before the Senate Budget Committee failed to neutralise her single biggest problem: her history of tearing into opponents of both parties on Twitter.
The senator who first signalled Ms Tanden was in genuine trouble was Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat whose swing vote will determine the fate of much of the Biden agenda. Announcing he would not back her, he specifically cited the tone of her public persona.
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 02:15
Watch: CNN host cries as she reports 500k US deaths from Covid
“We need to remember the people we have lost, even if we didn’t know them personally,” said Brianna Keilar wiping away tears .
CNN host cries announcing 500k US Covid deaths
The anchor of Newsroom was deeply moved by emotional clips of family members describing their loved ones’ last moments.
Oliver O’Connell has the story.
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 01:15
Trump may soon face deposition in E Jean Carroll rape defamation case
While there is much focus on the Supreme Court’s order for Donald Trump to release his tax returns to New York prosecutors, his post-presidential legal troubles are by no means limited to his finances.
He also faces the defamation case brought against him by writer E Jean Carroll relating to her accusation that he raped her in the fitting room of a New York department store in the mid-1990s.
Oliver O’Connell has more.
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 00:50
‘QAnon Shaman’ who turned on Trump seeks release after organic foods cause ‘digestive issues’
Jacob Anthony Chansley was forced to “reconcile” his shamanistic faith in Donald Trump after the former president rejected his pardon only to grant clemency to personal colleagues and friends, like Lil’ Wayne.
In a motion for pre-trial release that begins with a misattributed quote to Mark Twain, lawyers say the so-called QAnon shaman is a work in progress of “self-analysing” who is dedicating his life to art, writing and working with children.
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” the motion begins, attributing a quote to Mr Twain that probably originated centuries earlier courtesy of satirist Jonathan Swift.
Justin vallejo24 February 2021 00:50