Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler while on 2018 European trip, new book alleges
A new book claims former President Donald Trump praised Adolf Hitler during a briefing from chief of staff John Kelly during a 2018 trip to Europe.
DAMN!! How will HISTORY look back on Trump, Fox News & all his supporters during Coronavirus & AFTER he leaves office? UPDATE: Trump WON
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Legal: The comedy and tragedy of Trump's new lawsuit against Facebook
The comedy and tragedy of Trump's new lawsuit against Facebook Judd Legum 5 hr ago 26 3 Trump speaks during a press conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey on July 7, 2021. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) On Wednesday morning, former...
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Opinion | America Punishes Only a Certain Kind of Rebel (Published 2021)
Impunity paves the way for resurrection.
Trump Organization Strips Weisselberg of Roles After Indictment
The removal of Allen Weisselberg from dozens of subsidiaries could signal a looming shake-up in former President Donald Trump’s family business.
Allen Weisselberg, center, was removed from his leadership role at dozens of Trump Organization subsidiaries following his indictment earlier this month.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
By Ben Protess and Jonah E. Bromwich
July 12, 2021Updated 9:07 p.m. ET
A week after state prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Donald J. Trump’s family business and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, the company began removing Mr. Weisselberg from every leadership position he held atop dozens of its subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The move could be a potential precursor to a wider shake-up at the former president’s company, the Trump Organization, as the reality of the indictment takes hold for Mr. Trump and his senior executives. While Mr. Weisselberg continues to work at the Trump Organization, and there is no indication that Mr. Trump wants to cut ties with him, the company might seek to move him into a lower-profile role.
The Trump Organization set the change in motion last week as it began to erase Mr. Weisselberg’s name from subsidiaries or corporate entities affiliated with him, the person with knowledge of the matter said, and public records on Monday reflected that he was no longer linked to at least 20 Trump companies incorporated in Florida. As the records are processed in other states in the coming days and weeks, the full scope of his removal will come into focus.
The decision to remove Mr. Weisselberg, who has faced mounting pressure from prosecutors to turn on Mr. Trump and cooperate with the investigation, represents the latest fallout from the criminal tax charges unveiled on July 1 against him and the Trump Organization.
The indictment outlined what prosecutors described as a 15-year scheme to pay Mr. Weisselberg and other employees through off-the-books perks and bonuses. That enabled Mr. Weisselberg to evade nearly $1 million in federal, state and local taxes, prosecutors said.
“To put it bluntly, this was a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme,” Carey Dunne, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said during an arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on the day the charges were announced.
The charges did not implicate Mr. Trump, but the prosecutors have emphasized that the investigation is ongoing. People with knowledge of the matter have said that the investigation continues to focus on Mr. Trump and potential financial wrongdoing at the company.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, has long denied wrongdoing and derided the investigation as a politically motivated “witch hunt.” Representatives for Mr. Vance, a Democrat, have denied any political motivations.
Mr. Trump has also sought to minimize the conduct at the heart of the indictment, brushing it off as run-of-the-mill fringe benefits. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the case should be resolved in civil, rather than criminal, court.
Yet Mr. Dunne, the general counsel, said the behavior described in the indictment was not “standard practice in the business community” or the work of a rogue employee. “It was orchestrated by the most senior executives who were financially benefitting themselves and the company by getting secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal tax payers,” he said.
Mr. Dunne also took aim at the company for continuing to employ Mr. Weisselberg as the C.F.O., lamenting that “he remains to this day the most senior financial fiduciary in the company.”
It is unclear whether the Trump Organization will ultimately strip him of that title — or take another action to distance him from the company — and the company’s decision is fraught with questions of loyalty and legality. As the prosecutors continue to seek Mr. Weisselberg’s cooperation, any sign that the company might abandon him could drive a wedge between him and Mr. Trump and encourage him to assist the investigation.
The decision to remove his name from the subsidiaries served as an interim step, and reflected the company’s recognition that it was untenable for Mr. Weisselberg to act as a director of a corporate entity while facing criminal charges.
In Florida alone, Mr. Weisselberg’s name was removed from the corporate filings of more than a dozen subsidiaries of the Trump Organization in paperwork filed on Friday.
Among the subsidiaries were the Trump Payroll Corporation, the entity that the indictment said misreported employees’ compensation at the Trump Organization, along with a number of entities related to the company’s real estate business in Florida.
Bloomberg and Business Insider reported last week that Mr. Weisselberg was no longer a director at the company’s Scottish golf club, the first in the wave of removals. The Wall Street Journal reported he had been removed from the payroll company on Monday.
Mr. Weisselberg, who pleaded not guilty, has been accused of receiving close to $1.8 million in valuable bonuses and benefits — including an apartment, company cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren — and of failing to pay taxes on those perks.
“He will fight these charges in court,” his lawyers, Mary E. Mulligan and Bryan C. Skarlatos, said in a statement after he was charged.
Ms. Mulligan declined to comment on Monday about Mr. Weisselberg’s name being removed from the subsidiaries.
The removal of Allen Weisselberg from dozens of subsidiaries could signal a looming shake-up in former President Donald Trump’s family business.
Allen Weisselberg, center, was removed from his leadership role at dozens of Trump Organization subsidiaries following his indictment earlier this month.Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times
By Ben Protess and Jonah E. Bromwich
July 12, 2021Updated 9:07 p.m. ET
A week after state prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Donald J. Trump’s family business and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, the company began removing Mr. Weisselberg from every leadership position he held atop dozens of its subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The move could be a potential precursor to a wider shake-up at the former president’s company, the Trump Organization, as the reality of the indictment takes hold for Mr. Trump and his senior executives. While Mr. Weisselberg continues to work at the Trump Organization, and there is no indication that Mr. Trump wants to cut ties with him, the company might seek to move him into a lower-profile role.
The Trump Organization set the change in motion last week as it began to erase Mr. Weisselberg’s name from subsidiaries or corporate entities affiliated with him, the person with knowledge of the matter said, and public records on Monday reflected that he was no longer linked to at least 20 Trump companies incorporated in Florida. As the records are processed in other states in the coming days and weeks, the full scope of his removal will come into focus.
The decision to remove Mr. Weisselberg, who has faced mounting pressure from prosecutors to turn on Mr. Trump and cooperate with the investigation, represents the latest fallout from the criminal tax charges unveiled on July 1 against him and the Trump Organization.
The indictment outlined what prosecutors described as a 15-year scheme to pay Mr. Weisselberg and other employees through off-the-books perks and bonuses. That enabled Mr. Weisselberg to evade nearly $1 million in federal, state and local taxes, prosecutors said.
“To put it bluntly, this was a sweeping and audacious illegal payments scheme,” Carey Dunne, general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said during an arraignment in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on the day the charges were announced.
The charges did not implicate Mr. Trump, but the prosecutors have emphasized that the investigation is ongoing. People with knowledge of the matter have said that the investigation continues to focus on Mr. Trump and potential financial wrongdoing at the company.
Mr. Trump, a Republican, has long denied wrongdoing and derided the investigation as a politically motivated “witch hunt.” Representatives for Mr. Vance, a Democrat, have denied any political motivations.
Mr. Trump has also sought to minimize the conduct at the heart of the indictment, brushing it off as run-of-the-mill fringe benefits. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued that the case should be resolved in civil, rather than criminal, court.
Yet Mr. Dunne, the general counsel, said the behavior described in the indictment was not “standard practice in the business community” or the work of a rogue employee. “It was orchestrated by the most senior executives who were financially benefitting themselves and the company by getting secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal tax payers,” he said.
Mr. Dunne also took aim at the company for continuing to employ Mr. Weisselberg as the C.F.O., lamenting that “he remains to this day the most senior financial fiduciary in the company.”
It is unclear whether the Trump Organization will ultimately strip him of that title — or take another action to distance him from the company — and the company’s decision is fraught with questions of loyalty and legality. As the prosecutors continue to seek Mr. Weisselberg’s cooperation, any sign that the company might abandon him could drive a wedge between him and Mr. Trump and encourage him to assist the investigation.
The decision to remove his name from the subsidiaries served as an interim step, and reflected the company’s recognition that it was untenable for Mr. Weisselberg to act as a director of a corporate entity while facing criminal charges.
In Florida alone, Mr. Weisselberg’s name was removed from the corporate filings of more than a dozen subsidiaries of the Trump Organization in paperwork filed on Friday.
Among the subsidiaries were the Trump Payroll Corporation, the entity that the indictment said misreported employees’ compensation at the Trump Organization, along with a number of entities related to the company’s real estate business in Florida.
Bloomberg and Business Insider reported last week that Mr. Weisselberg was no longer a director at the company’s Scottish golf club, the first in the wave of removals. The Wall Street Journal reported he had been removed from the payroll company on Monday.
Mr. Weisselberg, who pleaded not guilty, has been accused of receiving close to $1.8 million in valuable bonuses and benefits — including an apartment, company cars and private school tuition for his grandchildren — and of failing to pay taxes on those perks.
“He will fight these charges in court,” his lawyers, Mary E. Mulligan and Bryan C. Skarlatos, said in a statement after he was charged.
Ms. Mulligan declined to comment on Monday about Mr. Weisselberg’s name being removed from the subsidiaries.
6 Months After Riot, Capitol Police Face Multiple Crises
The department that protects Congress is damaged and depleted following the Jan. 6 assault, with funding, staffing and operational problems plaguing a deeply demoralized force.
Officer James Blassingame of the Capitol Police says he still avoids certain hallways at the Capitol, struggles with feelings of guilt and routinely has flashbacks of fighting off the violent mob. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
By Luke Broadwater
July 12, 2021Updated 4:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — As the mob pushed its way through the Capitol’s Crypt on Jan. 6, Officer James Blassingame was slammed back against a stone column and nearly overrun. He saw hate in the eyes of the rioters, hoisting Trump flags and “Make America Great Again” hats, as they urinated on the walls where American icons have served and called him racist slurs.
“Legitimately, I did not think I was going to make it home,” Officer Blassingame, 40, and a 17-year veteran of the Capitol Police force, said in a recent interview in which he described his experience in detail.
He did survive, but the horrors of Jan. 6, when supporters of President Donald J. Trump violently breached the Capitol, had a profound effect on Officer Blassingame. He was injured in the head and back. He said he avoids certain hallways at the Capitol, struggles with feelings of guilt and routinely has flashbacks of fighting off the mob.
And his personal trauma mirrors a broader crisis within the U.S. Capitol Police, which is badly damaged, demoralized and depleted six months after the attack.
“We have people retiring like crazy; we have people quitting,” said Officer Blassingame, who filed a lawsuit with another officer against Mr. Trump for damages for their physical and emotional injuries. “I have friends of mine who have literally come in and quit. They don’t even have jobs.”
Half a year after the Capitol riot, the 2,000-member police force charged with protecting Congress finds itself at perhaps its biggest crossroads in its nearly two-century existence. Its work force is traumatized and overworked as its ranks have been hollowed out by a flood of departures. The agency is facing possible furloughs as it teeters on the brink of running out of funding as overtime costs outpace its budget for salaries. It has been besieged by criticism by members of both parties for the stunning security failures that allowed the assault to occur. And on top of it all, its officers have become the target of conspiracy theories by Republican lawmakers who, following Mr. Trump’s lead, have suggested that a Capitol Police officer premeditated the killing of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot steps away from the door to the House chamber.
“There’s a lot of exhaustion,” says Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police. “They’re tired. I think they feel betrayed and unappreciated. And they were betrayed on Jan. 6, primarily by the leadership. They’re embarrassed about how it went down.”
The agency says more than 70 officers have retired or resigned since the Jan. 6 attack, which cost the lives of two members of the force who battled the rioters: Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died from a stroke, and Officer Howard Liebengood, who took his own life. Officials say the departure rate is slightly higher than normal, but Gus Papathanasiou, the chairman of the Capitol Police union, said he believed the rate was far worse than was being disclosed.
“This year has been the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” said Mr. Papathanasiou, who has served on the force for nearly 20 years.
Image
Capitol Police officers paying respects to Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died of a stroke after battling rioters, during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in February.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
More than 80 Capitol Police officers reported being seriously injured at the riot, though that number, too, is most likely higher, because many have opted not to report their injuries, according to Capt. Carneysha Mendoza, the commander of the Civil Disturbance Unit, who had facial burns that lasted weeks.
During the mayhem on Jan. 6, officers lacking helmets sustained brain injuries, cracked ribs and shattered spinal discs. One was stabbed with a metal fence stake. Another lost the tip of his right index finger. Still more were smashed in the head with baseball bats and flag poles. Dozens, if not hundreds, of officers are expected to experience post-traumatic stress disorder, experts say.
Only weeks later, a third officer, Billy Evans, was killed when a man crashed his car into the barricade he was guarding in the driveway of the Capitol.
In June, a 127-page joint report by two Senate committees presented a damning portrait of the agency’s preparations and response at multiple levels. Its leaders did not take seriously grave and specific threats of violence at the Capitol and against lawmakers, it found, and the force lacked the training and preparation to respond effectively when those threats materialized.
Documents obtained by The Times from a public records request filed by the group Property of the People, show that the F.B.I. warned the Capitol Police and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police that extremist groups would be attending the Jan. 6 protests and “planned to use specific radio frequencies for their communication.” The District’s emergency communications office then programmed some hand-held radios to those frequencies and gave them to the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department to use for monitoring, the documents show.
The dissemination of the radios, which was confirmed by the Capitol Police, is more evidence that law enforcement agencies were well aware of the involvement of organized extremists in the “stop the steal” protests and the threats against the Capitol.
Investigators have also looked into allegations that some Capitol Police officers were complicit in the riot. As part of the sprawling discovery process in the criminal cases stemming from the attack, the Justice Department has agreed to give defense lawyers copies of reports into those accusations, according to court papers filed on Monday.
Increasingly, there are calls for a near-complete overhaul of the agency. Top members of Congress say the acting Capitol Police chief, Yogananda D. Pittman, cannot continue to lead the agency, after the union representing officers voted shortly after the riot that it had “no confidence” in her and six other senior officials in the department.
But efforts to turn the page have been rocky. After the attack, Steven A. Sund, the Capitol Police chief, resigned along with the top House and Senate security officials, a move that left raw feelings on the force among some who remain deeply loyal to Mr. Sund.
Capitol Police leaders say the agency is making major changes. They have instituted better training that involves holding joint sessions with the National Guard and sending officers to learn from agencies in Seattle and Virginia Beach. The force plans to purchase more protective equipment and surveillance technology, funded in part by a loan from the Department of Defense. It will begin opening field offices around the country, starting in California and Florida, to help monitor and quickly investigate threats against members of Congress wherever they occur.
And the agency has increased its mental health services since the riot, including bringing in police from other agencies for peer counseling and adding two new emotional support dogs, named Lila and Filip.
Image
More than 80 Capitol Police officers reported being seriously injured during the riot, though the real number is likely higher.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times
But other proposed upgrades cannot be funded without additional support from Congress, which is locked in a stalemate over the money amid Republican opposition to a $1.9 billion emergency security bill, including concerns about militarizing the Capitol with a quick reaction force of National Guard troops.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, has warned that the Capitol Police force will run out of money by August if the Senate fails to pass the security funding bill that the House approved in May over unanimous opposition from Republicans.
Already, Mr. Leahy said, the Capitol Police has delayed purchases of “critical equipment,” such as helmets and protective gear, because of the looming funding lapse. A wellness program that was intended to further address mental health concerns in the agency has been put on a “back burner,” he said.
The situation, he said, amounts to Congress turning its back “on those who fought, bled and died on that day.”
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the appropriations panel, said his party had proposed a much narrower bill that would provide money for the Capitol Police while lawmakers studied what security upgrades might be needed.
That roughly $630 million proposal, a draft of which was obtained by The Times, would provide about $97 million for the Capitol Police, but did not include money for security improvements at the complex.
“We should pass now what we all agree on,” Mr. Shelby said in a statement to The Times on Friday. “The Capitol Police and National Guard are running out of money, the clock is ticking, and we need to take care of them.”
The funding impasse compounds a mounting sense of betrayal that many Capitol Police officers say they have experienced as some Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump, whose lies of a stolen election egged on the mob on Jan. 6, have worked to deny, downplay or justify the attack. Last month, 21 House Republicans voted against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to Capitol Police officers who responded to the riot. Senate Republicans blocked the formation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate what happened, even after officers on duty that day and the family of Officer Sicknick personally pleaded with them to allow it to go forward.
In recent weeks, some Republicans have spread conspiracy theories, such as the baseless claim that the F.B.I. was secretly behind the Capitol siege. And some have latched onto the shooting of Ms. Babbitt, who was part of a mob that broke through a glass door only steps away from lawmakers when she was fatally shot, to suggest that the Capitol Police were targeting Mr. Trump’s supporters.
Image
A Capitol Police officer walking past riot shields near a door that the mob breached, months after the attack.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
Some lawmakers have credited the Capitol Police officer who shot Ms. Babbitt with saving their lives, but one House Republican, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona — who has a history of associating with extremists and white nationalists — accused the officer of “lying in wait” to carry out an “execution.”
Mr. Trump has recently begun questioning the shooting and why the name of the officer who shot Ms. Babbitt has not been released, a question raised by a growing number of Republicans, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has said that lawmakers should “demand justice” for Ms. Babbitt.
The Capitol Police, like Congress, is not subject to public records requests, and lawyers representing the officer say he has received death threats. The Justice Department in April closed its investigation of the shooting and declined to pursue criminal charges against the officer, though Ms. Babbitt’s husband has sued to force the release of investigative files related to the shooting and her family has threatened to seek damages from the Capitol Police for her killing.
To officers who responded to the mob on Jan. 6, the reaction by Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump only adds to an already untenable situation they are facing inside a broken department.
“We go to work every day to protect Congress, and these people won’t even have our back,” Officer Blassingame said. “The officers did our job — no member of Congress was injured on that day. For them to not have our back, it’s extremely disheartening.”
The department that protects Congress is damaged and depleted following the Jan. 6 assault, with funding, staffing and operational problems plaguing a deeply demoralized force.
Officer James Blassingame of the Capitol Police says he still avoids certain hallways at the Capitol, struggles with feelings of guilt and routinely has flashbacks of fighting off the violent mob. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
By Luke Broadwater
July 12, 2021Updated 4:50 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — As the mob pushed its way through the Capitol’s Crypt on Jan. 6, Officer James Blassingame was slammed back against a stone column and nearly overrun. He saw hate in the eyes of the rioters, hoisting Trump flags and “Make America Great Again” hats, as they urinated on the walls where American icons have served and called him racist slurs.
“Legitimately, I did not think I was going to make it home,” Officer Blassingame, 40, and a 17-year veteran of the Capitol Police force, said in a recent interview in which he described his experience in detail.
He did survive, but the horrors of Jan. 6, when supporters of President Donald J. Trump violently breached the Capitol, had a profound effect on Officer Blassingame. He was injured in the head and back. He said he avoids certain hallways at the Capitol, struggles with feelings of guilt and routinely has flashbacks of fighting off the mob.
And his personal trauma mirrors a broader crisis within the U.S. Capitol Police, which is badly damaged, demoralized and depleted six months after the attack.
“We have people retiring like crazy; we have people quitting,” said Officer Blassingame, who filed a lawsuit with another officer against Mr. Trump for damages for their physical and emotional injuries. “I have friends of mine who have literally come in and quit. They don’t even have jobs.”
Half a year after the Capitol riot, the 2,000-member police force charged with protecting Congress finds itself at perhaps its biggest crossroads in its nearly two-century existence. Its work force is traumatized and overworked as its ranks have been hollowed out by a flood of departures. The agency is facing possible furloughs as it teeters on the brink of running out of funding as overtime costs outpace its budget for salaries. It has been besieged by criticism by members of both parties for the stunning security failures that allowed the assault to occur. And on top of it all, its officers have become the target of conspiracy theories by Republican lawmakers who, following Mr. Trump’s lead, have suggested that a Capitol Police officer premeditated the killing of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot steps away from the door to the House chamber.
“There’s a lot of exhaustion,” says Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat of Ohio, the chairman of a subcommittee that oversees the Capitol Police. “They’re tired. I think they feel betrayed and unappreciated. And they were betrayed on Jan. 6, primarily by the leadership. They’re embarrassed about how it went down.”
The agency says more than 70 officers have retired or resigned since the Jan. 6 attack, which cost the lives of two members of the force who battled the rioters: Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died from a stroke, and Officer Howard Liebengood, who took his own life. Officials say the departure rate is slightly higher than normal, but Gus Papathanasiou, the chairman of the Capitol Police union, said he believed the rate was far worse than was being disclosed.
“This year has been the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” said Mr. Papathanasiou, who has served on the force for nearly 20 years.
Image
Capitol Police officers paying respects to Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died of a stroke after battling rioters, during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in February.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
More than 80 Capitol Police officers reported being seriously injured at the riot, though that number, too, is most likely higher, because many have opted not to report their injuries, according to Capt. Carneysha Mendoza, the commander of the Civil Disturbance Unit, who had facial burns that lasted weeks.
During the mayhem on Jan. 6, officers lacking helmets sustained brain injuries, cracked ribs and shattered spinal discs. One was stabbed with a metal fence stake. Another lost the tip of his right index finger. Still more were smashed in the head with baseball bats and flag poles. Dozens, if not hundreds, of officers are expected to experience post-traumatic stress disorder, experts say.
Only weeks later, a third officer, Billy Evans, was killed when a man crashed his car into the barricade he was guarding in the driveway of the Capitol.
In June, a 127-page joint report by two Senate committees presented a damning portrait of the agency’s preparations and response at multiple levels. Its leaders did not take seriously grave and specific threats of violence at the Capitol and against lawmakers, it found, and the force lacked the training and preparation to respond effectively when those threats materialized.
Documents obtained by The Times from a public records request filed by the group Property of the People, show that the F.B.I. warned the Capitol Police and the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police that extremist groups would be attending the Jan. 6 protests and “planned to use specific radio frequencies for their communication.” The District’s emergency communications office then programmed some hand-held radios to those frequencies and gave them to the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department to use for monitoring, the documents show.
The dissemination of the radios, which was confirmed by the Capitol Police, is more evidence that law enforcement agencies were well aware of the involvement of organized extremists in the “stop the steal” protests and the threats against the Capitol.
Investigators have also looked into allegations that some Capitol Police officers were complicit in the riot. As part of the sprawling discovery process in the criminal cases stemming from the attack, the Justice Department has agreed to give defense lawyers copies of reports into those accusations, according to court papers filed on Monday.
Increasingly, there are calls for a near-complete overhaul of the agency. Top members of Congress say the acting Capitol Police chief, Yogananda D. Pittman, cannot continue to lead the agency, after the union representing officers voted shortly after the riot that it had “no confidence” in her and six other senior officials in the department.
But efforts to turn the page have been rocky. After the attack, Steven A. Sund, the Capitol Police chief, resigned along with the top House and Senate security officials, a move that left raw feelings on the force among some who remain deeply loyal to Mr. Sund.
Capitol Police leaders say the agency is making major changes. They have instituted better training that involves holding joint sessions with the National Guard and sending officers to learn from agencies in Seattle and Virginia Beach. The force plans to purchase more protective equipment and surveillance technology, funded in part by a loan from the Department of Defense. It will begin opening field offices around the country, starting in California and Florida, to help monitor and quickly investigate threats against members of Congress wherever they occur.
And the agency has increased its mental health services since the riot, including bringing in police from other agencies for peer counseling and adding two new emotional support dogs, named Lila and Filip.
Image
More than 80 Capitol Police officers reported being seriously injured during the riot, though the real number is likely higher.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times
But other proposed upgrades cannot be funded without additional support from Congress, which is locked in a stalemate over the money amid Republican opposition to a $1.9 billion emergency security bill, including concerns about militarizing the Capitol with a quick reaction force of National Guard troops.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, has warned that the Capitol Police force will run out of money by August if the Senate fails to pass the security funding bill that the House approved in May over unanimous opposition from Republicans.
Already, Mr. Leahy said, the Capitol Police has delayed purchases of “critical equipment,” such as helmets and protective gear, because of the looming funding lapse. A wellness program that was intended to further address mental health concerns in the agency has been put on a “back burner,” he said.
The situation, he said, amounts to Congress turning its back “on those who fought, bled and died on that day.”
Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the appropriations panel, said his party had proposed a much narrower bill that would provide money for the Capitol Police while lawmakers studied what security upgrades might be needed.
That roughly $630 million proposal, a draft of which was obtained by The Times, would provide about $97 million for the Capitol Police, but did not include money for security improvements at the complex.
“We should pass now what we all agree on,” Mr. Shelby said in a statement to The Times on Friday. “The Capitol Police and National Guard are running out of money, the clock is ticking, and we need to take care of them.”
The funding impasse compounds a mounting sense of betrayal that many Capitol Police officers say they have experienced as some Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump, whose lies of a stolen election egged on the mob on Jan. 6, have worked to deny, downplay or justify the attack. Last month, 21 House Republicans voted against awarding Congressional Gold Medals to Capitol Police officers who responded to the riot. Senate Republicans blocked the formation of an independent bipartisan commission to investigate what happened, even after officers on duty that day and the family of Officer Sicknick personally pleaded with them to allow it to go forward.
In recent weeks, some Republicans have spread conspiracy theories, such as the baseless claim that the F.B.I. was secretly behind the Capitol siege. And some have latched onto the shooting of Ms. Babbitt, who was part of a mob that broke through a glass door only steps away from lawmakers when she was fatally shot, to suggest that the Capitol Police were targeting Mr. Trump’s supporters.
Image
A Capitol Police officer walking past riot shields near a door that the mob breached, months after the attack.Credit...T.J. Kirkpatrick for The New York Times
Some lawmakers have credited the Capitol Police officer who shot Ms. Babbitt with saving their lives, but one House Republican, Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona — who has a history of associating with extremists and white nationalists — accused the officer of “lying in wait” to carry out an “execution.”
Mr. Trump has recently begun questioning the shooting and why the name of the officer who shot Ms. Babbitt has not been released, a question raised by a growing number of Republicans, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has said that lawmakers should “demand justice” for Ms. Babbitt.
The Capitol Police, like Congress, is not subject to public records requests, and lawyers representing the officer say he has received death threats. The Justice Department in April closed its investigation of the shooting and declined to pursue criminal charges against the officer, though Ms. Babbitt’s husband has sued to force the release of investigative files related to the shooting and her family has threatened to seek damages from the Capitol Police for her killing.
To officers who responded to the mob on Jan. 6, the reaction by Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump only adds to an already untenable situation they are facing inside a broken department.
“We go to work every day to protect Congress, and these people won’t even have our back,” Officer Blassingame said. “The officers did our job — no member of Congress was injured on that day. For them to not have our back, it’s extremely disheartening.”
The obscure foundation funding "Critical Race Theory" hysteria
Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria
7 hr ago
55
10
Thomas W. Smith in 2009 (Source: Facebook)
Critical Race Theory (CRT), once a little-known academic concept, is now at the center of the national political discussion. CRT is discussed incessantly on Fox News. It is featured in campaign advertisements. And legislation banning it is advancing in statehouses around the country.
This didn't happen on its own. Rather, there is a constellation of non-profit groups and media outlets that are systematically injecting CRT into our politics. In 2020, most people had never heard of CRT. In 2021, a chorus of voices on the right insists it is an existential threat to the country.
A Popular Information investigation reveals that many of the entities behind the CRT panic share a common funding source: The Thomas W. Smith Foundation.
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has no website and its namesake founder keeps a low public profile. Thomas W. Smith is based in Boca Raton, Florida, and founded a hedge fund called Prescott Investors in 1973. In 2008, the New York Times reported that The Thomas W. Smith Foundation was "dedicated to supporting free markets."
More information about the foundation can be gleaned from its public tax filings, which are called 990-PFs. The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has more than $24 million in assets. The person who spends the most time working for the group is not Smith but James Piereson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. According to the foundation's 2019 990-PF, Piereson was paid $283,333 to work for The Thomas W. Smith Foundation for 25 hours per week.
Piereson was also paid $140,000 in 2019 as an independent contractor for the Manhattan Institute, where Thomas W. Smith is a trustee. While Thomas W. Smith avoids public comments, Piereson is prolific. And Piereson's writings provide insight into what is motivating the foundation's grants.
The people and groups behind anti-CRT hysteria claim that there is a radical new theory being taught in schools that seeks to make white people hate themselves and define everyone exclusively by their race. None of this is true. But Piereson provides an insight into the underlying ideology that explains why so much effort is being put into perpetuating these myths.
Piereson has made clear that he opposes efforts to increase racial or economic equality, even if these efforts are financed by private charities. Piereson described his views in a 2019 op-ed in the Washington Examiner:
[C]haritable foundations have felt the great sustained pressure to “pay up” for alleged sins against the ideals of racial and economic equality. It started out as pressure from a few vocal activists banging on the doors of large foundations. It's turned into a movement in which philanthropic leaders are falling over themselves to throw money at their critics in hopes of mollifying them...
In another column published in 2019 in the Wall Street Journal, Piereson objected to the Surdna Foundation spending money on "community-led efforts that target the root causes of economic and racial inequities" because its deceased founder John Emory Andrus was a capitalist and would not have approved.
In a 2017 column, Piereson criticized liberal philanthropists for focusing on "climate change, income inequality, [and] immigrant rights," describing these as "radical causes." He stressed the need for "a counterbalance provided by right-leaning philanthropies."
Piereson also opposes classes dedicated to the study of women, Black people, or the LGBTQ community in universities, saying these topics lack "academic rigor."
In the 1960s, universities caved to the demands of radicals on campus by expanding academic departments to include women's studies, black studies, and, more recently, "queer studies." These programs are college mainstays, making up in ideological vigor what they lack in academic rigor.
He opposes efforts to diversify professors or students on college campuses saying "diversity-promotion efforts on campus actually increase resentment on the part of both white and minority students." Piereson argued that "racial bigotry and violence against women" is not a big problem on college campuses. He says that concerns about these issues are "irrational."
How did CRT, a complex theory that explains how structural racism is embedded in the law, get redefined to represent corporate diversity trainings and high school classes on the history of slavery? The foundation funding much of the anti-CRT effort is run by a person who opposes all efforts to increase diversity at powerful institutions and laments the introduction of curriculum about the historical treatment of Black people.
It's hard to generate excitement around tired arguments opposing diversity and racial equality. It's easier to advocate against CRT, a term that sounds scary but no one really understands.
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has donated more than $12.7 million to 21 organizations attacking Critical Race Theory
Between 2017 and 2019, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation has granted at least $12.75 million to organizations that publicly attack Critical Race Theory, according to a review of tax disclosures by Popular Information. The foundation's grants for 2020 will not be disclosed until late-2021.
The Manhattan Institute
The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, has recently been at the forefront of the crusade against CRT. It is also the top recipient of cash from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation.
In recent months, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the organization, has gained notoriety for spurring anti-CRT panic, describing CRT as an “existential threat to the United States.” Last year, Rufo appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and insisted that Trump must “immediately issue” an executive order “abolishing critical race theory trainings from the federal government.” Trump quickly took his advice.
Most recently, Rufo published an op-ed in the New York Post falsely claiming that CRT is centered around “race essentialism, collective guilt and state-sanctioned discrimination,” adding that the “war against critical race theory is a war worth fighting.” He also accuses public schools of “pushing toxic racial theories onto children.”
Yet, as Popular Information previously explained, Rufo is misrepresenting CRT for political purposes. In March 2021, Rufo acknowledged that he is simply using CRT as a vessel to capture concepts he thinks are politically unpopular. As Sarah Jones of New York Magazine recently wrote, Rufo “takes critical-race theory as a concept, strips it of all meaning, and repurposes it as a catchall for white grievances.”
Rufo's own tweets confirm his tactics. “We have decodified [CRT]…and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans,” Rufo tweeted.
Twitter avatar for @realchrisrufo
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️
@realchrisrufo
@ConceptualJames The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think "critical race theory." We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.
March 15th 2021
48 Retweets519 Likes
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation donated $4.32 million to the Manhattan Institute between 2017 and 2019.
The Heritage Foundation
The right-wing Heritage Foundation, which previously employed Rufo, also receives substantial support from Thomas W. Smith Foundation. According to tax filings, the Heritage Foundation has received at least $525,000 from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation between 2017 and 2019.
In June 2021, the executive director of the Heritage Foundation told Politico that fighting “critical race theory is one of the top two issues [the] group is working on alongside efforts to tighten voting laws.”
On its website, the organization has an entire page dedicated to justifying the attack on CRT. It claims that the legal framework “is infecting everything from politics and education to the workplace and the military.”
The foundation is also a key player in pushing anti-CRT legislation. Since at least last winter, the Heritage Foundation has been hosting webinars and private briefings with lawmakers to “discuss model legislation to block critical race theory,” reports NBC News.
ALEC
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that has been hosting webinars to help lawmakers draft legislation banning CRT, has received at least $425,000 from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation since 2017. In December 2020, ALEC hosted a workshop in partnership with the Heritage Foundation on “Reclaiming Education and the American Dream...Against Critical Race Theory's Onslaught.”
Other recipients of funds from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation include:
The American Enterprise Institute has received $1.1 million since 2017. In May 2021, an AEI research fellow published an op-ed titled “Ban Critical Theory now,” arguing that “CRT amounts to institutionalized racial hatred.”
The Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI), a conservative educational organization, has received $150,000 since 2017. In March 2021, the organization celebrated the appearance of an AHI alum on the Tucker Carlson show "to expose the use of Critical Race Theory to indoctrinate employees of Cigna."
The American Ideas Institute, a right-wing organization that publishes The American Conservative, has received $10,000 since 2017. In June, The American Conservative published an op-ed by its senior editor in which described CRT as “the acid that will dissolve America.”
The Center for American Greatness, a right-wing organization, has received $125,000 since 2017. On June 25, 2021, the organization published a piece titled “Canceling Critical Race Theory,” with the tag “Greatness Agenda.”
The Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, has received $100,000 in 2019. In June 2021, a fellow at the Institute published an op-ed describing CRT as a conspiracy theory.
The Daily Caller Foundation, parent organization of the right-wing news outlet co-founded by Tucker Carlson, received $100,000 in 2019. In the last week alone, the Daily Caller has published more than a dozen stories attacking CRT.
The Federalist, a conservative publication, received $150,000 in 2019. The Federalist has published dozens of stories opposing CRT. It recently published a column from a woman who says she is considering pulling her kids out of "one of the highest-rated public school systems in Pennsylvania...because of critical race theory."
Heterodox Academy, a coalition of academics that seek “viewpoint diversity on college campuses,” has received $250,000 since 2018. In February 2021, affiliates of the Heterodox Academy published an op-ed attacking CRT for "blaming and shaming individuals."
The Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing public policy group, has received $125,000 since 2017. The organization claims CRT is a “pernicious ideology that rejects the goals and objectives of the American civil rights movement by encouraging people to think of each other, first and foremost, not as individuals, but as members of distinct racial categories.”
Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation, has received $150,000 since 2017. The organization has described CRT as a “totalitarian assault on children.”
The State Policy Network (SPN), a network of conservative think tanks that focus on state-level politics, has received $3.57 million since 2017. SPN works closely with The Heritage Foundation to promote opposition to CRT.
Turning Point, a conservative youth group founded by Charlie Kirk, has received $400,000 since 2017. It promotes social media optimized anti-CRT content. One recent headline: "Critical Race Theory DESTROYED By Illinois Dad."
The National Review, a conservative magazine and website, has received $45,000 since 2018. The site publishes multiple anti-CRT articles daily. One recent column warns that CRT is an effort to "brainwash the next generation into thinking everything is about racism."
PragerU, a right-wing media company that produces popular videos, received $100,000 in 2019. A PragerU video from April 2021, which has been viewed 1.5 million times, asserts that CRT will "change the nature of America and the way you live." The video compares CRT in the United States with Nazism in Germany.
The Real Clear Foundation, which supports investigative journalism conducted by Real Clear Media, has received $200,000 since 2017. A recent "investigation" supported by the Real Clear Foundation suggests CRT "encourages discrimination and other illegal policies targeting whites, males and Christians" and asserts that it "will erode the nation’s anti-discrimination law as it has developed since the 1960s."
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank, has received $200,000 since 2018. A commentary published by the organization in May asserted that CRT harmed "everyone—not just the white kids who are categorized as oppressors, but children of color, who, like every child, deserve a civil, harmonious society."
The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, has received $210,000 since 2017. Last month, the magazine published an article that described CRT as a mechanism for "extremist indoctrination in America’s schools."
The Federalist Society, a right-wing legal organization, has received $720,000 since 2017. The introduction for a recent panel discussion suggested CRT "contains racial stereotypes, assigns blame to individuals based solely on their race and sex, and imputes race discrimination as the reason for all disparate outcomes in society."
Young America's Foundation, a conservative youth organization, has received $200,000 since 2017. The organization recently published a piece describing CRT as "a warped ideology that seeks to divide Americans and relitigate the sins of the past by pinning White Americans against Black Americans." The organization is soliciting tips from students that are "facing critical race theory indoctrination."
Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria
7 hr ago
55
10
Thomas W. Smith in 2009 (Source: Facebook)
Critical Race Theory (CRT), once a little-known academic concept, is now at the center of the national political discussion. CRT is discussed incessantly on Fox News. It is featured in campaign advertisements. And legislation banning it is advancing in statehouses around the country.
This didn't happen on its own. Rather, there is a constellation of non-profit groups and media outlets that are systematically injecting CRT into our politics. In 2020, most people had never heard of CRT. In 2021, a chorus of voices on the right insists it is an existential threat to the country.
A Popular Information investigation reveals that many of the entities behind the CRT panic share a common funding source: The Thomas W. Smith Foundation.
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has no website and its namesake founder keeps a low public profile. Thomas W. Smith is based in Boca Raton, Florida, and founded a hedge fund called Prescott Investors in 1973. In 2008, the New York Times reported that The Thomas W. Smith Foundation was "dedicated to supporting free markets."
More information about the foundation can be gleaned from its public tax filings, which are called 990-PFs. The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has more than $24 million in assets. The person who spends the most time working for the group is not Smith but James Piereson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. According to the foundation's 2019 990-PF, Piereson was paid $283,333 to work for The Thomas W. Smith Foundation for 25 hours per week.
Piereson was also paid $140,000 in 2019 as an independent contractor for the Manhattan Institute, where Thomas W. Smith is a trustee. While Thomas W. Smith avoids public comments, Piereson is prolific. And Piereson's writings provide insight into what is motivating the foundation's grants.
The people and groups behind anti-CRT hysteria claim that there is a radical new theory being taught in schools that seeks to make white people hate themselves and define everyone exclusively by their race. None of this is true. But Piereson provides an insight into the underlying ideology that explains why so much effort is being put into perpetuating these myths.
Piereson has made clear that he opposes efforts to increase racial or economic equality, even if these efforts are financed by private charities. Piereson described his views in a 2019 op-ed in the Washington Examiner:
[C]haritable foundations have felt the great sustained pressure to “pay up” for alleged sins against the ideals of racial and economic equality. It started out as pressure from a few vocal activists banging on the doors of large foundations. It's turned into a movement in which philanthropic leaders are falling over themselves to throw money at their critics in hopes of mollifying them...
In another column published in 2019 in the Wall Street Journal, Piereson objected to the Surdna Foundation spending money on "community-led efforts that target the root causes of economic and racial inequities" because its deceased founder John Emory Andrus was a capitalist and would not have approved.
In a 2017 column, Piereson criticized liberal philanthropists for focusing on "climate change, income inequality, [and] immigrant rights," describing these as "radical causes." He stressed the need for "a counterbalance provided by right-leaning philanthropies."
Piereson also opposes classes dedicated to the study of women, Black people, or the LGBTQ community in universities, saying these topics lack "academic rigor."
In the 1960s, universities caved to the demands of radicals on campus by expanding academic departments to include women's studies, black studies, and, more recently, "queer studies." These programs are college mainstays, making up in ideological vigor what they lack in academic rigor.
He opposes efforts to diversify professors or students on college campuses saying "diversity-promotion efforts on campus actually increase resentment on the part of both white and minority students." Piereson argued that "racial bigotry and violence against women" is not a big problem on college campuses. He says that concerns about these issues are "irrational."
How did CRT, a complex theory that explains how structural racism is embedded in the law, get redefined to represent corporate diversity trainings and high school classes on the history of slavery? The foundation funding much of the anti-CRT effort is run by a person who opposes all efforts to increase diversity at powerful institutions and laments the introduction of curriculum about the historical treatment of Black people.
It's hard to generate excitement around tired arguments opposing diversity and racial equality. It's easier to advocate against CRT, a term that sounds scary but no one really understands.
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation has donated more than $12.7 million to 21 organizations attacking Critical Race Theory
Between 2017 and 2019, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation has granted at least $12.75 million to organizations that publicly attack Critical Race Theory, according to a review of tax disclosures by Popular Information. The foundation's grants for 2020 will not be disclosed until late-2021.
The Manhattan Institute
The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, has recently been at the forefront of the crusade against CRT. It is also the top recipient of cash from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation.
In recent months, Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the organization, has gained notoriety for spurring anti-CRT panic, describing CRT as an “existential threat to the United States.” Last year, Rufo appeared on the Tucker Carlson show and insisted that Trump must “immediately issue” an executive order “abolishing critical race theory trainings from the federal government.” Trump quickly took his advice.
Most recently, Rufo published an op-ed in the New York Post falsely claiming that CRT is centered around “race essentialism, collective guilt and state-sanctioned discrimination,” adding that the “war against critical race theory is a war worth fighting.” He also accuses public schools of “pushing toxic racial theories onto children.”
Yet, as Popular Information previously explained, Rufo is misrepresenting CRT for political purposes. In March 2021, Rufo acknowledged that he is simply using CRT as a vessel to capture concepts he thinks are politically unpopular. As Sarah Jones of New York Magazine recently wrote, Rufo “takes critical-race theory as a concept, strips it of all meaning, and repurposes it as a catchall for white grievances.”
Rufo's own tweets confirm his tactics. “We have decodified [CRT]…and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans,” Rufo tweeted.
Twitter avatar for @realchrisrufo
Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️
@realchrisrufo
@ConceptualJames The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think "critical race theory." We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.
March 15th 2021
48 Retweets519 Likes
The Thomas W. Smith Foundation donated $4.32 million to the Manhattan Institute between 2017 and 2019.
The Heritage Foundation
The right-wing Heritage Foundation, which previously employed Rufo, also receives substantial support from Thomas W. Smith Foundation. According to tax filings, the Heritage Foundation has received at least $525,000 from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation between 2017 and 2019.
In June 2021, the executive director of the Heritage Foundation told Politico that fighting “critical race theory is one of the top two issues [the] group is working on alongside efforts to tighten voting laws.”
On its website, the organization has an entire page dedicated to justifying the attack on CRT. It claims that the legal framework “is infecting everything from politics and education to the workplace and the military.”
The foundation is also a key player in pushing anti-CRT legislation. Since at least last winter, the Heritage Foundation has been hosting webinars and private briefings with lawmakers to “discuss model legislation to block critical race theory,” reports NBC News.
ALEC
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization that has been hosting webinars to help lawmakers draft legislation banning CRT, has received at least $425,000 from The Thomas W. Smith Foundation since 2017. In December 2020, ALEC hosted a workshop in partnership with the Heritage Foundation on “Reclaiming Education and the American Dream...Against Critical Race Theory's Onslaught.”
Other recipients of funds from the Thomas W. Smith Foundation include:
The American Enterprise Institute has received $1.1 million since 2017. In May 2021, an AEI research fellow published an op-ed titled “Ban Critical Theory now,” arguing that “CRT amounts to institutionalized racial hatred.”
The Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI), a conservative educational organization, has received $150,000 since 2017. In March 2021, the organization celebrated the appearance of an AHI alum on the Tucker Carlson show "to expose the use of Critical Race Theory to indoctrinate employees of Cigna."
The American Ideas Institute, a right-wing organization that publishes The American Conservative, has received $10,000 since 2017. In June, The American Conservative published an op-ed by its senior editor in which described CRT as “the acid that will dissolve America.”
The Center for American Greatness, a right-wing organization, has received $125,000 since 2017. On June 25, 2021, the organization published a piece titled “Canceling Critical Race Theory,” with the tag “Greatness Agenda.”
The Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, has received $100,000 in 2019. In June 2021, a fellow at the Institute published an op-ed describing CRT as a conspiracy theory.
The Daily Caller Foundation, parent organization of the right-wing news outlet co-founded by Tucker Carlson, received $100,000 in 2019. In the last week alone, the Daily Caller has published more than a dozen stories attacking CRT.
The Federalist, a conservative publication, received $150,000 in 2019. The Federalist has published dozens of stories opposing CRT. It recently published a column from a woman who says she is considering pulling her kids out of "one of the highest-rated public school systems in Pennsylvania...because of critical race theory."
Heterodox Academy, a coalition of academics that seek “viewpoint diversity on college campuses,” has received $250,000 since 2018. In February 2021, affiliates of the Heterodox Academy published an op-ed attacking CRT for "blaming and shaming individuals."
The Independent Women’s Forum, a right-wing public policy group, has received $125,000 since 2017. The organization claims CRT is a “pernicious ideology that rejects the goals and objectives of the American civil rights movement by encouraging people to think of each other, first and foremost, not as individuals, but as members of distinct racial categories.”
Judicial Watch, a conservative foundation, has received $150,000 since 2017. The organization has described CRT as a “totalitarian assault on children.”
The State Policy Network (SPN), a network of conservative think tanks that focus on state-level politics, has received $3.57 million since 2017. SPN works closely with The Heritage Foundation to promote opposition to CRT.
Turning Point, a conservative youth group founded by Charlie Kirk, has received $400,000 since 2017. It promotes social media optimized anti-CRT content. One recent headline: "Critical Race Theory DESTROYED By Illinois Dad."
The National Review, a conservative magazine and website, has received $45,000 since 2018. The site publishes multiple anti-CRT articles daily. One recent column warns that CRT is an effort to "brainwash the next generation into thinking everything is about racism."
PragerU, a right-wing media company that produces popular videos, received $100,000 in 2019. A PragerU video from April 2021, which has been viewed 1.5 million times, asserts that CRT will "change the nature of America and the way you live." The video compares CRT in the United States with Nazism in Germany.
The Real Clear Foundation, which supports investigative journalism conducted by Real Clear Media, has received $200,000 since 2017. A recent "investigation" supported by the Real Clear Foundation suggests CRT "encourages discrimination and other illegal policies targeting whites, males and Christians" and asserts that it "will erode the nation’s anti-discrimination law as it has developed since the 1960s."
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a right-wing think tank, has received $200,000 since 2018. A commentary published by the organization in May asserted that CRT harmed "everyone—not just the white kids who are categorized as oppressors, but children of color, who, like every child, deserve a civil, harmonious society."
The American Spectator, a conservative magazine, has received $210,000 since 2017. Last month, the magazine published an article that described CRT as a mechanism for "extremist indoctrination in America’s schools."
The Federalist Society, a right-wing legal organization, has received $720,000 since 2017. The introduction for a recent panel discussion suggested CRT "contains racial stereotypes, assigns blame to individuals based solely on their race and sex, and imputes race discrimination as the reason for all disparate outcomes in society."
Young America's Foundation, a conservative youth organization, has received $200,000 since 2017. The organization recently published a piece describing CRT as "a warped ideology that seeks to divide Americans and relitigate the sins of the past by pinning White Americans against Black Americans." The organization is soliciting tips from students that are "facing critical race theory indoctrination."
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Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, aggregated from sources all over the world by Google News.
news.google.com
Justice in legal knot in Mo Brooks, Trump case
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is facing a decision over whether to help insulate Rep. Mo Brooks from a civil lawsuit claiming the Alabama Republican was among those responsible for inciting …
thehill.com
Sean Hannity Urges ‘Take COVID Seriously’ as Fox News Coronavirus Talk Draws Scrutiny
Fox News' Sean Hannity urged viewers to get vaccinated but other hosts have been openly skeptical of government efforts to tame coronavirus.
variety.com
Sean Hannity Urges ‘Take COVID Seriously’ as Fox News Coronavirus Talk Draws Scrutiny
By Brian Steinberg
Courtesy of Fox News
Fox News has come under scrutiny in recent weeks for the mixed messages it has sent viewers about getting vaccinated against coronavirus. Steve Doocy might promote getting vaccinated on “Fox & Friends,” but primetime host Laura Ingraham has suggested U.S. government efforts to get Americans to take their shots should make people wary.
“Someone comes up to your door outside wearing a mask, showing up at your house claiming to work for the government asking you personal medical questions,” Ingraham said on her show earlier this month. “What could possibly go wrong there?” Tucker Carlson, another Fox News primetime stalwart, has also criticized government efforts to get people vaccinated, telling viewers to be wary of efforts to undermine personal freedoms.
At Fox News, executives appear to be drawing a line between what is good health-wise and whether viewers should have to give up personal freedoms to do so. But that has created a volley of different stands on the issue, with Fox News running a public-service campaign in February urging viewers to “keep up the fight” against the pandemic, and “Fox & Friends” co-anchor Brian Kilmeade generating controversy Monday by comparing people who didn’t want to get vaccinated to “cliff divers,” noting “It seems a little dangerous, but I’m not going to judge you. And if you go ahead and put yourself in danger, and you feel as though this is not something for you, don’t do it. But don’t affect my life.”
On Monday, two of Fox News’ best known faces, Doocy and Sean Hannity, made blunt pleas to the audience to get vaccinated. “If you have the chance, get the shot. It will save your life,” Doocy said yesterday’s “Fox & Friends.” Hannity’s comments were even more impassioned: “Please take COVID seriously, I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more deaths.”
Viewers of Fox News may see a back and forth over coronavirus protocols, but Fox News employees have not. Fox News’ parent company, Fox Corp., has in recent weeks told employees they must get vaccinated in order to enjoy greater freedoms at work. Los Angeles-based employees of Fox Corp. were told recently that they had to wear mask “regardless of your vaccination status,” due to rising cases in California. In June, employees were told that to be considered “fully vaccinated” at work they had to provide proof of getting vaccinated to the company in order to obtain a “Fox Clear Pass” that would allow them to go without masks in the office. “Employees who may be fully vaccinated but who have not entered their vaccination information into Workday will be considered unvaccinated under Company policies,” a June memo said.
The way Fox News handles the subject is likely to have more ripples in days to come. The nation is growing more concerned about the spread of the Delta coronavirus variant, which is likely to cause great harm to people who remain unvaccinated.
Top Catholic priest Jeffrey Burrill resigns after phone data tracked to Grindr.
Top Catholic priest resigns after phone data tracked to Grindr By Hannah Frishberg July 21, 2021 | 12:47pm | Updated Enlarge Image Msgr. Jeffrey D. Burrill in 2018. Burrill resigned this month following allegations that his phone data had been tracked to prove he regularly used the dating...
www.bgol.us
Bills' Jonathan Feliciano Rails Against Dr. Anthony Fauci After NFL's New Mandate (TWEETS)
Read “Bills' Jonathan Feliciano Rails Against Dr. Anthony Fauci After NFL's New Mandate (TWEETS) ” and other NFL articles from Total Pro Sports.
www.totalprosports.com
That's cool. Next man up will get his shot.Bills' Jonathan Feliciano Rails Against Dr. Anthony Fauci After NFL's New Mandate (TWEETS)
Read “Bills' Jonathan Feliciano Rails Against Dr. Anthony Fauci After NFL's New Mandate (TWEETS) ” and other NFL articles from Total Pro Sports.
Fox News has a vaccine passport program to protect its employees, despite the network’s on-air messaging: reports
Do as they do, not as they say. Despite its hosts’ hysterical rants about vaccination programs, Fox News reportedly has what is tantamount to a vaccine passport program to protect its own wor…
www.nydailynews.com
Fox News backs Covid vaccination – a pity no one told Tucker Carlson
The rightwing channel has urged viewers to get the vaccine but some opinion hosts see stoking scepticism as a ratings winner
Fox News has a vaccine passport program to protect its employees, despite the network’s on-air messaging: reports
By BRIAN NIEMIETZ
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JUL 19, 2021 AT 6:53 PM
Do as they do, not as they say.
Despite its hosts’ hysterical rants about vaccination programs, Fox News reportedly has what is tantamount to a vaccine passport program to protect its own workers.
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Both The Hill and CNN report that internal emails from the human resources department at Fox Corporation last month informed employees that “a secure, voluntary” method by which workers could “self-attest their vaccination status” was being made available. It’s called the FOX Clear Pass.
According to that email, employees who provide the right-wing media empire with information regarding the dates they were vaccinated and the vaccination they received would be helping the company with “space planning and contact tracing.”
Employees who supply that information will no longer be required to complete a daily health screening, according to the reports.
Not only has Fox welcomed guests who reject the concept of so-called vaccine passports — its own messengers have scoffed at the idea on air.
Tucker Carlson’s top writer resigns, wrote racist posts under pseudonym »
Cash cow Tucker Carlson recently equated separating non-vaccinated people — who could be carrying a deadly and contagious virus — to racial segregation during the Jim Crow era. The perpetually aggrieved pundit admitted during that screed that “the coronavirus is transmissible and it can be dangerous,” but noted there are other diseases that fit that description, too. As an example, he cited, tuberculosis which is not at the center of a global pandemic.
Traffic on Sixth Avenue passes by advertisements featuring Fox News personalities, including Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and Sean Hannity, adorn the front of the News Corporation building, March 13, 2019 in New York City. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Chinese researcher dies from rare monkey virus »
While a judge ruled in September that viewers should know Carlson is not “stating actual facts” about the topics on his show, the 52-year-old entertainer commands a larger audience than anyone on cable news. Carlson has been defensive when asked about his own vaccination status.
Fellow host Laura Ingraham has expressed concern that vaccine passports could be made to include a person’s HIV status. HIV is not an airborne virus.
Fox News has repeatedly undermined efforts to mitigate the dangers of COVID-19, which has killed more than 600,000 Americans. That has included comparing the deadly pandemic to the common flu and refuting the value of wearing masks in minimizing transmission.
While some Fox workers have returned to their offices, the company reportedly hopes to open fully after Labor Day.
'This Is How I'm Going To Die': Police Sergeant Recalls The Terror Of Jan. 6
U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell recounted how he and his fellow officers were crushed by the violent mob of pro-Trump supporters on Jan. 6.
www.npr.org
'This Is How I'm Going To Die': Police Sergeant Recalls The Terror Of Jan. 6
U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell recounted how he and his fellow officers were crushed by the violent mob of pro-Trump supporters on Jan. 6.
MAGA
In other words, fuck you.
Yup
People are still surprised?
Yup
I pray for the day this accepted pretend ignorance white folk been doing for damn near a decade...
Becomes unacceptable
‘Shrek’ and ‘Aladdin’ Screenwriter Says ‘Anti-Vax’ Is Equivalent to the N-Word
Terry Rossio left the offending word uncensored, earning widespread criticism.
www.indiewire.com
Before Florida COVID surge, major media outlets lionized DeSantis
Judd Legum
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the UFC 261 press conference on April 22, 2021, in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)
For months, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has governed his state as if COVID did not exist. But he didn't just ignore the problem. DeSantis acted to prevent others in his state — local governments, schools, businesses — from taking steps to slow the spread of the deadly virus. He mocked public health officials and catered to anti-vaxxers.
This reckless approach was lionized in the media. DeSantis was heralded as a savvy political operator with the inside track to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In March 2021, just four months ago, Politico published an article detailing "How Ron DeSantis won the pandemic." It claimed that DeSantis' "most controversial policies" were "the opposite of ruinous." As a result, DeSantis "is more politically ascendant than any governor in the country." A lengthy companion piece in Politico Magazine begins simply: "He was right."
Politico was not alone. The same month, CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, wrote a piece glorifying DeSantis. This is how it began:
After a year of criticism by health experts, mockery from comedians and blistering critiques from political rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is standing unabashedly tall among the nation's governors on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.
A Wall Street Journal column, broadcast by prominent members of the media, said DeSantis was "vindicated."
On HBO, Bill Maher praised DeSantis' approach to COVID and described him as a "voracious reader of the scientific literature." Axios promoted a similar narrative.
DeSantis was also not shy about tooting his own horn. In his March 2021 speech to opening the Florida legislature, he blasted his counterparts who have taken a more cautious approach to the pandemic. "I see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed. While so many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up,” DeSantis said.
In the months that followed, DeSantis has taken an even more aggressive approach, openly mocking the advice of public health experts. In July, DeSantis' political committee began selling beer koozies and t-shirts with the slogan, "Don't Fauci My Florida."
DeSantis has also attacked Fauci in fundraising emails and on Fox News.
Now, as the Delta variant spreads, DeSantis' bravado has collided with reality. On Saturday, Florida recorded a record 21,683 coronavirus cases, a 12.1% increase over the previous record set on January 7. Florida has "about 6.5% of the U.S. population" but "accounts for about 21.4% of the country’s new cases."
More than 110,000 cases have been reported over the last week and that is likely a vast undercount. The state's positivity rate stands at 18.1%.
The state also reported 108 deaths on Saturday. On Sunday, "Florida broke its year-old record for COVID hospitalizations," topping las July's peak. 10,207 Floridians are currently hospitalized with COVID. One of the state's largest hospital networks "advised it would no longer be conducting non-emergency surgeries in order to free up resources for COVID-19 patients." Florida now has "the highest per capita rate of both hospitalizations and infections in the nation."
In response, DeSantis continues to take actions that could make a dire situation even worse.
DeSantis invalidates all COVID restrictions
On May 3, there was still considerable community spread of COVID-19 in Florida. The state was averaging about 5,000 cases per day. Nevertheless, DeSantis took aggressive action to limit the ability of localities and private businesses to slow the spread.
First, DeSantis signed an executive order invaliding all local rules designed to reduce transmission of the coronavirus.
In order to protect the rights and liberties of individuals in this State and to accelerate the State's recovery from the COVID-19 emergency, any emergency order issued by a political subdivision due to the COVID-19 emergency which restricts the rights or liberties of individuals or their businesses is invalidated.
DeSantis also strictly limited the ability of localities to reimpose restrictions in response to worsening conditions. Some counties have begun to defy DeSantis as conditions worsen.
DeSantis bans businesses from requiring proof of vaccination
The same day, DeSantis signed a bill that "bars businesses, schools and government entities across Florida from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination." Businesses that violated the ban would be subject to a $5,000 fine for each infraction.
DeSantis frames these actions as in the interest of the business community. But the law drew pointed criticism from the cruise ship industry, which features "populations the size of small cities packed into close quarters." In July, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings sued the state for the right to operate cruises starting in August requiring crew and passengers to be vaccinated. "We believe Florida’s prohibition is on the wrong side of federal law, public health, science and is not in the best interest of the welfare of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit, therefore, we have reluctantly turned to the courts for relief," the company said in a statement.
DeSantis' efforts to prevent businesses from requiring vaccinations made little sense from an economic or public health perspective. But it was a nod to DeSantis' political base in Florida and around the country, many of whom are unvaccinated.
DeSantis bans mask mandates in schools
DeSantis has taken the same approach as coronavirus cases spike to record levels. Schools are set to open in Florida in a few days and DeSantis just signed a new executive order that will make mask-wearing optional in all Florida schools. The order directly contradicts CDC guidance.
The order includes dubious claims about the dangers of children wearing masks, asserting without evidence that "forcing children to wear masks could inhibit breathing [and] lead to the collection of dangerous impurities including bacteria, parasites, fungi, and other contaminants."
"In Florida, there will be no lockdowns, there will be no school closures, there will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida," DeSantis said in a speech announcing the new policy.
More than 21,000 coronavirus cases last week occurred in children younger than 19. Children younger than 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. DeSantis' order allows the state "to withhold funds to school boards that impose mask mandates in violation of the new rules."
Two days earlier, Broward County had passed a mask mandate for its schools. A school board member called DeSantis' order "irresponsible" but said the county had no choice but to change its policy.
DeSantis has "warned lawmakers that he would call them back to Tallahassee for a special legislative session to block the Biden administration if it institutes a nationwide mask mandate for students."
The long view
Florida is the current epicenter of the pandemic, but that hasn't always been the case. Many Governors, including New York's Andrew Cuomo (D), have made costly mistakes. But the idea that, over the course of the pandemic, Florida has done better than most states is not true.
Adjusted for population, Florida has the 9th-most confirmed COVID-19 cases of any state. In per capita deaths, Florida now ranks exactly in the middle of the pack, with 182 deaths per 100,000 residents. The aggregate numbers are stark. Florida has had over 2.5 million confirmed cases and 39,000 deaths.
In other words, Florida is not a success story. But DeSantis is committed to his approach as a political strategy. A fundraising email DeSantis sent on Saturday included this conspiratorial rant:
These politicians and government bureaucrats got a taste of power before, and now they’re hungry for more. These lockdown politicians are globalists who refuse to hold China accountable. They want to control you, and if we don’t stand strong now, who knows what they’ll try to take away next.
With the Delta variant ravaging the state and DeSantis dug in, the situation in Florida may get even worse.
Judd Legum
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the UFC 261 press conference on April 22, 2021, in Jacksonville, Florida. (Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC)
For months, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has governed his state as if COVID did not exist. But he didn't just ignore the problem. DeSantis acted to prevent others in his state — local governments, schools, businesses — from taking steps to slow the spread of the deadly virus. He mocked public health officials and catered to anti-vaxxers.
This reckless approach was lionized in the media. DeSantis was heralded as a savvy political operator with the inside track to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
In March 2021, just four months ago, Politico published an article detailing "How Ron DeSantis won the pandemic." It claimed that DeSantis' "most controversial policies" were "the opposite of ruinous." As a result, DeSantis "is more politically ascendant than any governor in the country." A lengthy companion piece in Politico Magazine begins simply: "He was right."
Politico was not alone. The same month, CNN's Chief National Affairs Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, wrote a piece glorifying DeSantis. This is how it began:
After a year of criticism by health experts, mockery from comedians and blistering critiques from political rivals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is standing unabashedly tall among the nation's governors on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.
A Wall Street Journal column, broadcast by prominent members of the media, said DeSantis was "vindicated."
On HBO, Bill Maher praised DeSantis' approach to COVID and described him as a "voracious reader of the scientific literature." Axios promoted a similar narrative.
DeSantis was also not shy about tooting his own horn. In his March 2021 speech to opening the Florida legislature, he blasted his counterparts who have taken a more cautious approach to the pandemic. "I see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: schools closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed. While so many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people up,” DeSantis said.
In the months that followed, DeSantis has taken an even more aggressive approach, openly mocking the advice of public health experts. In July, DeSantis' political committee began selling beer koozies and t-shirts with the slogan, "Don't Fauci My Florida."
DeSantis has also attacked Fauci in fundraising emails and on Fox News.
Now, as the Delta variant spreads, DeSantis' bravado has collided with reality. On Saturday, Florida recorded a record 21,683 coronavirus cases, a 12.1% increase over the previous record set on January 7. Florida has "about 6.5% of the U.S. population" but "accounts for about 21.4% of the country’s new cases."
More than 110,000 cases have been reported over the last week and that is likely a vast undercount. The state's positivity rate stands at 18.1%.
The state also reported 108 deaths on Saturday. On Sunday, "Florida broke its year-old record for COVID hospitalizations," topping las July's peak. 10,207 Floridians are currently hospitalized with COVID. One of the state's largest hospital networks "advised it would no longer be conducting non-emergency surgeries in order to free up resources for COVID-19 patients." Florida now has "the highest per capita rate of both hospitalizations and infections in the nation."
In response, DeSantis continues to take actions that could make a dire situation even worse.
DeSantis invalidates all COVID restrictions
On May 3, there was still considerable community spread of COVID-19 in Florida. The state was averaging about 5,000 cases per day. Nevertheless, DeSantis took aggressive action to limit the ability of localities and private businesses to slow the spread.
First, DeSantis signed an executive order invaliding all local rules designed to reduce transmission of the coronavirus.
In order to protect the rights and liberties of individuals in this State and to accelerate the State's recovery from the COVID-19 emergency, any emergency order issued by a political subdivision due to the COVID-19 emergency which restricts the rights or liberties of individuals or their businesses is invalidated.
DeSantis also strictly limited the ability of localities to reimpose restrictions in response to worsening conditions. Some counties have begun to defy DeSantis as conditions worsen.
DeSantis bans businesses from requiring proof of vaccination
The same day, DeSantis signed a bill that "bars businesses, schools and government entities across Florida from asking anyone to provide proof of a COVID-19 vaccination." Businesses that violated the ban would be subject to a $5,000 fine for each infraction.
DeSantis frames these actions as in the interest of the business community. But the law drew pointed criticism from the cruise ship industry, which features "populations the size of small cities packed into close quarters." In July, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings sued the state for the right to operate cruises starting in August requiring crew and passengers to be vaccinated. "We believe Florida’s prohibition is on the wrong side of federal law, public health, science and is not in the best interest of the welfare of our guests, crew, and the communities we visit, therefore, we have reluctantly turned to the courts for relief," the company said in a statement.
DeSantis' efforts to prevent businesses from requiring vaccinations made little sense from an economic or public health perspective. But it was a nod to DeSantis' political base in Florida and around the country, many of whom are unvaccinated.
DeSantis bans mask mandates in schools
DeSantis has taken the same approach as coronavirus cases spike to record levels. Schools are set to open in Florida in a few days and DeSantis just signed a new executive order that will make mask-wearing optional in all Florida schools. The order directly contradicts CDC guidance.
The order includes dubious claims about the dangers of children wearing masks, asserting without evidence that "forcing children to wear masks could inhibit breathing [and] lead to the collection of dangerous impurities including bacteria, parasites, fungi, and other contaminants."
"In Florida, there will be no lockdowns, there will be no school closures, there will be no restrictions and no mandates in the state of Florida," DeSantis said in a speech announcing the new policy.
More than 21,000 coronavirus cases last week occurred in children younger than 19. Children younger than 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. DeSantis' order allows the state "to withhold funds to school boards that impose mask mandates in violation of the new rules."
Two days earlier, Broward County had passed a mask mandate for its schools. A school board member called DeSantis' order "irresponsible" but said the county had no choice but to change its policy.
DeSantis has "warned lawmakers that he would call them back to Tallahassee for a special legislative session to block the Biden administration if it institutes a nationwide mask mandate for students."
The long view
Florida is the current epicenter of the pandemic, but that hasn't always been the case. Many Governors, including New York's Andrew Cuomo (D), have made costly mistakes. But the idea that, over the course of the pandemic, Florida has done better than most states is not true.
Adjusted for population, Florida has the 9th-most confirmed COVID-19 cases of any state. In per capita deaths, Florida now ranks exactly in the middle of the pack, with 182 deaths per 100,000 residents. The aggregate numbers are stark. Florida has had over 2.5 million confirmed cases and 39,000 deaths.
In other words, Florida is not a success story. But DeSantis is committed to his approach as a political strategy. A fundraising email DeSantis sent on Saturday included this conspiratorial rant:
These politicians and government bureaucrats got a taste of power before, and now they’re hungry for more. These lockdown politicians are globalists who refuse to hold China accountable. They want to control you, and if we don’t stand strong now, who knows what they’ll try to take away next.
With the Delta variant ravaging the state and DeSantis dug in, the situation in Florida may get even worse.
