New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay suggested on Thursday that some of the Republicans opposing Kevin McCarthy's bid for the House speakership were elected due to racism.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Gay claimed that some of the Republican figures were "elected based on a litmus test to stop the tide of diversity in the country, the browning of America, the fears that surround that."
Earlier in the segment, host Nicolle Wallace had described the deadlock as a "tragedy for American democracy."
\u201c"Some of these individuals were people who were really only elected based on a litmus test to stop the tide of diversity in the country, the browning of America, the fears that surround that. So, they were not elected to go do the work of government"- @MaraGay w/ @NicolleDWallace\u201d— Deadline White House (@Deadline White House) 1672963836
While a significant majority of the House GOP has been backing McCarthy, more than a dozen Republicans have been been opposing him, preventing McCarthy from gaining the speaker's gavel. So far, McCarthy has come up short in a whopping 11 votes, including three on Tuesday, three on Wednesday, and five on Thursday. Democrats have been voting for Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
In many of the votes this week, the Republicans opposing McCarthy have voted for Byron Donalds of Florida, who is black — Donalds voted for McCarthy twice, but has since been voting against him.
Democrat Cori Bush of Missouri, who is black, has described Donalds as a "prop."
"FWIW, @ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy. His name being in the mix is not progress—it's pathetic," Bush tweeted on Wednesday.
Former President Donald Trump has called for Republicans to rally around McCarthy, but Matt Gaetz of Florida asserted that Trump's support for McCarthy represents "the worst Human Resources decision President Trump has ever made," while Lauren Boebert of Colorado has said that Trump should call on McCarthy to withdraw from contention. Gaetz voted for Trump to be House speaker during some of the votes on Thursday.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace suggested Monday that foreign election monitors should oversee American elections, declaring the Republican Party is trying "to destroy our democracy."
But her guest, Democratic Rep. Jim Himes (Conn.), immediately shot down her proposal.
In countries where questions of legitimacy hang over elections, election monitors, often sent by legitimate democracies and non-governmental organizations, conduct oversight and record questionable practices.
According to Wallace, the U.S. needs such monitors to provide oversight of our elections.
"We're so focused on our own pretty splendid efforts to destroy our democracy from the Republican Party in this country that we forget there are foreign actors that represent a grave threat as well," Wallace said on her MSNBC show.
"The threats to our elections in what, 2.5 weeks, are so pervasive, and they’re so dire, and they include violence — I mean, do you think it’s time to ask for friends and allies to come over and help us monitor our elections?" she went on to ask Himes. "We used to do that in other burgeoning and threatened democracies."
\u201c"At some point the U.S. is going to need to collectively decide that not only are we going to oppose Russians and Chinese and North Koreans and Iranians messing around with our elections, we're not gonna allow the Republican Party to do it either" - @jahimes w/ @NicolleDWallace\u201d— Deadline White House (@Deadline White House) 1666649422
Himes, though he agreed with Wallace's concerns, promptly explained he does not share her solution.
"No, Nicolle, I’m not there yet, and I know why you’re asking what you’re asking and you’re not wrong," Himes responded.
"I mean, the kind of intimidation that is threatened around polling places. You’ve seen the pictures of the guys with assault weapons near boxes — that stuff is intimidating," he added without evidence. "That used to be the province, I hate to use the term, third-world countries that didn’t care about democracy.
"But no, look, this is something for us to work out ourselves," Himes said.
Despite heavy-handed rhetoric from Democrats and media members that American democracy is under threat, the democratic processes that guide America through elections have not failed — not even once.
Rep. Himes: The U.S. Has To Decide We Won’t Allow The GOP To Mess With Election www.youtube.com
Former CIA director turned MSNBC intelligence analyst John Brennan told the outlet's audience Monday that he is "increasingly embarrassed to be a white male," in reaction to investigations surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brennan made the declaration during MSNBC's "Deadline White House," after former Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill (Mo.) told host Nicolle Wallace, "I have never seen so many whiny white men calling themselves victims as I saw over the weekend at [the Conservative Political Action Conference]. I mean, these are all people who think they have a huge grievance from a position of significant privilege."
McCaskill had been asked for her take on Antifa or other left-wing imposters being blamed by some Republicans for the Capitol siege, which was carried out by a mob of Trump supporters following a rally hosted by the former president.
The former senator went on to say, "It has really become the norm for the new Republican Party that lying is just peachy keen and I can't believe the majority of America is gonna accept that, especially if we remain vigilant about pointing out what the facts are."
Wallace then asked Brennan for his take.
"Well, I must say, to Claire's point, I'm increasingly embarrassed to be a white male these days," Brennan replied, prompting laugher from Wallace as he added, "when I see [what] my other white males [are] saying."
He went on to argue:
"It just shows that with very few exceptions like [Sen.] Mitt Romney (Utah), [Rep.] Liz Cheney (Wyo.), [Rep.] Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), there are so few Republicans in Congress who value truth, honesty, and integrity, and so they'll continue to gaslight the country the way that Donald Trump did. And the fact that this had such security and safety implications for the American public and for the members of Congress, again, as Claire said, it is just a disgusting display of craven politics that really should have no place in the United States in 2021."
"There are so few Republicans in Congress who value truth, honesty, and integrity. And so, they'll continue to gasl… https://t.co/ErMYqTjAwB— Deadline White House (@Deadline White House)1614639209.0
Brennan has been a vocal critic of Trump after serving as CIA director during the Obama administration, and repeatedly pushed the false narrative for years that Trump and members of his 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election.
After special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation found no evidence of collusion, Brennan admitted that whether or not "he received bad information," he had "suspected there was more than there actually was."
During a discussion regarding domestic terrorism, MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace floated the idea of the U.S. government killing American citizens with drone strikes.
Wallace brought up the National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that was released to all law enforcement by the Department of Homeland Security last week. The bulletin, which is in effect until April 30, warns that the DHS allegedly received information that there is the threat of "ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence."
Wallace notes, "There's a bulletin released to all law enforcement earlier this week, that there is, until the end of April, a persistent threat of domestic extremism, domestic terrorism carried out in the ideology and around this belief that the election was fraudulent, that the Covid restrictions are unnecessary. All of those ideologies pushed by Donald Trump."
The "Deadline: White House" host then said, "But my question for you is around incitement. We had a policy, and it was very controversial, it was carried out under the Bush years, and under the Obama years, of attacking terrorism at its root."
"Of going after and killing, and in the case of Anwar Awlaki, an American, a Yemeni-American, with a drone strike for the crime of inciting violence, inciting terrorism," Wallace stated.
"Mitch McConnell was in the Senate then. He was in the Senate after 9/11 too," the MSNBC anchor said. "How does Mitch McConnell, who understands that the way you root out terrorism, is to take on, in the case of Islamic terrorism, kill those who incite it. How does he not vote to convict someone that he said, on the floor of the Senate, incited an insurrection?"
So....... they are pretty much saying they have to stop incitement of violence by inciting violence themselves!Th… https://t.co/oYZzqWX0YO— Luke Rudkowski (@Luke Rudkowski)1612543658.0
Al-Awlaki was an alleged American member of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization who was assassinated in Yemen by a drone strike approved by then-President Barack Obama in 2011. Awlaki was believed to be the former head of external operations for al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, and was linked to several terrorism plots, including an attempt to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit in 2009. He was one of the United States' most wanted terrorists.
The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2010, "There is no indication Mr. Awlaki played a direct role in any of the attacks, and he has never been indicted in the U.S."
The Brookings Institute declared Al-Awlaki's assassination as "the first extra-judicial killing by the United States government against a U.S. citizen."
His 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed in a U.S. drone strike two weeks later.
This is the second time that al-Awlaki has been mentioned on Wallace's show in the last two weeks. Previously, MSNBC contributor and former FBI agent Clint Watts hinted that former President Donald Trump was inciting violence against the U.S. government much like al-Awlaki with the Capitol riots on Jan. 6.
Watts told Wallace, "We had a period after 9/11, where we were trying to get 'left of boom' as they would say in counter-terrorism. Which is, can you get way up, up the stream of an attack and start to root out all of the confluences which bring about that attack?"
"If you took what President Trump said, and you instead put it in Anwar Awlaki's mouth, we would be talking about a drone strike overseas," Watts said on the left-wing cable news network. "So that's one aspect of our political leaders talking about this rhetoric."
"Domestic terrorists have open access to weapons in ways that international extremists did not... And they have acc… https://t.co/5cd1Xz0wKb— Deadline White House (@Deadline White House)1611873286.0
A statement from the Oregon Republican Party won't appear in the state voters' guide mailed out for November's election because it arrived 29 seconds late to the online reporting system, officials told the Associated Press.
The statement was headlined "Had enough? Vote Republican!" and attacked Democratic leadership in Oregon over issues ranging from "Unrestrained rioting" in Portland to coronavirus mismanagement resulting in "catastrophic small business losses," the AP said.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported that Kevin Hoar, communications director for the state GOP, said his party did get the statement into an online filing system by 4:59 p.m. Aug. 25, the final day for filing, the outlet said.
Hoar also said state Republican chairman Bill Currier was locked out of the online filing system for several hours, which delayed the GOP's ability to file its statement, the AP said.
But Laura Fosmire, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bev Clarno, said deadlines apply equally to everyone, the outlet noted.
"Anyone wishing to submit information to the Voters' Pamphlet has several weeks to do so, and we recommend avoiding waiting until the last minute for this reason," she said in a statement, according to the AP.
But Currier told the outlet that not including the GOP's statement in the voting guide "reeks of partisan discrimination."
"If a bureaucrat in some decision-making role simply didn't like what our statement said, this doesn't give them the right to silence us," he added to the AP.
However, Fosmire told the outlet there were "no problems or glitches" with the online reporting system: "[W]e simply received the statement after the filing deadline."
Hoar added to the AP that a lawsuit was filed demanding the statement's inclusion before the voters' guide goes to print later this month.
"We can't quite explain the interpretation and decision here" by state elections officials, Hoar told the outlet.
The Democratic Party of Oregon and six other political parties are included in the voters' pamphlet for the Nov. 3 election, the AP said.
As it turns out, Oregon Secretary of State Clarno is the only Republican in statewide office, the outlet said. Clarno, a former Oregon House speaker, was appointed by Democratic Gov. Kate Brown to serve the rest of the Dennis Richardson's term after he died in 2019, the AP said.
"That the GOP wasn't able to follow the rules and is now crying foul is ridiculous," the Oregon Democratic Party said in response to the Republican reaction, according to a news video from KGW-TV. "And their accusations of partisanship are laughable. ... The Oregon GOP messed up. Instead of accepting the consequences that come with procrastinating until the absolute last minute, they're throwing a fit."
The Democrats also noted that "for a political party that touts 'personal responsibility' and following the the letter of the law, the Republicans are having an awfully hard time owning up to their own mistake," the station added.
In a similar matter, headline-grabbing hip-hop artist Kanye West won't be on the ballot for November's presidential election in Wisconsin after his election lawyer submitted signatures just a couple of minutes too late last month.
West's legal team tried to argue that the signatures were turned in before 5:01 p.m., which means they technically met the 5 p.m. deadline — but the elections commission rejected that argument in a 5-1 vote. Milwaukee Republican Robert Spindell was the only commissioner to argue that West should still be on the ballot.
"Mr. West is an African American candidate," Spindell said, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "And I think we should do all we can to — after the terrible treatment that the black population in Milwaukee received during the April election — that we give them a choice." Spindell accused Democrats of attempting to suppress the black vote.
West is generally considered a candidate who could take votes — especially black votes — away from Democratic nominee Joe Biden. But polling indicates that even if he did get on ballots, his presence wouldn't make much of a dent.
Huge lines across the state caused chaos, in part because this was not Election Day and these were not polling places. 'Early voting' in the traditional sense does not exist in Pennsylvania.
www.theblaze.com
freebeacon.com