Hutchinson sheds new light on Meadows, burning White House docs​

According to Cassidy Hutchinson, Mark Meadows burned so many White House documents that his wife complained about the dry-cleaning bills.


Sept. 25, 2023, 7:40 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

The apparent fact that Rep. Scott Perry met with then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows after the 2020 election was itself controversial. By all accounts, the Republicans spoke behind closed doors as part of a larger exploration of how to keep Donald Trump in power despite his defeat.

But just as notable as their conversation was what happened after the Pennsylvania congressman left the West Wing. Politico reported in May 2022 that Meadows, after meeting with the chair of the House Freedom Caucus, discarded papers in a White House fireplace. In other words, as Trump supporters discussed a plot to undermine democracy, the then-White House chief of staff allegedly took relevant materials and literally set them on fire.

Rachel Maddow will sit down with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson for her first live interview since the Jan. 6 hearings. Tune in Monday at 9 p.m. ET on MSNBC.​

The revelations came by way of Cassidy Hutchinson, the chief of staff’s top aide.

That, of course, was what we learned last year. This year, Hutchinson has a new book coming out and, as The New York Times reported, the former White House aide has some additional insights on this part of her experiences:

It was, by her telling, an administration awash in paranoia, with Mr. Meadows and others refusing to dispose of daily litter in “burn bags” for fear that someone from the “deep state” might intercept the contents. Instead, she writes, Mr. Meadows burned so many documents in his fireplace in the final days of the Trump presidency that his wife complained to Ms. Hutchinson about how expensive it had become to dry-clean the “bonfire” aroma from his suits.

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The Rachel Maddow Show has confirmed the Times' reporting about the book's contents.
There is a degree of irony to the circumstances. In the wake of Donald Trump’s criminal indictments, the former president has repeatedly insisted that relevant information related to Jan. 6, in his telling, was set on fire. Last month, for example, he used his social-media platform to publish a weird, all-caps missive that read, “The January 6 unselect committee extinguished and destroyed all ‘evidence’ & records. Criminals!”

More recently, Trump appeared on “Meet the Press” and told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, in reference to the Jan. 6 investigation, “They burned all the evidence. Okay? They burned all the evidence.”

As it happens, there’s reason to believe someone burned evidence, but it wasn’t Jan. 6 investigators.

As for the larger context, revisiting our earlier coverage, Team Trump has proved to have a document deletion problem, as evidenced by erased text messages. It also has proved to have a document mishandling problem, as evidenced by the classified materials the Republican stored at Mar-a-Lago.

But let’s not overlook the third category: Team Trump’s apparent document destruction problem, as evidenced by the alleged misuse of fireplaces and toilets.

The documents we’ve already seen from the Republican White House are some of the most damning in American history. It’s hard not to wonder what might have been in the materials Meadows chose to incinerate.

As for Hutchinson, she’s scheduled to appear Monday on "The Rachel Maddow Show."

A little history about this amazing woman. Read this and get the true picture about the woman these MAGA's are trashing.

Kamala Harris​

THE VICE PRESIDENT

A career for the people — breaking barriers and fighting for working families

Kamala D. Harris is the Vice President of the United States of America. She was elected Vice President after a lifetime of public service, having been elected District Attorney of San Francisco, California Attorney General, and United States Senator.

Vice President Harris was born in Oakland, California to parents who emigrated from India and Jamaica. She graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

“My mother would look at me and she’d say, ‘Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’”
KAMALA HARRIS, JANUARY 28, 2019

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Vice President Harris and her sister, Maya Harris, were inspired by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan. Gopalan, a breast cancer scientist and pioneer in her own right, received her doctorate the same year Vice President Harris was born.

Her parents were activists, instilling Vice President Harris with a strong sense of justice. They brought her to civil rights demonstrations and introduced role models—ranging from Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to civil rights leader Constance Baker Motley—whose work motivated her to become a prosecutor.

Growing up, Vice President Harris was surrounded by a diverse community and extended family. In 2014, she married Douglas Emhoff. They have a large blended family that includes their children, Ella and Cole.

Vice President Harris at the Pride Parade in San Francisco, California

Throughout her career, the Vice President has been guided by the words she spoke the first time she stood up in court: Kamala Harris, for the people.

In 1990, Vice President Harris joined the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office where she specialized in prosecuting child sexual assault cases. She then served as a managing attorney in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and later was chief of the Division on Children and Families for the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

She was elected District Attorney of San Francisco in 2003. In that role, Vice President Harris created a ground-breaking program to provide first-time drug offenders with the opportunity to earn a high school degree and find employment. The program was designated as a national model of innovation for law enforcement by the United States Department of Justice.

In 2010, Vice President Harris was elected California’s Attorney General and oversaw the largest state justice department in the United States. She established the state’s first Bureau of Children’s Justice and instituted several first-of-their-kind reforms that ensured greater transparency and accountability in the criminal justice system.

As Attorney General, Vice President Harris won a $20 billion settlement for Californians whose homes had been foreclosed on, as well as a $1.1 billion settlement for students and veterans who were taken advantage of by a for-profit education company. She defended the Affordable Care Act in court, enforced environmental law, and was a national leader in the movement for marriage equality.

Vice President Harris speaking at an event

“AT EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, I’VE BEEN GUIDED BY THE WORDS I SPOKE FROM THE FIRST TIME I STOOD IN A COURTROOM: KAMALA HARRIS, FOR THE PEOPLE.”
KAMALA HARRIS, AUGUST 19, 2020

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In 2017, Vice President Harris was sworn into the United States Senate. In her first speech, she spoke out on behalf of immigrants and refugees. As a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, she fought for better protections for DREAMers and called for better oversight of substandard conditions at immigrant detention facilities.

On the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, she worked with members of both parties to keep the American people safe from foreign threats and crafted bipartisan legislation to assist in securing American elections. She visited Iraq, Jordan, and Afghanistan to meet with servicemembers and assess the situation on the ground. She also served on the Senate Judiciary Committee. During her tenure on the committee, she participated in hearings for two Supreme Court nominees.

As Senator, Vice President Harris championed legislation to combat hunger, provide rent relief, improve maternal health care, and address the climate crisis as a member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Her bipartisan anti-lynching bill passed the Senate in 2018. Her legislation to preserve Historically Black Colleges and Universities was signed into law, as was her effort to infuse much-needed capital into low-income communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vice President Harris embraces a young supporter

On August 11, 2020, Vice President Harris accepted President Joe Biden’s invitation to become his running mate and help unite the nation. She is the first woman, the first Black American, and the first South Asian American to be elected Vice President, as was the case with other offices she has held. She is, however, determined not to be the last.

As Vice President, Kamala Harris has worked in partnership with President Joe Biden to get America vaccinated, rebuild our economy, reduce child poverty, and pass an infrastructure law that will lift up communities that have been left behind. She has led the Administration’s efforts in rallying broad coalitions to protect the freedom to vote, expand workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain, and stand up for women’s rights — supporting women in our workforce, addressing the maternal health crisis, and defending reproductive rights. The Vice President has also played a key role in engaging world leaders and strengthening our nation’s alliances and partnerships. In everything she does, she remains focused on the people of our nation—and our collective future.

Cassidy Hutchinson says Mark Meadows burned so many documents before leaving the White House that the then-chief of staff's wife complained about dry-cleaning bills to remove the 'bonfire' smell: report​

John L. Dorman
Sat, September 23, 2023 at 8:54 AM GMT-7·3 min read
7.1k



Cassidy Hutchinson.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

• Hutchinson in her new book and during a New York Times interview described a White House steeped in paranoia.
• The ex-Meadows aide said that staffer feared "deep state" interception when it came to document disposal.
• Hutchinson alleged that Meadows burned files in his fireplace, which ran up his dry-cleaning costs.

Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson in her new memoir said that onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows burned so many documents in the waning days of the administration that his wife complained to her about the dry-cleaning bills to remove the burning smell from his clothes, according to The New York Times.

Hutchinson, who last year vaulted into the national spotlight after testifying before the House January 6 committee and remarking on the inner workings of the White House during Capitol riot, described to The Times an administration that was steeped in paranoia.

The former GOP aide told The Times that Meadows and other staffers feared that individuals from the "deep state" could potentially swoop in and find the documents they were disposing of.

Hutchinson in her memoir wrote that Meadows chose to dispose of documents in his fireplace in the waning days of the administration in January 2021, with Meadows' wife grumbling about the mounting expenses of removing the "bonfire" scent from his suits.

Earlier this week, Hutchinson — whose memoir, "Enough," will be released on Sept. 27 — accused former New York City mayor and ex-Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani of groping her on January 6, 2021. She also accused John Eastman, another pro-Trump attorney, of watching Giuliani as the ex-mayor put his hand "under my blazer, then my skirt" before offering a "leering grin."

Giuliani and Eastman were two of the most vocal backers of former President Donald Trump's debunked claims regarding the 2020 election. In August, Giuliani and Eastman were indicted by a Fulton County grand jury alongside Trump and 16 others over their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential results in Georgia.

Both men through representatives vehemently denied Hutchinson's allegations.

In the memoir, Hutchinson wrote of how she felt "a creeping sense of dread that something really horrible [was] going to happen" on January 6.

While testifying before the House committee last year, she spoke of her exasperation at what she described as Meadows' lack of urgency as the Capitol riot unfolded, which disrupted the certification of now-President Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.

"I start to get frustrated because I sort of felt like I was looking at a bad car accident about to happen where you can't stop it but you want to be able to do something," she told the panel at the time. "I remember thinking in that moment, 'Mark needs to snap out of this and I don't know how to snap him out of this but he needs to care.'"

Insider reached out to Meadows for comment.

Matt Gaetz publicly screws over his OWN party

The Florida sleazebag and perpetual thorn in Kevin McCarthy's side publicly acknowledged on camera that Democrats have played no role in the imminent federal government shutdown, placing the blame squarely at his own party's feet. "All we've gotten are lies, and broken promises, and failure, and shutdowns. And while that may be Kevin McCarthy's legacy, it will not be mine," Gaetz said. And there you have it. The Republican Party is wholly unable to govern and will deserve full credit for a shutdown they seem hellbent on making happen.

Trump Threatens to Open ‘Treason’ Probe Into MSNBC Parent if Re-Elected​

Brett Bachman​

Night Editor
Published Sep. 24, 2023 11:01PM EDT

Scott Morgan/Reuters​

Former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for a “treason” investigation into NBC News’ parent company, Comcast—apparently for the way it runs liberal leaning network MSNBC. “Their endless coverage of the now fully debunked SCAM known as Russia, Russia, Russia, and much else, is one big Campaign Contribution to the Radical Left Democrat Party,” he posted on Truth Social. “I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the Lame Stream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”

AND, YOU WANT THIS GUY TO BE PRESIDENT AGAIN??? JEEZ!

Going back through the film today with a close eye on the linebackers, but Curtis lands his first Pac-12 honor.

More than 150 photos from the win at Arizona State:

🙏

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Fox News Just Accidentally Demolished a Biden-Ukraine Conspiracy Theory​

Former President Petro Poroshenko denounced the former Ukrainian prosecutor general at the center of a long-debunked conspiracy, saying there was “something wrong with him.”

AJ McDougall​

Breaking News Reporter
Published Sep. 25, 2023 6:05PM EDT

Brian Kilmeade on Sunday inadvertently took a sledgehammer to a load-bearing pillar holding up a long-debunked conspiracy that Republicans are currently trying to use to impeach President Joe Biden, interviewing a guest who discredited the figure at the heart of that story in a matter of seconds.

The guest was former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who appeared on One Nation with host Kilmeade over the weekend.

After asking him briefly about the state of the war with Russia, Kilmeade steered Poroshenko towards his relationship with Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor general fired after 14 months in office plagued by allegations he was ineffective at tackling corruption.

Shokin was ousted in March 2016, with then-Vice President Biden throwing his weight behind the push for his dismissal. Biden later publicly claimed he’d threatened to withhold a $1 billion financial aid package from Ukraine until Shokin was out.

Despite similar calls from European officials and literal protests in the street demanding Shokin’s resignation, however, Donald Trump and his allies would seize on the Biden connection, claiming that he’d actually strong-armed Ukraine’s parliament after Shokin began investigating a gas company tied to Hunter Biden.

Shokin himself fanned the flames of this theory, telling Fox News last month that Poroshenko had fired him at Biden’s insistence “because I was investigating Burisma,” the company paying Hunter Biden, who was appointed to its board of directors in 2014.

Sources ranging from Obama-era administration officials to Ukrainian prosecutors and anti-corruption activists have repeatedly debunked this theory, but it hasn’t stopped Republicans from wielding it as an impetus to kickstart an impeachment inquiry into the Biden family’s alleged corruption.

Kilmeade tried to help that effort on Sunday, asking Poroshenko directly why it was that Shokin was fired.

“First of all, this is the completely crazy person,” Poroshenko began. “This is something wrong with him.”

“Second, there is no one single word of truth,” he continued. “And third, I hate the idea to make any comments and to make any intervention in the American election… Please do not use the such person like Shokin to undermine the trust between bipartisan support and Ukraine.”

“Right,” Kilmeade said meekly. “What do you mean—He’s not your friend?”

Poroshenko replied that he hadn’t seen Shokin in “maybe four years” or so. “And hate the idea to have him,” he continued, “because he play very dirty game, unfortunately.”

“Okay, so that is not true,” Kilmeade said. “He didn’t get fired because of Joe Biden.”

Gen. Milley faces radical pushback from Trump, GOP’s Gosar​

Donald Trump's criticisms of Gen. Mark Milley have taken a dangerous turn. It was against this backdrop that Rep. Paul Gosar made matters even worse.


Sept. 25, 2023, 8:34 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

By any fair measure, Donald Trump did not always see eye to eye with Gen. Mark Milley, the man the Republican tapped to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In June 2020, for example, the general publicly expressed regret for his role in Trump’s Lafayette Square debacle — and the then-president wasn’t pleased by Milley’s reaction.

After Trump’s election defeat, he became even more eager to condemn the general. In 2021, for example, the former president said on the record that he considered Milley a “dumbass.” Earlier this year, the Republican said on Fox News that the Army general is an “idiot.”

But as the Army general prepares to retire after a long and decorated career, Milley is shedding new light on how difficult, dangerous, and at times ugly Trump’s presidency was. It stood to reason that the Republican would throw some kind of tantrum in response; the question was what exactly Trump might say.

Now we know. Writing in The Atlantic, Brian Klaas explained:

Late Friday night, the former president of the United States — and a leading candidate to be the next president — insinuated that America’s top general deserves to be put to death. That extraordinary sentence would be unthinkable in any other rich democracy.

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I can appreciate why such a description might seem hyperbolic, but Trump’s online missive is online for all to see.

After insisting that the general’s retirement is grounds for national celebration, Trump wrote, in reference to Milley, “This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States.

“This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act. To be continued!!!”

To the extent that reality still has any meaning, Milley did contact Chinese officials in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, assuring Beijing that the United States was stable during the presidential transition process. The diplomatic outreach was, as The Washington Post reported, “authorized by Trump administration officials at the time.”

Or put another way, there is no sane way to characterize what transpired as “treasonous” — a word Trump has casually thrown around in recent years without cause — and the Republican’s reference to “DEATH!” was needlessly provocative and potentially dangerous.

But I was also struck by the final three words of Trump’s rant.

The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg spoke at length with Milley, and his latest report included this memorable paragraph: “Milley has told friends that he expects that if Trump returns to the White House, the newly elected president will come after him. ‘He’ll start throwing people in jail, and I’d be on the top of the list,’ he has said.”

The sentiment came to mind after seeing the former president write, “To be continued!!!”
Making matters worse, Trump isn’t the only Republican going down this road. The Daily Beast reported:

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) used his weekly email newsletter — hosted on a .gov domain that is funded by American taxpayers — on Sunday to launch a thinly veiled, homophobic attack on Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, shockingly suggesting Milley should be put to death.

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As part of a bizarre harangue related to Jan. 6, the Arizona congressman referred to Milley as “the homosexual-promoting-BLM-activist Chairman of the military joint chiefs.” Gosar’s newsletter went on to say, “Of course, we now know that the deviant Milley was coordinating with Nancy Pelosi to hurt President Trump, and treasonously working behind Trump’s back. In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung.”

I won’t bother to fact-check such a missive, except to note that Gosar’s claims are stark raving mad.

As for Trump’s and Gosar’s references to executions, I’ll look forward to Republican leaders’ comments about their comfort level with such rhetoric.

Team Biden keeps using GOP’s rhetoric for its own purposes​

As the 2024 cycle advances, don’t be too surprised if President Joe Biden and his team continue to let Republicans write their campaign ads for them.


Sept. 25, 2023, 11:59 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

It didn’t come as too big of a surprise last week when Republican presidential hopefuls responded to the United Auto Workers’ strike by criticizing labor unions. The conflict between the GOP and labor is not new, so the admonishments were predictable.

But the details of the candidates’ rhetoric mattered. Former Ambassador Nikki Haley, for example, appeared on Fox News and complained about President Joe Biden being a “pro-union president.” It seemed like the sort of comments that might appear in a video from Biden’s own political team — and sure enough, it soon after became a video from Biden’s own political team.

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A day later, Team Biden was eager to remind voters about Donald Trump’s far-right record on reproductive rights, so it released a video featuring the former president’s own comments on the subject.

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Earlier this month, in the first Republican presidential primary debate, Haley also offered some criticisms of Donald Trump’s fiscal record. That, too, seemed like the sort of thing Team Biden wanted voters to hear — so it created a video featuring this rhetoric, too.

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Perhaps the pièce de resistance came earlier in the summer, when Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene delivered a speech about the Democratic president’s progressive governing vision, which she meant as criticism, but which Team Biden put to good use by quoting her verbatim.

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As the 2024 cycle advances, don’t be surprised if Biden and his team continue to let Republicans write their campaign ads for them.

Trump makes nonsensical case against automatic voter registration​

Donald Trump doesn’t just want to make it harder for some Americans to cast ballots, he apparently wants to make it harder to register to vote, too.


Sept. 25, 2023, 10:18 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

When it comes to registering to vote in the United States, the burden has traditionally been on the individual: If you’re eligible to vote, it’s up to you to take the proactive steps needed to register. An increasingly popular policy called automatic voter registration, or AVR, flips that model.

As regular readers know, the idea is exactly what it sounds like: Under the policy, states automatically register eligible voters who interact with state agencies — such as getting a driver’s license — shifting the burden away from the individual. Those who want to withdraw from the system can do so voluntarily without penalty, but otherwise, Americans in states that adopt AVR are simply added to the voters rolls as a matter of course.

It’s a familiar policy in many advanced democracies, and slowly but surely, the United States is catching up. Last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that automatic voter registration is coming to the Keystone State, and the Democrat has plenty of company: According to the tally from the National Conference of State Legislatures, Pennsylvania is the 24th state, plus the District of Columbia, to adopt AVR.

The policy didn’t exist in any state as recently as eight years ago, and now it’s reached nearly half of the country.


Evidently, not everyone sees this as good news. On Saturday night, five days after Shapiro’s AVR news, Donald Trump published a hysterical all-caps missive to his social media platform.

“The Democrats are trying to steal Pennsylvania again by doing the ‘automatic voter registration’ scam. They never stop! Obama and his radical left thugs are pushing this, and the Democrats, including the new liberal governor, are thrilled.”

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None of this made any sense. AVR isn’t a scam; no one is trying to “steal” Pennsylvania; it wasn’t stolen before; and the reform idea is popular with plenty of officials who aren’t “radical left thugs.”

Nevertheless, the former president’s statement went on to demand that congressional Republicans and the Republican National Committee “take action now” because “our country is at stake!!!”
Trump added that if his party’s officials don’t do something about automatic voter registration, “we have to throw everybody out.”

Whether he realizes this or not, if congressional Republicans were to try to "take action" and somehow target state-based AVR policies, it would take federal legislation that would never pass the Democratic-led Senate or get President Joe Biden's signature.

For good measure, the former president returned to the subject shortly after midnight this morning, insisting in another online statement that AVR would be “a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!”

Trump added that automatic voter registration is a “totally Unconstitutional Act” — it’s really not — and the policy “will be a disaster for our Nation.”

So to recap, the frontrunner for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination is hysterical because Pennsylvania is making the voter-registration process easier, which he believes will hurt both his party and his candidacy.

Or put another way, Trump doesn’t just want to make it harder for some Americans to cast ballots, he wants to make it harder to register to vote, too.

“The former president’s obsession with spreading lies about our elections is dangerous,” Shapiro’s spokesperson said in a statement. The spokesperson added, “[F]acts matter — and it is abundantly clear this commonsense, nonpartisan step to securely streamline voter registration and enhance election security is within the Governor’s executive authority. The Governor will remain focused on defending our democracy and empowering eligible Pennsylvanians to vote, no matter who they choose to support.”

Fetterman: I’ll Return Bob Menendez’ Donations in Cash Envelopes​

A DECENT TROLL

Alex Nguyen​

Breaking News Intern
Published Sep. 25, 2023 2:55PM EDT

Julia Nikhinson/Reuters, Mike Segar/Reuters​

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said Monday that he intends to return the $5,000 that embattled Sen. Bob Mendendez (D-NJ) donated to him for his 2022 campaign. Joe Calvello, a spokesperson for Fetterman, told The Messenger: “We are in the process of returning the money in envelopes stuffed with $100 bills”—the same storage method allegedly used by Menendez to store hundreds of thousands of dollars in ill-gotten gains.

Fetterman was the first Democratic lawmaker to demand that Menendez resign following allegations made on Friday that he and his wife, Nadine, accepted bribes, including gold bars worth more than $100,000, numerous stacks of $100 bills, and a Mercedes-Benz C-300 convertible.

Menendez has denied any wrongdoing and refused to step down. In a statement, he said, “It is not lost on me how quickly some are rushing to judge a Latino and push him out of his seat. I am not going anywhere.”

Canadian House Speaker Apologizes for Epic Gaffe After Zelensky Speech​

INSTANT REGRET

Matt Young​

Night Editor
Published Sep. 24, 2023 11:04PM EDT



Canada’s Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, has apologized to the Jewish community after he led lawmakers in paying tribute to a veteran who allegedly belonged to a Nazi division during WWII, according to Politico.

The tribute, which took place after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed Canada’s House of Commons during an in-person visit, saw members from both sides give 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka a standing ovation after Rota introduced him as a “a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for all his service.”

The tribute appalled Jewish organizations who called for an apology after exposing that the First Ukrainian Division—also known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division–served under the Nazis. “I wish to make clear that no one, including fellow parliamentarians and the Ukraine delegation, was aware of my intention or of my remarks before I delivered them,” Rota said in a Sunday apology.

As we detailed previously, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy - who commands a battalion of neo-Nazis - honored an actual WWII Nazi with a standing ovation on Friday.



Yaroslav Hunka, 98, fought in a Third Reich military formation accused of war crimes.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks as President Joe Biden listens at a Rose Garden event on gun safety at the White House in Washington, D.C., September 22, 2023. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)none

There are bad vice-presidential picks, and then there’s Kamala Harris.​

In different circumstances, she might have been a run-of-the-mill, underwhelming choice, but present circumstances have made Biden’s choice much more momentous.

In fact, it ranks as the worst VP pick in half a century, and easily one of the worst picks in the last 100 years.

As Democrats begin to realize Biden’s political weakness, with Donald Trump barreling down the pike toward a third presidential nomination, Harris is one of the factors — although not the main one — keeping them from doing anything about it.

GOP donor wants his money back after gubernatorial candidate hires Trump goon Corey Lewandowski

John Odom, a major Republican donor, has been a top backer of Louisiana gubernatorial candidate Jeff Landry, having given $100,000 to his political operation. But now Landry, the state’s attorney general and frontrunner in the race, has done something that, for Odom, is unforgivable — he hired ex-Trump campaign manager and noted sex pest, Corey Lewandowski, who made unwanted sexual advances toward Odom's then-wife, Trashelle Odom in 2021.

Just another one of Trump's "best people" doing what he does best, spreading misogyny and wreaking havoc across America.

Russian Black Sea Fleet commander was killed in Crimea missile strike, Ukraine says​

Kyiv did not provide evidence for the claim, which NBC News has not verified. It comes days after an attack on the fleet's headquarters in occupied Sevastopol.


Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.Viktor Korotaev / Sipa USA via AP

Sept. 25, 2023, 7:52 AM CDT
By Alexander Smith

Ukraine said Monday it had killed the commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in a missile strike on the naval headquarters in occupied Crimea.

It comes days after an attack that left the building smoldering, the latest salvo in a mounting effort to target the Kremlin’s naval forces and isolate the annexed peninsula.

Kyiv did not provide evidence for the claim, which NBC News has not verified, but if confirmed it would be one of the most high-profile losses of the war so far.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said in a post on Telegram that “the commander” of the Black Sea Fleet was among 34 officers who died in the strike on the fleet’s headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol on Friday.

The commander of the fleet is Viktor Sokolov, although the Ukrainian statement did not name him directly.

Rumors had circulated among Ukraine-watchers all weekend that Sokolov had been killed. Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“If true it would likely be the highest ranking naval officer killed in combat since WWII,” Admiral James Stavridis, former NATO supreme allied commander and current chief international security analyst for NBC News, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Satellite images of the damaged Black Sea headquarters Friday.Planet Labs PBC via AP

On Saturday, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said in another Telegram post that the strike on the fleet’s headquarters caused “dozens of dead and wounded occupants, including the senior leadership of the fleet.”

It said the strike had been part of an operation named “Crab trap" that it said was carried out “on time and accurately” during a meeting of the Russian navy’s senior members at the building.

Ukraine’s intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, told Voice of America on Saturday that at least nine people were killed and 16 others wounded as a result of Kyiv’s attack on the Black Sea Fleet on Friday. He said Alexander Romanchuk, a Russian general commanding forces along the key southeastern front line, was “in a very serious condition” following the attack.

Shortly after Friday’s attack, Russia’s defense ministry said that one serviceman was killed. It later said this person was missing, adding that five missiles were shot down by air defenses.

Smoke was seen rising from the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol on Friday.Telegram

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014, in violation of international law.

It has since bolstered the peninsula's military assets, but its use of the area just off Ukraine's mainland coast to support its invasion has also made it a growing target for Kyiv's strikes.

Ukraine's efforts to hit behind Russian lines were given a boost last week when President Joe Biden told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the U.S. would provide a small number of long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, three U.S. officials and a congressional official familiar with the discussions told NBC News.

Ukraine has vowed it will retake Crimea as part of its campaign and has stepped up its attacks against the Russian navy in recent months, damaging ships and buildings stationed on the peninsula.

Sevastopol, the city hit by Friday’s strikes, is the largest population center in Crimea. Its port is the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, which has been used to launch attacks deep into Ukraine.

In April last year, Ukrainian missiles launched with the help of U.S. intelligence sank a Russian guided missile cruiser, the Moskva, which was the flagship of the fleet and the largest Russian warship sunk in combat since World War II.

Sokolov has led the fleet since August last year, the result of a major reshuffle that came after the Moskva’s sinking and strikes against the fleet on Crimea.

He rose through a series of posts in the Pacific and Northern Fleets, serving as deputy commander in the latter, according to Russian state media. From 2020 he headed a prestigious military academy, before taking command of the Black Sea Fleet last year.

As for Donald Trump, the 77-year-old presidential hopeful – who has been indicted four times and currently faces dozens of criminal charges related to attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss – stoked the flames of GOP infighting this week by calling for a government shutdown unless the prosecutions against him are defunded. He may have been trying to divert attention away from a slew of negative press about his disdain for disabled veterans, continued refusal to join the GOP debate stage , and a contentious pre-trial hearing in the New York Attorney General's fraud case against him and other Trump Organization executives. That trial is expected to begin October 2nd.

Really? Why does he play?

Democrat Party is the party of the rich and coastal elites

Many of the world’s most valuable companies are listed on the S&P 500, the benchmark index for the U.S. stock market.

For this reason, it is no surprise to see that CEOs of these key companies have multi-million dollar compensation packages. But what do these pay packages comprise? And do these CEOs always receive the compensation they are awarded? Or does it increase and decrease with stock market fluctuations?

In the following infographic, Visual Capitalist's Freny Fernandes and Sam Parker use data published by The Wall Street Journal to show the highest paid CEOs of S&P 500 companies in 2022, and delve into what their compensation includes.

And we ain't in it. I realize he's just going to Oregon anyway, but it certainly feels like we've done something to discourage the Mater Dei kids this year (and piss Baker off in particular). It doesn't seem like we're favorites for any of their big time kids - Aydin Breland, DeAndre Carter, Zabien Brown (maybe I'm wrong on him), Elijah Brown, etc. It's a pretty strange situation given our history with the school and the fact they're in our backyard.

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A look at the five-stars in the 2023 class right here: