Author: J.P. Knowles

  • If You Were A Part Of This Group You Could Get Put On The No-Fly List

    If You Were A Part Of This Group You Could Get Put On The No-Fly List

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the administration to place those involved in storming the Capitol during last week’s riots on the no-fly list. He fears that some could return to Washington or travel elsewhere to commit violence.

    “We are concerned about these people getting back on airplanes and doing more violence,” said Schumer during a New York City press conference.

    He went on to say that “the insurrectionists who breached the U.S. Capitol fall under the definition of threats to the homeland and should be immediately added to the TSA no-fly list.”

    “We are calling on the authorities — the FBI, the TSA,” Schumer declared, “any of those who were inside the Capitol should be placed on the no-fly list and not be allowed to fly.”

    Schumer’s remarks came after President Trump criticized Big Tech companies, accusing them of deliberately creating anger in the country.

    “I think that big tech is doing a horrible thing for our country and to our country,” Trump told the press, apparently referring to his recent ban from several social media platforms.

    “And I believe it’s going to be a catastrophic mistake for them. They’re dividing and divisive, and they’re showing something that I’ve been predicting for a long time,” he continued. “But I think big tech has made a terrible mistake, and very, very bad for our country. And that’s leading others to do the same thing, and it causes a lot of problems and a lot of danger.”

    Trump was questioned about his role in last week’s violence at the Capitol. He responded by defending a speech he delivered on the national mall moments before rioters stormed the Capitol.

    During his press conference, Schumer made it seem as if Trump were blaming others and engaging in a “pathological technique used by the worst of the dictators.”

    The Minority Leader argues that the president’s statements were further evidence for the ongoing demand to have him removed from office before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration in about a week.

  • Melania Finally Speaks Out Against Violence In The Capitol

    Melania Finally Speaks Out Against Violence In The Capitol

    After the attack on the Capitol that shook the entire country last week, Melania Trump has been unusually quiet. Then on Monday she openly condemned a group of her husband’s supporters for their actions saying she was “disappointed and disheartened” by the violence.

    In a statement released by the White House, the First Lady says, “I am disappointed and disheartened with what happened last week. Our Nation must heal in a civil manner. Make no mistake about it, I absolutely condemn the violence that has occurred on our Nation’s Capitol. Violence is never acceptable.”

    “I pray for their families’ comfort and strength during this difficult time,” Melania said.

    The first lady has mostly kept her opinion to herself about Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud but mirrored his statements on ensuring that every single legal vote would be counted. She also has not publicly acknowledged Joe Biden’s victory.

    Melania says in her statement that it “has been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your first lady.”

    “I want to thank the millions of Americans who supported my husband and me over the past 4 years and shown the incredible impact of the American spirit,” she continued. “I am grateful to you all for letting me serve you on platforms which are dear to me.”

    Melania also addressed the “salacious gossip, unwarranted personal attack, and false misleading accusations on me- from people who are looking to be relevant and have an agenda.” This may be a reference to a CNN report citing a source claiming the first lady had been attending a photoshoot during the riots.

  • Joe Biden Has A Surprising Opinion On Trump’s Pending Impeachment

    Joe Biden Has A Surprising Opinion On Trump’s Pending Impeachment

    President-elect Joe Biden is refusing to take a firm stance on whether or not he wants President Trump removed from office after the events that took place at the Capitol last week.

    House Democrats have already said they would introduce articles of impeachment against him this week. Representatives Ted Lieu, David Cicilline, and Jamie Raskin already have the article of impeachment drafted and they are set to introduce “Incitement to Insurrection” in a House pro forma session immediately.

    Lieu gave his thoughts in a tweet over the weekend saying, “With every new day we learn that the violent insurrection was even worse than we thought. Impeaching @POTUS would be just the bare minimum of what needs to occur. Donald Trump should be prosecuted for a range of felonies, including inciting an insurrection and felony murder.”

    Biden made comments over the weekend saying that Trump is “not above the law” and “justice serves the people – it doesn’t protect the powerful.”

    However, the president-elect stopped just short of calling for Trump’s impeachment or the invoking of the 25th Amendment by Vice President Mike Pence.

    The president-elect was questioned on whether he supported bringing articles of impeachment, or invoking the 25th Amendment, both of which have been called for by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

    “I’m focused on the virus, the vaccine and economic growth. What Congress decides to do is for them to decide,” Biden responded. “We’re going to do our job and the Congress can decide how to proceed with theirs.”

    “That’s a decision for the Congress to make,” he said and added, “I am focused on my job.”

  • Twitter’s Value Takes A Hard Hit After Banning President Trump

    Twitter’s Value Takes A Hard Hit After Banning President Trump

    Twitter Inc. shares took a hit after banning President Trump’s account in a move the company claims was done to prevent the instigation of further violence.

    Shares of the California-based company dropped more than 10% at the opening bell on Monday, erasing over $2.5 billion from their $41 billion market capitalization. Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc. stocks also fell after the president’s accounts were suspended from their platforms.

    Twitter’s decision to remove Trump from the social media platform was made after he posted two tweets which the company claims were in direct violation of its glorification of violence policy.

    In one tweet Trump wrote, “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”

    The second tweet in question said, “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

    Before his account was permanently deleted, President Trump had over 88 million followers putting in the top six of most-followed users. Former President Barack Obama is in first place with around 120 million followers.

    Trump’s absence from the platform could cause many of his supporters to move over to their more conservative-friendly rival Parler, which is known for its lack of censorship. Many conservatives and celebrities have already reported losing thousands of followers.

    Before removing Trump for good, both Twitter and Facebook temporarily blocked the president from using his account after he posted a video telling his supporters who stormed the Capitol to “go home in peace.”

    Since November’s election, the number of daily users has been “slightly lower” while the Wall Street consensus is expecting to have a daily increase of 7 million users for the fourth quarter.

  • Trump Accepts Some Blame For The Violence At The Capitol

    Trump Accepts Some Blame For The Violence At The Capitol

    President Trump has acknowledged that he bears some responsibility for the attack on the Capitol last week while speaking with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.

    According to sources, McCarthy relayed the president’s regrets on a call with the House GOP Conference.

    McCarthy agreed that Trump bore the blame for the riot that sent Congress into lockdown as they were in the process of certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

    The riot, which left five people dead, came after the president told his supporters at a rally that he would “never concede” and continued to make unfounded claims that the election was “stolen” from him and that he won by a “landslide.”

    During his speech, the president put pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to decertify the results of the election and send it “back to the states” which would allow Trump to remain in office for another four years.

    White House Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino released a statement from the president on Twitter saying, “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless, there will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”

    President Trump goes on to say, “I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!”

  • Conservative Site Blows Up After Trump’s Twitter Ban

    Conservative Site Blows Up After Trump’s Twitter Ban

    Gab is a more conservative-friendly social media platform compared to its mainstream counterparts. On Saturday it claimed to be gaining new users at an astounding rate at 10,000 per hour in the wake of President Trump’s permanent suspension from Twitter.

    Along with the president, several of his prominent supporters including Gen. Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell were also banned from Twitter after the attack on the Capitol last week.

    Trump has also been temporarily blocked from posting on Facebook and Instagram.

    “The traffic just keeps growing,” said Gab CEO Andrew Torba adding that there were “even more servers on the way today.”

    Torba wrote in a tweet that by Saturday the site had 18 million visits and over 500,000 new users.

    https://twitter.com/getongab/status/1348135407783792640?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1348135407783792640%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxbusiness.com%2Ftechnology%2Fgab-usership-surges-following-trumps-permanent-twitter-suspension

    Gab, which was launched in 2016, calls itself a “social network that champions free speech, individual liberty, and the new free flow of information online.”

    Conservatives’ biggest complaint with big tech companies is the censorship of their viewpoints in favor of liberals, an opinion that was strengthened by Trump’s suspension.

    The president’s son Donald Trump Jr expressed his outrage in a tweet Saturday, “Free Speech Is Under Attack! Censorship is happening like NEVER before! Don’t let them silence us.”

     

    After being banned, President Trump briefly used the official @Potus account and accused Twitter of “banning free speech” and informed his supporters that he is “negotiating with various other sites, and will have a big announcement soon, while we also look at the possibilities of building out our own platform in the near future. We will not be SILENCED!”

    Twitter immediately removed the president’s posts citing its policy on banned users accessing other accounts to circumvent the suspension.

  • West Virginia Delegate Faces Federal Prison For Facebook Live Stream

    West Virginia Delegate Faces Federal Prison For Facebook Live Stream

    The West Virginia lawmaker who live-streamed himself storming the Capitol building has resigned as he faces charges of entering a restricted area.

    The Republican Delegate, Darrick Evans, wrote a letter notifying Governor Jim Justice of his intentions to step down, effective immediately.

    After being arrested on Friday, Evans appeared before a judge in federal court. If convicted, he could face up to 18 months in federal prison for entering a restricted area and disorderly conduct, both of which are misdemeanor charges.

    In a statement, Evans said that he takes full responsibility for his actions and the best course of action would be for him to resign to “focus on my personal situation and those I love.”

    He added that he regrets any “hurt, pain, or embarrassment I may have caused my family, friends, constituents and fellow West Virginians.”

    “I hope this action I take today can remove any cloud of distraction from the state Legislature, so my colleagues can get to work in earnest building a brighter future for our state,” Evans said. “And more importantly, I hope it helps to begin the healing process, so we can all move forward and come together as ‘One Nation, Under God.”

    In a video widely shared online, Evans is seen pushing his way through the Capitol building doorway chanting “Trump” along with the crowd. He then mills around the Capitol Rotunda, where many historic paintings and busts were later vandalized.

    According to the charging documents, before Evans and the crowd busted into the building he posted a video to his social media saying, “They’re making an announcement right now: If Pence betrays us you better get your mind right because we’re storming that building.” He then laughs and says, “I’m just the messenger, so don’t be hating on me.”

    Legislators from at least seven other states traveled to Washington, D.C., last Wednesday to support President Trump and protest the counting of electoral votes that would confirm Joe Biden’s victory.

    No other elected officials were reported to have been involved in the attack on the Capitol.

  • Impeachment Becomes A Real Possibility With Even More Cosponsors

    Impeachment Becomes A Real Possibility With Even More Cosponsors

    Of the 222-person Democratic caucus, the House has reached a vast majority of 185 co-sponsors for an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump and the chamber has plans of introducing the measure on Monday.

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are calling on Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to have Trump removed from office, or for the president to willingly step down.

    After a very long phone call with other Democrats discussing impeachment, Pelosi said, “It is the hope of members that the president will immediately resign. But if he does not, I have instructed the Rules Committee to be prepared.”

    With President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration now just days away, it is unlikely that impeachment would make it through both the House and Senate in time.

    Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger was the first GOP member of the House to call for President Trump to be removed through the 25th Amendment and Senator Ben Sasse, a known Trump critic, said he would “definitely consider” impeachment articles if they were brought forth.

    Senator Lisa Murkowski claims Trump’s leadership of the GOP makes her question whether she should remain in the party and became the first Republican to call on the President to resign.

    “I think he should leave,” said the Alaska Senator. “He said he’s not going to show up. He’s not going to appear at the inauguration. He hasn’t been focused on what is going on with COVID.”

    “I want him to resign. I want him out. He has caused enough damage,” she added.

  • Nancy Pelosi Throws Some Harsh Insults At President Trump

    Nancy Pelosi Throws Some Harsh Insults At President Trump

    House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat down with Lesley Stahl for an interview on “60 Minutes” following Wednesday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol. She used the opportunity to take a couple more shots at President Trump during his last few days in office.

    Stahl asked the Democrat Speaker, ” Is anybody running the executive branch of the government?”

    “Well, sadly, the person who’s running the executive branch is a deranged, unhinged, dangerous president of the United States,” Pelosi responded. “And we’re only a number of days until we can be protected from him. But he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him.”

     

     

    “It has been an epiphany for the world to see that there are people in our country led by this president, for the moment, who have chosen their Whiteness over democracy,” Pelosi later said in a meeting with her San Francisco constituents.

    In the “60 Minutes” interview, Stahl asks if lawmakers have taken the 25th Amendment of the Constitution “off the table” in their discussions about how to approach the president after the Capitol riot.

    “No, it isn’t,” Pelosi answered. “Nothing is off the table.”

    Pelosi would go on the describe her experience inside the Capitol as protesters breached security and forced their way into the building.

    “I was pulled from the podium,” she recalled, “just literally pulled from the podium.”

    Presumably referring to security, Pelosi said, “They were vocally saying, ‘Where’s the speaker? We know she has staff. They’re here someplace. We’re going to find them.”

    Two photos of the siege that have since been widely distributed are linked to Pelosi: One is a shot of a man carrying a podium that is suspected to have been taken from Pelosi’s office, and another shot is of a different man seated behind Pelosi’s desk in her office.

  • A Sudden Resignation In The Capitol After Vilification From Lawmakers

    A Sudden Resignation In The Capitol After Vilification From Lawmakers

    Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund suddenly announced his resignation one day after protesters pushed through his officers and breached the Capitol. Many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, called for him to step down.

    Sund wrote, “It has been a pleasure and true honor to serve the United States Capitol Police Board and the Congressional community alongside the women and men of the United States Capitol Police.”

    His resignation is set to take effect Sunday, January 16.

    While addressing charges against identified rioters during a news conference earlier the same day, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Michael Sherwin said the way Capitol Police handled the situation has “made our job more difficult.”

    Sherwin said, “Why they (those who broke in) weren’t zip-tied as they left the building, I don’t know.”

    The D.C. Police Union, representing the city’s Metropolitan Police Department, not to be confused with its counterparts on Capitol Hill, issued a statement saying its officers responded after Capitol Police called for backup.

    “When we arrived, it was obvious that our fellow officers of the U.S. Capitol Police were trying valiantly to stop the onslaught of rioters,” the union stated. “While it is unclear at this preliminary stage exactly how the building was breached so quickly, it appears likely that U.S. Capitol Police leadership was ill-prepared for this attack, both in manpower and in resources.”

    According to authorities, at least four people lost their lives during the attack.