Category: Opinion

President Trump praised Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear calling in the National Guard just hours before two police officers were shot at a protest that took place after a grand jury decision in the Brianna Taylor case.

During a White House press briefing President Trump said, “I will be speaking to the governor, we have a call scheduled. I understand he’s called up the National Guard. That’s a good thing. It’ll all work out.”

President Trump was asked what his message was to the Black community who felt that “justice had not been served.” President Trump cited his record saying that he loved the Black community and that he has done more for Black Americans than any other president, that is except for Abraham Lincoln.

Governor Beshear said that in anticipation of the grand jury’s decision in the case of the police-involved shooting, the city of Louisville made a general request for state assistance about a week ago.

Despite the anticipated violence Beshear still ordered the states’ attorney general to release all the facts in the case to the public.

“I believe that the public deserves this information,” said the governor. “So I previously made what I would call a suggestion to the attorney general, and now I’m making the request that he post online all the information, evidence and facts that he can release without impacting the three felony counts in the indictment issued today.”

One of the three police officers involved in the drug operation that led to the death of Taylor earlier this year was indicted on criminal charges Wednesday.

The grand jury decided that officer Brett Hankison would be indicted on three counts first-degree wanton endangerment 4 the shots that were fired into a neighboring apartment. The charges were not elaborated by the grand jury or the presiding judge.

A warrant for the arrest of Hankison has been issued and his bond is set at $15,000 cash. If convicted he faces up to five years in prison for each count.

Trump also acknowledged Kentucky’s Republican attorney general Daniel Cameron who presented his findings to a grand jury before they came to a decision saying that “he’s handling it very well.”

The indictment comes 194 days after 26-year-old Taylor was shot five times by officers who entered her home using a no-knock warrant during a drug investigation in March.

Upon investigation, authorities found that the bullets fired by Hankison had traveled into the neighboring apartment while three residents were home. Hankinson was not charged in Taylor’s death but instead for endangering her neighbor’s lives.

Attorney General Cameron called Taylor’s death a “gut-wrenching emotional case” and “the pain is understandable.”

Dr. Anthony Fauci is regarded as the country’s leading infectious disease expert. He said that he and his team remain “cautiously optimistic” about developing a coronavirus that could be approved by the end of the year.

At a Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee hearing, Fauci said, “We predict that sometime by the end of this year, let’s say November or December, we will know whether or not these are safe and effective.”

“Early studies in animals and in human Phase 1 and Phase 2 indicate that individuals induce a response that is comparable to, if not better, than natural infection,” he added. “Right now, doses of this vaccine are being produced so they’ll be ready to be distributed.”

Fauci emphasized that he has no qualms about receiving a vaccine approved by the FDA saying, “If a vaccine that is shown to be, and proven to be and authorized by the FDA to be safe and effective, I certainly would take that vaccine, and I would recommend to my family that they take this vaccine.”

The doctor said that although having an approved coronavirus vaccine before Election Day “unlikely” it was not “impossible.”

President Trump is confident that a vaccine could be available “during the month of October.” He said earlier this month, “We are an absolute leader in every way. Under my leadership, we’ll produce a vaccine in record time.”

Just this week, Trump praised vaccine efforts by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, and AstraZeneca. He said Pfizer, especially, was doing “really well.”

Meanwhile, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris is casting doubt on the safety of a vaccine with the Trump stamp of approval.

Earlier this month Harris said, “I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about.”

This dangerous way of thinking could cause thousands to lose their lives.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden appeared to snub his former opponent Monday in an attempt to ease voters’ concerns that he would pursue a socialist agenda if he were to win the November election.

During a rally in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Biden was asked about socialist views that his fellow Demmocrats like Bernie Sanders and Alexandia Ocasio-Cortez believe in.

“If you could address our camera directly,” Fox 11’s Kia Murray said to Biden, “talk to the voters that are worried about socialism and you raising taxes.”

“First of all,”Biden began, “I promise. I’ve never broken my word. Anyone making less than $400,000 will not see one single penny in their tax raised.”

He continues, “Number two, I beat the socialist. That’s how I got elected. That’s how I got the nomination. Do I look like a socialist? Look at my career, my whole career. I am not a socialist.”

Biden said it’s not his intention to “punish anybody” but wanted people to pay “their fair share.”

His comments drew attention to a growing divide between moderate Democrats and the party’s extreme left-leaning counterpart who have gained notability in the last two years. Conservatives have accused Biden of giving in to progressive influences.

Biden took a lot of heat from his rivals throughout the Democratic primary season for expanding of former President Barack Obama’s health care legislation instead of taking a different more anmitious option like “Medicare-For-All” which was being pushed at him by Sanders and other progressive candidates.

Bernie Sanders is by far one of Biden’s biggest critics but eventually decided to endore him and the two developed six policy working groups. It’s rumored that Sanders is the real voice behind the presidential nominee so Biden’s slight against him is surprising.

Laura Ingraham said on her show Tuesday that an “unholy alliance” is being formed between wealthy liberals and extremist Democrat politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Ingraham warned voters that the two sides are forging a bond meant to “prop up” Joe Biden so if the he is elected president they can step in and take power.

“It’s important that we examine the twin forces behind the Biden candidacy: The billionaires and the Bolsheviks,” said Ingraham.

Ingraham pointed out that former New York Mayor and millionaire Michael Bloomberg offered $100 million to help Biden’s campaign in Florida which shows that the “billionaire class” rallying behind the former vice president is starting to get nervous.

“Bloomberg hates the tariffs because they make it harder to do big deals in China,” Ingraham explained. “He’s one of at least 132 prominent billionaires that are supporting Biden. First, there’s [Microsoft co-founder] Bill Gates. He seems to be rooting for a Biden win in November as well. After all, he and Biden same the same agenda. They agree on appeasing China, a national mask mandate, and no return to normalcy without a vaccine.”

Ingraham said that former Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer is on the list of billionaires backing Biden with intentions of gaining access to some levers of power. She added that Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene is part owner of “The Atlantic” magazine that featured what the host called a “smear piece” on the president because of her strong dislike of him.

“They despise President Trump’s America First agenda. The billionaire crowd prefers an America where there’s always a glut of labor. What does that mean? It means there’s no pressure on companies to raise wages,” Ingraham said.

Ingraham argues that Democratic billionaires don’t need a “functioning government” with law and order because they have unchecked access to walls, helicopters, and private security.

“The other force supporting Biden are the modern-day Bolsheviks…,” Ingraham continued.”They believe that America is an awful, rotten, racist country. They plan to punish anyone that gets in the way of their cultural revolution.”

Ingraham forewarned that if Biden is elected president and all these radical figures are allowed to take power and operate behind the scenes it will undoubtedly creates a “long, dark period of recriminations and retribution” in our country.

In that regard, she said there will be no room for a thriving middle class in that America.

The only way that we, the working class, can prevent this radical transformation is to go vote in November.

President Trump appeared on “Fox & Friends” to talk about the upcoming presidential debate with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Trump said he assumes the former vice president is “going to do great” during the first debate which is scheduled for next week.

“I’ve done more in 47 months than he’s done in 47 years and that’s absolutely true,” Trump told Chris Wallace how has been selected to moderate the debate.

President Trump is taking a new approach to the upcoming debate by studying Biden’s idiosyncrasies in hopes of tripping up Biden and avoid any missteps that may have occurred during the 2016 debate with Hillary Clinton.

“As you look to combating Joe Biden, what are you thinking?” host Steve Doocy asked the president.

“I think he’s a professional,” Trump responded. “I don’t know if he’s all there, but I think he’s a professional.”

“I have to assume that he’s a professional and that he can debate,” Trump added. “I don’t understand what’s going on. He doesn’t seem to be answering questions and he can’t answer questions and much worse a little while ago when he was on the stage with the Democrats, he couldn’t do well.”

Trump did say that Biden “did OK” against Bernie Sanders noting that “it was sort of a tie” and “was nothing great.” He then went on to say Biden was “horrible when he was debating the Democrats.”

President Trump recalled when Biden went up against Sen. Kamala Harris saying she “was so horrible” to him during the debates.

“What she said to him was terrible,”Trump said. “I tell you what, I watched that, and I’m shocked that he picked her [as his running mate] because he was… treated so badly by Kamala and then he picks her.”

 

“Nobody treated him worse than his vice presidential pick,” Trump added.

Unlike the Democrats, President Trump did have some encouraging words for his opponent saying that Biden is “going to do great” because of his 47 years of experience in “the public service.”

Trump then asks, “But one thing I’d say is he’s been there a long time, why hasn’t he done all the stuff he said he was going to do?”

“Three and a half years ago he was there and why hasn’t he done the same things that I’ve been doing?” President Trump pressed on, “And he copied, in a bad version, it’s a bad copy, but he plagiarized, he copied what we did with the pandemic.”

During the interview Trump also reacted to Biden’s large financial advantage over him as the race enters its final weeks.

“[Democrats] have always had more money than the Republicans,” Trump acknowledged on Monday. ‘It’s sort of a funny thing. We have a lot, but … look, when I ran against crooked Hillary, I had 25% of the money that she had and nobody ever talked about that.”

Host Brian Kilmeade asked if the president would still be willing to put his own money into his campaign.

“I would do that,” Trump responded.

He added that he could raise all the money if he wanted but said, “That’s not my thing. And we don’t need the money.”

Following the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to push President Trump’s pick for the vacant seat into position. Trump later announced that he would pick a nominee and a vote would be held before the election.

Democrats heard this and completely lost it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi threatened impeachment to block a potential nominee picked by the president from getting the vote. Angry protesters surrounded Senator McConnell’s house in Kentucky to protest his support of the president.

Several U.S. Representatives also said that if “he holds a vote in 2020, we pack the court in 2021. It’s that simple.”

But Republicans have laid out four good reasons why they should act as quickly as possible to appoint a new associate justice to the Supreme Court.

Reason number one is because the upcoming election could be a close call, and could very well be contested. If that happens it will be up to the Supreme Court to determine the outcome, there needs to be an additional conservative justice in that seat to guarantee the court will not find themselves in a deadlock.

The second reason is the heated fight over who will fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s seat will rally Democrat voters, which Joe Biden has failed to do thus far. Republicans need to be one step ahead of this surge of enthusiasm by showing loyalty to conservative supporters who have always ranked Supreme Court appointments high on their list of priorities.

Third, it has never been more important to have a court dedicated to upholding our Constitution, and progressives taking over the Democratic Party is a huge threat to our religious freedoms, freedom of speech, and our Second Amendment rights. Nothing will protect our freedoms better than a conservative court.

The fourth and last reason is simple: it’s payback time. The Democrats have carried out heinous and unforgivable attacks against Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh which can be rectified by appointing another conservative jurist.

There’s no doubt that this is going to get ugly. The Democrats made sure of that when they declared war before the ink was even dry on RBG’s death certificate.

An unknown gunman opened fire inside a Pennsylvania shopping mall Saturday evening remains on the loose.

Whitehall Township Police Chief Michael Marks reports that four shots were fired in the lower level of the mall near a sporting goods store. Dozens of police officers surrounded the building and rushed in to quickly evacuate scared shoppers. About three dozen police vehicles responded to the shooting as well as an armored truck and four ambulances. There were officers from the Whitehall police department, Allentown police department, and Pennsylvania State Police Troopers.

Two local hospitals were put on alert in case anyone with injuries left the mall undetected before law enforcement arrived at the scene.

“The responding officers needed to get into the mall and make sure there was no active gunfire occurring at the moment,” Marks stated. “As far as our secondary operations right now, that’s just making sure that the mall is empty and we were able to account for everybody employed or at least at the mall at that point.”

Shoppers say the scene was chaotic as the shots rang out and panick stricken people ran out of the mall. Police then raced in and instructed those still inside to shelter in place while they searched the stores for victims and a potential suspect.

Ashley Giammona was shopping at the mall with her husband at the time of the shooting. She said, “I will never forget the second of silence that happened after the shots, as we processed what we heard. Then everyone started screaming. My husband slid behind a jewelry display in the middle of the mall, and I army-crawled to him.”

An employee at Bath & Body Works said she and about 50 other people barricaded themselves in the store’s stockroom. She told WFMZ, “We took filing cabinets and pushed them up against the doors.”

Ronny Garcia, who was sheltered in the back of another store with customers, says they were evacuated before most other people because a woman began to go into labor.

No arrests have currently been made but investigators are reviewing surveillance footage in hops of identifying a suspect. Authorities are asking anyone with cell phone footage of the incident to contact police.

A mob of people gathered outside Republican Senator Mitch McConnells Kentucky home to protest his announcement to elect a Trump appointed nominee for the vacant spot left by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg following her death on Friday.

Protestors carried signs that said “Ruth Sent Us” and “No Ethics No Shame” while others chanted “Hey-hey ho-ho, Mitch McConnell has got to go.”

The mob grew to a collection of over 100 people with one individual being arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and improper parking. Police determined that the woman used a pharmacy parking lot without patronizing the store. When police informed the woman her car would be towed she tried to enter the store to purchase a six-pack of beer but they wouldn’t allow it and she was placed under arrest.

One woman has been arrested at the CVS one block from McConnell’s house. She parked at the CVS, but was not a customer, and police told her they would tow her car. She tried to buy something and then move her car, but police didn’t allow that.

Here’s an officer: pic.twitter.com/LfDHy6gIeE

— Hayes Gardner (@HayesGardner) September 19, 2020

The woman’s arrest triggered other protesters to start chanting and one member of the crowd even kicked in a glass door. Other protestors complied with police and agreed to move their vehicles that were blocking traffic on a nearby street.

Reports were not clear on whether or not the Senator was at home during the time of the protest.

Any Supreme Court nominee selected by President Trump must win confirmation from the Republican-led Senate before they can be allowed to join the court.

As the Senate leader, McConnell would be the one to determine when or if a vote on a nomination would be held. Democrats argue that any vote an a Trump court pick should be put off until after the presidential election.

McConnell has been a member of the Senate since 1985 and is facing a reeltion fight on his home state’s November ballot against Democrat Amy McGrath. If reelected this would be McConnell’s 7th term.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll McConnell holds a double-digit lead over the former U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot.

 

 

Reports were unclear on whether McConnell was at home in Kentucky or in Washington on Saturday.

 

A man in Canada was caught asleep at the wheel of his self-driving Tesla when he sped past cops on the highway going over 93 miles per hour.

Authorities responded to several complaints of a Model S Tesla speeding on a high a highway near the town of Ponoka, which is located about 60 miles south of Edmonton.

The Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted police said in a statement, “The car appeared to be self-driving, traveling over 140 kph, with both front seats completely reclined and both occupants appearing to be asleep.”

Reports say that when the responding officer flashed their emergency lights at the vehicle, the smart car “automatically began to accelerate” and sped up to “exactly 150 km/h.”

The 20-year-old driver from British Columbia was charged with speeding and had his license suspended for a 24-hour period. After further investigation, the driver was also charged with dangerous driving and he was served a summons to appear in court at the end of the year.

In another incident in North Carolina, a doctor riding in his Tesla crashed into a police car because his car was on autopilot and he was distracted watching a movie on his cellphone.

Although Tesla’s Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving” system has the capability to maintain a lane and avoid some obstacles, they still require the driver to stay attentive and keep their hands on the steering wheel.

Superintendent Gary Graham of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services said, “Although manufacturers of new vehicles have built-in safeguards to prevent drivers from taking advantage of the new safety systems in vehicles, those systems are just that — supplemental safety systems. They are not self-driving systems, they still come with the responsibility of driving.”

Critics are coming down hard on Joe Biden’s performance at the CNN town hall. While the former vice president did score some points for his ability to show empathy toward the Pennsylvania voters picked to ask questions, CNN’s “softball” treatment of Biden was widely panned. Especially considering the harsh grilling President Trump received at the ABC News town hall earlier in the week.

“In the first moments, the contrast between what Trump was asked and what Biden is being asked is striking,” Politico columnist Jeff Greenfield said in a tweet pointing out the stark differences between events.

He added that “this is not exactly getting him ready to face tough questions from a Chris Wallace or Jake Tapper (should he decide to do so).”

NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck’s analysis of the event shows that of the 16 participants who asked Biden questions, 13 of them were Democrats while at Trump’s town hall he faced three Hillary Clinton voters, one Jill Stein voter, three non-voters, one unidentified, and just four Trump voters.

Others took notice of the biased questions at the CNN town hall.

The Daily Beast politics reporter Hanna Trudo noted the profuse number of Democratic voters in a tweet that was later deleted, “Has CNN asked a question to anyone who’s not a Democrat? (may have missed)”

“So far the questions at CNN’s drive-in #BidenTownHall sound as if they were written by Biden’s campaign: “Tell us how bad Trump is”. Reversal of the president’s ABC town hall,” columnist Miranda Devine pointed out.

Many critics noticed that while maintaining social distancing for the cameras, both Biden and host Anderson Cooper were seen standing next to each other with the former VP whispering directly into the anchor’s ear unaware that they were still on camera.

Joe Biden and Anderson Cooper are making a point of social distancing during the CNN Town Hall while on the stage.

But when they think they’ve gone to commercial break, they get so close to each other that Biden is whispering in Cooper’s ear: pic.twitter.com/ClZXrxFfSo

— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) September 18, 2020

The Trump campaign released a statement slamming the one-sided event.

Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh listed subjects that Biden was not asked such as his economic record and his opposition to Trump’s travel ban during the coronavirus outbreak.

“Virtually every question for Joe Biden was an invitation for him to attack President Trump, while moderator Anderson Cooper offered almost no pushback, giving Biden a total pass on his lies and misrepresentations,” said Murtaugh.