Connect with us

‘How Do You Sleep At Night?’ Gay Journalist Asks Russian TV Anchor Before They Cut Him Off

Published

on

An award-winning journalist, James Kirchick, who is gay, was invited by RT News — a Russian owned and government-funded news network — to speak about the sentencing of Bradley Manning today. Instead, as the segment began, Kirchick put on a pair of rainbow suspenders and told the Russia Today host that he was not going to be talking about Manning, rather, about “the horrific environment of homophobia in Russia right now.”

“Being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I’m going to wear my gay pride suspenders and speak out against the horrific, anti-gay legislation that Vladimir Putin has signed into law.”

Kirchick, who can be called a conservative, was speaking from Stockholm, Sweden, and said he wanted to “let Russian gay people know they have friends and allies in solidarity all over the world.” He told the RT News reporters, “we’re not going to be silent in the face of this horrific repression perpetrated by your paymasters, by Vladimir Putin.”

“And I don’t know, as a journalist, how you can go to sleep at night, seeing what happens to journalists in Russia, who are routinely harassed, tortured, and killed by the Russian government. I don’t know how you can call yourself a journalist and how you can go to sleep at night. I find that abominable, and you should be ashamed of yourself.”

“You have 24 hours a day to lie about America, I am going to tell the truth with my two minutes.”

Aside from the suspenders, Kirchick clearly had planned his comments before going on:

And even after pulling the plug on the interview, Kirchick says RT News was not done with him.

Watch:

//www.youtube.com/embed/MEV9O_O7EB8

Hat tip: Buzzfeed via Towleroad

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

White House Teases Out What Trump Will Say in Rare Oval Office Address

Published

on

President Donald Trump has delivered only two Oval Office addresses this term, with a third set for Wednesday night. He announced the speech on social media but offered few details. The White House has since teased additional information, fueling speculation.

“My Fellow Americans: I will be giving an address to the nation tomorrow night, live from the White House, at 9 P.M. EST. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you then. It has been a great year for our Country, and the best is yet to come!” Trump wrote in a mixture of all-caps and standard lettering.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently offered a few more details, suggesting the speech will pump up the administration’s political messaging.

READ MORE: How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

“We greatly look forward to President Trump addressing the nation tomorrow night, 9 o’clock Eastern,” she told Fox News. “I hope your audience will tune in, and Americans across the country will tune in to hear from their president, as well, about the historic accomplishments that he has garnered for our country over the past year.”

“If you look at the security of our border, if you look at stopping Joe Biden’s inflation right in its tracks, bringing down gas prices to the lowest level in five years, President Trump will be talking about what’s to come. The best is truly yet to come, as he often says.”

Inflation is officially at about 3% currently, where it was for the month of January when Trump took office. As of Tuesday morning, unemployment jumped up to 4.6%, a four-year high. One economist warned the nation is in a “hiring recession.” Trump’s poll numbers, especially on the economy, are at or near his second-term lows.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

Leavitt added that the president will also give remarks “about all of his historic accomplishments over the past year, and maybe teasing some policy that will be coming in the new year, as well, as we head into this Christmas season.”

According to The Independent, Leavitt told reporters it would be a “really good speech.”

“He’s going to talk a lot about the accomplishments over the past 11 months, all that he’s done to bring our country back to greatness, and all he continues to plan to do to continue delivering for the American people over the next three years,” she said.

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

How Trump ‘Dramatically’ Expanded Presidential Power and Beat His First Term Record

Published

on

On Monday, President Donald Trump signed his 221st executive order, surpassing his entire four-year first term record of 220. Unlike many other presidents who partnered with Congress to pass legislation to advance their agenda, President Trump has opted to “dramatically expand presidential authority with moves that have tested the bounds of the Constitution,” according to The Washington Post.

“American presidents have consolidated executive power to skirt Congress since the beginning of the 20th century. But Trump has accelerated the trend that intensified in recent decades amid a decline in legislative activity and rising partisan brinkmanship.”

Continuing at his current rate, Trump would finish this four-year term with more than 880 executive orders to his name.

According to The American Presidency Project, President Joe Biden signed a total of 162 executive orders in four years. President Barack Obama signed 276 across eight years. President George W. Bush signed 291 in eight years, and President Bill Clinton, 364.

READ MORE: ‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

“Trump has used the orders to impose sweeping tariffs, seek retribution against his perceived enemies and weigh in on cultural issues big and small, from challenging immigration laws to regulating water pressure from showerheads,” the Post reported.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has “major influence” over Trump’s executive orders. The Post reported that one White House official said that every executive order is “fully vetted and reviewed” by the White House Counsel, the president’s staff secretary’s office, and Miller.

Trump’s approach is distinguished by both the volume of executive orders and the scope. They reflect a strong effort to shift power away from Congress and toward the Oval Office — an expansion of presidential authority that courts are now being asked to rein in.

The courts, according to the Post, have stepped in numerous times, halting Trump “from unilaterally changing federal election-registration rules, banning care for transgender people and punishing law firms who have represented causes or clients that he opposes. A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical of Trump’s tariffs during oral arguments last month, and the high court said it would hear a case examining Trump’s ban on birthright citizenship.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

News

‘Intraparty Brawl’: Johnson Driving Moderate Republicans ‘Into the Arms of Democrats’

Published

on

Moderate House Republicans concerned about re-election next year have been pushing for a vote to extend the Obamacare premium subsidies, but Speaker Mike Johnson is strongly opposed. House Democrats need only four Republicans to cross the aisle and sign their discharge petition, which would force a vote on the House floor — and Democrats may get exactly what they want.

That’s according to Punchbowl News and its co-founder, Jake Sherman.

“This week,” Sherman wrote, “was designed to give House Republicans a way to push back on Democratic attacks that they’re indifferent to skyrocketing health care costs hitting millions of Americans. Instead, the House GOP leadership has facilitated an untimely — and particularly nasty — intraparty brawl, pitting moderates against Republican Party leaders and further strengthening Democrats’ political hand as the Obamacare cliff looms.”

READ MORE: ‘Warning Sign’: Unemployment Jumps as Experts Sound Alarm on ‘Hiring Recession’

Speaker Johnson is “pushing” moderate Republicans “into the arms of Democrats,” Sherman added, “as the House Republican leadership refuses to allow the centrists a vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies.”

One moderate Republican, Sherman also reported, U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) “stood up in a House Republican Conference meeting and said that not having an up-or-down vote on extending the enhanced Obamacare subsidies is malpractice.”

He also reported that many moderate Republicans “share this sentiment.”

“They feel like they have to have a vote and the conference won’t give it to them. Driving them into the arms of democrats.”

Sherman explained that by refusing to allow the vote, Republicans have delivered a “political advantage” to the Democrats. If just four House Republicans sign Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, “Democrats have exacted the precise policy win they’ve been seeking, even if that never becomes law.”

READ MORE: ‘Grifters’: A MAGA Civil War Is Eating Away at Its Own Power

 

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.