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Maggie, Unapologetic: Race-Baiting Memo Made NOM “Sound Too Big For Our Britches”

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Maggie Gallagher appeared on MSNBC today and refused to defend the language in NOM‘s race-baiting memos — but refused to apologize for any of NOM’s race-baiting actions. Denouncing the language in the previously-sealed court documents supplied by the National Organization For Marriage that HRC uncovered this week, Gallagher did defend her organization’s actions and associations with virulently anti-gay minority leaders, but sought to minimize the perception of the role NOM plays — despite spending years positioning herself and the organization she created as the pre-eminent leaders in the fight against same-sex marriage. Gallagher refused to apologize for any of the projects in the internal NOM corporate documents, included those that included race-baiting.

READ: GLAAD Adds NOM And Pat Robertson To New Commentator Accountability Project

“This was an in-house document. I don’t like the language because I think it makes us sound way too big for our britches,” Gallagher told MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts. “The truth is what we’ve done since 2009, when that was described, is reach out and work with people across lines of different races, different creeds and different colors who believe we need to protect marriages, the union of husband and wife. I would never want to think that any of the minority leaders whether it’s my hero, [New York State Reverend and] Senator Rubén Díaz from the Bronx, or the bishops from the church of God in Christ, the largest black pentecostal denomination, or any other leaders. You know, I’m — it makes me seem more — NOM seem more powerful than it is. It’s insulting to suggest the African-American or Latino leaders are standing up because NOM is manipulating them. The only reason anyone stands up for marriage at this point in this culture is out of principle because we believe it’s a good thing and we’re fighting for what we think is right.”

Also appearing in the segment was GOP presidential candidate Fred Karger, who is openly gay and has battled NOM for years. Karger, which The New Civil Rights Movement reported earlier today, stated NOM is “manipulating not just race baiting and doing things to divide and conquer but also inserting themselves into a federal election which they also have not reported any money, and I’m looking at filing charges against them on that as well.”

(Emphasis ours.)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640

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Here’s the remainder of the transcript, via MSNBC:

>> fred, why did you lead the charger in maine to have this started?

>> i’ve the organization since they formed themselves in qualify to pass prop 8 and saw they spent 500,000 in maine and they hadn’t reported where their donors came from, which is illegal in the state of maine . i was asked by the ethics commission to file the report which i did and used my attorneys to ask for an investigation and they accommodated with 3-2 vote. despite the army of lawyers they brought with them.

>> how does this change the work that nom does? done the publicity that all of us provide send a dog whistle for people who support its work?

>> it opens a can of worms-toworms-to, thomas. they’ve got a lot of power, they’ve claim $20 million in the second year of their formation but reported $6 million on their irs statements manipulating the presidential race . they’re citing this $3 million they were going to spend in 2011 and ’12 to make marriage a requirement, fighting gay marriage a requirement for the presidential republican number anies and three signed the nonmarriage pledge. they’re manipulating not just race baiting and things doing to divide and conquer but also inserting themselves into a federal election which they also have not reported any money. and i’m looking at filing charges against them on that as well.

>> maggie, i want to ask you about the latest inendeavor from nom to recruit celebrities, we also recognize the opportunity to gather and connect a community of artists, at leets, writers and, beauty queens and other noncognitive elites across national boundaieboundaries. what is nom’s goal in putting something like that out? noncognitive elites?

>> noncognitive elites, many sources of pow, influence and authority, truth, goodness and beauty. we would reach out across all of those lines. it’s the conspiratorial — the conspiracy that you’re describing is a conspiracy quote/unquote to find people who believe marriage is the union of husband and wife, whether they’re christians, jews, black, white, hispanic, whether you’re smart people like professor robbie george or impressive athletes to get our message out. and it’s what’s cynical is describe that as a conspiracy or illegitimate activity. it’s really common sense.

>> twice now in the boardroom right here, the board notes and also in the new advertisement you’re going after elites. why is marriage just for elites?

>> marriage is not for elites. we reach out — of course we’ve got the majority of the american people on our side. it’s like 15 or 20 different projects that we think we could or that we fougthought at the time could help in winning fight for marriage as the union of husband and wife. i don’t apologize for any of them though i don’t like the suggestion that somehow we have the power to make gay marriage advocates call other people bigots and haters, we don’t. we wish they would stop or they have power to make african-american or latino democrats to do anything. we are grateful and respect the leadership they’ve shown for the values that they hold dear and we share.

>> fred karger, maggie gallagher , thanks to both of you for coming on today. appreciate it.

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News

Pelosi Strikes Back After New House GOP Leadership, in Act of ‘Revenge’ Immediately Targets Top Democrats

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October 4, 2023

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Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is sending a strong message to House Republican Leadership after now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy‘s hand-picked acting replacement, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), evicted her and Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic House Majority Leader, from their Capitol Offices, in what reportedly is an act of “revenge.”

McHenry, a hard-core conservative, made clear his outrage over McCarthy’s ouster when he angrily gaveled out the House on Tuesday.

In one of his first acts as “Speaker Pro Tempore,” McHenry, the longtime McCarthy ally who worked behind the scenes in January to help McCarthy get enough votes to become Speaker on the fifteenth try, ordered Pelosi late Tuesday night to vacate her office immediately.

“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,” an aide to McHenry directed Pelosi.

Overnight, McHenry made the same demand of Hoyer.

Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reports the evictions are “revenge for Democrats voting with @mattgaetz to boot @SpeakerMcCarthy from the speakership.”

“Expect more of this, GOP sources tell us,” he adds.

READ MORE: ‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

Tuesday night, before the Hoyer eviction, Pelosi had responded with a brutal, damning statement, explaining that she had remained in California, mourning her longtime friend and colleague, the late Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Politico reported that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff helped Pelosi’s office make the move, according to a spokesperson for the former speaker.”

In a scratching rebuke, Pelosi said in her public statement, “With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol.”

“Office space doesn’t matter to me,” she added, “but it seems important to them.”

“Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.”

READ MORE: Trump Has Now ‘Crossed the Line Into Criminal Threats’: Top Legal Scholar

Pelosi, in California, had not voted on removing McCarthy. She had not indicated how she would have voted, possibly out of respect for the office of Speaker of the House.

But after Hoyer was targeted for eviction, the Speaker Emerita issued an official announcement to be placed in the Congressional Record. As C-Span’s Craig Caplan reported Wednesday, Pelosi announced she would have voted to oust McCarthy.

Watch the video clip of McHenry above or at this link.

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Pelosi Delivers Brutal Response After McCarthy’s Acting Replacement Orders Her to Vacate Her Office Immediately

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12 hours ago

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October 3, 2023

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Within hours of Kevin McCarthy being ousted as Speaker of the House late Tuesday afternoon, his hand-picked acting successor, U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), ordered Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol Hill offices “by tomorrow.”

McHenry, whose title technically now is “Speaker Pro Tempore,” is a staunch McCarthy ally who worked diligently behind the scenes in January to help the now-former Speaker get elected on the fifteenth attempt, had an aide issue the order.

“‘Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed,’ wrote a top aide on the Republican-controlled House Administration Committee,” Politico reported Tuesday night. “The room was being reassigned by the acting speaker ‘for speaker office use,’ the email said.”

Politico adds that “House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ staff helped Pelosi’s office make the move, according to a spokesperson for the former speaker.”

Pelosi, who was honored with the title “Speaker Emerita” in 2022 by the House Steering and Policy Committee in an effort to help unite the House, did not vote for or against McCarthy’s ouster. She remained in California to attend the funeral of her friend and colleague, the late U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein.

READ MORE: ‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

But Pelosi, the first and only woman Speaker of the House, who served from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2023, did not take McHenry’s order lying down.

“With all of the important decisions that the new Republican Leadership must address, which we are all eagerly awaiting, one of the first actions taken by the new Speaker Pro Tempore was to order me to immediately vacate my office in the Capitol,” Pelosi said in a statement, according to Politico’s Nicholas Wu. “Sadly, because I am in California to mourn the loss of and pay tribute to my dear friend Dianne Feinstein, I am unable to retrieve my belongings at this time.”

“This eviction is a sharp departure from tradition. As Speaker, I gave former Speaker Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” She noted.

“Office space doesn’t matter to me, but it seems important to them,” Pelosi added. “Now that the new Republican Leadership has settled this important matter, let’s hope they get to work on what’s truly important to the American people.”

READ MORE: ‘Terrorist Attacks’: Murphy and Cornyn Slam House GOPers Over McCarthy Ouster

 

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‘Radical Left Marxists’: Trump Launches Attack Hours After Judge Imposes Gag Order

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14 hours ago

on

October 3, 2023

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Just hours after New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron imposed a limited gag order and directed Donald Trump to remove his social media post targeting and attacking, by name, the judge’s law clerk, the ex-president Tuesday evening issued an attack targeting the legal system, and apparently, by extension, Attorney General Letitia James.

Judge Engoron’s Tuesday order barred Trump from “posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” as Politico reported. The judge’s gag order did not extend to any officer of the court, witnesses, or anyone else involved in Attorney General James’ $250 million civil fraud case against Trump.

“Consider this statement a gag order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any of my staff,” Engoron said Tuesday afternoon. “Failure to abide by this order will result in serious sanctions.”

Judge Engoron had announced in court: “This morning one of the defendants posted to his social media account a disparaging, untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff.”

“Personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them in any circumstances,” Engoron added.

Politico described Trump’s social media post as “a message alleging [the law clerk] ‘is running this case against me.’ The message was pulled from an account on X with fewer than 200 followers. Trump then linked to an Instagram account for Greenfield’s campaign for a judgeship in Manhattan civil court.”

READ MORE: ‘Part of the Authoritarian Playbook’: Trump’s Courthouse Rant Slammed by Fascism Scholars

“’How disgraceful! This case should be dismissed immediately!!’ Trump added. He also posted a photo of her alongside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and referred to her as ‘Schumer’s girlfriend.'”

And while the judge ordered the social media post taken down, there’s nothing that can be done about the email blast Trump sent to “millions” of his supporters that included the post, as The New York Times reported.

Tuesday evening, despite having already been given one gag order, Trump appeared to tear into the legal system and Attorney General Letitia James in a series of false claims.

After claiming James’ civil lawsuit against him was unconstitutional and election interference, Trump wrote the decision to apply that statute to him “was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know.”

“It is so unfair that I am being tried under Section 63(12), which is unconstitutionally being used to punish me because I am substantially leading Crooked Joe Biden in the polls,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It is a Consumer Protection Statute, and not meant, at all, for Election Interference purposes, which is what this is all about! Under this Section of the law, I am not even entitled to a JURY (there is no checking of a box alternative!).This was done by Radical Left Marxists design, and is not the America we know. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

As The New Yorker reported last week, the law Trump is referring to was “passed at the behest of one of” James’ “Republican predecessors, Jacob Javits.”

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