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One In Seven Fortune 500 Companies Gave To The Boy Scouts

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Among the corporations that make up the current Fortune 500 — Fortune magazine’s yearly list of the top 500 American companies ranked by revenue — about one in seven, or 14 percent, each donated at least $10,000 to the Boy Scouts of America in 2010, despite the organization’s longtime ban of gays and lesbians.

Many of those donors, like Comcast and Kraft Foods Group, have policies that are supposed to prohibit funding organizations that discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Together, 69 companies donated nearly $5.3 million to the Boy Scouts that year.

The list of Boy Scout donors includes household names such as Campbell’s Soup, Macy’s, Morgan Stanley, and Sprint.

Public scrutiny over the Boy Scouts’ discrimination against gays and lesbians and its much-publicized proposal to revisit the gay ban has led some of the Boy Scouts’ corporate donors to take sides in the matter. Corporations like KeyBank and Intel have decided to pull funding from the Scouts, while companies like ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Ketchup have said they will continue supporting the Scouts.

No atheists, agnostics, or homosexuals allowed

Last July, the Boy Scouts of America announced that it was reaffirming its policy of excluding “open and avowed homosexuals” from serving as Boy Scouts and troop leaders. Significant public outcry and organizing followed, and earlier this year, the Scouts’ executive board promised to revisit its national anti-gay policy at the BSA’s national board meeting in early February.

However, BSA officials have been clear that even if the organization removes the national policy restricting membership based on sexual orientation, that would not apply directly to chartered organizations or local units, meaning individual troops could still bar gays and lesbians from membership or employment.

Under this proposed policy, the BSA would not require any chartered organization to act in ways inconsistent with that organization’s mission, principles, or religious beliefs,” BSA spokesman Deron Smith said in a statement last month.

But after significant pressure from social conservative groups, the BSA’s board did not revisit the policy this month, instead pushing a decision to the Scouts’ general membership meeting in May.

Adding to the uproar, this month the Human Rights Campaign recently uncovered a BSA job application professing employment discrimination against “known or avowed homosexuals,” as well as atheists and agnostics:

Accordingly, in the exercise of its constitutional right to bring the values of Scouting to its youth members, the Boy Scouts of America will not employ atheists, agnostics, known or avowed homosexuals, or others as professional Scouters or in other capacities in which such employment would tend to interfere with its mission of reinforcing the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law in young people.

The application noted that felony convictions are “not an automatic bar to employment.”

The American Independent searched the Fortune 500 corporate foundations’ tax filings for 2010, the most recent year these tax statements were available for all of the companies. That search turned up 69 major corporations that each donated at least $10,000 to the Boy Scouts despite its ban on gays.

The 46 highlighted in this story is in addition to the 23 corporations TAI identified last September. A minority of the Fortune 500 companies did not have charitable foundations and therefore did not have publicly available tax forms.

All told, 69 corporations donated $5.3 million to the Boy Scouts of America and its subdivisions in 2010, including the BSA’s national headquarters, regional councils, and local troops.

That funding could cause corporations to have downgraded ratings from the nation’s largest LGBT lobby, the Human Rights Campaign.

Earlier this month, HRC announced that corporations that have donated to the BSA would lose points on the group’s Corporate Equality Index, which rates corporations on LGBT-inclusiveness.

“To receive a perfect score, companies would have to prohibit philanthropic giving to non-religious organizations that have a written policy of anti-gay discrimination, or permit its chapters, affiliates, or troops to do so,” reads a press statement HRC released last month.

In that statement, HRC President Chad Griffin argued that the BSA’s proposed policy reversal would not lead to the “full inclusion” of gay Scouts and troop leaders.

“While it is good news that the onerous national ban will come to an end, it’s not acceptable to abdicate nondiscrimination standards to local units,” Griffin said. “It’s akin to a national restaurant chain saying that it will not discriminate at its corporate headquarters, but allow local restaurants to discriminate at will.”

Taking sides

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Already one corporation is trying to conform with HRC’s new policy.

KeyBank Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by KeyCorp, under which KeyBank is a subsidiary, gave the Scouts about $44,000 in 2010, including $25,000 to the Boy Scouts’ National Council. However, the corporation and its foundation have been revamping all of its charitable giving to bring it in line with HRC’s expectations.

“We are reviewing our grant-making policies in light of the Boy Scouts’ policies,” said KeyBankspokeswoman Lynne Woodman in a phone interview. “It’s undergoing a rigorous review.”

Woodman said KeyBank has consistently scored 100 percent on HRC’s Corporate Equality Index, something the company takes pride in.

“We are equally strong about public support to our community and diversity and inclusion,” Woodman said. “We want to ensure that we are fully inclusive in word and deed.”

KeyBank joins Intel, the United Parcel Service, and Merck in adjusting corporate policy to ensure funds don’t go to organizations that discriminate based on sexual orientation — organizations like the Boy Scouts of America.

Other corporations are standing in support of the Boy Scouts, however.

Publix Super Markets, a chain of grocery stores in the southeast, gave about $339,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2010.

Publix told TAI that it has no plans to change its policy.

“Publix Charities has not made any changes to the funding of the Boy Scouts,” said Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous in an email. “We believe in the leadership & life skills Scouting teaches.”

Western & Southern Financial Group gave $30,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2010 and said it would continue that funding in the future.

“Western & Southern Financial Fund has been a long-term supporter of the Boy Scouts over many years,” corporate spokesman José D. Marques said in an email. “As we have done in the past, the Financial Fund plans to continue evaluating all future requests from the Scouts as it does for requests for contributions from any organization.”

Ketchup-maker H.J. Heinz Company gave $12,000 to the Scouts during the fiscal year ending April 27, 2011 — and stands by those donations.

“The H.J. Heinz Company Foundation has had a long-term partnership with the Boy Scouts of America for the past 25 years and that partnership continues today,” Heinz spokesman Michael Mullen said in an email.

Non-discrimination policies

Several Fortune 500 companies gave to the Boy Scouts or its subdivisions while maintaining policies that restrict donations to groups that discriminate based on sexual orientation.

Reynolds American Inc. is the parent company of American Spirit cigarette-maker Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which manufactures Camel, Kool, and Winston cigarettes. Reynolds American, gave about $155,000 to Boy Scout entities in 2010, including $153,795 to the BSA’s Old Hickory Council, based in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Reynolds’ grant guidelines say that a potential grantee “must generally be … operated and organized so that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, age, or disability, in terms of hiring practices, service provisions or board-member selection.”

Former Boy Scout Matt Comer recently told a Winston-Salem Fox affiliate in late January that when he was 14, he was kicked out of the Old Hickory Council in 2000 for being gay.

ConAgra Foods Inc., which makes a large number of brand-name foods, such as Slim Jim, Peter Pan peanut butter, Wesson cooking oils, and Chef Boyardee, gave about $50,000 to various Boy Scout entities during its fiscal year ending May 30, 2010.

Yet ConAgra has a matching-grant program for its employees, which says gifts are ineligible if they are intended for “organizations that discriminate based on race, color, creed, sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or national origin.”

Textron, Inc., which owns subsidiaries that make military equipment such as the AH-1 Cobra helicopter, Cessna airplanes, and the E-Z- GO brand of golf carts, also has a nondiscrimination policy regarding corporate donations.

Textron’s grant corporate giving guidelines state that, “Contributions will not be made to … [o]rganizations that discriminate by race, creed, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, age or any other basis prohibited by law.”

Textron gave nearly $39,000 to the Scouts, including $5,000 to the BSA’s headquarters in Irving, Texas.

Internet, cable, and television provider Comcast also has a policy that bars funding for groups that discriminate based on sexual orientation. The frequently asked questions section of the Comcast Foundation website states that Comcast will not fund “organizations that practice discrimination by race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation or national origin.”

Comcast’s charitable foundation donated about $41,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2010 and listed the Boy Scouts as a beneficiary in 2011 on the foundation’s website.

Darden Restaurants, which owns the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains, gave $15,000 to the Boy Scouts for the fiscal year ending May 30, 2010.

Darden has a policy that states: “All applicants must not discriminate in their membership or provisional services on the basis of race, religion, creed, national origin, disability, handicap, age, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or any other basis prohibited by law.”

Kraft Foods, which along with its own brand of products also makes Oscar Mayer, Velveeta, and Jell-O, gave almost $16,000 through its Dollars for Doers program.

The Kraft Foods Foundation’s matching-gifts guidelines include an affirmation from employees that the program they are donating to does not discriminate.

It states:

I certify that, to the best of my knowledge, this organization does not advocate or support policies, or practice activities that discriminate on the basis of an individual’s race, religion, color, age, sex, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, protected veteran status or status in any group protected by state or local law.

Kraft’s employee volunteering program, Dollars for Doers, has similar guidelines:

Non-eligible organizations also include those that advocate or support policies, or practice activities that discriminate on the basis of an individual’s race, color, age, sex, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, marital status, citizenship status, protected veteran status or status in any group protected by state or local law.

Kraft spokeswoman Niya Moon said in an email, “It’s possible that a donation was made by a local office or our foundation matched a personal contribution from an employee through our matching gifts program.”

Moon declined to comment further except to say that Kraft’s donations were small amounts to local Scouts organizations through the company’s employee donation program.

BSA donors, by industry

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Many of the Boys Scouts’ corporate donors in 2010 hailed from the financial services industry.

Aon, a reinsurance broker, gave about $84,000 in 2010, including $40,000 to the BSA’s Greater New York Councils, which openly opposed the policy barring gays from serving in the past.

Though the GNYC has a policy that states it opposes “any form of unlawful discrimination,” it’s unclear whether the GNYC allows openly gay Scouts and leaders.

Pacific Life, a life-insurance company based in Newport Beach, Calif., gave $50,000 to the Orange County Council of the Boy Scouts in 2010.

According to the Pacific Life Foundation, the foundation has already given to the Scouts in 2013.

Mutual of Omaha, an insurance and financial services company in Omaha, Neb., gave $50,000 to the Boy Scouts, including $40,000 to the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Mutual of Omaha also gave $10,000 to the Scouts in 2012, according to the company’s year-end report.

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation gave about $22,000 to the Scouts in 2010.

“Boy Scouts of America is outside the Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Foundation’s main granting guidelines, so the issue is really not a matter of direct impact to us,” said Thrivent Financial spokeswoman Callie Briese in an email. “Thrivent Financial is proud of employees’ and members’ generosity and involvement in communities they care about.”

Thrivent donates frequently to Lutheran churches and community groups. Additionally, members can make donor-advised contributions through the foundation.

Morgan Stanley gave $14,000 to the Boy Scouts in 2010.

The company provided TAI a statement that said, “The Morgan Stanley Foundation provides support to several local Boy Scout chapters where Morgan Stanley employees have volunteered a significant amount of time and applied for a grant, and also where the chapters have signed an affirmation of nondiscrimination which includes sexual orientation.”

Lincoln Financial Group gave about $18,000 in 2010, which was its last direct donation to the Scouts, according to a representative for the company.

The foundation does continue to donate to the Scouts through an employee volunteer program and an employee-matching program.

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Companies involved in the heavy industry sector gave a considerable amount to the Scouts.

Oshkosh Corporation gave $10,000 between Oct 1, 2009, and Sept. 30, 2010, but that donation appears to be Oshkosh’s last.

“If I remember, that was a contribution locally, not the national office,” said Oshkosh corporate spokesman John Daggett in an email. “They haven’t approached us since 2010.”

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Macy’s gave just over $80,000 to the Boy Scouts during its fiscal year ending Jan. 29, 2011. About $75,000 of that went to the Dan Beard Council, based in Evendale, Ohio.

“Our policy excludes self styled practicing homosexuality” within the Boy Scouts,” said Dan Beard Council Scout Executive Tom Dugger in an interview with ABC affiliate WCPO in Cincinnati, Ohio, after the national organization reaffirmed the ban on gay Scouts. “Youngsters should be given a chance to be youngsters in an environment that is safe.”

 

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The Winn-Dixie chain of supermarket chains in the southeast gave $49,000 to the Boy Scouts. Winn-Dixie alsodonations to the Scouts in 2011.

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Donations to councils that do not discriminate

Some corporate giving went to Boy Scout chapters that do not exclude gays and lesbians.

Best Buy gave to the Northern Star Council of the Boy Scouts, based in St. Paul, Minn., which has publicly stated it does not discriminate based on sexual orientation. Best Buy gave $10,000 to the council during its fiscal year ending Feb. 26, 2011.

Xcel Energy did not have tax documents publicly available for 2010, but did for 2009 and 2011. In 2009, Xcel gave $57,500 to the Scouts — $25,000 was to the Northern Star Council in Minnesota, which has told the media that it allows gays to serve. In 2011, Xcel gave $82,500 to the Scouts, including $35,000 to the Northern Star.

The Xcel Energy Foundation provided a statement to TAI, which said the company mainly gives to Boy Scout entities that do not discriminate: “The Xcel Energy Foundation has a long history of supporting programs that meet community needs throughout our eight-state service territory, including grants to the Boy Scouts of America. This covers several chapters including the North Star Council, which does not prohibit gay scoutmasters.”

Xcel said it is waiting to see how the Boy Scouts will vote in May on whether to scrap the policy banning gays and lesbians.

“Our scheduled funding cycle for 2013 will not happen until after the May annual meeting of the national Boy Scouts, where it is our understanding there will be a vote to change their policy. If we receive a grant application from the Scouts, we will review their policy then.”

Zach Wahls of Scouts for Equality, who was shown some of TAI’s research, praised those companies that did not give to Scouting organizations that discriminate.

“It’s clear that the vast majority of Corporate America agrees that the best future for Scouting includes every boy who wishes to live its law and abide its oath,” Wahls told TAI. “The Scouters we represent all look forward to the restoration of corporate support when the BSA adopts a full non-discrimination policy and ends their ban on gay youth and parents.”

Zach Wahls of Scouts for Equality, who was shown some of TAI’s research, praised those companies that did not give to Scouting organizations that discriminate.

“It’s clear that the vast majority of Corporate America agrees that the best future for Scouting includes every boy who wishes to live its law and abide its oath,” Wahls told TAI. “The Scouters we represent all look forward to the restoration of corporate support when the BSA adopts a full non-discrimination policy and ends their ban on gay youth and parents.”

Here’s a full list of corporations who donated to the Boy Scouts in 2010:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AkJSWWodPvTPdE92VFlzb2hEVVlNTW5GOVlEc0tZckE&single=true&gid=0&output=html&widget=true

 

This article, including all images, charts, and documents, originally appeared at The American Independent and is republished here by permission with our deep thanks.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Fox News Anchor’s Bad Week: Slammed for ‘Complete Lie,’ Accused of Making Up Story During Primetime Guest Hosting Gig

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After firing its star host, Tucker Carlson, Fox News has been scheduling its other anchors to fill in as guest hosts on a week-by-week basis, with some viewers, if not network brass, seeing these as auditions.

This week Harris Faulkner, host of the far-right network’s “The Faulkner Focus” and co-host of “Outnumbered,” filled in during what was once Carlson’s slot.

Reaction online has not been positive.

On Monday, Faulkner claimed she had been kicked out of a restaurant for praying, in what The Wrap called a “blistering, biblical monologue about the ongoing ‘attack’ on the Christian faith in America.”

“We know who we are. And we know who’s we are,” Faulkner told the dwindling Fox News audience. “For those of us who believe, we must be bold in our faith right now. When you gather in public spaces pray thankfully over your food, even when the server gives you the stink-eye, or tells the manager that your peaceful grace is triggering them. Had it happen to me. I’ve been asked to leave a restaurant for openly bowing my head in prayer hands. In America. It’s all good. They don’t deserve my money anyway.”

Many demanded Faulkner name the restaurant, or provide proof. Among them, The Daily Beast’s senior media reporter Justin Baragona, who tweeted, Monday night, “I’m going to ask Fox News PR if Harris Faulkner can provide the name of the restaurant and date when this happened. Will update if I receive a response.”

READ MORE: Pence Presidential Launch Mocked for Suggesting Drag Queens Are Assaulting ‘American Values’ – With No Mention of Trump

Baragona has yet to state he’s received a response.

Another doubter is Republican former Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who wrote: “We need the name of this restaurant and when it happened. If true that’s awful. IF it’s not true… which seems most likely the case… then there needs to be accountability. Lies are not the tool of the Lord. And the USA isn’t his god.”

During that same monologue, as The Daily Beast noted, Faulkner told Fox News viewers: “Women and children are being redesigned by some sort of mad leftist science experiment.”

“It’s as though people on the left have more free time than anybody else. They want to acronym and pronoun us to death,” she said, apparently taking a swing at the LGBTQ community. “Well know this: the Lord has determined I am a woman, and my pronouns are U.S.A.”

“We are in a spiritual fight for the soul of America,” she also claimed, “and if you think that’s not true, take a look around at what’s going on. The devil has gotten into some people. The worst part of experiencing our country ripping at the seams is that our enemies are massing, feasting on the tastiness of our weaknesses.”

Baragona pointed out, “In her first night on primetime filling in for Tucker’s old timeslot, Harris Faulkner drew 1.59 million total viewers and just 105,000 in the 25-54 advertising demographic, finishing behind CNN and MSNBC in the demo. Tucker averaged 3.26 million total viewers last quarter.”

READ MORE: ‘Isn’t There a Beach in Mexico Waiting for You?’: Cruz Mocked for Claiming Garland Will Indict Trump Over SCOTUS Seat Loss

Former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter added, “And Jen Psaki was filling in at 8 on MSNBC,” suggesting MSNBC might have had fewer regular viewers during that time slot.

But the real outrage came on Tuesday, when Faulkner delivered what many deemed an outright “lie,” and served up proof of their accusations.

Faulker told Fox News viewers, “You know, we didn’t actually close schools in 1918, during the Spanish flu pandemic.”

That’s false. Provably false.

“And sometimes we make dangerously bad decisions, like pandemic lockdowns and keeping our own children home from schools when a virus was hurting them far less often than adults,” she said, ignoring the fact that family transmission often started with children (see below.) “You know, we didn’t actually close schools in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic. We didn’t even have penicillin back then. We did sacrifice. We suffered but then we pressed on. Our enemies hate us for surviving, but they would love to be like us.”

“This is blatantly untrue and takes about 3 seconds to fact check,” observed Media Matters for America’s Kat Abu.

And fact check many did.

Some noted that penicillin is an antibiotic, not an antiviral, and would have had no effect on the “Spanish flu,” an erroneous term (the first case identified was in the U.S.) for what is broadly known as the 1918 flu pandemic. The CDC says, “The 1918 H1N1 flu pandemic, sometimes referred to as the “Spanish flu,” killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, including an estimated 675,000 people in the United States.”

READ MORE: Buttigieg: Republicans Are Targeting LGBTQ People Because They ‘Don’t Want to Talk About’ Their Own ‘Radical Positions’

Attorney Brad Moss, calling Faulkner’s claim a “complete lie,” also tweeted: “Utter and total falsity. You would think these fools would have some shame after paying Dominion hundreds of millions of dollars.”

And he came with receipts, including a screenshot of a New York Times article from October, 1918, noting the entire state of Pennsylvania had “indefinitely” shut down all schools, churches, theaters, and “all places of public assemblage.”

Others pointed to a PBS article from 2020 that reads: “During the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic, when an estimated 675,000 people died in the United States alone, the majority of public schools were closed for weeks to months on end. But three major cities — New York City, Chicago, and New Haven — kept their schools open amid valid questions and concerns about safety.”

So false was Faulkner’s claim, a readers’ note was added to video of it. It points to a study that states: “During the 1918–19 influenza pandemic, many local authorities made the controversial decision to close schools.”

Others on social media pointed to an article published last week by the University of Minnesota: “More than 70% of US household COVID spread started with a child, study suggests.”

As for Faulkner’s claim that, “Our enemies hate us for surviving, but they would love to be like us,” the U.S. ranks 15th worst among all countries around the world in COVID deaths per capita.

Meanwhile, Baragona also weighed in, noting: “Throughout the height of the pandemic, Harris Faulkner would only broadcast her show from the safety of her house.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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News

Pence Presidential Launch Mocked for Suggesting Drag Queens Are Assaulting ‘American Values’ – With No Mention of Trump

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Former Trump vice president Mike Pence on Wednesday officially launched his 2024 campaign for the White House, in a lengthy, polished video carefully constructed to position himself as the torch-bearer of American values, including Christian nationalism, while conveniently all but ignoring his four-plus years spent in service to Donald Trump, who recently was held liable by a jury for sexual abuse, is currently under a 34-count state felony indictment, and expected to soon be facing a slew of federal and state charges amid several other investigations.

“I believe in the American people, and I have faith God is not done with America yet,” Pence tweeted atop his campaign video. “Together, we can bring this Country back, and the best days for the Greatest Nation on Earth are yet to come!”

The well-known presidential historian Michael Beschloss, author of ten books, noted that it will “not be easy for a VP to separate himself from the President he served for four years.”

READ MORE: Double Bombshell: Mark Meadows and Trump’s Secret Service Agents Have Testified, NYT Reports

And he made this critical observation: Pence’s “just-released announcement video cites ‘drag queens’ and Biden-Harris but not a single mention or image of You-Know-Who,” referring to Donald Trump.

In fact, in Pence’s video (below), he falsely claims, “President Joe Biden and the radical left have weakened America at home and abroad.”

“The American dream is being crushed under runaway inflation. Wages are dropping, recession is looming. Our southern border is under siege.”

“And the enemies of freedom are on the march around the world,” Pence continues.

READ MORE: Watch: Mike Pence Showed Up to Speak at the NRA Convention – It Didn’t Go Well

“And worse still, timeless American values are under assault as never before,” Pence cries.

As he says those words, the video shows three frames that appear to be clipped from TV news reports. One reads, “VA Parents Push Back Against Critical Race Theory,” one reads, “Controversy Over Female Trans Swimmer,” and the last one reads, “Drag Queens Storm Faith-Based Story Hour in AR.”

Journalist Grace Panetta offered a similar observation, tweeting, “Former VP Mike Pence’s presidential announcement video features faith imagery and headlines about trans athletes and drag queens, but no obvious references to abortion, to which he is staunchly opposed.”

Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, senior advisor to former Obama cabinet secretary Julián Castro, went one step further.

“In his announcement,” Hackett writes, “Mike Pence says ‘timeless American values are under assault’ as headlines about drag shows and trans athletes play. But nothing about the armed Trump mob who tried to hang him at the Capitol.”

Watch Pence’s video below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Untrue and Hateful’: Nikki Haley Slammed for ‘Damnable Lie’ of Blaming Teen Girls Contemplating Suicide on Trans Kids

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Fox News’ Sean Hannity Whines Charging Trump With ‘Obscure’ Obstruction Is Unfair

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Fox News host Sean Hannity suggested on Tuesday’s edition of his radio show that the possibility of former President Donald Trump getting charged with obstruction of justice is unfair because President Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton never had their homes “raided” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“So you know, and here’s the other problem, you know, with top secret classified documents. So what they’re doing here is they’re not going to go after what they thought was the crime. Because they didn’t raid Hillary Clinton’s residences. They didn’t raid Joe Biden’s four places where he had top secret classified information. No,” Hannity complained.

Both Clinton and Biden cooperated with federal investigators. Refusing to do so, or impeding their work, is considered obstruction, which is a felony.

READ MORE: Trump’s attorneys just walked into DOJ amid swelling indictment anticipation

“So they’ll look to something obscure,” Hannity continued. “‘Well, as a result of the investigation, it is alleged that Donald Trump obstructed justice’ — blah blah blah blah blah. Which, by the way, I would argue, legally, he doesn’t have any obligation to cooperate with, and nor can anyone give a real definition of whether or not, you know, exactly how one president is supposed to declassify the materials anyway.”

Trump has claimed that he declassified documents psychically and that they automatically had that status once he took them from the White House. Those statements are not just false — Trump was recorded acknowledging the limits to his power to declassify certain items, such as war plans for an attack on Iran.

Hannity then said that “it’s not going to have anything to do with the documents themselves, except it’ll be a process crime. That is my prediction.”

There are many indicators that Trump could facing an espionage charge (among a litant of others), as recently highlighted by experts.

READ MORE: ‘Nihilistic moron’ Trump heading for another indictment: George Conway

“They’re gonna go down the process crime route and they won’t apply the same standards to Joe, just like they didn’t apply the same standards to the Hillary, and whatever bone they throw you on Hunter is the low-hanging fruit that does not get to the heart of the family business with a multitude of countries that they were paid a fortune from,” Hannity added. “And we still haven’t gotten the final numbers, and clearly, Hunter Biden with no experience was leading up the effort and implicates his own father. They’re gonna stay as far away from the real crux of what legality would impact Joe Biden and just go after Donald Trump, to just continue their policies of politicizing or criminalizing political differences.”

Listen below via Media Matters for America or at this link.

READ MORE: Ex-DOJ official: Trump keeping ‘war plans’ makes it ‘inconceivable’ that he will escape indictment

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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