Photo Op: Romney Campaign Bought Supplies To Give To Red Cross Which Only Accepts Money
With all due respect to the people personally impacted by Hurricane Sandy, allow me to explain why this event is the perfect symbol of what a Mitt Romney presidency would look like.
Mitt Romney, desperate to maintain some form of relevance during a national disaster that killed dozens of people, put millions out of their homes, plunged millions more into darkness and plunged hundreds of towns under water, decided to rename his “victory rally” slated for today in Ohio, and dress it up as a World War II “relief effort,” complete with a canned goods drive.
READ: Romney Donating Sandy Supplies To GOP Swing States — Not NY
Team Romney didn’t want to be caught making the same mistake they have made throughout his campaign — shoot first and don’t even bother to ask questions or correct the record later — as they did on September 11 this year when we were attacked in Egypt and Libya. As someone on Twitter today aptly wrote, this time, team Romney didn’t want to release a statement in the middle of the night attacking President Obama for ignoring and then apologizing to Mother Nature.
Anyone who has ever donated to the Red Cross, or any one of dozens of charities over the past decade’s worth of natural disasters, like the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, or the 2010 Haiti earthquake, know that it’s cash — or credit — charities ask for. (Or, in the case of the Red Cross, blood.)
You cannot send the Red Cross blankets. Or canned goods. Or bottled water.
Why would you?
For what it would cost to go to the store, buy those items, and ship them to the Red Cross or drop them at a local office, and then have the Red Cross spend countless man hours (person hours!) sorting and packaging them, then sending them to victims would take days or weeks and cost a small fortune.
A $50 donation of supplies could easily cost $50 to process.
Thanks. So. Much.
So, of course, that’s exactly what candidate Romney did.
Romney personally asked people to bring blankets, bottled water, and canned goods — just like they did in World War II — to his victory rally, or, now, “relief effort.”
The Red Cross does not accept supplies. They accept cash (and blood.)
So the Romney camp had to pressure the Red Cross to accept their supplies, which they finally did, after the campaign had asked supporters to bring them to the rally-cum-relief effort, after the campaign made donors stand in line until candidate Romney came to be photographed, rolled up sleeves and all, behind a table, accepting bags of beans and blankets.
But now news comes that Team Romney not only collected Poland Spring, they went out and bought it.
Yes.
And that’s the point.
Team Romney took campaign contributions and used them to buy supplies — water, canned goods, and blankets — to use as photo op props, then forced the Red Cross to take them, rather than just taking that cash and giving it to the Red Cross.
Romney today “spoke while standing in front of a bank of tables where campaign volunteers had neatly lined up toothpaste, diapers, canned food and fleece blankets, among other goods,” an AP story at Salon.com reports:
A spokesman later confirmed that Romney’s campaign had purchased some of the supplies. Though it was billed as a “storm relief event,†the candidate’s trademark campaign video was broadcast on large screens set up for the supporters who gathered inside the arena before Romney arrived.
“I will devote every waking hour of my energy to getting America strong again. That’s what an American president has to do,†Romney says in the video.
After he spoke, he stood behind a table full of relief supplies and shook hands with attendees one at a time, taking bags full of relief supplies from many of them. Romney later loaded more relief supplies into a waiting truck as a handful of reporters watched. He loaded bottled water, boxes of diapers and pallets of canned food into the truck, and was joined by Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.
Buying supplies, rather than providing the structure and support — rather than directing supporters to donate to the Red Cross — is what Team Romney chose to do to appear relevant.
How would a President Romney, who has said it would be “immoral” to keep FEMA, handle our nation’s next natural disaster?
Sometimes, as the New York Times editors eloquently wrote yesterday, “A Big Storm Requires Big Government.”
FEMA, the Times notes, “was put back in working order by President Obama, but ideology still blinds Republicans to its value. Many don’t like the idea of free aid for poor people, or they think people should pay for their bad decisions, which this week includes living on the East Coast.”
The East Coast, especially the northern East Coast, isn’t “real America,” to the GOP.
And sometimes — despite what the mind and machinations of Mitt Romney would hope for — big business doesn’t trump big government.
Republicans are so fond of attacking government, so keen on exposing how government “doesn’t work,” how government, to quote Reagan, “is the problem,” Â that they trip over themselves to ensure their thesis is correct. Republicans spend their time in government — or campaigning for the opportunity — making sure government doesn’t work so they can tell you how much government doesn’t work.
Like FEMA under George W. Bush, who put in charge of it Michael Brown, who today was caught berating President Obama for “jumping on†Hurricane Sandy “so quickly.â€Â Michael Brown, the man who was forced to resign as the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association — his job immediately before coming to head FEMA. Michael Brown, who, as Katrina beared down on New Orleans, told his staff he needed more time for dinner before he would respond. Michael Brown, who made sure the cameras caught him standing with the president, pretending everything was being taken care of as people, ultimately, at least 1833 people, were dying in Katrina’s wake. Michael Brown, who made FEMA into such a disgrace.
Mitt Romney would do the same.
Doubt it?
Look what he just did.
Â
You can donate to the American Red Cross at their website.
Images: Top:Â Part_Deux, Bottom, Think Progress, which has an excellent Timeline Of Katrina
Editor’s note: This article was updated at 9:00 PM to include the Michael Brown paragraph.
Related:
Trump Using Hurricane Sandy Deaths To Promote $5 Million Obama Challenge
Romney Campaigning Off Storm: Holding ‘Relief Event’ With NASCAR’s Petty
Romney Attempts To Use Hurricane For Campaign, Impede Emergency Response
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The White House has confirmed President Donald Trump is moving to push the controversial SAVE America Act further right — which could make it even easier for the left to reject.
Many were confused or critical when President Trump claimed on Thursday that the SAVE Act — a voter ID bill that critics say will disenfranchise millions of Americans — would reshape rules for sports participation and health care access for transgender people, which the current text of the bill does not actually do.
According to Trump’s Truth Social post, the bill requires voter ID and proof of citizenship to vote, and no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military, or travel. It also bans “men in women’s sports,” and “transgender mutilation surgery for children, without the express written approval of the parents.”
The president, after uproar from the right, dropped the parental approval portion and called to ban all transgender surgery for children.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Friday about Trump’s additions to the legislation.
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After declaring that he wants the SAVE Act passed “as soon as possible,” Leavitt acknowledged that Trump “has added on some priorities” to the bill in recent days, “namely no transgender transition surgeries for minors. We are not gonna tolerate the mutilation of young children in this country. No men in women’s sports. The president putting all of these priorities together, it speaks to how common sense they are.”
“These are all common sense priorities of this president that are backed by the vast majority of Americans and he wants Republicans to act on them as quickly as possible,” she claimed.
According to Democracy Docket, Leavitt’s comments “mark the first time the White House has publicly confirmed that Trump is pushing to attach anti-transgender policies to the SAVE America Act.”
Noting that even if the Senate were to pass the legislation with Trump’s latest priorities in it, the bill would have to head back to the House, Democracy Docket reported, “for another vote — a potentially difficult hurdle given the narrow margin by which it passed initially.”
But, even “without those additions, the bill faces long odds in the Senate, where most legislation requires 60 votes to pass and where Democrats have vowed to block it.”
Republican Majority Leader John Thune has said he opposes changing the Senate’s filibuster rules to help the bill’s passage.
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Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump and his administration are under fire for what critics say is a lack of planning for his war against Iran. The fallout is already being felt in the economy, from rising gas prices to sinking financial markets, and a myriad of other potential crises.
“I’ve seen a lot of Presidents fall short of their promises but I’ve never seen any President just doing the opposite of everything promised on purpose,” charged U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI). “Prices, Epstein, wars. Just absolutely racing to betray his voters.”
One hour later, he followed up, writing: “Did they think this through?”
The Atlantic’s Karim Sadjadpour earlier this week reported, “I have spoken with current and former U.S. officials privy to the decision making” on Iran, “who describe a total lack of planning and contradictory aims among those worried about the war effort and those more concerned about the war’s domestic political implications.”
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin earlier in the week charged: “Trump and his incompetent administration had no plan to get Americans out of danger after their planned attack on Iran. Now, American citizens are stuck in an active war zone. This is a complete disaster.”
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On Friday, the State Department said that 24,000 Americans had returned from the Middle East, but thousands more remain. The “vast majority” of those who returned “were able to make their way home on their own through commercial means,” the Associated Press reported.
The rapidly rising price of oil and gas, and access to them, appear to be among critics’ greatest concerns.
“Apparently no one in the White House thought starting a war in the Middle East might affect oil prices,” lamented U.S. Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ). “Now families are paying the price at the pump for pure amateur hour.”
Longtime journalist Jim Roberts delved even further.
“Listening to White House official Kevin Hassett this morning is making it crystal clear that the Trump administration had no plan for dealing with the disruption of energy supplies in the Mideast,” he wrote, adding: “And now the Pentagon is trying to figure out how to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson warned, “By April, energy experts say, the Iran War could be a full blown energy crisis.”
Citing reporting from the Financial Times, macroeconomist Philip Pilkington wrote that the “Trump administration forgot to refill its Strategic Petroleum Reserve before launching Total War in the Middle East.”
Patrick De Haan, the widely cited head of Petroleum Analysis at Gas Buddy, referencing President Donald Trump’s remarks about the price of gas rising, warned: “it doesn’t appear the admin is yet aware there’s actually a problem, so that means there’s nothing yet to fix. I do hope this changes soon.”
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Image via Reuters
Washington Post readers are pushing back against the paper and an op-ed that laments what its author sees as a shortage of evangelical Christians in the “halls of power.”
“Evangelicals are 23 percent of U.S. adults and one of the most loyal Republican voting blocs, with 81 percent backing Donald Trump in 2024,” writes author Aaron M. Renn. “Yet despite six of the nine Supreme Court justices being appointed by Republican presidents, there are no evangelicals on the Supreme Court.”
The Supreme Court “is just one of the many elite institutions in which evangelicals are absent or underrepresented,” he continues. Declaring that evangelicals “have excelled in politics,” he points to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) and House Speaker Mike Johnson as examples.
Arguing that evangelicals “are also prominent in well-run and profitable businesses with relatively low cultural impact, such as food processing (Tyson Foods) and retail (Hobby Lobby),” he says that “they are all but absent from the leadership of prestigious universities, major foundations, Big Tech companies, leading financial firms and large media companies.”
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“A stronger evangelical presence in elite institutions could strengthen them while addressing polarization and public mistrust,” he continues. “The lack of evangelicals in the halls of power contributes to anti-institutional public sentiment. It also deprives those institutions of an important pool of talent.”
Washington Post readers scorched the op-ed and the paper.
“The author remarked, more than once, of the lack of formal education among the vast numbers of evangelicals,” wrote one reader. “He then questions the lack of said evangelicals on corporate and college boards and in executive offices. Am I the only one seeing a connection here?”
“Is this not a request for a new DEI program to benefit evangelicals?” asked a reader.
“I am an evangelical Christian,” said a critic. “Please don’t hold up Mike Johnson or Josh Hawley as an example of what Christ calls us to be. Perhaps the reason for our absence in the halls of power is the fact that the majority chose to elect an amoral, corrupt narcissist to be president. We should be absent from that depth of depravity.”
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One reader encouraged the author to “go see the musical Godspell and see just how far off the mark the American Evangelicals are.”
“Since when did adherence to fundamentalist religious beliefs become a litmus test for government or institutional leadership?” asked a reader. “Aren’t we currently bombing a country based on that system? This ‘newspaper’ is devolving into an internet forum.”
“So now MAGA wants DEI for Evangelicals,” said one reader. “This is fantastic stand-up comedy material.”
“In some cases, not all, the author is confusing evangelical with fundamentalist,” wrote one critic. “The author is also narrowing the meaning of evangelical by using a political frame, not a theological frame. Many evangelicals define themselves via strict adherence to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (or the Plain) … I wish the author had explored at least modestly the increasing breadth of what the designation ‘evangelical’ represents in Christianity, not on Capital Hill.”
“Do you expect to be trusted in fields of science when you deny evolution?” asked a reader.
“Evangelical Christianity is the antithesis of intellectual pursuit, science, and progress,” wrote a reader.
And one critic, appearing to refer to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” charged: “Dreaming of Gilead, are you?”
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