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Romney Advisor John Sununu’s Racist Attacks Against Colin Powell And Barack Obama

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John Sununu, an outspoken top advisor to Mitt Romney, his campaign chair, and a Romney surrogate who frequently appears on TV news shows, yesterday told America that General Colin Powell endorsed President Barack Obama because they both are Black.

Sununu, the former Republican governor of New Hampshire, last night told CNN’s Piers Morgan, “You have to wonder whether that’s an endorsement based on issues or that he’s got a slightly different reason for President Obama.”

When pressed, Sununu added, “Well, I think that when you have somebody of your own race that you’re proud of being President of the United States — I applaud Colin for standing with him.”

This is hardly the first time John Sununu has used race and other dog whistle politics to attack President Obama and his supporters.

Igor Volsky at Think Progress offers a quick look back:

– Obama is foreign. Obama doesn’t understand the “American system” because “he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia, another set of years in Indonesia, and, frankly, when he came to the U.S. he worked as a community organizer, which is a socialized structure.” [Fox News, 7/17/2012]

– Obama doesn’t know how to be an American. During a conference call, Sununu claimed, “The men and women all over America who have worked hard to build these businesses, their businesses, from the ground up is how our economy became the envy of the world. It is the American way. And I wish this president would learn how to be an American.” [Conference call, 7/17/2012]

– Obama is a lazy idiot. Sununu described Obama’s debate performance as “babbling,” “lazy,” and “disengaged,” and dismissed the possibility that he could do better in the future. “When you’re not that bright you can’t get better prepared.” [Fox News, 10/4/2012]

– Obama has no class, just wants to be cool. “That moment of using the B.S. word was kind of a self-defining moment for the president,” he told Sean Hannity. “No class, wants to be cool. Sacrifices the dignity of the presidency for appearing cool to a magazine that works for some of his base.” [Fox News, 10/25/2012]

In endorsing Barack Obama, Powell said Romney’s economic policies are “essentially ‘let’s cut taxes and compensate for that with other things,’ but that compensation does not cover all the cuts intended or the expenses associated with defense.”

Powell was America’s was the 65th Secretary of State, and served under President George W. Bush. He also served as the National Security Advisor, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and was the first African American to hold those positions.

General Powell endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 as well, and withstood similar racist attacks. Last year, Rush Limbaugh said General Powell will vote for President Obama again because “melanin is thicker than water.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OrUH1etjUKY%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

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Trump Says Judge’s Daughter He Attacked Is Not Protected by Gag Order – DA Disagrees

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The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is asking New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to clarify if the gag order he placed on Donald Trump protects the judge’s own daughter, who Trump has repeatedly attacked this week. District Attorney Alvin Bragg says the  gag order does cover the judge’s daughter, while Trump’s attorneys say not only does it not, but it should not.

“Following a request for clarification about the scope of Trump’s gag order from the Manhattan DA’s office, Trump’s lawyers now argue that not only is Judge Merchan’s daughter not covered by the gag order, but also that she should not be covered,” reports MSNBC executive producer Kyle Griffin.

Courthouse News’ Erik Uebelacker reports that District Attorney Alvin Bragg “believes Trump’s tirade against Judge Merchan’s daughter violates his gag order.”

He cites this line from Manhattan District Attorney’s Alvin Bragg’s pre-motion letter (below): “The People believe that the March 26 Order is properly read to protect family members of the court.”

READ MORE: Trump Brags NYPD Showed Him ‘Love’ at Slain Officer’s Wake

Uebelacker notes, “Trump’s lawyers say the order does ‘not apply in the manner claimed by the People.'”

He also points to the language in the gag order that bars Trump from: “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel or staff member…”

Katie Phang, MSNBC host and legal contributor, posted the pre-motion letter:

MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin on-air reported Trump’s attorneys “say in the event that Judge Merchan is considering making his daughter subjected to this gag order a full briefing is necessary because the implications are over President Trump’s First Amendment rights, and then they take a swipe at Judge Merchan’s daughter.”

READ MORE: Comer Refuses to Investigate Trump Family Member Over ‘Influence Peddling’ Allegation

Rubin continued, adding that Trump’s attorneys also “say because she [Merchan’s daughter] is engaged and providing support to the enemies of former President Trump it’s totally appropriate for him to talk about her.”

Earlier Friday, Rubin noted, “Trump’s attack on Judge Merchan’s daughter last night represents the fourth time in three days that he has singled her out—and exposed her to potential harm. And she’s sadly not alone.”

“Last year, during the New York Attorney General’s civil fraud trial, Trump similarly went after the wife of Judge Arthur Engoron, who publicly said her purported social media account was not, in fact, her own,” Rubin noted.

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OPINION

Biden Should Have Attended Slain NYPD Officer’s Wake ‘For Optics’ Says Tomi Lahren

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Fox News contributor Tomi Lahren blasted President Joe Biden for not attending the wake of a slain NYPD officer on Thursday, saying because Donald Trump did, the President should have changed his plans even if it was just “for optics.”

“The fact that Joe Biden didn’t change his plans to make an appearance, knowing that Donald Trump was going to be there, to me, that’s pretty brazen. You have the opportunity to show up, even if you are just doing it for optics, and he chose not to,” Lahren said on Fox News Friday afternoon (video below).

Trump was invited to the wake by Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, while one of the NYPD unions warned NYC Democratic leaders to not show up. Over the past decade about 100 police officers are killed in the line of duty annually, including 118 in 2022, according to data from USAFacts.

After attacking the Biden campaign for doing “a horrible job, optically,” Lahren, who purchased a 2000 square foot house in Nashville after she “fled” Los Angeles, explained to Fox News viewers how Trump “cares about the forgotten Americans.”

READ MORE: USA Bible Founder Says Trump Endorsement Means He Believes ‘Same Thing’ As Every American

“I come from South Dakota, I come from Middle America,” Lahren said. “He doesn’t have to pretend to understand the plight of the smaller folks out there, but he can still resonate with them, because he cares about them.”

“The thing that people in middle America love about Donald Trump and always have, is that he comes as he is. He doesn’t try to wear blue jeans and cowboy boots and try to ‘be’ one of us,” she said, “but he still is one of us in that he cares about us. He cares about the forgotten Americans.”

Speaking to reporters at the wake on Thursday, Trump, who is facing 88 criminal felony charges, said, “we have to get back to law and order. We have to do a lot of things differently because this is not working. This is happening too often.”

Watch below or at this link.

RELATED: Trump Brags NYPD Showed Him ‘Love’ at Slain Officer’s Wake

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OPINION

USA Bible Founder Says Trump Endorsement Means He Believes ‘Same Thing’ As Every American

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Amid the controversy of Donald Trump endorsing, promoting, and reportedly earning royalties from the “God Bless the USA Bible,” Lee Greenwood, the creator of the book, is speaking out to defend the ex-president.

He says there’s no difference between when Trump took the presidential oath of office by placing his hand on a bible, and now endorsing Greenwood’s version of the book, which sells for $59.99.

“You have to remember that when President Trump took his oath of office, he put his hand on a Bible to swear that he would defend the country and the Constitution,” says Greenwood, a singer-songwriter whose “God Bless the U.S.A.” has been used by many Republicans over the past few decades, with Trump playing it at his rallies.

Greenwood, speaking on the far-right media outlet Real America’s Voice, also says that Trump’s endorsement merely telegraphs that he believes the “same thing” that every other American believes.

READ MORE: Trump Brags NYPD Showed Him ‘Love’ at Slain Officer’s Wake

“This is just more of the same except for now, he’s actually telling the world and telling our country and all of its citizens, I will protect you and I will make sure that you know that I believe in the same thing you believe in, that this country was founded on faith.”

Not all Americans are Christian. A survey last month found seven out of 10 Americans oppose or are skeptical of Christian nationalism. And experts – not to mention founding father John Adams – have said America was not founded as a Christian nation.

In 2022 religious liberty expert Amanda Tyler, the executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC), told the Center for American Progress, “I believe that the single biggest threat to religious freedom in the United States today is Christian nationalism.”

Nor do all Christians support Trump’s endorsement of the “God Bless the USA Bible.”

READ MORE: ‘Hunger Games at NBC News’: New McDaniel Revelations Have ‘Enraged’ Staffers, Report Says

“Catholics on social media criticized Trump for using the Bible to make a buck, with some saying that if the real estate mogul thought it was so important for every American to have a Bible, then he should give it away for free — instead of selling it for $59.99,” The National Catholic Register reports. “For others, the most egregious offense was that the God Bless The USA Bible packaged the divinely inspired Word of God together with political documents, mixing the sacred and the profane.”

Watch Greenwood’s remarks below or at this link.

 

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