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Bill Maher: Republicans Win By ‘Cheating’ But PC Liberals Are Helping The GOP

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Bill Maher Friday night offered strong criticism of “cheating” Republicans, but warned politically-correct liberals that they can be so strident that they push independents and moderates to vote for the GOP.

The “Real Time” host noted that the vast majority of Americans support an increased minimum wage, background checks on guns, equal pay for women, and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants — which he called “illegals.”

“Republicans are against all of it,” Maher noted, quizzically. “So how do they win? I’ll tell you how. They employ a complex, multi-faceted technique political scientists call ‘cheating.’ Gerrymandering the districts, voter ID laws, purging the voter rolls, shortening the voting period, preventing anyone who’s been to prison from voting, eliminating same day registration, putting up billboards in poor black neighborhoods that say, ‘Don’t vote. There’s ghosts in there!’

“But that is not the only trick Republicans have up their sleeves. Even more than cheating, what Republicans have done is tap into the deep rich vein of cultural resentment that runs through America’s heartland like an artery clogged with hate-butter. And liberals, to be fair, sometimes make it pretty easy for them to do that.”

Maher got plenty of laughs from his guests at the table, including former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Daily Beast editor in chief John Avlon, and Charles Murray.

Murray, it must be noted — even though Maher did not — is an accused white nationalist and co-author of the infamous 1994 book, The Bell Curve, which has been labeled as scientific racism. Murray was also an original co-signer of the open letter from conservatives published this week that attacked those who applauded the “forced resignation,” as they put it, of Mozilla’s Brendan Eich as CEO.

Maher’s “New Rules” monologue had shades of the anti-left Mozilla letter, although he curiously steered away from marriage equality.

Maher went on to chastise “political correctness Nazis” who “hound” him to “censor every joke and apologize for every slight,” and he took a swipe at what many progressives and LGBT activists had applauded earlier this year. Facebook in February expanded the list of self-identifying genders to 56. Maher said he thinks “it’s ridiculous that Facebook has now decided we have to choose in our profile from 56 different genders, including transgender, cis-gender, and of course, Bruce jender.”

In concluding, Maher tried to hit his point home, reminding liberals and Democrats that he believes they are helping Republicans win elections by sounding unappealing and overly critical.

“One of the Republicans’ strongest voting blocs is low-income whites who didn’t go to college,” Maher observed. “These are people who desperately need a minimum wage hike. Need unions. They need healthcare — but not if it’s got Obama’s name on it,” he quipped. “Remember, for every liberal with a cause who makes you go ‘Oh, just shoot me,’ there’s a conservative with a gun who will.”

http://embed.crooksandliars.com/embed/PtMK0xF

 

Thanks to Crooks and Liars for the video, and The Raw Story and Crooks and Liars for portions of the transcript.

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Acting Speaker McHenry Did Not Have Authority to Evict Pelosi Says Top Rules Committee Democrat

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U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Kevin McCarthy’s hand-picked temporary successor and acting Speaker, operated outside of carefully crafted House rules when he evicted Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, the former Democratic Majority Leader, from their Capitol Hill offices just hours after Republicans ousted McCarthy as Speaker.

That’s according to the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-MA), who previously served as the Chair of the Rules Committee. He says the “Speaker pro tempore” has one job only: help elect a new Speaker of the House.

“I want to clear up some confusion,” McGovern wrote late Wednesday afternoon.

“As an unelected acting Speaker pro tempore, @PatrickMcHenry’s job is to guide the House toward the election of a new Speaker. That’s it.”

“His power is constrained by the plain text of Rule 1, Clause 8 of the Rules of the House,” said McGovern.

READ MORE: ‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

Rep. McGovern said he is “alarmed” by McHenry’s order evicting Pelosi and Hoyer.

“Given the plain text of the rule, I don’t think he has that power,” McGovern added.

McGovern further explained, “The rule says he can only exercise as much authority as is ‘necessary and appropriate’ towards the end of electing a Speaker. The Rules Committee narrowly described this rule in 2004: an acting Speaker pro tempore serves ‘for the sole purpose of electing a new Speaker.'”

“These rules were put into place after 9/11 to ensure continuity of government & quick election of a new Speaker in an emergency. Not to provide for a short-term Speaker due to Republican dysfunction,” concluded McGovern, who has served in Congress since 1997.

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

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‘My Job Is Not to Put Pool Noodles Around Hard Corners for Republicans’: AOC Blasts Critics Over McCarthy Vote

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U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted critics across the political spectrum who are angered House Democrats did not vote to keep Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, after Republicans ousted him on Tuesday.

“Contrary to how McCarthy’s defenders are behaving, men failing up is not a Constitutionally protected right,” Ocasio-Cortez said on social media. “The man made risky decisions and faced the natural consequences of them. I am not his mom, and my job is not to put pool noodles around hard corners for Republicans.”

AOC also blasted 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is now a former Democrat, after he criticized Democrats on CNN.

READ MORE: Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

“Why did Dems vote along party lines to oust Kevin McCarthy? Not because they thought it was good for the country but because that’s what they were told to do,” Yang said on social media when posting his remarks.

“Yes,” Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez responded, “because strengthening someone who voted to overturn the election, held the entire US economy hostage, launched a baseless impeachment inquiry without a vote, and refuses to honor his word is what is in the best interest of this country.”

“Do some of you hear yourselves?” she asked rhetorically.

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

Tuesday night she also defended Democrats for not, as some have put it, “saving” McCarthy.

“Does anyone believe for one minute that McCarthy would help elect a Dem speaker ‘for the institution’?” she asked. “McCarthy’s hubris is a theme. He loudly stated he wouldn’t negotiate w/Dems, called virtually none, trashed those who helped w/CR, and then expected Dem votes for free?”

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Karine Jean-Pierre Schools Peter Doocy for Asking if White House Is ‘Loving’ GOP House Chaos

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In the middle of an interview with U.S Senator John Kennedy, Fox News interrupted the Louisiana Republican for some “breaking news,” as the right wing cable network’s Peter Doocy began to ask White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the chaos far-right wing Republicans caused by ousting Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday.

“All right. Senator, thank you for joining us. We got a little bit of breaking news here. We got to jump back to the briefing. Our Peter Doocy is questioning the Press Secretary,” John Roberts told viewers as the camera cut to the White House Press Briefing Room.

“Is any part of the West Wing here, just loving the fact that Republicans don’t appear to be able to govern the one part of the government that they actually control?” Doocy asked.

“Nobody’s ‘loving’ anything when it’s when we’re not when we’re not able to deliver for the American people. Nobody’s loving that,” Jean-Pierre replied, as she explained to Doocy what the White House believes is actually important.

READ MORE: Jim Jordan, a ‘Significant Player’ in Trump’s Efforts to Overturn Election Results, Running for Speaker of the House

“It is important for Congress to work, not for us, but on behalf of the American people. It is important to make sure that we meet the challenges of the American people. That’s what’s important. What we saw, you heard from the President, what we saw on Saturday should have never have happened, but we’re glad that a deal was made. We’re glad that we’re not in a shutdown. But House Republicans should have never gotten us that far.”

Jean-Pierre went on to tell Doocy that since Republicans “are the majority in the House, they can fix this.”

“They’re creating the chaos. That is not helpful to the American people.”

“That’s why you saw the President today talk about student debt relief, and talk about what else he’s doing to make sure that we’re giving a little bit of breathing room to the American people. That’s why you heard from the President yesterday talking about or our announcement, talking about how we’re continuing to beat Big Pharma so we can lower prescription drug costs for the American people. That’s what the President cares about. That’s what he wants to see – what can we continue to do to help Americans as they face really tough challenges? So this is not, we’re not loving it. It is not helpful to any any American across the country.”

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

Doocy, went on to ask if “anybody in the West Wing has heard anybody talking about the possibility of ‘Speaker Trump.'”

Watch below or at this link.

 

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