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Top Republican Senator Waves Rifle In Air At Conservative Convention (Video)

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Republican U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell is the Senate Minority leader, and he’s facing a very tough re-election in his home state of Kentucky. The Tea Party is coming at him from the far right, and Democrat Allison Grimes — who has been polling above McConnell — is coming at him from the left.

So what’s a failing 72-year old anti-gay, anti-women Southern Baptist lawyer whose been in Washington, D.C. since 1985 to do?

Bring in the big guns.

Specifically, a rifle.

And then wave it in the air on the opening day of CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

And that’s what Senator McConnell just did.

After his show of “strength” (if you need to wave a gun in the air to show how strong you really are, you’re really not) McConnell handed it to retiring Senator Tom Coburn.

McConnell, you’ll remember, infamous said in 2010, “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Really, after that, it’s been all down hill.

Watch:

 

http://player.theplatform.com/p/2E2eJC/nbcNewsOffsite?guid=f_dc_mccongun_140306

 

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Trump Seen Struggling to Stay Awake Repeatedly in Cabinet Meeting Video

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Once again, President Donald Trump appeared to struggle to stay awake, this time during his mid-Tuesday televised Cabinet meeting. At several points, the president was filmed with his eyes closed, occasionally reopening them while seeming disengaged.

In one 30-second clip, the president’s eyes close numerous times, then Trump nods when he is mentioned. In a shorter clip, Trump also struggles to keep his eyes open, as his hand holds up his head.

In a 23-second clip, the president is hunched over, slouching in his chair, his eyes closed in what could be described as appearing to nod off.

Trump slouches and appears to try to listen as HUD Secretary Scott Turner speaks, in this 79-second video.

READ MORE: GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

In a 17-second clip, journalist Aaron Rupar wrote, “Trump’s face is becoming contorted as he desperately tries to cling to consciousness.” In another, he called the president “Dozy Don.”

But in perhaps the most extreme capture of the president appearing to doze off, as Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks, Trump is totally hunched over, his eyes closed, his head then falls forward, and he appears to try to wake up before seemingly falling back asleep.

While this is not the first time the president has appeared to fall asleep on camera, it comes after a massive late-night social media spree, in which Trump posted or reposted over 150 times, as Alternet reported.

Axios’ Marc Caputo noted that “Trump went on a Truth Social bender last night, posting 158 times from 9pm Monday to 12am Tuesday Just before 5:30 am, he started hitting social media again.”

The media is beginning to notice.

READ MORE: ‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

Last week, The New York Times published an in-depth look at Trump’s “signs of fatigue.”

“Mr. Trump appeared to doze off during an event in the Oval Office,” one week after Halloween, the Times noted.

The president “has fewer public events on his schedule and is traveling domestically much less than he did by this point during his first year in office, in 2017, although he is taking more foreign trips,” according to the Times. “He also keeps a shorter public schedule than he used to. Most of his public appearances fall between noon and 5 p.m., on average.”

“During an Oval Office event that began around noon on Nov. 6,” the Times added, “Mr. Trump sat behind his desk for about 20 minutes as executives standing around him talked about weight-loss drugs.”

“At one point, Mr. Trump’s eyelids drooped until his eyes were almost closed, and he appeared to doze on and off for several seconds. At another point, he opened his eyes and looked toward a line of journalists watching him. He stood up only after a guest who was standing near him fainted and collapsed.”

READ MORE: Student’s Bible-Based Essay Grade Leads University to Put Instructor on Leave

 

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GOP Touts ‘Gulf of America Act’ in Bold New List of Party ‘Accomplishments’

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Speaker Mike Johnson in a House Republican leadership press conference on Tuesday told reporters, “Republicans are not just going to hold onto the majority,” in 2026. “We’re going to grow it.”

Earlier, during their conference meeting, Johnson “told House Republicans that he expects the GOP to defy history in 2026 — win more seats/not lose majority — due to their performance this year,” Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported. “The party in power usually loses seats in a midterm.”

At the press conference, as reported by The Hill’s Emily Brooks, Republicans displayed three large posters detailing “House GOP Accomplishments.” The three posters list less than three dozen successes. Many of them are not related to what President Donald Trump ran on — mainly, reducing the cost of living for Americans.

READ MORE: ‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

Among the thirty-plus accomplishments is the passage of the “Gulf of America Act,” which directs federal agencies to observe President Trump’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico.

The posters also brag that they defunded USAID, NPR, and PBS.

Reports, including from The New Yorker, charge that defunding USAID has or will lead to the death of hundreds of thousands, including children:

“As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children.”

In July, the UCLA Newsroom reported that “USAID cuts may lead to more than 14 million deaths globally, including 4.5 million children under 5 by 2030, researchers say.”

READ MORE: Student’s Bible-Based Essay Grade Leads University to Put Instructor on Leave

The House GOP’s posters also brag that they passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which is responsible for gutting about $1 trillion from Medicaid. It also effectively forces cuts of hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare, and takes a large chunk out of SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The posters also claim the GOP passed 331 bills, codified 67 executive orders, and accomplished the “Total Defeat of Government Shutdown.”

Bloomberg News’ Erik Wasson added that “One of the accomplishments is passing 3 out of 12 annual spending bills that were due Oct. 1.”

READ MORE: Fox Host Urges Defense of America’s ‘Christian Culture’ Against Communism

 

Image via Reuters

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‘No Republicans Willing to Negotiate’: Health Care Subsidy Deal in Doubt

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A portion of House and Senate Republicans would like to extend the Obamacare subsidies that expire on December 31, but an even larger portion would not. There is no consensus among Republicans in either chamber on how to move forward, and Democrats are complaining that Republicans are unwilling to negotiate to save the subsidies before the fast-approaching deadline — a feat that is being seen as increasingly unlikely.

“There are no Republicans willing to negotiate over this. None,” lamented U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), according to The Hill. “Where is Donald Trump? Where is the Republican leadership in the House or the Senate? None of them want to talk about health care assistance for American families.”

“They don’t want to talk to the Democrats about that,” added Warren, a member of the Senate Democratic leadership. “They want to go off an[d] engage in some fantasy conversation with each other about people who can afford to pay for health care. They have voted to cut health care, and they don’t want to reverse those cuts.”

READ MORE: Student’s Bible-Based Essay Grade Leads University to Put Instructor on Leave

If, as planned, the Obamacare subsidies expire, millions of Americans will see their monthly health care premiums skyrocket, in some cases by more than double.

While some Republicans have said they do want to extend the subsidies, a major issue is abortion.

Republicans want to put extra guardrails in place to ensure no federal funds pay for abortions, something Democrats say are already in place. The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding of abortion.

Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune says for next week’s planned vote on health care, “we might not be far enough along on the bipartisan discussions.” And he warned, “there are some significant sticking points.”

Thune “highlighted an escalating fight over adding language to any bill extending the subsidies to ensure federal money is not spent on abortion care.”

READ MORE: Fox Host Urges Defense of America’s ‘Christian Culture’ Against Communism

“Dealing with Hyde is a big issue, obviously, for both sides,” he said.

But Thune also insisted there is “a lot of interest” from Republicans, and “a lot of good ideas that go back to try and address what we think are some of the underlying problems with ObamaCare in the first place.”

He said that includes “affordability,” and that “premiums continue to escalate year over year, and we think that has a lot to do with the way it’s structured and how it incentivizes insurance companies to cover people.”

Rather than extending the subsidies, some Republicans want to give federal funds directly to Americans, for individual health care savings accounts, to help them pay for insurance. Funds from those accounts generally are not permitted to pay for insurance premiums.

Meanwhile, others see President Donald Trump as the major sticking point.

“Some Senators in both parties agree that the only path to an extension of some sort relies on heavy involvement from President Donald Trump,” Punchbowl News reported on Tuesday. “Trump, they argue, is more than capable of pushing enough Republicans to accept a compromise that stabilizes health care costs while preventing big GOP electoral losses next November.”

“I don’t think anything will pass without the president’s approval,” said Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD). “There’s lots of ideas out there. Let’s see if we can’t put something together and take it to him.”

U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) said it would “help” if Trump just told Republicans to “Make a deal.”

READ MORE: Trump Leaves Lawmakers in Limbo on Health Care Fix

 

Image via Reuters

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