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UPDATE: GOP House Pulls Bill To Fix Border Issue They Called ‘Crisis’ And ‘Invasion’

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House Republicans and their minions in the right-wing media have been clamoring for a fix to the “invasion” and “crisis” on our nation’s southern border. But actually doing something before summer recess to help was a bridge too far.

See update at the bottom of this report.

After yesterday’s Senate vote passing President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion to help resolve the “crisis” at the nation’s border, House Republicans this afternoon just pulled and effectively killed a bill that would have helped to address the issue they have been calling an “invasion.” That $659 million bill, a mere fraction of the multi-billion dollar bill the Senate passed, was too caustic for the Tea Party which blocked the vote — thanks in part to Senator Ted Cruz’s actions. 

The New York Times calls the move “a major embarrassment to the new leadership team” of Republican Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

House Republicans, who have long called for strengthening security at the nation’s southern border, are now forced to head home for the five-week August recess with nothing to show for their efforts — something many Republicans fear will be an enormous political liability.

“This situation shows the intense concern within our conference — and among the American people — about the need to ensure the security of our borders and the president’s refusal to faithfully execute our laws,” House Republican leaders said in a statement. “There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries.”

Because they wrongly are blaming President Obama for the 50,000 or so migrant children and a few hundred thousand adults who have reportedly entered the country without documentation, the GOP would rather now see the problem continue so they can tell their base in town halls this summer, “Blame Obama.”

Michele Bachmann recently claimed that some of the migrant children are infected with Ebola, a deadly flesh-eating disease ravaging parts of Africa — but not found in Central America. 

“People from Yemen, Iran, Iraq and other terrorist nations are making their way up through America’s southern border because they see that it’s a green light, they can easily get in,” Bachmann warned. “Not only people with potentially terrorist activities, but also very dangerous weapons are going to cross our border in addition to very dangerous drugs, and also life-threatening diseases, potentially including Ebola and other diseases like that.”

She also claimed that the President was planning on performing medical experiments on these children.

“Now President Obama is trying to bring all of those foreign nationals, those illegal aliens to the country and he has said that he will put them in the foster care system,” Bachmann said. “That’s more kids that you can see how – we can’t imagine doing this, but if you have a hospital and they are going to get millions of dollars in government grants if they can conduct medical research on somebody, and a Ward of the state can’t say ‘no,’ a little kid can’t say ‘no’ if they’re a Ward of the state; so here you could have this institution getting millions of dollars from our government to do medical experimentation and a kid can’t even say ‘no.’ It’s sick.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi today told reporters,

“Today to follow up on their tirade against the poor children they have a bill that is so bad but it’s not bad enough for some of their outside groups to whom they pander. And so in order to sweeten the pie for them, and intensify the harm for the children, they’ve added another bill tool the supplemental that they have on the floor. The supplemental does not track humanitarian assistance, due process, assistance to repatriate these children back to their own countries in a safe way. It only tracks more on the border without helping to resolve the humanitarian challenge that we have.

“And again, if that bill were not bad enough, they’re saying to their members, unless you vote for this terrible bill, even though you don’t think it’s terrible enough, you’re not going to get a chance to tie the president’s hands when it comes to using his discretion and executive authority to improve the situation.”

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of migrant children are alone — or in prison, or without their families — and hungry, and scared, not able to see a positive future in their own country, or in the one they are standing in.

UPDATE: The GOP has delayed the House’s summer recess by one day, will meet Friday morning to discuss the situation on the border and presumably decide if they want to vote on their border bill, which is not related to the Senate’s bill. Should the House vote for and pass their border bill, there’s no way of knowing if the Senate will stay in session nor any way of knowing if they would pass the House version. Finally, on the chance the House and Senate come to an agreement, given how different the House version is from President Barack Obama’s $3.7 billion bill, he might veto the House version.

This is a developing story — stay tuned.

 

Image by House GOP via Flickr

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STILL A COWARD

Trump Refuses Debate ‘Rematch’, Says Harris ‘Was Beaten Badly’

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September 11, 2024

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Former President Donald Trump has declined Vice President Kamala Harris’ offer of a second debate. He compared himself to a top boxer, declaring himself the winner and wondering why he should bother with a rematch.

Trump and Harris had their first debate Tuesday night on ABC. Shortly afterward—less than an hour, according to ABC News—the Harris campaign asked for a followup debate in October. Fox News offered to be the host, which should have appealed to Trump, considering he wanted Tuesday’s debate to be hosted on the conservative-leaning cable news outlet. But apparently, he’s changed his mind.

“In the World of Boxing or UFC, when a Fighter gets beaten or knocked out, they get up and scream, ‘I DEMAND A REMATCH, I DEMAND A REMATCH!’ Well, it’s no different with a Debate. She was beaten badly last night. Every Poll has us WINNING, in one case, 92-8, so why would I do a Rematch?” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

READ MORE: MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

Though Trump declared himself the winner, that is not a common belief. Many networks declared Harris the winner, including Fox News. Trump is correct that one poll did have him winning 92% to 8%, but that was an online poll from Newsmax. Newsmax is a far-right media outlet. It came to prominence during the 2020 election when Trump turned against Fox News for becoming the first outlet to declare President Joe Biden the winner in Arizona, a battleground state. Newsmax promoted Trump’s unfounded claims of voter fraud.

Trump shared a number of other polls on his Truth Social account shortly after the debate, but most were from explicitly pro-Trump outlets like the Daily Caller, or were taken on X, formerly Twitter, which has skewed right following Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media platform.

Polls from more mainstream outlets, however, told a different story. Newsweek’s reader poll showed Harris ahead nearly 2 to 1. CNN’s poll had a similar spread, with Harris declared the winner by 63% of viewers. In the Washington Post’s poll of 25 uncommitted swing-state voters, 23 said Harris did better. YouGov’s polling was closer, but Harris still pulled ahead 43% to 32%.

Pundits and experts also awarded the win to Harris. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times said Harris “rattled” Trump.

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LOL

Trump Media Stock Price Hits Lowest Point Since Last November Following Debate

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September 11, 2024

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The stock price for former President Donald Trump’s company Trump Media has fallen to its lowest point in nearly a year the day following his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

As of Wednesday morning at 11:00 eastern time, shares of Trump Media were trading at $15.96, according to CNBC. The last time the stock was that low was on November 14, when shares traded at $15.925 at close of business. The stock price has been declining since July 17’s high of $37.38.

That high is not quite half of the stock’s peak price this year on March 26, when the stock hit a high of $66.22 per share. That day had the highest stock price since less than a month after the launch of the company, when shares hit an all-time high of $97.54 at close on March 6, 2022. Trump Media & Technology Group was founded on February 8 of that year.

READ MORE: Parallels Between Trump Media Loans and Infamous Trump Tower Meeting Drawn by Reporter

Trump Media’s biggest asset is the social media platform Truth Social. Since the beginning of the company, it has promised to have a television streaming service, TMTG+, however it’s yet to materialize. Promises of some form of Trump TV network have circled since 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was expected to win the presidential election, according to NBC News.

Given the company’s small portfolio, many have seen the stock like buying stock in Trump personally, according to CNN. The NASDAQ ticker symbol is even DJT after his initials, rather than TMTG, the initials of the company’s full name. And some stock experts have pinned its success on Trump’s own success in November’s election.

“I think if he loses, he has to sell and DJT goes to $1. If he wins, he doesn’t sell and DJT can make a run for it,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO Matthew Tuttle told CNN.

Trump has $2.3 billion in Trump Media stock, however, he’s been unable to sell it, due to a lock-up period. But that period will expire in two weeks, according to CNN. But if he sells off his shares, it could cause the stock to fall even further.

“It would be all but impossible for Trump to liquidate his whole stake or even a third of it without completely tanking the stock price,” Michael Ohlrogge, associate professor of law at the New York University School of Law, told CNN.

This year has been particularly tough for Trump Media. This April, the stock’s woes led to Trump falling off Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index of the richest 500 people in the world, according to Fortune. The company has also faced lawsuits from the company’s co-founders, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, according to the Washington Post, who were in turn sued by Trump, NBC News reported.

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MELTDOWN

MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

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4 hours ago

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September 11, 2024

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The phrase “Boycott ABC” trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, the morning after the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

ABC News aired the debate Tuesday evening, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis. Though Trump started the debate calmly, as the night went on, he got more and more upset. The moderators pushed back on some of his more bizarre claims, like repeating the debunked conspiracy theory about people eating cats in Ohio or that Tim Walz backs post-birth abortions.

Pundits largely agreed that Harris won the debate. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times described Harris as “sharp” and said she “rattled” the former president. Fox News’ voter panel said the vice president had been the victor.

READ MORE: Trump Late Night Rant Signals Plan to Evade Harris Debate as Rules Come Back Into Play

Even before the debate, there were claims of bias. On Monday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity predicted that the debate would be “biased” due to the network airing it.

“The one and only scheduled presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take place. You can watch it right here on Fox News Channel. But unfortunately, it is being moderated by ABC-Disney, barring some kind of political miracle, this debate will not be fair,” Hannity said on his show, according to Mediaite. “ABC-Disney is officially a woke, left-wing organization.”

Hannity also called for a boycott of all Disney properties. ABC is owned by the megacorporation.

“Maybe [Disney CEO] Bob Iger and his left-wing heir apparent, maybe they don’t want half the country to attend their theme parks, maybe they don’t care about their tanking stock price, which is their prerogative,” Hannity said. “They’re free to make that choice, but if they are biased against Donald Trump, as they have been leading into tomorrow night, as their nightly newscast is, half the country is not going to like it one bit. They are not going to like ABC-Disney one bit either.”

As Hannity predicted, many Trump supporters came out in droves to slam ABC and Disney.

“At this point, we need to boycott ABC News forever. If they come on again, we need to turn them off. If they are on YouTube, we need to turn them off. ABC News cannot be trusted by the American people to give impartial journalism. They are a propaganda arm of the lying Democrats,” X user China Clark posted.

“The role of @abcnews and @DavidMuir is to allow Haitian thugs to invade your country and eat your pets while they gaslight you by claiming that it’s not true. Just ask the residents of Springfield, Ohio,” Former Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson wrote. 

“.@ABC is a disgrace. My phone is lighting up with nonstop messages about how extremely biased ABC is during this debate. Kamala Harris is VP RIGHT NOW. People can’t afford anything RIGHT NOW. The border is out of control RIGHT NOW. But ABC is in attack mode against Trump!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote. 

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