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NC’s GOP House Speaker Falsely Claims DOJ Told North Carolina to ‘Repeal’ HB2 ‘Before Monday’

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Rep. Tim Moore Lied About What the Dept. Of Justice Is Demanding on HB2

Even before HB2 was drafted, passed, and signed into law in under 12 hours now nearly two months ago, top North Carolina Republican leaders were lying about what Charlotte’s nondiscrimination law did and did not do. 

During the passage of HB2, GOP lawmakers tried to frame it as a necessary “commerce” bill, to make it easier for corporations to operate throughout the state – another lie.

As protests and blowback to HB2 grew and grew, surprising GOP leadership including Gov. Pat McCrory (stunning, given that Indiana went through a similar battle exactly one year prior), talking points were quickly sent out to top Republicans, and were even formatted into a stunningly false and misleading press release published by Gov. McCrory, and repeated by Senate Leader Phil Berger, and the man credited with “authoring” the bill (we now know the credit belongs to an anti-gay hate group), Rep. Dan Bishop.

Bishop repeated those lies in a disastrous example of journalism malpractice with NBC News’ Chuck Todd, where Bishop lied and Todd let him, over and over.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Dept. of Justice officially notified the State of North Carolina, in a letter to Gov. McCrory, that HB2 is illegal. The DOJ, in its three-page letter explaining why HB2 is illegal, demanded Gov. McCrory respond by Monday at 6:00 PM EDT, stating if he will cease enforcing HB2.

The DOJ noted that if the governor missed the deadline, it could withhold hundreds of millions, and possibly billions of dollars in federal funding. 

Enter North Carolina’s grandstanding Speaker of the House, GOP Rep. Tim Moore. Thursday afternoon, Moore held a press conference blaming President Obama, and, spectacularly, stating North Carolina had no intention of meeting the DOJ deadline.

“We will take no action by Monday,” Moore told reporters Thursday, as reported by Colin Campbell of the News & Observer. “That deadline will come and go. We don’t ever want to lose any money, but we’re not going to get bullied by the Obama administration to take action prior to Monday’s date. That’s not how this works.”

“If you take the way the letter is written by the Obama Justice Dept., they’re asking us to repeal a duly-enacted law before Monday.”

That’s a lie.

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“Please advise the Department,” the Justice Department letter states, “no later than the close of business on May 9, 2016, whether you will remedy these violations of Title VII, including by confirming that the State will not comply with or implement H.B. 2, and that it has notified employees of the State and public agencies that. consistent with federal law, they are permitted to access bathrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity.”

What that says is, tell us if you will continue to enforce HB2 or not, and what you will do to fix the Title VII violations. 

What that also says is, please tell us whether or not you intend to.

What that does not say is, “repeal HB2 before Monday.”

Moore is lying through his teeth.

In fact, Moore has absolutely nothing to do with the DOJ letter.

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It is addressed to Gov. McCrory, and as the chief executive he has the ability to enforce – or not – HB2, or parts of HB2. This is not a legislative matter at all.

In another press conference today, Moore continued his obfuscation and spotlight preening.

“The legislative process doesn’t work where a response can be given by just a few days,” Moore told reporters. Again, this is not a legislative issue.

He then went on to claim that he doesn’t “believe” Governor McCrory “would have the authority to respond, because it’s a law.”

Balderdash. The letter is addressed to the Governor and he has not only the authority but the legal duty to respond.

“What the Obama administration has asked is that we essentially ignore our law or repeal our law, so I don’t think the executive branch can choose to not enforce that law.”

Actually, the executive branch can. It’s done all the time. There are still a dozen states with unconstitutional sodomy laws on the books – including North Carolina. They are not being enforced. There are literally dozens of state laws on the books across the country that are not being enforced. Gov. McCrory has the ability to not enforce HB2. And he certainly has the authority to respond to the DOJ.

The real question is, why does Tim Moore think this is any of his business?

 

EARLIER:

9 Cold Hard Facts: HB2 Was Never About ‘Public Safety’

WATCH: Pat McCrory Says HB2 Didn’t Cause Backlash – ‘This Was Started by the Left’

Top North Carolina Republicans Are Going Ballistic Over Justice Dept. Announcement HB2 Is Illegal

 

Image: Screenshot via Charlotte Observer

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News

Pence Ordered to Comply With Subpoena, Testify Before Special Counsel’s Grand Jury

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March 28, 2023

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Mike Pence, the ex-vice president, must testify before Dept. of Justice special counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection, a federal judge has ruled, rejecting his claims of executive privilege.

The judge is requiring Pence to answer questions about his conversations with Donald Trump leading up to the insurrection, and to answer any questions related to any possible illegal acts Donald Trump may have committed, according to ABC News’ senior investigative reporter Katherine Faulders and CNN’s Abby Phillip.

Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, “outright rejected Trump’s executive privilege challenge, but ruled more narrowly on Pence speech and debate challenge,” Faulders adds.

The judge, apparently citing Pence’s “speech and debate clause” claim, said “that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election,” CNN reports.

READ MORE: ‘We’re Not Gonna Fix It’: TN Republican Says Congress Can Do Nothing to Stop Gun Violence – Calls for Christian ‘Revival’

NBC News reports Judge Boasberg “did, however, grant Pence a partial victory as to his argument that he was shielded from having to testify about Jan. 6 because of his constitutional role as part of the legislative branch.”

In what some legal experts dismissed as a faulty argument, “Pence’s legal team had argued that the Constitution’s ‘speech and debate’ clause should prevent special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors from eliciting any testimony about communications or activity related to Pence’s role as president of the Senate in presiding over the certification of the election results.”

Overall CNN calls it “another win for special counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating the Trump-aligned effort to subvert the 2020 election. Smith subpoenaed Pence for testimony and documents earlier this year.”

Pence can still appeal.

Watch MSNBC’s report below or at this link.

This is a breaking news and developing story.

This article has been updated to add video.

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘Taking Guns Away Is Not the Answer’: Scalise Encourages Prayer After Nashville School Mass Shooting

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3 hours ago

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March 28, 2023

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The official line from House Republicans on Monday’s mass shooting at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville is to encourage prayer and making schools “safer,” but “taking guns away is not the answer.”

GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-most powerful Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, on Tuesday encouraged prayer, waiting for more facts, and looking into mental health option, despite his record of voting against them. Six people, including three nine-year olds and three adults, were shot to death after a shooter shot through the doors of Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School.

“The first thing in any kind of tragedy I do is I pray,” Scalise told a reporter Tuesday when asked if there’s anything Congress can do to reduce gun violence and deaths. “I pray for the victims. I pray for their families.”

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) also encouraged prayer over action. “We’re not gonna fix it,” he declared point-blank, while calling for a Christian “revival.”

READ MORE: Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

Scalise was shot in 2017 in a rare act of left-wing gun violence by a man angry at then-President Donald Trump. He and House Republicans have repeatedly used that attack to target Democrats and their policies.

“I really get angry when I see people trying to politicize it for their own personal agenda,” Scalise continued, referring to shootings, “especially when we don’t even know the facts. There are facts coming out.”

“It looks like the shooter originally went to another school that had real stronger, much stronger security and ultimately went to this school,” Scalise said, which is false. According to a CNN report, the shooter had previously “scouted” a second location but had a detailed plan and maps of The Covenant School.

“Let’s get the facts,” Scalise insisted, suggesting no action should be taken before any investigations into this shooting are complete.

The Washington Post in a continually-updated report notes, “There were more school shootings in 2022 — 46 — than in any year since at least 1999.”

It adds, “There have been 376 school shootings” since Columbine, in 1999, and, “More than 348,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since Columbine.”

But Scalise urged Americans to “work to see if there’s something that we can do to help secure schools.”

READ MORE: New WSJ Poll Is Devastating for DeSantis and His ‘Anti-Woke’ Policies

And he insisted reducing the number of guns in America, currently believed to be over 400 million – more than the total population of the country – is “not the answer.”

“We’ve talked about things that we can do, and it just seems like on the other side, all they want to do is take guns away from law abiding citizens, before they even know the facts. The first thing they talk about is taking guns away from law abiding citizens. And that’s not the answer, by the way. So why don’t we number one, keep those families in our prayers and see if there were things that were missed. Along the way, we’ve talked about the need to improve mental health in this country, and that’s been a driver of a lot of these shootings as well.”

But just last September, Scalise, along with all but one House Republican, voted against a bill that would “increase access to mental and behavioral health care.”

He also skipped a vote one week earlier on the Mental Health Justice Act of 2022.

Watch Scalise’s remarks in this clip, below or at this link.

 

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News

‘We’re Not Gonna Fix It’: TN Republican Says Congress Can Do Nothing to Stop Gun Violence – Calls for Christian ‘Revival’

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5 hours ago

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March 28, 2023

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U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) says there’s nothing the 535 elected officials in the House and Senate can do to reduce gun violence and gun deaths.

“We’re not gonna fix it,” Congressman Burchett said on the steps of the Capitol.

“I don’t see any role that we could do other than mess things up, honestly,” he said in response to Monday’s school mass shooting in Nashville, where three nine-year olds and three adults were shot to death by a shooter with two AR-15 style assault rifles and a handgun.

READ MORE: Tennessee Governor Slammed After ‘Praying’ for Nashville School Community Without Mentioning Mass Shooting

Instead of Congress enacting stricter gun laws, background checks, and a ban on assault weapons, Congressman Burchett said, “you’ve got to change people’s hearts,” as he called for a Christian revival.

“As a Christian, we talk about the church. I’ve said this many times, I think we really need a revival in this country.”

Monday’s shooting at the Covenant Presbyterian Elementary School was the 130th mass shooting this year in America, bringing the death toll from all gun violence across all causes to 9989, including 403 children 17 or younger, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Congressman Burchett is a member of the far-right Republican Study Committee, which has strong ties to the National Rifle Association (NRA).

READ MORE: ‘Our Children Deserve Better’: First Lady Jill Biden Speaks Out After Six Die in Nashville School Mass Shooting

On Monday, Burchett released a statement saying, “Kelly and I are praying for everyone at The Covenant School, especially the families of the shooting victims. No one should have to go through that kind of horrific event or lose a loved one like that. I’m so thankful to those brave folks who brought down the shooter and took care of the students and their families.”

Earlier this month Rep. Burchett was one of 26 House Republicans on the Oversight Committee who refused to sign a simple two-sentence statement denouncing white supremacy.

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