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Watch: US Congresswoman Tells Anti-Trans Witness ‘I Think You’re a Bigot, Lady’

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Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren Had a Few Strong Words for an Anti-LGBT Human Rights Commission Member

Democratic U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California took issue with a statement placed in the record from an anti-LGBT witness testifying before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Saying she could not let the testimony go without denouncing it, Rep. Lofgren proceeded to read it aloud.

“If I believe that I am a Russian princess, that doesn’t make me a Russian princess, even if my friends and acquaintances are willing to indulge my fantasy. Nor am I a Great Horned Owl just because — as I have been told — I happen to share some personality traits with those feathered creatures,” Gail Heriot, who happens to be a member of the United States Commission on Human Rights, wrote in her testimony.

“I’ve got to say, I found this rather offensive,” Lofgren announced, after reading Heriot’s statement. “It says to me that the witness really doesn’t know anything and probably has never met a transgender child who is going through, in almost every case, a very difficult experience finding themselves.”

Heriot, who was sitting and prepared to deliver oral testimony, interjected, demanding to be heard. Rep. Lofgren refused, and when Heriot challenged her, responded, “I think you’re a bigot, lady. I think you are an ignorant bigot.”

As Talking Points Memo notes, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa, who was in charge of the proceedings, told Lofgren she was “out of order.”

“Mr. Chairman, it is my time, and I would just like to say that we allow witnesses to say offensive things, but I cannot allow that kind of bigotry to go into the record unchallenged,” Lofgren responded.

“Does that mean you think I am a Russian princess?,” Heriot quipped.

“I have no idea,” Lofgren replied.

Watch:

 

Hat tip: Huffington Post

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YOUR HIGHNESSES?

‘Thought They Were the Royal Family’: New Book Reveals How Jared and Ivanka Tried to Force Themselves on Queen Elizabeth II

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September 28, 2021

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Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump tried to push their way into meeting Queen Elizabeth II during a presidential visit, according to a new book.

An excerpt of the forthcoming book, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now,” by Melania Trump’s former chief of staff and former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham reveals that Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law wanted to join the royal meeting, in a serious breach of protocol, but were shut out when they wouldn’t fit into the helicopter, reported the Washington Post.

“I finally figured out what was going on,” Grisham writes. “Jared and Ivanka thought they were the royal family of the United States.”

Grisham’s book is especially harsh to Kushner and his wife, who each held senior White House positions despite a lack of government experience, and reveals Ivanka Trump frequently invoked “my father” during staff meetings and calls Kushner “the Slim Reaper” because he often inserted himself in other people’s projects and left them to take the blame after making a mess.

“I had shared with Mrs. Trump many times my opinion that if we lost reelection in 2020 it would be because of Jared,” Grisham writes. “She didn’t disagree with me.”

Kushner was the twice-impeached one-term president’s “real chief of staff” by the end of the administration and took a leading role in the coronavirus pandemic response, such as dictating much of Trump’s widely criticized first televised address on the pandemic that sent markets reeling and plunged air travel into chaos.

 

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CRIME

‘No Doubt’ Trump and His Allies Were Staging a ‘Seditious Conspiracy’: Former Harvard Law Professor

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12 hours ago

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September 27, 2021

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On Monday’s edition of CNN’s “OutFront,” former Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe broke down how the plan concocted by far-right lawyer John Eastman on behalf of former President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election constituted a “seditious conspiracy.”

“I know you call this an attempted coup, not just in the general use of the word that so many have adopted, but in a very specific way. You say Eastman delivered the blueprint,” said anchor Erin Burnett. “Tell me why you now feel so confident that that is exactly the word which describes exactly what it was he was trying to do, and that that was Trump’s intention.”

“Well, there’s no doubt from the information we now have about the meeting that Trump was holding with people like Giuliani and Eastman shortly before the insurrection that we all saw on live television, that they were planning, step by step, to twist arms and pressure people, including building a gallows if necessary with Pence’s name on it, in order to get the vice president to perform a role that the Constitution doesn’t assign the vice president,” said Tribe.

Tribe then went on to cite the specific law that he believes Trump and his allies broke with their actions before and during the Capitol riots.

“It was seditious conspiracy,” he said. “That’s the term that the U.S. Criminal Code uses, 18 U.S. Code section 2384, and then it led to inciting an insurrection. It was all part of a long plan, much more public than most coups that we see.”

Tribe went on to detail how the former president might try to replicate his illegitimate attempt to take power in 2024.

“The back-up plan is to get states to disregard the votes of the people even after the suppression of votes and the counting by people who are partisans if it doesn’t go their way,” he said.

Tribe concluded by warning Americans against complacency, as “we can’t just let that go on while we go over the cliff and destroy our democracy.”

Watch below:

 

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News

‘Privileged’ Millionaire Joe Manchin Blasted for Claim $3.5 Trillion Jobs Bill Could Create ‘Entitlement Mentality’

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14 hours ago

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September 27, 2021

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U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) for months has effectively been working to derail President Joe Biden’s agenda, by refusing to eliminate the filibuster and by refusing to support Democrats’ $3.5 trillion jobs bill.

Like many of the wealthiest Americans, the coronavirus pandemic did not hurt Senator Manchin’s net worth. It grew by $1 million from 2018 to 2020, to $8.6 million, leading some on Monday to blast him over remarks he made to reporters Monday about “entitlement mentality” over Biden’s $3.5 trillion jobs, infrastructure, and social spending legislation.

“We’re just concerned about entitlement mentality versus rewarding mentality and then taking care of those who really can’t take care of themselves… there’s so much good stuff in there that we’re still working diligently,” Manchin told reporters, as NBC News’ Sahil Kapur reports.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted at Monday’s daily press briefing, 80 percent of Americans support much of the legislation’s critical points.

Many, saying they are tired of Manchin trying to control if not derail the Democratic agenda, are expressing outrage.

 

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