Connect with us

IDIOCY

Homeland Security Chief: I Am ‘Not Aware’ of US Intel Report Saying Russia Interfered to Help Trump Win

Published

on

A January 2017 report that was approved by all U.S. intelligence agencies working on Russia found that not only Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election, but that Russia did so with the specific intent to help Donald Trump win the White House. Those agencies, Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which has the effect of speaking for the U.S. government’s intelligence community.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen just told reporters she has not seen the report, or its conclusion.

“I do not believe that I’ve seen that conclusion that the specific intent was to help President Trump win,” Nielsen, guardedly said Tuesday morning. “I’m not aware of that,” she said, according to reporters.

NBC News’ Marianna Sotomayor reports “Sec. Nielsen then tried to clarify her answer, saying its unclear that Putin/Russia favored Trump because Russian social media accounts actively rallied US citizens to attend pro-Hillary gatherings as much as pro-Trump ones.”

And while Russian hackers and trolls did instigate both pro-Trump and pro-Clinton rallies, they were done with the intent to sow discord and to further weaken American society.

Nielsen also tried to broaden the issue, diverting the report’s conclusion away from Trump.

“I do believe that Russia did and will continue to try to manipulate Americans’ perspective on a whole variety of issues,” she offered.

That report, an official U.S. government publication, also found that the Russian attack on America was done to harm Hillary Clinton, and to sow discord among Americans. Further, it made clear Russia will do this again.

It’s that last part that makes it so egregious for the Secretary of Homeland Security, whose number one priority is to protect the American “homeland,” to not have read the report, much less to not have acted on it.

The spokesperson for Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner released a statement in response to Nielsen’s remarks, lamenting, “I honestly can’t believe I have to keep doing this (via The Daily Beast’s Andrew Desiderio):

Some on social media called for Nielsen to resign, while others expressed shock and anger.

Hillary Clinton’s former foreign policy spokesperson:

Others:

 

RELATED STORIES:

‘NO SENSE OF URGENCY’: GOP SENATOR DELIVERS SCATHING REBUKE TO HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF

HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF’S SENATE TESTIMONY WAS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL DISASTER

CORY BOOKER BLASTS HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF’S ‘AMNESIA,’ ‘COMPLICITY’ IN REFUSING TO REMEMBER TRUMP’S ‘SHITHOLE’ REMARKS

There's a reason 10,000 people subscribe to NCRM. You can get the news before it breaks just by subscribing, plus you can learn something new every day.
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

IDIOCY

GOP Rep. Jim Jordan Says He Hopes U.S. ‘Hockey Team’ Wins World Cup

Published

on

Unlike many folks around the world, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) clearly doesn’t have World Cup fever—he just said he hopes America’s hockey team can take home the cup.

In a clip surfaced by journalist Aaron Rupar, Jordan made the comment as a button for a Friday morning Newsmax report about the House Judiciary Committee threatening to hold the Southern Poverty Law Center in contempt.

“Hi, Chairman. Wednesday night, 8 o’clock Team USA. What are our chances? How far can we go?” Newsmax host Shaun Kraisman asked.

“Well, I hope we go all the way to the championship and win it. I mean, golly, we’re on a run. Look at the hockey team, look at the UFC fight… where the American beat the Spanish guy in the main event. I mean, we’re on a roll, so let’s hope the hockey team can do the same,” Jordan said.

READ MORE: ‘Threats and Intimidation’: House Republicans Publicly Blast Jim Jordan’s ‘Tactics’

“World Cup, baby, I’ve got the fever. I know Chairman does too,” Kraisman replied.

Jordan appeared on the show to talk about the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, threatening to hold the Southern Poverty Law Center in contempt. He says the anti-hate research and activist group has not turned over documents relating to sources embedded in hate groups.

“The committee has made several good-faith efforts to work with your counsel to obtain documents responsive to the subpoena,” Jordan, wrote in a letter to SPLC’s incoming president and CEO Ryan Haygood, according to right-wing news outlet the Daily Signal. “To date, the committee has still not received any such documents. Therefore, the SPLC must promptly produce all materials responsive to the committee’s subpoena as soon as possible, but not later than 5:00 p.m. on July 9, 2026.”

The Trump administration has gone after the SPLC, alleging that it has manufactured extremist rallies and funded hate groups via its policy of paying informants. The DOJ has accused the organization of wire fraud, money laundering and making false statements, according to CNN. The SPLC denies these charges.

“We’ve already asserted in our filings that we did not lie to our donors, that we did not fund any hate groups,” Bryan Fair, interim president and CEO told the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. “The Department of Justice knew that we were working with them.”

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

IDIOCY

GOP Rep Demands Biden’s Pardons to Be ‘Declared Null and Void’

Published

on

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) appeared on Fox Business to demand that former President Joe Biden’s pardons made on the final day of his term be nullified.

Comer appeared on Mornings With Maria Monday, demanding that Biden’s last-day pardons be undone, particularly one granted to former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“There were never any meetings that Joe Biden had with his staff on these pardons,” Comer said, according to a clip surfaced by journalist Aaron Rupar, dismissing host Maria Bartiromo’s statement that it was merely that the pardons wouldn’t count because they were signed with an autopen rather than by hand.

READ MORE: Trump Is Promising Mass White House Pardons: Report

“The defense is: There were never any scheduled meetings on his calendar… There was not a single person involved in the pardon process, in the decision making on who authorized the auto-pen, that ever met with Joe Biden and discussed the individual pardon. So, there’s no evidence Joe Biden had any decision making in the pardon process. So, I think that alone is more than enough evidence to declare all the pardons issued by Joe Biden in the last day of his presidency null and void.”

Comer’s comments came after outgoing Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gabbard said the documents show a connection between the United States and the Wuhan Institute of Virology, reigniting debunked claims that COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak.

The autopen, a device that stores the motions of a person’s signature and can automatically recreate it, has been at the center of a number of right wing conspiracy theories. Though it is a fact that Biden often used an autopen to automate the document-signing process, he is far from the first president to use it, according to NPR. Moreover, there is no evidence that Biden did in fact use an autopen for these particular pardons.

But even if he did, it would not matter. Nothing in the legal code requires a pardon to have a hand-signed signature. The president is granted the power to issue pardons or grant clemency in Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution. There is no mechanism through which Congress or another president can revoke a completed pardon. A president can revoke a pardon before it has been accepted by the pardonee—as happened in 1869 and again in 2008 under President George W. Bush—but once the pardon has been completed, it is forever. The only person who can go against a presidential pardon is the pardonee themselves if they refuse to accept it.

Not to mention that while the Department of Justice or other officials can make recommendations on whether or not to grant a person clemency, there is no requirement that the president must meet with anyone to discuss a pardon. The president has full discretion on whom to pardon. A pardonee does not have to be convicted or even indicted—for example, President Gerald Ford preemptively pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, from being tried for any of the actions that led to his resignation.

Though he’s called for Biden’s pardons to be revoked in the past, President Donald Trump has also made a number of controversial pardons. Most famously, one of his first acts upon taking office for the second time was to pardon anyone involved with the January 6th, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. If Biden’s pardons could be revoked, it stands to reason that a future president could revoke many of Trump’s pardons.

Image via Reuters

Continue Reading

IDIOCY

Sen. Bill Cassidy: ‘Roads and Bridges Are a Woman’s Problem’ Because They Are ‘Doing the Shopping’

Published

on

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on Sunday insisted that infrastructure like roads and bridges is a “women’s problem” because they do the “shopping.”

Cassidy made the remarks on NBC’s Meet the Press, where he was arguing on behalf of a bipartisan infrastructure bill.

“If you go home and talk to constituents who are stuck in traffic for an hour and a half getting to work and an hour and a half getting home — three hours a day that they don’t spend with their family — they want a bridge coming to a town near them,” Cassidy explained.

“My wife says that roads and bridges are a woman’s problem if you will,” the senator added. “Because oftentimes it is the woman — aside from commuting to work — who’s also taking children to schools or doing the shopping. And the more time that she spends on that road, the less time she spends doing things of higher value.”

Watch the video below from NBC.

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 AlterNet Media.