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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Santorum: Nothing ‘Particularly Problematic’ With Trump Discussing Playboy Model Hush Money Payoff

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Former GOP Presidential Candidate Who Ran on ‘Family Values’ Platform Does 180

Former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum on Sunday argued that leaked tapes of President Donald Trump were not “problematic” even though he can be heard talking about paying hush money to an alleged mistress.

During a panel discussion on CNN, host Jake Tapper explained that a short audio tape had been leaked of Trump discussing paying off former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has claimed that the tape exonerates him because he suggests in the audio that it would not be possible to buy McDougal’s silence.

Michael Avenatti, the attorney for alleged Trump mistress Stormy Daniels, also said on Sunday that he was aware of additional tapes of discussions between the president and his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen.

“Are you concerned at all about what might be in these tapes?” Tapper asked Santorum on Sunday.

“Hearing the reports of that particular conversation, I don’t think there’s anything particularly problematic in that conversation,” Santorum insisted. “But it raises the other question, how much did he record and when did he record it and what else is there?”

Without any prompting, Santorum then turned the conversation to Trump’s controversial press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

“I basically believe that the president is focused on Russia for the wrong reason,” the former GOP senator stuttered. “Which is, he keeps getting dragged back into this, you know, that he was somehow guilty of something when there’s no evidence anywhere that the president did anything to collude with the Russians.”

“And the best thing this president can do is walk away from this whole Russia scenario, stop talking about it,” he added. “I think the Mueller investigation is going to be pretty clear. There are lots of people who are being investigated.”

“Michael Cohen is a separate investigation,” Tapper reminded his guest.

“All of this is related to this whole idea that that Trump somehow — and his campaign — colluded,” Santorum said, returning to the Russia case. “And that somehow the Russians had a determinative effect in the election, which they did not. And so, I think he needs to just continue to walk away from this and stop talking about it.”

Watch the video below from CNN.

 

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Franklin Graham Serves Up Massively Hypocritical Claims on Vaccines, Trump and the Press in Axios Interview

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Pro-Trump conservative Evangelical leader Franklin Graham sat down with Axios co-founder Mike Allen and served up several hypocritical takes on topics ranging from former President Donald Trump to vaccines to the media.

Perhaps the greatest falsehood was a short exchange on the coronavirus vaccine.

Numerous reports for months make clear conservative Evangelicals are the largest group of Americans refusing to get the vaccine, and given that one in four Americans are evangelical, that alone will make it hard for the U.S. to reach herd immunity.

“Evangelical resistance to the COVID-19 vaccine presents a public health challenge,” NPR reported April 5.

A New York Times headline that same day made the problem ever clearer: “Millions of white evangelicals do not intend to get vaccinated.”

One month earlier an AP/NORC poll found “40% of white evangelical Protestants said they likely won’t get vaccinated.”

According the Graham (who has been encouraging evangelicals to get the shot) evangelicals aren’t the problem.

“Over the last four years as you supported President Trump you saw everything being more politicized, polarized, like do you feel like some of this is on your doorstep?” Axios’s Mike Allen posited in the interview (below.)

“No,” Graham replied. “I appreciate what the President did for our country.”

“Because a lot of his followers,” Allen continued, “a lot of Christians, a lot of evangelical Christians do not believe science, the truth, the press.”

“Many accept vaccines,” Graham said, “Many don’t. And it’s not an evangelical thing,” he claimed, which is false.

Allen also asked Graham about how Trump treated the press.

“Rally after rally, President Trump would say, ‘don’t believe them,’ pointing to the cameras, like, ‘don’t believe the press, don’t believe anyone but me.'”

“And I would have never had said that,” Graham claimed. “And I’ll think this, this is hurting. I think you’ve built a wall. I think it created animosity when it shouldn’t have. Just because somebody disagrees with you, doesn’t mean they’re your enemy.”

“You think it was a mistake for President Trump to demonize the press?” Allen asked point blank.

“No question about it,” Graham replied (video below.)

Here’s Graham doing the exact same thing Trump did, and to help advance Trump’s agenda (all quotes from Graham’s Twitter account):

“I’ve never seen hatred like we’re seeing in our nation today. The mainstream media is so biased & will do whatever they can to attack @POTUS Trump. He has done more for our country in 4 yrs than any president in my lifetime, but that doesn’t matter to agenda-driven media.” Oct. 16, 2020

“Much of the media has lost it. There’s no respect, no honor. What happened to professionalism & to journalists reporting the facts w/no personal agenda?” Dec. 7, 2018

“Never before has there been such a level of hatred as we have seen for Donald Trump from the Democrats & liberal media. Why? It may be because he hasn’t bowed down to them.” Jan. 13, 2020

“The news media are so vicious & relentless in their fault finding & their attacks on the President. It’s just sickening.” Dec. 26, 2018

“I lay much of the blame at the feet of the media for feeding the divisions & pushing their own agendas rather than accurately researching & reporting the news.” Jan. 23, 2019

“For once, I agree with House @SpeakerPelosi—our country is in a constitutional crisis. However, I strongly disagree with her on the cause. I put the blame at her feet & those in the Democratic Party who follow her, along with many in the media. May 10, 2019

“The Mueller report is in—no evidence of collusion. The sad thing is, the US lost 2 years & millions of dollars on investigations as @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s enemies spouted lies. The liberal media was also culpable in this nightmare.” Mar. 24, 2019

Watch:

 

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

Boebert, Cawthorn, Greene on List of 101 ‘Pro-Life’ and ‘Pro-Family’ GOPers Who Just Voted Against Pregnant Workers

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The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a bill to protect the rights of pregnant workers, but 101 Republican members of Congress who claim to be both “pro-life” and “pro-family” voted against the legislation.

The bill, sponsored by New York Democrat Jerry Nadler, was first introduced 9 years ago. It passed Friday in a 315-101 vote. All the no votes were from Republicans. No Democrat voted no.

The bill was supported by the right wing U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which called it “a balanced approach that clarifies an employer’s obligation to accommodate the known limitations of employees and job applicants that accompany pregnancy.”

The website Motherly put it even more simply: “No one should have to choose between their paycheck and a healthy pregnancy.”

Democratic Rep. Val Demings of Florida:

Apparently, 101 Republican lawmakers disagree.

Among the more notable Republicans voting “no” were Lauren Boebert (CO), Kevin Brady (TX), Mo Brooks (AL), Ken Buck (CO), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Liz Cheney (WY), Scott DesJarlais (TN), Virginia Foxx (NC), Louie Gohmert (TX), Paul Gosar (AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Jody Hice (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), and Chip Roy (TX).

Here’s the list of all the lawmakers who voted against pregnant workers:

Aderholt (Alabama)
Allen (Georgia)
Armstrong (North Dakota)
Arrington (Texas)
Babin (Texas)
Baird (Indiana)
Banks (Indiana)
Barr (Kentucky) NAY
Bishop (North Carolina)
Boebert (Colorado)
Brady (Texas)
Brooks (Alabama)
Buck (Colorado)
Budd (North Carolina)
Burchett (Tennessee)
Cammack (Florida)
Carl (Alabama)
Carter (Georgia)
Carter (Texas)
Cawthorn (North Carolina)
Cheney (Wyoming)
Cline (Virginia)
Cloud (Texas)
Clyde (Georgia)
Crawford (Arkansas)
Davidson (Ohio)
DesJarlais (Tennessee)
Donalds (Florida)
Duncan (South Carolina)
Dunn (Florida)
Fallon (Texas)
Fitzgerald (Wisconsin)
Foxx (North Carolina)
Franklin, C. Scott (Florida)
Fulcher (Idaho)
Gibbs (Ohio)
Gohmert (Texas)
Good (Virginia)
Gooden (Texas)
Gosar (Arizona)
Graves (Missouri)
Green (Tennessee)
Greene (Georgia)
Grothman (Wisconsin)
Guest (Mississippi)
Harris (Maryland)
Harshbarger (Tennessee)
Hern (Oklahoma)
Herrell (New Mexico)
Hice (Georgia)
Higgins (Louisiana)
Jackson (Texas)
Johnson (Louisiana)
Jordan (Ohio)
Joyce (Pennsylvania)
Keller (Pennsylvania)
Kelly (Pennsylvania)
LaHood (Illinois)
Lamborn (Colorado)
LaTurner (Kansas)
Letlow (Louisiana)
Long (Missouri)
Loudermilk (Georgia)
Luetkemeyer (Missouri)
Mace (South Carolina)
Mann (Kansas)
Massie (Kentucky)
Mast (Florida)
McClain (Michigan)
McClintock (California)
McHenry (North Carolina)
Miller (Illinois)
Miller (West Virginia)
Moore (Alabama)
Nehls (Texas)
Norman (South Carolina)
Palazzo (Mississippi)
Palmer (Alabama)
Pence (Indiana)
Perry (Pennsylvania)
Pfluger (Texa)
Posey (Florida)
Reschenthaler (Pennsylvania)
Rice (South Carolina)
Rodgers (Washington)
Rogers (Alabama)
Rose (Tennessee)
Rosendale (Montana)
Rouzer (North Carolina)
Roy (Texas)
Scott, Austin (Georgia)
Sessions (Texas)
Smith (Nebraska)
Smucker (Pennsylvania)
Steube (Florida)
Taylor (Texas)
Timmons (South Carolina)
Van Duyne (Texas)
Walberg (Michigan)
Weber (Texas)
Westerman (AR)

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RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY

McEnany Lectures Biden: ‘It’s the Role of the President of the United States to Stay Back, to Not Inflame’

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Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday blasted President Joe Biden for speaking out about the Derek Chauvin trial even though her former boss, Donald Trump, often expressed his opinion on similar events.

After the sequestered jury began its deliberations in the Chauvin trial, Biden told reporters that he was praying for the “right verdict.”

McEnany, in her role as Fox News host, criticized the current president.

“I’m glad that he at least waited until the jury was sequestered,” McEnany ranted. “But I think that the country is such a tinderbox right now, especially Minneapolis. There’s so much hurt, so much pain.”

And I think it’s the role of the president of the United States to stay back, to not inflame the tensions,” she added. “I think he should have just reserved comment and said he’s praying for the family as we all are.”

As president, Trump often weighed in on legal matters and controversial events.

After Kyle Rittenhouse was charged with homicide for shootings that left two protesters in Wisconsin dead last August, Trump offered a defense of the suspect.

“He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,” Trump opined at the time. “I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”

Watch the video below from Fox News.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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