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GOP Congresswoman’s Impeachment Hearings Stunt Fueled a $1 Million Fundraising Haul for Her Democratic Opponent

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For those watching any of last week’s congressional impeachment hearings a few Republicans stood out, but one in particular tried to make a name for herself – and did, though not perhaps the way she had hoped. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik (photo), a Republican representing a large portion of upstate New York north of Albany, had a few tricks up her sleeve. It turns out her stunts didn’t impress her opponent’s supporters.

Tedra Cobb, a Democrat and former county legislator who is running to unseat Stefanik in just three days took in $1 million as a result of Rep. Stefanik’s antics, stunts, and false claims.

Here’s CNN’s National Security and Legal Analyst Susan Hennessey explaining Cobb’s announcement:

Hennessey is referring to a photo (below) of Stefanik with far right conspiracy theorist and anti-immigration “nationalist” Laura Loomer.

Loomer, who is running for Congress now, has been banned by most major social media platforms, reportedly for hate speech. She is a former James O’Keefe employee, and has been accused of “stoking racism” and having “ties with other far-right, anti-Muslim, and white nationalist activists.”

That didn’t stop Stefanik from posing for this photo with Loomer:

Congresswoman Stefanik last week had tried to disrupt the impeachment hearings that featured three solid witnesses who delivered sworn testimony disastrous for President Trump and the GOP.

Stefanik accused House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff of breaking House rules when he stopped her from speaking – even though he was merely enforcing the long-established rules, rules that Republicans instituted years earlier.

Here she is falsely claiming Chairman Schiff was refusing to let her speak, “simply because we are Republicans.”

She didn’t stop there. Over the past few days she’s posted tweets with false claims like, “Since I’ve exposed Adam Schiff, radical liberals & never-Trumpers are launching disgusting attacks against me in an attempt to silence me.”

Stefanik’s tweets are angry and accusatory, like this where she’s clearly aligning herself with President Trump.

By contract, Cobb is posting tweets like this:

 

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'VERY FINE PEOPLE'

Trump-Appointed State Dept. Aide With Top Secret Clearance Beat Officers With Riot Shield At Jan. 6 Insurrection: Report

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A Trump-appointed State Dept. aide allegedly beat officers at the U.S. Capitol with a stolen riot shield, used it to force open a Capitol Hill door, verbally engaged with police, and led insurrection rioters into the building, shouting, “We need fresh people, need fresh people.”

These new details come from The Washington Post, after Politico Thursday night broke the news that the State Dept. aide, Federico Klein, appointed by Trump in 2017 after working on the Trump campaign, was arrested by the FBI in connection with the deadly January 6 insurrection.

The New York Times adds Klein was arrested on charges “including unlawful entry, violent and disorderly conduct, obstructing Congress and law enforcement, and assaulting an officer with a dangerous weapon.”

Klein was “seen in video footage and other images dressed in a red ‘Make America Great Again’ hat, slacks and a dress shirt as he tries to break past a line of Metropolitan Police officers in a tunnel near the west terrace, according to the [court] document.”

Klein, 42, previously worked as a researcher for the anti-LGBTQ hate group Family Research Council, according to Politico. That group’s  president, a close informal religious advisor to President Donald Trump, was appointed to the the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom by then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He served as chairman and later vice chair.

“Klein was still employed at the State Department as a staff assistant on Jan. 6 when he joined a mob in a tunnel leading into the U.S. Capitol, the FBI said,” The Washington Post reports. “Then he allegedly ‘physically and verbally engaged with the officers holding the line’ at the building’s entrance, according to the complaint. After ignoring officers’ orders to move back, he assaulted officers with a riot shield that had been stolen from police, the complaint said, and then used the shield to wedge open a door into the Capitol.”

Klein resigned from the U.S. State Dept. on January 19.

EARLIER: Arrested: Trump State Dept. Appointee, a Former Anti-LGBTQ Hate Group Employee, in Connection With Capitol Riot

 

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‘I’m Not Racist’ Says Arkansas Sheriff Who Used N-Word 9 Times Because Girlfriend Spoke to a Black Guy

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Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright

Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright has resigned after the circulation of a five-minute audio recording in which he called a Black employee at a local Piggly Wiggly grocery store a “f*cking Black-ass [n-word]” and accused a female friend of his of being an “[n-word] lover” just for talking to him.

Wright seemed to find it personally humiliating that his girlfriend would dare talk to a Black man in his presence and worried what others would think of him if they saw it occurring.

Despite using the n-word nine times in the recording, Wright has said that he’s not racist, much like Tom Eckerle, the former Michigan county road commissioner who repeatedly used the n-word to describe Black Lives Matter protesters.

Wright initially refused to resign, stating on Facebook, “To all I have offended or hurt, I send my sincere apologies and will pray for my enemies.” However, he agreed to resign after a unanimous vote by court leaders. Before offering his resignation, he cried, said that he’s not racist, and added that his words came out during a “heated moment.”

The court agreed to pay him a month more in salary so he could start looking for a new job. Another officer will take over Wright’s duties during his final month, overseeing a county which is 25 percent Black.

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Kenosha ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Gunman Kyle Rittenhouse Arrested for Murder After Cops Let Him Flee Out of State

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An Illinois teenager has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a demonstrator in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, was charged Wednesday with first-degree intentional homicide in a shooting late Tuesday during a clash between protesters of police brutality and right-wing militia group members.

The militia members had gathered to protect a gas station from looters and vandals, and video shows police offer Rittenhouse water shortly before the shooting and thank him for being there.

Another video shows Rittenhouse open fire with a rifle after he fell to the ground and then calmly walk toward police vehicles with his hands raised in surrender. Other people can be heard yelling that he had shot someone.

However, no officers are seen getting out of the vehicles, which continue advancing toward protesters, to apprehend Rittenhouse — who then fled the state and was considered a fugitive.

He was arrested later Wednesday back in his hometown.  He is reportedly being held in the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center near Vernon Hills awaiting an extradition hearing.

According to The Daily Beast, Rittenhouse’s Facebook page “included numerous photos with Blue Lives Matter-style pro-police slogans and imagery, as well as of an Armalite rifle similar to the one he appears to have been photographed carrying in Kenosha.”

 

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