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CORRUPTION

Trump Talked to Billionaire Owner of Equinox and SoulCycle – a Top Donor – Day Before He Called to Reopen America’s Gyms

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President Donald Trump’s “plan” to re-open America amid the global coronavirus pandemic includes re-opening gyms across the country. Health and medical experts found that strange, given that gyms can be filled with people working out, often close together, breathing heavily – the perfect conditions for, say, a virus that’s transmitted by droplets in the breath to spread.

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But as The Daily Beast reports, President Trump spoke to the billionaire owner of Equinox Sports Clubs, Stephen Ross (photo), who is also a top donor to the Trump campaign, just one day before unveiling his plan to re-open America – which includes re-opening gyms in “phase one” of the “plan.”

“Gyms are like a petri dish,” Laurence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told The Daily Beast. “People are close to one another, they’re sweating, they’re coughing and sneezing, they’re touching multiple surfaces, they’re sharing equipment, they’re indoors. Literally all of the heightened risk factors for COVID transmission are all entwined together in a gym.”

Ross is the founder and chairman of the Related Companies, a massive $50 billion corporation that serves as the parent company for among many other businesses, the Equinox Group. Equinox includes Equinox Sports Clubs, SoulCycle, PURE Yoga, Blink Fitness, Precision Run, Equinox Hotels, PROJECT by Equinox, Equinox Explore, and Equinox Media.

Last summer Ross, who also owns the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium, faced a firestorm after hosting a $250,000 a plate fundraiser for President Trump.

The Related Companies happens to also be the largest landlord in New York City.

Outrage over Ross raising a reported $12 million to help Trump get re-elected was huge. Many boycotted Equinox and SoulCycle.

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CORRUPTION

DeSantis Vows to Fight FDA After COVID Treatment His Top Donor Invested in Is Found to Not Fight Omicron

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January 25, 2022

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Governor Ron DeSantis is promising to fight the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after it revoked its emergency authorization for a COVID treatment made by two drug manufacturers, including one which happens to be heavily invested in by the Florida Republican’s billionaire top donor.

That donor is Citadel hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who as of last summer had donated over $10 million to a DeSantis political action committee, the AP reports, and over $100 million to Republicans nationwide, according to Florida Politics.

“Citadel, a Chicago-based hedge fund, has $15.9 million in shares of Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc., according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,” the August 2021 AP report reveals. “Citadel CEO Ken Griffin has donated $10.75 million to a political committee that supports DeSantis — $5.75 million in 2018 and $5 million last April.”

The omicron variant accounts for more than 99 percent of new COVID cases in the U.S., and the current monoclonal antibody treatment drugs have been proven to not be effective against omicron, the FDA and at least one of the drug’s manufacturers say.

DeSantis has been trying to turn the state into a free-for-all where it was illegal to mandate masks – until the courts stepped in. The governor and his Surgeon General – who has ties to an infamous alien DNA, demon sperm, and hydroxychloroquine-pushing doctor – have focused on promoting COVID therapies instead of COVID preventatives.

The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday was forced to close its monoclonal antibody treatment sites after the FDA’s move.

Desantis is outraged.

“Governor Ron DeSantis is demanding the Biden Administration reverse its sudden and reckless decision to revoke emergency use authorization (EUA) for Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments. This abrupt and unilateral action by the Biden Administration will prevent access to lifesaving treatments for Floridians and Americans,” DeSantis said in a statement.

His Surgeon General echoed DeSantis’ remarks.

“The Federal Government has failed to adequately provide the United States with adequate outpatient treatment options for COVID-19. Now, they are scrambling to cover up a failure to deliver on a promise to ‘shut down the virus,’” said Dr. Joseph Ladapo.

On Tuesday during a briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki called the DeSantis move “crazy.”

The coronavirus pandemic continues to rage through the U.S. in large part because of pro-COVID policies like those DeSantis is promoting.

Late Monday night Health and Human Services spokesperson slammed a Florida Dept. of Health spokesperson:

 

 

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CORRUPTION

Wallace Skewers Christie for Trying to ‘Save’ the GOP and Favoring Fox News

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2 months ago

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November 26, 2021

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MSNBC news host Nicolle Wallace skewered former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie while he was promoting his book, “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden.”

“Is bias more dangerous to the country than conspiracy theorists?” Wallace asked.

“No, but that’s the third section of the book where I talk about the movement forward. In the second portion of the book, we talk about the conspiracy theories and the truth-denying that went on with things like Qanon, Pizzagate, the election situation, John Birch Society… that’s what I talk about. There’s two sections of the book and I’m sure you’re conflating them,” Christie answered.

“I’m not conflating them,” Wallace said. “I don’t think it’s an intellectually honest case to make against conspiracy theories without taking on Fox News.”

During the interview, Wallace also asked Christie if he thought former President Donald J. Trump gave him COVID-19. He denied naming Trump specifically in the contraction, but ultimately said he didn’t know who gave it to him.

See below for how Twitter has responded to the interview, which originally aired Tuesday night, and also to the news of Christie’s potential run for president in 2024.

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CORRUPTION

GOP Rep. Gonzales: ‘I Will Not Let’ Trump ‘Steal’ the 2024 Election

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3 months ago

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November 5, 2021

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A stern warning was issued to Republicans Friday by Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH): don’t rest on your laurels – former President Donald Trump will try to steal the next election.

“January 6 was an unconstitutional attempt led by the President of the United States to overturn an American election and reinstall himself in power illegitimately,” Gonzalez said. “That’s fallen nation territory, that’s third world country territory. My family left Cuba to avoid that fate. I will not let it happen here.”

Gonzalez said he could see one of two outcomes: “He either wins legitimately, which he may do, or if he loses again, you just try to steal it.”

Gonzalez was one of only 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Gonzalez and his family were the target of attacks and threats following the impeachment hearing. He has chosen to retire from Congress at the end of his term and avoid facing off with a Trump-backed primary challenger.

Gonzalez told CNN he will try to stop Trump from running the same 2020 playbook to overturn another election.

“The institutions don’t hold themselves,” Gonzalez said. “In the moments of truth, you need the right people to pass the most difficult tests. We had just enough people on January 6 pass the test. We have to make sure we have equal number of people to continue to pass the test going forward.”

“I’m afraid that the kind of political violence, the kind of abandonment of the rule of law, the kind of abandonment of the constitution that we watched, does threaten the foundations of democracy, the foundations of our system,” said Rep. Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who was kicked out of House GOP leadership over her criticism of Trump.

“And the fact that so many in my party are willing to be silent, are complicit, are enabling it, adds very much to the peril,” added Cheney, one of two Republicans serving on the House select committee investigating January 6.

“I have real concerns about the future of this democracy,” said Bill Gates, a Republican supervisor in Arizona’s Maricopa County who pushed back on claims that there was fraud in the 2020 election result. “I didn’t think we had this sort of pull towards authoritarianism in our in our democracy.”

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