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OPINION

Watch: Ted Cruz Says Cancun Trip ‘Obviously a Mistake’ – but Claim He Did It to Appease His Daughters Falls Apart

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U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) offered up not an apology, and not even an honest explanation, Thursday evening upon returning home from a very short trip to Cancun, alone, after accompanying his wife and two young daughters to the Ritz-Carlton in Mexico for what was supposed to be a five-day get-away.

But new details, including a leaked group text message confirmed by The New York Times expose the two-term Texas Senator as not being honest about the trip.

“Whether the decision to go was tone-deaf, look, it was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it,” Cruz told reporters in front of his house as protestors called for him to resign.

Tone-deaf, many noted, was being especially kind.

“I was trying to be a dad,” he insisted, not understanding that good parents teach children about responsibility, community, and taking care of those who put their trust in you by electing you, not running off to a foreign country when the going gets tough.

“All of us have made decisions, when you’ve got two girls who have been cold for two days, and haven’t had heat or power and they’re saying, ‘Hey look we don’t have school, why don’t we go, let’s get outta here.'”

That claim echoed one he made in a statement released after he decided to cut short the trip and head back to Texas, where millions are just getting power back, but suffering extreme cold weather and in many cases no water, and burst pipes, and other damage.

In his statement Cruz claimed: “With school cancelled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon.”

But leaked group texts, The New York Times reports, show Senator Cruz’s wife Heidi initiated the offer and idea of the trip, telling friends their house, like millions of other Texans’ homes, was “FREEZING.”

“Ms. Cruz invited others to join them at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún, where they had stayed ‘many times,’ noting the room price this week ($309 per night) and its good security,” The Times reports. “The text messages were provided to The New York Times and confirmed by a second person on the thread, who declined to be identified because of the private nature of the texts.”

Cruz in his statement also revealed a lack of understanding of what his job is, especially during a crisis.

“In a local emergency,” says Matt Glassman, a senior fellow from the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, lawmakers “are conduit to tons of resources and a resource who can effectively coordinate certain sets of actors and lean on people to make things happen. Can very much turn into administrators.”

In other words, Cruz’s constituents needed his help, but he chose to leave them, revealing to Texans and his daughters he’s neither a good role model, lawmaker, or dad.

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OPINION

‘By Design’: Johnson Falsely Claims Democrats Are Trying to Turn ‘Illegals’ Into Voters

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3 days ago

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April 12, 2024

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Embattled Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson traveled nearly 1000 miles on Friday afternoon to appear with Donald Trump in a live joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago to promote legislation banning non-U.S. citizens from voting, which has been a federal law, and a felony, since 1997.

But Johnson used the event to attack Democrats, falsely accusing them of a conspiracy to increase the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. for the direct and distinct purpose of pushing them to vote illegally in U.S. elections.

The Speaker offered no proof of the existence of this conspiracy.

“We only want U.S. citizens to vote in U.S. elections,” Johnson said, standing next to Trump (video below), “but there are some Democrats who don’t want to do that. We believe that one of their designs, one of the reasons for this open border, which everybody asked all around the country, why would they do this? Why would they allow all this chaos? Why the violence? Because they want to turn these people into voters.”

READ MORE: ‘Staged Photo Op’ of Trump With Black Chick-fil-A Patrons Was ‘True Retail Politics’ Says Fox News

Non-citizens voting in a U.S. election is punishable by deportation, massive fines, and/or numerous years in prison.

“Right now the administration is encouraging illegals to go to their local welfare office to sign up for benefits,” Johnson, one of the top election deniers in the country, claimed as he explained his conspiracy theory. He did not state how the Biden Administration is communicating with undocumented immigrants, nor did he offer proof of these communications.

He also did not state that the vast majority of undocumented immigrants are ineligible for any government welfare program.

“Well, guess what? When you go to a welfare office, they also ask you if you would like to register to vote, and so many people, we think are going to do that.”

Again, Johnson offered no proof of undocumented immigrants doing that, and in fact, as the Brennan Center for Justice reported just this week, that is not happening.

“States have multiple systems in place to deter noncitizen voting. Those who violate the law face prison time and deportation,” the Brennan Center reported.

If you were undocumented, the Brennan Center asked, “Would you risk everything — your freedom, your life in the United States, your ability to be near your family — just to cast a single ballot?”

Johnson went on to state, “there’s so many millions of illegals in the country, that if only one out of 100 voted, they would cast potentially hundreds of thousands of votes in the election. That could turn an election.”

It could, but it isn’t happening.

RELATED: Johnson Moves for Trump Protection Against Greene With Mar-a-Lago Joint Press Conference

“President Biden has created a catastrophe and he did it by design,” Johnson alleged. “Why invite everybody from around the world to come here, including hardened criminals and dangerous persons?”

Neither President Biden nor his administration invited “everybody from around the world to come here,” but what if he did? Why shouldn’t he, if America is the greatest country on earth, why shouldn’t the President invite, urge people from other countries to lawfully come to America, the land of opportunity, the land of the free, the home of the brave, where immigrants have been called the “backbone” of the nation.

Federal laws can help keep “hardened criminals and dangerous persons” out, and federal border agents could do a better job if Donald Trump had allowed a vote on the Senate bipartisan border bill.

Johnson also claimed that immigration “has all sorts of terrible effects on the American people. We know that fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 49.”

Most of the fentanyl flooding the country is smuggled in by Americans, not “across the border” but through U.S. ports of entry. Nearly nine out of ten fentanyl smugglers are U.S. citizens, according to the right wing Cato Institute.

Watch a portion of Speaker Johnson’s remarks below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Bless Those Who Persecute You’: Johnson Invokes Bible Amid Greene’s Ouster Threat

 

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OPINION

‘Staged Photo Op’ of Trump With Black Chick-fil-A Patrons Was ‘True Retail Politics’ Says Fox News

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3 days ago

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April 12, 2024

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As Donald Trump continues to try to make inroads with Black voters, his allegedly spontaneous viral visit to an Atlanta Chick-fil-A on Wednesday came at just the right time for the indicted ex-president as the patrons and staff, mostly young Black women, appeared to gush over him.

Fox News went wild over the encounter, calling it a “surprise visit.”

Video showed Trump casually declaring in the middle of the restaurant, with his arms opened wide, “Let me give you a hug,” and a young woman running over into his arms.

“Fox & Friends” co-host Lawrence Jones the next morning called it, “such an organic moment because you had all these people that obviously knew the president was there but were Trump supporters as well. Minorities.”

Jones then painted the stark “contrast” between President Joe Biden’s State Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan on Wednesday evening, and the ex-president who just happened to walk into a Chick-fil-A and ordered 30 milkshakes. Jones appeared agitated by the Biden State Dinner, saying, “You got the current president, the ‘smoozing,’ State Dinner, you got the Clinton – why does another former president have to do a State Dinner with the current president? I think that’s strange.”

But it had not taken long for some to say it seemed staged.

READ MORE: ‘Extremely Concerned’: School Board’s ‘Christian Values’ Candidate Search Sparks Criticism

“The odds of Trump walking into a Chick-Fil-A in a big city like Atlanta, and every single customer in there just happening to be a supporter, are infinitesimally small. The whole thing was obviously staged to ensure that only his supporters were inside,” observed the social media account for The Palmer Report just hours after the Chick-fil-A visit took place.

MeidasTouch Network on Friday reports, “Trump’s Viral Hug At Chick-fil-A Was With a MAGA Operative,” and notes the woman Trump supposedly spontaneously hugged, Michaelah Montgomery “is a ‘political consultant’ and former Georgia GOP intern.”

Former CNN commentator Keith Boykin, the co-founder of the National Black Justice Coalition, wrote: “I knew it! Trump’s Chick-fil-A stop was a staged photo op with Black Republican supporters. Michaelah Montgomery, the Black woman who told Trump that ‘we support you,’ actually runs a conservative group and worked with Candace Owens’s Blexit Foundation.”

Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of MeidasTouch, explained, “Just like his fake union rally & lie about calling Ruby Garcia’s family, the Trump excursion to Chick-fil-A was a staged op with a political consultant who has done work with the GOP, Charlie Kirk & Candace Owens’ orgs.” Linking to their report, Filipkowski, an attorney and former Republican calls it a “pattern of fraud.”

READ MORE: ‘Spoiler’ Questions Swirl as Trump Says He Would Vote for RFK Jr. ‘If I Were a Democrat’

The liberal PAC PatriotTakes reposted a Trump campaign video, added screenshots, and wrote, “These Trump photo ops are pre-staged with supporters prior to his arrival.”

Despite all this evidence, Friday afternoon Fox News continued to hype the two-day old “viral” event, with host John Roberts telling viewers, “That was a true retail politics moment there. Biden goes in to get ice cream, he grabs himself a double scoop and walks out. Trump goes in and buys everyone lunch.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump-Johnson Mar-a-Lago Meet to Push Ban on ‘Non-Citizen’ Voting – Which Is Already a Felony

 

 

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OPINION

Trump-Johnson Mar-a-Lago Meet to Push Ban on ‘Non-Citizen’ Voting – Which Is Already a Felony

Published

4 days ago

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April 11, 2024

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Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will fly to Florida on Friday to join the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, four-times indicted ex-president Donald Trump for a press conference to promote House legislation aimed at banning non-U.S. citizens from voting, which is already a criminal felony.

USA Today reports during the event “the top House Republican will tout the legislation to ‘elevate the issue of non-citizens voting in federal elections,’ according to a person familiar with the planning.”

The paper also reports, “non-citizens are already not allowed to vote in federal elections in the United States, and it’s not a common occurrence. No state currently allows non-citizens to cast a ballot in state-level elections either, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, though some municipalities may have their own rules for local races.”

The baseless attack on non-citizen voting quickly became part of the GOP echo chamber.

READ MORE: Arizona Republicans Block Democrats’ Bills to Repeal 1864 Near-Total Abortion Ban

“It’s sad that we have to propose and fight for legislation to ban illegal aliens from voting. But that’s what happens when Democrats allow millions to illegally cross into our country to try and rig our elections,” Steve Cortes, a Fox News contributor and former Trump campaign operative falsely claimed on social media Thursday in response to the Johnson-Harris event.

Attorney and policy director for the American Immigration Council, Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, responded to Cortes: “It’s already illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote in federal elections. It’s so illegal that it’s a felony, a ground of deportation, AND a near-permanent ban to receiving any future immigration benefit.”

The press event comes at a critical time for both Trump and Johnson, as NCRM reported Wednesday.

On Monday, the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president will begin in lower Manhattan, at the famed New York State Supreme Court where Trump will face 34 criminal felony charges of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments in an alleged effort to protect his 2016 presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, the embattled Speaker of the House is facing a tangible ouster threat from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who weeks ago filed a motion to vacate. It is the same procedural tool far-right Republicans invoked last year that stripped Kevin McCarthy of his Speakership.

Both Trump and Johnson are election deniers.

READ MORE: ‘Bless Those Who Persecute You’: Johnson Invokes Bible Amid Greene’s Ouster Threat

Congresswoman Greene is a strong ally of Trump, but both Trump and Johnson being able to show their base that they are aligned on what Trump claims is a critical issue is a win for both the Speaker and the ex-president.

Professor and political scientist David Darmofal commented, “The purpose of this event is twofold: 1) to continue to cast false doubt on the free & fair election of 2020 that elected President Biden & Vice President Harris, & 2) to reduce minority turnout.”

The non-citizen voting conspiracy theory may be linked to one of Trump’s top “Big Lie” promoters, attorney Cleta Mitchell who was on Trump’s infamous call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

“The false notion that undocumented immigrants are affecting federal elections has been floating around for over 100 years, experts say, but this year, due in part to an increase in migrants at the southern U.S. border, the idea could have new potency,” NPR reported last month. “The narratives are being pushed by prominent right-wing figures including Cleta Mitchell, a former adviser to Donald Trump, along with the presumptive Republican presidential nominee himself.”

NPR added it “acquired a two-page memo Mitchell has been circulating laying out ‘the threat of non-citizen voting in 2024.'”

In reality, there are few credible claims of election fraud in the U.S., certainly none that would have altered the outcome of any election in modern times (with the possible exception of some local elections,) including the 2020 presidential election, according to numerous studies, reports, experts, and Trump’s own Attorney General.

Both Donald Trump and Speaker Johnson are responsible for leading efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump is now facing federal criminal charges for his alleged role in the January 6 insurrection and other attempts to interfere in the election, and he is also facing state criminal RICO charges over his alleged efforts to overturn the results.

After he won the Speaker’s gavel last year, the Brennan Center for Justice labeled Johnson the “Most Powerful Election Denier in Washington.”

READ MORE: Kari Lake Urges Governor She Does Not Recognize to End Abortion Ban She 100% Supported

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