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‘They Said They Wanted This’: DeSantis on Defense Heads to Hannity Over Sending Asylum Seekers to Martha’s Vineyard

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Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis was forced to go on Fox News’ “Hannity” Monday night to defend his decision to send 50 asylum seekers from Venezuela who were reportedly falsely enticed to board planes in Texas with promises of food, cash, housing, education and jobs assistance and a trip to Boston, while actually being sent to Martha’s Vineyard.

“They said they wanted this,” the Florida governor now under investigation by a Texas sheriff and possibly facing a federal investigation told Sean Hannity, “they said they were a sanctuary jurisdiction,” he claimed, Florida Politics reports.

Massachusetts is not a sanctuary state, and has only eight sanctuary cities. Martha’s Vineyard is not one of them. Sanctuary cities promise to not cooperate with federal immigration authorities, meaning they will not report immigrants who are in the country unlawfully – which these asylum seekers were not.

READ MORE: ‘Big Story’: DeSantis Transporting Asylum Seekers to Martha’s Vineyard Was ‘Clearly Not a State Action’ Journalist Says

These 50 or so immigrants were seeking asylum, and are therefore in the country legally. They reportedly have followed procedures to apply for asylum, so were in no risk of being deported, and therefore did not need to go to a “sanctuary jurisdiction.”

“Millions of people since Biden’s been President illegally coming across the southern border,” DeSantis told Hannity. “Do they freak out about that? No. You had migrants die in the Rio Grande. You had 50 die in Texas in a trailer because they were being neglected. Was there a freak out about that?”

There was nationwide anger about the 53 – not 50 – people found dead in a locked tractor trailer last year. There were national headline stories for days. One month later two men were charged “on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport immigrants illegally resulting in death; and conspiring to transport immigrants illegally resulting in serious injury,” The Washington Post reported in July of last year.

“It’s only when fifty get put into Martha’s Vineyard,” DeSantis continued, speaking of human beings as objects, “which wasn’t saying they didn’t want this. They said they wanted this, they said they were a sanctuary jurisdiction.”

READ MORE: Biden Approval Soars as Trump’s Sinks

Florida Politics reports DeSantis described the migrants as “basically destitute” and “put in a situation where they could have succeeded” by being flown to Massachusetts.

“Not only did they not welcome them, they deported [sic] them the next day with the National Guard,” DeSantis falsely claimed. Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, called in the National Guard to assist the asylum seekers because Edgartown, a town of just over 5100 people, did not have the resources to properly care for their new guests.

One of the immigrants, CNN reported, had two gold teeth pulled out by a violent drug trafficking cartel when “he told them he could not make the extortion payment.”

About 30 chose voluntarily to be transported to a National Guard facility. Gov. Baker stressed the immigrants were given the choice to stay or go.

DeSantis also told Hannity all the immigrants had “signed consent forms to go,.” He claimed the flights were “clearly voluntary and all the other nonsense you’re hearing is just not true.”

Whether or not they signed consent forms is unproven. Also in question would be was there clear disclosure, did they know what they were signing?

READ MORE: Brochure Claims Asylum Seekers DeSantis Sent to Martha’s Vineyard Could Receive ‘8 Months Cash Assistance’: Report

Fred Wellman of the On Democracy podcast tweeted a few questions to Gov. DeSantis: “Who paid the ‘vendor’? Who paid for the videographer? Why didn’t you alert Massachusetts authorities before giving the story to Fox News? Why did you need to go to Texas if Florida is ‘overrun” with migrants?’

Hannity told DeSantis that the 50 immigrants “were fed, they were showered, they were offered haircuts and any other services they were needed, correct?”

The governor claimed they all received a “packet” with a “map of Massachusetts” and telephone numbers for service agencies.

But Popular Information’s Judd Legum, who published the brochure the immigrants were given to entice them onto the plane, says DeSantis officials held a “hastily scheduled press call with sympathetic media outlets” on Monday, attacking his reporting.

Legum also says the brochure contained information “from a Mass[achusetts] website, but it’s a website describing benefits for A DIFFERENT CLASS OF PEOPLE.”

“DeSantis and his team don’t understand the difference between refugees (who are eligible for resettlement benefits) & asylum applicants (who are not).”

DeSantis also claimed on “Hannity” that Martha’s Vineyard “could have absorbed these people without a problem.” That too is false. Martha’s Vineyard is a seasonal resort island that is home for a month or two to the wealthy, but off-season  it’s a very different story.

“The median income on Martha’s Vineyard is $7K BELOW the state median,” Massachusetts state Rep. Dylan Fernandes said over the weekend in defense of the area. “The majority of year-round residents are diverse working class people who make these communities run.”

Watch Gov. DeSantis below or at this link.

 

 

 

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The 27 Words the NSA Is Scrubbing From Its Websites: Report

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The National Security Agency (NSA), a largely clandestine global intelligence-gathering and counterintelligence organization that “prevents and eradicates threats to U.S. national security systems,” is reportedly undergoing a massive “purge” on its public and private websites and internal network, eliminating any site that contains any of a list of 27 words — despite possibly including mission-related work. The operation is an effort to comply with President Donald Trump’s order to eliminate any so-called “DEI” programs or language.

Trump has called DEI — diversity, equity, and inclusion — “illegal,” and in his January 21 executive order alleged that DEI “policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.”

According to Popular Information, on Monday the NSA, which is under the U.S. Department of Defense, “is planning a ‘Big Delete’ of websites and internal network content that contain any of 27 banned words, including ‘privilege,’ ‘bias,’ and ‘inclusion.’ The ‘Big Delete,’ according to an NSA source and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information, is creating unintended consequences.

READ MORE: ‘Stomach Turning’: Trump Defends His J6 Pardons as ‘Great for Humanity’

Popular Information’s Judd Legum and Rebecca Crosby report that “the dragnet is taking down ‘mission-related’ work. According to the NSA source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, the process is ‘very chaotic,’ but is plowing ahead anyway.”

A memo announcing the 27 banned words “acknowledges that the list includes many terms that are used by the NSA in contexts that have nothing to do with DEI. For example, the term ‘privilege is used by the NSA in the context of ‘privilege escalation.’ In the intelligence world, privilege escalation refers to ‘techniques that adversaries use to gain higher-level permissions on a system or network.'”

Efforts to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI orders are not limited to the NSA.

“Since Trump took office, thousands of web pages across various federal agencies have been altered or removed entirely. Federal agencies have taken down or edited resources about HIV, contraceptives, LGBTQ+ health, abortion, and climate change. Some web pages have later come back online ‘without clarity on what had been changed or removed.” Popular Information also reported.

“An analysis by the Washington Post of 8,000 federal web pages ‘found 662 examples of deletions and additions’ since Trump took office. The analysis found that words like diversity, equity, and inclusion were removed at least 231 times from the websites of federal agencies, including the Department of Labor, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Transportation.”

READ MORE: ‘People Are Really Angry’: Fury Over Musk and DOGE Triggers Spike in Calls to Congress

A quick search of the NSA’s public website for the word “transgender” came up with only one hit, a page titled, “50 Years of Pride: Celebrating NSA’s Committment {sic] to Promoting Respect, Individuality, Diversity, and Equality.” That link led to an error page that stated: “The page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.”

But a search for pages with the words “Diversity,” “Privilege,” and “Pronouns” resulted in numerous positive hits.

Legum posted the list of 27 banned words to social media. They include, Anti-Racism, Racism, Allyship, Bias, DEI, Diversity, Confirmation Bias, Equity, Feminism, Gender, Gender Identity Inclusion, Inclusive, and All-Inclusive, among others.

READ MORE: ‘Bring Him Back’: JD Vance Wants Musk to Rehire 25 Year Old DOGE ‘Kid’ After Racist Posts

Image via Reuters

 

 

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‘Stomach Turning’: Trump Defends His J6 Pardons as ‘Great for Humanity’

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President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One on Sunday announced that the nearly 1600 people he pardoned after they had been convicted of January 6-related crimes did not assault anyone but had been assaulted by the U.S. government, and his granting those pardons on his first day back in office was “a great thing for humanity.”

Trump was sitting next to a large map of what he announced is now the “Gulf of America,” and had signed an executive order requiring that new designation as the plane flew over what has, for hundreds of years, been called the Gulf of Mexico. Some observers have noted that Trump is also attempting to reshape the narrative of the January 6 insurrection and attack on the U.S. Capitol by claiming that those convicted of crimes were actually victims.

Reminded by a reporter that he had planned to honor first responders at the Super Bowl, President Trump was asked why he would pardon people who had assaulted first responders.

READ MORE: ‘People Are Really Angry’: Fury Over Musk and DOGE Triggers Spike in Calls to Congress

“I pardoned people that were assaulted themselves. They were assaulted by our government,” Trump insisted, despite countless hours of footage of people he pardoned attacking the U.S. Capitol, and some of them attacking law enforcement officers.

“I pardoned J6 people who were assaulted by our government. That’s who assaulted — and they were treated unfairly, there’s never been a group of people in this country outside of maybe one instance that I can think of, but I won’t get into it, that were treated more horribly than the people of J6,” Trump insisted.

“I didn’t assault, they didn’t assault. They were assaulted, and what I did was a great thing for humanity.”

Just days after Trump handed down the pardons, The New York Times reported that even some of his close allies “opposed granting clemency to those rioters found guilty of violent crimes, especially the more than 600 who were convicted of assaulting or resisting police officers. Of those defendants, nearly 175 used a dangerous or deadly weapon, prosecutors say.”

On January 20, via a presidential proclamation, Trump announced he was commuting the sentences of 14 of some of the worst January 6 offenders, and granting “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”

READ MORE: ‘Bring Him Back’: JD Vance Wants Musk to Rehire 25 Year Old DOGE ‘Kid’ After Racist Posts

Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, called the pardons “an attempt to rewrite history and erase an attack on the Constitution and the country.”

Critics are blasting President Trump’s remarks on Sunday, including his claim the people he pardoned had been assaulted by “our government.”

“This administration & the GOP are completely rewriting the events of January 6. The president is doing it here. They pretend all the evidence, footage, confessions, & documents just don’t exist, that we didn’t see it happen. It’s an authoritarian move, & it should terrify us all,” observed T. Kenny Fountain, an associate professor whose bio says he researches extremism, conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, and disinformation.

Noted political scientist and professor of politics Larry Sabato called Trump’s remarks “Absolutely stomach-turning.”

Journalist Jim Acosta wrote simply, “Disgraceful.”

Award-winning investigative reporter Phil Williams posted video from January 6 and wrote, “These people were all pardoned.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump Inherits Biden’s ‘Astonishing’ Jobs Legacy, But Prices Are Now Climbing on His Watch

 

Image via Reuters

 

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‘People Are Really Angry’: Fury Over Musk and DOGE Triggers Spike in Calls to Congress

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Members of Congress say they are being flooded with calls from angry constituents about President Donald Trump’s Director of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, and what he is doing inside the federal government.

“Senators’ phone systems have been overloaded, lawmakers said, with some voters unable to get through to leave a message. The outpouring of complaints and confusion has put pressure on lawmakers to find out more about Musk’s project, heightening tensions between the billionaire tech mogul and the government,” The Washington Post reports.

Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska “said the Senate’s phones were receiving 1,600 calls each minute, compared with the usual 40 calls per minute. Many of the calls she’s been receiving are from people concerned about U.S. DOGE Service employees having broad access to government systems and sensitive information. The callers are asking whether their information is compromised and about why there isn’t more transparency about what is happening, she said.”

READ MORE: ‘Bring Him Back’: JD Vance Wants Musk to Rehire 25 Year Old DOGE ‘Kid’ After Racist Posts

On Monday, the Office of U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) said, “We’re receiving reports of phones being offline across the Senate. Our office is immediately at work to address the issue and get our phones online again.”

U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called it, “a deluge on DOGE”

“Truly our office has gotten more phone calls on Elon Musk and what the heck he’s doing mucking around in federal government than I think anything we’ve gotten in years. … People are really angry,” she told The Post.

On social media, Senator Smith added, “Musk is unpopular because Americans can see that he’s running rampant inside the federal government and no one believes he’s doing this to help us — he’s doing it to help himself. That’s what corruption looks like. I’ve been getting more calls into my office in the last week than any time I can remember. People are mad about it and they should be.”

READ MORE: Trump Inherits Biden’s ‘Astonishing’ Jobs Legacy, But Prices Are Now Climbing on His Watch

“We can hardly answer the phones fast enough. It’s a combination of fear, confusion and heartbreak, because of the importance of some of these programs,” U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) told The Post, saying “he’s been hearing from constituents ‘constantly’ on DOGE and Musk.”

The surge of telephone calls appears to have been going on all week.

“Callers are getting busy signals and voicemail inboxes are full at many U.S. Senate offices as people try to reach out and voice their opinions on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, executive orders and moves to dismantle various federal programs,” the Associated Press reported on Wednesday. “The influx of phone calls — which some in the Senate say are at unprecedented volumes — come as Trump and ally Elon Musk are working to shrink the federal government during the president’s first weeks in office. They are shuttering agencies, temporarily freezing funding and pushing workers to resign, all while staffers with Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency infiltrate departments in a stated effort to root out fraud and abuse.”

READ MORE: Pam Bondi Quietly Disbands DOJ Task Force Targeting Russian Oligarchs

 

Image via Reuters

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