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Kari Lake Claims Supporters Were ‘Disenfranchised’ Because They Had to Endure the Same Conditions Black Voters Often Face

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Republican Kari Lake, who lost her bid to become the next governor of Arizona, has yet to concede, but even before the race was called for Democrat Katie Hobbs, Lake was crying fraud.

Lake, a top supporter of Donald Trump and his “Big Lie” falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen, has been crying fraud for over a year. She made clear months ago that the only outcome she would accept was being declared the winner.

Reporters have repeatedly asked Lake to show proof of her claims of 2020 election fraud, and she has repeatedly refused.

Now she’s calling this election “botched.”

“How do you certify an election that is this botched?” Lake asked on Fox News earlier this week.

READ MORE: Local Columnist Tells Election Denier Kari Lake to ‘Grow Up’ as Republican Blasts ‘Banana Republic’ Arizona

She’s also posting accounts by her supporters complaining they had to wait in line for hours to vote, with some suggesting they don’t trust the process, with the underlying implication being that perhaps there was election fraud.

On Thursday NewsNation reported Lake “said she is collecting evidence about potential election fraud after she lost the 2022 governor’s race.”

CBS News adds that Lake “said Thursday she is assembling lawyers and collecting evidence of voters having trouble casting ballots on Election Day as she considers her next move.”

There are no national minimum standards for how elections should be run or what conditions are acceptable. Republicans have not only rejected attempts to put into place basic expectations, but have passed countless laws at the state level to make voting harder, especially for communities of color.

Now Lake is claiming that the very same conditions Black and minority communities have had to endure, often because white Republican lawmakers, governors, and Secretaries of State have funneled resources into white, affluent communities, is evidence of disenfranchisement.

Lake offered no opposition when actual efforts to disenfranchise Black and other minority voters were enacted across the country in red states — not to mention her own state of Arizona,

Outgoing Arizona GOP Governor Doug Ducey signed into law numerous bills passed by Republicans in the state legislature, including a highly-controvesial “proof of citizenship” bill that the U.S. Dept of Justice is calling a “textbook violation” of federal law and is now suing over. That law also mandates proof of address for newly-registered voters.

READ MORE: Watch: Reporter Schools Kari Lake as She’s Accused of Spreading Election Disinformation

Ducey also signed a law that effectively hobbles Arizona’s permanent early voting list, which ABC News reported last year is used by 75% to 80% of voters. Estimates range from 126,000 to 145,000 or more voters would be purged from the list.

So egregious is the law U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland issued a statement, saying it will “rob up to 200,000 Arizonans of the ability to vote by mail, which has been done successfully in Arizona for many years.”

“It will disproportionately affect minorities who do not vote regularly or those who move their place of residence,” Hoyer added, “and this legislation would also punish independents by making it harder for those not affiliated with a party to maintain their registration. The practical effect of this law will be, as its authors intend, to make it far harder for people to participate and vote.”

Lake never spoke out against actual efforts to disenfranchise voters, who face some of the exact same challenges her supporters claim to have encountered, challenges she now says is voter disenfranchisement.

Just look at these headlines from 2020:

“Why Do Nonwhite Georgia Voters Have To Wait In Line For Hours? Too Few Polling Places” (NPR, October 17, 2020)

“Black and Latino Voters Face Longer Wait Times on Election Day” (Carnegie Corporation of New York, September 18, 2020)

“More than 10-hour wait and long lines as early voting starts in Georgia” (The Guardian, October 12, 2020)

“Florida Republicans targeted Black voters, justice department says in filing” (The Guardian, August 17, 2022)

Lake on Thursday recorded a video alleging voters were “disenfranchised” by her Democratic opponent, now governor-elect Katie Hobbs.

“The fox was guarding the henhouse and, because of that, voters have been disenfranchised,” Lake claimed.

Also on Thursday Lake posted this highly-edited video with sensational music depicting long voting lines, presumably for voting in Arizona — lines  which are unacceptable, but not uncommon across many parts of the U.S., especially in areas of red states with large minority voting populations.

Lake also posted this video of a man who say he had to wait 90 minutes in line, and when he tried to vote there were problems with the tabulator machines, which were widely reported on Election Day in Maricopa County. But as the Republican officials in charge of Maricopa County elections said in a video quickly released that morning, they had a backup system in place, which this man says was suspicious to him.

READ MORE: ‘This Is Who They Are’: Critics Blast Kari Lake for Mocking Paul Pelosi After Brutally Violent Assault

That backup system was to place ballots in a box that would be transported to a different location to be counted — not unusual at all.

Offering zero evidence to question the election officials’ methods, Lake says this man “felt it meant they would throw his vote in the trash.”

The Associated Press reports on Friday that Lake “pointed to long lines at some polling places that were exacerbated by problems with ballot printers at about a third of the vote centers in Maricopa County, the largest county in the state. She said the problems disenfranchised voters who couldn’t wait at the polls.”

“What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable,” Lake said.

“County election officials said that all ballots were counted and that voters could go to any polling place in the county, many of which had little to no line, with wait times posted online,” the AP notes, adding that about “17,000 ballots were not scanned at precinct-based vote counters and were instead placed in a collection box to be counted by more sophisticated machines at the county’s election headquarters.”

In another post, Lake is complaining about a two-hour wait to vote — again, too long, but very common across parts of the U.S.

Lake says this man waited an hour, there were technical issues so his ballot was also put in box to be counted.

Placing paper ballots in boxes to be counted is how elections have been conducted literally for centuries.

Lake’s suggestions of fraud actually appears to be insufficient resources, GOP-created laws designed to make voting more difficult, and improper maintenance or testing of voting resources, like the tabulators.

She has offered no actual proof of fraud.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Comer Refuses to Investigate Trump Family Member Over ‘Influence Peddling’ Allegation

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Last year House Oversight Committee Chairman Jim Comer acknowledged former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner had “crossed the line” when he accepted $2 billion in foreign investment funds from the government of Saudi Arabia as he started up a private investment firm just months after leaving the White House.

Now, Chairman Comer says he will not open an investigation into any possible wrongdoing, Huffpost reports, despite top Democrats alleging Kushner engaged in “apparent influence peddling and quid pro quo deals.”

On Tuesday, the top Democrat on Comer’s Oversight Committee, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, and Democrat Robert Garcia, the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, formally requested Comer “convene a hearing regarding Jared Kushner’s apparent influence peddling and quid pro quo deals involving investments in exchange for official actions and to examine the resulting threats to our national security.”

“This Committee cannot claim to be ‘investigating foreign nationals’ attempts to target and coerce high-ranking U.S. officials’ family members by providing money or other benefits in exchange for certain actions while continuing to ignore these matters,” Raskin and Garcia wrote. “We therefore urge you to work with us to finally investigate Mr. Kushner’s receipt of billions of dollars from foreign governments in deals that appear to be quid pro quos for actions he undertook as senior White House adviser in Donald Trump’s Administration.”

READ MORE: Greene Says She Won’t Take Responsibility if Johnson Loses Speaker’s Gavel Before Election

The American people are deeply concerned about these business dealings and Mr. Kushner’s apparent influence peddling. We must address
those concerns with a fair, impartial, and public process to understand the truth and to institute meaningful reforms to safeguard public confidence in our executive branch.”

The two Democrats in their letter say their “request comes in light of allegations that Jared Kushner is pursuing new foreign business deals, just as Donald Trump becomes the presumptive Republican nominee for the presidency. Last year, well before these new allegations came to light, Chairman Comer had already conceded that Jared Kushner’s conduct ‘crossed the line of ethics’ and promised that the Oversight Committee would ‘have some questions for Trump and some of his family members, including Jared Kushner.'”

Raskin and Garcia paint a picture of “Kushner’s pattern of profiting off of his time in the White House.”

Citing The New York Times (apparently this article), they write, “Jared Kushner was closing in on investments in Albania and Serbia, leveraging relationships he built during his time as a senior adviser in his father-in-law’s White House. Reportedly, Mr. Kushner is considering an investment on the site of the former Yugoslav Ministry of Defense.”

“Mr. Kushner is reportedly being advised by Richard Grenell, another former senior Trump Administration official who served as U.S. Ambassador to Germany and, concomitantly, as ‘special envoy for peace negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo.’ Mr. Grenell reportedly ‘pushed a related plan’ for redevelopment of the same site during his time in the Trump Administration.”

READ MORE: Trump Says He Thinks He’s ‘Allowed’ to Accept Foreign Money to Pay Fines

“In pursuing investment opportunities in Albania, Mr. Grenell and Mr. Kushner have been openly leveraging their relationship with Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania. While Commander-in-Chief, President Trump received unconstitutional payments from Prime Minister Rama and other senior Albanian government officials who spent thousands of dollars at theTrump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., over three separate stays,” Raskin and Garcia write.

They also allege, “Mr. Kushner successfully overruled State Department officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, to make President Trump’s first foreign trip as President to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Kushner personally intervened to inflate the value of a U.S.-Saudi arms deal and to finalize the deal President Trump signed, which was worth $110 billion. Mr. Kushner
also provided diplomatic cover and support to the Crown Prince after the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an American permanent resident and journalist. Mr. Khashoggi’s murder was assessed by American Intelligence to have been approved by the Crown Prince himself.”

Despite their extensive allegations, Chairman Comer is refusing to open an investigation.

“Unlike the Bidens, Jared Kushner has a legitimate business and has a career as a business executive that predates Donald Trump’s political career,” Comer said, as HuffPost reports. “Democrats’ latest letter is part of their playbook to shield President Biden from oversight.”

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Greene Says She Won’t Take Responsibility if Johnson Loses Speaker’s Gavel Before Election

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Despite filing a motion to vacate the chair last week, which could end Mike Johnson’s short term as Speaker, and despite pummeling him in the press, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) says she will take no responsibility if House Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker of the House before the November election.

Appearing on right-wing media Tuesday, the far-right Georgia Republican targeted Speaker Johnson again, telling GOP voters Johnson stabbed them “in the back.”

Johnson “has a duty and responsibility to care for our conference,” Greene told Real America’s Voice. “That means not force us to vote on full-term abortion, funding the trans agenda, DEI funding, 300 million to the Ukraine war, and many other horrific far-left funding wishlist items that the Democrats were thrilled with.”

“He shouldn’t make us vote on that in order to pay our military soldiers. That’s outrageous. It’s also an election year,” she continued, “and that means that Republicans are out trying to get re-elected and he forced our Republican conference, those that voted for this basically walked the plank for him and that is outrageous.”

READ MORE: $500 Per Second: Ronna McDaniel Reportedly Has a Few Expectations

After talking for several minutes about how Johnson “broke” and “violated” the rules by holding votes to keep the government from shutting down, she insisted her attacks are “not personal against Mike Johnson.”

“I filed the motion to vacate basically issuing a pink slip saying you’re going to be fired, we will not tolerate this any longer. And Republican voters all over this country agree with me,” she insisted.

In October, after Kevin McCarthy was ousted by his own party as Speaker of the House, CBS News reported its new polling “shows the American public wants the next Republican speaker to prioritize federal spending cuts, but also work across the aisle with Democrats and stand up against the ‘MAGA’ movement.”

Declaring, “Our conference needs a new Speaker of the House,” Greene insisted her actions have no effect on Republicans, who increasingly are exiting Congress early.

She also insisted that pinning a possible Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries on her is merely “twist” and “spin.”

READ MORE: ‘Absurd & Dangerous’: Truth Social Made Donald Trump Billions Today

“This is simple math,” she said. “The more Republicans like Mike Gallagher that resign and leave early, guess what that means we have less Republicans in the House. So every time a Mike Gallagher or Ken Buck leaves that brings our members down and brings us dangerously closer to being in the minority. It’s not Marjorie Taylor Greene.”

“I am not going to be responsible for Hakeem Jeffries being Speaker of the House. I am not going to for a Democrat majority taking over our Republican majority. That lies squarely, squarely on the shoulders of these Republicans that are leaving early because they don’t have the intestinal fortitude to handle the real fight, and the responsibility that comes with leadership at the end of our Republic when our country is nearly destroyed and when our Constitution is being ran through a paper shredder. So no one is going to blame that on me.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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$500 Per Second: Ronna McDaniel Reportedly Has a Few Expectations

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Former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, who was ousted by NBC News chairman Cesar Conde Tuesday after massive in-house and public outrage over signing her as a paid contributor, reportedly has some expectations about what she is owed.

Anger over McDaniel’s hiring was palpable at MSNBC, where the news network’s top hosts on-air denounced the decision to sign someone who allegedly assisted in trying to overturn the 2020 election. The New York Times on Tuesday reported, “a review of her record shows she was, at times, closely involved in and supportive of Mr. Trump’s legal and political maneuvering ahead of the violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s victory on Jan. 6.”

McDaniel’s price tag generated additional outrage, as some noted NBC News had recently laid off 13 researchers yet opted to pay her $300,000 a year. (According to the NBC News Guild, executives had “illegally terminated 13 union journalists.”)

According to Politico, McDaniel expects to have her full two-year contract paid in full.

“McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract, two years at $300,000 annually, since she did not breach its terms, we’re told — meaning that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost the Peacock more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second.”

READ MORE: ‘Absurd & Dangerous’: Truth Social Made Donald Trump Billions Today

McDaniel is also lawyer-shopping.

“McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her original contract,” Politico reports. “While no arrangement is final, a person close to McDaniel tells us, Freedman would be an obvious choice: He represented Megyn Kelly in her own acrimonious parting with NBC, as well as ousted anchors Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson in disputes with their respective former networks.”

“McDaniel, we’re told, is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC’s top talent — momentarily her colleagues — took turns Monday blasting her on air. (NBC declined to comment about the $600,000 figure or her potential claims.)”

Politico also reports that on Sunday, after Chuck Todd’s on-air remarks denouncing McDaniel’s hiring after her “Meet the Press” interview, McDaniel “heard directly” from NBC News’ senior vice president of politics, Carrie Budoff Brown, and NBC News’ president of editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, saying “that they’d have her back and the controversy would pass, according to the McDaniel ally.”

NBCUniversal News Group chair Cesar Conde sent an email to employees Tuesday announcing the network had cut ties with McDaniel. But Politico reports, neither Conde nor any other “top NBC brass” communicated to McDaniel directly before the email went out that she was done at the network.

READ MORE: ‘Travesty of Justice’: Legal Experts Stunned Over Unexplained Ruling Helping Trump

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