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Pete Buttigieg Just Testified Before Congress. It Did Not Go Well for Republicans.

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday, where he was forced to educate Republicans on a wide variety of topics, from climate change to not needing passports to fly domestically, to subsidies for oil and gas companies.

In one heated back-and-forth, U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), who has been fighting a subpoena from Special Counsel Jack Smith, blamed Secretary Buttigieg specifically for “killing” the auto industry by supporting electric vehicles.

“I don’t know if you can justify or how you justify forcing my constituents to pay for EVs [electric vehicles] and EV infrastructure for coastal elites and wealthy people, but somehow you do,” Rep. Perry told Secretary Buttigieg.

“Well, I need to point out that wealthy people were specifically excluded from the Inflation Reduction Act,” Buttigieg replied.

READ MORE: ‘Good Riddance’: Experts Blame Rupert Murdoch for ‘Intellectual and Moral Decay’ of America, Issue Warning on Future

“Well,” Perry replied. “Do you dispute that two-thirds of EV owners, are owned by people over 100,000, that make over 100,000?”

Buttigieg explained that the first electric vehicles were expensive, but “that number is going down.” Perry yelled it “doesn’t matter” that the prices of the electric vehicles are going down, his constituents “can’t afford them today,” which led Buttigieg to ask why he is opposed to “cutting their costs?”

“I’m not against cutting the cost. The market should do it,” Perry replied. “But you want the government, you want my taxpayers to pay to cut the cost.”

Buttigieg then asked about subsidies for the oil and gas companies, which cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars annually.

“If you are of the view that there should be no subsidy to propulsion vehicles, then are you against oil and gas subsidies?” Buttigieg asked.

During another back-and forth, Buttigieg quelled a Republican Congressman asking him questions as he educated him on electric vehicles and why they are important.

READ MORE: ‘Grabbing the Hog During a Live Musical’: Fetterman Mocks Fox News and Boebert Over Dress Code Outrage

“Nobody wants these electric vehicles unless you’re an elite that can afford them – people in my district sure as hell don’t want them.”

“We’re doing this for three reasons, even though the EV revolution’s going to happen anyway,” Buttigieg told U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA).

“Oh, it’s a ‘revolution’ –” the Congressman interjected, before Buttigieg cut him off.

“I would love to answer your question, Congressman.”

Moments later, when Buttigieg said “climate change is real,” LaMalfa shot back, “This one’s called Autumn.”

Buttigieg made him repeat it before explaining, “yeah, that’s the seasons changing which respectfully is not the same as the climate changing.”

And when U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) appeared to be unprepared with facts and figures, Buttigieg was happy to provide them for him, upending his inquiry into the Transportation Secretary’s “private” flights.

“I knew this might come up, so I brought some numbers,” Secretary Buttigieg told Rep. Burlison. “Since getting the job, I have taken—these are estimates, give or take a couple—but I’ve taken 638 flights.”

“607 of them were commercial, 10 of them were on military aircraft such as Air Force One, and 21 were on FAA aircraft—representing about 3 percent of the flights.”

READ MORE: White House Mocks GOP With ‘Worst Person You Know’ Meme After Matt Gaetz Blames McCarthy for Shutdown

“I appreciate the chance to discuss this because I can’t help get the sense that some people want to make it sound as if I don’t travel most of the time on commercial aircraft, which of course is untrue,” Buttigieg added.

“Mr. Secretary,” Burlison continued, “I think I think the irony for most people in my district is that they’re being told that they’re going to have to convert to electric vehicles to reduce their carbon footprint. And yet, not everyone gets to travel the way that you do.”

“Just once again,” Buttigieg replied, reinforcing what he had said, “the way I usually travel is an economy class aboard an airliner like everybody else, when we do it differently, it’s often because it will save taxpayer money.”

“I’m so glad you asked this,” Buttigieg concluded, saying he was “excited to share” this information.

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Trump Media Stock Price Hits Lowest Point Since Last November Following Debate

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The stock price for former President Donald Trump’s company Trump Media has fallen to its lowest point in nearly a year the day following his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris.

As of Wednesday morning at 11:00 eastern time, shares of Trump Media were trading at $15.96, according to CNBC. The last time the stock was that low was on November 14, when shares traded at $15.925 at close of business. The stock price has been declining since July 17’s high of $37.38.

That high is not quite half of the stock’s peak price this year on March 26, when the stock hit a high of $66.22 per share. That day had the highest stock price since less than a month after the launch of the company, when shares hit an all-time high of $97.54 at close on March 6, 2022. Trump Media & Technology Group was founded on February 8 of that year.

READ MORE: Parallels Between Trump Media Loans and Infamous Trump Tower Meeting Drawn by Reporter

Trump Media’s biggest asset is the social media platform Truth Social. Since the beginning of the company, it has promised to have a television streaming service, TMTG+, however it’s yet to materialize. Promises of some form of Trump TV network have circled since 2016, when former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was expected to win the presidential election, according to NBC News.

Given the company’s small portfolio, many have seen the stock like buying stock in Trump personally, according to CNN. The NASDAQ ticker symbol is even DJT after his initials, rather than TMTG, the initials of the company’s full name. And some stock experts have pinned its success on Trump’s own success in November’s election.

“I think if he loses, he has to sell and DJT goes to $1. If he wins, he doesn’t sell and DJT can make a run for it,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO Matthew Tuttle told CNN.

Trump has $2.3 billion in Trump Media stock, however, he’s been unable to sell it, due to a lock-up period. But that period will expire in two weeks, according to CNN. But if he sells off his shares, it could cause the stock to fall even further.

“It would be all but impossible for Trump to liquidate his whole stake or even a third of it without completely tanking the stock price,” Michael Ohlrogge, associate professor of law at the New York University School of Law, told CNN.

This year has been particularly tough for Trump Media. This April, the stock’s woes led to Trump falling off Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index of the richest 500 people in the world, according to Fortune. The company has also faced lawsuits from the company’s co-founders, Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, according to the Washington Post, who were in turn sued by Trump, NBC News reported.

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MAGA World Threatens to Boycott ABC After Trump’s Disastrous Debate Performance

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The phrase “Boycott ABC” trended on X, formerly known as Twitter, the morning after the first debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

ABC News aired the debate Tuesday evening, moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis. Though Trump started the debate calmly, as the night went on, he got more and more upset. The moderators pushed back on some of his more bizarre claims, like repeating the debunked conspiracy theory about people eating cats in Ohio or that Tim Walz backs post-birth abortions.

Pundits largely agreed that Harris won the debate. NPR said the debate “wasn’t close.” The New York Times described Harris as “sharp” and said she “rattled” the former president. Fox News’ voter panel said the vice president had been the victor.

READ MORE: Trump Late Night Rant Signals Plan to Evade Harris Debate as Rules Come Back Into Play

Even before the debate, there were claims of bias. On Monday, Fox News’ Sean Hannity predicted that the debate would be “biased” due to the network airing it.

“The one and only scheduled presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris will take place. You can watch it right here on Fox News Channel. But unfortunately, it is being moderated by ABC-Disney, barring some kind of political miracle, this debate will not be fair,” Hannity said on his show, according to Mediaite. “ABC-Disney is officially a woke, left-wing organization.”

Hannity also called for a boycott of all Disney properties. ABC is owned by the megacorporation.

“Maybe [Disney CEO] Bob Iger and his left-wing heir apparent, maybe they don’t want half the country to attend their theme parks, maybe they don’t care about their tanking stock price, which is their prerogative,” Hannity said. “They’re free to make that choice, but if they are biased against Donald Trump, as they have been leading into tomorrow night, as their nightly newscast is, half the country is not going to like it one bit. They are not going to like ABC-Disney one bit either.”

As Hannity predicted, many Trump supporters came out in droves to slam ABC and Disney.

“At this point, we need to boycott ABC News forever. If they come on again, we need to turn them off. If they are on YouTube, we need to turn them off. ABC News cannot be trusted by the American people to give impartial journalism. They are a propaganda arm of the lying Democrats,” X user China Clark posted.

The role of @abcnews and @DavidMuir is to allow Haitian thugs to invade your country and eat your pets while they gaslight you by claiming that it’s not true. Just ask the residents of Springfield, Ohio,” Former Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson wrote. 

“.@ABC is a disgrace. My phone is lighting up with nonstop messages about how extremely biased ABC is during this debate. Kamala Harris is VP RIGHT NOW. People can’t afford anything RIGHT NOW. The border is out of control RIGHT NOW. But ABC is in attack mode against Trump!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) wrote

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Liz Cheney Predicts Many Republicans Will Secretly Vote For Kamala Harris

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Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney predicted Sunday many Republicans will actually end up voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former Wyoming representative appeared on ABC’s This Week to urge her fellow Republicans to dump former President Donald Trump and endorse Harris as she has.

“Given the closeness of this election, particularly if you’re going to find yourself voting in a swing state, you’ve got to take the extra step if you really do recognize the threat that Donald Trump poses. Then it’s not enough to simply say, ‘I’m not going to vote for him,’” she said.

READ MORE: Liz Cheney Stomps Mitch McConnell for ‘Political Calculation’ to Ignore Trump’s Election Crimes

But she also said that even if many Republicans don’t follow her lead and denounce the former president, they’ll take advantage of the privacy of the polls to secretly support the Democratic candidate.

“It’s a secret ballot,” Cheney said. “At the end of the day, you just have to wrestle with your own conscience when you’re there in the voting booth. And I would expect that you will see far more Republicans and independents, you know, when the time comes, and they’ve got to make that decision, make the right decision.”

This would be the opposite of what some believe happened in 2016. Polls at the time generally showed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the lead over Trump. But when the election happened, though Clinton won the popular vote, it wasn’t enough to tip the Electoral College in her favor.

Over 70% of Republican insiders felt the polls underestimated Trump’s support, according to a Politico article from October 2016.

“I personally know many Republicans that won’t admit that they are voting for Trump. I don’t like admitting it myself. It won’t matter if Hillary is up more than 5 points, but we might be in for a surprise if Hillary’s lead is less than 5 points on Election Day,” an unnamed Virginia Republican told the outlet at the time.

In a 2016 interview conducted before the election, Trump’s then-campaign manager Kellyanne Conway pointed out that Trump polled better in anonymous online polls than in more traditional polling, according to WJLA.

“It’s become socially desirable, especially if you’re a college-educated person in the United States of America, to say that you’re against Donald Trump,” she said.

A 2019 study found that this was indeed the case. The study found that 54% of those polled voted for Trump but kept their preference a secret publicly. When broken out by gender, 57% of men and 50% of women polled kept their Trump vote a secret.

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