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‘Helped Put 5 Million Children Back Into Poverty’: Some Democrats Thrilled With Manchin Exit

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U.S. Senator Joe Manchin’s announcement Thursday afternoon he will not run for re-election but instead will travel the country to “mobilize the middle and bring Americans together” is being seen by some as confirmation he will run for president as a third-party candidate, but some Democrats are thrilled he will be out of the Senate.

The West Virginia Democrat, one of the most-vulnerable and most unpopular in the Senate, has often been a challenge for Democrats for years.

Now, some strategists are worried about Democrats losing the Senate majority, while others are pointing out Manchin’s chances of being re-elected may not have been good, and would have forced Democrats to invest heavily in a seat they may not have been able to hold. West Virginia Republican Governor Jim Justice is running for that seat, and is expected to win it next year. In May, CNN ranked Manchin’s Senate seat the number one most likely to flip to the GOP.

RELATED: ‘Biggest Threat to Our Survival’: Experts Blast No Labels and Third Party Candidates as Manchin Tests the Waters

West Virginia was a ‘prime pickup opportunity’ for the GOP in the Senate whether Manchin ran or not,” observes former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob. “He was useful in the past to give the Democrats the Senate majority. But he’s a Democrat in name only, standing in the way of vital climate action. Good riddance.”

Manchin’s announcement was not unexpected. After being one of the top opponents of President Joe Biden’s agenda, in August Manchin toyed with leaving the party and becoming an independent. U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, also one of Biden’s top opponents on the left, did just that last year.

Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts Magazine, which reports on “local elections and obscure institutions that shape public policy,” weighed in:

“To hold Senate in 2024, Dems must defend Montana, PLUS Ohio, PLUS Arizona & Wisconsin & Michigan & Pennsylvania, PLUS the White House. Or, if they stumble in just 1 of those, they must replace one by a GOP-held seat, so unseat [Rick] Scott or [Ted] Cruz.”

READ MORE: Republicans ‘Determined’ to Shut Down Government Warns Top Dem Amid GOP House Chaos

“This is as narrow a path to a Senate majority as it gets, but it exists, & Dems did defy trends in 2022: Hold onto all Biden states (certainly not a stretch based on the 2022/2023 cycles), & get 2 longtime incumbents to survive (tricky, but neither is a given at all for GOP),” he adds.

Roll Call on Wednesday announced its top 10 list of most vulnerable U.S. Senators “includes only two Republicans, Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida.”

Senator Cruz’s seat is now getting a lot of attention from Democrats.

“Joe Manchin’s retirement almost certainly means Democrats will lose the WV Senate seat. You know where they can pick one up this time? In Texas by defeating Ted Cruz next November,” Julián Castro also noted. “Best pickup opportunity on the map this cycle.”

Castro, a Texas Democrat woh served as President Barack Obama’s HUD Secretary and Mayor of San Antonio, went further.

“For those who roll their eyes at the idea that Texas is winnable… it’s been moving strongly toward Dems in the Trump era. Obama 2012 lost by 16, Hillary by 9, Biden by 5.5. Beto 2018 lost to Cruz by 3 and Dems picked up 2 seats in Congress, 2 in state sen and 12 in state house,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Democratic anger at Manchin, long palpable, appears to be growing.

Sawyer Hackett, Democratic strategist and senior adviser to Julián Castro, summed up what many appeared to be thinking: “Joe Manchin is almost single-handedly to blame for 5 million children falling back into poverty last year. Not a great legacy to kickstart a long shot bid for President.”

READ MORE: ‘Positively Stalinist’: Legal Expert Warns ‘If Trump Wins We Lose the Republic’

Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich appeared to agree:

“Joe Manchin (along with Sinema & the GOP) helped put five million children back into poverty by blocking the extension of the expanded Child Tax Credit. Five. Million. Remember this whenever you hear him preach about the virtues of the so-called ‘middle.'”

The Nation’s Elie Mystal did not hold back his anger, “All the people who said we had to go easy on Manchin letting kids starve because he was trying to hold the Senate ‘for the Dems’ should now confront the fact that Manchin just pulled a ‘f*ck them kids’ because he felt like it for no electoral upside.”

SiriusXM’s Dean Obeidallah appears pleased: “Joe Manchin BLOCKED Biden’s Build Back Better bill which would’ve helped people like my mother by providing her with a home health aide covered by the government. Millions of seniors and disabled people didn’t get that coverage because of Manchin. Good riddance Manchin!!”

“This is actually incredibly good news,” says political strategist and former Biden ad writer Cliff Schecter. “God knows how much we would’ve wasted on this asshat of betrayal, and he 100% would’ve lost anyhow. Now we’re don’t have to spend a cent there, can put it to good use protecting [Jon] Tester, Sherrod [Brown], etc.”

Esquire’s Charles Pierce snarked, “Joe Manchin is leaving the Senate to wander the earth looking for people who want a ‘centrist’ like him, just days after Democrats won big.”

 

 

 

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‘On Day One’: Trump Vows to End Protections for LGBTQ Students

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Donald Trump says the day he enters the Oval Office for a second term he will end anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students implemented by the Biden administration.

Serving up a scattershot series of complaints with the hosts from the Philadelphia-based right-wing talk radio show “Kayal and Company” on Friday, Trump compared LGBTQ+ protections to a “cuckoo’s nest.”

“A lot of things don’t make sense, having to do with what they’re doing, from the border to all of the men playing in women’s sports. I mean, the world is like a cuckoo’s nest right now with what they do,” Trump declared.

One of the hosts alleged President Joe Biden has engaged in “manipulation” of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. She claimed parents now have to “pinch some pennies” to be able to afford private Christian schools for their children, to remove them from the enhancements that go into effect this summer.

“Many schools are grappling with what they’re going to do,” she said, “because as of August 1, as you know, because of Biden’s manipulation of Title IX, these kids, the school boards, have no choice, they’re meeting right now they, many of them perplexed, and they don’t know what to do, Mr. President, because they’re so upset over this that at August 1 a biological boy can change in a locker room.”

READ MORE: ‘Rejection of Trump’: 1 in 5 Indiana GOP Voters Just Cast Their Ballot for Nikki Haley

Trump replied, “It’s crazy. Crazy.”

“We’re going to end it on day one,” Trump vowed. “We’re going to change it on day one. It’s going to be changed. We’re going to end it. That’s right.”

“The whole thing is crazy. Look, it’s like men playing in women’s sports. It’s like open borders for the world to come in. Send all their prisoners. We’ll take as many as you can give us. Send all their people from mental institutions.”

“We’ll get that changed. Tell your people not to worry about it. It’ll be signed on day one. It will be terminated,” Trump promised, vowing to end the LGBTQ+ protections which include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

On his first day in office, President Biden implemented “the most far-reaching of any federal protections yet” for LGBTQ+ people, according to NPR.

In an explainer on the new expanded rules, Ms. Magazine reports “The 2024 regulations prohibit discrimination not only on the basis of sex, but also on the basis of sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

According to GLAAD, which is tracking “the Biden administration’s executive orders, legislative support, speeches and nominations that affect LGBTQ people and rights,” President Biden has made 337 “moves” in 1206 days.

Listen to a short clip below or at this link.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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Ari Fleischer Offers Donald Trump Advice Attorney Says ‘Effectively’ Violates Gag Order

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A Fox News panel discussing the Trump New York criminal trial debated whether or not the indicted ex-president could attack the judge’s daughter, with former Bush 43 press secretary Ari Fleischer insisting he should, and claiming doing so would not violate the terms of the gag order.

“President Trump needs to stop calling the judge ‘conflicted.’ He needs to explain why he’s conflicted,” Fleischer said Friday to a panel that included former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “Every day of the trial he goes in there, he says, ‘the judge is conflicted, conflicted bigger than I’ve ever seen anywhere in my life.’ He doesn’t explain how or why. He needs to say that the judge’s daughter works for a Democratic political consulting firm that does anti-Trump business. He needs to explain it. Otherwise, it’s just an assertion with no proof. And the President if he’s going to say it, back it up. Explain.”

“I think that’s a violation of the gag order, is it not?” a Fox panelist replied.

“No, he can criticize the judge,” McEnany responded.

READ MORE: Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

“Not the judge but the family,” the panelist added.

“But when he says the judge is conflicted, you can still explain how and why, and I think comply with a gag,” Fleischer insisted.

The panelists then agreed Donald Trump has been “measured” in his remarks.

National security attorney Brad Moss weighed in on social media, posting the relevant portion of the gag order and writing that Fleischer “effectively recommends Trump violate the terms of the gag order.”

The gag order in part reads: “Defendant is directed to refrain from” … “Making or directing others to make public statements about (1) counsel in the case other than the District Attorney, (2) members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or (3) the family members of any counsel, staff member, the Court or the District Attorney, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with, or to cause others to materially interfere with, counsel’s or staffs work in this criminal case, or with the knowledge that such interference is likely to result.”

Despite Trump’s repeated attacks, an ethics panel last year cleared Judge Juan Merchan of any issues surrounding his daughter’s work.

On Monday, Judge Merchan warned Trump he may throw him in jail if he violates the gag order again.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

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Bannon Will Be ‘Going to Prison’ After Criminal Contempt Conviction Upheld, Experts Predict

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A federal appeals court panel of three judges has upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and former Trump chief strategist and senior White House advisor. Legal experts say he can appeal but ultimately he will he headed to prison.

Bannon had refused to comply with a subpoena lawfully-issued by the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack.

“Bannon was sentenced to four months in jail in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols after a jury convicted him of two counts of contempt of Congress,” Politico reports Friday. “But Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed to postpone the jail term while Bannon appealed the decision, agreeing that the complex mix of laws that govern executive privilege and testimonial immunity for White House aides could be overturned by higher courts.”

The appeals court panel includes judges appointed by President Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden, according to CNN’s Zachary Cohen.

In their ruling the judges wrote: “Public accounts indicated that Bannon had predicted on a January 5, 2021 podcast that ‘all hell [wa]s going to break loose’ the next day,” and noted, “In addition to the podcast prediction, Bannon had reportedly participated in discussions in late 2020 and early 2021 about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.”

READ MORE: House Ethics Committee Extends Investigation Into ‘Ultra MAGA’ Congressman

Politico noted the “three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Bannon’s argument, saying the former aide and prominent podcaster had no legal rationale for his blanket refusal to appeal before the Jan. 6 committee — and that long-standing case law.”

Bannon is a peddler of conspiracy theories whose podcast “was crowned the top peddler of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among political podcasts,” according to The New York Times, citing a Brookings study.

“Bannon is unlikely to have to report to prison immediately,” NBC News reports.

Legal experts weighed in on the question of prison for Bannon.

READ MORE: ‘Undisguised Corruption’: Critics Slam Trump for ‘Selling the White House’ to Big Oil

“And now it’s time for Bannon to be given a date to report to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving his sentence,” remarked MSNBC and NBC News legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor.

“Bannon is effectively out of appeals,” observed professor of law and MSNBC legal analyst Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney. “He can delay a little bit longer, asking for the full court to review the decision en banc & asking SCOTUS to hear his case on cert, but neither one of those things will happen. Bannon is going to prison.”

Professor of law and former chief White House ethics lawyer Richard Painter remarked, “it’s slammer time.”

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