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‘A New Low’: Democrats Blast Speaker Johnson’s Mockery of Border Agents

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Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is under fire after mocking U.S. Border Patrol agents by baselessly suggesting the reason they support the Senate border bill is personal financial gain.

One day after the Senate released its massive border bill, which experts say includes many items House Republicans demanded, Johnson and much of his House GOP conference immediately rejected it, largely in response to Donald Trump’s direction. The ex-president has made clear he wants to keep Congress from improving the situation at the border so he will have an issue to use against President Joe Biden in the November election.

On Monday, the largely right-wing labor union representing U.S. Border Patrol agents and staff endorsed the Senate border bill, saying it “will drop illegal border crossings nationwide.”

READ MORE: Speaker Johnson’s Latest Move Adds to His Conflicting Quagmire of Divergent Border Positions

“The Border Act of 2024 will give U.S. Border Patrol agents authorities codified, in law, that we have not had in the past,” wrote Brandon Judd, President of the National Border Patrol Council, in a statement supporting the Senate border bill. “This will allow us to remove single adults expeditiously and without a lengthy judicial review which historically has required the release of these individuals into the interior of the United States. This alone will drop illegal border crossings nationwide and will allow our agents to get back to detecting and apprehending those who want to cross our borders illegally and evade apprehension. While not perfect, the Border Act of 2024 is a step in the right direction and is far better than the current status quo. This is why the National Border Patrol Council endorses this bill and hopes for its quick passage.”

Judd just last week testified for House Republicans, declaring he believes Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas should be impeached. And the National Border Patrol Council endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016 and 2020.

The Senate border bill was crafted by hardcore conservative Republican U.S. Senator Jim Lankford (R-OK), and liberal U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT). Despite its harsh changes to immigration law, it has the support of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Joe Biden, who says he will sign it. It also had the support of Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has done an “about face,” telling his conference to oppose it.

READ MORE: ‘We Aren’t Monsters’: Top Senate Dem Slams Josh Hawley for Not Wanting to Help Kids

The bill includes “$20 billion in emergency funding for federal authorities — including the Homeland Security, Justice and State departments, as well as other agencies — to hire thousands of new Border Patrol agents and asylum officers, increase detention capacity, and invest in technology to combat the smuggling of fentanyl and other narcotics,” The Washington Post reported.

But Monday night Speaker Johnson appeared to mock border patrol agents.

“The Border Patrol union has come out and said the bill is better than the status quo,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham told Speaker Johnson (full interview here). “Does that affect your thinking on this?”

Johnson has repeatedly said the Senate bill is “dead on arrival.”

Suggesting financial interest for border patrol agents, Speaker Johnson told Ingraham, “I think it does have something to do with the pay structure that’s in the bill. I understand they are desperate for measures that will assist.”

The bill does not appear to include pay increases for border patrol agents.

Johnson was sharply criticized.

“Wow,” declared U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NY), “the republicans are now mocking America’s border patrol officers for the crime of supporting bipartisan border security. A new low.”

The White House also took notice of Speaker Johnson’s remarks.

READ MORE: ‘Mutiny’: Far Right GOP Senators Start to Give McConnell the McCarthy Treatment

“In case you were wondering how desperate @SpeakerJohnson is to delay border security for political purposes,” wrote White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates. He also quoted a Newsweek article: “Speaker Mike Johnson sparked laughter from Fox News host Laura Ingraham after suggesting the National Border Patrol Council had come out in support of a major bipartisan immigration and asylum bill because it could result in a pay rise for their members.”

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King Charles Discreetly Rebukes Trump in Historic Address to Congress: Report

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Britain’s King Charles III delivered a “carefully targeted rebuff” of President Donald Trump and his MAGA allies during his historic address before Congress, Politico reports, as he lauded NATO and called for “unyielding resolve” to defend Ukraine against Russia.

“British monarchs deliver their political messages in code,” Politico noted, adding that “contrary to the president’s repeated claims over recent weeks, NATO was in fact there to help in America’s hour of need.”

Charles told members of Congress that in “the immediate aftermath of 9/11, when NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time, and the United Nations Security Council was united in the face of terror, we answered the call together, as our people have done so, for more than a century.”

“Shoulder to shoulder,” he declared, “through two world wars, the Cold War, Afghanistan, and moments that have defined our shared security. Today, Mr. Speaker, that same unyielding resolve is needed for the defense of Ukraine and her most courageous people.”

His Ukraine entreaty received bipartisan applause and a standing ovation.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

Charles praised the United States’ armed forces’ “commitment and expertise,” and that of its allies, that “lie at the heart of NATO.”

Calling it “a direct plea to Trump and Hill Republicans to maintain American support against the Russian invasion,” Politico stated that Charles “is striking a very different tone from Trump’s incessant criticisms of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”

READ MORE: FCC Poised to Review Disney Licenses Amid Trump Pressure Over Kimmel Joke: Report

 

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Trump White House Blames Democrats’ ‘Unhinged Rhetoric’ for Inciting WHCD Attack

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The White House is alleging that “unhinged” and “sick rhetoric” from Democrats is to blame for inciting the alleged assassination attempt on President Donald Trump and members of his administration by “another Radical Left lunatic.”

On Saturday, at the hotel hosting the annual White House Correspondents Association Dinner, a heavily armed man broke through a security checkpoint on the floor above the event and was taken down by Secret Service agents. In his manifesto, the suspect, Cole Tomas Allen, allegedly named “Administration officials ” as his primary “targets.”

On Tuesday, in a press release titled “Democrats’ Unhinged Rhetoric Incites Third Assassination Attempt on President Trump,” the Trump White House charged that the “attack was not random; it was the predictable result of years of reckless, inflammatory, and escalating rhetoric from Democrats” who “have created a toxic environment that incites their supporters to violence again and again.”

The White House listed over a dozen prominent Democrats and their remarks.

For example, it cited House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries who said that Democrats “are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time” against Republicans. Jeffries’ remarks were initially taken from a direct quote attributed to a “person close to the White House,” as The New York Times reported last year.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

In August, The Times reported: “One person close to the president, who insisted on anonymity to describe the White House’s political strategy candidly, summed it up succinctly: ‘Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time.'”

The White House did not mention the connection.

In its press release, the White House also quoted Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who “called on his supporters to ‘be forcefully rising up against’ President Trump.” Senator Schumer did not say, against President Trump. He said, “against this,” referring to the Trump Justice Department’s prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James.

The White House also cited Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for saying that “heads do need to roll” inside the Trump Administration, and California Governor Gavin Newsom for urging supporters to “punch these sons of b —— in the mouth.”

In total, the White House cited eighteen Democrats and their statements.

READ MORE: ‘This Will Backfire’: DeSantis’s New Redistricting Map Is Already in Trouble

 

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FCC Poised to Review Disney Licenses Amid Trump Pressure Over Kimmel Joke: Report

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The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to review Disney’s broadcast licenses, according to an exclusive report by Semafor.

According to Semafor, a person familiar with the FCC’s thinking said the review is not directly tied to a monologue delivered last week by ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel, which targeted President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump.

But NBC News, citing a source familiar with the matter, reported later on Tuesday that the FCC is expected to order Disney’s eight broadcast stations to file their broadcast license reviews early.

A source told NBC News the move was “unprecedented” and directly tied to Kimmel’s comments.

On Monday, First Lady Melania Trump blasted ABC, demanding the broadcast network hold Kimmel to account.

READ MORE: Trump ‘Frustrated’ by Ballroom Legal Battles — So GOP Wants You to Pay for It: Report

“Kimmel’s hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country,” the First Lady said on social media. “His monologue about my family isn’t comedy- his words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.”

“People like Kimmel shouldn’t have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate,” she continued, calling the late night host a “coward” who “hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.”

Later on Monday, President Trump went even further than the First Lady, demanding Kimmel “be immediately fired by Disney and ABC.”

Days earlier, on Thursday night, in a mock version of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Kimmel delivered several jokes, including saying: “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.”

Kimmel delivered his monologue two days before an alleged assassination attempt targeting Trump and top administration officials at the actual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.

READ MORE: Coming Price Spike Made Worse by Trump Could Deal ‘Fatal Blow’ to GOP: Report

 

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