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‘I Don’t Agree With Anything You Just Said’: Garland Repeatedly Slams Gaetz’s ‘False’ Claims

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Attorney General Merrick Garland, under intense attack for months by Republicans outraged over prosecutions of Donald Trump, was forced to defend himself and the Dept. of Justice during Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing where he testified for hours.

Conflating state and federal prosecutions, which are separate, U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was quick to go after Garland and New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the criminal trial of Donald Trump.

Repeatedly refusing to comment on current cases, Garland drew a strong line when Gaetz tried to pose his questions as hypotheticals, pounding him with “conspiracy theories.”

Congressman Gaetz, who is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee and had been under investigation by DOJ, demanded Garland hand over communications he claimed exist between DOJ and prosecutors in Georgia and New York who have indicted Donald Trump.

READ MORE: ‘I Worship God’: Greene Melts Down Again After Attacking Fauci in Profane Lie-Filled Rant

“The case in New York is brought by the Manhattan district attorney independently on his own volition, as [his] own determination of what was, what he believed was a violation of state law,” Garland told Gaetz, as ABC News reported. Gaetz “hit back arguing that by refusing to immediately hand over any such documents, the Justice Department is only fomenting more conspiracy theories.”

“During the back-and-forth, Garland repeated that the Justice Department had no involvement in Bragg’s investigation. In his opening remarks, Garland said that ‘conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself.'”

“I don’t need a history lesson,” Gaetz told Garland, as he alleged the only way to prove there is no conspiracy is to hand over all the documents he claimed exist.

In another line of questioning, this one apparently designed to impugn the credibility of Judge Merchan, Gaetz drummed up a string of supposed hypotheticals.

READ MORE: Trump Attorney Tried to Kill Latest Legal Bombshell: Report

“I’m sorry, I don’t agree with anything you just said,” Garland declared, as he repeatedly told Gaetz he would not comment on any current cases.

When Gaetz tried to push another conspiracy theory, deeply rooted in Republican circles, that Garland “dispatched” a DOJ official to work on Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of Donald Trump, Garland angrily responded.

“That is false. I did not dispatch Matthew Colangelo. That’s false. False,” Garland declared. “I’m saying it’s false.”

“Do you know how he ended up there?” Gaetz asked, meaning in Bragg’s office.

“I assume he spoke, applied for a job there and got the job,” Garland replied.

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Texting About Trump?’: Experts Think Speaker Johnson May Be Talking to SCOTUS Justices

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Canadian Prime Minister Warns World Order Has Ruptured

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Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney drew a standing ovation at the World Economic Forum in Davos after warning that the global order has ruptured.

“Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition,” Carney said, as The New York Times reported.

“I will talk today about the breaking of the world order, the end of a pleasant fiction and the beginning of a brutal reality where the geopolitics of the great powers is not subject to any constraint,” he explained.

“Every day we are reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry,” he said. “That the rules-based order is fading. That the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

Carney did not say President Donald Trump’s name, but he did tell his audience, “recently, great powers began using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”

He also said that “there is a strong tendency for countries to go along to get along. To accommodate. To avoid trouble. To hope that compliance will buy safety.”

“It won’t,” he warned.

Carney said that “intermediate powers like Canada, are not powerless. They have the capacity to build a new order that encompasses our values, such as respect for human rights, sustainable development, solidarity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the various states.”

And he warned that those powers “must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.”

The Times noted that Carney’s speech came “not long after” President Donald Trump “posted an A.I. image on social media that included a map of American flags superimposed over both Canada and the United States,” along with the U.S. flag on Greenland, Venezuela, and Cuba.

READ MORE: ‘Code Red’: Newsom Tells Europe They’ve Been Played by ‘T-Rex’ Trump

 

Image via Reuters 

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US Could Slide Into Putin-Style Rule After Trump Foreign Policy Shift: Journalist

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In a stark warning on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s second term in office, The Bulwark’s editor, Jonathan V. Last, suggests that under Trump, America may adopt Putinism as its domestic policy, having already adopted it for its foreign policy.

“Will Putinism take over American domestic politics, too?” Last asks, in an opinion piece titled, “This Is the End.”

“America has adopted Putinism as its modus operandi for foreign affairs,” he says. “Why would America not also adopt Putinism in its domestic affairs? Why would the American regime tolerate free and fair elections or the transfer of power to an opposition party?”

Pursuing the question, Last continued: “Are there examples of expansionist, rogue regimes which ignored international law and attempted to subjugate free people abroad, but respected liberal democratic outcomes that terminated their possession of power at home?”

READ MORE: ‘Dictators’ Tea Party’: Trump’s Board of Peace Ridiculed as New Details Revealed

To those who suggest Trumpism is temporary, Last suggests he disagrees.

“Many people comfort themselves by saying some version of ‘Donald Trump is an aberration’ or ‘This isn’t who we are,'” he writes.

But, he continues, “If Trump was an aberration and his actions did not have sufficient public support, then he would be removed from office. There are two mechanisms for doing so—impeachment and the 25th Amendment.”

“Trump will not be removed from office; which allows one of two conclusions. Either: Trump’s policies are supported by a sufficient percentage of Americans to be viable; or America’s constitutional order is so ossified that it no longer functions to safeguard the will of the people.”

“Neither of these is an alibi,” Last warns, noting that, “either one supports the conclusion that the problem is not Trump. It is America and Americans. This is who we are. Like it or not.”

Last also makes several other predictions:

“The days of intelligence sharing between America and our former allies are drawing to a close.”

“The death of NATO.”

“Germany, Poland, and Canada will acquire nuclear weapons. So will Japan. Sweden, Australia, and South Korea may develop nuclear capabilities as well.”

“Europe will draw closer to China.”

“Greenland will become disputed territory.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

 

Image via Reuters

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Treasury Chief Draws Ridicule for Wanting to Protect Americans With ‘5, 10, 12 Homes’

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Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent was met with mockery after explaining he wants to protect “mom and pop” owners who have up to a dozen homes they’ve bought as retirement investments.

Bessent and President Donald Trump have declared they want to ban large institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes as housing becomes more scarce and less affordable.

“We are going to give guidance at some point to see what is a mom and pop, that someone — maybe your parents — for their retirement, [bought] about 5, 10, 12 homes,” Bessent told Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“So we don’t want to push the mom and pops out,” he continued. “We just want to push everyone else out.”

READ MORE: ‘Enemy Is Within’: Trump Boosts Post Casting NATO as a ‘Threat’ in Social Media Spree

Bessent, a former hedge fund manager, has an estimated net worth of $521 million, according to The Street.

Critics were quick to ridicule Bessent as out of touch.

“Good news for the forgotten man,” declared The Bulwark’s Tim Miller. “The mom and pop real estate investor who has purchased 12 homes can breathe easy, the Treasury Secretary is looking out for you.”

“These people are completely out of touch with how life is for you,” observed The Lincoln Project.

Governor Gavin Newsom’s Press Office commented, “Scott, people are trying to buy 1 house — to live in. Could the Trump Admin be any more out of touch?”


READ MORE: ‘Code Red’: Newsom Tells Europe They’ve Been Played by ‘T-Rex’ Trump

 

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