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‘Kremlin Propaganda’: MAGA Exploits Helene Disaster to Attack Biden and Harris

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As the devastation from Hurricane Helene became increasingly apparent over the weekend, MAGA loyalists were falsely blaming the U.S. federal government, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden of ignoring the victims and refusing to provide critical resources. As critics called out their lies, one fascism and authoritarianism expert accused pro-Trump social media accounts linking Ukraine aid to Helene assistance of spreading Russian propaganda.

‘We’re not leaving until the job is done,” President Biden vowed Monday morning in a White House address (video below), saying he expects to tour the areas devastated by Helene this week, likely Wednesday or Thursday—but not until first responders are able to do their work without his presence being “disruptive.”

“I’ve been told that if we disrupt, if I did it right now, we will not do that at the risk of diverting or delaying any response assets needed to deal with this crisis.”

The President then detailed the scope of the federal government’s response.

“I and my team are in constant contact with governors, mayors and local members. Head of FEMA, Ann Griswold, is on the ground now in North Carolina. She’s going to stay in Asheville, and that place of reason for the foreseeable future, there’s been reports of over 100 dead and the consequence of the storm, and there are reports about 600 people unaccounted for because they can’t be contacted. God willing they’re alive, but there’s no way to contact them again because of the lack of cell phone coverage.”

“I directed my team to provide every available resource as fast as possible to their communities, to rescue, recover and to begin rebuilding,” Biden said.

He noted that FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Defense are on the ground.

READ MORE: ‘Sociopath’: Trump Slammed for Bragging About Putin While Standing Next to Zelenskyy

“So far, that’s over 3600 personnel deployed. That number is growing by the day.”

“I quickly approved requests from governors of Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia and Alabama for an emergency declaration. And I approved additional requests for the governors of North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, and for disaster declaration to pay for debris removal, provide financial assistance directly to survivors. FEMA and Small Business Administration are there to help the residents whose homes and businesses were literally destroyed, washed away or blown away, and the federal search and rescue teams have been working side by side with state and local officials and partners in very treacherous conditions to find those who are missing and they’ll not rest until everyone’s accounted for.”

“Your nation has your back, and the Biden Harris administration will be there until the job is done,” the President promised.

He also suggested he may ask Congress to return from its extended recess to approve additional funding for the areas devastated by Hurricane Helene.

The White House on Sunday published an even more detailed report, which circulated on social media.

Barely minutes after President Biden concluded his remarks, Donald Trump posted on social media he was on his way to Valdosta, Georgia, claiming he will travel to North Carolina later, “but don’t like the reports that I’m getting about the Federal Government, and the Democrat Governor of the State, going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas. MAGA!”

Trump’s suggestion is false, according to numerous reports.

READ MORE: Senate GOP Leaders Refuse to Commit to Allowing Harris SCOTUS Nominees Up or Down Vote

“More than 500 North Carolina National Guard members are now working alongside local emergency responders conducting search and rescue missions, delivering needed supplies and working to restore infrastructure,” North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Ray Cooper said Sunday, the Asheville Citizen Times reported.

“The U.S. National Guard said on X Sunday that more than 5,500 members from 11 states are supporting Hurricane Helene response missions,” the paper added. “The North Carolina National guard activated more than 500 soldiers and airmen along with over 200 vehicles and aircraft, according to a post on X Sunday.”

But in May of 2017, then-President Trump denied “99 percent of federal recovery funds for Hurricane Matthew,” PBS News reported.

Despite the massive federal response by the Biden administration, Trump and his MAGA supporters and disinformation purveyors have been “pushing Kremlin propaganda” about the response, falsely claiming that Biden and Harris, or the federal government in general, are refusing to assist victims, and state and local governments, with a large focus on funding for Ukraine.

“This propaganda to tie the hurricane to Ukraine is insane,” wrote the Center for European Policy Analysis’s Olga Lautman, whose “research focuses on the cross-section of organized crime and intelligence operations in Russia and Ukraine, their impact on the West, and the monitoring of active measures campaigns conducted by the Kremlin to destabilize democratic practices and influence foreign elections.”

“For 2 days, far right propagandists are lying that Ukraine received funding and Americans aren’t despite Biden approving immediate federal funds. More proof of them pushing kremlin propaganda by focusing only on Ukraine,” she added.

Despite countless news reports to the contrary, Sunday evening, far-right podcaster and columnist Matt Walsh falsely declared: “Unfortunately the North Carolina flood victims are citizens of the USA, not Ukraine, so the Biden Administration sees no reason to help them.”

Stephen Miller, the former Trump White House senior advisor and architect of his child separation policy, falsely claimed on Sunday evening: “Kamala used every available government resource to airlift and evacuate 500 thousand Haitian illegals to the United States. But she couldn’t lift a finger to rescue drowning Americans in Asheville.”

Monday morning he responded to a Harris video vowing to help those affected by Helene, and despite all reports of aid and assistance, he wrote: “Americans are dying and they are drowning. You failed to warn them. You failed to evacuate them. You failed to rescue them. Just like you failed in Afghanistan. Except this is on our own soil.”

A former editor at the far right-wing website Breitbart, Emma-Jo Morris, on Sunday evening wrote on social media, “I wish North Carolina was as important as Ukraine.” That one post has received almost one million views. She followed that up with, “Isn’t there a corruption opportunity for Joe Biden in North Carolina so we can get them some aid.”

Far right-wing commentator and conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich on Sunday blasted this post off to his 1.3 million followers: “They let Maui burn, they let Asheville drown, can the country survive four more years of this?”

Other top pro-Trump surrogates, like U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Monday afternoon falsely claimed the Biden-Harris administration “Abandoned the people of North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee impacted by the hurricane.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

READ MORE: Harris Goes to the Border to Talk Immigration Policy and Target Trump

 

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Trump Doubles Down Calling Egg Prices ‘Too Low’ as Costs Soar to Record Highs

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In the days leading up to Easter, President Donald Trump has repeatedly—and falsely—claimed that egg prices have plummeted to the point of being “too low,” baselessly citing steep double-digit declines—even as Americans face record-high prices at the grocery store.

“The egg prices are down 87 percent, but nobody talks about that,” the President said on Friday. “You can have all the eggs you want, we have too many eggs, in fact, if anything the prices are getting too low.”

Trump campaigned on the promise he would lower the price of groceries “on day one,” a promise that three months later is not only unfulfilled, but in some cases reversed: overall grocery prices have risen.

READ MORE: ‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

On Thursday, Trump claimed the price of eggs had dropped 92%, while berating a reporter and his Federal Reserve Chairman.

“The price of groceries are substantially down,” the president falsely claimed.

The price of eggs, you know, when I came in, they hit me with eggs. I just got there, I was here for one week, and they started screaming, ‘Eggs have gone through the roof.’ I said, ‘I just got here.’

“They went up 87%, and you couldn’t get them,” Trump told reporters. “They said, ‘You won’t have eggs for Easter,’ which is coming up. Happy Easter, everybody.You won’t have eggs for Easter.”

“And we did an unbelievable job, and now eggs are all over the place and the price went down 92 percent,” he claimed.

READ MORE: Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

Last week on Monday, Trump had claimed, falsely, that egg prices had dropped 79%.

Egg prices, Newsweek reported on Wednesday, “continued to climb despite recent efforts by the Trump administration to combat the shortage brought about by the ongoing bird flu with imports of Turkish eggs. The CPI egg index jumped by 5.9 percent from February and was up 60.4 percent compared to March 2024, and the average price for a dozen grade A large eggs climbed 5.6 percent to a record $6.23.”

Moe Davis, the well-known retired U.S. Air Force colonel, attorney, and former administrative law judge, posted to social media a federal government chart of egg prices.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,” Davis wrote, “the price of a dozen eggs in March was $6.23, the highest price ever recorded and 26% higher than in January when Trump took office. Of course if Trump says egg prices are down then the MAGA cult is obliged to say egg prices are down.”

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

 

Image via Reuters

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‘Taunting SCOTUS’: Concerns Mount Over ‘Openly Contemptuous’ White House

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The Trump White House is coming under fire for what appears to be an attempt to mock the U.S. Supreme Court, the facts in the case of a Maryland man wrongly deported to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador, and The New York Times.

The White House’s official account on the social media platform X posted a “corrected” version of a New York Times story—corrections that have drawn concern and scorn from the legal community and political commentators.

“Senator Meets With Wrongly Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador,” read a screenshot of the Times’ headline.

But the White House’s version (below), complete with red ink and cross outs, reads: “Senator Meets With MS-13 Illegal Alien in El Salvador Who Is Never Coming Back.”

The White House added remarks saying, “Fixed it for you, @NYTimes. Oh, and by the way, @ChrisVanHollen — he’s NOT coming back.”

Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) traveled to El Salvador this week and, after several days, was finally permitted to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the legal U.S. resident whom the Trump administration has admitted in court it wrongly deported. Multiple courts, including the Supreme Court, have ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return. Yet the Trump administration appears to be refusing.

Friday’s claim that Abrego Garcia is “never coming back” was taken as a serious statement of intent by some.

Attorney Aaron Regunberg wrote: “The White House is saying he’s ‘never coming back’ — they are explicitly declaring they will violate a unanimous Supreme Court order.” Calling out Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Regunberg wrote: “you said this was your red line that would trigger ‘extraordinary action.’ So…where the f— are you?”

“2 telling things here,” offered The Washington Post’s senior political reporter Aaron Blake. “1) White House crosses out ‘wrongly,’ despite repeatedly acknowledging its error in court. 2) ‘who’s never coming back’ is basically taunting SCOTUS. Signals the opposite of any intent to ‘facilitate’ his return.”

“The White House press shop lies and claims Mr. Abrego was not wrongfully deported, despite having acknowledged that fact at every single stage of the court process; at the district court, the circuit court, and the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “They are openly contemptuous of the truth.”

Civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo, replying to the White House, wrote: “There is a mistake in the headline. You didn’t wrongly deport Garcia. You wrongly imprisoned him without due process. So, fix your mistake, as the courts have ordered. You don’t have to keep doubling down on bad decisions.”

Attorney Dilan Esper added, “I’ll remind you that the federal judges issuing orders see this.”

Veteran journalist John Harwoood called it, “disgusting fascism,” and wrote that “the Trump WH is garbage from top to bottom.”

Opinion writer Magdi Jacobs noted, “They’re moving from evading the judiciary to openly mocking it. This is very dangerous territory.”

Some others addressed what they appeared to suggest was the juvenile nature of the White House’s post.

“When you graduate from 4chan and land your first job at the White House,” wrote Talking Points Memo publisher Josh Marshall.

“The Trump admin really wants to distract people from the fact that it illegally sent someone to El Salvador in violation of a court order & binding law, either out of malice or sheer incompetence. No amount of s—posting will change that,” said Reason magazine’s Billy Binion.

“This is the evil of the Trump White House,” remarked Fred Wellman, an Army veteran, political consultant, and the host of the podcast “On Democracy.”

Journalist and author Robert Lusetich observed: “The White House, an ever-lasting symbol of the power, dignity and greatness of the United States. Now, a trolling meme account.”

Anti-gun-violence activist Fred Guttenberg declared the White House is “staffed by pathetic punk 2nd grade pre pubescent children.”

Journalist James Surowiecki commented, “Your tax dollars are paying for this childish cr–.”

See the White House’s social media post above or at this link.

 

Image via Reuters

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Trump’s Latest Target: The Watchdog That Keeps Suing Him

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From the outset of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump signaled that a central focus of his presidency would be targeting and exacting retribution against his critics.

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told attendees at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference in March 2023. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

In keeping his retribution vow, Trump in just three months—often with the use of the power of his executive orders—has targeted for retribution numerous top law firms, revoked the security clearances of dozens of top national security experts, former government officials, and former political opponents. He has targeted top universities, threaten to defund millions of dollars or more in critical research grants, and declared top news outlets CNN and MSNBC “corrupt” and “illegal.”

Just days after the 2024 election, NPR reported that during the campaign, “Trump made more than 100 threats to investigate, prosecute, imprison or otherwise punish his perceived enemies, including political opponents and private citizens.”

READ MORE: ‘Things Like This Take Place’: Trump Shrugs Off Mass Shooting Despite Once Being a Target

On Thursday, Trump threatened to go after one of his top legal critics: CREW, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit legal and ethics watchdog that has been working for years to hold him (and others) to account, often by suing.

Asked by a reporter what group he would like to see have their tax exempt status removed, Trump replied, “Well, we’ll be making some statements, but it’s a big deal.”

“They’re so rich and so strong, and then they go so bad, they’ve earned so much by being a member of this country, you know, a member of this group, this beautiful group of people in this country, and then they go and they abuse their power like that,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday afternoon. “I think it’s, you know, I think it’s very sad.”

“I have a group named CREW,” he continued. “CREW. You ever hear of it? I think it’s CREW, and they have a guy that heads CREW. It’s supposed to be a charitable organization. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So we’re looking at that.”

“We’re looking at a lot of things, but if you take a look at CREW, what they’ve done, and I think it was a very big abuse, but we’re going to be finding out pretty soon.”

During Trump’s first and second terms, CREW sued Trump or his administration for alleged emoluments clause violations, alleged Presidential Records Act noncompliance, and challenged some of his executive orders. It also represented voters in a lawsuit attempting to use the 14th Amendment to remove him from the ballot, claiming his role in the January 6, 2021 insurrection was constitutionally disqualifying.

READ MORE: ‘Full Time Babysitter’: Treasury Secretary Urges Caution After Trump Fed Chair Threat

In January, CREW was part of a lawsuit suing to “block Trump’s illegal plan to fire government workers,” and in February, CREW sued the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “to compel transparency.”

CREW, in a statement to NCRM, vowed to continue its work.

“For more than 20 years, CREW has exposed government corruption from politicians of both parties who violate the public trust and has worked to promote an ethical, transparent government,” CREW Vice President of Communications Jordan Libowitz said. “Good governance groups are the heart of a healthy democracy. We will continue to do our work to ensure Americans have an ethical and accountable government.”

Legal experts are blasting Trump’s threat.

“It is literally a federal crime punishable by up to five years in prison for the President, VP, or any senior White House employee, to ‘request, directly or indirectly, any officer or employee of the IRS to conduct … an audit or other investigation of any particular taxpayer,'” wrote attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“The Trump administration has gone after law firms, they’ve gone after universities, and they’re now going after civil society, including groups like @CREWcrew. They want to silence any opposition to their extreme agenda,” added the National Women’s Law Center.

“President Trump is now threatening to weaponize the IRS against nonprofit organizations like @CREWcrew,” wrote Public Citizen. “He is attacking our most basic right: to say what we believe without fear of government prosecution. We proudly stand in solidarity with our friends at CREW.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

Watch the video above or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Stunning Admission’: GOP Senator Says Colleagues ‘Are All Afraid’ of ‘Retaliation’

Image via Reuters

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