‘That’s A Serious Question?’: Joe Biden Appears Agitated With Reporter Asking About ‘Horrific’ Conditions In Migrant Facility (VIDEO)
ABC News reporter Cecilia Vega was asking Biden about the border crisis during the first press conference of his presidency, when she brought up a facility holding migrants in “horrific” conditions.
“You mentioned circumstances that must be horrific. The Customs and Border Protection facility in Donna, Texas — I was there — is at 1556% capacity right now with mostly unaccompanied minors. There are kids that are sleeping on floors, they are packed into these pods,” Vega began. “I’ve spoken to lawyers who say that some of these children have not seen the sun in days. What is your reaction to these images that have come out from that particular facility? Is what’s happening inside acceptable to you? And when is this going to be fixed?”
“That’s a serious question, right? If it’s acceptable to me? Come on,” Biden answered, seemingly becoming frustrated at the question.
“That’s why we’re going to be moving a thousand of those kids out quickly. That’s why I got Fort Bliss opened up. That’s why I’ve been working from the moment this started to happen to try to find additional access for children to be able to safely — not just children, but particularly children — to be able to safely be housed while we follow through on the rest of what’s happening. That is totally unacceptable,” he concluded.
BIDEN’S STRANGE ANSWER ON WHY HE WON’T VISIT BORDER… EDDIE ZIPPERER: Biden hasn’t gone to the border because he doesn’t want the Secret Service to get in the way? (VIDEO)
RNC: Biden concedes he is purposefully waiting to provide transparency at the border (VIDEO)
BIDEN CLAIMS TRUMP LET CHILDREN ‘STARVE TO DEATH’… FORMER WH AIDE STEPHEN MILLER REACTS…
MILLER: .@POTUS replied with a monstrous lie to the question from @CeciliaVega on unaccompanied minors. Vega pointed out that families abroad were separating their own children due to Biden’s supremely reckless pledge to resettle in the U.S. any minor illegally crossing the border. (1/7)
Biden replied w/an asinine false choice. He explained that he was resettling minors in the US in lieu of “let[ting] them starve to death and stay on the other side” (Mexico) which he accused Trump of doing. This is spectacularly false & a grave smear on our border agents. (2/7)
First off, illegal crossers returned to Mexico are transferred to migration authorities not the desert. But unaccompanied minors were returned to their *home countries* to be reunited with their own families. They were not returned to Mexico unless Mexico was their home. (3/7)
This humane policy from President Trump brought unaccompanied minor numbers to record lows. Biden’s disastrous decision to exempt minors from Title 42, and to stop the at-home reunification process in favor of domestic resettlement, single-handedly created this crisis. (4/7)
Worse still, Biden made this decision with no planning, no preparation, no extra facilities, and no thought as to the tragic human consequences on both sides of the border. He is straining U.S. communities while keeping young illegal migrants from their families back home. (5/7)
The youth migrant crisis will only end when Biden does a full 180 & switches from a resettlement policy to a repatriation policy. As long as he admits every minor crossing illegally they will keep getting smuggled in record numbers—and the needless suffering will continue. (6/7)
Finally, Biden’s answer to @kwelkernbc on revoking Trump’s proven border tools defies human logic. If you stop removing illegal immigrants, and instead release them en masse, then of course they will come in ever-larger numbers. This shouldn’t be that hard to understand (7/7).
Biden Abruptly Cuts Short Rambling Answer On Immigration (VIDEO)
President Joe Biden abruptly stopped short Thursday while addressing a question on immigration during his first solo-press conference.
After several minutes answering the question about why families have been crossing the border in record numbers, Biden stopped himself mid sentence, saying “and the other thing we’re doing, I might add —am I giving you too long an answer because if you don’t want the detail.”
“I don’t know how much detail you want about immigration. Maybe I’ll stop there,” Biden said.
TAKING AIM AT ELECTION INTEGRITY BILLS, BIDEN CALLS GOP ‘SICK’ & ‘UNAMERICAN’ … NYT: Biden calls Republican efforts to limit voting ‘sick’ and ‘un-American’
President Biden said on Thursday that Republican efforts to limit voting rights were “sick” and “un-American,” vowing to prevent states from taking what he called “despicable” actions that undermine democracy by making it harder for people to cast ballots.
Speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House for his first formal news conference, Mr. Biden said he would do “everything in my power” to pass voting rights legislation now under consideration in the Senate. But when asked about ending the Senate rule that requires 60 votes to approve most legislation — one of the biggest obstacles to the voting rights bill and much of the rest of his agenda — the president was more cautious, suggesting he was open to change but not committing himself to it.
HUH? EDDIE ZIPPERER: Biden says voting bills currently in state legislatures are worse than Jim Crow laws: “This makes Jim Crow look like Jim Eagle.” (VIDEO)
BIDEN SUDDENLY STOPS TALKING DURING RIFF ON TALKING FILIBUSTER… There Was One Moment During The Presser That Biden Appears To Utterly Lose Track Of Himself (VIDEO)
“As you have observed, I am a fairly practical guy. I want to get things done. I want to get them done consistent with what we promised the American people and in order to do that in a 50/50 Senate, we have to get 50 votes so that the Vice President of the United States can break the tie, or I get 51 votes without her,” Biden said.
“And so I’m going to say something outrageous. I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate periods of the best way to get something done, if you hold near and dear to you that you like to be able to — anyway,” Biden trailed off, looking down momentarily before moving on.
“We are ready to get a lot done, and if we have to, if there is a complete lockdown and chaos as a result of the filibuster, then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about. Okay, hang on. Uh. Sorry.”
ZAID JILANI: The filibuster isn’t a Jim Crow relic..it was created long before JC and was used way more in the past two decades than it was in the 50s or 60s. Politicians lie and distort but why is media going along with it? (THREAD)
SPEAKING OF THE FILIBUSTER… FLASHBACK… CHRISTIAN SCHNEIDER: Sen. Barack Obama in 2005 vigorously defending the filibuster, which he now decries as a “Jim Crow relic” (VIDEO)
MORE OBAMA: “What they don’t expect is for one party … to change the rules in the middle of the game so they can make all the decisions while the other party is told to sit down and keep quiet”
Biden: ‘The Answer Is Yes. My Plan Is To Run For Reelection’ (VIDEO)
President Joe Biden formally stated Thursday that he plans to run for reelection in 2024.
“The answer is yes, my plan is to run for reelection,” Biden said during his first solo press conference as president. “That’s my expectation.”
The president additionally joked that his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, formally announced his reelection campaign so early into his time in office was because he “needed it.”
Later in the briefing, Biden expressed some frustration on a followup question from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on the subject.
“I don’t know where you guys come from, man. I’ve never been able to travel,” he stated when Collins pressed him to declare his candidacy. “I’ve never been able to plan three or four years ahead for certain.”
Biden Relies On Notes For Parts Of First Formal Press Conference
“I’ve never seen a POTUS bring one of those to a news conference,” former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer tweeted regarding Biden’s notes.
During one portion of the press conference, the president appeared to solely rely on a script when responding to a question about North Korea, Fox News contributor Guy Benson pointed out.
‘I Never Saw That’: Chris Wallace Rips Biden For Reverting To ‘White House Talking Points’ On Every Foreign Policy Question (VIDEO)
“I have to say I was also struck by the fact that it seemed on every foreign policy question, not the others but on foreign policy, he went to his briefing book like Jen Psaki does sometimes in the briefings and was reading obviously White House the guidance White House talking points,” Wallace said. “Covering Ronald Reagan for six years I never saw that. Watching a lot of news conferences over the years I have never seen that, a president and a news conference reading talking points. He did that on, it seemed, every foreign policy question.”
‘You Know It And So Do I’: Donald Trump Says Biden’s Press Conference Was ‘Ridiculous’ (VIDEO)
“What was your reaction — Mr. President, what was your just general reaction to the way Biden handled the so-called press conference today?” Ingraham asked. “He read quite a bit from reference notes. But he did take some questions. It was unusual, to say the least.”
“Well, they were strange questions, and they were asked in a very interesting way. It was like softballs, like you are throwing softballs up, and it is just a different world,” Trump said, suggesting that some of the reporters were feeding Biden questions that would be easier to handle.
“They are easy questions,” Trump continued, noting that Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy had not been among those who got to ask a question. “And there can be no difficult questions, and they are ready to rip the microphone away if somebody did get a little bit testy. He just — look, the whole thing is ridiculous. You know it, and so do I.”
POLITICO: Sources: Secret Service inserted itself into case of Hunter Biden’s gun
On Oct. 23, 2018, President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and daughter in law Hallie were involved in a bizarre incident in which Hallie took Hunter’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.
Delaware police began investigating, concerned that the trash can was across from a high school and that the missing gun could be used in a crime, according to law enforcement officials and a copy of the police report obtained by POLITICO.
But a curious thing happened at the time: Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact.
NOW THAT IT DOESN’T MATTER… Jack Dorsey Regrets Suppressing Hunter Biden Story, Won’t Name Who’s Responsible
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has called the company’s decision to block a story about Hunter Biden in the run-up to the 2020 election a “total mistake,” but failed to say Thursday who was responsible for suppressing the article.
Dorsey deflected at a congressional hearing on misinformation and social media Thursday when asked to name those responsible for the mistake, according to the New York Post. […]
Dorsey previously admitted that locking The New York Post out of its Twitter account and prohibiting users from sharing the outlet’s story on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop last October was an error, according to The New York Post.
“We recognize it as a mistake that we made, both in terms of the intention of the policy and also the enforcement action of not allowing people to share it publicly or privately,” Dorsey said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in November, according to the report.
NYT: Big Tech C.E.O.s Face Lawmakers on Disinformation (HIGHLIGHTS)
Jack Dorsey says Twitter played a role in U.S. Capitol riot.
Tech leaders are split on how, or whether, to change legal protections.
Democrats blame tech companies for allowing disinformation to spread widely.
Republicans question bans of Trump and threaten to weaken legal protections.
NYT: Jack Dorsey says Twitter played a role in U.S. Capitol riot.
Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, said during his congressional testimony on Thursday that the site played a role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, in what appeared to be the first public acknowledgment by a top social media executive of the influence of the platforms on the riot.
Mr. Dorsey’s answer came after Representative Mike Doyle, Democrat of Pennsylvania, pressed the tech chief executives at a hearing on disinformation to answer “yes” or “no” as to whether their platforms had contributed to the spread of misinformation and the planning of the attack. […]
“Yes,” he said. “But you also have to take into consideration the broader ecosystem. It’s not just about the technological systems that we use.”
BUT TWITTER DIDN’T GET BANNED FROM THE INTERNET… A SMALL SOCIAL MEDIA OPERATION, ON THE OTHER HAND?… Parler Says It Repeatedly Warned FBI Ahead Of Time About Violence Planned For Jan. 6
Social media platform Parler was actively working with the FBI, regularly sending them screenshots of posts calling for organized violence at the Capitol in the weeks leading to Jan. 6, the platform said Thursday.
In a Thursday letter addressed to chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Parler attempted to refute any criticism that it failed to police user content ahead of the riots.
In the letter, Parler said it “took the extraordinary initiative to develop formal lines of communication with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) to facilitate proactive cooperation and referrals of violent threats and incitement to law enforcement,” in the latter half of 2020 after it saw a growth in users.
Before the Jan. 6 riots, the company said it “referred violent content from its platform to the FBI for investigation over 50 times,” and “alerted law enforcement to specific threats of violence being planned at the Capitol.”
BIG TECH HAS ADVANCED COVID MISINFORMATION… Social Media Doesn’t Allow Posts That Break COVID-19 Narratives, Even Though Health Organizations Keep Backtracking Previous Findings
Social media companies have policed coronavirus-related content based on information from top health organizations, even as those organizations have contradicted themselves.
Facebook and Google instituted policies early in the pandemic restricting user content shared on their platforms to information that doesn’t contradict World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) findings. However, the organizations have contradicted, backtracked or retracted their own findings throughout the pandemic.
Facebook’s policy states that the site “will debunk common myths that have been identified by the World Health Organization.” Shortly after coronavirus was declared a pandemic, Facebook announced its “Coronavirus Information Center,” which curates updates from “organizations such as the World Health Organization.”
“We’re removing known harmful misinformation related to COVID-19, and when someone taps on a hashtag related to COVID-19, we show resources from WHO, CDC and local health authorities,” Facebook subsidiary Instagram’s policy stated.
Google’s policy prohibited YouTube content creators from sharing information “that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO),” the tech giant’s “Medical Misinformation Policy” said.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube issued a joint statement in March 2020, promising to combat coronavirus misinformation and to share updates from “government healthcare agencies.”
However, both the CDC and WHO have shared information throughout the pandemic that the organizations were forced to retract.
Pelosi Argues She Has A Right Not To Seat Certified Election Winner In Iowa
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday it was within her “right” not to seat the certified election winner in Iowa.
Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa won the seat in November 2020, defeating the Democratic candidate Rita Hart by a mere six votes, as previously reported. Hart requested a recount, and one was fully provided with bipartisan support. The election was officially certified by the Iowa State Board of Canvassers, stating Miller-Meeks received a total of 196,964, and Hart a total of 196,958, according to the report.
“If I wanted to be unfair, I wouldn’t have seated the Republican from Iowa because that was my right on the opening day. I would have just said, you’re not seated, and that would have been my right as Speaker to do so,” Pelosi said on Wednesday.
WATCH… Speaker Pelosi says it is her “right as Speaker” to seat or unseat any member of Congress she wants even if the election is certified (VIDEO)
EARLIER THIS WEEK… POLITICO: Dems sound alarm at prospect of overturning Iowa race
The prospect of a floor vote to overturn a contested congressional race in Iowa has suddenly become a real dilemma for House Democrats’ most vulnerable members.
Moderate Democrats are privately squirming over the possibility that they could be forced to choose a winner in the race for Iowa’s 2nd district, where the GOP candidate, now-Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, won by just six votes — the smallest margin of any candidate in decades. Her opponent, Rita Hart, declined to appeal through state channels and instead took her challenge directly to the Democratic-run House.
A handful of nervous Democrats have spoken up publicly as the House Administration Committee reviews the case. But behind the scenes, more moderates are voicing concern about the dynamics of possibly unseating a GOP lawmaker — particularly after they hammered Republicans for trying to do just that to President Joe Biden, which led to a deadly insurrection in the U.S. Capitol.
DEM CONGRESSMAN FREAKS AFTER WITNESS POINTS OUT HARVARD’S RACIAL DISCRIMINATION… Rep. Ted Lieu Screams At Civil Rights Attorney For Bringing Up Harvard Discrimination Against Asians (VIDEO)
Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu chastised attorney Peter Kirsanow during a House hearing about the need for diversity in federal courts.
“Stop bringing in irrelevant issues, there are more Asian-Americans at these Ivy Leagues than in the federal judiciary, they’re underrepresented. These are different issues happening,” Lieu yelled at Kirsanow for bringing up the subject of Asian-American discrimination at Harvard University.
“Just answer my question about Asian-Americans in the federal judiciary or minorities in the federal judiciary because it is underrepresented,” Lieu continued with a raised voice. “Don’t bring in these college issues because this is not what the hearing’s about.”
Kirsanow continued on to agree with Lieu that Asian-Americans were underrepresented in the federal judiciary system, however he referred back his earlier point by explaining that “there has been discrimination in the pipeline,” discussed.
DEMOCRATS INTRODUCE BILL CLEARING FEDERAL FUNDING FOR ABORTION… CALL OPPOSITION ‘RACIST’… Democrats Introduce Bill To Repeal ‘Racist’ Hyde Amendment
“This isn’t about what side you’re on in the abortion debate, it’s about equality and opportunity plain and simple,” Duckworth said Wednesday, HuffPost reported. “Whatever you think about the procedure, we should all agree that what’s legal for wealthy Americans should not be so inaccessible for Americans of color and low-income Americans.”
“Let’s call this amendment what it is: It’s anti-choice and it’s blatantly racist,” Lee said during a Wednesday call with reporters. “We know it disproportionately impacts low-income people and women of color. It should never have been signed into law and it’s way past time that it was repealed. The Hyde Amendment has been used by anti-choice politicians to keep abortion care out of the reach for people already marginalized by our health care system.”
Reverend Dean Nelson, the Human Coalition Action Executive Director, told the Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that the Hyde Amendment is one of the few remaining legal barriers to “the abortion industry’s systematic and racist exploitation of people of color.”
“Across the country, Black women experience the highest abortion rate of any demographic, nearly five times higher than white women,” Nelson told the DCNF. “And even with the Hyde Amendment in place, the abortion industry already targets the poor with great success; close to half of the women who get abortions in America live below the federal poverty line.”
NBC: Sesame Street has two new Muppets, a Black father and son, in an effort to help children understand racial literacy. In the promo, Elmo asks why Wes’s skin is brown. His dad Elijah explains how “the color of our skin is an important part of who we are.”
JIM TREACHER: There have been black people on Sesame Street for 50 years. Elmo never noticed until now?
Arkansas Governor Signs Bill Banning Biological Men From Girls Sports
Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a bill Thursday that bans biological men who identify as women from participating in school sports.
Hutchinson signed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” after it was passed by the State House earlier this week, KAIT reported. Earlier in March, Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a similar bill into law, sparking nationwide controversy on the topic of whether transgender women can participate in women’s sports.
The bill was met with fierce criticism when it was introduced, with critics arguing that it puts transgender Arkansas residents at risk, KAIT reported. Shortly after the bill was signed, Governor Hutchinson issued a press statement through his website defending his decision.
“This law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition,” the statement read, adding that the bill will “promote and maintain” fairness in women’s sports.
Greta Thunberg Tweets How Penises Are Getting Smaller Due To Pollution, Recruits For Climate Strike
Citing a study linking pollution with shrinking penis sizes and babies born with deformed genitalia, Greta Thunberg tweeted Thursday asking people to attend her next climate strike.
In the study, Dr. Shanna Swan, a professor of environmental medicine and public health at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, found that phthalates, chemical waste released when producing plastics, are responsible for low fertility rates of an “existential crisis” proportion, Sky News reported. With the rate that human fertility is dropping, Swan said, by 2045, most males will fail to produce sufficiently potent sperm.
“See you all at the next climate strike,” wrote the 18-year-old climate activist from Sweden, quoting the Sky News article on the study’s findings.
RIP LUCILLE BLUTH… ‘Arrested Development’ Star Jessica Walter Dead At 80 Years Old
Jessica Walter’s daughter confirmed the actress died Wednesday.
Brooke Bowman revealed Walter died in her sleep at her home in New York City, Deadline reported.
Calling All Patriots: The mass shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, and Boulder, Colorado, have renewed calls from many Democrats for stricter gun control laws. Others have argued that focusing on other aspects, like the mental health of the perpetrators, could be more helpful to prevent these crimes in the future. So Patriots, what’s the best way to reduce the number of mass shootings in the U.S.? Let us know in the form.
