Afghanistan’s opium production skyrocketed in 2021, potentially providing the Taliban government a source of revenue between $1.8 billion and $2.7 billion. This according to a new report from the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (SIGAR).
The war-torn nation’s illegal production ranked as the third-highest recorded since the United Nations began reporting it in 1994. It comprised between 9 and 14 percent of Afghanistan’s GDP and exceeded the value of all of the country’s officially recorded legal exports in 2020.
The surge in opium production comes as the U.S. government allocates millions to combat the spread of illicit drugs in the country, according to SIGAR’s latest report, released on Wednesday.
While the Taliban has vowed to combat opium production—even though it could serve as a lucrative source of revenue for them —SIGAR says it “has seen no evidence that the Taliban are enforcing or can enforce such a ban. On the contrary, the opium trade in Afghanistan appears to be flourishing.”
In fact, opium dealers, who once operated in the shadows while the U.S.-backed government was in power, are now selling their drugs from “stalls in village markets,” according to SIGAR’s report. “Opium poppy farmers, a key constituency for the Taliban, are likely to resist a ban,” the watchdog said.
The report quoted one opium seller as saying that the Taliban have “achieved what they have thanks to opium. None of us will let them ban opium unless the international community helps the Afghan people.”
The Biden administration, meanwhile, has renewed its efforts to inject millions of dollars in U.S. aid into the country without formal ties with the Taliban or officially recognizing its rule.
The State Department reported last year that the U.S. Agency for International Development had “suspended all contact with the Afghan government, and terminated, suspended, or paused all on-budget assistance.” The latest report, however, discloses that USAID has “resumed some off-budget,” U.S.-managed activities in Afghanistan.
The White House announced last month it sent an additional $308 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, where poverty and hunger has run rampant since the Taliban in August 2021 retook control of the country amid a bungled evacuation of U.S. forces.
Afghanistan’s citizens are starving. More than half face a “tsunami of hunger,” according to the United Nations. This is the result of “record drought, rising food prices, internal displacement, and the severe economic downturn and collapse of public services following the Taliban’s return to power in August.”
Around 22.8 million Afghans will be at “potentially life-threatening levels of hunger this winter,” with around 8.7 million facing “near-famine conditions.” Another one million are at risk of dying, according to SIGAR, which cites statistics from a recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification study.
Up to 97 percent of Afghanistan’s population is now at risk of slipping below the poverty line by mid-2022 “as a result of the worsening political and economic crises,” according to the report.
Additionally, the Biden administration’s failure to evacuate skilled Afghan soldiers who worked for the country’s former fighting force has likely led to them joining the ISIS terrorist group, according to the SIGAR report.
In an interview with former Afghan general Sami Sadat, SIGAR learned that “Afghan fighters, especially commandos and intelligence officers, could lead to IS-K’s resurgence. Sadat said these people would be especially vulnerable to IS-K recruitment. Sadat added that this issue needs to be addressed more systematically, noting that IS-K may have the capability to take eastern Afghanistan quickly and establish itself in Kabul within a year.”
By Bethany Mandel For Dailymail.ComPublished:Updated:
Tracy Compton, a mother of two in Fairfax, Virginia, had voted for Democrats for as long as she can remember, until the COVID-related school closures. “I tried and went to apply to work with the Democratic Party. I was told I was not allowed to become a member of the Democratic Party [in Fairfax].”
A recording of a reorganization meeting showed fellow Democrats deeming Compton too ‘anti-school’ to be part of their political efforts.
What made Compton anti-school? She wanted the public schools to fully reopen.
When Compton worked to collect signatures for a recall petition for the local school board, she was welcomed out of the rain by a Republican party tent, even after telling them she was a Biden voter.
In contrast, when Compton offered the petition to those inside the Democrat party tent, she was yelled at.
Now? Given a hypothetical matchup between Kamala Harris or President Joe Biden vs. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, she said she’d vote for the Republican in a heartbeat.
Compton lamented how she got here, now supporting a political party with whom she felt very little in common with until COVID hit.
She told me, “All the things that Biden and Kamala believe in; and what the Democratic Party believe in… I still believe in it. But I have to look at what’s happening in my family and with my children right now.”
Bethany Wagner (above with family) said the ‘schools issue’ proved to be a gateway into seeing the world through another set of eyes.
Wagner (above with children) went from a casual viewer of CNN and MSNBC to seeking out Fox News clips about the ‘schools issue’ on YouTube because they were the only ones covering it.
“They’re being hurt by not being able to be in school, and not in school normally. My focus has to be on making sure that they’re going to grow up and prosper and be the good citizens that they need to be.
“So that they can protect the environment. And they can go on to do all the things that are important to me… I’ve got to put my attention on the thing that’s yelling at me the most.”
She went on, describing how she’ll vote in the future, “Until [Democrats] can present someone that’s logical, I’m going to have to make choices. Right now, my choices are very much based on my children and my children getting an education.”
“If that can be solved, then I can worry about other things that are important to me, like gun control, the environment, and universal healthcare. I can’t do that until I know my kids are good.’
Compton isn’t alone, she’s part of an army of Virginia parents who swung the gubernatorial election towards the Republican Glenn Youngkin, who just took office this week.
Compton was active in her community’s efforts to open schools, as was her friend Bethany Wagner, a mother of two, also living in Fairfax.
For Wagner, the ‘schools issue’ proved to be a gateway into seeing the world through another set of eyes.
She realized early in the pandemic that it was conservative sites that were reporting on the impact of school closures and concerns she had over curriculum.
She went from a casual viewer of CNN and MSNBC to seeking out Fox News clips about the ‘schools issue’ on YouTube because they were the only ones covering it. Soon, she did the unthinkable: She just turned on Fox News itself. And she realized, “It’s not what CNN claims it to be.”
Neither women see themselves as Republicans, but for the time being, they will be voting for them. Compton and Wagner are just two names behind a widespread shift towards Republicans over the course of the last year.
Ashley (a pseudonym), a mother of three from Central New Jersey, fumed, “I hate when Democrats like Biden get all defensive and say that 95% of schools are open right now. They are being willfully ignorant and not paying attention that even though schools are ‘open’ they are NOT NORMAL.”
Gallup reported a remarkable shift in the way Americans identify themselves politically. Strikingly, the most pronounced shift away from Democratic party identification came in the third and fourth quarter of the year, coinciding with the fall as children returned to school.
In the first quarter of 2021, 49% of U.S. considered themselves to be Democrats. By the third quarter of 2021, self-identified Democrat (and Democrat-leaning individuals) dropped to 42%.
For Republicans it went in the opposite direction. 40% self-identified with the GOP at the start of 2021, and 47% put themselves in the Republican-camp at the end of the year.
That’s a 14-percentage point swing from a nine-point Democratic advantage to a five-point GOP edge, and among the largest advantages the GOP has ever held in Gallup polling.
Strikingly, the most pronounced shift away from Democratic party identification came in the third and fourth quarter of the year, coinciding with the fall as children returned to school.
Why might parents have snapped in the fall when their kids finally went back to school? Ashley (a pseudonym), a mother of three from Central New Jersey, fumed, “I hate when Democrats like Biden get all defensive and say that 95% of schools are open right now. They are being willfully ignorant and not paying attention that even though schools are ‘open’ they are NOT NORMAL.”
It’s a line that President Biden repeated at his two-hour White House press conference on January 19.
“It’s always going to be the top of the news,” Biden said of the ‘schools issue.’
“But let’s put it in perspective: 95 — as high as 98 percent of the schools in America are open, functioning, and capable doing the job.”
He’s not fooling parents like Ashley.
Kids are masked, have no field trips, no extracurriculars, no sports (our town canceled winter recreation sports just for kids but kept adult recreation programming). Not to mention the constant threat of closures when cases rise. School might be mostly ‘open’ but it is not normal. Democrats should be paying attention instead of gaslighting me and telling me everything is fine.’
Now we’re learning that Biden wants to increase masking for children – not reduce it.
President of the American Mask Manufacturer’s Association (AMMA) told Reuters that the White House is interested in creating a U.S. manufacturing base for protective masks for kids.
“We are ready to provide protective children’s masks for American families,'”said President Lloyd Armbrus. I’m sure they are. But do parents want them, and do kids really need them anymore?
It’s not only in K-12 schools where the situation is critical.
On parenting boards across the country parents of young children in daycares and preschools are at a breaking point.
After a huge spike in cases around the holidays, and with holidays and then weather-related closures, many of these centers have been closed more than they’ve been open so far in 2022.
A single case can lead to a closure of 10-14 days, and several of those means no routine or steady childcare for parents of small children.
On supply chain issues, Biden asserted much of the same. Everything is fine, don’t believe your lying eyes.
Biden claimed, “The share of goods in stock in stores is 89% now, which is barely below the 91% that prevailed pre-pandemic.”
It’s a fascinating strategy, telling Americans that everything is fine when they are keenly aware of the reality.
It’s a strategy that isn’t exactly paying off for the President, with his approval numbers sinking faster than the Titanic.
According to new poll numbers from Gallup, Biden’s approval rating is at just 40%, with 56% of respondents disapproving.
Alongside a shift away from the Democratic Party, there was a similar shift away from the President, with his support dipping in the fall of 2021.
Gallup explains, “In the latest survey, 40% of Americans approve and 56% disapprove of the job he is doing, as the U.S. is plagued by the highest inflation in four decades and another surge of COVID-19 cases, this time fueled by the omicron variant of the coronavirus.”
But it’s not just that.
Read the President’s meandering answer when he was asked if school closures would become a potent midterm issue for Republicans.
To get the full-flavor of this alternatively dismissive, halting, and incoherent answer – you really have to watch.
(Problems with sound)
Here’s some of it from the official White House transcript:
Reporter question: Could school reopenings or closures become a potent midterm issue for Republicans to win back the suburbs?
Biden: Oh, I think it could be, but I hope to God that they’re — that — look, maybe I’m kidding myself, but as time goes on, the voter who is just trying to figure out, as I said, how to take care of their family, put three squares on the table, stay safe, able to pay their mortgage or their rent… You know, every — every president, not necessarily in the first 12 months, but every president in the first couple of years — almost every president, excuse me, of the last presidents — at least four of them — have had polling numbers that are 44 percent favorable… I mean, the idea that — the American public are trying to sift their way through what’s real and what’s fake.’
You can see why struggling Democratic parents have snapped.
In contrast, Republicans in Congress are vocally advocating for children. “Children are paying one of the greatest costs of this pandemic, despite being the least at risk to COVID-19. It’s time for the Biden administration to prioritize children’s well-being above junk CDC science, political donors and teachers unions,” tweeted Washington Congressman Cathy McMorris Rodgers on January 20.
Ashley warned, ‘I’m about as lefty as they come. I campaigned for Elizabeth Warren in 2020, Bernie Sanders in 2016, and Ralph Nader in 2000. Most of my views on specific issues haven’t changed… Now I don’t know if I can vote for any of them unless they reckon with what they did, and continue to do, to kids during this pandemic.’
‘I would even accept an apology, a mea culpa, a reflection on what they failed to do, and an effort to make it right. But I’m not holding my breath.’
Judging from Biden’s performance at the White House an apology or more importantly a change of course – is not coming.
Protesters begin streaming into the U.S. Capitol through the historic Columbus Doors on Jan. 6, 2021. (Video Still/U.S. DOJ)
By Joseph M. Hanneman for Epoch Times
January 28, 2022Updated: January 29, 2022
Kelly Meggs and other Oath Keepers could not do one of the major things federal prosecutors accuse them of – force their way into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021, through the famous Columbus Doors.
The two sets of historic doors that lead into the Rotunda were opened by someone on the inside, and not his client, says defense attorney Jonathon Moseley.
Department of Justice video widely circulated on Twitter this week shows a man trying to open the inner doors by leaning against them, before turning around as if listening to someone, then returning to the entrance and opening the left door for protesters.
“The outer doors cast from solid bronze would require a bazooka, an artillery shell or C4 military-grade explosives to breach,” Moseley wrote in a letter to federal prosecutors. “That of course did not happen. You would sooner break into a bank vault than to break the bronze outer Columbus Doors.”
The 20,000-pound Columbus Doors that lead into the Rotunda on the east side of the U.S. Capitol are secured by magnetic locks that can only be opened from the inside using a security code controlled by Capitol Police, Moseley wrote in an eight-page memo.
‘Impossible and Cannot Be Done’
“Imagine how the prosecution will prove at trial what cannot be proven because it is not true,” Moseley wrote to prosecutors Jeffrey S. Nestler and Kathryn Leigh Rakoczy of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Who is going to testify that the defendants entered the Columbus Doors when the U.S. Capitol Police will begrudgingly testify that that is impossible and cannot be done?”
In a superseding indictment on Jan. 12, 2022, Meggs and 10 other members of the Oath Keepers were charged with seditious conspiracy, destruction of government property, obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, tampering with documents, and other counts related to rioting on Jan. 6.
The indictment charges that Meggs led a “stack formation” up the Capitol steps to the entrance at the Columbus Doors. At 2:39 p.m., the doors were breached, and Stack One entered the Capitol with the mob, the indictment said.
Moseley said there’s one big problem with that accusation: it’s impossible to force entry from the outside. Only someone with the security code could release the locks—from the inside.
Video evidence submitted in the case showed the glass panes in the inner doors were cracked but intact, so no one accessed the building through the windows or by reaching for the inside door handles, he said.
“Therefore,” Moseley wrote. “Nobody opened the Rotunda doors from the outside. Someone opened the doors from the inside.”
Video shot by multimedia journalist Michael Nigro shows the outer bronze doors were partially retracted before a large crowd gathered outside the entrance.
The inner doors were closed and U.S. Capitol Police were stationed outside. Protesters sprayed police with pepper spray, threw items at them, and hit them with flagpoles.
A short time later, the inner doors were opened and hundreds of protesters streamed into the Rotunda, the video shows. A protester in the Rotunda is heard shouting, “Don’t vandalize the property!”
Capitol Tour Confirms Door Security
American sculptor Randolph Rogers designed the solid-bronze doors to depict scenes from the life of explorer Christopher Columbus. The doors were first installed in 1863, moved in 1871 to the central east entrance, and moved to the current location in 1961.
The doors are 17 feet high and weigh 20,000 pounds, according to the Architect of the Capitol. Once opened, the giant doors retract into pockets in the walls via built-in tracks.
First installed in 1863, the historic Columbus Doors depict scenes from the life of explorer Christopher Columbus. (Architect of the Capitol)
Moseley asked federal prosecutors for “any and all specifications, details and operational information about the so-called Columbus Doors.”
Moseley said he and an assistant took a tour of the Capitol on Jan. 22, along with other attorneys and investigators. The U.S. Capitol Police officers on duty were emphatic, he said, that the doors could not be opened from the outside.
“These are facts that in the supposedly largest nationwide investigation in the history of the U.S. since the kidnapping of the Charles Lindbergh baby or the search for Al Capone could easily have been investigated, check(ed), and determined before the U.S. Attorney’s Office presented false information to the grand jury,” Moseley wrote.
“For these purposes, I don’t care who opened the Columbus Doors from the inside, or why, or who they worked for. History will reveal all of that,” Moseley wrote. “History will care very much. But all I care about is that it wasn’t my client or any of these defendants, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office knows that or should have discovered it upon reasonable investigation.”
The Epoch Times asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia for comment on Moseley’s letter but received no reply.
The superseding indictment said Meggs and four other Oath Keepers became part of a mob that “aggressively advanced toward the Rotunda Doors, assaulted the law enforcement officers guarding the doors, threw objects, and sprayed chemicals toward the officers and the doors and pulled violently on the doors.”
The ‘mob’ breached the Rotunda entrance around 2:39 p.m., the indictment alleges.
Nigro’s video from outside the entrance shows a group of Oath Keepers near the Columbus Doors, which are clearly open at the time the men got near the threshold. By the time they entered the Capitol, dozens if not more than 100 people had flowed into the building, the video shows.
‘Baseless Prosecution’
Moseley accused prosecutors of crafting a case against the Oath Keepers that is “false and reprehensible.”
“This baseless prosecution is the greatest threat to the Republic since 1812. This prosecution is not about an attack on our Republic. This prosecution IS the attack on our Republic,” Moseley wrote, “seeking to criminalize political dissent, free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of political association, and the right to petition the government for the redress of grievances.”
Moseley rapped federal authorities for “dishonestly trying to deceive the public” for eight months by concealing the fact that six demonstration permits had been issued for the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.Implicit in those permits is the permission for people to have ingress and egress across the grounds to reach each event, he said.
This baseless prosecution is the greatest threat to the Republic since 1812.
— Jonathon Moseley
Moseley proposed a stipulation that both sides in the case agree none of the demonstrators or the defendants opened the Columbus Doors on Jan. 6 and that the government strike three paragraphs of the indictment that refer to defendants entering the Capitol because they are “untrue and withdrawn.”
Prosecutors refused that proposal.
News of the Columbus Doors issue comes as more video was released from the protective court seal. It shows large groups of Jan. 6 protesters peacefully streaming into the U.S. Capitol through wide-open doors. Among them was Rabbi Mike Stepakoff, who spent about five minutes inside the Capitol, doing nothing more than looking around and taking photos.
On his way out, Stepakoff stopped to shake hands with a police officer, and told him “Thank you for your service, we love you, and God bless you,” according to his attorney, Marina Medvin.
Rabbi Stepakoff was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, all misdemeanors.
Stepakoff pleaded guilty to the parading charge and received 12 months of probation. The other charges were dismissed. The government sought to punish him with a jail term “for events he did not partake in, for destruction and violence he did not witness, for severity he did not experience, and for an effect he did not cause nor could foresee,” Medvin said.
———————————————————————————-
There is so much hyperbole in the indictment that the DOJ’s own video refutes it’s not funny –Phoenix.
Left-wing billionaire George Soros handed over $125 million to a Democrat-aligned super PAC to boost Democrat groups and candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
The controversial 91-year-old investor confirmed to Politico on Friday his plans, saying the large donation to Democracy PAC, which he set up in 2019 as his main political action committee to support Democrats, is a “long-term investment” beyond the 2022 elections.
Soros said that the new infusion of funding will back pro-democracy “causes and candidates, regardless of political party” and who are involved in “strengthening the infrastructure of American democracy: voting rights and civic participation, civil rights and liberties, and the rule of law.”
Soros’s son, Alexander Soros, will serve as Democracy PAC’s president. The younger Soros issued a statement to news outlets about the development, immediately making reference to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
According to his statement, Soros said he believes there is an existential “threat to our democracy” by alleged attempts to “discredit and undermine our electoral process.”
“It is a generational threat that cannot be addressed in just one or two election cycles,” Alex Soros said. “Democracy PAC is now positioned to pursue its mission of preserving and protecting our democracy well into the future.”
Democracy PAC’s spending will be uploaded on Monday, Jan. 31, after it files with the Federal Elections Commission, according to Politico.
In recent years, Soros has courted controversy for his donations to left-wing candidates, including district attorneys who have promoted and enforced policies that critics say allow criminals and repeat offenders to be allowed back on the streets. Soros in May 2021 gave $1 million to the Color of Change PAC, whose website explicitly calls for “defund[ing] the police,” according to Federal Election Commission records.
Soros also contributed some $300,000 to Chicago District Attorney Kim Foxx for her first campaign in 2016 and another $2 million for her reelection in November 2021, records show, according to the New York Post. He’s also provided funds to controversial Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon, who is facing a recall after critics say his office has taken a soft stance on crime, as well as providing $1 million to newly elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, among others.
Earlier in January, Bragg, a Democrat, announced in a memorandum (pdf) that he will not prosecute certain offenses, including marijuana misdemeanor, not paying public transportation fare, trespassing except a fourth degree stalking charge, resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration in certain cases, and prostitution.
And in 2020, Soros’ Open Society Foundations poured some $220 million into initiatives that seek to advance left-wing “racial justice” causes.
The Epoch Times has contacted Soros’ Open Society Foundations for comment on the $125 million donation.
Greetings all. As you know, I’m no longer writing regularly on any of my three disqus channels. Phoenix is now running www.newswithanalysis.com . Still working on finding an owner for this channel and Koda. But what I did want you to know was that I’ve been writing on a substack website. What is substack?
Substack users range from journalists, to experts, to large media sites. Among the high-profile writers to have used the platform are Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist and author Glenn Greenwald, culture critic Anne Helen Petersen, music essayist Robert Christgau, and food writer Alison Roman.[14]The New York Times columnist Mike Isaac argued in 2019 that some of these companies see newsletters as a more stable means to maintain readers through a more direct connection with writers.
In 2020, The New Republic said there was an absence of local news newsletters, especially in contrast to the large number of national-level political newsletters. As of late 2020, large numbers of journalists and reporters were coming to the platform, driven in part by the long-term decline in traditional media (there were half as many newsroom jobs in 2019 as in 2004). Around that time, The New Yorker said that while “Substack has advertised itself as a friendly home for journalism, […] few of its newsletters publish original reporting; the majority offer personal writing, opinion pieces, research, and analysis.”
It described Substack’s content moderation policy as “lightweight,” with rules against “harassment, threats, spam, pornography, and calls for violence; moderation decisions are made by the founders.”
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, seen above in November 2021, declared a “new segregation” for those who are unvaccinated against COVID. Win McNamee/Getty Images
“Thanks to the hard work of Rev MLK Jr. and others, growing up in Georgia, I’ve seen the beautiful fruit that blossomed from the Civil Rights Era, where segregation ended & equality began,” she wrote. “Today, I believe we are seeing a new segregation and discrimination beginning, wrongfully forced upon unvaccinated Americans by the tyrants of the Democrat Party.” She added: “Our freedoms come from our Almighty God, and we must not let any man take them away.”
Some cities across the United States have implemented vaccine requirements to enter some public places, including restaurants and gyms, in an attempt to convince people to take the vaccine, which has proven to prevent serious illness from the virus. The Biden administration also implemented a vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. But the Supreme Court last week blocked a further-reaching federal requirement for large companies to mandate vaccines.
This channel is also looking for someone to take over. A pure political channel that’s never done Religion, but if someone wants to do add Religious topics, be my guest. We have always welcomed the left and the right here. If someone wishes to continue that, fine. If not, again that’s up to you. Being that this channel uses disqus, You will need to stay within their guidelines.
The Public Interest Legal Foundation went to Pennsylvania with a list of tens of thousands of people who were likely dead, but still on the state’s voter rolls in the weeks before the 2020 election. (Associated Press/File) ** FILE **
The Public Interest Legal Foundation went to Pennsylvania with a list of tens of thousands of people who were likely dead, but still on the state’s voter rolls in the weeks before the 2020 election.
The state was totally uninterested, according to Christian Adams, the organization’s founder. But once the election was over, Mr. Adams says, the state changed its tune.
It went into mediation with PILF, agreed to look into the list and even agreed to a settlement paying some of the group’s lawyers’ fees. The kicker, though, was that Pennsylvania prosecutors even brought charges against a man who, according to PILF’s data, had registered his dead wife to vote, then requested her ballot in the 2020 election. “All of the sudden they’re happy to settle and to clean up their rolls,” Mr. Adams told The Washington Times.
He said it’s not a fluke. The aftermath of the 2020 elections has opened new opportunities for election-integrity advocates, who say they’re seeing signs of better cooperation from at least some jurisdictions.
Last year’s contest exposed what those involved in voter administration have known for years — national elections are not an exact science, but rather an approximation of the will of voters in the weeks surrounding early November. How close an approximation is still heatedly debated.
But it’s become clear to many that dirty voter rolls, lost or miscounted votes and mishandled ballots are more common than one might have imagined.The difference in 2020 is that one of the candidates, then-President Trump, argued those usual flaws, combined with more preposterous speculation about machines switching votes and dumping ballots, “stole” the White House.
While the outlandish claims still have traction among some Trump supporters, the more complicated work of cleaning up the very real problems with dead people, noncitizens and other bogus voters remains.
Mr. Adams said his experience with Pennsylvania shows that in some states, the new attention from 2020 has helped.
“A virtual army has arisen of the grassroots, who are not worried about magic voting machines, and recognize the real work of election administration. These people are pressuring states to follow the law and remove dead voters,” Mr. Adams said. But not every state is more receptive in the wake of 2020.
PILF last month sued Michigan over nearly 26,000 deceased voters whom the group says Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson won’t remove. And earlier this month PILF sued Colorado just to get a look at the state’s records on removing ineligible voters. Those on the other side of the voter wars also are fighting back.
The League of Women Voters sued Wisconsin last week to try to force the state to “reactivate” nearly 32,000 voters who were purged from the rolls “without warning.”
The pool of registered voters has become a battleground as states move to make it easier to vote by mail. Voting-rights activists say striking names means legitimate but infrequent voters will have a tougher time casting ballots.
Election integrity experts say the more bad names on a list, the more chances there are for fraud. A ballot mailed out to a deceased voter is one that can be filled out and mailed back by someone else. It’s illegal, but unless someone is out there actively looking for it, it’s tough to spot.
Mr. Adams said he’s noticed an even more worrying trend — dead voters actually registering, then voting. That was the case for Judy C. Presto, who died in 2013. Mr. Adams has a photo of her grave. Yet she still managed to file a registration request in August 2020, and cast a ballot in October. Prosecutors say her husband voted in her name by mail.
PILF says it found 114 people in Pennsylvania who appear to have registered to vote after their deaths were recorded.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, another group that polices voter rolls, said the key moment for election integrity came a few years back, when the Supreme Court reaffirmed the requirement in federal law that states do have to take steps to clean up their lists. That gives activists a hefty stick, but plenty of states are still resistant. “Our perception is that states that are not cleaning up the rolls won’t clean up the rolls until they’re called on it,” he said. There are some dangers to conservatives in the new focus on election integrity.
Analysts plausibly argue that Mr. Trump’s questioning of Georgia’s handling of elections helped convince thousands of GOP voters to stay home in that state’s Senate runoff elections earlier this year, costing Republicans two seats — and control of the Senate.
Still to be seen is whether Mr. Trump’s relitigation of the 2020 election will keep GOP voters at home in 2022. But the former president has also helped a broader set of conservatives realize what’s at stake in the administration of elections.
“Conservative activists have realized they have to have a seat at the table,” Mr. Fitton said. “Typically the administration of elections has been ceded to the left, and partisans. And so conservatives are trying to get involved.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that Fox host Jesse Watters should lose his job over comments he made criticizing Fauci, but Fox News isn’t backing down.In an interview on CNN, Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the country’s de facto COVID czar, said Watters should be “fired on the spot” for remarks Monday at a gathering of conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona.Fox wasn’t buying it.
“Based on watching the full clip and reading the entire transcript, it’s more than clear that Jesse Watters was using a metaphor for asking hard-hitting questions to Dr. Fauci about gain-of-function research and his words have been twisted completely out of context,” a Fox representative said, according to CNN.
The controversy arose from a speech Watters gave at Turning Point USA’s “AmericaFest” conference, where Watters criticized Fauci for his handling of the pandemic.
He said Fauci should be questioned for his decisions and then went on to describe how an ordinary citizen could create a viral moment by confronting Fauci in public and getting it on video. In his description, Watters used the metaphor of “ambushing” Fauci in the style of an aggressive journalist.
“Now you go in for the kill shot. The kill shot with an ambush — deadly, because he doesn’t see it coming … Boom, he is dead! He is dead!” Watters said.
Many responded to Watter’s language claiming it was inflammatory and encouraged harassment of Fauci.
CNN host John Berman asked Fauci how he felt about the comments on Tuesday.
“Jesse Waters, who is a Fox News entertainer, was giving a speech to a conservative group where he talked about you, and suggested to the crowd that they ambush you with what he said was some kind of rhetorical kill shot. That was his exact word,” Berman said, as Mediaite reported.
“I’m wondering, you know, how much that concerns you when you hear language like that about you and your well-being?”
Fauci didn’t hold back.
“That’s awful that he said that. And he’s going to go very likely unaccountable. I mean, whatever network he’s on is not going to do anything for him. I mean, that’s crazy. The guy should be fired on the spot!” Fauci said.
This is not the first time that Fauci has spoken out against Fox News. In light of criticism he has received for his role in the pandemic, he has commented that Fox should discipline their hosts.
He wanted Watters fired, and he wanted Lara Logan disciplined several weeks ago after she compared Fauci to the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, who performed barbarous medical experiments at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“What I find striking, Chris, is how she gets no discipline whatsoever from the Fox network,” Fauci told MSNBC host Chris Hayes, according to CNN. “How they can let her say that with no comment and no disciplinary action. I’m astounded by that.”
Fauci has become more and more the subject of harsh criticism from conservatives over his performance during the pandemic. This criticism also follows on the heels of a general growing mistrust of Fauci and the CDC that was beginning before Trump even left office.
StatNews reported in September 2020 that a poll at the time found “the public’s trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S.’s top doctors, like Anthony Fauci, is rapidly dropping, particularly among Republicans.”
An I&I/TIPP poll released Monday found trust in Fauci is apparently lacking among a majority of Americans.
The poll of 1,301 Americans conducted Dec. 1-4 found fewer than half of Americans surveyed had had “a lot” or “quite a bit” of trust in Fauci, according to Issues&Insights. Forty-one percent had “little trust” or “no trust at all. Thirteen percent had no opinion.
The results broke down along party lines, with 45 percent of Democrats saying they had “a lot” of trust in Fauci, and 27 percent saying they had “quite a bit.”
Among Republicans, 28 percent said they had little faith in Fauci, according to the poll, and 40 percent saying they had none at all.
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I was surprised to see that Biden was willing to admit that President Trump was responsible for the saving the lives of millions and even Harris said that the jihad on the unvaccinated must stop.
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump said Tuesday that he is “very appreciative” and “surprised” that President Biden thanked him and his administration for their success in making COVID-19 vaccines available to the public, telling Fox News that “tone” and “trust” are critical in getting Americans vaccinated.
“Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America is one of the first countries to get the vaccine,” Biden said Tuesday. “Thanks to my administration, the hard work of Americans, we let, our roll-out, made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.”
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Tuesday evening, Trump reacted to Biden acknowledging his administration’s efforts.
“I’m very appreciative of that — I was surprised to hear it,” Trump told Fox News. “I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy.”
Trump then repeated that he was “a little bit surprised.”
“I think he did something very good,” Trump said. “You know, it has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot.”
The Trump administration created Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership to create vaccines against the novel coronavirus, as the pandemic raged in 2020. Under his administration, the Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use authorizations (EUAs) for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Trump in December 2020 signed an executive order that would ensure all Americans had access to coronavirus vaccines before the U.S. government could begin aiding nations around the world.
“This is a great thing that we all did,” Trump said, referring to the roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines. “I may have been the vehicle, but we all did this together.”
“When we came up with these incredible vaccines — three of them — and therapeutics, we did a tremendous job, and we should never disparage them,” Trump said. “We should be really happy about it because we’ve all saved millions and millions of lives all over the world.”
For those still hesitant to receive a COVID vaccine, Trump said: “You have to embrace it. You don’t have to do it, and there can’t be mandates and all those things, but you have to embrace it.”
Trump said getting Americans vaccinated is “really a matter of tone” instead of mandates.
“It’s a matter of getting people out to, ideally, get the vaccine,” Trump said. “If you have the mandate, the mandate will destroy people’s lives — it destroys people’s lives.
