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Jerusalem court rejects Netanyahu request to postpone hearing in corruption cases

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense lawyers at a Jerusalem District Court hearing, Dec. 6, 2020. (Flash90/Yonatan Sindel)

By World Israel News Staff

The panel of judges overseeing the corruption trial of Prime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a request for a delay so his lawyers would have extra time to study new material.

Netanyahu’s defense team had petitioned the Jerusalem District Court for more time to review the implications of amendments to the charges that accuse the prime minister of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

“For the record, it should be noted that the legal significance of the amended indictment is being reviewed in relation to the immunity law for lawmakers, their rights and obligations, and Netanyahu reserves his rights on the matter,” the lawyers said according to the Haaretz report.

The judges ruled that defense lawyers were in possession of the original indictment for over a year and that the amendments to the charge sheet were not substantial enough to warrant a delay.

The change in the indictment involved a case accusing the premier of giving political favors in return for positive media coverage, dividing the charges into those alleging Netanyahu’s personal requests from those made by his family members.

Two weeks ago the lawyers had asked the court to dismiss the charges against Netanyahu, saying the investigation began without the written approval of the attorney general to conduct the investigation, as required by law.

On Tuesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit denied he had given approval retroactively, telling the court he gave verbal authorization for the police investigation and had not written it down, but had documented the office meetings at which the decision was made.

However, the judges ruled in favor of Netanyahu, saying the documents given to the court by Mandelblit were not in the proper format and therefore did not show proof that Mandelblit had approved the probe in advance, the report said, with the judges agreeing that the documents had to be handed over to Netanyahu’s defense team.

Nikki Haley Slams Trump: Actions ‘Will Be Judged Harshly By History’

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AP

Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley delivered a harsh rebuke of President Donald Trump’s words and actions since the November election, telling fellow Republicans on Thursday that his behavior since the November election “will be judged harshly by history.”

The former South Carolina governor left the administration two years ago as one of a handful of top Trump officials who had managed to criticize the president without provoking a public denunciation from the tweeter-in-chief. Her remarks will reveal whether she can continue to do so.

“President Trump has not always chosen the right words,” Haley said at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting taking place on an island off Jacksonville, Fla. “He was wrong with his words in Charlottesville, and I told him so at the time. He was badly wrong with his words yesterday. And it wasn’t just his words. His actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history.”

Haley, who is considered a likely 2024 presidential contender, struck a balance between criticism of the president’s actions and a full repudiation of his tenure. Calling Wednesday’s violence “un-American,” she nonetheless vowed to “defend the achievements of the past four years” and referred to her service in the Trump administration as “the honor of a lifetime.”

She went on to praise the administration’s approach to foreign policy and the president personally for taking a clear-eyed view of China. “President Trump was our first commander in chief to see China for what it really is—the greatest global threat facing America. He held China accountable for its unfair trade, its theft of our secrets, and its egregious human rights record,” she said. “The United States now sees China with open eyes, and we have Donald Trump to thank for that.”

Republican losses in both Georgia Senate runoffs and Wednesday’s assault on the Capitol have upended the GOP’s annual winter meeting, with Trump himself joining by cell phone at one point and some calling for the resignation of party chairwoman and Trump ally Ronna McDaniel.

Haley’s remarks follow criticisms from other top Republicans and Trump allies, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.), who slammed the president on Wednesday for misleading his own supporters in his claims about the November election, and offer a window into how Trump allies are starting to grapple with a future in which Trump is still present but less powerful. Haley homed in on three issues that have little to do with the man who has dominated the news for the past four years: out-of-control government spending; socialism, which Haley argued has gone “mainstream in America”; and the rise of a so-called woke mob that threatens some of the country’s fundamental liberties.

“They’ve demonstrated that they’ll ‘cancel’ anyone who gets in their way,” Haley said. “They want to shout down and shut up anyone who disagrees with them. They want to take control of the classroom, the boardroom, the media green room, and even the dining room table.”

Trump Cabinet Members And Other Administration Officials Tender Their Resignations Due to Furor Surrounding Capitol Protests

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AP

By: Fern Sidman

Resignations of Trump administration officials and cabinet members continued on Thursday, when it was reported that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos expressed their wish to no longer remain in their respective posts.

In her resignation letter that was submitted to President Trump on Thursday, the New York Times reported that DeVos said she would step down on Friday.

In the letter, Ms. DeVos described the protestors who disrupted a Congressional session as it was certifying the election results on Wednesday as “unconscionable for our country.”

Moreover, she told the president in her letter that “there is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”

Prior to Ms. DeVos’ resignation, it was announced on Twitter on Thursday that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, (who happens to be married to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell), was also tendering her resignation.  “Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the president stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed. As I’m sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside,” Chao wrote.

For his part, McConnell on Wednesday condemned the Capitol riots as a “failed insurrection.”

On Wednesday night, it was reported that Mick Mulvaney, President Trump’s former acting chief of staff, resigned as special envoy to Northern Ireland  saying  in his resignation letter that he “can’t stay” after watching the president encourage the mob that overtook the Capitol complex, as was reported in the New York Times.

On Wednesday afternoon, Mulvaney (who was named acting chief of staff in 2018) wrote on Twitter that “the President’s tweet is not enough. He can stop this now and needs to do exactly that. Tell these tfolks to go home.”

During a Thursday morning interview with CNBC, Mulvaney said, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of my friends resign over the next 24-48 hours. It’d be completely understandable if they did. Those who choose to stay are choosing to stay because they are concerned that the president might put someone in to replace them that might take things even worse.”

In the same interview Mulvaney expressed praise for those administration officials who defended Vice President Mike Pence, who oversaw the tallying of the votes that certified Mr. Biden’s victory despite pressure from Trump, according to the Times report.

Mulvaney added that “I’m not condemning those who choose to stay, but I can’t stay here. Not after yesterday. You can’t look at that yesterday and think ‘I want to be part of that’ in any way, shape, or form. ”

Also on Thursday it was reported that other Trump administration officials had decided to resign from their posts. Among them were Matthew Pottinger, John Costello, Ryan Tully and Tyler Goodspeed.

Matthew Pottinger has been Trump’s deputy national security adviser since 2019, as was reported by the NY Times.  He was formerly the administration’s Asia director on the National Security Council, and was known for his on-the-ground experience in China,  where he advised  Trump during his meeting with President Xi Jinping in 2017, according to the NY Times report.

Bloomberg reporter Jennifer Jacobs shared on Twitter that Pottinger had intended to resign on Election Day, but had stayed at the request of National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, according to a report in People magazine. Jacobs added that O’Brien was expected to stay for the remaining two weeks.

Bloomberg and Politico reported Thursday that Ryan Tully, the National Security Council’s Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs, had left his post on Wednesday, according to the People magazine report.

Tyler Goodspeed, the acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers also resigned on Thursday, according to multiple reports. After informing the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, of his decision, Goodspeed told the New York Times that, “the events of yesterday made my position no longer tenable.”

John Costello, one of the country’s most senior cybersecurity officials, resigned Wednesday, telling associates that the violence on Capitol Hill was his “breaking point” and, he hoped, “a wake up call,” as was reported by the New York Times.

As was previously reported by the Jewish Voice, Stephanie Grisham, the former White House communications director and press secretary and current chief of staff for first lady Melania Trump, submitted her resignation Wednesday afternoon, effective immediately, in the wake of the violent protests.

CNN reported that White House social secretary Anna Cristina “Rickie” Niceta also resigned Wednesday effective immediately, a White House official told the network.

Grisham and Niceta were among the longest-serving Trump administration officials, as was reported by CNN.

Grisham began her tenure working for then-candidate Donald Trump in 2015 as a press wrangler on the campaign trail. She entered the White House as deputy press secretary under Sean Spicer, but in March 2017, Melania Trump hired her for her East Wing staff. As East Wing communications director, Grisham quickly became the first lady’s most prominent staffer, acting as defender, enforcer and, often, protector.

Spielberg Makes Movie Celebrating Jeffrey Epstein’s Anti-Israel Associate

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Daniel Greenfield

In November 2020, filming began on Oslo: an adaptation of the revisionist history Broadway play about the fake peace process between Israel and the PLO terrorist organization.

That same month, the man at the center of both the play and the movie, Terje Rød Larsen announced that he was stepping down as president and CEO of the International Peace Institute after it was revealed that he had taken a $130,000 personal loan from Jeffrey Epstein.

The International Peace Institute is closely linked to the United Nations and its honorary chair is usually the UN Secretary General. The notorious pedophile didn’t just give Larsen money, he also pumped $650,000 into the UN-linked group through his “foundations” and the Norwegian paper that broke the story published emails showing that Larsen’s people were trying to move money from IPI back to Jeffrey Epstein. “For forms sake we should send it to Jeff, however I am sure we will get it back many fold!” Larsen appears to have written in one email.

It was 2016. The date on the original loan was in 2013. All of this took place years after the original Epstein case and his conviction. The ex-UN diplomat knew whom he was dealing with.

But the Epstein scandal didn’t stop Oslo from being produced by Steven Spielberg anyway. Or HBO from moving forward with plans to air a story about a disgraced Jeffrey Epstein associate.

Neither HBO nor Spielberg are strangers to revisionist history or anti-Israel propaganda.

Spielberg’s most infamous movie, Munich, equated the terrorists murdering Israeli civilians with the Israeli operatives trying to stop them, and was the work of screenwriter Tony Kushner who had declared that he wished Israel had never existed. HBO has been responsible for a litany of anti-Israel flicks, most recently, Our Boys, which was protested by the families of terror victims.

But Oslo is awkward because a man linked to the world’s most notorious pedophile is its hero.

Oslo, the original play, was born when Terje Rød Larsen modestly proposed it to director Bartlett Sher who is also directing the HBO movie. The director and the diplomat are good friends.

“We were part of a historic event which we have waited twenty years to see written about,” is how Larsen pitched his story.

The “historic event” has been written to death. The so-called peace agreement has killed more people than many actual wars. The real problem was that the story was fading away. And, most particularly, Larsen’s starring role in the story which is key to his fame and his career.

The premise of Oslo is that Larsen and his wife, Mona Juul, who still serves as the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Norway Mission to the United Nations, got the “warring sides” to make peace by seeing each other as human beings for the first time. And it’s nonsense.

The true story of Oslo is how Israeli lefty radicals double-crossed their own country and government, violated laws against doing exactly what they were doing, made repeated concessions to the terrorists, and then presented a hoax of a peace agreement.

Arafat, the PLO, and the entire terrorist movement built around a fake ‘Palestinian’ nationality, never made peace, never recognized Israel, and were not going to stop killing Jews.

What was the whole thing really about? Long before Epstein, Larsen had been accused of trading cash for a Nobel Peace Prize. Kåre Kristiansen, a member of the Nobel Committee, alleged that Larsen got $100,000 from the Peres Center, a project of Israel’s notoriously corrupt left-wing foreign minister, to ensure that Shimon Peres would receive a Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian government had been pumping millions of kroner into the Peres Peace Center which was writing a very large check to Larsen. Meanwhile Larsen was also sitting on the board of governors of the Peres Peace Center which was giving him an award and a big check.

The diplomat claimed that he had informed the Norwegian government to which it responded, “no one in the Foreign Ministry has known about these sums of money.” There were also suggestions that it would investigate the role that Mona Juul, Larsen’s wife, who was also getting the prize money, had played in getting those millions of kroner to the Peace Center.

In 2002, a conservative Israeli government bounced Larsen, who was being billed as ‘Mr. Peace’, after he falsely accused Israel of having “lost all moral authority” while it was fighting the Islamic terrorists behind the Passover Massacre of thirty people: most of them senior citizens.

Larsen’s false claims of an Israeli massacre in Jenin that was “horrifying beyond belief”, “a shameful chapter in Israel’s history”, and rife with “the stench of death” were disproven. Even the UN’s own report found that 52 died, most of them terrorists, along with 23 Israeli soldiers.

Two years later, the PLO declared ‘Mr. Peace’ persona non-grata making Larsen’s unwantedness in the region about the only thing that the Israelis and the terrorists agreed on.

A few years later, it was discovered that all of the ‘Oslo Files’, the papers related to the so-called negotiations, had vanished from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The twists and turns in the search for those documents, and why they went missing would make for a much more interesting story than the tedious nonsense of Sher directing another glamorization of Larsen.

There are plenty of interesting angles to Larsen’s story that Spielberg and Sher won’t touch, but the real truth about Larsen is that his story matters much less than the devastation of Oslo. The backchannel wasn’t a triumph of peace, but a dirty leftist political trick that wrecked Israel’s security, touched off decades of intense violence in the region, and cost thousands of lives.

Oslo is another one of the same stories that the elite tell each other. Larsen and Sher got to know each other because their daughters attended the same Manhattan private school. Larsen and J.T. Rogers, the playwright, then met up at an “Upper West Side haunt” for drinks. Oslo did well on Broadway by way of being touted by the New York Times, and will be an HBO movie.

There is one giant hole in Oslo’s story about the power of Norwegian diplomats who send their kids to Manhattan private schools to make peace. There wasn’t and isn’t any actual peace.

The only meaningful peace accords in the region that led to normalization weren’t made by Larsen, Clinton, Peres, and Rabin, but by Trump, Netanyahu, and conservative leaders. Oslo is nostalgic peace porn from the elites who failed miserably, though not at getting rich or getting a lot of people killed, calculated to obscure the real world triumphs of Trump and Netanyahu.

Jeffrey Epstein thrived in these same elitist circles and was plugged into the same networks. When Larsen, previously earning around half a million a year as head of the IPI, needed $130,000, he was there to lend it to him. And provide cash and connections for countless members of the elite, trading favors, offering introductions, and palling around with everyone.

Oslo isn’t about Israel or Islamic terrorism. Like everything the decadent cultural industry of our country makes, it’s about that incestuous world whose key players all send their kids to the same private schools, hang out at the same bars, and agree on the same basic things. They’re also very good at not seeing things like abused teenage girls or thousands of dead people.

If Bartlett Sher wanted to make a truly relevant and groundbreaking play, he would tell the story of Jeffrey Epstein’s network and of the girls he abused, some of them the same age as his daughter. But that play, unlike his theatrical smears of American foreign policy in Afghanistan and the Middle East, would never be put on, and would be quickly sunk by the New York Times.

And Spielberg, and the rest of the gang, along with HBO, wouldn’t turn it into a movie.

The real life players and their fictional counterparts in this world give each other awards and good reviews. They write about the world, but the only world they know is their own, and despite the dictum of writing what you know, they have little interest in writing about the horrors in their own world, when they can write about how their friends brought peace to the Middle East.

Oslo unintentionally explains why the professional peacemakers failed so miserably. It wasn’t only Jeffrey Epstein’s abused girls they couldn’t see, but the limits of their own corrupt hubris. They promise to solve the problems of the people who aren’t as famous and connected as they are, but fail horribly every single time, only to spin those failures as historic successes.

And if the New York Times says so, it must be true.

The true story of Oslo is a tale of corruption, death, and bloodshed. It’s about the price that ordinary people paid when the elites got their way. It’s about Jewish senior citizens murdered while celebrating Passover, schoolgirls blown up on buses, and children shot in the head. It’s a million miles away from the world of Off-Broadway plays and Manhattan private schools, skyscraper boardrooms and Brentwood mansions that spawned Oslo’s revisionist history.

The violence unleashed by Oslo’s empowered terrorists in Israel fell heaviest on working class people riding the bus to their jobs or commuting to cheaper homes in Judea and Samaria.

While Oslo films in Prague, the terrorism continues in Israel. And Jeffrey Epstein’s old associates look forward to being able to watch Oslo’s message that the elites know best while paying no attention to the terrorism, to Larsen’s scandals, or to their own corruption.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Donald Trump Announces Plan for ‘Smooth Transition of Power’ to Joe Biden

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. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

President Donald Trump condemned supporters who stormed Capitol Hill in stronger terms on Thursday, calling for renewed bonds of patriotism during the transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden.

“This moment calls for healing and reconciliation,” Trump said. “2020 has been a challenging time for our people.”

The president addressed the nation in a video posted to Twitter after the platform lifted the suspension of his account. Twitter suspended his account Wednesday after he appeared to defend the actions of the rioters in the Capitol building.

But the president changed his tone, returning to his campaign theme of law and order.

“The demonstrators who infiltrated the capitol have defiled the seat of American democracy,” Trump said. “To those who engage in the acts of violence and destruction, you do not represent our country, and to those who broke the law, you will pay.”

Trump said that he was “outraged” by the lawlessness he witnessed, and he deployed the national guard “immediately” to help defend the building, despite reporting that he first resisted the idea.

“America is and must always be a nation of law and order,” Trump said, adding that although “emotions are high” after the election, “tempers must be cooled.”

The president recalled that he pursued every legal avenue to contest the election, defending his efforts as a way to defend American democracy and the integrity of the vote. He said he would turn his focus toward a smooth transition of power to the next administration.

Trump called for renewed civic values to help restore the country at a time of transition.

“We must revitalize the sacred bonds of love and loyalty that bind us together as one national family,” he said.

Trump said that serving his country as the president was the “honor of my lifetime” and thanked his supporters.

“To all of my wonderful supporters, I know that you are disappointed, but I also want you to know that our incredible journey is only just beginning,” he concluded.

Breitbart

Social Media Further Reveals Ashli Babbitt’s Execution, Plain Clothes Security Pulled Trigger, BLM Radical Was at The Scene

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Jared Evan

As the mainstream media quickly buries the cold-blooded execution of US Air Force Veteran, Ashli Babbitt, the San Diego woman who was murdered as she made her way into the Capitol building on Wednesday along with other Trump supporters during the massive protest over the alleged rigged election, her death has been quickly swept under the rug. The few mentions of her heartless execution have been limited to a sentence or two.

Other entities have quickly rushed to assassinate the veteran’s character, pointing out that she was affiliated with the alt-right and followed conspiracy purveyor, Q-ANON.

Daily Mail of the UK  reported:

Babbitt also appeared to be a supporter of QAnon, having posted a series of images to Twitter in early September, showing her attending a Trump Boat Parade in San Diego, wearing a tank top with the conspiracy group’s logo and slogan on it. 

Other posts to her social media page indicate as though she supported conspiracies that Chief Justice Roberts and other high profile politicians in DC engaged in pedophilia. She also referred to California’s lockdown orders as ‘Commie bulls***’ in December, and referred to the COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘f***ing joke’. In September, she wrote, ‘Trump 2020 landslide! Let freedom ring!’ 

Babbitt also posted a chain of videos on Twitter in 2018, expressing anger over California’s Democratic politicians in a rant about immigration at San Diego’s southern border, accusing them of ‘refusing to choose America’ over their political party.

In other words, because her political beliefs were not in sync with the so-called “mainstream” her death was considered inconsequential.

Has anyone really taken notice of the abject silence on the part of anti-police activists regarding Babbitt’s death? There is no question the woman was unarmed, nor was she attacking a police officer, yet she was shot to death for no apparent reason. After months of protesting and rioting against police brutality, nobody seems to care about Babbit’s death.

Well, Babbitt was a Trump supporter and purportedly subscribed to conspiracy theories, so who cares that her life was snuffed out, right?

 

More videos have emerged from the tragedy, giving us a better picture of the incident. In this first video, as you can clearly see, the gunman was hiding as Babbitt tried to go through the broken window in the Capitol building. It appears that the gunman was not a Washington, DC cop but quite possibly a secret service agent or part of a private security team. Some investigative journalists claim the shooter was part of Vice President Pence’s security. The first graphic video is below.

In yet another intriguing development, a Black Lives Matter activist named John Sullivan recorded a video in the immediate aftermath of the shooting which shows police with guns drawn and Babbitt lying in a pool of blood in a stairway inside the Capitol. This was made reference to by Zero Hedge and the Daily Mail of the UK. While being interviewed by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Sullivan described the scene of the shooting, however, Cooper neglected to ask the radical activist what he was doing at the nation’s capitol?

John Sullivan – founder of the far-left organization “Insurgence USA” who made headlines in July after he was arrested for intimidating drivers in Provo, Utah. 

In July, Sullivan was raising hell in Utah, talking about how his activist group is “strapped” and ready to “burn that S**t down” as he was engaging in gun battles with “white militias”.

Why was an insurrectionist from the BLM movement at the Trump rally in Washington on Wednesday? What was his real motive? Was he a guest of a left-wing congressional representative? Was he blending in with the Trump protestors and perhaps surreptitiously posting himself as a provocateur? Was he just there to film the event? The individual is a regular at BLM protests. Why was he at a Trump event?

Here is a still from Anderson Cooper

One must consider the following questions: Why is Babbitt’s death being hushed up? Why has the shooter not been identified as of Thursday, January 7th; a full day after the execution? Why was a  BLM activist on the scene?

In this graphic video taken from another angle, you can actually see John Sullivan filming the shooting, (on the left-hand side of the screen), when the video is replayed if you look carefully. This video was provided from The National File.

In this final video provided by TMZ, Babbitt is interviewed as she is taking part in the protest; shortly before her demise. She is excited to have just heard the president speak and is genuinely inspired by the massive turnout at the protest. Take particular notice of her jubilant demeanor and remember her as a veteran, wife, and mother, for her execution will be thrown down the memory hole and the media will never mention her again.

They will try to make you forget that she ever existed and they will surely not follow up on the lawsuits which her family will undoubtedly file after the facts emerge in her wrongful death.

This tragic murder will all but be filed in the trash heap of history simply because of what this woman believed in and because she supported Trump

 

Dan Bongino Slams Media And Democrats For BLM ANTIFA Double Standard

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(TJVNEWS.COM)

Dan Bongino appeared on the Sean Hannity show last night and gave everyone a reminder about the violent actions of the left after the Republican convention and the Antifa attacks on a Portland courthouse for over 100 nights.

He slammed Democrats and the media over the fact that we have two different sets of rules in this country. One for the left, and another for everyone else.

Below is the extremely popular political commentators analysis

Pelosi Joins in Frenzied Calls For Removal of Trump

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AP

Jared Evan

In a dramatic and well-orchestrated statement, Nancy Pelosi Calls for the invoking of the 25th amendment against Trump. If that is not possible, she will draw up articles of impeachment.

The speaker of the house became the latest in a growing list of politicians from both sides of the aisle piling on against the president and calling for his removal from office, blaming yesterday’s chaos at the capital squarely on him.

While it is clear that Trump did not strongly condemn the actions of several hundred protestors who stormed the capitol at the time of the chaos;  the speech made earlier in the day did not encourage violence.  If you review the speech Trump made it was actually a rehashing of the election fraud allegations and not much else. There were no calls for violence or storming the capitol.

The argument can be made that the president should not have encouraged or participated in the protest, but to blame Trump for the actions of a fraction of the giant crowd, seems to only add fuel to the fire.

 

Woman Shot, Killed Inside Capitol Identified as 14-Year Veteran Who Served Four Tours

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ALANA MASTRANGELO

The woman who was shot in the neck and killed inside the Capitol building on Wednesday afternoon has been identified as Ashli Babbitt, a 14-year veteran who served four tours with the U.S. Airforce.

Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed inside the U.S. Capitol building during protests on Wednesday, was from San Diego, California, according to KUSI News, who spoke to Babbitt’s husband on Wednesday.

The report added that Babbitt was a 14-year veteran who served four tours with the U.S. Airforce and was a high-level security officer throughout her time in service

Her husband told KUSI News that she was a strong supporter of President Donald Trump and was a great patriot to all who knew her.

The Metropolitan police department said that an investigation into Babbitt’s death is still underway.

Breitbart

Analysis: Media Have Hypocritical Double Standard on Trump vs BLM Protests

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AP

By Michael Dorstewitz(NEWSMAX)

Wednesday was proof that how corporate media and Democrat politicians report and comment on acts of civil unrest depends upon who is engaged in the rioting.

Six months ago The New York Times, which has been described as the national “newspaper of record,” made excuses for rioters who attempted to take over the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon.

It reported that “the nightly assault on the federal courthouse has been part of a much wider peaceful resistance … that began assembling nearly two months ago in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.”

The Times continued, “the aim, as it has been in other cities, was to assemble for sweeping police reform and racial justice.”

Reporting on Wednesday’s protest in Washington, D.C., The Times’ “peaceful resistance” suddenly became a “mob.”

Instead of “assembling,” the protesters engaged in “rampage” and “chaos,” incited by President Trump, which became a “part of his legacy.”

Liberal Vox’s German Lopez  proclaimed during last summer that while “riots are destructive, dangerous, and scary,” they serve a purpose, because they “can lead to serious social reforms.”

Lopez had a change of heart when he reported on Wednesday’s melee.

He believed that “every person who forced their way into the Capitol should be arrested.”

CNN reported on the August mass destruction in Kenosha, Wis., as “fiery but mostly peaceful.” As CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez described the scene as “an expression of anger and frustration,” the entire background was engulfed in flames.

Likewise, last year during the BLM protests CNN anchor Chris Cuomo made excuses for rioters.

Cuomo said on air, “Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful.”

CNN’s stance did an about-face when reporting on Wednesday’s protest at the Capitol Building.

CNN reported, “America faces 13 days of danger before the departure of an unhinged commander-in-chief who set his mob on the US Capitol in an act of insurrection that shattered a more than 220-year tradition of peaceful transfers of power.”

In September, two Los Angeles police officers were shot in what appeared to be an ambush attack.

Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic, showed some sympathy for the shooters.

“606 lawsuits were filed against the LA police, with 539 against the LA County Sheriff’s Office. The county spent $81 M settling or litigating these lawsuits,” she tweeted.

“What happened to these officers was awful,” Hill continued, “but it’s funny how the police want everyone else to be accountable but them.”

But when Hill commented on Wednesday’s protest, she made it a race issue, claiming that the officers were too easy on the rioters.

“Let’s just be clear about something,” she tweeted: “The reason the Capitol police were slow to respond is because they gave these white people the benefit of the doubt and treated it like a joke. Their reaction isn’t the same because they see black people as a threat that needs to be eliminated.”

To be clear one person was “eliminated” Wednesday.

It was an unarmed woman named Ashli Babbitt.

She was a 14-year Air Force veteran who apparently was shot by a Capitol Police officer while she was just standing there.

Ashlli Babbitt was white.

But she was a Trump supporter, which apparently makes her death, the result of an outrageous and excessive use of police force, OK.

Pollster Matt McDermott observed in 2018 an “incredible scene on Capital Hill right now, where thousands of anti-Kavanaugh protesters have taken over the Hart Senate Office Building.”

Wednesday he changed his tune to “We are witnessing a domestic terrorism attack incited by the Republican Party.”

At the first presidential debate, President Trump challenged Joe Biden to denounce antifa, the organization behind most of the arson, looting, and rioting causing billions in property damage.

He declined, claiming that antifa is “an idea, not an organization”

Commenting on Wednesday’s protest, “At this hour our democracy is under unprecedented assault unlike anything we’ve seen in modern times.” He added, “This is not dissent. It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition. And it must end now.”

As recently as November, Monica Showalter observed on American Thinker that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was among Democrat leaders that couldn’t bring themselves to condemn the violence perpetrated by Black Lives Matter and antifa.

He compared Wednesday’s protest, however, to the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

“Franklin Roosevelt set a day aside that will live in infamy,” he said on the Senate floor. “Unfortunately, we can now add January 6, 2021 to that very short list of dates in American history that will live forever in infamy.”

It could only be comparable if one Japanese pilot lost his life, while no American lives were lost.

But perhaps the most thought-provoking statement came from Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume.

“Do not be surprised if we learn in the days ahead that the Trump rioters were infiltrated by leftist extremists,” he said. “Note: this is not to excuse any of them.”

Newsmax has reported that we have no evidence that BLM or antifa actively worked to agitate at the pro-Trump rally in Washington.

But we have loads of evidence the media have a big double-standard when reporting on protests and riots that turn ugly, violent, and sometimes deadly.

Facebook Blacklists Donald Trump ‘Indefinitely’

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. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

LUCAS NOLAN

Following the events on Capitol Hill, Mark Zuckerberg has blacklisted President Donald Trump from the Facebook and Instagram platforms “indefinitely.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a recent post that following the events on Capitol Hill yesterday and President Trump’s comments on social media about the situation, Facebook would be banning the President’s access to the platform “indefinitely.”

Breitbart News reported yesterday that President Trump had been blocked from Facebook for 24 hours, now it appears that ban has been extended.

Zuckerberg stated in a Facebook post:

The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.
Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete.

Twitter is set to restore access to President Trump’s account soon following a 12-hour suspension. The site issued its harshest punishment yet to President Trump following his comments about yesterday’s protests during which protestors breached the United States Capitol.

A video posted by President Trump addressing protestors appeared to be the catalyst for many of the social media suspensions. A transcript of the President’s message can be seen below:

I know your pain. I know your hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now.
We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.
It’s a very tough period of time. There’s never been a time like this, where such a thing happened, where they could take it away from all of us; from me, from you, from our country. This was a fraudulent election.
But we can’t play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you, you’re very special, you’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated who are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.

Breitbart News will update readers are more information is made available.

Schumer Urges Cabinet to Oust Trump

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AP

(AP)Senate Democrat leader Chuck Schumer is calling on President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to remove him from office following Wednesday’s violent assault on the Capitol.

In a statement Thursday, Schumer said the attack on the Capitol “was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president.” He added, “This president should not hold office one day longer.”

Schumer said Vice President Mike Pence and the Cabinet should invoke the 25th Amendment and immediately remove Trump from office. He added, “If the vice president and the Cabinet refuse to stand up, Congress should reconvene to impeach the president.”

Study: New COVID-19 Variant Is Highly Transmissible

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By Lynn Allison  (NEWSMAX)

A new British study confirms what researchers have been telling us about the new coronavirus variant that has invaded the U.K. and now the U.S.

The study found that the variant is so contagious that drastic measures may have to be implemented to contain its spread.

This could include a massive lockdown in the U.K. closing schools and universities, as well as the need to “greatly accelerate vaccine rollout,” the report stated.

According to The New York Times, Dr. Nicholas Davies, a prominent epidemiologist who lead the study, said the findings of his team of scientists should serve as a caution to other countries. The new variant contains 17 mutations and seems to be harder to control than the original SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19.

“Given all the biological and epidemiological evidence that has come together in the past few weeks, I think the picture is getting more and more consistent with something pretty serious,” said Davies, according to NPR. Davies went to work developing a mathematical model of how the new variant behaves after noting that a similar variant was wreaking havoc across South Africa.

He found that the U.K. version, which contains a mutation called N501Y, is approximately 50% more transmissible than the original virus. Other studies have shown that one of the reasons the new variant is so virulent is that it infects human cells more easily than the original, according to NPR.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the latest variant B.1.1.7., and said that at least 53 cases have been identified in the U.S., according to CNN. They were identified in Florida, California, Colorado, New York, and Georgia.

According to the Times, Dr. Bill Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a faculty member in the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics who was not involved in the British study, said that the compelling evidence is cause for concern as the mutation hits the U.S.

“The overall message of it is solid and consistent with what we’ve been seeing from other sources of information,” he said, adding that the increased transmission of the new variant will impact the U.S. for the next few months.

Right now, scientists believe the currently approved vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer will still be effective against the new mutation, but people must be diligent in exercising social distancing measures, wearing masks, and avoiding large gatherings, says NPR.

Davies said that without a significant vaccine rollout, the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from COVID-19 in 2021 could exceed those in 2020, according to the Times.

Read Newsmax: Study: New COVID-19 Variant Is Highly Transmissible | Newsmax.com

Rep. Kinzinger: It’s Time to Invoke 25th Amendment

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December 8, 2020 - Washington, DC, United States: U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) speaking at a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. (Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

By Jeffrey Rodack (NEWSMAX)

Rep. Adam Kinzinger,  R-Ill., saying he is doing it with a “heavy heart,” called for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove Donald Trump as president.

He made his comments in a Thursday tweet. In a video attached to the tweet, he said: “Yesterday was a bad day as we all know.

“What happened yesterday was a wake-up call to many. Sadly, yesterday it became evident that not only has the president abdicated his duty to protect the American people and the People’s House, he invoked and inflamed passions that only gave fuel to the insurrection we saw here.”

He claimed Trump barely denounced the violence at the Capital.

“All indications are that the president has become unmoored, not just from his duty or even his oath, but from reality itself,” he said.

He noted it is time for a “sane captain of the ship.

“It’s time to invoke the 25th Amendment and to end this nightmare,” Kinzinger said.

“The president is unfit and the president is unwell. And the president must now relinquish control of the Executive Branch voluntarily or involuntarily.”

Before protesters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday, Kinzinger had been one of the few Republicans to speak put in favor the certification of the Electoral College vote.

Democrat Jon Ossoff Ousts GOP Sen. David Perdue in Georgia

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AP

ASHLEY OLIVER

Democrat Senate candidate Jon Ossoff defeated Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) by a narrow margin in what became the Democrats’ second victory in Georgia’s dual runoff races on Tuesday, which were set to determine which party takes control of the Senate.

The Democrat sweep creates an evenly split upper chamber in Congress of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans, where any tied votes will be decided by Democrat Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, effectively giving Democrats control.

The Associated Press called the race just after 4:00 p.m. Wednesday. Ossoff secured 50.3 percent of the vote to Perdue’s 49.7 percent, a difference of about 25,000 votes, with 98 percent of precincts reporting.

Ossoff, a 33-year-old CEO of a film production company, livestreamed a speech at 8:00 a.m. Wednesday declaring victory. “Whether you were for me, or against me, I’ll be for you in the U.S. Senate,” Ossoff said. He reiterated his campaign message of “health, jobs, and justice” and spoke primarily about his response to coronavirus, vowing he would “trust medical expertise, doctors, and scientists” and push for a “robust public health response so that we can defeat this virus.”

Perdue has not conceded the race, though his campaign released a statement just after 2 a.m. Wednesday morning before the race had been called saying it believed Perdue would emerge as the winner. “This is an exceptionally close election that will require time and transparency to be certain the results are fair and accurate and the voices of Georgians are heard,” the statement read. “We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”

Perdue, a 71-year-old businessman turned senator, had edged out Ossoff by 1.8 percent, or about 88,000 votes, in the November 3 general election, but the Georgia Republican was forced into a runoff after just barely missing the 50 percent mark, by 0.3 percent, that was needed to win outright.

Polling throughout the runoff showed Ossoff with a slight edge over Perdue in the final weeks of the race, though the outcome still appeared to be a toss-up with most polls close enough to fall within the standard margins of error.

Ossoff and Perdue’s race marks one of the most expensive races in history, with Ossoff amassing $138 million as of December 16 compared to Perdue’s $89 million, according to Open Secrets. Factoring in Georgia’s other runoff race, between Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock and Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), fundraising so far has reached a staggering total of $443.8 million, which does not include outside spending.

A last-minute wrench was thrown into Perdue’s campaign after he announced he had come into contact with an individual who had tested positive for coronavirus. Though Perdue himself continued to test negative for the virus, he quarantined for the final six days of the race, which effectively sidelined him from the campaign trail.

Throughout the race, Perdue’s campaign focused on highlighting the Georgia Republican’s business expertise, acquired in part from his time working as a top executive at companies including Dollar General and Reebok. The campaign painted Ossoff as an inexperienced “trust fund socialist” who would not take the threat of China seriously after Ossoff omitted a payment he received from a Chinese Communist Party-tied company from his initial financial disclosure.

The race makes for the second time Ossoff, who will now be the youngest member of the Senate, has pursued office; the Georgia Democrat ran in 2017 for a U.S. House seat and lost to Karen Handel. The Washington Post assessed that Ossoff had touted his qualifications by using a “bit too much résumé puffery” while participating in what became the most expensive House race in history at the time.

During his second congressional bid, Ossoff promoted himself as a fighter of corruption given his film company produces investigative documentaries, and he repeatedly attacked Perdue by claiming he participated in insider trading at the start of the coronavirus economic crash despite the Senate Ethics Committee and Justice Department investigating Perdue and finding no evidence of such claims.

As for the other runoff, Warnock won his race more handily by about one percent, or around 50,000 votes, with 98 percent of precinct reporting as of the time of this writing, according to the Associated Press.

Breitbart

Saudi crown prince warns Iran is Greatest Threat to Region

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (AP/Saudi Press Agency)

By World Israel News Staff and AP

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the region needed to unite and face challenges posed by Iran’s proxies and its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, at an annual summit of Gulf State leaders in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia considers Iran the gravest threat in the region. Its assessment is shared by the U.S. and Israel.

The crown prince has repeatedly warned about the Iranian threat. In 2018, he compared Ayatollah Khamenei to Hitler: “I believe the Iranian supreme leader makes Hitler look good. Hitler didn’t do what the supreme leader is trying to do. Hitler tried to conquer Europe. … The supreme leader is trying to conquer the world.”

The annual Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit met in the ancient desert city of Al-Ula.

On Monday night, the eve of the summit, the Saudis announced they would open the kingdom’s airspace and borders to Qatar, the first major step toward ending the diplomatic crisis that began in 2017, when the Trump administration was starting to raise pressure on Iran.

In a sign of burying the hatchet, bin Salman embraced Qatar’s emir upon his arrival at the summit.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters after the summit that diplomatic relations would be restored in full with Qatar, although no timeframe was given.

“We are extremely pleased with having been able to achieve this very important breakthrough that we believe will contribute very much to the stability and security of all our nations in the region,” Prince Faisal said.

Qatar and Saudi Arabia were divided, among other things, over Qatar’s relations with Iran.

At least publicly, Iran didn’t act as if the restoration of Saudi-Qatari relations was a threat. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif congratulated Qatar “for the success of its brave resistance to pressure & extortion.” He also said in a message to other Arab leaders that “Iran is neither an enemy nor threat — especially with your reckless patron on his way out,” referring to President Donald Trump.

This year’s GCC summit is the first since Washington brokered normalization deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in rapid succession, marking a major shift in regional alliances.

 

Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who spearheaded those deals, was at the summit for the signing of the Gulf declaration.

The dispute had pitted regional U.S. allies against one another at a time when the Trump administration was working to pressure Iran.

The diplomatic breakthrough followed a final push by the outgoing Trump administration and Kuwait to mediate the dispute. It also came as Saudi Arabia seeks to unify Arab ranks ahead of the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden, which is expected to take a firmer stand toward the kingdom and re-engage with Iran.

Dania Thafer, executive director of Gulf International Forum, said Saudi Arabia is concerned about whether Biden will draw down the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf that had expanded under President Donald Trump and enter back into nuclear negotiations with Iran.

“If that is the case, then the (Arab) states need to respond with a regional solution to security. And I think resolving the Gulf crisis is one step forward towards that direction,” she said.