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    Facebook Officially Reinstates Former President Trump’s Account

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Photo via Pixabay images

    Facebook has officially reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account.

    Trump was banned from both social media platforms, along with others such as Twitter, following the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol. Facebook at the time said Trump would be barred from using both Facebook and Instagram for inciting violence, a violation of their terms of service.

    It is unclear whether Trump will use the platform—though the former president was reinstated on Twitter last November, he has still not used his account, opting instead to use his own platform, Truth Social.

    Last month, Facebook CEO Nick Clegg told Axios that Trump’s accounts would be reinstated “in coming weeks,” though he cautioned that future bans are on the table. “We’ve always believed that Americans should be able to hear from the people who want to lead the country,” Clegg told Axios. “We don’t want to stand in the way of that.”

    Trump has yet to post on either his Facebook or Instagram accounts, which together have more than 50 million followers.

    This story is breaking. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    Multiple Supreme Court Justices Notably Absent from Biden’s SOTU

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0
    Duncan Lock, Dflock, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

    President Biden’s second State of the Union speech included some notable absences.

    Four Supreme Court justices were surprisingly absent from the President’s speech.

    Biden greeted five of the high court’s nine justices — John Roberts, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — shortly before he began his speech, according to video footage of the event.

    The four justices absent were Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Neil Gorsuch. It’s unclear why they were not in attendance.

    The president spent a brief moment, in particular, with Jackson, the newest Supreme Court Justice and the first Black woman to hold a seat on the court. Jackson is the only justice Biden selected for the Supreme Court.

    “The story of America is a story of progress and resilience,” Biden began his address. “Of always moving forward. Of never giving up. A story that is unique among all nations. We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again.”

    Joe Manchin Reignites 2024 White House Speculation

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    3
    Joe Manchin via Wikimedia Commons

    A Democrat Senator isn’t ready to give up his presidential aspiration quite yet.

    West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin signaled that his interest in potentially launching his own presidential campaign has not been deterred by President Biden’s reported re-election plans.

    While speaking with Semafor’s Steve Clemmons, Sen. Manchin declined to rule out a bid for higher office. 

    “I don’t know what the next chapter will be, I don’t know [where] the future lies, I really don’t,” Manchin said when asked if he would run for president next year during a question-and-answer session hosted by Clemons.  

    “I can tell you one thing: I feel, like most Americans, we’ve got to come together. Americans want to be united, they want to be together and right now we’re going further apart,” he said.  

    He predicted that voters are going to be looking for “somebody” to bring the country together but didn’t say whether he would be the politician to do that as the next president.  

    “I’m not saying I have any aspirations” to run for the White House, he said, adding a caveat: “I’ve been [in Washington] 12 years. I don’t like what I see; I don’t the direction we’re going and I’m going to work and commit myself to try to get people who want to do the right thing to find the pathway forward, bringing the country back together.” 

    Manchin has recently criticized Democratic leaders for refusing to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) over a package of fiscal reforms to attach to legislation raising the debt limit.

    “It’s unreasonable for any senator, any congressperson representing the United States government to say, ‘I’m not going to negotiate,’” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. “If you can’t communicate and you won’t talk to each other, you got a problem.”   

    Fox News Star Dan Bongino Hospitalized

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    Popular Fox News star Dan Bongino shared an update from his hospital bed, thanking fans for their prayers and well wishes

    Bongino, who has become one of the most popular voices in conservative media, recently had surgery on his elbow.

    In a Facebook post, Bongino seemed in good spirits following the surgery.

    “Doing okay! Out of surgery and the doc did a massive clean up operation on my elbow. Thanks for all of your prayers and messages. I really appreciate it,” the former Secret Service agent and NYPD officer posted on his Facebook.

    In a November Facebook post, the former Secret Service officer said that years of arm bars led to these medical problems. Bongino shared that difficulties with his elbow wrought with bone spurs and arthritis eventually led to the operation.

    In a Saturday post, Bongino shared a medical scan of his surgically repaired elbow.

    “Straighter than it’s been in ten years. Big thanks to Dr. Florez.”

    This story is breaking. Click refresh for the latest updates.

    DeSantis Receives Unexpected Rescue After Being Called ‘Racist’

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    0

    Florida Governor Ron DeSantis received an unexpected rescue after being called a racist.

    Black leaders in Miami apologized to Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis after one of its members called him a racist last week, according to reports from Fox News.

    Pierre Rutledge, chair of the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board, issued a statement on behalf of his board that apologized to DeSantis for a comment made at their Wednesday meeting from a member who said, “Our governor is racist.”

    “We take it to heart when someone uses the term racist,” Rutledge said Friday. “Words matter. And so as chair, I must start by saying we want to pull that back. There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘we’re sorry.’ That’s not what we intended to say or be depicted by anyone. And that’s not the feeling of this board.”

    The member labeled DeSantis a racist due to the ongoing controversy of an African-American history Advanced Placement course. Earlier this year, Gov. DeSantis rejected the course because he claimed the content did not focus on Black history, instead, the course contained Black Lives Matter and queer issues. 

    DeSantis has defended the decision from his Department of Education to remove the African-American history course, which he said pushes a political agenda.

    “This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” DeSantis said. “Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda.”

    Black leaders and Democrats in Florida have pledged to defend and keep the course in schools.

    The College Board removed aspects of the course last Wednesday opposed by DeSantis. The course will be reevaluated by the Florida Department of Education to determine if it is appropriate for schools.

    Balloons That Infiltrated Country Under Trump Only Discovered After Biden Took Office

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    President Donald J. Trump is presented with a 10th Combat Aviation Brigade challenge coin following an air assault and gun rain demonstration at Fort Drum, New York, on August 13. The demonstration was part of President Trump's visit to the 10th Mountain Division (LI) to sign the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019, which increases the Army's authorized active-duty end strength by 4,000 enabling us to field critical capabilities in support of the National Defense Strategy. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Thomas Scaggs) 180813-A-TZ475-010

    A senior Biden administration official is clearing the air.

    Last week, after President Biden let a Chinese spy balloon glide across the United States, allegations emerged that one or more spy balloons violated U.S. airspace during the Trump administration.

    But the discovery didn’t occur until Biden took office. The explanation follows denials from the former president and his national security team that such events ever happened or that they were briefed.

    On Friday, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CNN that he was “surprised” by the claims.

    “I don’t ever recall somebody coming into my office or reading anything that the Chinese had a surveillance balloon above the United States,” he said.

    As Fox News reports:

    But on Sunday, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital that “U.S. intelligence, not the Biden administration” assesses that “PRC (People’s Republic of China) government surveillance balloons transited the continental U.S. briefly at least three times during the prior administration and once that we know of at the beginning of this administration, but never for this duration of time.”

    The official told Fox News that “this information was discovered after the [Trump] administration left.”

    “They went undetected,” the official told Fox News Digital.

    The official explained that Chinese surveillance balloons are “part of a larger pattern.”

    They added that the PRC has a fleet of balloons to conduct surveillance “at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army,” noting that similar balloons have been spotted across five continents in recent years.

    “Two things can be true at once: this happened, and it wasn’t detected,” they concluded.

    According to the report, at least one balloon flew over Texas and Florida during the Trump administration. Another crashed in Hawaii four months ago.

    The official said that the intelligence community is prepared to offer briefings to key Trump administration officials about the Chinese surveillance program, which the Biden administration believes has been deployed in countries across five continents over the last several years.

    A senior admin. official also told CNN that another Chinese spy balloon also transited the continental US briefly at the beginning of the Biden administration.

    Republican Senator Threatens Foreign Leader Over Imprisoned US Soldier

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    2

    Republicans aren’t playing nice anymore.

    Thursday morning Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee issued a threat to Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida if the U.S. ally doesn’t release Navy Lt. Ridge Alkonis, who is currently serving a 3-year prison sentence, by the end of the month.

    Sen. Lee promised to mobilize his colleagues and the American public to reevaluate the United States’ relationship with Japan unless Alkonis is released in a lengthy thread on Twitter.

    “You’ve made your point poorly and counterproductively, but whatever—it’s time to bring your standoff to an end,” continued Lee, before observing that Japan has enjoyed the twin luxuries of a “really good security arrangement” with the U.S. and “not having that arrangement discussed or seriously questioned in Congress for a long time.”

    “That’s about to change,” promised Lee.

    “If you transfer Lt. Alkonis back to the U.S. before midnight on February 28, 2023, we will do our best to forget that this whole thing never happened. It will be hard, but we will try” the Senator continued.

    “If, however, he’s not on U.S. soil by then, many of us will work equally hard to make sure America knows (1) what a good security arrangement you have with the U.S., (2) what you did to one of the best and brightest our military has to offer, and (3) what we should do about it,” Sen. Lee warned.

    The Utah Senator noted, “The fact that you—like Lt. Alkonis—are far away from us doesn’t mean that your actions will go unnoticed here.”

    “The stake that sticks out gets hammered down,” concluded Lee in an ominous conclusion to his thread, typed out in Japanese.

    According to reports from Mediaite, Alkonis was driving with his family down from Mt. Fuji in May 2021 when he collided with another vehicle, killing an elderly woman and her son-in-law. The Navy lieutenant has maintained that the cause of the crash was brought on by a bout of mountain sickness that rendered him unconscious. However, the Japanese court system ruled that he was negligent, falling asleep at the wheel without any accompanying illness.

    The Alkonis family has reportedly offered the victims’ family a restitution payment upwards of $1 million.

    Trump Refuses to Say He will Back the Republican Nominee in 2024

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4

    Donald Trump is not in the business of doubting himself…

    The former president who is currently on his third presidential campaign told Hugh Hewitt that he is not committed to backing the 2024 Republican nominee if it’s not him.

    According to Mediaite, during an interview with Hugh Hewitt, once again, Trump harped about his former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, running for president after pledging she wouldn’t run against Trump. After calling Haley “a very ambitious person,” Trump was asked about how Hewitt spoke to Larry Hogan (R) earlier in the day, who is also openly considering a 2024 run.

    The former Maryland governor said he would support whoever the Republican Party nominates in 2024, even though he refused to back Trump in 2020. Thus, Hewitt asked Trump “if you’re not the nominee, will you support whoever the GOP nominee is?”

    “It would depend,” Trump answered. “I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016 during the debate…It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”

    As Trump said, his answer harkens back to the Fox News debate of 2015 where he refused to pledge his support for whoever won the Republican primary. 

    Hispanic Democrats Introduce Bill to Ban ‘Latinx’ Term

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4

    Hispanic Democrats in Connecticut have introduced a bill to ban the woke term “Latinx” from state documents.

    The bill, written and endorsed by five Democrats of Hispanic descent, comes amid increased scrutiny over the work term and its place in government documents.

    The text of the bill reads:

    [T]he general statutes [shall] be amended to prohibit any state agency, or state employee on behalf of a state agency, from using the term “Latinx” on any official communications or forms of the state agency.

    A search on the state website reveals that at least 920 state documents contain the word “Latinx.”

    It was introduced by five members of the state House: state Reps. Geraldo C. Reyes, Christopher Rosario, Juan R. Candelaria, Robert Sanchez, and Minnie Gonzalez.

    “This has been offensive and derogatory to all Puerto Ricans, and it’s something that hasn’t sat well with a lot of people here for a while.” Reyes added to CT Insider. “When I found out that Arkansas Gov. [Sanders] banned it on her first day in the office, I saw that as an opportunity for me to do the same thing.” Reyes, however, criticized Sanders’ move, saying she had “other motivations” for banning the word in Arkansas government documents.

    According to The Daily Wire, a national poll conducted in October found that only 1% of Hispanics identify as “Latinx,” a gender-neutral term imposed on Hispanics by left-wing culture. WPA Intelligence, a conservative polling firm that collaborated with Visto Media on behalf of the Latino advocacy group Bienvenido, conducted a poll of 1,288 Hispanic registered Democrat, Republican, and Independent voters.

    The poll found that the community prefers to be identified as Hispanic, while others said American or Latino.

    Last month, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders banned the use of “latinx” in state documents as one of her first acts as governor. (RELATED: Arkansas Governor Bans Woke Term During First Day on the Job)

    “ETHNICALLY INSENSITIVE AND PEJORATIVE LANGUAGE HAS NO PLACE IN OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS OR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE TITLES,” SANDERS’ EXECUTIVE ORDER STATED. “THE GOVERNMENT HAS A RESPONSIBILITY TO RESPECT ITS CITIZENS AND USE ETHNICALLY APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE, PARTICULARLY WHEN REFERRING TO ETHNIC MINORITIES.”

    Ilhan Omar Removed From Foreign Affairs Committee

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    12
    U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, and Cori Bush speak at the Mississippi River in Minneapolis asking for President Biden to stop Line 3 pipeline construction.

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee in a Thursday afternoon vote.

    The vote came to the floor after Republican Reps. Ken Buck and Victoria Spartz reversed their decision to oppose the resolution to punish Omar for her history of antisemitic comments.

    The Washington Times has more:

    Ms. Omar, a Minnesota Democrat and member of the far-left “Squad,” was kicked off the committee in a party-line 218-211 vote.

    Ms. Omar, who came to the U.S. as a Somali refugee and was one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, said she was being targeted by Republicans because she is an immigrant, a Black woman and a Muslim.

    “This debate today is about who is going to be an American,” Ms. Omar said in a floor speech before the vote. “There is an idea that you are suspect if you are an immigrant.”

    Ms. Omar has been vocal about her opposition to the Israeli government and its supporters, particularly on the issue of Palestinian rights, which led to the allegations of antisemitism.

    Omar’s rhetoric in the past has also offended some Democrats, who have on occasion spoken out against her.

    Every Democrat voted against today’s resolution.

    This is a breaking news story. Click refresh for the latest updates.

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