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This is What Byron Donalds Got In Exchange for Voting McCarthy as Speaker

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    4
    Byron Donalds via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    After an epic 15-rounds of voting the U.S. House of Representatives finally have a Speaker.

    Kevin McCarthy’s road to the Speaker’s office was filled with twists, turns, and a number of concessions as the California lawmaker desperately fought to convince nearly 20 hardline Republicans to sway their votes in his favor.

    Rep. Byron Donalds (Fla.) was among a group of 20 hardline Republicans who refused to vote for McCarthy after he initially voted in his favor. He later switched to support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) before his fellow Republicans nominated him for the role. 

    Ultimately, Donalds revealed to Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo that he is being placed on the House Republican Steering Committee in exchange for supporting Kevin McCarthy for House speaker. 

    “I’m frankly just happy that it’s all over with, and that we got something transformational and sound for the American people,” Donalds said. 

    The committee’s purpose is to assign fellow Republicans to other House committees. Donalds noted that his appointment to the Steering Committee was an important step to having “more [Republican] voices on more committees.”

    “Early on I gave Kevin the benefit of the doubt. But it came pretty quickly clear to me that we were getting nowhere. And so, at that point, it was saying, ‘OK, how long is this going to go? What’s this going to play out like?’” Donalds said. “And so it was really about trying to make sure that we can get people to the table in order to construct a framework that everybody in our conference can get behind.”

    AP ‘Stylebook’ – How the Left Manipulates Abortion Language to Manipulate News

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    0
    Washington D.C., USA - January 22, 2015; A Pro-Life woman clashes with a group of Pro-Choice demonstrators at the U.S. Supreme Court.

    ANALYSIS – Most conservatives understand that one of the left’s major weapons in the war of ideas is manipulating language and using well-researched buzzwords and phrases to change reality and mask their more extreme ideas.

    We see it every day with the constant use of ‘gun violence’ rather than shooting or murder committed by a criminal. We see it with ‘global warming’ becoming ‘climate change’ when the facts don’t support the narrative.

    We also see it with the insanely deceptive and grotesque ‘gender-affirming care’ rather for genital-mutilating sex-change surgery.

    And of course, we see it in spades with abortion, where supporting the unrestricted killing of unborn babies in the womb becomes ‘reproductive health care rights,’ previously known as being ‘pro-choice.’

    The new term is far better politically since it appears to somehow be about rights and health, not deception and killing. Plus, ‘pro-choice’ has been thoroughly sullied by its accurate association with being ‘pro-abortion.’

    And we can’t have that.

    And now, since the Dobbs decision correctly returned the abortion issue to the states where it always belonged, the battle to control the language, and hence the narrative on abortion, is intensifying.

    And it just got a lot worse.

    The latest words and phrases chosen by the left to describe or refer to abortion fly in the face of fact and science.

    But the leftist language warriors are now being reinforced by the power behind the news media – the Associated Press—and its widely used ‘Stylebook.’

    The Daily Signal reports:

    The Associated Press recently released a guide for news outlets for reporting on abortion that’s so biased in favor of the procedure, its guidance often runs contrary to medical science. The new guide has the ability to significantly distort how Americans perceive the abortion issue.

    The AP’s “Abortion Topical Guide” is part of the widely used “AP Stylebook” that many outlets across the country, including The Daily Signal, use as a guide for everything from grammar to punctuation to best practices for terms and phrasing.

    One glaring problem among many? The guide frequently cites the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to back up its guidance. ACOG claims to be the premier professional membership organization of OB-GYNs. But on the issue of abortion—a procedure that most OB-GYNs don’t perform—ACOG is wholly committed to lobbying for extreme abortion policies that don’t reflect its membership’s views.

    In typical Orwellian fashion, the leftists at AP cudgel writers into referring to an unborn child’s “heartbeat,” which is detectable via ultrasound from the very early stages of life to the deliberately bland and mostly meaningless term “cardiac activity.”

    The Stylebook also inappropriately enters the scientific realm as self-made medical experts when it advises writers not to refer to unborn children as “pain-capable” until after at least 24 weeks.

    This, even though the beloved doctors who actually perform surgeries on ‘preemies,’ or premature babies in utero, regularly use anesthesia for those babies under 24 weeks because they feel pain.

    The AP’s demonic advice also contradicts the massive, and growing, body of research showing unborn babies can feel pain at just 15 weeks or even earlier.

    And most importantly, the Stylebook admonishes writers to never, ever use the accurate but uncomfortable phrase – ‘late-term abortion.’

    Polls show a solid majority of Americans are opposed to late-term abortions, so best to religiously (pun intended) avoid the term.

    The Daily Signal concludes:

    The AP guide misses the mark throughout. Of course, that’s inevitable when the goal is not objective reporting of fact but rather promoting pro-abortion propaganda. Try as the AP might, it’s a fool’s errand to put lipstick on a pig.

    I go further by saying AP is part of the left’s far-flung language-distorting media empire intended to manipulate words, in order to manipulate news, in order to manipulate you.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    FBI Promised Twitter the Bureau Would be ‘Conduit’ to Intel Community, and Beyond

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    3
    Photo via Pixabay images

    ANALYSIS – The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) egregious overreach in manipulating Big Tech firms such as Twitter to do its bidding has now got an even more blockbuster twist.

    According to Matt Taibbi’s ongoing ‘Twitter Files’ exposé, the FBI offered to be the conduit between Big Tech and the entire U.S. intelligence Community (IC) in its unconstitutional effort to censor Americans.

    And it then actively became that conduit.

    The Bureau also oddly referred to itself as potentially being the “belly button” of the U.S. Government (USG) in terms of interactions with Big Tech.

    To keep a fig leaf of propriety, when making requests to Big Tech firms such as Twitter to censor or block accounts, the FBI ensured that the members of the IC involved in this loop would be in “listen only” mode.

    In these embarrassing email releases, we see, in what was then real-time, the FBI’s growing entanglement with BIG Tech, far overstepping its legal mandate, and constitutional restrictions, and endeavoring tirelessly to corral as many other federal agencies into the effort as possible.

    Beyond just looping in other intelligence agencies such as CIA, NSA, and who knows what other three-letter members of the IC’s alphabet soup, it even tried to get the State Department included in the unholy mix.

    FBI Supervisory Special Agent Elvis Chan reportedly pushed for the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to be included in the weekly call with Twitter.

    For the sake of full disclosure, I am a former member of the U.S. Intelligence Community, having served with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) as a Human Intelligence (HUMINT) collector overseas. 

    I was also involved in a major Pentagon project creating news websites at our regional commands to combat anti-American and extremist narratives overseas.

    All the work I did focused on fighting the war of ideas abroad – never at home. And they only involved providing accurate information to combat the lies, propaganda, and misinformation of our enemies.

    Never to censor or quash stories.

    The essence of counter-propaganda is to fight lies with the truth.

    But, I’m intimately familiar with the agencies and techniques involved.

    And never then could I have imagined some of our federal law enforcement, intelligence or other agencies being allowed, or given free reign to, suppress, censor, or manipulate news followed in America by tens of millions of Americans.

    To his limited credit, even the woke and clueless Twitter Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, pushed back on a few of the FBI’s increasingly outrageous requests.

    Roth reportedly argued against including the GEC in the meetings because it was “political” unlike the “apolitical” intelligence agencies.

    Roth expressed concerns about the GEC being “press happy” and said it would be a “major risk” to bring it into the weekly call, Taibbi reported.

    These concerns showed Roth understood the dangers involved. Sadly, he went along anyway.

    Note to Roth, it doesn’t matter if our intelligence agencies are ‘apolitical,’ they should be anywhere near domestic media outlets or equivalent ‘public square news disseminators like Big Tech social media platforms.

    In a second note to Roth – you idiot, of course our intelligence and federal law enforcement agencies are no longer apolitical, to the extent they ever truly were.

    The 2016 election and its aftermath made that crystal clear.

    And all of those protestations appeared moot as Roth and Twitter rolled over to the massive government push.

    Taibbi reported that eventually the FBI, DHS and other intelligence agencies, as well as the Treasury Department, Health and Human Services, the NSA and the State Department were among the government agencies sending requests to Twitter via Signal, a secure messaging app.

    And Taibbi notes that Twitter ended up taking orders (aka requests) from every conceivable government body.

    Per his tweet: “beginning with the [Democrat-led] Senate Intel Committee (SSCI), which seemed to need reassurance Twitter was taking FBI direction. Execs rushed to tell “Team SSCI” they zapped five accounts on an FBI tip…”

    So, to those hacks who said these Big Tech firms were private companies following their own internal rules for restricting accounts, and not government censorship, and their actions had nothing to do with violating the 1st Amendment – these files call ‘Bullsh*t.’

    Big Tech was, and with the exception of Twitter under Musk, continue to be acting in great part under orders (aka requests) from multiple agencies of the federal government, making them complicit in violating Americans 1st Amendment right to free speech.

    This latest installment of the Twitter Files should be reviewed by everyone in government, Big Media, and Big Tech, as a warning of what NOT to do.

    Especially, since this unconstitutional activity is still going on at the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn and other Big Tech firms.

    It is time for full scale Congressional investigations, and clear-cut reforms, legislation, and executive orders that will put a stop to this outrageous collusion and censorship before it gets even worse.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    Amanda Head: My Thoughts on the Speaker Votes

    By
    Amanda Head
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    1

    It’s been a long week in the House of Representatives. A tumultuous battle for House Speaker has put Congress on hold indefinitely.

    Watch Amanda break down the ongoing situation below:

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

    MAGA Congressman Threatens to Resign if Republicans Strike Deal with Democrats

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    12
    Photo via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    As the 118th Congress reconvenes for the fourth day with no Speaker some lawmakers can feel the desperation in the air.

    As House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy heads into what will be the twelfth round of voting one of the more boisterous detractors says he is prepared to resign from Congress if Republicans strike a deal with Democrats to support a more moderate candidate.

    “These 212 Democrats are going to vote for Hakeem Jeffries every single time. He’s a historic candidate. They’re not going to cleave off,” Gaetz told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Thursday when asked if he thought centrist Democrats would back McCarthy if they were promised co-control of House committees.

    “If Democrats join up to elect a moderate Republican, I will resign,” Gaetz continued.

    Gaetz, who has voted against McCarthy’s nomination during each round of voting says that no concessions the California Republican offers swill be enough to sway his vote.

    “He’s the masthead of the lobby core. I resent to which Kevin McCarthy utilizes the lobbyists and the special interests to be able to dictate how political decisions are made. How policy decisions are made, how leadership decisions are made. Kevin McCarthy has been in the leadership for 14 years. He’s sold shares of himself to special interests, to political action committees, and that’s why I don’t think he’s right.”

    The Florida Congressman, who cast his vote for Donald Trump for Speaker during Thursday’s round of voting, says that he believes Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) could garner 218 votes if McCarthy withdraws from consideration.

    “If Kevin McCarthy got out of this race, Jim Jordan would get into it,” Gaetz said. “And I believe he would win and invigorate our movement. He’s broadly trusted in every corner of the Republican Party and with a lot of our donors and supporters and activists. That’s the type of option if McCarthy bows out.”

    Thursday evening McCarthy indicated he may have a path to Speaker after all. A new deal has emerged that McCarthy hopes will propel him forward.

    Lawmakers said the framework gives members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) who have been resisting McCarthy virtually everything they’ve been asking for. That includes a stronger HFC representation on key House committees, guardrails aimed at curbing excessive federal spending, and allowing just a single member of the House to make a motion to replace the speaker, lawmakers familiar with the framework told Fox News.

    GOP Governor Signals Interest in 2024 White House Run

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    8
    Photo of Chris Sununu via Gage Skidmore Flckr

    New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu is leaving the door open as to if he will pursue a bid for the White House in 2024.

    In an interview with Fox News, Sununu, who won reelection in November, admitted that he’s been approached about a possible presidential campaign and is seriously considering the matter. However, the governor acknowledged there’s still plenty of time to make a decision to make final decision and he still discussing the matter.

    “It’s incredibly flattering,” Sununu said of the speculation that he could mount a presidential bid. “A lot of folks are coming to me, a lot of folks want me to run. It’s definitely conversations that we’re having, of course.”

    “My first priority is New Hampshire. It really is,” he added. “But again, we’ll keep having those conversations. There’s no time table for making decisions or where it all goes.”

    “I think people have to understand it is, what? Jan. 4 or 5, right? Of ‘23? So we still have well over a year before we even get to the first-in-the nation primary,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of time before folks even get in the race.”

    The New Hampshire Governor acknowledged that other high-profile Republicans are considering their own presidential campaigns which could also impact his ultimate decision.

    “Who knows what might happen between now and then?” Sununu said. “And those unknown variables could really dictate who gets in the race and how successful they can be.”

    Early polling suggests that Trump and DeSantis are the two frontrunners for the 2024 nomination.

    GOP Congressman Votes for Donald Trump for House Speaker

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    11
    Donald Trump via Gage Skidmore Flickr

    During the 118th Congress’ seventh round of voting to determine the next Speaker of the House of Representatives one lawmaker to cast his vote for Donald J. Trump.

    The largely symbolic vote came from Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has been a prominent figure among the roughly 20 lawmakers to detract from supporting House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy for the role.

    Gaetz has repeatedly floated the idea of Trump becoming speaker, pledging to nominate him since 2021.

    However, Gaetz has admitted to Fox News on Thursday that McCarthy’s win is potentially unavoidable, but argued he would be a speaker with a “straight jacket.”

    “There are only two outcomes here: Either Kevin McCarthy withdraws from the speaker’s race, or he has to wake up every morning and put on the world’s best constructive straight jacket before doing the prayer and the pledge at the beginning of House session,” Gaetz said, adding that several of his colleagues were working to on “how to construct that straight jacket.”

    “Kevin McCarthy has offered everything he can think to offer and everything we can think to ask for due to his current state of desperation, and I can’t tell you whether or not that will be enough to get him there. I doubt it will,” he said.

    Kevin McCarthy recieved 201 votes, Byron Donalds recieved 19 votes, Hakeem Jeffries recieved 212 votes for Speaker during the seventh round of voting.

    This story is breaking. Click refresh for the latest updates

    Byron Donalds Responds to Racist Attacks from Democrat Congresswoman

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
    -
    9
    Cori Bush via Wikimedia Commons

    Florida Congressman Byron Donalds (R) is not letting liberal Congresswoman Cori Bush’s racist broadsides against him go unchecked.

    On Wednesday, House Republicans hardliners nominated Donalds as an alternative pick for House speaker, resulting in the first ballot to include two black nominees to be speaker. However, instead of praising the historic moment and celebrating the progress man Bush honed in on Donalds’ policy agenda for “perpetuating white supremacy.”

    The Congresswoman told HuffPost, “It seems as if they’re using him as a prop, as a tool, not because they think that he’s great, that he’s done all of these things to lead them,” Bush said. “I don’t like that they’re using him that way. I don’t want them to use him that way. And I want him to understand: They’re only using you… don’t let them do that to you. Make them treat you with dignity and respect.”

    She continued: “To hear Chip Roy stand up and say this is not about color … it absolutely 100% is because if you were nominating him on his worth and merit, I think none of us would have been surprised because we would have seen him do leadership things.”

    “@ByronDonalds is not a historic candidate for Speaker. He is a prop. Despite being Black, he supports a policy agenda intent on upholding and perpetuating white supremacy. His name being in the mix is not progress—it’s pathetic,” Bush tweeted in response to a Republican defector lauding Donalds.

    Rep. Donalds swiftly fired back against the Congresswoman’s comments while calling out her insulting behavior.

    “If you see a Black man rise, let the man rise even if you disagree with them. I’d be happy to sit down and debate our policies one on one whenever you’d like. As a black man to a black woman, I’d never do that to you. It’s a shame you did it to me,” Donalds tweeted alongside a clip of a Fox Business interview in which he addressed the rift.

     Bishop nominated Donalds on the floor during the latest round of voting, defending his ability to lead the House of Representatives.

    “I’ve spent a good bit of time with Mr. Donalds, especially lately. He ain’t no prop!” Bishop said, adding, “I know Byron — he’s not a prop. He’s a man of personal conviction.”

    Congress remains in a stalemate heading into its seventh round of proceedings Thursday, with McCarthy having failed to secure a majority during previous rounds of voting earlier this week. At most, he has earned 203 votes, below the 218-vote threshold, and faces opposition of about 20 members.

    In a bid to win over the detractor, the California Republican reportedly offered to lower the threshold for a vote to oust a speaker, allow more members of the Freedom Caucus on the House Rules Committee, and have the Republican-aligned political action committee, the Congressional Leadership Fund, will not get involved in open Republican primaries.

    Editor’s note: This article was published before the seventh round of voting was complete. Rep. McCarthy failed to secure 218 votes needed.

    Democrat Senator Announces Cancer Diagnosis

    By
    Madeleine Jackson
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    1
    Photo via Pixabay images

    On Thursday, Pennsylvania Democrat Senator Bob Casey announced he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last month.

    Casey, 62, said he will have surgery in the coming months and expects to continue serving in the Senate. He is the chairman of the Aging Committee.

    “Last month, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. While the news came back as a shock, I can report that I have an excellent prognosis, as well as the benefit of exceptional medical care and the unwavering support of my family. In the coming months I will undergo surgery, after which I am expected to make a full recovery. I am confident that my recommended course of treatment will allow me to continue my service in the 118th Congress with minimal disruption, and I look forward to the work ahead.” Sen Casey shared on Thursday.

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

    FBI Has Been Weaponized Against Americans by Politicized DOJ: Former Asst. Director

    By
    Paul Crespo
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    2
    FBI Headquarters Washington DC [Photo Credit: I, Aude, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons]

    ANALYSIS – As I have repeatedly written about, here, here, and here, the politicization at the higher levels of the FBI, and to degree at DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and other federal law enforcement agencies, is one of the gravest threats facing our Republic and our Constitutional liberties today.

    The danger is widespread and involves the Bureau straying well into illegal domestic spying and censorship.

    The possible crimes go from FBI collusion with Big Tech (Twitter, Facebook, et al,) to censor Americans who may criticize certain government-approved narratives, to creating an entire army of analysts, and agents exclusively devoted to pursuing a vaguely defined, virtually nonexistent, ‘domestic terror’ threat.

    The latter being an aggressive pursuit many see as a thinly veiled attempt to target, coerce and silence conservatives simply.

    It also extends to ignoring widespread violence against pro-life churches and nonprofits to using heavy-handed storm trooper tactics against unarmed peaceful pro-life protesters.

    Much has been recently uncovered about the FBI collusion with Twitter, thanks to Elon Musk and his Twitter files. 

    And the Bureau’s heavy-handed and tone-deaf response blaming any criticism of the FBI as coming from ‘conspiracy theorists’ spreading ‘misinformation,’ made them appear even more obtuse, and dangerous.

    Some, including me, have called for thorough house cleaning at the Bureau, especially at the top where much of the rot appears to be concentrated.

    As I have always said, the vast majority of the employees, analysts and field agents at the FBI are honorable, decent, American patriots.

    But the same can no longer be said for much of the current leadership.

    At the root of the problem is the FBI steadily giving up its traditional independence within the Department of Justice (DOJ), which has basically taken over the Bureau.

    One way to start cleaning house is to create an independent commission modeled after the, yes – sometimes overzealous, 1970s Senate ‘Church Committee’ that uncovered abuses at the CIA, NSA, and FBI, to investigate the FBI again, and impose significant reforms.

    And now we have another senior FBI official, ex-FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker, publicly saying the same thing.

    The well-regarded Swecker retired as the assistant director for criminal investigations after 24 years at the FBI. 

    Just the News reports that Swecker argues that the bureau’s problems start with the politicization of its ranks by the DOJ.

    The news outlet adds:

    “What I see is that it’s basically a wholesale takeover by the Department of Justice, which is filled with political appointees in every top position, and then by extension, right into the administration,” Swecker said in a wide-ranging interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

    “You see DOJ people — and many of the top executive positions inside the FBI now — you see people that have made a career out of bouncing in and out of silk-stocking law firms between the Department of Justice and then these law firms. And I have to say they are incredibly liberal in their politics. And that has now sort of taken over the FBI, and they are inserting that ideology into their high-profile investigations.”

    Just the News continues:

    Swecker said the FBI’s involvement in labeling school parents “domestic terrorists,” and its “bare-knuckles” pursuit of Donald Trump contrasted with its “kid gloves cases” against Hillary Clinton, Andrew McCabe and Hunter Biden have not only shaken public trust but also the internal confidence of the FBI.

    As the outlet noted, the FBI “has yielded the independence Congress gave it under the law and is now subservient to a group of liberal ideologues inside the Justice Department who have pressured agents to stray into unwarranted domestic spying and censorship.”

    This is dangerously un-American and is one of the biggest threats to our Republic and our liberties. It’s time to really investigate and shake things up at the FBI.

    Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of Great America News Desk.

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