In six days, the Democratic National Committee will elect the next chair. Jamie Harrison, the outgoing chair, has held the post since 2021. The DNC explains its own role as, "The Democratic National Committee is committed to electing Democrats
everywhere – from the school board to the Oval Office. We’re mobilizing
voters across the country." The chair is the one overseeing this process.
The chair is the Democratic National Committee’s top executive.
Outgoing Chairwoman Donna Brazile says her successor “must be fearless …
must have courage,” but there’s no absolute job description.
The post is part cheerleader, part fundraiser, part organizer and
recruiter, part public messenger. It’s a much more visible role when a
party no longer occupies the White House, since the president is de
facto leader of his own party. Presidents also name their own party
chairs, with the national committee operating essentially as a political
arm of the Oval Office. The losing party’s chair, though, is elected by
its national committee members.
I haven't really been following and don't care a great deal. I thought I'd be writing about the importance of David Hogg in the race but he's running for Vice Chair.
If he was running for Chair, I'd endorse him.
He needs to run because we're not getting new blood in if younger people aren't going to run. I hope he wins for vice chair but just being in that race will make a difference and also expand his own horizons.
In terms of the chair?
I don't really care. I see seven strong candidates. Each has strengths and weaknesses. If they're sincere in their efforts, I think any of the eight would do a strong job.
'But there are nine.'
Yes, there's the ridiculous Marianne Williamson.
In her 2020 campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, the failure attacked other Democrats and the Democratic Party. She went on FOX "NEWS" and trashed everyone but FOX "NEWS." She went on RISING and swore their dim witted hosts (Krystal and Saagar) that she had much to tell about how the 'fix was in' but she'd be back on the show after the election to discuss it.
She never did.
Oh, she came back. She'll go anywhere to trash the Democratic Party. But she never wanted to revisit her earlier charges of the process being fixed. And the idiot hosts of course never pressed her on it.
Then came her 2024 run. She pulled out and went back in and pulled out again so many times that it left anyone practicing the rhythm method of contraception dizzy.
No one wanted her in 2020 and no one wanted her in 2024.
In the general election, she did everything she could to tank Democrats with her comments.
More recently, she's taken to going on Australian news programs and other countries as well because that's how she campaigns for a US Democratic Party position (DNC chair).
Yes, she is just that damn stupid. She is the Jill Stein of the Democratic Party.
A month ago, she announced her run for the DNC chair in a video . . that still doesn't have 10,000 views. Her biggest views came from speaking to Krystal Ball who rescued her on RISING and continues to rescue her on the hideous BREAKING POINTS.
No one cares about her. She's a snake oil salesperson. She's a grifter. The party doesn't want her because (a) she's accomplished nothing and (b) is she Donald Chump?
Chump ran for president and speaks as president constantly insulting America and Americans.
Marianne does the same thing with the Democratic Party.
That s**t might fly with MAGA but Dems are not stupid enough to put someone in charge of the party that never stops insulting the party.
There's also the fact that she's 70. That makes her the oldest person in the race. We keep insisting we want young blood and we want to see young people in positions of leadership. But here's 70-year-old failure Marianne running for the office.
Let's note this from Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) issued the following statement:
“We are deeply concerned about the news of an ICE raid in Newark
today. Our offices have reached out to the Department of Homeland
Security to demand answers.
“Actions like this one sow fear in all of our communities — and our
broken immigration system requires solutions, not fear tactics.
“We will continue to work with Mayor Baraka and other local officials
to gather more information to ensure all New Jerseyans are safe and
their dignity and rights are protected.”
Just three days into President Donald Trump’s
promised mass deportation operation, Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officers have already arrested a U.S. citizen who served in
the military.
About 10 or 12 ICE agents raided
a Newark, New Jersey, seafood wholesaler and restaurant on Thursday and
arrested three people, including the Puerto Rican warehouse manager,
Ocean Food Depot owner Luis Janota told PIX11 news. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
“I
asked [the agents] what documentation they were looking for, and they
said it was a license or a passport. I thought, who walks around with a
passport?” Janota told PIX11, noting that the agents didn’t ask him for
his white workers’ documentation.
“One
of the guys was a military veteran, and the way he looked to me was
because he was Hispanic. He is Puerto Rican and the manager of our
warehouse,” he said. “It looked to me like they were specifically going
after certain kinds of people—not every kind, because they did not ask
me for documentation or my American workers, Portuguese workers, or
white workers.”
The ICE officers also didn’t have a warrant, in “plain violation” of the Fourth Amendment, Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka said in a statement.
“One
of the detainees is a U.S. military veteran who suffered the indignity
of having the legitimacy of his military documentation questioned,” he
said. “Newark will not stand by idly while people are being unlawfully
terrorized.”
Went to COMMON DREAMS to see what they were churning out. Nothing on this.
Is that a surprise?
Should it be any different? They didn't care about it and didn't warn about it ahead of the election so why should they pretend to care now?
We covered this repeatedly (as Mike noted in his post). Ava and I covered it at THIRD, I covered it here over and over. That you can't do these raids without doing profiling and that this was going to put not just immigrants at risk (bad enough) but also those who were citizens but looked like they might be immigrants.
Team Chump just terrorized and rounded up a US veteran. We should all be outraged.
But maybe the COMMON DREAMS types (and they aren't alone) can't express outrage because they're too guilty over failing to do their damn job which ,in 2024, should have been defined as preventing Donald Trump from getting re-elected by all journalistic and activists means possible.
But instead it was attack the Black woman.
Didn't work out too well for the countr, now did it?
There are two e-mails in the public account about the same topic. Vacation.
I never said I was taking a vacation. I did say I understood why some Black women needed to take time -- some weeks, months, years -- after what went down in the election. I do understand that. I continue to understand it and I'm not attack anyone who feels she needs to do that.
But I didn't say I was going on vacation.
I have two purposes right now.
The revenge motivation? That's what keeps me going. Working online and offline (especially offline) to destroy those who claim to be friends but worked to destroy Kamala's campaign. I'm not joking on that -- as a few people are starting to realize. I'm calling in favors and doing real life damage and I'm thrilled about that. I have never claimed to be a nice person. Those who stabbed us in the back will suffer over the next four years. in ever way imaginable. A woman called me on the phone begging me to stay silent about what, if I don't stay silent, will destroy her marriage.
I'm not staying silent.
You destroyed our country by re-electing Donald Chump. It's one for thing the right to support him but those of you on the left who encouraged people not to vote, who told them to vote for Jill Stein or to vote for Chump, those of you who used your positions to attack Kamala?
I'm gunning for you. Your lives are going to be miserable. You sold us out and you sold out the country.
So that's one reason I would never be on vacation right now, I've got far too many scalps to collect.
Second reason? There are too many people afraid to speak out against Chump. I'm not afraid and it takes all of us who can to speak out. The media's tryin to pimp him in a way we haven't seen since Bully Boy Bush was in the White House.
Friday, January 24, 2025. Two Republican senators announce that they will not vote for Pete Hegseth as more details emerge about the Secretary of Defense's past and present, the White House spokesperson has a few issues of her own, we note Joe Biden's last official statement as president, we mock the ridiculous USA TODAY columnist, and much more.
MAGA Republicans in the Senate love to lie about Pete Hegseth the way Doanld Chump loves to lie that foreign governments will pay tariffs. They won't despite Chump repeating the lie again yesterday. Lawrence O'Donnell again tackled that lie last night
He just keeps repeating the lie.
The same way MAGA senators keep repeating the lie that those calling out Pete Hegseth are faceless. They're afraid to come forward and publicly state their claims against the Secretary of Defense nominee, the liars insist
But he has NDAs and divorce agreements that bar people from coming forward publicly. Rachel Maddow explains that in the video below.
According to NBC's Julie Tsirkin, the nomination of Fox News personality Pete Hegseth
to be Donald Trump's secretary of defense is teetering after a senior
Republican told reporters the party may need Vice President J.D. Vance's
vote as a tiebreaker.
Reporting on MSNBC
on Thursday afternoon Tsirkin stated that Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who
took the lead in getting the embattled Hegseth through a Senate Armed
Forces Committee hearing despite allegations of sexual assault and
public drunkenness, the NBC correspondent said "Senator Roger Wicker
told my colleague Frank Thorp earlier today that if he were J.D Vance, he would stick around for a potential tie-breaking vote tomorrow night."
Calling the situation "big," she then reported that Sen. Lisa Murkowski
(R-AK) has just released a statement saying she will not support the
nominee.
Here's the statement from Senator Murkowski's office:
Today, U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) released
the following statement on her decision to vote against confirming Pete
Hegseth as Secretary of Defense:
“Since Mr. Hegseth’s nomination last November, I have met with him
and carefully reviewed his writings, various reports, and other
pertinent materials. I closely followed his hearing before the Senate
Armed Services Committee and gathered substantial feedback from
organizations, veterans, and Alaskans. After thorough evaluation, I must
conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for
Secretary of Defense. I did not make this decision lightly; I take my
constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent with the
utmost seriousness.
I commend Pete Hegseth’s service to our nation, including leading
troops in combat and advocating for our veterans. However, these
accomplishments do not alleviate my significant concerns regarding his
nomination. Managing the Department of Defense requires vast experience
and expertise as the department is one of the most complex and powerful
organizations in the world, and Mr. Hegseth’s prior roles in his career
do not demonstrate to me that he is prepared for such immense
responsibility. His leadership of two veteran organizations was marked
with accusations of financial mismanagement and problems with the
workplace culture he fostered.
Although he has recently revised his statements on women in combat
since being nominated, I remain concerned about the message that
confirming Mr. Hegseth sends to women currently serving and those
aspiring to join. Women have served our nation with distinction,
overcoming immense obstacles to excel in combat and leadership roles,
and they deserve to know that their leader honors and values their
commitment to our nation.
While the allegations of sexual assault and excessive drinking do
nothing to quiet my concerns, the past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has
admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a
lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed
forces. These behaviors starkly contrast the values and discipline
expected of servicemembers. Men and women in uniform are held
accountable for such actions, and they deserve leaders who uphold these
same standards.
BREAKING:
Republican Sen. Susan Collins says she's a NO on Pete Hegseth, Trump's Defense Secretary pick.
Collins is the second Republican to be against Hegseth, following Lisa Murkowski.
Let's note the statement from Senator Collin's office:
U.S. Senator Susan Collins issued a statement on the nomination of Pete Hegseth to serve as Secretary of Defense.
“After careful consideration, I have decided to vote against Pete
Hegseth’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. While I appreciate his
courageous military service and his ongoing commitment to our
servicemembers and their families, I am concerned that he does not have
the experience and perspective necessary to succeed in the job.
“Our military is under tremendous pressure right now. Active
conflicts in the Middle East and Europe combined with escalating threats
in the Pacific, all against a backdrop of severe financial challenges
and four years of ineffective leadership by the Biden Administration,
make this an especially critical time for those who lead our military.
The next Secretary of Defense will be responsible for managing a massive
bureaucracy that includes nearly three million employees and a budget
of nearly $850 billion. In addition, our next Secretary faces
long-standing procurement and supply issues that continued to worsen
under the Biden Administration.
“In sum, the Secretary is going to be facing a number of
incredibly complex problems that are going to require highly skilled
management ability. I am concerned that Mr. Hegseth does not have the
management experience and background that he will need in order to
tackle these difficulties. His limited managerial experience involved
running two small non-profit organizations that had decidedly mixed
results.
“I am also concerned about multiple statements, including some in
the months just before he was nominated, that Mr. Hegseth has made
about women serving in the military. He and I had a candid conversation
in December about his past statements and apparently evolving views. I
am not convinced that his position on women serving in combat roles has
changed.
“Women comprise nearly 18 percent of our active-duty military.
They continue to make critical and valuable contributions to our
national defense. I have long advocated that women who wish to serve in
and can meet the rigorous standards of combat roles should be able to do
so. And numerous women have proved that they can accomplish this
difficult feat.
“Currently, thousands of women are serving in combat roles and
many others serve in non-combat functions. Their service is essential
to the success of our military.
“Mr. Hegseth also appears to lack a sufficient appreciation for
some of the policies that the military is required to follow because
they are codified in the laws of the United States of America. While I
understand his points on the importance of up-to-date and workable rules
of engagement, our prohibitions against torture come from American laws
and treaties ratified by the United States, including the Geneva
Conventions.
“Therefore, I will vote against the nomination.”
So Senators Murkowski and Collins are no votes. As Rachel explained in her report last night, if those two vote against Hegseth today, the vote will be tied and that JD Vance, as Vice President, will cast the tie breaking vote. Unless? One more Republican senator steps forward to vote against him, then he does not pass the confirmation process Added 1/24/25: I got that wrong -- two more Republicans were needed. And we're adding Mehdi's BLUESKY -- after that -- back to the snapshot that posted this morning with no other additions:
An unqualified former Fox host, accused in an affidavit of being "abusive" toward his second wife, of being perpetually drunk, and allegedly screaming "Kill all Muslims! Kill all Muslims!" just got confirmed as the US Defense Secretary (!) by a tie-break vote in the Senate.
Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) explains, "A final vote on Hegseth’s nomination is expected later this week,
and if he loses just one more Republican vote, his confirmation would
need Vice President JD Vance’s tiebreaker. Either way, it would be the
narrowest confirmation of Trump’s Cabinet nominees so far." That vote is expected to take place today. This as Jason Wilson (GUARDIAN) reports:
In a series of newly unearthed podcasts, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse the theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.
In
the recordings, Hegeth rails against “cultural Marxism”, feminism,
“critical race theory”, and even democracy itself, which he says “our
founders blatantly rejected as being completely dangerous”.
For
much of the over five hours of recordings, which were published over
February and March 2024, Hegseth also castigates public schools, which
he characterizes as implementing an “egalitarian, dystopian LGBT
nightmare”, and which podcast host Joshua Haymes describes as “one of
Satan’s greatest tools for excising Christ from not just our classrooms
but our country”.
Leave it to Convicted Felon Donald Chump to nominate someone to a cabinet position when they don't even believe in democracy.
That should be the basic test for any American official: Do you believe in democracy?
And drunken Hegseth doesn't.
But he could become Secretary of Defense today regardless thanks to Donald Chump and thanks to senators who don't seem to understand the meaning of the oath of office.
Donald Chump has no respect for the American people which is why he nominated the immensely unqualified Pete Hegseth to begin with. And if you're needing further proof, turn to Karoline Leavitt. Tom Boggioni (RAW STORY) reports on the new White House press secretary:
Before she even held his first official White House press conference, Donald Trump's latest press secretary is facing questions after a last-minute FEC filing
on Thursday reportedly showed she had been hiding debt related to her
failed run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022.
According to a report from Claire Heddles from NOTUS, 27-year-old Karoline Leavitt
submitted revised campaign disclosure paperwork that shows she owes
more than $300k that must be paid back due to campaign finance
violations.
The report states that approximately $200,000 must be repaid to
contributors who appear to have made donations far beyond legal limits,
adding, "Those excessive contributions went unreported for years."
According to the report, those 2022 illegal donations, by law, should have been returned within 60 days.
"Her
congressional campaign committee amended 17 campaign finance reports on
Thursday, noting that, over the course of three years, Leavitt took in a
number of excessive contributions that she failed to report and has
failed to pay back, essentially stiffing her donors," NOTUS is
reporting, "The newly disclosed excessive donations essentially triples
Leavitt’s campaign debt, bringing the total to $326,370 owed to vendors
and contributors. (Leavitt had previously reported $105,605 in debt in a
filing at the end of September 2024.)"
That's who Chump chose to be the face of his administration. Now he's a damn liar so, in that regard, she'll be the perfect storefront for a Chump White House. But grasp that the Convicted Felon can't even find someone with even a veneer of honesty to front his administration.
Now lets take a break to talk about some Texas Trash. USA TODAY has a lying
piece of garbage that almost makes the snapshot every week but usually
gets cut for space and I carry her over to POLLY'S BREW. So to catch
everyone up, she's a general studies major posing as a journalist but
struggling so hard with everything -- that even includes writing. She
can't turn a phrase, she can't coin anything. She just writes in a
plodding manner that even renders her best attempts at bitchy yawn
inducing. It doesn't help that she's got a ton of wrinkles no one that
young should have (White, apparently, doesn't just crack, it craters) or
that she has a misshapen head that she wrongly believes head tilting
can disguise. Let's hope her four children don't favor her or she'd
have to tie them up on a leash in the backyard.
If
I'm remembering correctly from a community member (and you know I am), the woman's a nightmare as a neighbor and even more repugnant in person than
online.
So this week, Texas
Trash offers more garbage that proves what I said last week in POLLY'S
BREW -- she's nothing but a damn liar.
And,
sorry, I've forgotten to note her real name: Nicole Russell. In
the community newsletters, we just call her Texas Trash.
In
this week's rage a thon from the right-winger (she sometimes tries to pretend she's not, but she is) she's mocking MSNBC and people concerned with what Chump's
done. You know, those who are opposed to the pardoning of treasonous
people who used violence against the police as they attempted to
overthrow an election.
She serves up lies like this:
Does
anyone else feel like progressives have had a sudden conversion
experience about holding the commander in chief accountable? For four
years, the left was relatively quiet when it came to criticizing the
Biden administration, or heck, even just being honest about what they
observed with his physical and mental health decline.
You
can picture her, with that misshapen chin and five dollar hair cut,
tossing her head to the side thinking she's been clever but all it did
was draw attention to her mannish ways.
She
loves to insist that 77 million Americans voted for Chump. She does so
this week. 77.3 million last week. She justdoesn't feel the need to note
that Kamala Harris got 75 million because that doesn't fit with the lie
that he had a landslide and now has a mandate. He has no such thing --
that's a lie just like her claim that from 2021 through 2025 there was
no calls for accountability. See, sadly, the ugliest thing about Nicole
Russell is not her face. Don't get me wrong, she's butt ugly. Her
face alone can terrorize small children and cause dogs to howl. But
it's her ugly, lying spirit that's her most off putting quality.
Genocide Joe.
Nicole wants to pretend that never happened.
The
same way she wants to pretend that Donald Chump's 49% of the vote is
close to 70% and that Kamala didn't get 48% of the vote.
The dirty liar loves to serve up junk like this, "Progressives
have responded in extraordinary ways since Donald Trump secured a
whopping 312 Electoral College votes to win the presidency for a second
time."
312
electoral college votes? It lets her pretend that there isn't less than
2% difference between how many votes Kamala got and how many votes
Chump got.
From
week to week, Nicole Russell veers all over the map. Sometimes, it was
just about economics. Sometimes the win was about Chump's great
brilliance. (She writes like she has a serious drug problem but her
neighbor swears there are not even any rumors of that.) Sometimes it
was economics and "No president is entirely responsible for the success or failure of the U.S. economy."
She
writes garbage like this, "Now that a Republican is president, they
have no problem not only smearing him but also those Americans who don't
share their ideology. The left's demagoguery seems boundless." Saltine,
it's not your rights that he's focused on overturning.
And
the demagoguery's coming from your side with Charlie Kirk attacking MLK
this week and Elon Musk doing his Nazi salute and Chump using "DEI" as
the faux thinking person's n-word.
You
might fool some of the backward treasonous creatures you embrace, but
we see you and we know what you are. Baby Trifles, unlike USA TODAY, we
won't pretend like you make coherent or constient arguments.
And,
Baby Trifles, it takes a real fool not to grasp that Kamala losing by
less than 2% of the popular vote is something amazing when she only had
three months to campaign in. Your false god Donald Chump couldn't even
handle a second debate with her because she cleaned his clock in the
first one.
Nicole's
a liar who worships a liar: Donald Chump. Like Nicole, he also finds
thinking difficult and mumbles that "it hurts my head." Janna Brancolini (THE DAILY BEAST) reports:
Another day, another call from President Donald Trump to tear down the stalls he doesn’t like in the marketplace of ideas.
Reacting to reports that CNN is planning to lay off hundreds
of employees amidst a ratings crisis, Trump wrote on his social media
platform Truth Social: “MSDNC is even worse than CNN. They shouldn’t
have a right to broadcast — Only in America!”
It was a clear shot at MSNBC,
with “MSDNC” being a portmanteau of the Democratic National
Convention’s DNC and the left-leaning broadcast network. The “Only in
America” part was a reference to… it’s not clear. Probably not Don King.
After
an initial ratings dip following Trump’s re-election victory in
November, MSNBC clawed its way back in early January to become the third
most-watched basic cable network during primetime, Adweek reported. Many of its hosts have been frequent critics of Trump’s.
“These
are all things meant to put Black people and other people of color back
into a racial caste system where discrimination against them was
legal,” Dr. Alvin Tillery tells theGrio.
Civil rights leaders and elected officials are seething after President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders to eliminate DEI federal programs and decades-old enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Advocates and legal experts say one order, which revokes the
enforcement of equal employment opportunity laws, also known as Title
VII under the Civil Rights Act, will have a chilling effect.
“We
got a lot of people who are going to lose their jobs,” said Dr. Mary
Frances Berry, a former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights,
appointed by President Bill Clinton, and professor emerita at the
University of Pennsylvania.
On
Tuesday, President Trump signed an order revoking decades-old executive
orders signed by Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon that
established enforcement of anti-bias measures in federal employment and
contracting related to race, sex, religion, and national origin under
the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Trump order also revokes orders signed
by President Barack Obama enforcing diversity promotion in the national
security workforce and the overall federal workforce. Trump also directed all federal diversity, equity, and inclusion staff to be put on paid leave by the end of the day and eventually be laid off.
Dr.
Berry points out that the need for anti-bias and diversity mechanisms
for employment in the federal workforce has always existed, particularly
in the 1960s and 1970s, because workers who were not white were simply
overlooked. “It was the culture,” she told theGro. “Taxpayers pay for
contracts, and everybody has the right — any kind of taxpayer — to see
to it that they … get a fair look.”
The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was established by
Congress to enforce the anti-bias employment measures of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act. For years, the agency has been tasked with investigating and
prosecuting cases of workplace discrimination. It also requires
employers to report data on their employees, including their race or
ethnicity.
When you're a racist like Texas Trash Nicole, you just see that as an over-reaction. For those of us not destined for a mental institution, we clearly see it for what it is: An attack on freedom and our basic rights.
I commend to your attention the recent confirmation hearings of Russell Vought, the career apparatchik and
key figure behind Project 2025, a veritable Vesuvius of bad and
dangerous ideas whom the president seeks to place in charge of the
federal budget. (Remember when the president didn’t have any idea what
Project 2025 was? That was cool.) Democratic senators had a high old
time making Vought eat his previous words tartare.
(Thanks to the ever-essential Aaron Rupar for curating the highlights.)
This guy is obviously a Christian nationalist meathead. But the larger point is one that already has been made by the likes of Josh Marshall and by Jason Linkins in The New Republic.
Right up to the president, make them all own what they say and what
they do. Hang every anti-democratic piece of policy lunacy around the
necks of every Republican officeholder like the stinking carcass of a
dead seabird. Do it constantly, in every floor speech and across all
platforms. And if you can’t do it, if you’re still deep in the narcotic
dream of bipartisanship, lost civility, and destroyed “norms,” get the
hell out of the way and let people who see clearly take on the job.
Linkins made the essential point: Shove the presidency—the actual job of
being president, and not the performance piece he’s made of it—down his
throat, day after day. Do this because history says he’ll choke on it.
And we'll wind down with this statement US President Joe Biden released on January 20th:
I am issuing pardons to Gerald G. Lundergan and Ernest William
Cromartie. I am also commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard
Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home
confinement.
****
My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats,
motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan
politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will
end.
I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that
the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over
politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak
havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted
individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing
wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being
investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and
finances.
That is why I am exercising my power under the
Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden
Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden. The issuance of these
pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in
any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission
of guilt for any offense.
****
On Background from the White House
Gerald G. Lundergan The President is
pardoning Gerald G. Lundergan. Mr. Lundergan is now 77 years old and
suffered a debilitating stroke before serving his sentence. Since his
release from prison, he has demonstrated remorse, raised money for an
in-patient treatment facility for people recovering from substance
abuse, and helped establish a nonprofit foundation dedicated to help
inmates reenter the workforce.
Ernest William Cromartie The
President is pardoning Ernest William Cromartie. Mr. Cromartie has
dedicated his life to public service. Since his release from prison, he
has established a scholarship for underprivileged youth and is active in
his church and faith community. Mr. Cromartie’s supporters praise his
leadership and compassion.
COMMUTATION
Leonard Peltier The
President is commuting the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so
that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. He is
now 80 years old, suffers from severe health ailments, and has spent the
majority of his life (nearly half a century) in prison. This
commutation will enable Mr. Peltier to spend his remaining days in home
confinement but will not pardon him for his underlying crimes.
Mr.
Peltier is a Native American activist who is currently serving life in
prison for killing two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
and escaping from federal prison. Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates,
former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. Attorney
whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of
lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr.
Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to
and leadership in the Native American community, and the substantial
length of time he has already spent in prison.
###
That was Joe Biden's last official statement as president. Many people will be thrilled that Leonard Peltier is finally released from prison.
And the statement
It is online. I have no idea why COMMON DREAMS couldn't find it -- doesn't speak well to their journalistic skills. When a new president is sworn in, The White House website immediately becomes that administration's domain and the previous White House moves to the government archives. This is not a new development and, in fact, FLIKR advised users this week that if they were following The White House FLICKR feed, they were now following Chump and would need to unsubcribe if they didn't wish to follow him.