Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.LEARN MORE
Enjoy good journalism?
… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.
Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.
We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.
Value Raw Story?
… then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.
Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.
  |  |
Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
Fox News staffers seethe after network mulls giving 'big lie' promoter Maria Bartiromo a primetime slot
January 19, 2021
Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo has been one of the biggest promoters of lies surrounding the 2020 presidential election, and some staffers at Fox News are not happy about how the network is considering rewarding her with a primetime slot.
In interviews with the Washington Post, Fox News staffers sounded off on the network's decision to give Bartiromo a try-out at the valuable 7 p.m. slot after she fed audiences the most fact-free conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines stealing votes for President-elect Joe Biden.
<p>"It is ludicrous and disheartening that we are rewarding [Bartiromo] with a prime-time spot, knowing full well she is among the most responsible for propagating the big election lie," said one staffer.</p><p>Another staffer tells the Post that Bartiromo's promotion sends "a message that they care about opinion more than news," while another speculated that Fox executives valued "sizzling-hot opinion anger" over hard news.</p><p>Bartiromo was once a highly respected financial journalist at CNBC <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/bartiromo-trump/" target="_blank">before moving to Fox Business</a> and becoming one of President Donald Trump's most loyal defenders.</p>
CONTINUE READING
Show less
'Jan. 20 couldn't come fast enough': Exhausted Trump aides can't wait for Biden inauguration
January 19, 2021
President Donald Trump's staff, like many Americans, is counting down the days until President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.
The outgoing president spent his last weekend in office complaining that he'd been cheated out of re-election -- insisting, "Everybody knows I won" -- and senior administration officials are ready to get off the carousel, reported The Daily Beast.
<p>"He asked me [earlier this month] about how to punish certain Republicans who weren't standing with him and abandoning him after all he had done for them and the Republican Party," one official told the website. "During that moment, I kept thinking about how January 20th couldn't come fast enough."</p><p>The president privately complains that his fellow Republicans let someone as "f*cking stupid" as Biden follow him in office, and evangelical ally Robert Jeffress says Trump will never concede because he doesn't believe he lost.</p><p>"He would never say that because he sincerely doesn't believe it." Jeffress said. "Meanwhile I'm preaching a message this Sunday on what the Bible says how we should respond to the new president. We have blanketed Dallas with these billboards."</p><p>Trump is also angry that he's being blamed for inciting the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, where his supporters violently stormed into the building to overturn his election loss, but he's having a hard time finding lawyers willing to defend him in his upcoming Senate impeachment trial.</p><p>Attorneys Pat Cipollone, Jay Sekulow and Jane Raskin have privately assured others that they won't reprise their roles as Trump's defenders in his unprecedented second impeachment trial in a year, and aides have begged him not to let Rudy Giuliani represent him, because they believe the former New York City mayor is largely to blame for both impeachments.</p><p>Trump has complained that the media was blaming him for the riots, and has privately suggested those reports were defamatory.</p><p>"It wasn't my fault," Trump recently told one person close to him.</p>
CONTINUE READING
Show less
Trump planted his own 'deep state' partisans in government agencies to undermine Biden: report
January 19, 2021
According to a report from Politico, Donald Trump and members of his inner circle have gone to extraordinary lengths to place appointees in positions in government agencies whose sole purpose will be to undermine the administration of incoming President Joe Biden.
While the president has complained that the "deep state" -- in his mind, those people being government employees taking part in a grand conspiracy to ruin his presidency -- he is reportedly has created his own with an eye on undermining Biden so he can run against the incoming president in 2024.
According to the report, "A higher-than-usual number of Trump administration political appointees — some with highly partisan backgrounds — are currently "burrowing" into career positions throughout the federal government, moving from appointed positions into powerful career civil service roles, which come with job protections that will make it difficult for Biden to fire them."
While it's not unusual for the White House to attempt to place highly competent staffers in positions of power to see initiatives through over multiple administrations, the choices Trump has been making have watchdogs concerned.
According to the report, an executive order signed by Trump has allowed some positions to be filled without proper oversight to allow "political appointees circumvent the usual merit-based application process for career civil service jobs, while moving career policymakers into a new job category with far fewer legal protections."
"The Office of Personnel Management is required to report any conversion of political appointees into career positions to Congress on a quarterly basis — meaning lawmakers only know now what has happened through September of last year," Politico reports. "But there are also gaps in terms of which agencies must be included in the reports, which are not required to be made public. The disclosures are also dependent on agencies identifying the employees shifting into career slots and reporting them to OPM."
According to Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, "There's real questions about whether OPM has served as a true guardian to stop bad conversions from happening."
An aide close to Biden stated they are very aware of what Trump has done and they are working on remedies.
"We've identified some people already, but we don't know how many there are in total, or where exactly they're placed," the person said. "The incoming administration will have to evaluate it and think about alternative placements [for the burrowers], and that will take time and create more distractions and burdens for them."
You can read more here.
Trending
Latest
Videos
Copyright © 2021 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 | Masthead | Privacy Policy | For corrections or concerns, please email corrections@rawstory.com.