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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Friday defended President Joe Biden's immigration policies that are working to reverse former President Trump's "immoral" and "inhumane" acts against migrant children, and criticized a reporter who tried to mask an attack from the ex-president by referring to them as "a lot of Americans."
Speaking about unaccompanied immigrant children coming to the U.S. southern border, a reporter told Psaki that "a lot of Americans are saying that, you know, the surges are happening under President Biden's watch, after he reversed some previous policies."
<p>"Does the administration take any accountability for what's happening?" the reporter asked.</p><p>"Who are the Americans?" Psaki knowingly pressed.</p><p>"Well, I know you don't want to answer to him but, the former president just released a statement saying that the Biden administration must act immediately to end the border nightmare that they have unleashed on our nation."</p><p>"Former President Trump?" Psaki asked.</p><p>"Yes," the reporter, caught in obfuscation, replied.</p><p>"We don't take our advice or counsel from former President Trump on immigration policy which was not only inhumane, but ineffective over the last four years," Psaki declared. "We're going to chart our own path forward, and that includes treating children with humanity and respect and ensuring they're safe when they cross our borders."</p><p>WATCH:</p><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" class="" data-tweet-id="1367905067932778504" frameborder="0" id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367905067932778504&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rawstory.com%2Fr%2Fentryeditor%2F2650929413%23&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 551px; height: 625px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe></div><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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Thundering silence from GOP after top donor charged with biggest tax fraud scheme in history: report
March 05, 2021
While Republicans have had lots to say about Mr. Potato Head and Dr. Seuss, they've been silent on GOP donor Bob Brockman, according to a new report by CNBC.
"The billionaire accused of running the biggest tax fraud scheme in U.S. history was a prolific donor to Republican groups and causes. The leaders of those organizations have kept quiet on the federal charges against him," CNBC's Brian Schwartz reported Friday.
<p>Brockman was charged with running a $2 billion tax fraud scheme that took place over 20 years through offshore bank accounts.</p><p>"Brockman's most recent contributions to Republican committees came in 2017, ahead of the Congressional midterm elections the following year, according to Federal Election Commission records. Representatives of the organizations that are still active did not respond when asked whether they plan to refund or give the total amount of contributions away to charity in the wake of the allegations. The 2017 contributions had yet to be reported in the media," CNBC reported.</p><p>"In 2017, Brockman donated over $80,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, the political campaign organization for House Republicans. Republicans went on to lose the House to Democrats, with Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., becoming speaker," CNBC explained. "The FEC records showing the NRCC contributions do not list Reynolds & Reynolds as Brockman's employer, but the Texas address matches the location listed on other contributions Brockman has made. The mailing address is also listed on a business registration form for Reynolds & Reynolds reviewed by CNBC. The form, signed in April before Brockman was charged, lists him as the CEO."</p><p>Max Steele, the spokesperson from for the Democratic super PAC American Bridge, predicted the GOP organizations would not return Brockman's contributions.</p><p>"Congressional Republicans spent the last four years gutting IRS enforcement and cutting taxes for billionaires while being bankrolled by the biggest tax cheat in American history," Steele told CNBC. "While they should return or donate the money, we know they won't. After all, how can a party blindly loyal to Donald Trump afford to oppose billionaires committing tax fraud?"</p>
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'Does he have Stockholm syndrome?': Ex-Pence aide lashes out at him for siding with his 'would-be murderers'
March 05, 2021
In an op-ed published by the Daily Signal earlier this week, former Vice President Mike Pence railed against the For the People Act — a Democrat-sponsored voting rights bill — and questioned the "integrity of the 2020 election." Olivia Troye, a former Pence aide turned Never Trump conservative, calls him out in an article for The Bulwark — slamming her one-time boss for continuing to promote the type of "lies and conspiracy theories" that led to the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building.
When Donald Trump was still president, Troye served as Pence's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser — and she was his main staffer for the White House coronavirus task force. But the El Paso native, a self-described "John McCain Republican," distanced herself from Trump's administration because of his COVID-19 response and endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Now, the 44-year-old Troye serves as co-director of the Republican Accountability Project.
<p>Troye, in her Bulwark article, writes, "Does Mike Pence have a death wish? Not two months have passed since an armed, violent mob stormed the Capitol chanting, 'Hang Mike Pence,' erected a gallows, and forced the Secret Service to rush the then-vice president to safety — all because he had refused to overturn the 2020 election…. And yet! In an opinion piece for the Daily Signal, his first public statement since leaving office, Pence implicitly endorsed the exact lies and conspiracy theories that motivated his would-be murderers."</p><iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367603437333012486&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alternet.org%2F2021%2F03%2Fformer-pence-aide-slams-him-for-promoting-debunked-election-lies-that-motivated-his-would-be-murderers%2F&partner=rebelmouse&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%; position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 630px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><p>Troye notes that Pence, in his Signal op-ed, "never alleges that there was widespread voter fraud or an organized campaign or scheme to steal the election, because he knows that's not true."</p><p>"Instead," Troye writes, "he wallows in the vagaries of 'significant voting irregularities' and 'integrity,' surely knowing that the people who believe the Big Lie about the election will assume he's talking about how Hugo Chávez and Dominion conspired to overturn a landslide victory…. Does he have Stockholm syndrome?"</p><p>Pence's Signal op-ed, Troye laments, speaks volumes about his character.</p><p>"I worked for Pence from May 2018 to August 2020," Troye recalls. "When the White House formed the coronavirus task force, I was the vice president's chief COVID-19 staffer. I interacted with him regularly, and I have a pretty good idea of his character. Pence isn't evil. He's weak."</p><p>The Bulwark humorously illustrates Troye's piece with an illustration that depicts Pence as the Cowardly Lion in the 1939 film adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz." And Troye alludes to the Harold Arlen standard "If I Only Had a Brain," which was used in that movie, by saying that Pence could make a positive difference in the GOP if he "only had some bravery."</p><p>Troye writes that when Pence faced "political pressure" from the Trump White House during the coronavirus pandemic, he "twisted statistics and trends to make the outlook for the course of the pandemic seem much less serious than we knew it to be."</p><p>"Under just a little pressure, he crumbled like a blueberry muffin," Troye laments. "That's the most disappointing thing about Pence…. He could be perfectly positioned to debunk the Big Lie, to breathe some fresh air into the MAGA base of the party, and to become a champion for freedom and democracy both in the United States and around the world. If he only had some bravery."</p>
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