Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a candidate for the Republican nomination to the presidency, admitted during a recent interview that a worsening economic climate has the potential to help her campaign.
Bachmann even went so far as to say she has "hope" that it will -- and she's not the only Republican making statements that might call into question the party's commitment to seeing the U.S. economy recover.
This video is from CNBC, broadcast Friday, July 8, 2011.
(H/T: Think Progress)
An English professor at Wayne State University in Detroit has been suspended for social media activity that appeared to "justify" violence against certain campus speakers, reported The Daily Beast on Monday.
"President Roy Wilson said in an email to the university that the post went beyond the barometers of free speech and was, in his opinion, 'at best, morally reprehensible and, at worst, criminal,'" reported Alec Karam. "Although he didn’t provide specifics, he said the now-suspended professor’s post 'stated that rather than ‘shouting down’ those with whom we disagree, one would be justified to commit murder to silence them.'"
Wilson added that he has referred the matter to law enforcement for investigation.
Intense debate continues about the discourse on college campuses, and about the ability of certain right-leaning speakers to hold events in the face of student protest and efforts to get them removed from campus.
IN OTHER NEWS: Nashville school shooter identified as Audrey Hale: reports
The matter is often argued from a freedom of speech perspective, especially in cases when public colleges and universities have to make the decision whether to cancel an event that is generating controversy or possible safety threats on campus. However, these controversies, which have been raging for decades, often distort and cherry-pick examples, and skate over incidents in which right-wing provocateurs have intentionally tried to bait college students into protests.
"While there have been a handful of violent incidents involving conservative speakers, the vast majority of universities have experienced no such controversies," wrote Mary Anne Franks for the Virginia Law Review in 2019. "The attempts at ideological suppression that do occur on campuses are far more likely to target leftist views than right-wing views. In general, students remain more open-minded and tolerant than the general population, and universities remain some of the most robust free speech institutions in the country."
The former publisher of the National Enquirer on Monday testified before a Manhattan grand jury in connection with alleged hush payments made by former President Donald Trump to Stormy Daniels, The New York Times reports.
David Pecker, who formerly served as CEO of American Media, The Enquirer’s parent company, was seen at around 3:30 p.m. Monday leaving the building where a grand jury is hearing evidence in the case against the former president.
Pecker previously also appeared before the grand jury in January.
Pecker along with The Enquirer’s top editor brokered the deal between Daniels and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney.
IN OTHER NEWS: Nashville school shooter identified as Audrey Hale: reports
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against the former president centers around $130,000 payment to Daniels in exchange for her silence over an alleged affair with the former president, the report said.
The Manhattan case is among four criminal investigations Trump is currently under.
A Fulton County, Georgia grand jury is investigating Trump for election interference, and the Department of Justice is conducting separate probes over the handling of classified documents and Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The armed 28-year-old woman who fatally shot three students and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville before she was shot and killed by police has been identified by the New York Post and NBC News as Audrey Hale, a Nashville resident.
Reporters for both publications cited unnamed sources. The police have not officially identified the suspect yet.
CNN previously reported that the shooter entered the Covenant School through a side door and was armed with at least two assault-style rifles and a handgun.
The assailant -- who police said was believed to be a former student at the school -- fired multiple shots as she advanced through the building.
Officers were on the scene within about 15 minutes of receiving the first emergency call around 10:00 am (1500 GMT), engaging the shooter who returned fire before she was shot dead, Aaron said.
School shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, where the proliferation of firearms has soared in recent years, though female shooters are extremely rare.
There was no initial indication of a motive for the Nashville attack.
President Joe Biden described the latest shooting as "sick" and said gun violence was tearing the nation's "soul," as he urged Congress to pass a ban on the assault weapons commonly used in mass shootings.
"It's ripping our communities apart, ripping the soul of this nation, ripping at the very soul of the nation," he said.
Police spokesman Aaron said officials were still working to identify the three students and three adults killed in the attack, as well as the shooter.
He said there were no other injuries.
"All of the remaining students were able to be escorted out of the building with faculty and staff," Kendra Loney of the Nashville fire department said.
"But we are sure that they heard the chaos that was surrounding this, so we do have mental health specialists and professionals that are at that reunification site for both the students and the families."
The Covenant School is a private Presbyterian institution with a little more than 200 students in preschool to roughly age 12. The adult victims were among 40 to 50 staff at the school.
At the White House, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre asked what Republicans were waiting for to "step up and act to pass the assault weapons ban."
Biden's calls for Congress to reinstate the national ban on assault rifles, which existed from 1994 to 2004, has run up against opposition from Republicans, who are staunch defenders of the constitutional right to bear arms and have had a narrow majority in the House of Representatives since January.
The legislation deadlock in Washington has come despite public uproar over high-profile massacres such as the one at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut in 2012, when 26 people, including 20 children were killed.
Last year, a shooter in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 students and two teachers.
Between those two tragedies, the shooting of 14 students and three staff members in Parkland, Florida in 2018 fueled a nationwide movement, led by young people, to demand stricter gun controls.
But despite huge demonstrations, Congress has not adopted significant new legislation, with many lawmakers backed by the influential National Rifle Association (NRA).
Several elected officials in the state of Tennessee on Monday took to social media to express their shock over the latest outburst of gun violence to shock the country.
"Devastated and heartbroken about the tragic news at Covenant School," tweeted Senator Bill Hagerty.
With additional reporting by AFP
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