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Trump State Dept. official met with election conspiracy theory activists on Jan 6: report
May 17, 2022
On Jan. 6, 2021, as a mob of Trump supporters descended on the U.S. Capitol, a top Trump appointee at the U.S. State Department met with two pro-Trump activists who were at the forefront of false claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen" due to mass voter fraud, The Washington Post reports.
"Robert A. Destro, a law professor at Catholic University of America then serving as an assistant secretary of state, confirmed to The Washington Post he met with the two men — Colorado podcaster Joe Oltmann and Michigan lawyer Matthew DePerno — in the midst of the tumultuous day," the Post reports.
Oltmann and DePerno previously claimed that they met with State Department leaders on Jan. 6 who were sympathetic to their claims of a stolen election, but they have not identified whom they allegedly met with.
As the Post's report points out, Destro’s admission that he met with the pair is the first confirmation that they successfully garnered the ear of high level officials, although it's not known if the meeting led to any action.
IN OTHER NEWS: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s constituents are sick of her antics: ‘She's an embarrassment'
Read the full report over at The Washington Post.
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With reproductive rights defenders staging rallies and other events in response to a draft U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade, a new NBC poll finds record-high support for abortion rights.
Released Sunday, the survey of 1,000 adults reveals that 60% say abortion should be legal at least some of the time. Thirty-seven percent say it should be legal all the time, and 23% say it should be legal most of the time. That combined amount of support marks the highest level since the poll first asked the question in 2003.
Just 5% say it should be illegal without exceptions—a new low level of support for that position—while 32% say it should be illegal except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother's life.
The poll also found that 63% oppose overturning Roe, 54% of whom strongly oppose overturning the 1973 Supreme Court decision. In contrast, 30% support overturning the ruling.
Opposition to overturning Roe was higher the last time the poll asked the question, however. In 2018, 71% opposed overturning the ruling, compared with 23% that supported taking away the abortion protections.
The survey, which has a margin of error of 3.1%, was conducted this month after Politico published Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's draft majority opinion for Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization that would overturn the abortion rights enshrined by Roe and later affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
In response to that leak—and further incensed by the U.S. Senate's subsequent failure to pass the Women's Health Protection Act, which would affirm abortion rights at the federal level—and other state-level attacks on reproductive rights, pro-choice advocates held actions Saturday in cities nationwide.
The "Bans Off Our Bodies" events included rallies in hundreds of U.S. cities, from major metropolises like Los Angeles to smaller cities like Staunton, Virginia, where medical student and protest attender Aliena Lowell said, "I felt like I couldn't rightly stand by and do nothing when a very important part of people's healthcare was at risk."
The actions were organized by progressive groups including the Women's March, which made clear they're ready to hit the streets once again.
"Our Summer of Rage is officially beginning," the Women's March tweeted Sunday, adding that they're "prepared to rage for Roe all summer, culminating in a Women's Convention in Houston."
"We won't rest," the group added, "until abortion rights are protected."
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow now considers the United States and its European allies "hostile states" as Western governments continue to pour heavy weaponry into Ukraine, which is attempting to beat back Russia's deadly invasion.
The West has also put in place an unprecedented regime of sanctions with the goal of hampering Russia's economy and undermining the country's war machine.
During an event in Moscow on Tuesday, Peskov characterized the ongoing conflict as "a diplomatic war and a political war" between Russia and the Western nations backing Ukraine with economic and military support as well as intelligence.
"There are attempts to isolate us in the world. It's an economic war," said Peskov. "It is true that we keep referring to them mildly as unfriendly states, but I should say that they are hostile states, because what they are doing is war."
Peskov went on to say that "our national money...has been arrested" and assets "have been stolen."
"But we are going to fight for them, of course," he added.
The Kremlin spokesman's remarks came amid mounting fears that the West's response to Russia's illegal and devastating invasion has become a proxy war that could spiral into a direct military conflict between nuclear-armed powers.
Last month, U.S. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin vindicated such fears by declaring that one of the Biden administration's primary objectives in Ukraine is to weaken Russia, further dampening hopes of a diplomatic resolution to the war.
While the Biden administration has insisted it does not want a full-blown war with Russia and has publicly distanced itself from a hawkish Democratic lawmaker who recently said the U.S. is "fundamentally at war" with Russia by proxy, foreign policy analysts and anti-war campaigners argue that the White House is inflaming the conflict by prioritizing arms shipments to Ukraine over peace negotiations.
In a floor speech last week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.)—the chamber's second-ranking Democrat—slammed Republican lawmakers for criticizing the Biden administration's energy policies and declared that Congress should "get off this and really focus on the enemy," referring to Russia.
"I know there's a lot of politics here, but we're at war," Hoyer said.
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