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Buttigieg: Republicans target LGBTQ people because they 'don’t want to talk about' their 'radical positions'
June 06, 2023
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg blasted Republicans attacking the LGBTQ community on Tuesday, saying the reason right-wing lawmakers have decided to target them is they don’t want to talk about their “radical positions,” including opposing President Joe Biden’s massive infrastructure law and other accomplishments, like $35 insulin.
Appearing on MSNBC, Secretary Buttigieg was asked to weigh in on the Human Rights Campaign’s declaration earlier in the day, of a national emergency in the U.S. for LGBTQ people.
“We have officially declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the United States for the first time following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year,” the organizations says on its website. “More than 75 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year alone, more than doubling last year’s number, which was previously the worst year on record.”
HRC also published a detailed chart by state on various issues, including bans on gender-affirming care, sports participation, drag, or support for forced student outing.
And while HRC points to the more than 75 bills that have been signed into law this year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it’s currently tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills across the country.
“Our country is at a very real risk of backsliding on freedom and equality but that is exactly why we continue to push. There has been extraordinary work that’s been done just in this presidency,” Buttigieg said, responding to HRC’s national emergency declaration. He specifically pointed to “the President being able to sign the Respect for Marriage Act.”
“And if you zoom out to the progress that’s been made in the last 10 or 15 years, including the ability of somebody like me to be standing here doing this job, it’s extraordinary, and yet, now you see the attacks on the LGBTQ community, especially on the trans community and what they’re going through,” Buttigieg, who is the first out gay U.S. Cabinet Secretary, told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing.
“And I think it’s being done out of the perception that it is politically convenient to target vulnerable groups. And honestly, I think where it largely comes from is folks who don’t want to talk about why they were against the infrastructure loans, building roads and bridges. They don’t want to talk about why they were against $35 insulin that the President delivered for Medicare recipients. They don’t want to explain why they were for these radical positions that speak to what those people are worried about their everyday lives.”
“So they’re focused on targeting some of the people who already do not have a very easy time going about everyday life,” he said.
"Think about how hard it is to be a teenager to begin with. But think about how hard it is to be a teenager when you realize that you are different when you’re coming to terms with your gender identity or you’re coming to terms with realizing that you’re gay or lesbian.”
“The last thing you need in your life are politicians trying to score political points by making things worse for you. We’re gonna stand together, whether it’s pride or just on any given day and say no, we’re going to expand, not withdraw, the freedoms and equalities we won in this country, and we’re going to build on them.”
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Less than a week after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration held its first public hearing one year into its study into Unidentified Flying Objects or Unidentifed Aerial Phenomena, "a former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin."
According to a report published on the science website the Debrief on Monday by investigative journalists Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal – who authored the 2017 New York Times exposé revealing the Pentagon's secret UFO division — David Charles Grusch "filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegalretaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time. Other intelligence officials, both active and retired, with knowledge of these programs through their work in various agencies, have independently provided similar, corroborating information, both on and off the record."
Grusch, "a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He served as the reconnaissance office’s representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021. From late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA's co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force," per Kean and Blumenthal.
Grusch spoke exclusively with News Nation about what he knows.
Recovery units "are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed," Grusch told correspondent Ross Coulthart. "I thought it was totally nuts and I thought at first I was being deceived, it was a ruse,” Grusch told Coulthart. "People started to confide in me. Approach me. I have plenty of senior, former, intelligence officers that came to me, many of which I knew almost my whole career, that confided in me that they were part of a program."
The outlet noted that it "confirmed Grusch's credentials and resume, but has not seen or verified the alleged proof he said he provided to investigators. Grusch said he can’t show NewsNation the evidence for national security reasons. Grusch also said he has not seen photos of the alleged craft himself, but has spoken extensively with other intelligence officials who have."
Nonetheless, Grusch said that "there is a sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting the US populist which is extremely unethical and immoral" and declared that "we're definitely not alone. The data points, quite empirically that we're not alone.”
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Mark Meadows testified before grand jury and could be part of Jack Smith's probe into Trump: report
June 06, 2023
Former chief of staff Mark Meadows has been largely quiet recently, New York Times reporter Mike Schmidt told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday, and they wondered why that might be.
As it turns out, Schmidt explained, it's been discovered that Meadows, a "potentially key figure in inquiries related to Mr. Trump, has testified before a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the investigations being led by the special counsel’s office, according to two people briefed on the matter."
There are two investigations under Smith – one relates to the classified document scandal and the other goes to the Jan. 6 attack and the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election. Meadows has been a large part of the latter, though it isn't clear which investigation he testified in.
The Times characterized Meadows as a polarizing figure in the Trump White House, who served as nothing more than a glorified gatekeeper. Lately, Trump's aides and allies have been confused about why Meadows has kept his head down. "Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers believe he could be a significant witness in the inquiries," Schmidt said.
Trump himself has asked about Meadows, those familiar with the president's conversations told the Times.
Meadows' lawyer George Terwilliger, said, “Without commenting on whether or not Mr. Meadows has testified before the grand jury or in any other proceeding, Mr. Meadows has maintained a commitment to tell the truth where he has a legal obligation to do so.”
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