Bakari Sellers, an attorney for the family of Andrew Brown, on Tuesday fired back at Fox News host Laura Ingraham after she suggested that he had changed his "accent" while attending a press conference in North Carolina.
"Barkari Sellers suddenly showed up in North Carolina today," Ingraham announced during her Monday night program.
The Fox News host then accused Sellers of pouring on "the dramatic effect as if you needed it and sporting an accent that -- maybe I missed something but I had never heard him use on TV before."
During a press conference on Tuesday, Sellers addressed Ingraham's attack.
"I know that people said that I switched accents," Sellers explained. "But my daddy in Denmark, South Carolina -- my daddy would always say, 'You never argue with a fool because you don't know who's watching and they can't tell the difference.'"
Fox News host Tucker Carlson's call to publicly harass people who wear masks during the novel coronavirus pandemic shocked CNN host John Berman, who questioned whether Carlson even wanted his viewers to live.
The CNN host played a clip of Carlson's show from Monday night in which he encouraged viewers to go on the offensive against mask wearers in their communities to "restore the society we were born in."
"The next time you see someone in a mask on the sidewalk or on the bike path, do not hesitate, ask politely but firmly, would you please take off your mask?" Carlson said. "Science shows there's no reason for you to be wearing it. your mask is making me uncomfortable."
Berman pointed out that the reason many people are still wearing masks is that just over a quarter of the country has so far been fully vaccinated, which means that hundreds of millions of people are still potentially vulnerable to infection if everyone walks around without their masks.
Children's television host LeVar Burton on Monday pushed back on the notion that so-called "cancel culture" is bad for society.
During an appearance on ABC's The View, host Meghan McCain asked Burton about a decision by the Dr. Seuss Foundation to cease publication of some books due to racially insensitive material.
"We have talked on the show about the decision by the Dr. Seuss estate to discontinue six of his books," McCain explained. "What do you think of that decision and about the cancel culture surrounding works of art or artists that are controversial?"
Burton argued that "Dr. Seuss is more than a company that decided to put a couple of books on the shelf."
"That man, Theodor Geisel, is responsible for generations of wholesome, healthy, wonderful and imaginative, creative content for children of all ages," he continued. "And so, I think we need to put things in perspective."
"In terms of cancel culture, I think it's misnamed," Burton explained. "I think we have a consequence culture. And that consequences are finally encompassing everybody in the society, whereas they haven't been ever in this country."
The actor said that "cancel culture" is one of the "good signs that are happening in the culture right now."
"And I think it has everything to do with a new awareness by people who were simply unaware of the real nature of life in this country for people who have been othered since this nation began," Burton told McCain.
A C-SPAN caller explained on Monday that she is refusing the COVID-19 vaccine because she has "the best doctor in the world and his name is Jesus Christ."
During C-SPAN's Washington Journal program, Sylvia called in from Durham, North Carolina to complain about the cost of vaccinations.
"I have a question," she began. "I thought they said when you took the virus vaccine that you didn't have to pay for it. So now they're coming up and saying that they want the state and local governments to take taxes out for it -- to pay for it."
"I didn't take the shot," Sylvia revealed. "I'm not going to take the shot and I'm not paying for it. Anybody who wants to be stupid enough to pay for it, they can pay for it. But I'm not."
C-SPAN host Steve Scully asked the caller why she was refusing the vaccine.
"I don't trust Fauci, and I sure as hell don't trust Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," Sylvia replied. "So I've got the best doctor in the world and his name is Jesus Christ. So if I get it without being using common sense then I'll get it. But I'm not paying for it."
Sylvia went on to claim that the COVID-19 death toll has been falsely inflated.
"A lot of these people losing their lives have died because of natural causes or heart attacks or something," she said. "And they putting it down so I will talk to the governor of North Carolina [Roy Cooper] and I'm going to want an explanation wrote down of what I have to pay taxes on because I'm not paying for this."
Baylor College of Medicine Director Richina Bicette on Sunday pointed out that receiving Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine is safer than living as a Black man in America.
Bicette made the remarks to CNN's Fredricka Whitfield after she was asked if people should be worried about getting a blood clot from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"I have a lot of things in this world that I worry about and the safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is quite low on that list," Bicette explained.
The doctor went on to make a comparison between the risk of getting a blood clot from the vaccine to other more deadly things.
"The rate of developing blood clots from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from what we're seeing so far is about 2 in 1 million," Bicette noted. "If you take your chances with COVID, the rate of developing a blood clot from having COVID infection is actually 147,000 in a million."
"And that's just talking about blood clots," she added. "There are other things that we should be more worried about. In the month of April [of] this year in the United States alone, 50 Americans have been killed in mass shootings. Where's the outrage and the cry for gun control?"
Bicette also pointed to recent shootings of Black men by police.
"The lifetime risk of a Black man getting killed by police is 1 in 1,000 -- not 1 million -- 1 in 1,000," she said. "Where's the outrage and the cry for police reform?"
Democratic strategist Angela Rye on Sunday disputed former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) after he argued that tax increases are the same as "socialism."
During a panel segment on ABC's
This Week program, Republican strategist Sarah Fagan accused President Joe Biden of packing "social spending" into his infrastructure proposals.
But Rye disagreed.
"I think it's so rich to hear folks talking about Joe Biden's far-left agenda," Rye said. "If it is to far left to sign 60 executive orders overturning the hatred that was in Donald Trump's executive orders -- at least 23 of them -- if it is far left to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord, if it's far left to end the Muslim travel ban, if it is far left to restore the partnership with the World Health Organization then I think most of the country is far left."
"Yes, there are some social things that need to happen in infrastructure," she added. "Because it just so happens that discrimination and inequtible conditions exist even in our infrastructure. That was not something that was originated in this administration."
"Look, we can set up strawmen and say he overturned this executive order but that's not what we're talking about," Christie complained. "The capital gains issue is nothing more than income redistribution. It's socialism."
As Christie spoke, Rye could be heard laughing in the background.
"Let's remember that that investment income, they've already paid taxes on it," Christie continued. "You paid taxes on it before you invested it and now you're going to pay taxes on it again."
"But a difference in the rate on capital gains taxes changes it into socialism?" ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked.
"Of course it does," Christie replied. "It's redistribution of income, George. And I just want to warn everybody out there. Wait until you see what happens to your retirement fund. If Joe Biden gets a 39.6% capital gains [tax], wait until you see what happens to the market."
Rye pushed back against Christie's allegation that capital gains taxes are socialism.
"It's so interesting to hear this allegation of socialism," she said. "I know these are buzzwords that work very well with the Republican Party so congratulations for using them this morning."
"But we have people in a pandemic that you said wouldn't matter by the time you get to the fall, and on the left there's a conversation happening about student loan debt," Rye continued. "How much should be forgiven? $50,000 vs. $10,000. And we're talking about a capital gains increase when you all just had basically the reparations we've been asking for [in] your last tax proposal. So I don't even understand what we're talking about here."
Former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) spoke up to correct Christie's misinformation about captal gains taxation.
"Let's correct this idea you already paid on your capital gains," Heitkamp told Christie. "You paid [taxes] on the initial investment, which then you only pay on the actual gains from the initial investment."
"So let's not say you already paid taxes on it," she said. "You're actually earning income. You are actually getting dividends or you're getting interest. When you sell it, you make money."
She added: "And this is one of the biggest scams in the history of forever on income redistribution. If you have a stock, you can pass it on to your kids with stepped up basis and it's never taxed. You know that there needs to be reform in unearned income."
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Sunday suggested that new Republican voter suppression laws cannot be racist because many of the backers of Jim Crow policies were Democrats over 50 years ago.
During an interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo noted that many companies had opposed voting restrictions passed by Georgia Republicans but they had not spoken out against a Democratic bill that would expand voting rights.
"I'm still having trouble fathoming the hysteria that came from Coca-Cola and Delta and Major League Baseball over the Georgia bill," Paul explained. "We passed virtually the same bill in Kentucky. It was signed by a Democrat governor and it was lauded as actually expanding access because we expanded early voting in the same way they did in Georgia."
Paul, however, did not address the increased barriers to absentee voting or the concern that lines at polling places will be longer in urban areas in Georgia due to the new law.
"To hear all these Democrats shouting Jim Crow, Jim Crow -- do they not realize the history of the Democrat [sic] Party was Jim Crow," he continued, "that not any god-fearing Republican voted for Jim Crow. That Jim Crow throughout the South was done by Democrat [sic] legislators, that the people who were beating up John Lewis and pummeling him on the bridge in Selma were all Democrats?"
"I, for one, am sick and tired of Democrats," Paul said. "They need to apologize for their history. They need to apologize for foisting Jim Crow on the country. And they need to read the bill in Georgia and realize it has nothing to do with keeping people from voting."
The Kentucky senator went on to blast corporations who opposed the Georgia law.
"Delta and Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball need to realize that about half of the country is Republicans and we're not very happy with them right now," he griped. "So if they don't want Republicans at the baseball games, if they don't want us to tune in to their baseball games on television, just keep behaving this way."
Paul added: "People like me who love baseball don't like being called a racist by Major League Baseball, don't like Delta and Coca-Cola calling us that. And we're going to object to it and going to push back. And if they continue in this direction, fine, maybe Republicans don't have to drink Coca-Cola anymore."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Sunday disputed allegations that President Donald Trump reached out to him to coordinate an alibi after the Capitol was attacked by Trump-supporting insurrectionists on Jan. 6.
Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted McCarthy about a telephone call he had with Trump soon after the attack on the Capitol was underway.
"Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are," Trump reportedly told McCarthy at the time, according to Rep. Herrera Beutler (R-WA).
"Is she right?" Wallace asked. "Is that what President Trump said to you?"
"What he ended the call, was saying -- telling me he'll put something out to make sure to stop this [riot]," McCarthy said. "And that's what he did. He put a video out later."
"Quite a lot later," Wallace pointed out. "And it was a pretty weak video. But I'm asking you specifically. Did he say to you, some people are more concerned about the election than you are?"
"No, listen," McCarthy replied. "My conversations with the president are my conversations with the president. I engaged in the idea of making sure we could stop what was going on inside the Capitol at that moment in time. The president said he would help."
Wallace pressed: "Has the president ever reached out to you since that report came out to discuss what you and he talked about in the January 6th phone call? And did you say to him, 'I can't because we're under oath.'"
"No," McCarthy stated.
"That never happened?" Wallace asked.
"That's never happened," McCarthy insisted. "Never even close."
"And if it did happen, you would agree that would be witness tampering?" Wallace observed.
"Yeah, but it never happened!" McCarthy said. "Never even came close, never had any conversation like that."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Sunday insisted that Joe Biden has been a "very destabilizing" president.
During an interview on
Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace challenged Graham, who had recently called Biden's presidential campaign a "fraud."
"You have said this week that you believe that Biden's campaign was a fraud on the country," Wallace pointed out, "because of how differently he is governing."
Wallace went on to observe that Biden's actions as president have mirrored his campaign rhetoric.
"During the campaign, Senator, he did talk about big changes and infrastructure and racial inequality and a number of other issues," Wallace said. "So why is it a fraud?"
Graham replied: "During the campaign, he made us all believe that Joe Biden would be the moderate choice, that court packing was a boneheaded idea. All of the sudden, we've got a commission to change the structure of the Supreme Court. Making D.C. a state, I think that is a very radical idea that will change the makeup of the United States Senate."
The South Carolina Republican noted that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has said that Biden's first 100 days exceeded her expectations.
"That's all you need to know!" Graham insisted. "I like Joe Biden. But I'm in the 43% [who disapprove of him] -- he's been a disaster on foreign policy. The border is in chaos, the Iranians are off the mat, he's opening up negotiations with the Iranian regime and they haven't done a damn thing to change. Afghanistan is going to fall apart. Russia and China are already pushing him around."
"So, I'm very worried," the senator added. "I think he's been a very destabilizing president. And economically, he's throwing a wet blanket over the recovery, wanting to raise taxes in a large amount and regulate America basically out of business. So I'm not very impressed with the first 100 days. This is not what I thought I would get."
"Saturday Night Live" fans are not shy about expressing their displeasure when it comes to an unwanted person hosting.
On Saturday afternoon, the show's Twitter account announced its upcoming lineup by posting a photo of a bulletin board with three index cards attached. In order, the cards read, "May 8," "Elon Musk," and "Miley Cyrus," indicating that the Tesla CEO would be the host, with the "Wrecking Ball" singer as musical guest.
Fans of the show rejected the news, either reacting with GIFs expressing their displeasure or suggesting that Cyrus perform double duty. And sure, the latter reaction makes some sense. Cyrus is both a musician and actress, having starred in her own Disney Channel sitcom in addition to a number of other smaller roles. She's also performed as the musical guest six other times before.
Of course, it's not so much that "SNL" viewers are devoted fans of Miley Cyrus, rather that they're Elon Musk detractors.
While it's expected that the business magnate wouldn't be able to handle performing the sketches as a true actor would, this is not the first time "SNL" has turned to the business world. As Variety's Cynthia Littleton reports, the show has also featured New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in 1990 and then-NBC programming head Brandon Tartikoff in 1983. Musk hasn't really acted but he's appeared as himself or a parody of himself on shows ranging from "The Big Bang Theory" to "Rick and Morty."
No, the backlash against Musk as host is more likely because he's the opposite of what the "Saturday Night Live" audience has come to expect after the show has slowly become more openly liberal over the past five years. While mocking politicians has always been part of its bread and butter, the skits have skewed more towards mocking right-wing politicians and personalities while promoting more liberal and inclusive viewpoints.
The bigger question is why "Saturday Night Live" tapped Musk as host. Most of the time when a performer is chosen, they've either made a big splash recently – such as when Regé-Jean Page appeared after his breakout turn in "Bridgerton" – or they have a new project to promote.
Musk has consistently courted the media, and just this last Friday, his SpaceX travel venture launched its second operational flight of its Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Some speculate that this is Musk's bid to build his media presence in a bid for the 2024 presidency.
This is not the first time that a host received backlash. During Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, Latinx advocacy groups demonstrated to protest his appearance, specially calling out his remarks on Mexican immigration. The episode continued as planned, drawing the program's highest ratings in almost four years.
Fox Business host Neil Cavuto refuted Dr. Ben Carson on Wednesday after the former neurosurgeon recommended hydroxychloroquine for fighting COVID-19.
Carson brought up the controversial drug during a discussion about COVID-19 vaccines on Fox Business.
"We've made enormous progress on the vaccine front," Carson explained. "However, because we've allowed politics to be injected into it, I think a lot of people are skeptical about what they hear from the NIH, from the CDC, from various -- quote -- authorities."
"It's hurting us as a nation," he continued. "We as a nation, for instance, wanted to be focused only on one thing: vaccinations. There were people telling us, you know, there are other kinds of things that work. Hydroxychloroquine. You know, you look at the Western African countries along the coast. When you go there, you know, you have to take hydroxychloroquine or other antimalarials. Interestingly enough, their instance of COVID-19 is tremendously less than ours. Is that a coincidence? I don't think so."
"Medical experts have looked at that, doctor, as you know, and poo-pooed that connection," Cavuto explained.
"You just said a bunch of people have poo-pooed the hydroxychloroquine," Carson objected. "But the evidence is there. What they haven't done is investigated it. You know, and that's part of the problem. And that's why people don't have confidence in our system."
Cavuto again interrupted: "Wasn't the evidence -- the issue on that, doctor, for those with heart or other issues, it would not be a good idea -- period -- thinking that this was a magic or silver bullet to deal with the virus? Wasn't that the issue?"
"No," Carson disagreed. "The issue is that we should put everything on the table. We shouldn't just pick one thing and say, 'You have to do this.' We should say, let's look at this whole variety, this whole plethora or possibilities that we have and let's develop them all and let's be objective about it instead of trying to steer them down one pathway."
"We should work together to give people choices," he added. "That's what America is all about."
"At the time, we were driven by comments out of the National Institutes of Health and the FDA," Cavuto recalled, "that they did not recommend this. That's the best we had to go on at the time. Some of that has changed since but the issue at heart here and the push for vaccines was mistaking this one for that, wasn't it?"
"The issue right now is are we being truthful?" Carson replied.
On Tuesday, April 20, a jury found former Minneapolis police officer guilty of three charges in connection with the May 25, 2020 killing of Georgia Floyd: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson, the night of April 20, discussed the verdict with Ed Gavin — a former deputy sheriff with the New York City Sheriff's Department — and Carlson brought the interview to an abrupt end when he didn't like Gavin's analysis.
Carlson asked Gavin to weigh in on "what this means for law enforcement," posing the question, "Who's going to become a cop going forward, do you think?" Gavin responded, "I think people will still become police officers. This really is a learning experience for everyone. Let's face it: what we saw in that video was pure savagery. I mean, the documentary evidence showed the police officer putting his knee on the perpetrator's neck while he was rear-cuffed and his stomach was on the ground, causing positional asphyxia."
Gavin continued, "What I'd like to see is more training for police. I'd like to see the police trained as EMTs, like in the fire department."
The former law enforcement officer went on to say that although he "used force" on hundreds of people during his decades in law enforcement, he "never had anybody go unconscious."
Gavin told Carlson, "That was clearly an excessive, unjustified use of force. I think the verdict was just…. It was an open-and-shut case."
That was when Carlson grew angry and defensive, asking Gavin, "Do we enforce the law?" And Carlson implied that police will no longer be able to protect the public, telling Gavin, "The guy who did it looks like he's going to spend the rest of his life in prison. I'm kind of more worried about the rest of the country, which thanks to police inaction — in case you haven't noticed — is like, boarded up. So, that's more my concern."
And when Gavin tried to speak, Carlson abruptly ended the interview, saying, "Nope, done."
Watch the video below:
Ed Gavin Tucker Carlson interview on police training
www.youtube.com
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday accused people who want racial equity of acting like "animals."
During an interview on Fox News, Carlson was asked about his recent Washington Post op-ed, which argued that racial equity is "another kind of racism."
"You know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent a lot of time trying to get people to not look at external characteristics, which they cannot change and which they cannot help," Carson told Fox News host Dana Perino, "and instead to look at the things that you can change and the things that you can help, such as your character, what kind of person are you?"
"Shouldn't we be be paying more attention to that than to external characteristics?" he continued. "You know, that's what animals do. Animals, you know, base a lot of what they do on external characteristics because they don't have the mental capacity to dissect further into what's really important. We do."
Carson added: "It just infuriates me when I see us acting so immaturely and we have so much more capacity."
