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Trump's people 'attempted to silence us' from pointing out the threat of white supremacists: former DHS official
May 17, 2022
A former senior Homeland Security official who previously accused Donald Trump's administration of telling his department to stop providing intelligence reports on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election told CNN on Tuesday morning that they were also hindered by the former president's people from alerting the public about the rising tide of white nationalists in the U.S.
Speaking with CNN host Jim Sciutto, Brian Murphy, who was in charge of intelligence and analysis at DHS before filing a whistleblower complaint less than two months before the presidential election Trump lost, used the racist attack in a predominately Black community in Buffalo, New York that left ten dead as a springboard to talk government efforts to deal with white supremacists.
While discussing the Saturday attack by an 18-year-old man on the grocery store -- who also published a hate-filled manifesto aimed at minorities based on the so-called conspiratorial "white replacement" conspiracy pushed by conservatives and Fox News personalities -- Murphy recalled his experiences in the Trump administration.
After first admitting that keeping guns from people like the Buffalo shooter would be difficult, he told the CNN host that "No one wants to enact legislation which prevents people from expressing their first amendment, you know, opinions, but when we're talking about acts of violence, there are carveouts under First Amendment and expressing acts of violence where there is a clear indication that something is going to happen, it is against the law."
NOW WATCH: Trump attorney caught off-guard after Dr. Oz won't call election stolen: 'He was honest about it'
Host Sciutto then prompted him by asking whether the Trump administration "set back the DHS efforts to combat this kind of thing?"
"Well, of course," Murphy answered. "Under the Trump administration, and DHS, without question it did. They attempted to silence myself and others that were pointing out what I would call the obvious: which is the threat from white supremacy has been a long-enduring threat in this country, it is nothing new."
"And during that time, by ignoring it, you let that problem grow," he elaborated. "But I'd like to shift gears if I can. In today's world, the DHS is under new leadership. We have a new president and there are steps now that I hope this administration will continue to take to address these problems that we continue to see. So, the country has a long way to go to fully realize the history of domestic terrorism, particularly white supremacists, and find that balance so we can take tangible concrete steps to combat this threat."
Watch below or at this link.
CNN 05 17 2022 09 03 54 youtu.be
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Trump attorney caught off-guard after Dr. Oz won't call election stolen: 'He was honest about it'
May 17, 2022
Christina Bobb, an attorney for former President Donald Trump, struggled to explain this week why her boss would endorse Mehmet Oz for Senate if the candidate would not falsely say the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
In an interview with Bobb, Real America's Voice host Ed Henry explained that host David Brody had asked Oz why he had refused to call the election "rigged" or "stolen."
"I want to be careful," Oz replied.
Henry seemed shocked by the answer.
"As you know, Oz was a very controversial endorsement by your boss, Donald Trump," the anchor told Bobb. "And now you add to it, when asked by David Brody -- again, not in a gotcha way -- do you think the last election was stolen? He basically wouldn't answer."
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Henry also noted that Oz had admitted that he has not seen an election conspiracy theory movie titled 2000 Mules.
"That's a tough response," Bobb replied. "I mean, he put it out there. He was honest about it. I'll give him that. He was honest. So, it's going to be up to the voters what they want to do. Interesting for Oz. He's in a tough spot on that because his closest challenger, Kathy Barnette, is very, very MAGA. She's been very outspoken on this issue."
"So, ah, President Trump has endorsed Oz. He believes that he is the most likely to win," she continued. "But I do think this is a situation where President Trump can't really lose because Dr. Oz is his chosen candidate, which I support the president on that. But if Kathy Barnette ends up taking it, in a way, it's only more MAGA."
She added: "Basically the people of Pennsylvania saying, 'We hear what the president is doing, we support the America first agenda. In fact, we support it so much that we have more faith in that agenda than the president's candidate.'"
Henry wondered why Trump didn't endorse Barnette "if she's more MAGA."
"Well, that I don't know," Bobb admitted. "Oz has good things. Obviously, the election issue is concerning for people that really care about election integrity."
Watch the video below from Real America's Voice.
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Right-wing trolling of liberals and progressives didn’t start in the Donald Trump era; the late radio host Rush Limbaugh, in 2010, infamously described then-President Barack Obama as “uppity” (a word with a very racist history) in the hope of offending the left as much as possible. But own-the-liberals trolling greatly accelerated thanks to former President Trump’s MAGA movement. Defenders of such trolling will argue that it’s done in an “ironic” way, but conservative Daily Beast opinion writer Matt Lewis — in a May 17 column — argues that it is by no means harmless.
Lewis’ column was published three days after a May 14 mass shooting at a supermarket in a heavily African-American area of Buffalo, New York. Ten people were killed, and law enforcement officials believe that the 18-year-old suspect — who, they say, embraces White nationalist views and embraces the Great Replacement conspiracy theory — targeted the victims simply because they were Black.
This frightening incident, according to Never Trump conservative Lewis, serves as an example of why own-the-liberals trolling is not harmless fun as its defenders claim.
“In a purported manifesto published online,” Lewis writes, “the alleged shooter says he was radicalized on the anonymous web bulletin board 4chan, which he sought out as a result of pandemic-generated boredom. And what is the content like on these forums?”
Lewis answers his question by quoting the New York Times’ Nicholas Confessore, who described that content as “openly racist” and “anti-Semitic” but “done with irony and humor.”
“One way to suck people into radical ideas is to make the water warm,” Lewis explains. “You can do this by giving people plausible deniability to tell others, and themselves, that the evil they are dabbling in is merely irreverent satire. In other words, it’s about being rebellious and revolutionary and outrageous. It’s all a game. It’s all about freaking out the normies.”
Own-the-libs trolls, Lewis observes, typically say buffoonish things like, “You’re triggered, snowflake! The right’s just getting better at comedy, and you can’t handle it.” But when violent, deadly attacks inspired by racist ideas occur, the Never Trumper warns, there is nothing “ironic” about their actions.
“This same sort of ‘owning the libs’ trope that can be casually confused as internet humor often serves as a pathway to radicalization,” Lewis warns. “That appears to be what happened with the alleged Buffalo shooter. Troll culture should not be used as an excuse to forgive or forget the political rhetoric now occurring in more mainstream places, such as cable TV, podcasts, or tweets from some Republican politicians.”
Lewis cites Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and journalist David French as two examples of conservatives who should be “commended” for calling out MAGA Republicans who “promote racist conspiracy theories.”
“Cable news is merely laundering these pernicious ideas,” Lewis argues. “I’m more concerned about the so-called jokes and ironic message board memes that even I — someone who is fairly internet-literate — cannot always suss out.”
Lewis continues, “Cable news is for old people. If you want to stop the next generation from being radicalized into violence, keep your eye on the breeding ground and fever swamps of the internet forums.”
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