Before joining Raw Story, Brad Reed spent eight years writing about technology at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.
In an interview with Insider, the unnamed former Minneapolis cop complained how unfair he believes it is that Chauvin is going to prison after he was caught on video kneeling on the back of Floyd's neck until Floyd stopped breathing.
He also said that political pressure from mass protests made it impossible for Chauvin to get a fair trial.
"[The jury] was under tremendous pressure to 'make it right' for George Floyd," he told Insider. "When they came back that quick, I knew he was screwed. I knew it. I've never seen, in all my years of work, a jury come back that quick on such serious charges. Never."
The former officer also described Chauvin as a "sacrificial lamb" and said that "the whole thing is a tragedy."
He also worried about the message that the Chauvin conviction would send to other police around the country.
"It's the new trend now," he said. "They're sending cops to prison."
Imagine a beauty pageant where the judge is a “Dark Lord” and the contestants include a Qanon-following Mean Girl, a killer, some wing nuts and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
This is how New York Times columnist Pamela Paul fears former President Donald Trump will be choosing his running mate in the 2024 presidential race, she wrote Thursday.
“The pageant has already begun,” writes Paul. “Whoever Donald Trump chooses as his running mate, please let it not be a woman.”
Paul takes a hard look at the many possible female contenders lining up to join Trump on his controversial ticket.
The Times columnist envisions an open audition for “The Apprentice” and reminds readers of what Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella recently told the Guardian.
“He will make them dance,” Bardella said. “They will all debase themselves and humiliate themselves and jockey for that spot.”
Paul does not object to a woman on the ticket, just the women she sees jockeying for the spot.
They include “killer” Rep. Elise Stefanik, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, and less likely options that include “wing nut devotees Kari Lake of Arizona and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene,” of Georgia.
“All of them are the kinds of women Trump ostensibly likes, in large part because they play into the demeaning gendered stereotypes Trump basks in,” writes Paul. “Whether it’s the steely, stilettoed vixen or the no-nonsense broad.”
Noem and Lake may look the part, “which has always been top of mind to Trump” but its hard to discount the Georgia Republican, Paul writes.
“Mean Girl” Greene, Paul writes, is best described as “a QAnon fantasist whose relationship to the truth rivals that of the election lawyer turned criminal Sidney Powell.
“These are all distasteful stereotypes,” Paul writes, “but they are ones these women seem more than willing to embrace in the name of their Dark Lord.”
Paul concludes by combatting any perceived notions of feminism on Trump’s part.
President Joe Biden gave a brief address and took reporters' questions on Thursday evening, following the release of a report from special counsel Robert Hur on his handling of classified information in his private office and home — and when a Fox News reporter tried to ambush him about the special counsel's remarks on his age and mental acuity, he hit back with a cutting one-liner.
"How is your memory?" asked Peter Doocy.
"My memory is so bad, I let you speak!" the president replied.
Hur's report concluded that no charges were appropriate against Biden, and also outlined clear distinctions between this case and former President Donald Trump's hoarding of highly classified national defense information at Mar-a-Lago, including Trump's clear intent to conceal the documents from investigators and stonewall the National Archives.
But Hur also knocked the president for failing to recall some simple things, alleging that he struggled to remember what years he was vice president — and wrote one other reason charges weren't advisable was that he could put on an act of being a "well-meaning elderly man" who can't recall anything.
Biden dismissed this line speaking with reporters. "I'm well meaning and I'm an elderly man and I know what the hell I'm doing. I put this country back on its feet. I don't need his recommendation."
They're coming after the old man in the Oval Office.
Alyssa Farrah Griffin, who served as former President Donald Trump's Communications Director, appeared on CNN to warn that she expects the GOP to unleash a torrent of no holds barred takedowns now that the special counsel investigating Biden's classified documents case reduced him down to an old fogey nearing senility.
"...he was exonerated, but we're not living in an era of goodwill in politics where we could expect the Republican side to take the high ground," Griffin said. "They're gonna play dirty here. They're gonna weaponize what we saw in this report about his age. And I'm not sure Biden is prepared to counter it as heavily as he needs to."
Special Counsel Robert Hur, appointed to investigate Biden by Attorney General Merrick Garland, decided to avoid charging the president at the conclusion of the 15-month investigation mostly because he cooperated and that if a trial were take place, it would be hard to reach a conviction, in which he described Biden as a
"well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
Shortly after he learned he had dodged criminal charges, Biden talked up his cooperation in a speech to Virginia Democrats.
"I did not throw up any roadblocks. I sought no delays,” Biden said, adding that Hur noted he returned the classified documents, while “Mr. Trump allegedly did the opposite.”
Griffin explained that the public is left to interpret Hur's decision as being cleared criminally, but not cleared physically nor mentally.
“We're more or less told that Joe Biden would not be mentally competent to set for trial,” she said.
She added that she believes the decision (while coming up short of an indictment) becomes “a tremendous gift for Trump."
“Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have an age issue,” she said. “They've both had gaffes and questions about their mental acuity."
“But the perception of the two is the real issue here.”
She made mention of poll numbers favoring Trump’s stamina when pitted against Biden.
“Putting the indictments and the age aside, there is a different perception when it comes to Joe Biden. This just writing the Trump ads for himself.”
