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Trump is sending a 'blaring air horn' to violent extremists with his Waco rally: Texas paper
March 23, 2023
Former President Donald Trump's decision to hold a rally in Waco, Texas is a "blaring air horn" to violent extremists to go to war in his name, wrote the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle on Thursday.
"The GOP-friendly city of Waco — Trump won McLennan County by more than 20 percentage points in 2020 – has every right, of course, to host a former president, the leading contender for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, but 'Waco' the symbol ... has become an Alamo of sorts, a shrine for the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers and other anti-government extremists and conspiracists," wrote hte board. "Waco helped spawn what Fort Worth writer Jeff Guinn calls a 'legacy of rage' in his new book about the Branch Davidian siege. The Northeast Texas Regional Militia of Texarkana erected a granite headstone at the site that reads as follows: 'On February 28, 1993, a church and its members known as Branch Davidians came under attack by A.T.F. and F.B.I. agents. For 51 days the Davidians and their leader, David Koresh, stood proudly.' As Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh put it, 'Waco started this war.'"
This sends a clear message, the board wrote, just as it sent a clear message for Ronald Reagan to kick off his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi — the site of a gruesome 1964 murder of civil rights workers by the Ku Klux Klan — and give a speech invoking "states' rights."
"Militia members and conspiracists know exactly what Trump’s Waco visit symbolizes. They have heard him castigate the FBI and the 'deep state,' particularly after agents searched for classified documents at Mar-a-Lago," wrote the board. "How they’ll respond to his remarks, particularly if he shows up as the first former president in American history to face criminal charges, has law enforcement in Waco and beyond taking every precaution. What he says will likely set the tone for the presidential campaign to come. Every American should be concerned."
IN OTHER NEWS: Rape kit exam performed on 19-year-old found dead near Murdaugh estate in 2015
This would not be the first time Trump sent a message directly to extremist groups; he famously told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by" in a 2020 presidential debate — and a couple months after that, the group went on to storm the Capitol.
Americans, the board concluded, should turn their back on whatever stunt Trump has planned.
"Go to Waco, we suggest," wrote the board. "Go to Waco to take in Baylor football and basketball, and the Armstrong-Browning Library on the Baylor campus. Marvel at a fossil herd of Ice Age mammoths and enjoy a forested municipal park along the banks of the Brazos and Bosque rivers, sample Chip and Joanna Gaines’s ever-expanding Fixer Upper empire. Don’t bother with a bombastic, bullying candidate inclined to incitement and bent on 'retribution.' His appearance is ample reason to stay home."
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A rape kit was ordered hours after a 19-year-old man’s body was found in 2015 near the Murdaugh family’s hunting estate in Hampton, South Carolina, NewsNation reports.
Stephen Smith’s death was initially believed to be the result of a hit-and-run collision, but South Carolina authorities now believe his death was no accident, and are now giving the case a new look, the report said.
Former South Carolina Highway Patrol Supervisor Michael Duncan said Wednesday during an appearance on NewsNation with host Ashleigh Banfield that troopers were never given the chance to present the findings of their investigation.
Smith’s wounds were inconsistent with injuries that typically occur in a traffic collision, Duncan told Banfield.
IN OTHER NEWS: ‘He really said that’: CNN’s Jake Tapper stunned by Trump’s latest attack on Manhattan DA
“Extremely disappointed. … I’ve never seen wounds like this that come from a car … In totality, it did not make sense why they were calling it a traffic accident,” Duncan said.
The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division announced that the agency would take a fresh look at the Smith case based "upon information gathered during the course of the double-murder investigation of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh,” The Daily Beast reports.
A South Carolina jury earlier this month convicted Alex Murdaugh for murder in connection with the 2021 shooting deaths of his wife Maggie and their son Paul, and Judge Clifton Newman sentenced disgraced South Carolina lawyer to two consecutive life terms.
The lawyers representing the Smith family said authorities told them they waited until after the conclusion of Alex Murdaugh’s trial before announcing updated information on the Smith case “out of concern that witnesses would not be as forthcoming under the Murdaugh sphere of influence.”
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'Reprehensible' and 'disgraceful': House Democrat scorches GOP book bans and 'Parental Bill of Rights'
March 23, 2023
Far-right pundits at Fox News and Newsmax TV have had a lot to say about "cancel culture" and "woke" progressives they claim are trying to shut down conservatives they disagree with. And many Democrats, in response, have stressed that it is far-right MAGA Republicans — including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who are trying to abolish, from public schools, books with gay or African-American themes that offend them. DeSantis has drawn criticism for banning an advance placement course on Black studies from Florida high schools.
One of the Democrats who is speaking out is Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts). During a Thursday, March 23 speech on the U.S. House floor, McGovern slammed Republicans for pushing book bans in the name of a "Parental Bill of Rights." And he noted that a Florida teacher was "fired for exposing a book-banning spree at the hands of Ron DeSantis that would make the Chinese Communist Party blush."
"Now, I have a few books that Republicans want to ban — too many to go through," the 63-year-old McGovern told fellow House members. "But let me recite a few."
McGovern, who described book bans as "reprehensible" and "disgraceful," went on to cite Kathleen Connors' "The Life of Rosa Parks," Kadir Nelson's "Nelson Mandela" and a book on gay rights activist Harvey Milk as specific examples of books that have come under fire from MAGA Republicans.
The Massachusetts Democrat told House members, "Now, do you notice any pattern here? They want to ban books about Black and brown people, and they want to ban books about LGBTQI+ people. It is sick. It is hateful."
Addressing House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California), McGovern added, "What is wrong with them, Mr. Speaker? If you don't like a book, don't let your kid read it. But you don't get to tell the rest of us parents what our kids should be allowed to read. Talk to your kids' teachers. Run for school board. But don't take away money from schools that fall down on the wrong side of the MAGA culture wars."
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