Washington (AFP) - Joe Biden will complete a routine medical checkup on Thursday, a crucial step for the oldest-ever US president ahead of his expected fight for reelection in 2024.
The White House has promised to release the report by the 80-year-old president's doctor, as it also did during his previous checkup in 2021.
This time around, with the Republican 2024 campaign already kicking off, it will be scrutinized even more closely.
Despite poor poll ratings, Biden -- a Democrat -- has been suggesting for some time that he intends to run again, potentially lining up a rematch of his 2020 battle with his predecessor Donald Trump, who has already declared his candidacy.
"That's my intention, I think, but I haven't made that decision firmly yet," he said in a PBS interview on February 8.
Biden's last checkup was on November 19, 2021, when he underwent a complete examination, including a colonoscopy under general anesthesia.
He transferred his powers for one hour and 25 minutes to Vice President Kamala Harris, making her the first woman in US history to hold the presidential prerogative.
Biden's doctor, Kevin O'Connor, at the time painted a picture of a healthy man fit to carry out his presidential duties.
But he did also point out relatively minor signs of old age, and noted Biden's stiffer gait, attributing it to a mild nerve condition affecting the feet; as well as a frequent cough caused by gastroesophageal reflux.
Biden does not smoke, does not drink, plays sports, and has not had any major health concerns since undergoing brain surgery in 1988.
He tested positive for Covid-19 last July, but did not have a serious form of the disease.
The American president has shown uncommon stamina, making public appearances and travelling.
But his age remains a frequent angle of attack by the Republican opposition.
Some of the president's opponents even claim that he is no longer in his right mind, citing some of his moments of confusion and his slurred speech. Biden has spoken often of overcoming a childhood stutter.
Nikki Haley, a 51-year-old Republican who has just entered the race for 2024, called Wednesday for mental fitness tests for any elected official over 75.
That would also apply to ex-president Trump, 76, whom she is challenging with her candidacy.
Haley, a former UN ambassador, hopes to capitalize on the American electorate's desire for fresh blood in politics. Polls show many do not want a second Biden term any more than they want a repeat Trump presidency.
If he runs, Biden will have to face both the rigors of an election campaign and the demands of his office.
He wants Americans to judge him on his results, effectively saying age is just a number.
"Watch me," he likes to say.
(Reuters) - The FBI carried out two searches at the University of Delaware in recent weeks in relation to a probe into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing a source familiar with theinvestigation.
The searches occurred with the consent and cooperation of Biden's legal team, the report added.
Earlier this month, Biden's attorney said the U.S. Justice Department did not find documents with classified markings during a three-and-a-half hour search of the president's beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, but did take some materials for further review.
Materials were previously found at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, and at a Washington office he used during the time between his service as vice president under Barack Obama and his presidential election.
The White House declined to comment and referred queries to the Department Of Justice.
The issue has created a political headache for Biden, who is expected to announce a re-election campaign in the coming weeks or months.
The FBI did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Reuters.
(Reporting by Costas Pitas in Los Angeles; additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Eric Beech and Chris Reese)
It didn't take long for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to act as surrogate hit woman for former President Donald Trump and attack newly announced presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
In a tweet Greene, stated "Nikki Haley is just another George (or Jeb!) Bush," she continued. "If we wanted a 'Bush in heels,' Republicans would vote for Liz Cheney."
Greene's attack also included comparing and contrasting Haley's political positions with Trump.
"She is weak on the border, doesn't want a wall," stated Greene. She also added, "Nikki Haley refused to support a transgender bathroom bill to protect children."
IN OTHER NEWS: Giuliani associate regrets buying into 'deep state' conspiracy — and thinks Trump committed crimes bribing Ukraine
Most of Greene's criticisms of Haley's political positions were centered around immigration.
While Trump and Haley are the only two official candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, polls show Haley with low support and placing fourth or even fifth in a field of potential GOP candidates.
Casting herself as a younger, fresher alternative to the 76-year-old former president Trump, Haley had been hinting at a possible run for weeks.
Haley is positioning herself as a changemaker who can reinvigorate a party and country she says have lost their way in recent years, and she played up her personal background in her video as a way to unite a nation strained by racial tensions.
"I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. Not black, not white. I was different," she said in the clip.
"But my mom would always say, 'Your job is not to focus on the differences, but the similarities.'"
"Some look at our past as evidence that America's founding principles are bad," she went on.
"They say the promise of freedom is just made up. Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist, and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth."
Haley is unlikely to be the last Republican to throw their hat in the ring.
Some Washington watchers speculated that her announcement might prompt a stampede from rivals such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Trump's vice president Mike Pence.
Haley also took a mild swipe at the current president -- who has not formally announced his re-election campaign but is expected to run again -- saying "Joe Biden's record is abysmal."
"But that shouldn't come as a surprise. The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again."
With additional reporting by AFP
Lev Parnas, one of the associates of Rudy Giuliani's working on the Ukraine conspiracy has been released from prison on home confinement and he's speaking out about his experience working to help Donald Trump.
MSNBC's Ari Melber asked what he called "an obvious, straightforward comparison. There are people like Mr. Giuliani, to say nothing of Mr. Trump who have faced less accountability than you. Did that weigh on your mind while you were incarcerated?"
Parnas agreed, noting that since his incarceration he's had a lot of time to think.
"That's been weighing on my mind from the day I was arrested, because the things I was doing, at the time I was doing it, I thought I was doing it, as an American patriot, serving my country," he said. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think the president of the United States could be so corrupt and do the things he did or send me to do the things that I ended up doing. It still weighs on my mind heavily. That is why I am trying to now make amends and make sure I let the whole truth out and make sure everybody knows exactly what transpired, especially with what's going on in Ukraine."
IN OTHER NEWS: Strategist shreds Ron DeSantis for 'terrorizing' Florida families
He explained that at the time, he truly believed Trump and Giuliani's claims that there was a "deep state conspiracy" afoot inside the U.S. government.
"And the Ukrainian people were involved in the officials involved were corrupt and they were trying to undermine the U.S. elections by -- at the time," Parnas continued. "But after reflecting and understanding exactly what transpired, I now realize and understand that it was really Trump using Giuliani, like his Roy Cohn. And making him put people like myself in harm's way to be able to dig up dirt, at that time, on Joe Biden."
Conservatives are still trying to push the same conspiracy, that President Joe Biden's son was somehow involved in a slew of international scams that made the Biden men billionaires. It's false and no one in the Biden family is a billionaire. Parnas has said that the Hunter Biden laptop scheme was a "setup" from the beginning.
"Let me dig into that," Melber began. "What you are telling me, for my understanding is that, during that time you bought into the storyline that you thought, if there is really corruption over there, you are helping explore or uproot it, perhaps. And you are telling me that later you came to see that — which I should know and viewers know was a widely discredited cover story to hurt the Bidens for political reasons — that you do now see it that way and say well, actually it was all kind of Trump's political BS?"
He agreed, and began to echo some of the same points other former Trump allies have said once leaving the fold, describing it more as a kind of cult than a political campaign.
"You have to understand, I grew up in Brooklyn and I looked up to people like Giuliani and Trump and when he became president, I really believed I was cultinized, and I drink the kool-aid," Parnas admitted. "And I really believed that he was trying to do good for our country and I thought, honestly that everything I'm doing is positive for our country. But eventually, even prior to my arrest, I could see the way that Giuliani was being so aggressive with Trump officials and putting pressure on President [Volodymyr] Zelensky at the time."
"Sooner or later I started getting a feeling, but I didn't realize it until after my arrest and after I had time to re-evaluate everything that happened and understand," continued Parnas. "Today I truly believe and understand that they were using me to be able to basically win the 2020 election. Most people deep down inside -- educated, common sense individuals who might not be saying it out loud, realize it's a bunch of BS and it's not true, but they don't come out and say it because for their own personal benefits. They want to change the policy or president, or whatever the political aspect is."
He closed by admitting that based on what he saw, he firmly believes that both Giuliani and Trump "committed crimes" based on the way they pressured Zelensky and prosecutors in Ukraine. Parnas also linked Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the scheme at one point.
"They basically blackmailed them and force them into trying to get information. They threaten them with different things," said Parnas. "The first thing was not having Vice President Pence attend the inauguration. That was a huge thing for President Zelensky once he got into office. With how the military is and stuff like that. The constant threat going on, the state and get what they wanted and what they wanted was for President Zelensky to come out and say there was going to be an investigation into Joe Biden."
Trump was impeached for the alleged attempt to bribe Ukraine, which is listed under the impeachment rules in the Constitution as an example of an impeachable offense. Senate Republicans refused to even hear the case.
See the full interview below or at this link.
Giuliani associate bought the 'deep state' conspiracy — and thinks Trump committed crimes youtu.be
WASHINGTON — Congress has until at least July to broker a bipartisan debt agreement if lawmakers want to avoid a first-ever default, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The nonpartisan scorekeeper, which typically details how much legislation would cost, released a report Wednesday saying that U.S. lawmakers and the Biden administration have until sometime between July and September to raise or suspend the debt limit.
CBO, however, cautioned in its report the window is uncertain, since the amount of money flowing into the federal government from taxes and other revenue sources fluctuates, as does the amount of money distributed for programs ranging from Social Security and Medicare to military paychecks to public lands programs.
“In particular, income tax receipts in April could be more or less than CBO estimates,” the report states. “If those receipts fell short of estimated amounts … the extraordinary measures could be exhausted sooner, and the Treasury could run out of funds before July.”
Congress voted three times during the Trump administration to suspend the debt limit, with all the votes garnering bipartisan support.
Congress has voted once during the Biden administration to raise the debt limit, though the House and Senate passed that legislation without the backing of the vast majority of Republican lawmakers.
That $2.5 trillion raise to the nation’s borrowing capacity that Democrats approved last year ran out last month, when the nation’s debt limit reached the $31.4 trillion limit.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has since used accounting maneuvers called extraordinary measures to ensure the federal government can keep paying all of its bills in full and on time, but those measures are expected to expire between July and September, according to CBO’s analysis.
If that happens without a new debt limit law, the Treasury Department would no longer be allowed to borrow money to pay for all of the programs that Congress has approved.
Since the nation has never reached that point, it’s somewhat unclear what exactly would happen.
But the federal government would be limited to spending what money it has on hand, leading to sweeping cuts to government programs that officials may or may not be able to direct.
Yellen has repeatedly warned Congress against moving too close to the default date, sometimes called the x-date.
“Failure to meet the government’s obligations would cause irreparable harm to the U.S. economy, the livelihoods of all Americans, and global financial stability,” Yellen wrote in an early January letter warning of the debt limit.
“Indeed, in the past, even threats that the U.S. government might fail to meet its obligations have caused real harms, including the only credit rating downgrade in the history of our nation in 2011.”
President Joe Biden, speaking from Lanham, Maryland, on Wednesday afternoon, said the budget request he plans to release on March 9 will reduce the deficit by $2 trillion over the next decade, though he rejected GOP calls to tie together negotiations on the debt limit and federal spending.
“Some of our Republican friends in the House are talking about taking the economy hostage over the full faith and credit of the United States,” Biden said. “They say unless I accept their economic plans, which are totally irresponsible, they’re not going to pay the national debt, which took 200 years to accumulate.”
Biden called on House Republicans to release a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. He said that after that, they can sit down and talk about what issues Democrats and Republicans agree on and negotiate areas where they differ on how the federal government spends money or brings in revenue.
But Biden said he made it clear to Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, and other GOP lawmakers in his State of the Union address that he “will not negotiate whether or not we pay our debt.”
Wisconsin Examiner is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Wisconsin Examiner maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Ruth Conniff for questions: info@wisconsinexaminer.com. Follow Wisconsin Examiner on Facebook and Twitter.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who heads the pro-independence Scottish National Party, announced on Wednesday that she will be stepping down as soon as a replacement is elected due to the "brutality" of working in politics and a desire to focus on "Nicola Sturgeon the person."
Sturgeon's tenure began in 2014 as the movement for independence from Great Britain gained steam.
"She became leader of the SNP in the wake of a 2014 independence referendum when Scotland voted 55% to 45% to remain part of the United Kingdom," Reuters noted.
Even though she is leaving, Sturgeon still believes in the cause.
The video player is currently playing an ad.
"To achieve that, we must reach across the divide in Scottish politics," she said, per Reuters. "And my judgement now is that a new leader will be better able to do this. Someone about whom the mind of almost everyone in the country is not already made up for better or worse."
While not a household name in the United States, Sturgeon's antipathy toward former President Donald Trump – who owns two golf clubs in Scotland – did generate headlines.
In January 2021, Sturgeon declared that Trump was unwelcome as COVID-19 raged and amid Trump's attempts to subvert his loss to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election.
"We are not allowing people to come into Scotland without an essential purpose right now, and that would apply to [Trump], just as it applies to anybody else," Sturgeon said.
Ten days before she was reelected that April, Sturgeon penned an editorial in The Guardian regarding independence, warning that the British government "ignoring the will of the Scots would be an act worthy of Trump."
A month later, Forbes reported that there were widespread suspicions about how Trump paid for his resort in Turnberry but that Sturgeon's administration lacked the necessary legal authority to take meaningful action:
Trump brought Turnberry for $60 million in 2014, but neither it nor Trump's Aberdeen golf course has ever turned a profit, according to accounts filed with the U.K.'s Companies House. This leads to speculation over why Trump purchased and developed the two loss-making businesses.
Human rights group Avaaz filed a challenge to Sturgeon's determination, arguing that she had a "duty" to investigate Trump's finances.
As Forbes further pointed out:
In a 30-page document published in 2019, Avaaz says the purchase of Turnberry was itself suspicious. 'Trump acquired Turnberry golf course in April 2014 at the end of an unusual 'cash buying spree' of five houses, eight golf courses, and a winery totaling over $400 million,' the document says.
Not only were many of the transactions made in 'locations highly conducive to money laundering such as Panama and the former Soviet Union,' but the buying spree took place during a period in which Trump's businesses suffered 'serious financial difficulties and defaults,' says the document.
In May 2022, Sturgeon also weighed in on the 2024 presidential contest, telling Americans, "don't re-elect Trump at any point."
Following the news of Sturgeon's impending departure, Trump took to his Truth Social app to disparage her.
"Good riddance to failed woke extremist Nicola Sturgeon of Scotland! This crazed leftist symbolizes everything wrong with identity politics. Sturgeon thought it was OK to put a biological man in a women's prison, and if that wasn't bad enough, Sturgeon fought for a 'Gender Recognition Reform Bill' that would have allowed 16-year-old children to change their gender without medical advice," Trump wrote.
"I built the greatest Golf properties in the World in Scotland, but she fought me all the way, making my job much more difficult," Trump added. "The wonderful people of Scotland are much better off without Sturgeon in office!"
Senate Democrats told Raw Story on Tuesday that they have questions about the reporting on Jared Kushner's relationship with Saudi Arabia. But they explained that such an issue was likely going to be a Justice Department case. But Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) isn't giving up hope on investigating it under the Republican Congress.
While the House Oversight Committee is investigating Hunter Biden, who has never worked for the U.S. government, the ranking member is going to be exploring Kushner, the Washington Post reported. Raskin cited the recent reports from the Post on questions around Kushner profiting off of his time at the White House.
“I am deeply troubled by your continued refusal to produce documents regarding the Saudi government’s $2 billion investment in your fund in light of recent prominent reporting that Saudi Arabia made that investment in Affinity just months after you left a senior White House position where you were responsible for shaping Middle East policy,” Raskin wrote to Kushner in the letter.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs the wealth fund that gave the money to Kushner over the objections of the advisers. Since his time in the White House, Kushner has formed a close relationship with MBS that continues to this day.
Raskin wants to know if there are other foreign investors to Kushner's hedge fund or if it was just MBS.
Thus far, Kushner has turned over nearly 2,000 pages about the relationship. But Raskin's letter said that most of the documents were publicly available ones that do “not substantively relate to the Saudi government’s investment in the firm.” Raskin wrote that when the committee followed up in October, the company’s legal officer did not respond.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY) is the GOP's Oversight chair, and when asked about Kushner by ABC News, he claimed "everything is on the table" before going on to attack President Joe Biden. They are seeking to link the day job of his last surviving son to his White House. Comer cites them as Biden's "family's suspicious business schemes with foreign adversaries."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) agreed that the Saudi issue with Kushner is a current one and he'd pick up the probe in the Senate Finance Committee as the chair.
“The financial links between the Saudi royal family and the Trump family raise very serious issues, and when you factor in Jared Kushner’s financial interests, you are looking right at the cat’s cradle of financial entanglements,” Wyden said last week. Other Democratic senators told Raw Story that they weren't as interested, despite questioning the relationship.
Raskin told the Post he's hoping Comer will cooperate in the Oversight Committee.
“We will definitely work with our partners in the Senate to get all of the information we need in order to conduct a thorough and detailed investigation of all of the conflicts of interests that we need to learn about," he said. I'm “not going to allow this to be some kind of lopsided partisan witch hunt. Let’s have a serious investigation into public policy and the profound ethical concerns that have been raised.”
The Trump White House provided arms sales and other things to the Saudi government while in office. Trump also refused to acknowledge the CIA's finding that MBS ordered the capture and assassination of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was critical of the Saudi prince's policies. Trump then bragged he "saved" MBS. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote in his book that when he went to visit the Saudis, Trump said, "tell him he owes us."
Since then, Trump has profited from the close Saudi relationship. Their financing to start LIV Golf was handed to Trump for the use of his courses and the profit amount isn't public.
“Your efforts to protect the Crown Prince may have allowed him to maintain his position at the top of the Saudi government and, thus, his ability to deliver significant financial benefits to you and your father-in-law after the end of the Trump Administration," Raskin wrote in his letter.
He complained that Kushner's company “failed to produce a single communication related to the reasons behind your firm’s receipt of $2 billion from the Saudi sovereign wealth fund.”
WASHINGTON — Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was in the news again this week after she attacked President Joe Biden for getting his information from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow.
She quickly drew criticism for it taking her multiple attempts to pass her GED when Maddow got her bachelors from Stanford and doctorate from Oxford. It was Boebert's clumsy way of harkening back to an age-old argument by Republicans that Democrats are elitists because they support and promote education.
It comes at a time when Democrat Adam Frisch announced that he would oppose Bobert again in the 2024 election. During the 2022 midterm elections, he came within half of a percentage point of winning.
Raw Story spoke with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) about Frisch's announcement and he too mentioned the near-win last year.
IN OTHER NEWS: Ted Cruz walloped after claiming Dems ‘too embarrassed’ to show up to nomination hearing
"I think Jared Polis won that district running for reelection as governor," he recalled. "And I lost it by a point. She won it by 550 votes. I think Coloradans can pick it up. I think Adam Frisch came very close this time and I'm glad he's running again."
Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) accused Bobert of not representing that district.
"There are a lot of Republicans there. They're pretty moderate," he said. "So I think that's certainly — he came very, very close to winning this last time. So, I think she will have a choice of whether she's going to modulate how she does her politics or she's going to have another tough race."
He said he's not shocked to see the way she behaves in Washington.
"She's not a lifetime politician. She's new to politics and she is who she is and she shoots from the hip," he continued. "That has an appeal to a lot of voters in the west. That said, when she shoots from the hip and she does things that are perceived as counterproductive or harmful to the country or the state of Colorado, a lot of these folks who may be Republicans but they really care about jobs and they care about progress. They want their kids to have a good education."
In a post to his website this Wednesday, former President Donald Trump accused new 2024 rival Nikki Haley of supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
The post, titled, "Haley Supported Paul Ryan's Plan for Entitlement Reform, Threatening Medicare and Social Security," cited a Washington Post article from earlier this month that referenced former House budget chairman Paul Ryan's 2011 proposal to replace Medicare with giving seniors money for private health insurance.
The report states that Haley "praised Ryan’s Medicare proposal at the time and said lawmakers should examine Medicare and Social Security spending to address federal debt."
“What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements,” Haley said in a 2010 interview on Fox News. “Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.”
IN OTHER NEWS: DeSantis accused of distracting voters from the 'festering problems in Florida' in scathing editorial
Trump's post also cited a 2020 tweet from Haley where she said that Congress needs to "start cutting, not spending."
Trump also accused Haley of supporting sending American fighter planes to Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion instead of the pushing for peace.
Haley announced Tuesday she is running for president in 2024, challenging fellow Republican Trump by proposing a "new generation" of leadership in Washington.
"I'm Nikki Haley and I'm running for president," the 51-year-old former governor of South Carolina and the child of Indian immigrants said in a video statement.
READ MORE: Residents near toxic US train derailment urged not to drink water
"It's time for a new generation of leadership -- to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose," she said in the video shot in Bamberg, the South Carolina town of her birth.
Haley is positioning herself as a changemaker who can reinvigorate a party and country she says have lost their way in recent years, and she played up her personal background in her video as a way to unite a nation strained by racial tensions.
"I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. Not black, not white. I was different," she said in the clip.
"But my mom would always say, 'Your job is not to focus on the differences, but the similarities.'"
"Some look at our past as evidence that America's founding principles are bad," she went on.
"They say the promise of freedom is just made up. Some think our ideas are not just wrong, but racist, and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth."
Haley is unlikely to be the last Republican to throw their hat in the ring.
Some Washington watchers speculated that her announcement might prompt a stampede from rivals such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Trump's vice president Mike Pence.
Haley also took a mild swipe at the current president -- who has not formally announced his re-election campaign but is expected to run again -- saying "Joe Biden's record is abysmal."
"But that shouldn't come as a surprise. The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again."
With additional reporting by AFP
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) took a swipe at former President Donald Trump during her announcement for a 2024 presidential run.
"I have always had a deep belief in America," Haley told a crowd of supporters in South Carolina on Wednesday. "And I'm confident that the American people agree. We're ready — ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past."
Haley's reference to "faded names" was interpreted by many as a shot at Trump, her former boss.
She also slammed President Joe Biden's age.
"America is not past our prime; it's just that our politicians are past theirs," she said. "We won't win the fight for the 21st century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th century."
Watch the video below from MSNBC.
Laughing in the face of COVID-19 has been sport during pandemic-era stagings of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and its regional offshoots.
"Thousands of patriots and not a damn mask in sight,” Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas beamed at CPAC Orlando in 2022. He cast vaccine and mask mandates as “a battle between power and liberty.”
Then-White House Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney in February 2020 depicted COVID-19 as a prosaic flu erroneously hyped by the media as something that "brings down the president"— then Donald Trump.
And in March 2020, CPAC leader Matt Schlapp told Fox News of the novel coronavirus: “[W]hat the CPAC experience has taught the whole country ... is that it's actually hard to get it."
But as CPAC’s flagship event returns in March to Maryland’s Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center just outside Washington, D.C. — the same hotel where a VIP attendee triggered one of the nation’s earliest COVID-19 scares — conference organizers are quietly expressing a level of COVID-19 trepidation attendees almost certainly won’t see on-stage.
"COVID-19 has been declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization,” reads the "WAIVER OF LIABILITY FOR COVID-19 IN ATTENDING CPAC EVENTS” posted on CPAC’s website.
Several sobering paragraphs follow: “COVID-19 is reported to be extremely contagious. The state of medical knowledge is evolving, but the virus is believed to spread from person-to-person contact and/or by contact with contaminated surfaces and objects, and even possibly in the air. … COVID-19 can cause serious and potentially life-threatening illness and even death”
The waiver further presents CPAC as an event that comes with health risks.
“Attendance is of such value to me [and/or to my children,] that I accept the risk of being exposed to, contracting, and/or spreading COVID-19 in order to attend CPAC’s events in person,” CPAC’s waiver states. “I hereby forever release and waive my right to bring suit against CPAC and its officers, directors, employees, or other representatives in connection to any exposure, infection, and/or spread of COVID-19 related to my attending CPAC events."
Could someone who refused to sign the waiver still attend CPAC?
“No,” CPAC spokesperson Kaylee Spielman told Raw Story this week. “The COVID waiver needs to be checked for an individual to attend CPAC as it’s part of the registration process.”
She also said the host hotel has no COVID policy for guests, which may be a relief for CPAC staff who would be expected to enforce it.
“Sanitizer will be located all around the hotel and event, although masks will not be provided,” Spielman explained. “If an individual wants to wear a mask, they will have to bring one for themselves.”
In 2021 at CPAC’s Orlando conference, there was an unnerving moment when two CPAC organizers took the stage. A soft-spoken man and woman introduced themselves to the crowd as CPAC’s liaison with the hotel. The man began by reminding the crowd that everyone in CPAC was a capitalist — and as such, support the rule of law and private property. The hotel was private property, he noted, which meant CPAC should respect the hotel’s rules, which he asked his colleague to detail.
She explained that the hotel asked guests to wear masks in congested areas.
"Booooooo!" erupted from the crowd punctuated by screams of "Freedom" with the sporadic: "Bullshit!"
The couple quickly left the stage.
COVID-19 denialism has threaded through CPAC since 2020, when an attendee who owned an expensive “gold ticket” became infected. The gold ticket bestowed the bearer with opportunities to mingle with top Republicans.
Some GOP guests, including Cruz and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, voluntarily self-quarantined for two weeks after meeting the gold ticket holder. Politico reported that some attendees complained that wealthy purchasers of expensive tickets were given more truthful and in-depth briefings about the risks of contracting COVID than those who bought ordinary tickets.
That uneasiness about COVID’s true dangers being hidden from the masses proved correct. While Mulvaney was telling CPAC audiences that COVID was concerning but under control, Trump was confiding to journalist Bob Woodward that COVID was far more dangerous than most Americans knew.
Covid was deadly "not just (to) old people, Bob ...young people, too," Trump said. "You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed … It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flu.”
In January, President Joe Biden’s administration announced that it would wind down its treatment of COVID-19 as a national emergency and end emergency declarations altogether on May 11.
COVID-19 has killed more than 1.1 million people in the United States since 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 3,000 people in the United States have died each week of COVID-19 for the past several weeks, CDC data indicates.
Rep. George Santos (R-NY) is one of the most scandal-plagued lawmakers in living memory — and resolutely refuses to step down in the face of all calls to resign.
His stubbornness is even shocking to disgraced former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, who himself was taken down by one of the most infamous sex scandals in recent history, as NPR detailed in an interview on Wednesday.
In the interview, Weiner detailed how Santos has gone beyond anything he's ever seen when it comes to shameless behavior.
"We seem to be in a national version of that schoolyard game, 'Top this' – that if you do want to get into the shame hall of fame, you have to do a lot more than you had to do even 10 years ago," Weiner said.
READ MORE: McConnell put on notice by fiscal conservative group that soured on Trump
Weiner was one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party's progressive wing in the beginning of President Barack Obama's first term. Then it emerged that the married family man had a secret online persona in which he sent lewd messages and pictures of himself to several women on the internet — a scandal compounded by his initial attempt to lie and pretend it wasn't him.
He resigned, then two years later attempted to make a comeback run for mayor of New York City, only to bow out when it emerged the behavior was still going on. He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2017 after it turned out one of his sext recipients was 15 years old.
His wife, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, ultimately left him, and his laptop ended up playing a role in the Clinton email investigation that dominated the 2016 presidential campaign cycle.
Weiner added that he never could have done what Santos did, and simply bucked all calls to resign.
"It's really hard to do that when quite literally no one wants to be seen with you," he said.
Santos, an immigrant from Brazil and one of the few prominent openly gay Republican elected officials has racked up his own massive list of scandals. Investigations revealed he lied about almost every aspect of his life to voters, including his education, work background, and supposed descent from Jewish Holocaust refugees. He faces a litany of investigations, including massive campaign finance irregularities, an FBI criminal probe into his "animal rescue charity" that allegedly ripped off a disabled veteran, and a Brazilian check fraud case from over a decade ago. He has also been accused of sexual harassment by an aide.
Many of his fellow New York Republicans are calling on him to resign, but Republican House leadership — facing an extremely narrow majority — have not done so.
The conservative Club for Growth took a swipe at Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell in its endorsement of his chief Republican rival, after the group had previously distanced themselves from Donald Trump.
The fiscal conservative group, which is one of the top-spending Republican super PACs, endorsed Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) in his re-election campaign and rebuked McConnell, who recently questioned his 2024 chances over his support for scaling down Social Security and Medicare, reported Politico.
“While other Republicans have caved to massive tax-and-spend packages that have strained our economy, Rick Scott has consistently championed small government solutions centered around fiscal responsibility," said Club for Growth president David McIntosh, "And because of that he’s faced the unfounded and false attacks of liberal Democrats like President Biden and even establishment Republicans like Leader McConnell."
A spokesman for the group said their super PAC, which spent $60 million on Senate races in the 2022 cycle, would back Scott, who so far has no GOP primary opponents.
READ MORE: Senators question Jared Kushner's cozy ties with Saudis after explosive report
Scott chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee during the last midterm election, and he and McConnell clashed on strategy, and the Florida Republican unsuccessfully challenged McConnell as GOP leader after the party failed to take back the Senate majority.
McConnell last week blamed Scott for plans to sunset Social Security and Medicare, which President Joe Biden called out during his State of the Union address and which Republicans -- including Scott -- have tried to claim as false.
“Well unfortunately, that’s the Scott plan,” McConnell told Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners. “That’s not a Republican plan; that was the Rick Scott plan.”
McConnell then questioned whether Scott would, or should, keep his seat, although he insisted there was no lingering ill will over his failed leadership challenge.
“This doesn’t have anything to do with that,” McConnell said. “I mean it’s just a bad idea. I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own re-election in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America.”
Copyright © 2026 Raw Story Media, Inc. PO Box 21050, Washington, D.C. 20009 |
Masthead
|
Privacy Policy
|
Manage Preferences
|
Debug Logs
For corrections contact
corrections@rawstory.com
, for support contact
support@rawstory.com
.
