'Embarrassing fail': NY Times roasted for quoting severed finger fraudster in poll writeup

'Embarrassing fail': NY Times roasted for quoting severed finger fraudster in poll writeup
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The New York Times is taking heavy mockery after inadvertently citing a nationally famous convicted fraudster as an everyday voter.

The paper profiled some voters in their latest poll with Siena College released on Thursday, which shows former President Donald Trump's lead shrinking considerably and Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a neck-and-neck race. One of the voters they quoted, however, wasn't swayed by the shakeup in the race.

"'I'm a Democrat, but I've changed my mind after everything that's happened with Joe Biden's administration,' said Anna Ayala, a 58-year-old who lives in San Jose, Calif., and voted for Mr. Biden in 2020," said the writeup. "She plans to vote for Mr. Trump in 2024. 'I mean, the border situation is out of control.'"

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There's just one problem, pointed out Gilad Edelman, a senior editor for The Atlantic: "Anna Ayala" is more than just some random voter off the street. In fact, a little over a decade ago she became a household name nationwide after she was convicted of fraud and sent to prison for planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili, then trying to sue the restaurant over it.

This passage was swiftly deleted from the Times writeup after going to print — but not before commenters on social media had noticed, and thoroughly mocked the paper's failure to check who they were quoting.

"Well, it would explain why she doesn’t want to vote for a prosecutor," wrote Bloomberg Opinion columnist Conor Sen.

"OMG this is almost certainly the same person," wrote the account @langdongrant2. "Correct age (58) & city (San Jose, CA). The NYT says she's a former Dem & 2020 Biden voter who's now for Trump, without telling readers that she's a nutty *convicted fraudster*. What a *massively* embarrassing fail for the NYT."

"The nonstop coverage of this when I was 9 is one of my core memories," wrote the account @_MarkThompson.

"It isn’t even hard to find — she is all over the internet as the finger fraud lady. Why is the nyt doing the national enquirer’s work for them," wrote the account @feral_hattie.

"The craziest thing about this is that the @NYTimes has fact checking resources to look into these people. Something like this should not make it into an NYT article. And yet..." wrote Emily Singer of The American Independent.

"In the words of a wise friend, 'Always ask your interview subjects if they’ve used a severed finger to defraud a fast food chain. That’s journalism 101'" wrote the account @rdnarang.

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Department of Justice senior adviser Alina Habba insisted that federal prosecutors would "come down hard" on Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) after he danced with a Somali flag, allegedly creating hostility against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

During a Monday interview on Fox News, host Brian Kilmeade noted that Attorney General Pam Bondi had vowed to investigate Frey and Gov. Tim Walz (D).

"What the Attorney General is saying is the truth. She will come down hard. The Department of Justice will come down hard. Our civil rights division will come down hard on anybody who tries to impede or intimidate somebody in a place of worship or a police officer or an ICE officer," Habba said. "It's just not going to happen in this administration. And Pam is making that very clear."

"Yeah, so we have a mayor who's a Somali sympathizer who we've seen dancing around on stage with their flag instead of an American flag," she added. "And I'm supposed to sit here, exactly. And I'm supposed to sit here and believe that that is not creating more hostility.

"And let me also tell you something. The Department of Justice will look into whomever is funding this. It's no different than a RICO action. If you are funding mass protests, if you are having protests that are not righteous protests, there are First Amendment rights that we respect, but that are putting people in risk, not allowing people to go to church, this Department of Justice will come down on you."

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Elon Musk's takeover and rebrand of Twitter — now X — is now ripping apart the MAGA movement, according to a report Monday.

Musk rebranded the platform in 2023, changing its moderation rules and prompting a rise in hate speech that has created a series of complaints among conservatives, Politico reported.

"Three years later, Musk’s control of the platform, now re-branded as 'X,' has delivered its fair share of benefits for conservatives — not least of which was Musk’s successful full-court press to elect Donald Trump in 2024," according to Politico. "But as the elite echelons of the MAGA movement slowly descend into obscure online disagreements and testy turf wars between rival influencers, conservatives are starting to confront an unpleasant possibility: that the right’s domination of X is doing more to divide the MAGA movement than unite it."

Several notable MAGA voices have made "digital exits" and left the app, citing their concerns about its divisive nature, including Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and Breitbart editor Raheem Kassam.

Changes under Musk, including his push to stop bots, has also unveiled something MAGA did not expect to happen.

"Musk’s efforts to combat bot activity have in turn backfired on conservatives: A new feature rolled out earlier this year displaying the country where an account is based inadvertently revealed that many of the most active pro-Trump and MAGA accounts are based abroad," Politico reported.

And that's not the only worry among MAGA followers.

"Increasingly, some big names on the right are coming to worry that X’s algorithm — which elevates short-form video and audio clips over links to articles or essays — is undermining the right’s political cohesion by promoting the most outlandish and conspiracy-minded members of Trump’s coalition," according to Politico.

Charlie Kirk's death and the rising conspiracy theories surrounding his killing have also revealed rising battles among MAGA influencers and just how much infighting has emerged in the movement.

"The turmoil and division generated on X is becoming a problem for elected Republicans, too," Politico reported. "Even as MAGA voters remain largely united behind Trump and his agenda, Republicans are being forced to spend time and political capital addressing squabbling among MAGA’s elite activists and influencers."

European nations singled out for tariff hikes by Donald Trump could hit back with an economic sanction of their own.

While the eight nations, including the UK, Denmark, France, and Germany, are set to receive a 10% tariff on the price of goods, they could counter this with a "trade bazooka" move that could cripple the president's clear hopes of subsuming Greenland into US control, according to a report.

A possible loophole could be exploited by seven of the eight sanctioned nations, with the European Union crucial to the plan should it come to pass. CNN commentator Auzinea Bacon believes the Greenland stand-off could be set for an ugly continuation, and that some EU member nations would be pressed into causing economic disturbances in the US.

Trump levied the tariffs last week, furious that the nations were speaking out against his ambition to take over Greenland.

Bacon wrote, "Trump may have allowed for a loophole, however: Trump’s tariffs are directed at a select few member nations, not the entire European Union. So the eight countries could reroute trade within the EU’s free trade bloc to avoid those tariffs.

"An immediate 10% tariff won’t rattle the economy as significantly as the long-term effects of a strained relationship with America’s largest trading partners.

"It’s the uncertainty about whether Trump will escalate his tariff threats or back out before imposing new duties that could make trading partners steer clear of America long-term."

An expert speaking with Bacon about the implied price hikes also suggested there may be a workaround of stock location to deal with. New York University Stern School of Business professor Joseph Foudy said that allied European nations could simply move stock from one location to another.

He said, "There’s no border between Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Anybody can ship a good through another country quite easily if we try and tariff individual states."

Bacon went on to suggest the EU could inflict damage on the US economy should tariff prices remain against the member nations. Tariffs against the eight countries would rise from 10% to 25% on June 1 if an agreement is not reached.

Bacon said, "That triggered an emergency meeting of European countries’ representatives Sunday, and French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly asked the European Union to activate its so-called anti-coercion instrument, colloquially known as a 'trade bazooka.'

"The trade bazooka could block some of America’s access to EU markets or impose export controls, among a broader list of potential countermeasures.

"The trade bazooka was created with countries like China in mind, not allies like the United States, noted Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation."

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