Monthly Archives: April 2021

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley was the only senator to vote against legislation introduced by Democrat Sen. Mazie Hirono which seeks to condemn and punish anti-Asian American hate crimes in the U.S., specifically those stemming from what Democrats have labeled as racist COVID-19 characterizations.

The bill would expand funding for states to report crimes and would designate a Justice Department official to evaluate COVID-motivated hate crimes.

Its too broad. As a former prosecutor, my view is its dangerous to simply give the federal government open-ended authority to define a whole new class of federal hate crime incidents, Hawley said in a statement to The Federalist on Thursday.

Democrats like Hirono hailed the bill as an incentive for the federal government to make informed decisions about biases against Asian Americans even when peoples hearts and minds wont change. Hawley, joined by other Republicans, expressed concerns that the legislation was too broad and susceptible to government overreach.

Hugely broad it mandates all this data collection in expansive categories that the federal government will collect the power to define crimes, incidents, going forward. It seems hugely open-ended, Hawley said when he voted against advancing the bill.

When it came time to vote on the bill, however, Hawley was the only senator to reject it. Sens. Marsha Blackburn, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Tina Smith abstained from the vote while others such as Sen. Ted Cruz appeared to flip from formerly criticizing Hironos bill as a Democrat messaging tactic to suddenly supporting it.

[The legislation] is not designed to do anything to prevent or punish actual crimes. It is instead a Democratic messaging vehicle designed to push the demonstrably false idea that it is somehow racist to acknowledge that Covid-19 originated in Wuhan, China and that the Chinese Communist Party actively lied and suppressed information about the outbreak, allowing it to become a global pandemic, Cruz said last week before introducing an amendment to pull federal funding from universities that discriminate against Asian Americans in admissions processes.

Even after Senate Democrats blocked Cruz and Kennedys amendment, however, the Republicans voted yes to move forward with passing the legislation and toss it over to the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives where it is likely to pass.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Hawley Stands Alone In Opposing Asian Hate Crimes Bill Citing Government Overreach - The Federalist

Former President Donald Trump released a statement Thursday ridiculing NBA player LeBron James after the Lakers star threatened a Columbus, Ohio police officer who saved the life of a teenage girl on the verge of being stabbed. James tweeted Youre Next #ACCOUNTABILITY on Tuesday, but deleted it after backlash.

LeBron James should focus on basketball rather than presiding over the destruction of the NBA, which has just recorded the lowest television RATINGS, by far, in the long and distinguished history of the League, Trump said.

Indeed, NBA ratings have been down for years. The Athletic reported last week that the league has an average of 2.83 million viewers for premium network games this season, compared to the all-time low of 2.95 million last season. The NBA Finals had ratings down 51 percent, with the final game down 70 percent year-over-year. In September, a poll showed 39 percent of respondents thought the league was overly political.

After deleting his tweet, James wrote, Im so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate This isnt about one officer.its about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.

The Federalist contacted the Staples Center arena where the Los Angeles Lakers play to see if they would condemn Jamess words. Not only did the company decline to do so, but it also declined to say it maintains respect for the law enforcement who work in its arena.

His RACIST rants are divisive, nasty, insulting, and demeaning, Trump added. He may be a great basketball player, but he is doing nothing to bring our Country together!

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Trump Calls Out LeBron James Tweet Threatening Heroic Police Officer - The Federalist

An editorial employee at Twitter told his 65,000 followers on the platform to block and quit engaging with conservatives and let them shout into the void.

Their entire business model is built off of your engagement, attention, and outrage, wrote Sam Stryker, whose LinkedIn profile identifies him as the editorial lead for the companys division on entertainment content. Block them and go!

Stryker was writing in response to Fox Nation Host Tomi Lahren trending on the platform for remarks following the verdict in the high-profile murder trial of George Floyd Tuesday. Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all counts. In response, leftist activists re-emphasized their demands to defund the police, attempting to paint Chauvin as an illustrative of law enforcement nationwide.

Its still abolish the police, Stryker wrote.

Lahren began trending on Twitter for unclear reasons. The trending topic descriptor on the website merely reads, People react to comments by political commentator and Fox Nation host Tomi Lahren following the Derek Chauvin trial.

When clicked, the first post to appear is the post from Twitters employee, followed by another below calling Lahren a racist.

Users must scroll down to find out what Lahren said to cause the online uproar. After scrolling down, a user mocks Lahren suggesting that riots this week have anything to do with the Floyd saga.

Strykers call to block conservatives on the platform echoes comments from Nicola Keaney, whose profile bio identifies her as behind managing Twitters trend.The pinned post on her profile makes clear Keaneys opposition to the idea of agree to disagree.

We can agree to disagree, Keaney wrote in a mix of upper- and lower-case letters to emphasize mockery. Yes it the subject is pizza toppings. NOT about peoples right to live as the person they are without fear of violence and discrimination.

Twitter did not immediately respond to The Federalists request for comment.

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Twitter Employee Tells Followers To Block All Conservatives - The Federalist

On April 21, America held its collective breath. When the news broke that the jury in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin had arrived at a verdict, the fate of the nations cities was hanging in the balance. As the boarded-up storefronts in urban areas and suburbs from coast to coast showed, there was little doubt that if a Minneapolis jury didnt produce the verdicts many people wanted, riots would ensue.

When Judge Peter Cahill read the verdicts, the nation heaved a sigh of relief. The conviction on all three counts against the former Minneapolis police officer second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree murder for the death of George Floyd, means Chauvin faces up to 40 years in prison. But more was at stake in the trial than just his future.

The widespread outrage generated by the appalling nine-minute video that depicted Chauvin kneeling on Floyds neck set off a summer of mostly peaceful protests orchestrated by the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM movement and advocates of critical race theory about white privilege used Floyds death at the hands of a white cop to justify their assertions that not only was there an epidemic of police shootings of black men but that America was guilty of institutional racism.

The demonstrations they orchestrated in response to the case transformed Floyd into a martyr for civil rights. Millions attended demonstrations in the weeks and months that followed. Hundreds of these mostly peaceful protests around the country turned into riots in which neighborhoods were burned. Stores were looted, resulting in casualties and deathsinvolving law enforcement personnel and civilians.

Worries about more riots should Chauvin be acquitted were not theoretical. Threats from activists and politicians demanding a conviction had created an atmosphere in which anything less than a guilty verdict would have been used as an excuse for more rioting.

President Joe Biden said he was praying for the right verdict. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told demonstrators to get more confrontational with police if the Chauvin jurors didnt give them what they demanded. Not long after, some protesters committed a drive-by shooting of National Guardsmen in the area to protect against riots. Indeed, Waters was chided by Judge Cahill for having given the Chauvin defense possible grounds for appeal although he denied a motion for a mistrial.

But thanks to the Chauvin jury, that nightmare was not repeated on the evening of April 21. There had been some justified fears that riots might occur even if the former cop was convicted. But as it turned out, the reaction to the verdict was one of general jubilation. Celebrations, rather than angry demonstrations, were held around the country.

Biden weighed in with rhetoric about the trial being a reckoning and a wake-up call for the nation. Vice President Kamala Harris also claimed what happened to Floyd, who died after being arrested for passing a counterfeit bill at a convenience store, epitomized the truth about widespread racial injustice in the United States.

Despite nonstop claims that the United States is an irredeemably racist society, the feeling that the system had worked to punish someone who had committed an egregious act produced happiness, not more anger. While those intent on keeping the anger churning, like former President Barack Obama and various BLM activists, sought to dispel any idea that the verdict should inspire confidence in American justice rather than serve as a reason for more protests, it was hard for even the most determined race-baiter to dispel the good feelings the verdict produced.

For those living in neighborhoods that were torched or looted last summer like many in Minneapolis there were expressions of relief about the threat of violence and unrest having been averted.But the fact that violence wasnt the result this time,shouldnt inspire confidence that last summers riots were a one-off that wont be repeated.

Police shootings, however justified they might have been, in AtlantaandKenosha, Wisconsin also provoked riots last summer.And only a week before a jury convicted Chauvin in Minneapolis, a police shooting of Duante Wright led to the violencewhich Waters had helped cheer on.

The Chauvin verdict was not the first time in the last year riots had been forestalled, not by cooler heads prevailing, but because those who might have rioted had gotten what they wanted. That was true last November when the same storefronts were boarded up throughout the country in anticipation of violence had Donald Trump won the presidential election.

We now know that any time the BLM movement can highlight a case that they think proves their point about racism, whether accurate or not, riots will follow. As the aftermath of the presidential race proved, the same may be true of the outcomes of elections.

In Minneapolis, the possibility of riots had hung over the trial from the beginning. Indeed, the agitation for Chauvins conviction regardless of how heartrending the dismal spectacle that unfolded in the videotape of Floyds death might have been resembled the way Jim Crow racists intimidated juries into acquitting those accused of killing blacks.

The events of the past year have proven that in post-George Floyd America, political violence over anything that can be claimed to prove racism is something to be expected, rather than a shocking occurrence. Indeed, its those instances where riots dont follow, like the Chauvin trial outcome, that are the outliers.

Democrats are content to excuse or rationalize riots when they occur, as happened throughout last summer when the mainstream media tried to claim they were mostly peaceful. They are actively opposing efforts, like the law passed by Florida to increase the penalties for rioting while still preserving the right to peacefully protest.

Protests are a justified reaction to the way most of those who engaged in the BLM violence either werent charged or got off lightly after being bailed out by funds supported by Biden and Harris. The fact that the same people rationalizing BLM riots are still demonizing the pro-Trump mob that took part in the Capitol riot and demanding that they be convicted on serious charges think left-wing rioters should get a pass illustrates their hypocrisy and lack of principle.

While Americans were pleased to avoid another round of riots over Floyds death, its obvious that riots or the threat of them, are now a permanent feature of American life. Going forward, anytime an incident that can be framed, either fairly or not as racist, or a trial produces an unpopular verdict, or the left loses power, riots are likely.

Even if Chauvin deserved to be convicted, no one should be happy about the way the trial confirmed again that we are now living in a country where political violence is no longer considered beyond the pale.

Jonathan S. Tobin is a senior contributor to The Federalist, editor in chief of JNS.org, and a columnist for the New York Post. Follow him on Twitter at @jonathans_tobin.

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The Left Now Knows That Threatening To Riot Works - The Federalist

Confronted with an unknown virus from a foreign land last spring, governors and mayors acted quickly to implement lockdowns they promised to last two weeks, then 30 days, and then until theres a vaccine and now beyond. Some of these adaptations in combating the pandemic included re-examining barriers to health care access and ways to ease the toll on small businesses.

The effort prompted states worldwide to reconsider a wide array of government rules and regulations and to reevaluate whether they were even necessary in the first place. The answer has been consistently no.

People realized there were a lot of regulations that would just get in the way of this new method of living, Iain Murray, a senior fellow and vice president for strategy at the libertarian-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute told The Federalist. And then they realized if those regulations arent appropriate during a pandemic, are they really appropriate during normal times?

The Competitive Enterprise Institute was among the several organizations proactive in efforts to make the rollbacks of pandemic regulations permanent. The group released a report one year ago this week identifying an entire laundry list of regulations policymakers ought to repeal amid the pandemic and make such changes permanent.

We have already seen that many regulations have proven to hinder or delay appropriate policy responses. Other regulations are or were making things worse than they otherwise would be, Murray wrote. In many cases, it is now clear that these regulations were never needed, or that whatever justification they once had has been superseded.

Murrays recommendations stretched from streamlining processes for drug approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ending bans on plastic bags. While some temporary rule suspensions have outlasted others, such as Hawaiis pause on its plastic bag ban reinstated earlier this month, other regulations appear on track to be statutes of a bygone era, and politicians appear to be taking note.

If a regulation needs to be suspended during a crisis, we have to ask ourselves, why was it there in the first place? asked Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy at his state of the state in January. And can we live without it?

Of all the temporary rule changes to come with the pandemic, Murray told The Federalist, a revolution in telemedicine is most promising to last. At both the state and federal level, pandemic policy changes have allowed health care providers to offer services from home rather than a professional medical setting, with appointments given to remote patients.

I do think telemedicine is here to stay, Murray said, optimistic the public, along with state and federal lawmakers have found utility in the technology already in the pipeline pre-pandemic.

Mei Kwong, the executive director of the Center for Connected Health Policy, told The Federalist she agrees, though states she said, would be quicker to enact changes as is historically consistent.

Some states have already started to make some of these policies permanent, Kwong said.

According to a state tracker of pandemic rules by the Center for Connected Health Policy, permanent policies aimed to expand telemedicine have been either passed or proposed in at least California, Washington D.C., Maryland, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

Kwong said temporary rules broadly implemented across much of the country such as removal of geographic barriers and opening up audio-only avenues for mental health services have been significantly beneficial to allow people to continue to receive needed care.

Can you imagine going a year without services that you might have needed? Kwong said. The expansion of telehealth, she added, also likely brought more people to seek health care because of ease of access.

While restaurants have suffered the brunt of pandemic closures, often targeted as the first to be shut down by politicians and health officials, the National Restaurant Association declared alcohol-to-go a magic potion for struggling businesses.

An industry already operating on razor-thin profit margins was ripe for devastation in the face of a pandemic maneuvered by people in power who declared it non-essential. The removal of red-tape barriers which prohibit alcohol pick-up and delivery, however, has been a lifeline to keep many struggling enterprises afloat with extra income.

According to the National Restaurant Association regulation tracker, 45 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. implemented rules for legal alcohol delivery and/or pick-up at some point during the pandemic. Forty of these rules are still in place, and at least seven have become permanent. Several states, including California, Connecticut, and Arkansas are exploring legislation to expand outdoor dining spaces permanently after the pandemic pushed indoor dining outside.

In Denver, the city council approved permanent delivery for marijuana sales on the cannabis holiday April 20, also known as 4/20. The state had already approved laws for marijuana delivery in 2019, though municipalities had to opt in to participate.

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Pandemic Policies That Slashed Government Regulations Deserve To Stay - The Federalist

Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech said the United States needs to treat communist China as the threat it is by repelling its attempts to exploit American culture wars for its gain.

A year and a half ago, I was standing in the streets of Hong Kong, watching as a group of some of the bravest people Ive ever seen stared down the forces of communist wrath, Domenech said on his third night guest-hosting Fox News Primetime. I met and interviewed these young people barely old enough to buy a drink and talk to them about their tragic doomed, struggle against Beijing, trying to hold on to the Hong Kong they knew and loved.

The Chinese Communist Party, Domenech said, continued its power grab and crackdown through the COVID-19 panic, to the benefit of elites.

China made great use of this pandemic, which came from Wuhan and its not racist to say that. They cracked down on Hong Kong and brought these freedom-minded young people to their knees. And all the while, American interests from the NBA to Apple to Google to the Biden family were happy to look the other way, Domenech explained.

Domenech said other American corporations such as Disney are also guilty of putting their business interests with the communist regime before everything else.

You know all about the Disney corporations abundant ties the worst aspects of the Chinese regime. Meanwhile, Agnes Chow, the beautiful 23-year-old whose supporters call her the real Mulan, was willing to go to prison for her beliefs: a simple, straightforward idea that people are born with the right to be free, Domenech said.

Growing up, Domenech said he often saw the Soviet Union depicted as an evil empire, but communist China, despite its long list of human rights abuses and wrongs, does not receive the same treatment.

The Russians were bent on world domination and time and again on the silver screen, Americans would fight back against them, Where are such depictions of China today? he asked. The Chinese Communist Party subjugates its people. It has embarked on a mission of genocide against the Uyghur Muslims, it threatens Taiwan, it hacks our government, its a malevolent force in the world that humiliates our feckless bureaucrats by invoking the same arguments as critical race theorists.

Communist China, Domenech concluded, is run by deeply evil people who make the perfect villains.

But Hollywood doesnt show us that. Instead, they take the Taiwan flag off the Top Gun jacket. They depict Chinas beneficent friend in movies like The Martian. Even American directors like Michael Bay are compromised by trying to appeal to the Chinese market, Domenech continued. What this generation sees on the screen matters. The culture wars are real, but when it comes to China, it feels like only one nation is fighting them.

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Ben Domenech: Fighting Communist China Is Part Of Winning The Culture War - The Federalist

NBC Nightly News deceptively edited the 911 call and footage of a fatal police-involved shooting in its Wednesday night segment to conceal that the teenage girl who was shot and killed was charging another girl with a knife.

In the original body camera video released shortly after the shooting, 16-year-old MaKhia Bryant is shown running at another girl with the deadly weapon. The officer responding to the scene can be heard calling for everyone to get down several times before he fired off four shots directed at Bryant.

The audio featured on one of NBCs most popular shows, however, omitted parts of the 911 call featuring frantic cries for help from people who claimed a girl was trying to stab us. Instead, NBC chose a quick audio clipping of someone saying, We need a police officer here now.

While other corporate media outlets made a point to note the knife in Bryants hand, sometimes zooming in and freezing the video where it showed her wielding the weapon, NBC simply glossed over it and merely stated that authorities claimed, She was threatening others with a knife.

Body camera footage shows a knife on the ground, NBC stated, showing a screenshot of a knife lying in the driveway at the scene.

NBCs unwillingness to feature all the evidence follows an evidenceless narrative created by media outlets, activists, and even the White House that this shooting was racially motivated.

She was a child, the White House said in a statement. We know that police violence disproportionately impacts black and Latino people and communities and that black women and girls, like black men and boys, experience higher rates of police violence.

Earlier this week, CBS News cropped body camera footage that showed a 13-year-old boy holding a gun before he was fatally shot by Chicago police in March. The video released this month appears to show Toledo holding a weapon moments before he was shot, but CBS News posted a clip to its website and Twitter page that cropped out parts of the footage that showed the teens alleged firearm.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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NBC Deceptively Edits 911 Call, Bodycam Video Of Police Shooting To Hide Teen Wielding Knife - The Federalist

New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is faced with another inquiry revealed this week by the New York Times, which reported on Monday that the state attorney generals office launched a probe into government resources used for his pandemic book on leadership.

The book, American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic, was published last fall as Cuomo took a nationwide victory lap to celebrate the glowing media coverage of his tenure despite the state leading with its COVID fatality rate while thousands died in nursing homes under the governors order to admit infected patients into long-term care facilities.

The Times reported that Cuomo is accused of assigning junior staffers to edit early drafts, sit in on pitch meetings, and assist with minor tasks such as printing and delivering manuscripts to the governors mansion. Cuomo denied any of the work was substantial and claimed, according to the Times, that all was voluntary, while minor tasks might have been incidental. Cuomo received a seven-figure advance on the manifesto, according to the New York Post.

The book probe marks the fourth official inquiry facing the embattled governor, whose pandemic arc has taken Cuomo from corporate media-hailed hero of the Empire State to scandal-ridden emperor who now faces nearly a dozen allegations of sexual misconduct and manipulation of pandemic data to cover up failures in nursing homes.

After news began to surface that the Cuomo administration appeared to hide nearly 3,000 COVID-19 nursing home deaths from public view while hit with charges of sexual misconduct, Cuomos book publisher announced in March that the group would not reissue his manifesto in paperback and halted its promotion.

While New York reported just shy of 6,500 nursing home deaths from COVID-19 for much of the pandemic, New York Times reporting suggests the true toll exceeds 9,000. The FBI has launched a probe of the administrations handling of nursing homes.

The New York attorney generals office and the state legislature, in an impeachment inquiry, are also investigating allegations of sexual abuse.

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Another Cuomo Probe Investigates Use Of State Resources For His Book - The Federalist