Category Archives: Federalist

Amid the media frenzy surrounding President Joe Bidens decision to pull his Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) pick, David Chipman, the National Rifle Association (NRA) tells The Federalist that no Biden nominee will respect the constitutional rights of Americans.

The NRA does not expect an administration as anti-gun and radical as Bidens to nominate anyone who supports the Second Amendment and cares for the constitutional rights of American citizens, NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter said. That said, were pleased we defeated Chipman, who was on record as a radical gun control proponent and who could have imposed widespread bans and countless attacks on [Second Amendment] rights.

Biden yanked Chipmans nomination Thursday after it became clear not enough lawmakers would back him. The senior policy advisor at Giffords, a gun-control group, has been roundly scrutinized for his controversial positions and actions. As The Federalist reported in July, Chipman claimed in 2019 he was frustrated by the First Amendment freedom of gun owners to say things he disapproved of.

Republican leadership indicated to The Federalist that Chipman was an inadequate nominee and other potential picks must show consideration for the rights of Americans.

Mr. Chipmans disregard for the Second Amendment was radical, even for the Senate Democrats who killed his nomination, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said. Leader McCarthy would support a nominee who stands with law enforcement and respects the Second Amendment a glaring omission in Mr. Chipmans resume.

A baseline qualification for anyone to be considered for this position would be a strong support for the Second Amendment and the rights of law-abiding gun owners, said Lauren Fine, spokeswoman for House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

While the NRA is pleased with Chipmans withdrawal, the organization is still convinced the Biden administration has little regard for the Second Amendment. In August, for instance, Republicans on the Second Amendment caucus slammed the White House for altering the legal definition of a firearm.

In Chipmans defeat, weve won the most immediate threat to our rights, Hunter said. But, we expect many more battles in the future as long as Biden remains in office.

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NRA: Blocking Chipman Is A Win But Biden's War On Gun Rights Isn't Over - The Federalist

Casualties Police Officer Fatalities1 Police Officers Assaulted/Injured1402,03712 Non-Officers Who DiedAshli Babbitt, 3 others6-20+Arrests>57016,241234Federal Charges Assault17544101 Weapons>6079Estimated Damage~$1.5M$1B-$2B>$100KPretrial DetentionAt least 50 defendants transported to D.C. jail from home states; some reportedly subjected to solitary confinement; alleged abuse by prison guards, including beatings, and denial of routine access to family and attorneys. Many held without bail on misdemeanor charges in separate D.C. lockup designated for Capitol rioters.50 detained pre-trial; prosecutors appealed judges decisions to release from detention in at least 18 casesN/APretrial Detention DurationDozens held for months or longerSeveral held for monthsNo reporting indicating lengthy detentionsCase OutcomesNonviolent offenders without criminal histories given months of jail time; one dropped case.In most of a dozen major jurisdictions, 90%+ of citations/charges dropped, dismissed, or otherwise not filed; D.C. prosecutors dropped most felony rioting charges; feds dismissed or are on track to dismiss charges in majority of Portland, Ore., cases largely stemming from violence around federal buildings.21 guilty pleas, all other cases (>200) dismissedGovernment ClassificationDomestic TerrorismRiotsRiotOrganizations ImplicatedOath Keepers, Proud Boys, Three PercentersBLM; antifa; anti-BLM/anti-antifa groups#DisruptJ20 anti-fascist, anti-capitalist umbrella organizationDuration~5 hours from initial violence to orderWeeks~30 minutesScopeSingle event; single location~8,700 events, 574 involving violent acts; 140+ citiesSingle event, multiple locations in one cityInvasions of Public SpaceDefacement of PropertyOther Incidents Explosions Shootings by Participants Arson Looting Impeding Traffic Vehicular CrimesDangerous Weapons EncounteredKnives, flag poles, fire extinguishers, baseball bats, tasers, crowbars, tomahawk axesFirearms, incendiary devices including Molotov cocktails, vehicles, rocks, bricks, bottles (frozen water and glass), fireworks including those improvised to explode; poles and bats (metal and wooden), hammers, wood, cinderblocksHammers, crowbars, poles (metal and wood), wooden sticks, bricks, rocks, pieces of concrete, lighters, flares, firecrackers, other explosive devicesViolent Protester TacticsBludgeoning with poles and bats; pushing and trampling; crushing in doorways; spraying of chemical irritantsShooting at officers; throwing Molotov cocktails at officers standing at skirmish lines, or behind officers to trap them between fire and protesters; throwing dangerous objects at officers from elevated positions; using peaceful protesters as human shields; targeting officers eyes with lasers; doxing police officers; aggressive tactics to free arrestees from police custody; use of weapons caches and snack vans to conceal weaponsMass of several hundred descended on streets in a bloc clad in black with faces covered to avoid identification, armed in some cases with crowbars, hammers to cause mayhemDamage DescriptionBroken glass, doors; graffiti; varying damage to statues, murals, historic benches, original shutters, primarily from pepper spray accretions and residue from chemical irritants, fire extinguishersBurned buildings and cars, looted stores, smashed storefronts, property destruction, graffitiSmashed windows, fires, damaged vehiclesInvestigative/Prosecutorial RigorAuthorities call this one of the largest and most complex investigations in history concerning the most dangerous threat to democracy. They collected >200,000 tips, >15,000 hours of footage, >80,000 reports related to interviews of suspects and witnesses and other investigative steps; over 93,000 associated attachments. They reportedly requested, obtained, used private customer data from banks in pursuit of suspects. They also reportedly collected private cellphone data and communications data including records from members of Congress and staff in connection with investigation.Justice Dept. designated New York, Portland, Seattle as cities permitting violence and property destruction. Most major city DAs dismissed charges en masse, choosing not to prosecute protest-related cases. One would only pursue cases with multiple charges; some prosecutors refused to charge those arrested for felony crimes committed during protests despite availability of video evidence and confessions.Federal authorities reviewed 650 hours of video from police officer body cameras, cellphones, undercover cops, helicopter cameras; confiscated 188 protester cellphones; sought 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors to Disruptj20.org website, but when challenged in court, dropped request, ultimately claiming they were solely concerned with a small and focused group of individuals who visited site pursuant to singular focus in this case of investigating the planning, organization, and participation in the January 20, 2017 riot.Alleged Investigative/Prosecutorial AbusesJudges and prosecutors have cited defendants views regarding elections as indicating their danger. Charging documents frequently cite views on election fraud as suggesting wrongdoing. Judge found one defendant deprived of due process rights over withheld evidence. The federal government has kept from public view >14,000 hours of footage while selectively publishing clips. Other anomalies: slow-walking of trials; one court-appointed attorney provided reading lists to defendants to educate clients and dissuade them from purportedly wrongheaded views; another court-appointed attorney representing Jacob Chansley, a.k.a. QAnon Shaman, disparaged January 6 defendants in a May 2021 interview with Talking Points Memo, stating A lot of these defendantstheyre all f-cking short-bus people. At least one judge has questioned whether Justice Dept. is flouting the Constitutions speedy-trial clause.Claims of unprecedented wave of federal prosecutions against protesters; excessive pretrial detentionD.C. ultimately reached $1.6M settlement in two lawsuits alleging riot arrests without cause, unlawful confinement conditions, use of excessive force. Judge found government withheld evidence in certain cases. Prosecutions legal strategy decried by left as seeking to criminalize many for actions of few, through liberal riot culpability standard; slow-walking of trials.FalloutDevelopment and initiation of Biden admin countering domestic terror strategy; second impeachment of President Trump and social media banning; numerous congressional probes including January 6 Select Committee likely to span many months; lockdown of Capitol Hill; Capitol Police expansion of operations outside of D.C.Dramatic rise in homicides and aggravated assaults continuing into 2021, corresponding with declining arrest figures in several major cities; major cities facing wave of police retirements, resignations, and hiring issuesN/A

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Compare The 2017 Inauguration Riot, 2020 Riots, And 2021 Capitol Riot - The Federalist

Some on the right saw a golden opportunity for A-Class mockery when Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez showed up to this years annual Met Gala wearing a ridiculous white dress that said tax the rich on its backside.

There is nothing to laugh at or make fun of here. This is simply another example of those in power, those running our most influential cultural and political institutions, sending a message: Theres a new social hierarchy in America. And this one isnt about what you can afford to do, its about what youre allowed to do.

The more important image from the dress saga isnt the one now meme-ified a million times over, wherein mini Jenny from the Block is seen posing alone, looking back over her shoulder so the text can be seen by the camera. Its the one Ocasio-Cortez posted on Twitter, apparently being fitted for the dress. The congresswoman is not wearing a face covering. But the woman who helped her into the gown is.

Thats the way this works now. The misery of social distancing and mask-wearing during the pandemic, both pushed by Democrats and the experts, are for you, the help, to endure. Not the rich and famous. Not the ones who establish and insist on those rules.

Recall that just a few days ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the medias favorite sex symbol, lectured Americans about gathering outdoors the safest place possible at sporting events. I dont think its smart, he said on CNN, before dropping that timeless wisdom about strapping masks to your face, even when having gone through the trouble of being vaccinated against COVID-19.

Interesting. That was in August, which was the same month that former President Barack Obama, weeks earlier, was seen on video getting amp at an indoor birthday party with hundreds of guests and service staff in Marthas Vineyard. Fauci wasnt invited on national television to weigh in on that one. Or if he was, he declined.

Dukes County, where Marthas Vineyard is located, had been on an upward trend of new coronavirus infections since early July, just like almost everywhere else. Why should that particular place be the exception to host a massive indoor bash without masks? Guests at the Obama party were supposedly required to have been vaccinated, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began advising face coverings for even the vaccinated when indoors back in late July.

And New York Times reporter Annie Karni was sure to do her part reinforcing our new social order by explaining on CNN that the Obama party attendees were a sophisticated, vaccinated crowd.

Its not enough that you did what you were told was the right thing and got vaccinated. You now have to be sophisticated to enjoy large gatherings. And by sophisticated, they certainly dont mean you.

Its been happening over and over. It was also in August that Democrat Rep. Rashida Tlaib was seen in a video on social media, dancing at an indoor wedding in Dearborn, Michigan. She wore no mask, even though cases in Wayne County, where Dearborn is located, were climbing at a quick clip at that time.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is another one seen in recent weeks at yet another indoor wedding, beaming for photos with no mask on her face. That event was in New Mexico, where the governor had put in place a universal indoor mask mandate.

It started off looking like obscene hypocrisy: Democrat Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot shutting down salons and then getting a handsome haircut. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting a closed stylist in San Francisco, against government orders, for a maskless primping. Democrat New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio overseeing the closure of gyms before heading to a fitness center for a quick pump. Democrat D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser reinstating an indoor mask mandate before attending an indoor wedding reception without a face cover.

When its so frequent and with no penalty, its no longer a matter of hypocrisy. Its just the way these people think the order is supposed to be.

And its not just masks. Recall Democrat Missouri Rep. Cori Bush calling to defund the police and then retaining her own private security. Thats the way she truly believes it should be.

The tax the rich dress wasnt a display of hypocrisy. It was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez reinforcing the new hierarchy.

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AOC's Dress Wasn't About Hypocrisy, It Was About The Social Hierarchy - The Federalist

The Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech was joined by Miranda Devine, a New York Post columnist and Fox News contributor, on the Ben Domenech Podcast to talk about what the corporate media wont cover, lessons since 9/11, and her new book, Laptop From Hell: Hunter Biden, Big Tech, and the Dirty Secrets the President Tried to Hide.

What sets apart American media in this current moment, from the rest of the world in the attitude the media has toward these partisan debates that were going through, and toward other fellow media members? Domenech asked.

I always had thought of the American mode [of journalism] as being more protected against pressures to be partisan and to lie and to [push] propaganda, Devine said, but it turned out to be more exquisitely vulnerable. Outlets like The New York Times and the Washington Post are still capable of solid journalism at moments, she added, but they have so sullied the idea of objectivity that they are now routinely publishing propaganda that services one side of politics.

The Biden administration, furthermore, is demonizing their opponents while bemoaning a lack of national unity, Domenech noted. Meanwhile, corporate media outlets have forsaken their old practice of sticking up for journalists of other political views simply for the sake of their professions integrity, with the treatment of the New York Posts Hunter Biden laptop revelations being a prime example.

The information about Joe Biden from Hunters laptop should have disqualified him from office, Devine said, and yet the story was actively suppressed it was a collusion of Big Tech, Facebook and Twitter, and The New York Times, CNN, Politico, all these august journalistic organizations decided to go mum on it.

This suppression campaign, which is all you can call it, got a big assist from the former intelligence community, Devine added. Fifty former spooks, she said, all signed an open letter to say this had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation operation, and that was a complete lie.

Do you believe that ultimately we will learn the truth about the various deals that have been done [involving Hunter Biden], the amount of money that has sloshed through into the Biden family coffers? Domenech asked Devine. Or is this a situation where even when we do learn it, the power of the media cathedral to spin this narrative the way they want is going to mean that most Americans remain unfamiliar with it?

Hunters antics, you can only see as part of Joe Bidens, Devine said. Joe used his son as the bagman for the family. This is not a story about Hunter Biden, addict. This is a story about Joe Biden and his 50 years of corruption in the state of Deleware which he then globalized when he became vice president.

Domenech and Devine also reflected on the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and lessons learned since then. The feeling of camaraderie and unity was incredible, Devine remembered. It was like wartime.

Since then, however, the 20 years of war has really profoundly demoralized Americans because you had successive administrations that didnt know why they were sending soldiers over there, she added. Ultimately now were trying to grapple with all those years of wasted effort which was brought to an unholy conclusion by the worst person possible in Joe Biden.

While the American spirit which was on display after 9/11 is whats kept everything going and kept us safe, Devine said, unfortunately there is this malign influence now inside this country which is weakening it from within, and thats coming from the left.

Republicans should realize that the left never misses an opportunity to capitalize on misfortune, she added, and should stop expecting Democrats to work with them in a bipartisan way. Im hoping the red pilling thats happening with the Biden presidency will wake up a lot of people.

Listen to the full recording here.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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What The Campaign To Suppress The Hunter Biden Story Tells Us - The Federalist

President Joe Biden has a vaccine problem, and it isnt that nearly half of Americans arent vaccinated against COVID-19.Its that every single thing the Biden administration does and says, paired with everything the massive federal bureaucracy does and says, absolutely destroys all confidence in the shot.

Take, for example, the massive clash going on right now between the administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As Politico reported on Monday, the president is mad because he wants to propel his vaccine campaign with a booster shot by Sept. 20 and the CDC isnt cooperating. The CDC is annoyed in turn because it says the White Houses plans are unrealistic.

Its a bit of a he said, she said, as far as who is holding out on whom because, of course, the administration and federal agency each have their own agenda and special interests. Either way you look at it, however, confidence in the vaccine is a casualty.

The agency that changed its guidelines under pressure from anti-science and partisan teachers unions is at war with the Biden administration that skates by under the Science(TM) banner but stoked vaccine hesitancy before they even got into office. No matter who wins the booster fight, who can trust them? Never mind the subtext to the whole debate, which is that the immunity afforded by these injections doesnt last all that long.

Thats just the administrations latest self-sabotage of faith in the vaccine. Heres another, straight from Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday night:

According to the second-in-command, the plan for ending this pandemic is By vaccinating the unvaccinated and protecting the vaccinated.

Thats exactly what we are committed to doing, she said proudly. What? Presumably, the way to protect the unvaccinated is to vaccinate them. But according to Harris, the vaccinated also need protecting, probably in the form of more testing, more masking, and more all in this together transmission mitigating which is exactly what we were doing before the vaccine, so why vaccinate?

Consider the same sort of curious mixed messaging from the president last week when he announced his plan for the Department of Labor to issue an invasive emergency overreach into every company of more than 100 employees that would require the jab or endless negative testing.

We are going to protect the vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers, he declared in a video posted to Twitter, seemingly totally unaware that he destroyed the premise for getting the vaccine in the first place. If the vaccine does indeed protect those who have gotten it, why does he need to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated?

None of these recent PR disasters are surprising, though. After all, this is the same president who wore a mask while far away from other people after being fully vaccinated on live television. This is the same vice president who said before the election that if Donald Trump tells us that we should take [the vaccine], Im not taking it.

This is the same bureaucracy that lied about COVID-19 origins, rushed the vaccines Food and Drug Administration approval, and told the vaccinated that actually, yeah, they should keep wearing masks. This is the same administration that works with Big Tech to flag coronavirus news it doesnt like as misinformation and tells low-income workers they must comply with vaccine mandates, jump through nonsensical hoops to prove theyre healthy, or else be fired.

Biden says his patience is wearing thin with those disobedient Americans who remain unvaccinated. But if the coronavirus shot is really that critical for the unvaxxed masses, the worst thing Biden and his administration can do is to keep talking. There were never as many reasons to distrust the vaccine as there are right now, and thats on him.

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Joe Biden Is The Reason Millions Of Americans Don't Want A COVID Shot - The Federalist

The recent federal vaccine mandate is unconstitutional and is another example of President Joe Bidens horrific leadership, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.

This is a guy who criticizes the state of Florida for protecting parents rights. He says school boards should be able to eliminate parents rights and force five-year-old kids to wear masks all day, DeSantis said at a veterans appreciation event at Ponte Vedra Beach. Thats what he thinks is appropriate government. Yet, here he comes from Washington, DC instituting an unprecedented mandate, which even his own people have acknowledged in the past is not constitutional. Thats not leadership.

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will force employers with more than 100 employees to mandate the COVID-19 test or require that employees receive weekly testing. The mandate comes after countless administrative officials including White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Biden himself promised the federal government wouldnt mandate COVID-19 injections.

On Friday at a Washington, D.C. middle school, Biden said he was disappointed that some Republican governors have been so cavalier with the health of [kids], so cavalier with the health of their communities. Although Biden didnt mention specific governors, DeSantis has been advocating against vaccine mandates for months.

[Biden says] hes losing patience with people. At the end of the day, we dont live with a one-person rule in this country. We live in a constitutional system, which peoples rights are respected, but particularly in this juncture, their livelihoods and their jobs have to be protected, DeSantis said. Just think about what this mandate would do. Its going to drive people out of work, out of hospitals, out of all this stuff where you have a need for people. So its totally counterproductive, and I think it will ultimately lose in court.

DeSantis said the vaccine mandate would strip jobs and livelihoods from Americans and slammed Biden for a lack of responsibility for the already thousands of jobs lost by executive mandates.

I think the problem I have with Joe Biden, more than anything, this guy doesnt take responsibility for anything. Hes always trying to blame other people, blame other states, DeSantis said. This is a guy that promised when he ran for president, that he would shut down the virus. If you look now theres 300 percent more cases in this country today than a year ago when we had no vaccines at all so his policies are not working.

Biden has been pushing vaccines since he entered office, and the administration said the new vaccine mandate is essential to keeping schools open and helping working Americans.

We owe them a promise to keep their schools open as safe as possible, First Lady Jill Biden said Friday. We owe them a commitment to follow the science. We owe them unity so that we can fight the virus, not each other.

The expansive mandate will require that more than 80 million Americans accept the vaccine, including millions of health facility workers, executive branch employees, and federal contractors. Members of Congress and their staff are exempted from the mandate. The three COVID-19 injections do not prevent individuals from catching or spreading the virus.

DeSantis said he would fight Thursdays mandate.

We have the responsibility to stand up for the Constitution, he said, People should not be cast aside because they make a medical decision for themselves. They should not lose their job. They should not be unable to put food on their table just because they made a different decision than the powers that be are demanding that they make.

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DeSantis Blasts Biden: 'We Don't Have One-Person Rule In This Country' - The Federalist

Its a good thing Wendy Osefo of Bravos The Real Housewives of Potomac let her husband do most of the talking with their children on policing in America. If she had been the one to do it, she likely would have filled their heads with nonsense about cops everywhere shooting unarmed black people for sport.

Osefo told her husband Eddie on the latest episode that the two should talk with their young boys about police and relationships with police. The scene was apparently shot around the time the Derek Chauvin trial was taking place, which Osefo, who is black, said just made me wanting to shelter her kids.

I think its unfair that black parents have to break their childrens innocence to prepare them for the world that they live in, she said.

Fortunately, Eddie took the lead on that conversation and told their boys more or less that some cops are bad, but his wife apparently needs her own special lecture about police and race. She has bought into the media myth that black people, men in particular, are at constant risk of being gunned down by racist cops.

Its a lie, even though dishonest news outlets say things like negative experiences with the police are an unfortunate rite of passage for many Black Americans. That claim appeared in Politico back in June, but lets do something Politico didnt do lets look at data.

The Police-Public Contact Survey conducted every so often by the Justice Department asks respondents about their interactions with law enforcement. The latest surveyis from 2018. That year, just 6.5 million black people said they had any type of contact with police. Among those, just 251,000 of them said they experienced a threat or use of force by law enforcement. This doesnt take into account whether the threat or use of force was justified, but only that a respondent says it happened.

The total black population in the United States sits at 42,640,000, according to the Census. That would mean that barely above half of a percent of the entire black population claims to have experienced a threat or use of force when interacting with police.

When something is experienced by half of a percent of all black people, we probably shouldnt be describing it as a rite of passage for many black Americans.

Now lets look at the worst-case scenario: A black person is shot dead by a cop. The Washington Post tries to keep track of that each year. For the last full year, 2020, the Post says a total of 18 black people died in police shootings. Again, this doesnt account for whether each shooting was justified, only that it happened.

Put another way, 0.00004 percent of the black population in 2020 was killed by cops with guns. For each year that the Post has been keeping track, the number of black people shot dead by cops never got higher than 38 and that was back in 2015.

Thats the devastating reality that Wendy Osefo has been wanting to shelter her kids from? Thats the unfair truth for black parents that break their childrens innocence?

Black kids, like all kids, need to learn about police and what it is they do. But dont let them learn it from Wendy Osefo.

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Don't Let Wendy Osefo Of 'Real Housewives' Explain Police To Your Kids - The Federalist

As the numbers of COVID-19 cases in Florida spike, Republicans are blaming immigrants and Black citizens to distract from their own malfeasance managing the pandemic. While Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are the latest politicians to stir up anti-minority sentiment for political purposes, they are not the first. In 1793, Federalists adopted a similar tactic and blamed a yellow fever outbreak on immigration. Seven years later, the Federalist Party was soundly defeated in national elections largely because of their anti-immigrant policies.

History suggests the same fate could await Republicans.

In 1793, a particularly deadly outbreak of yellow fever broke out in Philadelphia, the nations temporary capital. Five thousand people, or roughly 10% of the citys population, died during the outbreak. The city was so overwhelmed that officials placed coffins in nearby alleys so that they would be available when patients died.

READ MORE: Long before coronavirus, Philly ran a quarantine center for another deadly contagion

Yellow fever is caused when an infected mosquito bites a human. In the 18th century, the disease existed year-round in warm-weather regions, like parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and New Orleans. As a result, many residents developed immunity and mothers often passed down the required antibodies to their children. However, in Northern cities like New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore that experience deep freezes, the disease emerged only sporadically and as a result often swept across the susceptible population, killing thousands.

Eighteenth-century Americans didnt understand the science behind the disease, but that didnt stop them from developing hypotheses. Two competing theories developed to explain the outbreak, with supporters often choosing sides based on their political identity. Federalists accused people arriving from the Caribbean and Africa of bringing the disease from foreign shores, whereas Democratic-Republicans blamed the unhealthy conditions in cities for spreading the pandemic.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these arguments reflected the partisan views of each party. Federalist support congregated on the coast and in urban areas where merchants and banks flourished, whereas farmers in the western regions and recent immigrants from France, the Caribbean, and Ireland voted for Democratic-Republicans. Each side attacked the others voter base to explain the outbreak.

Both were right to some degree. Outbreaks were often triggered when ships carrying infected mosquitoes arrived from the Caribbean to trade in eastern ports. Once the mosquitoes arrived, they happily bred and multiplied in the standing water that lingered on unpaved streets without sewers, and in the filthy water around the crumbling wharves in the Philadelphia port.

While Federalists concerns about the physical import of disease in the 1700s at least had some factual basis, the same cant be said for DeSantis and Patrick. Florida doesnt share a border with Mexico, rendering DeSantis claims entirely without merit. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine, dismissed DeSantis argument: Given the extensive transmission already in the U.S., the immigration contribution is akin to pouring a bucket of water into a swimming pool. In the Texas case, Patrick has blamed the recent outbreak on unvaccinated Black Americans. The facts resoundingly disprove Patricks claim, as unvaccinated white Texans outnumber unvaccinated Black Texans 3-1.

But the Federalists too spread xenophobia, and actively pursued policies and legislation that undermined immigrants rights. In 1798, Federalists in Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which increased the number of years of residence required for citizenship from five to 14 years, permitted the president to detain and export alien residents of enemy countries, and made it a crime to print, utter, or publish . . . any false, scandalous, and malicious writing about the federal government.

Federalists defended these bills as necessary to prevent political violence and anarchy that they feared would be sparked by lies printed in partisan newspapers. In reality, the bills made it harder for immigrants to become citizens, and therefore harder for immigrants to vote. The Sedition Acts targeted the most outspoken and critical newspaper editors, many of whom were also immigrants.

The backlash against the bills was immediate and sustained until the election in the fall of 1800. Both Democratic-Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, beat Federalist John Adams in the presidential election. Democratic-Republicans also took control of the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time. The losses were so significant that the Federalist Party would never again control the presidency or either house of Congress.

READ MORE: Gov. Wolf isnt pulling harmful COVID-19 stunts like Floridas Ron DeSantis. But hes also not doing enough. | Editorial

DeSantis and Patrick are making the same calculations as the Federalists in 1798. They know that nonwhite voters are more likely to support Democrats, and they are hoping to avert attention from their own failures by fear-mongering and ginning up racist sentiment. Its a gamble. Both Florida and Texas have growing minority populations with ties to the Black and immigrant communities. Hopefully voters in these states will reject the hateful rhetoric, just as voters did in 1800.

Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D., is a presidential historian and senior fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. She is also the author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution. @lmchervinsky.

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Todays Republicans can learn from how their brethren handled yellow fever | Opinion - The Philadelphia Inquirer

The show's new host departed the day after he taped the first five episodes of 'Jeopardy's' 38th season, leading to what will likely stand as its most awkward week ever.

On Monday, Jeopardy! began its 38th season in syndication with even more changes than when it started its 37th season last September but for entirely different reasons. Last year, lockdowns halted production of Jeopardy! and other TV shows in spring 2020 and forced new safety precautions, a spacing out of contestant lecterns and an audience-free soundstage among the most significant.

This year, by contrast, the turmoil at Jeopardy! comes from within rather than from without. Sony Pictures Entertainment named executive producer Mike Richards the shows host on August 11. He lasted but a week in that permanent role, giving up hosting duties on August 19, only to get fired from Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune entirely on August 31.

Sony made the right call in terminating Richards, who failed to inform company executives about boorish comments he had made on several podcasts years ago, even after details of several sexual discrimination lawsuits recently re-emerged. But his departure as host came one day after he taped the first five episodes of Jeopardys 38th season, leading to what will likely stand as Jeopardys most awkward week of episodes ever.

Because Jeopardy! tapes serially i.e., every show features a returning champion Sony cannot as a practical matter not air the Richards episodes. It also cant scrap the shows and re-tape with a different host, as a different contestant might win.

As a result, Sony remained stuck with airing this weeks episodes once. But suffice it to say these episodes likely will never air again, given that they serve as a reminder of how badly the company botched the process of selecting a host to succeed Alex Trebek.

Even though Sony has to air the episodes themselves, that doesnt mean it has to highlight Richardss role in them. Multiple videos released by Sony promoting this weeks episodes say not a word about Richards, and in one case show the Jeopardy! soundstage with contestants behind their lecterns, but no one at the hosts position.

One contestant, who will appear on Fridays episode, tweeted last week that, while he and his fellow contestants took two promotional photos a headshot and a picture with Richards Jeopardy! only sent him the former and not the latter. The omission makes sense on multiple levels; not only does Sony want to sever any reminder of Richardss association with the show, but his termination meant he could not autograph photos with contestants, as Trebek did.

That said, the Jeopardy! producers did not edit the opening segment of Mondays show. Whereas announcer Johnny Gilbert introduced last seasons guest hosts as such, he gave Richards the windup And now, here is the host of Jeopardy! he had heretofore given Trebek alone.

As to Trebek, his name made an appearance during the opening, as his wife and children helped dedicate Stage 10 on the Sony Pictures Studio lot in his honor. The nonagenarian Gilbert, who recorded most of his audio segments from a home studio last season for health and safety reasons, also made a brief on-camera appearance from his usual post in the studio.

But two individuals did not make an appearance. Ken Jennings and Buzzy Cohen, two former Jeopardy! champions who each guest-hosted episodes last season, attended the Trebek dedication ceremony but were reportedly kept off the soundstage during the days taping because Richards reportedly felt unnerved by their presence.

Amidst the awkwardness of this Jeopardy! drama, champion Matt Amodio has become almost an afterthought. On Monday, he won his 19th consecutive episode, spanning the hosting stints of Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton, David Faber, Joe Buck, and now Richards. His more than $600,000 in winnings ranks third-best ever, behind only Jennings and James Holzhauer, yet most stories about the program over the past month have focused on the failed host search.

In rolling out the shows 38th season, Jeopardy! has tried to emphasize its continuity and tradition with the hashtag #TheGameContinues. But the way Sony mangled its search for a new host badly damaged the shows goodwill in the press, with the public, and with regular viewers and alumni (including yours truly).

However, just prior to Richardss removal as executive producer, Sony sources said that, as the Wall Street Journal put it, the ratings for Jeopardy! are holding steady, an indication that while the drama behind the scenes is big among industry insiders and social media, the audience will keep watching the show.

In other words, the same group that offered a business-school case study in poor succession planning over the past few months said they essentially take the shows audience for granted. As for Jeopardy!, yes, the game continues for now. But if the corporate rot that caused the Richards debacle persists, the popular quiz show may find itself pardon the pun in jeopardy.

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'Jeopardy's' Weirdest Week Ever Begins. Will Audiences Stay For It? - The Federalist

By Allen C. Guelzo, Ph. D., Gettysburg CollegeThe Federalists had to accept certain conditions when Virginia assembly passed the ratification. (Image: Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Gwillhickers/Public domain)The Vitriolic Attacks of the Anti-Federalists

The long prelude to the Virginia ratifying convention was a gift to Virginias anti-FederalistsRichard Henry Lee, George Mason, and of course, Patrick Henry. Richard Henry Lee took the lead as a writer, publishing a 64-page pamphlet of extracts from the Constitution along with vitriolic attacks on them; Edmund Randolph published another. Patrick Henry shrewdly frightened those Virginians who had unpaid pre-war debts to British merchants or who had occupied confiscated Tory properties, with the specter of being dragged into faraway federal courts for a shaking down. No speech of Henrys in the assembly, no matter what the topic, ended without some swipe at the Constitution.

Elections to the ratifying convention became fiercely competitive, and in March, Madison, who had been urged by George Washington to stand for election to the convention, had to break off his collaboration with Alexander Hamilton in producing The Federalist in New York. He had to come back to Virginia to stave off a challenge from an anti-Federalist convert, Thomas Barbour, in Orange County. Madison won easily, 202 votes to 56.

This is a transcript from the video series Americas Founding Fathers. Watch it now, on Wondrium.

The real test, however, would come in the ratifying convention itself, which assembled on June 2, 1788, in Richmond. The convention was gaveled to order by Edmund Pendleton after George Wythe, the greatest of Virginias lawyers and judges and on a motion from George Mason, they agreed to begin a full discussion, clause by clause.

But the convention was waiting for Patrick Henry, and on June 4, he announced solemnly: I conceive the republic to be in extreme dangera proposal to change our governmenta proposal that goes to the utter annihilation of the most solemn engagements of the states.

Who authorized them to speak the language of We, the People, instead of We, the States? States are the characteristics andthe soul of a confederation. If the states be not the agents of this compact, it must be one great consolidated national government.

George Mason was quick to follow Henrys line of attack. Mason asked whether a national government could supervise a nation as big as the United States without becoming tyrannical by necessity. Was there ever an instance of a general national government extending over so extensive a country, abounding in such a variety of climates, et cetera, where the people retained their liberty?

Learn more about William Pattersons dissent.

Speaking briefly at the end of the June 4 session, Madison paved the way for Henry Leethe famed Light-Horse Harryto go on the attack. Lee said the expression, We the People, had not been foisted on the Constitutional convention by cunning schemers. In fact, what could be more proper than to begin a constitution by appealing to the people whose sovereignty it embodied?

But it would fall to Madison on June 6 to deliver a resolute dissection of Henrys alarm. Was Patrick Henry fearful for a loss of liberty? Upon a review of history, Madison coolly replied, he would have found that the loss of liberty very often resulted from factions and divisionsfrom local considerations, which eternally lead to quarrelshe would have found internaldissensions to have more frequently demolished civil liberty than consolidated government.

Madison said that the new Constitution had createda middle ground between a disconnected heap of states and a singleconcentrated government. Madison said that the government was not completely consolidated, nor is it entirely federal. Who are parties to it? The peoplebut not the people as composing one great bodybut the people as composing thirteen sovereignties.

Should all the states adopt it, it will be then a government established by the 13 states of America, not through the intervention of the legislatures, but by the people at large. In this particular respect, the distinction between the existing and proposed government was very material and would be found to exclude the evils of absolute consolidation, as well as of a mere confederacy.

Learn more about the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

For nine days, the arguments swayed back and forth, including a powerful speech by Patrick Henry on June 24. On June 25, after three weeks of wrangling, the question was called for, and on a roll call vote demanded by George Mason ratification won 89 to 79.

But the Federalists had not won their victory without conditions. The ratifying resolutions required that any imperfections in the Constitution be remedied by amendments which would guarantee that no right of any religious denomination can be cancelled, abridged, restrained or modified by the Congress, by the senate or House of Representatives, acting in any capacity, by the president, or any department or officer of the United States. Among other essential rights, liberty of conscience and of the press could not be canceled, abridged, restrained or modified by any authority of the United States.

Madison and his fellow Federalists had obtained themost important of the state ratifications and only at the price of pledging themselves to add a bill of rights. The anti-Federalists of New York narrowly followed suit on July 26 after they got the news of Virginias ratification. The Constitution had arrived at last.

On June 25, the question was called for, and on a roll call vote demanded by George Mason ratification won 89 to 79.

James Madison said that it would be a government established by the 13 states of America, not through the intervention of the legislatures, but by the people at large.

Elections to the ratifying convention became fiercely competitive, and James Madison had to come back to Virginia to stave off a challenge from an anti-Federalist convert, Thomas Barbour, in Orange County.

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The Anti-Federalists and the Virginia Ratifying Convention - The Great Courses Daily News