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‘Service members died!’ CNN host schools GOP lawmaker in heated scrap
CNN's Briana Keilar on Monday got into a heated exchange with Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) over the Biden administration's Middle East policy, which he said was emboldening Iran to sign off on proxy attacks on American soldiers.
During an interview, Keilar argued to Waltz that figuring out how to deter Iran-backed proxies had plagued multiple administrations, including Trump's whose policies Waltz touted as a better alternative.
"I know you're critical of President Biden, that you think he is emboldening Iran, but how should the U.S. respond when even former President Trump -- I mean, you said that peace broke out [under his watch], but his direct and controversial action like taking out [late Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani] did not stop the deadly attacks on U.S. troops," she noted.
READ MORE: Big Trump secret about to be revealed
Waltz replied that Trump ordered the assassination of Soleimani after Iran-backed proxies had launched multiple strikes on the U.S. and its allies, and he claimed that those strikes single-handedly fixed the problem.
"They launched some missiles and that was it!" he claimed.
"Service members died!" Keilar interjected.
"Who died, post-Soleimani strike?" Waltz demanded to know.
"March 2020, service members died," she said. "You had Iranian-backed proxies... the one in March was determined that it likely was [Iran] and you had service members, two Americans and one Brit, who were killed... So if we're talking realistically on what deters and what does not deter the proxies, then let's use those facts to talk about what might actually be a way to... get them to stop."
Watch the video below or at this link.
Keilar gets into heated exchange with GOP lawmaker www.youtube.com
‘By far the dumbest’: Right ruthlessly ridiculed for new Taylor Swift conspiracy theory
A new conservative conspiracy theory that the Super Bowl will be rigged to prop up Taylor Swift’s imminent endorsement of President Joe Biden is being torn to shreds by critics who call it “by far the dumbest.”
The Bulwark’s Sonny Bunch Monday took to X to vent frustrations over the strange theory — centered on Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight-end Travis Kelce — detailed in a new Rolling Stone report.
“Of all the dumb things the nascent nouveau right has tried over the years, attempting to turn conservatives against the NFL is by far the dumbest,” Bunch wrote.
While Rolling Stone takes time to detail how Swift’s perceived liberal politics and Kansas City’s AFC victory Sunday have created an NFL “scriptwriting” narrative, Bunch doesn’t pull the punch of his summary.
"Two hot celebrities dating is a psyop culminating in the Illuminati fixing the Super Bowl so you'll have to get vaccinated," he writes. "Get people to say the dumbest s--- imaginable ... and they'll believe anything."
The conspiracy theory has been shared by people including former President Donald Trump ally Laura Loomer, failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, and Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, reports and social media show.
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“Thinking about when Taylor Swift called out the Soros family in 2019 for buying the rights to her music and then how she came out a super liberal in 2020,” Posobiec told X followers Sunday.
“I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” Ramaswamy replied.
Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramirez wasn’t impressed by the conclusions drawn, which she argues ignore some pertinent information.
“One must really stretch the depths of credulity to convince oneself that Swift’s success isn’t a result of her record-breaking songs, albums, tours, movies, and a career that has redefined the music industry, but rather a government psyop that forced her to date an NFL star and take up entertainment as a career,” she writes.
“It’s all really stupid.”
Several X users following news of the theory agreed.
“Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 but this time it’s definitely a psy op,” wrote Noam Blum. “Amazing that people buy this grift horses--- and ask for seconds.”
"Trump’s insecure brand of fascism requires constant attention and seeks to insert itself into every situation,” wrote GQ editor Luke Zaleski. “Like a kindergartener acting like he doesn’t like the girl he’s crushing on in hopes he’ll to trick her into liking him."
E. Jean Carroll jury just delivered a big ‘message’ to Trump with its huge verdict: expert
A legal expert said Friday that the jury in Donald Trump's defamation trial wanted to deliver a very clear message when it hit him with a massive amount of damages.
The former president was ordered to pay $83.3 million after a civil jury sided with writer E. Jean Carroll as her lawyers described how the former president defamed her. Of that, $65 million was in punitive damages, which are meant to punish the defendant.
The substantial amount comes after Carroll had already been awarded damages of $5 million in an earlier defamation and sexual abuse trial last year.
In Friday's decision, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig believes the amount they came to — far greater than the $10 million her legal team initially sought — was intentionally high to send a strong message.
"This is a massive number, far in excess of anything I think anyone really expected —18 times the amount of the verdict in the first trial. ... [Her] lawyers explicitly asked the jury to send a message and that is what they have done," he said during an appearance on CNN's "The Lede" with Jake Tapper minutes after the verdict was reported.
Honig continued: $60 million dollars in punitive damages — that is a message to a person who essentially the jury says we don't think you can be deterred for anything less than this massive amount of money."
Trump has already vowed he will appeal.
"Absolutely ridiculous," he posted on Truth Social. "I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party. Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!"
His attorney Alina Habba also appeared before a scrum of reporters saying "there was no proof" and complained that her "experts were denied".
"We are seeing a violation of our justice system," she said.
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Honig also pointed out that, historically, Trump's success legally in the Empire State has been touch and go.
"The broad notion is that New York juries are not friendly to [former] President Trump, I think that's pretty clear," he said.
The sexual assault revelations came during Trump’s presidency when Carroll, now 80, claimed she was in a dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman in 1996 when he attacked her.
She claims Trump since went on to publicly defame her, telling reporters “She’s not my type” and “Totally lying. I don’t know anything about her." “I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”
The latest trial involved defamatory comments he made while president, and are separate from the comments he was found liable for in his first trial. The judge had already found him liable the second time, and the jury was solely considering damages.
‘Absolutely ridiculous!’: Trump reacts after being hit with $83.3M verdict
Donald Trump on Friday reacted to the news that he was being ordered to pay more than $80 million in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case.
Trump, who testified in the trial but was limited in what he could say because it was solely about determining damages and not liability, said it is "absolutely ridiculous" that he was hit with such a high damages verdict. That amount is on top of the $5 million Trump was previously ordered to pay after the first Carroll trial last year.
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Trump posted his response on his own social media site, Truth Social.
"I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party," Trump wrote on Friday. "Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon. They have taken away all First Amendment Rights. THIS IS NOT AMERICA!"
Pastor accused of $3M scheme to rip off parishioners says perhaps he ‘misheard God’
A pastor says he may have misunderstood his divine instruction after being accused of a scheme to defraud his parishioners out of $3.2 million, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
Eligio Regalado, who goes by Eli, and his wife, Kaitlyn Regalado, are being charged by the Colorado Securities Commissioner.
According to the legal filing, the Regalados invented their own Christian cryptocurrency which they sold through the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, an online body they also created. The cryptocurrency went under the name INDXcoin.
"The action, filed in Denver District Court, seeks preliminary and injunctive relief, damages for investors and for a constructive trust to be placed on the Defendants’ property," described the release from Commissioner Tung Chan.
From June 2022 to April 2023, INDXcoin scored nearly $3.2 million thanks to investments by more than 300 people in the "Christian community," the legal filing states. Regalado, who is based in Denver, said that God directly told him investors would be wealthy if they threw all of their money into INDXcoin.
"The Lord said: I want you to build this,” Regalado told individuals, according to the filing. “We took God at his word and sold a cryptocurrency with no clear exit.”
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“Either I misheard God, and every one of you who prayed and came in — you as well. Or two, God is still not done with this project,” Regalado said, implying that it would still deliver.
The couple had no experience in cryptocurrency, the Washington Post reported. A third-party audit called the effort "unsafe, unsecured and riddled with serious technical problems." The legal filing called it practically worthless.
“We allege that Mr. Regalado took advantage of the trust and faith of his own Christian community and that he peddled outlandish promises of wealth to them when he sold them essentially worthless cryptocurrencies,” said Commissioner Chan. “New coins and new exchanges are easy to create with open source code. We want to remind consumers to be very skeptical.”
‘Pure, uncut Trumpism’ now infects GOP so much there’s ‘nothing he can do to lose’: report
Republican voters have already shown they overwhelmingly prefer to keep Donald Trump in control of their party.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out Sunday after falling short in Iowa, and Nikki Haley could be out of the race soon unless she surprises in New Hampshire, showing that GOP voters don't want Trump "lite" when the real deal is running for his third nomination, reported Wall Street Journal columnist Molly Ball.
"What the GOP’s most loyal voters want, it seems, is pure, uncut Trumpism — with all the baggage and ideological divergence from traditional conservatism that entails," Ball wrote.
"Between DeSantis’s withdrawal and Haley’s having little apparent path forward barring a major upset, the race could well be effectively over by Wednesday, the party having passed up yet another opportunity to turn the page on a polarizing, multiply-indicted fabulist who lost the last election and has never won the popular vote."
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Both Haley and DeSantis tried to appeal to voters who liked Trump but would prefer an alternative, but the Iowa results and polls in New Hampshire and elsewhere make clear Republicans have no interest in turning the page on the former president, Ball wrote.
“The Republican Party we knew isn’t coming back,” the anti-Trump Republican Sarah Longwell posted on X. “GOP voters don’t want it back. They don’t want limited government, free markets, and American leadership in the world. They want isolationism, an authoritarian crackpot president, and a big government that enforces their worldview.”
The party's Reaganites thought they might wait for the fever to break and reclaim the party, but anti-Trump Republicans think that will never happen, she wrote.
“I’m never surprised — that went out the window six or seven years ago — but I can’t lie, I’m still profoundly disappointed,” said former GOP congressman Joe Walsh, who launched a long-shot challenge against Trump in 2020. “The fact that Trump incited and led an insurrection and they didn’t throw him into Siberia proved there’s nothing he can do to lose the base.”
