Ex-TikTok Employee Admits He Was Ordered to Send U.S. Data to China

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Ex-TikTok Employee Admits He Was Ordered to Send U.S. Data to China

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A former senior employee at TikTok revealed that he was ordered to send American user data to Beijing-based parent company ByteDance.

The information that was shared with the public by Fortune contradicts TikTok’s public claims of operating independently from China.

From April to September 2022, every two weeks TikTok had been telling Evan Turner, the company’s former senior data scientist, to send email spreadsheets containing millions of American users’ data to ByteDance employees in Beijing, including the users’ names, email addresses, IP addresses and demographics.

He also said that he “literally worked on a project that gave U.S. data to China” even though TikTok had launched Project Texas in March 2022, promising U.S. officials that it would stop sharing American user data with its ByteDance and keep the data in U.S.-based data centers.

“There were Americans [who] were working in upper management that were completely complicit in this,” Turner said.

While his supervisor was switched from a ByteDance executive in Beijing to an American manager in Seattle, a human resources representative told him he would still report to the Beijing-based ByteDance executive, Turner said, while adding that he never met with the American manager and continued to have weekly meetings with the ByteDance executive.

“Even though a spreadsheet is probably a very tiny percentage of all of the information that TikTok collects, it can be extremely targeted and very damaging to certain people. Everyone should be really concerned,” Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute, said.

In January 2024, U.S. lawmakers grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over his company’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, after Joe Biden and Donald Trump voiced national security concerns and tried to restrict the video-sharing platform’s operations in the country, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

The House voted 352-65 last month to ban TikTok unless it is sold to a non-Chinese company, with Biden saying that he would sign the bill should it pass through the Senate.

Soros-Backed Calif. DA Faces Recall Vote after Refusing to Charge Criminals

Luis Cornelio
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Soros-Backed Calif. DA Faces Recall Vote after Refusing to Charge Criminals

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price faces a recall election following widespread criticism of her handling of crime and leniency towards offenders. The county’s registrar announced the official recall on Monday.

The recall election was triggered after the campaign to remove her from office gathered 74,575 valid signatures, exceeding the required 73,195, according to the Registrar of Voters (ROV) of Alameda County, California. 

“The ROV examined each signature as legally required and found the number of valid signatures to be sufficient to call for a recall election. The proponents of the recall have been notified,” stated the ROV in a press release. 

The county is scheduled to certify the recall vote results to the county’s board of supervisors on April 30. 123,374 signatures were submitted, with 48,617 deemed invalid.

Price assumed office in 2022 after campaigning on a left-wing criminal justice platform that included disturbing criticism of law enforcement. According to the Daily Caller, Price’s campaign received $700,000 from the George Soros-backed California Justice and Public Safety PAC.

Upon her inauguration, several prosecutors resigned in protest of her attempt to reduce a sentence in a triple murder case. 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the group leading the recall effort, Alameda for Everyone, welcomed the ROV’s announcement, hailing Tuesday as a historic moment. 

“The resounding support for this recall petition sends a clear message that the people of Alameda County demand accountability and ethical leadership from their elected officials,” remarked Brenda Grisham, an organizer with the recall campaign. 

The organizers enlisted the services of consultants involved in successfully removing disgraced former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin in 2022, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle. 

“We are confident that this grassroots movement will pave the way for positive change and a brighter future for all residents and businesses in Alameda County,” expressed Carl Chan, another organizer involved in the campaign. 

Truth Social Plans to Launch Live Streaming Platform for Canceled Content

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Truth Social Plans to Launch Live Streaming Platform for Canceled Content

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Trump Media and Technology Group announced on Apr. 16, 2024, that it is scaling up a live TV streaming platform for the content that has been previously canceled.

The streaming platform has been in the testing phase for the past six months, according to the press release.

“The streaming content is expected to focus on live TV including news networks, religious channels, family-friendly content including films and documentaries and other content that has been canceled, is at risk of cancellation or is being suppressed on other platforms and services,” the company’s press release said.

The company expressed its plan to begin streaming the content through the Truth Social app for Android, iOS and web and then expand to other streaming apps, followed by the release of Truth Social streaming apps for home TV.

The company didn’t announce a timetable in the press release.

“We’re excited to move forward with the next big phase for Truth Social. With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services,” CEO Devin Nunes said in a statement.

Nunes then continued explaining why the company’s platform would be a great place for those who were canceled.

“There is a lot of great content that simply can’t find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they’ll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won’t be canceled,” he said.

The new service will be “independent of Big Tech” and serve as part of the company’s “free-speech mission,” the press release added.

Donald Trump previously said his “hush money” trial in New York City, which entered its second day of jury selection on Apr. 16, 2024, is a clear illustration of political suppression, with the prosecutors asking him to be fined $1,000 for each social media post that they say violates a gag order against him, according to the Western Journal.

“This conflicted, Trump-Hating Judge won’t let me respond to people that are on TV lying and spewing hate all day long. He is running roughshod over my lawyers and legal team. The New York System of ‘Justice’ is being decimated by critics from all over the World. I want to speak, or at least be able to respond. Election Interference! RIGGED, UNCONSTITUTIONAL TRIAL! Take off the Gag Order!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Biden Shouts While Recounting Debunked Atlantic Smear against War Vets

Luis Cornelio
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Biden Shouts While Recounting Debunked Atlantic Smear against War Vets

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Joe Biden exhibited visible anger as he recounted the debunked claim that former President Donald Trump had disparaged deceased servicemen as “suckers and losers.” 

Speaking at a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, ahead of the state’s primaries, Biden raised his voice to spew the false claims.

“I have to say there a lot of things Donald Trump has said and done that I find extremely offensive,” Biden began, his tone growing increasingly agitated. 

“But one that offends me the most is when he refused as president to visit an American cemetery outside of Paris when he was president. Why? He said that those soldiers who gave their lives were, quote, ‘suckers and losers.’ ‘Suckers and losers.’ He said it,” Biden added.

Despite Biden’s apparent passion, his comments are marred by one glaring falsehood: Trump never uttered those words in reference to American servicemen. 

Trump and 25 other individuals have vehemently denied these claims. “It’s a fake story and it’s a disgrace that they’re allowed to do it,” Trump, then president, stated. 

“To me, they’re heroes. … It’s even hard to believe how they could do it. And I say that, the level of bravery, and to me, they’re absolute heroes,” Trump added. 

The false claims, first reported by The Atlantic, originated from a 2018 trip to Paris, where Trump was scheduled to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, the resting place of over 2,000 servicemen who lost their lives during World War I. 

According to The Atlantic dubious report, Trump canceled the visit because he did not wish to honor the fallen soldiers. Following The Atlantic’s claims, subsequent evidence has been revealed that the trip to the cemetery was canceled due to inclement weather

As reported by The Atlantic: “In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, ‘Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.’ In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ for getting killed.”

This isn’t the first time Biden has levied such accusations against Trump. On Jan. 27, Biden claimed, “Donald Trump—when he was commander-in-chief—refused to visit a cemetery, U.S. Cemetery outside of Paris, for fallen American soldiers, and he referred to those heroes, and I quote, as ‘suckers and losers.'”

House Delivers Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to Senate; Trial Uncertain

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House Delivers Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to Senate; Trial Uncertain

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) On Tuesday, House managers delivered two articles of impeachment to the U.S. Senate for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after a week’s delay and amidst speculation over whether or not the Democratic-led Senate will hold a trial.

On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., signed the articles of impeachment saying, “the border catastrophe is the number one issue for the American people. We must hold those who engineered it to full account.” He also again called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to hold a public trial.

Last week, Senate Republicans raised the alarm about a purported plan of Schumer’s to dismiss the charges and not hold a public trial. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., said that if Schumer were to use a procedural maneuver “it would only take two Democrats to deny tabling this process in order to proceed with an impeachment trial.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and others, argued the Senate is constitutionally required to hold a trial and not doing so would erode over 200 years of precedent and destroy the institution and public trust.

In a floor statement on Monday, Schumer again repeated what he had previously said: “Impeachment should never be used to settle a policy disagreement.”

Holding an impeachment trial would “set a horrible precedent for” Congress, he said, but appeared to indicate that the Senate would follow procedure, although to what extent remains unclear.

“The Senate’s plan has not changed since last week,” he said. “We are ready to go whenever the House sends us the articles. We want to address this issue as expeditiously as possible.”

The charges being brought to the Senate were delayed after Johnson learned that Schumer called the Senate into recess on Thursday through Tuesday.

After the Senate receives the articles on Tuesday, all 100 senators are expected to be sworn in as jurors for the trial on Wednesday afternoon.

Assuming a trial is held, Johnson chose 11 House impeachment managers to prosecute Mayorkas.

At the helm is the chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who led a year-long investigation into Mayorkas’s “dereliction of duty.”

His committee held multiple hearings in Washington, D.C., and at the border, wrote the articles of impeachment and was the first to pass them, ultimately bringing them to the full House for a vote.

Joining Green are his vice chair on the committee, Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi and the committee’s former chair and now Foreign Affairs Chairman, Mike McCaul of Texas.

House managers also include four conservative Freedom Caucus members: Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, Ben Cline of Virginia and Harriet Hageman of Wyoming. They also include Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York, August Pfluger of Texas, Laurel Lee of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Several RINO senators are expected to join Democrats to acquit Mayorkas. They include those who are still in office who voted to confirm his nomination on Feb. 2, 2021: Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

Romney has already indicated that he would not vote to impeach Mayorkas because he has argued that Mayorkas is carrying out the policies of the president.

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., may also vote with Democrats after having worked closely with Mayorkas to craft a so-called bipartisan border security bill that would have codified into law many of Mayorkas’s policies for which he was impeached, the Center Square reported. The bill was dead on arrival in the House.

The Republican-led House impeached Mayorkas on Feb. 13 on two counts, for “Willful and Systemic Refusal to Comply with the Law” and “Breach of the Public Trust.”

In a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on Tuesday, Green repeated the claims in the articles of impeachment, saying Mayorkas “knowingly made false statements, and knowingly obstructed lawful oversight of the Department of Homeland Security,” which is why he was impeached.

Mayorkas, the first sitting cabinet member to be impeached in U.S. history, denies the charges, saying they are “baseless” and “politically motivated.” He again refuted Green’s claims on Tuesday, the first time he appeared before the committee that led the charge to impeach him.

Mayorkas’s impeachment comes after more than 11 million foreign nationals have illegally entered the U.S. since January 2021, including violent criminals, known terrorists, and the greatest number of single military-age men in U.S. history.

Cantankerous ‘Socialist’ John Mellencamp Storms Offstage after Heckler Interrupts Monologue

Molly Bruns
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Cantankerous ‘Socialist’ John Mellencamp Storms Offstage after Heckler Interrupts Monologue

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Musical artist and aspiring primadonna John Mellencamp walked off stage in the middle of a concert after facing light heckling by an attendee who simply asked to hear some music.

A fan at a show in Toledo, Ohio, on St. Patrick’s Day interrupted a Mellencamp speech with a request to “just play some music.”

Mellencamp reacted with a petty, personal rant.

“What do you think I’ve been doing to you c*ck sucker?” Mellencamp said. “Now here’s the thing man, you don’t know me. You don’t f**king know me!”

He then asked someone named “Joe,” presumably a security guard, to find the attendee so he could talk to him after the show.

“Guys, I could just stop this show right now and just go home,” he added. The crowd begged him to stay. “I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. Since you’ve been so wonderful, I’m going to cut about ten songs out of the show.”

He then started his classic tune “Jack and Diane,” which he abruptly cut short after a few lines and walked off stage.

However, he later returned to finish his set for the evening.

After the video went viral, Mellencamp made a statement to the Washington Post about the incident, laying out his expectations for his fans.

“I do expect etiquette inside of the theater, the same way you would at a Broadway show,” he explained.

“My shows are not really concerts anymore. They’re performances, and there’s a difference between a performance and a concert,” he continued. “Look, I’m not for everyone anymore. I’m just not. And if you want to come and scream and yell and get drunk, don’t come to my show.”

Reports varied on whether the speech Mellencamp was delivering prior to the interruption was a political rant. According to Outkick, the 72-year-old ex-rocker was, in fact, talking about his 99-year-old grandmother.

Nonetheless, the video resonated with many due to Mellencamp’s long history of delivering insufferably preachy political spiels, making him something of a beta Bruce Springsteen.

Mellencamp routinely gets involved in political issues, declaring himself to be “as left-wing as you can get” and even declaring himself to be a socialist, undercutting the rootsy Americana sound he cultivated with his catalog of hits, such as “Pink Houses,” in the 1980s and ’90s.

“Mellencamp, a longtime liberal and the son of Democrats, admitted that his political beliefs are likely in conflict with a great number of his fanbase,” wrote the webzine Americana UK in 2017. “[T]here have been instances onstage where he’s been booed by his own crowd for voicing his opinion on political matters.”

However, his most recent work has also called to task leftist policies that have failed their citizens in deep-blue “sanctuary cities.”

Mellencamp released a song titled “The Eyes of Portland” in May 2023, bemoaning the city’s increasing crime and homelessness.

Bragg Received $850K in Campaign Donations after Trump Indictment

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Bragg Received $850K in Campaign Donations after Trump Indictment

(Headline USA) Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg raised $850,000 in campaign donations after announcing his indictment of former President Donald Trump last year, according to the New York Post.

Records show Bragg’s reelection campaign received $374,785 in campaign donations from March 2023, when he first announced his indictment of Trump, to July 2023. He received $481,203 in donations from July 12, 2023 to Jan. 12, 2024.

Multiple high-ranking Democrats in New York contributed to Bragg’s campaign, including state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who donated $1,000 to Bragg.

Much of the cash came from wealthy New York donors, including mega-Democratic Party donor Lisa Minsky–Primus, who gave $25,000, and financiers, such as Richard Cashin, the chairman of JP Morgan Chase’s private equity investment unit.

Labor unions also showered Bragg’s campaign with cash, including the New York Hotel Trades Council, the United Federation of Teachers, the Bricklayers and Allied Craft workers, and the NYS Nurses Association.

The Bragg campaign claimed in a statement that it did not promote the Trump case during its fundraising events.

“New Yorkers are embracing Alvin Bragg’s comprehensive agenda to keep Manhattan safe that includes working with law enforcement to target those driving violent crime and increasing gun prosecutions by more than 20%,” said the DA’s campaign spokesman, Richard Fife.

Trump is in court this week for the charges filed against him by Bragg over an alleged hush-money payment his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to porn star Stormy Daniels back in 2016.

On Tuesday, Bragg asked Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan to hold Trump in contempt of court for allegedly violating a gag order by posting on social media about Daniels and Cohen, both of whom are expected to testify in the trial.

Trump responded to a recent interview with his old nemesis, ex-Stormy Daniels lawyer Michael Avenatti, who is currently incarcerated, in which Avenatti criticized the flimsy case and slammed the Biden Justice Department for failing to act earlier on a separate case accusing Trump of interfering in the 2020 election.

Trump also revealed a document signed by Daniels in which she declared that there was no sexual relationship between her and Trump.

He also criticized Mark Pomerantz, a former attorney in Bragg’s office who abruptly resigned after leading the initial investigation into Trump’s financial disclosures.

Bragg asked Merchan to make clear to Trump that “future violations” of the gag order can be punished “not only with additional fines, but also with a term of incarceration of up to 30 days.”

Conservative Justices Grill DOJ over Double Standard in J6 ‘Obstruction’ Case

Luis Cornelio
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Conservative Justices Grill DOJ over Double Standard in J6 ‘Obstruction’ Case

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The conservative bloc of the Supreme Court scrutinized Tuesday the DOJ’s decision to broaden an obstruction law — widely considered inadequate — to prosecute protestors involved in the Jan. 6 protests.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett were direct in their interrogation of Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar regarding the DOJ’s utilization of a provision of the Oxley Act of 2002 in their Jan. 6 prosecutions. 

The law includes provisions concerning obstruction of official proceedings, historically applied against individuals who tampered with evidence in such cases rather than those who caused a temporary halt in the proceedings, similar to the events of Jan. 6.

The conservative justices contested the implementation of broad prosecutorial powers and raised questions about selective prosecution. In essence, their questions can be summed up to: why hasn’t this law been applied to other protestors or riots? 

“There have been many violent protests that have interfered with proceedings. Has the government applied this provision to other protests?” Thomas queried. 

“Would a sit-in that disrupts a trial or access to a federal courthouse qualify?” Gorsuch inquired of Prelogar, citing past instances resembling obstruction of official proceedings. 

“Would a heckler in today’s audience qualify or at the State of the Union address? Would pulling a fire alarm before a vote qualify, if for 20 years in federal prison?” he added. 

In response to Gorsuch, Prelogar vaguely argued that such instances could not amount to crimes under the Oxley Act because the federal government couldn’t demonstrate “obstruction,” which prosecutors defined as “meaningful interference.” 

Prelogar’s interpretation of the law failed to satisfy Alito, who, in his questioning, echoed the concerns expressed by Thomas and Gorsuch. 

“We’ve had a number of protests in the courtroom. Let’s say that today, while you’re arguing… five people get up, one after the other and they shouted either, ‘Keep the January 6 insurrectionists in jail’ or ‘Free the January 6 patriots,’ and as a result of this, police officers have to remove them forcibly from the courtroom, and let’s say we have to delay the proceedings for five minutes. … Would that be a violation of 1512,” Alito asked, referring to the contentious law. 

Barrett joined in, asking: “Tell me why I shouldn’t be concerned about the breadth of the government’s reading?” 

The judges will now weigh the merits of the case and issue a ruling in June, according to media reports. 

The case originated from criminal charges filed against Joseph W. Fischer, a former cop who was arrested after entering the Capitol on Jan. 6 and charged with obstruction of an official proceeding. 

‘Not Taking Care of Our Own’: Chicago Dem Blasts $70M for Illegals

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‘Not Taking Care of Our Own’: Chicago Dem Blasts $70M for Illegals

(Headline USA) A Chicago Democrat blasted his fellow city leaders this week after they passed Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request for an additional $70 million in funding for illegal immigrants. 

The city’s budget committee voted 20-8 on Monday to advance the proposal to the full city council after a heated debate.

Chris Taliaferro, who represents the city’s 29th Ward, was one of several officials who spoke out against the package, arguing that the city should be investing those resources in its own residents.

“We are not taking care of our own,” he said, according to local outlet WTTW. “We have all but forgotten the residents on the West Side and South Side.”

Budget Director Annette Guzman defended the proposal during the meeting, arguing that “the unintended and indirect costs will soar” if Chicago does not do more to manage the migrant crisis.

But Taliaferro pointed out that Chicago had already allocated $150 million to help the growing migrant crisis.

He was not the only Democrat skeptical of Johnson’s request for even more funding.

“Here we are begging for more money when we don’t have money for the people here,” Anthony Beale, a Democrat who represents Chicago’s 9th Ward, said.

“We don’t have money for after school programs. We don’t have money to help our kids get off the street,” he continued. “Yet, we would just blow money left and right. That’s a fundamental problem.”

Others complained that the federal government hasn’t provided Chicago with more monetary aid.

“I am surprised by the wholly inadequate federal response,” Daniel La Spata, who represents the 1st Ward, said. “They have chosen to do nothing.”

La Spata, who is white, also blasted his colleagues for pitting “the needs of poor black people … against the needs of poor Latine people.”

He insinuated that outraged Chicago citizens were being used as pawns in a vast right-wing conspiracy to pry them away from their longtime Democrat benefactors.

“Really and truly, who’s telling you we need to choose between flooding relief for Black households or shelter for migrants?” he tweeted. “Ask yourself where that messaging really comes from and who benefits from that argument?”

RFK Jr. Claims He Got Invite to Be Trump’s VP as MAGA PAC Targets Liberal Record

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RFK Jr. Claims He Got Invite to Be Trump’s VP as MAGA PAC Targets Liberal Record

(Headline USA) Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed this week that “emissaries” for former President Donald Trump asked him if he would serve as Trump’s vice president.

“President Trump calls me an ultra-left radical. I’m soooo liberal that his emissaries asked me to be his VP. I respectfully declined the offer,” Kennedy tweeted on Monday.

The comment followed a series of attacks on Kennedy by a Trump-backing super PAC, Make America Great Again Inc.

A new website launched by the group—called “Radical F***ing Kennedy,” in a play on the candidate’s initials—portrays Kennedy as a “radical liberal” and cites several policies he’s endorsed that align with the Democratic Party, including his support for the Green New Deal and his calls for reparations to black people.

In his tweet, Kennedy went on to argue that Trump’s team was attacking him because “Trump knows who actually can beat him.”

Trump’s campaign, however, denied that Kennedy was ever being considered for the role.

“@RobertfKennedJr … your [sic] a leftie loonie that would never be approached to be on the ticket..sorry!” tweeted Chris LaCivita, a Trump campaign senior adviser.

LaCivita also shared a statement from January, showing that the campaign had put to rest any speculation about the coalition ticket shortly after the New Hampshire primary, when Trump continued to battle ex-UN ambassador Nikki Haley for the GOP nomination.

“NO ONE from the Trump Campaign ever approached RFK jr (or ever will) – one of the most LIBERAL and radical environmentalists in the country,” he said at the time in response to rumors published by Fox News.

MAGA Inc. also responded to Kennedy, sharing a clip from a 2008 interview he did with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, during which he claimed “voter ID laws are racist,” according to the super PAC.

They also shared past social-media posts Kennedy made, including one in which he praised then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for banning fracking in the state, and another post in 2018, when Kennedy called the National Rifle Association “a terror group” after the Parkland school shooting in Florida.

On at least two occasions, Kennedy also vocally endorsed Hillary Clinton—first in her campaign for U.S. Senate, and later in the 2008 primary race against then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Unfortunately for him, Clinton not only declined to return the favor, but refused to acknoweledge him recently, telling Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon that those complaining about the lack of fresh options in the 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden should “Get over yourself. Those are the two choices.”

Though Trump has begun to attack Kennedy more directly, calling him the “most radical Left candidate in the race,” the former president has also encouraged Democratic voters to back Kennedy, arguing he is a “better man than Joe Biden.”

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