(Headline USA) The U.S. Navy invited an active-duty soldier who performs as a drag queen to be a “digital ambassador” and help the military branch “attract the most talented and diverse workforce” amidst plunging recruitment.
Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who identifies as non-binary, was appointed this week as the first of five “Navy digital ambassadors,” according to reports.
Kelley performs as a drag queen part-time and goes by the stage name Harpy Daniels. He claimed on social media that he sees drag as a way to “advocate” for people who “were oppressed for years in the service.”
“From joining to 2016 and being able to share my drag experience on my off time with my fellow sailors has been a blessing,” Kelley wrote in a November 2022 Instagram post. “Thank you to the Navy for giving me this opportunity! I don’t speak for the Navy but simply sharing my experience in the Navy! Hooyah, and let’s go Slay!”
U.S. Navy are now using Drag Queen Joshua Kelley (AKA Harpy Daniels) to attract new enlistment. This must strike fear in our enemies. pic.twitter.com/pH3n8pUyOw
Kelley said he worried the Navy would prevent him from performing drag when he first joined the military.
“I started performing in drag in 2013. Drag had no influence with me joining. It was the Navy I feared that would’ve influenced me to stop doing drag,” Kelley said. “For myself, drag has been a passion, an art, and a way to express myself. … Ship life is difficult. Every day fades into one, and high stress and intensity can bring low morale and can cause suicide and bad behavior.”
Kelley then claimed his drag performance saved another soldier’s life.
“This person was gay and felt lost and alone, ready to jump ship. But after getting to view my performance, they felt empowered to be themselves and see that our struggles and low morale are temporary,” he said.
The Navy’s “digital ambassador” program ran from October 2022 to March 2023 and was “designed to explore the digital environment to reach a wide range of potential candidates” as the Navy battles the “most challenging recruitment environment it has faced since the start of the all-volunteer force,” a Navy spokesperson said in a statement.
“The Navy did not compensate YN2 Kelley or any others for being Navy Digital Ambassadors,” the spokesperson also noted.
On Tuesday, Jean–Pierre was asked about Hunter Biden’s 4-year-old daughter, whom he conceived with former stripper Lunden Roberts, after the president notably snubbed her while referring to his six other grandchildren when responding to a child’s question.
The question specifically brought up an ongoing child-support case, which Hunter has fought vigorously, drawing a rebuke from the presiding judge.
“I wanted to ask about the trial going on in Arkansas with Hunter Biden and the child support,” said Emily Goodwin, who covers U.S. politics for the Daily Mail.
“Are the president and first lady monitoring that?” Goodwin asked. “And how come they haven’t acknowledged the seventh grandchild?”
Jean-Pierre curtly responded: “I’m not going to speak to that from here,” before moving on to another reporter.
James Rosen, the chief White House correspondent for Newsmax, quickly followed up: “Why not?”
But Jean-Pierre ignored his question entirely.
Navy was confirmed to be Hunter’s daughter by a court-ordered paternity test. Nonetheless, neither Hunter nor Joe has acknowledged that Hunter fathered another Biden grandchild.
The president even listed his other six grandchildren at a recent White House “take your child to work day,” ignoring the seventh—Navy.
“The best part of it all, I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them,” Biden said.
“I speak to them every single day,” he added. “Not a joke.”
Hunter made an appearance Monday in an Arkansas court room, being accused of refusing to comply with court orders regarding paternity payments.
Holly Meyer, the Independence County Circuit Court judge, also slammed Hunter for submitting heavily-redacted statements that concealed important financial information.
In addition to increased paternity payments, Roberts is also attempting to get Navy’s last name legally changed to “Biden.”
According to Roberts’s attorneys, the name is “now synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute, and politically powerful.”
The attorneys also noted that giving Navy the Biden name would make her “known to the world” as a “member of the prestigious Biden family.”
(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Several teachers took to national television on Teacher Appreciation Day to sound the alarm about the national teacher shortage, particularly as partisan politics continue to invade the education system.
According to Fox News, teachers Brook Ooten, Daniel Buck and Ramona Bessinger discussed matters of classroom politics and discipline and how they pertain to teachers leaving their jobs.
“Three-quarters of U.S. states now report that they are short on teachers,” said Ooten, a New York elementary school teacher. “We have teachers leaving the profession in droves and I think that puts a lot of stress on the teachers that are in the classroom teaching. They’re not as well staffed, classes are overcrowded, and that’s a big stressor on teachers today.”
Buck argued that the movements away from proper discipline of students also hurt teachers, as they school administrators and overbearing parents continually tie teachers up in red tape.
“There’s kind of a trend away from discipline, from standard punishments, consequences, and behavior is worsening across the country, and it’s affecting everything else in education, including teacher morale,” he said.
School districts across the nation are struggling to fill teaching positions since the pandemic, reportedly resulting from burnout and lack of certainty regarding their positions.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 44% of public schools report having full or part-time faculty vacancies. The survey also reported that 61% of schools attributed the vacancies to the COVID pandemic, as many teachers left their positions, as opposed to retiring.
Bessinger, a high school teacher in Rhode Island, suggested that partisan politics infiltrating school curricula is a primary reason for the teacher exodus.
“Teachers are being forced to adhere to these political ideologies in the classroom and contrary to what their personal beliefs are and contrary to what is even right or true,” she explained. “For example, this anti-American content that we’re seeing, this anti-girl, anti-boy content that we’re seeing.”
She explained that the moral dilemma is causing many teachers to simply opt out and leave their positions altogether.
“Sometimes they just elect to leave the profession or they’re pushed out, quite frankly, harassed and bullied,” Bessinger said.
According to Breitbart, the project was funded by private donations. It will be completed by 2028.
BREAKING: We received federal agency approval to build a memorial on the National Mall in direct view of the U.S. Capitol to commemorate America’s commitment to a free press by honoring journalists who have died while reporting the news.
“I want to express my appreciation to the CFA for their diligent review of our site selection study and endorsement of such a preeminent and historically significant site,” said Barbara Cochran, president of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation, in a statement. “The location of this memorial on the National Mall in direct line of sight of the U.S. Capitol will underscore the significance and value our nation places on press freedom and those who died in service to that cause.”
A report from the the Committee to Protect Journalists indicated that 67 journalists were killed in 2022 while reporting in Ukraine, Haiti and various South American countries—41 of them in direct relation to their work.
However, several other members of conservative or anti-Establishment media have also been targeted for intimidation under the authoritarian Biden regime.
Cochran’s statement did not address any of the recent FBI, Justice Department and IRS raids on the homes of journalists such as Twitter Files reporter Matt Taibbi and Area 51 researcher Joerj Arnu.
Twitter users were skeptical of the idea of honoring journalists, many of whom spent the last several years acting as shills for partisan government interests—such as the promotion of government-sponsored COVID lockdowns and running subsequent interference for the powers that be.
“I guess the Mall didn’t have room for anything honoring the journalists who were gagged for attempting to report truthfully on Biden’s corruption, Hunter’s laptop, the Trump–Russia lie or the virus vaccine safety and mask effectiveness fiasco,” user mikesamerica mused.
I guess the Mall didn't have room for anything honoring the journalists who were gagged for attempting to report truthfully on Biden's corruption, Hunter's laptop, the Trump Russia lie or the virus vaccine safety and mask effectiveness fiasco.
“Free Press? Lol media w****es should have Pfizer and Moderna pay for this POS memorial,” another user said. “Propagandists and liars pushing the narrative of whomever pays them the most.”
Free press? Lol media whores should have Pfizer and Moderna pay for this POS memorial. Propogandists and liars pushing the narrative of whoemever pays then the most.
While the advisory board of the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation does feature many prominent names from the far-left press, such as NBC News shill Andrea Mitchell, it also offers a smattering of names from conservative media, including Fox News anchor Bret Baier and former anchor Brit Hume, Salem Radio Network’s Hugh Hewitt and Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Russian media is abuzz with claims that Ukraine targeted Vladimir Putin with a drone attack Tuesday night on the Kremlin—allegations that Ukraine is strongly denying.
Russia’s government reportedly called the attack an act of terrorism, and said it reserves the right to retaliate “anywhere and anytime it deems necessary.”
“We consider this a preplanned terrorist action and an attempt against the Russian president,” the Kremlin said, according to Russia Today. The incident happened “ahead of Victory Day and the parade on May 9, when foreign guests plan to be present.”
May 9 is the date Nazi Germany was officially defeated in 1945.
But Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack, and the two drones were shot down, according to reports.
Serhiy Nykyforov, the spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told CNN that his country was not responsible for the attack.
“We do not have information on so called night attacks on Kremlin,” he said. “As President Zelenskyy has stated numerous times before, Ukraine uses all means at its disposal to free its own territory, not to attack others.”
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also denied Kyiv had any involvement, according to CNN.
“First of all, it absolutely does not solve any military goals. And it is very unhelpful in the context of preparing for our offensive actions. And it definitely does not change anything at a battlefield,” he reportedly said. “This would allow Russia to justify mass strikes on Ukrainian cities, civilians and infrastructure facilities. Why would we need that? What’s the logic?”
However, Ukraine has likely attacked Russian territory with drones before, according to the recently leaked Pentagon documents.
The leaked documents reportedly show that on Feb. 28, Zelenskyy “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” with unspecified drones. That same day, two drones filled with explosives detonated inside Russian territory, igniting a fire at an oil depot.
The leaked classified Pentagon documents also reportedly show that Zelenskyy wanted to use U.S. long-range missiles to attack Russia.
According to media reports on the documents, Zelenskyy “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” using unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to compensate for not having long-range missiles.
(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) According to presidential Democrat primary candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Coronavirus Czar Anthony Fauci used his National Institutes for Health to fund research to hide “fingerprints” on potential bioweapons.
.@RobertKennedyJr: Fauci Funded Seamless Ligation, a Technique Used for HIDING Human Fingerprints on Lab-Created Bugs
"He [Fauci] funded Ralph Baric to develop a technique called seamless ligation. And that is a technique for hiding the engineering project," explained… pic.twitter.com/YTtm3n9cUK
Fauci, according to Kennedy’s claim, funded what is called seamless ligation, a technique that is capable of concealing a disease’s laboratory origins.
“He funded Ralph Baric to develop a technique called seamless ligation,” Kennedy said. “And that is a technique for hiding the engineering project.”
According to the presidential hopeful, most bioweapons could be tracked because lab grown variants can be traced.
“So, normally, when you do that kind of engineering, you can see it, and you can say, ‘That bug was created in a lab,'” he stated.
However, Fauci helped fund a way to conceal “all traces [of what] was developed.”
This technology is ostensibly now in the hands of China, specifically Chinese scientist Shi Zhengli.
“There is no public health [reason for this],” Kennedy noted. “It is the opposite of what you would do if you are interested in public health… To teach people how to hide that only has a nefarious purpose.”
Kennedy’s takes on public health have upset many in the establishment in recent years, particularly since he announced his candidacy in the Democrat primary.
Just last month, for example, ABC Newsedited an interview with Kennedy because he dared to question the COVID-19 vaccine narrative. Linsey Davis, the ABC interviewer, blamed Kennedy afterwards for spreading misinformation.
“We should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines,” she said. “Data shows that the COVID-19 vaccine has prevented millions of hospitalizations and deaths from the disease.”
Kennedy’s presidential bid is based largely upon his anti-establishment views related to the medical-industrial complex. But unfortunately for RFK Jr., the Democratic National Committee appears to be unlikely to give him a fair shot in the race against Democrat incumbent, President Joe Biden.
(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) The Board of Education in Flint, Michigan, voted to prohibit students from carrying backpacks because of an uptick in safety incidents.
According to the Daily Wire, Southwestern Classical Academy dealt with two separate occurrences, causing officials to close area schools. Starting on Monday, the administration prohibited kids to bring backpacks into schools.
The ruling permits for small purses, clear plastic bags and some lunchboxes allowing for searches by security guards.
If a student does bring a backpack to school, the school office will summon a parent or guardian to pick up their items.
Athletes must drop off their equipment at the school’s front office for safekeeping.
“School safety remains an important topic for districts across the country, including here in Flint,” Superintendent Kevelin Jones wrote in a letter to parents. “As a district, we are taking a 360-degree approach to create safe spaces for children’s academic journeys. To that end, we have reached a point where we must make difficult decisions and ask our school community to demonstrate flexibility, understanding and a shared sense of urgency when it comes to safety.”
Jones also emphasized the increasing consistency of contraband, particularly weapons, smuggled into school grounds.
“Clear backpacks do not completely fix this issue,” he said. “By banning backpacks altogether and adding an increased security presence across the district, we can better control what is being brought into our buildings.”
The same proposal went up for a vote earlier this year, but did not pass. The district previously banned backpacks in 2007 due to similar safety concerns.
Southwestern Classical Academy closed twice due to two threats of safety. The first took place in December 2021 when a student produced a video threatening to execute a school shooting, following the example of shooters in nearby Oakland County.
The second closure took place in April 2023, though the details of the event were not publicized.
I am reminded of the line in one of my favorite poems, John Ashbery’s postmodern sestina “Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape,” as the pieces of yet another vast left-wing conspiracy begin to take shape amid a seemingly disparate series of “coincidences” that culminated last week in the shocking ouster of Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Like the ’90s-era “Magic Eye” posters (which I never was able to see), those who do crack the code may find it hard to unsee how these interconnected events must fit together in a sinister nexus designed to curtail Americans’ rights to free thought and expression.
Media outlets, including Headline USA, have speculated wildly on the circumstances surrounding Carlson’s abrupt exit. As one of the few journalists to cover Carlson’s now historic speech in person at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary gala, I, too, was eager to indulge in gossip over the palace intrigue.
However, it now appears, in almost perfect focus, that the woke investment company BlackRock was behind it in one form or another, and that it has been at least two months in the making, operating in plain sight while going largely undetected.
THE RED (HERRING) & THE BLACK(ROCK)
It is worth noting that several so-called fact-checking sites already have pounced in their effort to quell a viral Facebook post that speculated that BlackRock had effectively sued itself in the defamation suit by Dominion Voting Systems that resulted in Fox’s $787.5 million settlement with the company blamed for widespread irregularities on Election Day 2020.
“The posts misrepresent BlackRock’s ownership of 59 million shares in Dominion Energy Inc., a Virginia-based power and energy company that is unrelated to the voting technology firm,” noted the Associated Press.
But like many leftist schemes (think anything involving allegations of “Russian disinformation” to conceal actual transgressions by our own deep state), this may be a clever canard to misdirect people from going farther down the rabbit hole to where the truth resides.
The key takeaway from the revelation was not that BlackRock was linked to Dominion Voting (although they may well be so in a litany of other ways that don’t involve financial records) but that the company had gone on a spending-bender earlier this year to gain a 15.1% stake in the Fox Corporation.
As Fox News itself reported in its halcyon days of relative journalistic independence, such an acquisition has all the hallmarks of the sort of ESG tactics that BlackRock, which boasts in its control more than $10 trillion in assets, has become notorious for.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink “has previously warned companies in which BlackRock invests to either adopt ESG standards or face pressure in so-called proxy battles, during which investors vote on corporate governance issues,” Fox News reported in 2021.
Yet, less astute viewers may not have known the company’s questionable ties to both the Chinese Communist Party and the Biden administration. And even those who were aware might have seen BlackRock’s ads as a sort of damage-control effort to soften its image among a key consumer group that it had so callously alienated with its partisan investment strategies.
Few might have surmised that conservatives’ lone seat at the mainstream-media table was, in fact, Fink’s next target.
But with Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch so old that even 80-year-old Joe Biden jokes about his age, and current CEO Lachlan Murdoch decidedly less loyal to the conservative cause, a sell-out of some kind seems, in retrospect, to have been inevitable.
DRUDGING UP OLD MEMORIES
Fox’s flip–flop evoked an earlier move that has remained shrouded in mystery: the subtle-yet-shocking transformation of the Drudge Report from a conservative stalwart to yet another leftist mouthpiece.
When the shift began, in the months leading up to the 2020 election, Drudge experts like biographer Matthew Lysiak insisted that it was a personal dispute between site founder Matt Drudge and then-President Donald Trump, who had courted Drudge ahead of his successful 2016 election but snubbed him afterward.
“Matt’s leftward shift is a business calculation,” Lysiak told me in September 2020. “And by the looks of his page views, not a very good one.”
He suspected at the time that Drudge would veer back to the conservative side based largely on market factors and not his own private vendetta.
Yet, three years later, despite a Biden presidency ripe for his wry lampooning, the Drudge Report has yet to pivot rightward. That suggests that, perhaps, there was a behind-the-scenes buyout of his site or other form of coercion, intended not to drive Drudge’s traffic upward but to neutralize his influential voice—paired with a nondisclosure agreement that would keep him from even publicly acknowledging the transaction.
Some suspect that Drudge himself may be behind Citizen Free Press, one of several aggregator sites to emerge as an alternative when the Drudge Report’s betrayal became too obvious to ignore.
The site, run by an enigmatic figure named “Kane,” has several similarities: sardonic and editorializing headlines, a bare-bones staff and a haughty disregard for other conservative media.
CFP’s outsize share of traffic for what amounts to a glorified list of links also indicates that its behind-the-scenes access and infrastructure may give it a competitive edge.
WHAT DOESN’T THE FOX SAY?
Forget Ashbery and Stendhal—no self-respecting column would be complete without a reference to Ylvis, the Norwegian musical duo who brought us one of the greatest 21st century creative masterpieces to date.
The question they famously asked may be particularly relevant to the discussion at hand: What does (or rather, what doesn’t) the Fox (News network) say, now that its political transformation has been set in motion?
• 2020 Vote Fraud: There is, of course, the network’s decision to settle the Dominion lawsuit, which will create a chilling effect for anyone seeking to raise valid questions about vote fraud that do not fit the proper narrative.
The case, for all intents and purposes, was a winnable one if Fox had gone the same route as embattled podcaster Alex Jones and fought it on appeal.
While the burden of proof traditionally falls on the plaintiff in a defamation case to prove falsity, the decision shockingly went to a Wilmington, Delaware superior court judge, Eric M. Davis, who was appointed by former Democrat Gov. Jack Markell (who, in turn, served concurrently with former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden).
Davis unilaterally determined that Dominion had proven falsity before a jury was ever empaneled.
Yet, the precedent of his one-man decision will likely stand in any future lawfare attacks on conservative news organizations, endangering other Dominion targets like Mike Lindell and Rudy Giuliani, who may be forced into settlements of their own.
Given BlackRock’s deep ties within the Biden administration, it certainly had a vested interest in urging Fox News to settle.
• Ukraine Skepticism: As Headline USA’s Ken Silva noted previously, BlackRock’s end-game may also revolve around the war in Ukraine, of which Carlson was a vocal critic and skeptic.
“Clearly, he spooked a lot of members into not being fully supportive of Ukraine,” a senior Republican congressional aide reportedly told Semafor.
Carlson’s exit “probably reduces the loudest voice out there against U.S. support,” the aide added.
Incidentally, the most powerful Republican currently in elected office, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., recently reiterated his own unconditional support for Ukraine, which is looking more and more like a quagmire into which the U.S. will be drawn for direct military support.
Of course, if BlackRock were to be backing Ukraine’s war effort, that would put it at odds with China, where much of the company’s business is conducted—unless BlackRock were hedging its bets by funding both sides of the war.
• Abortion: At least one media outlet that suggested that Carlson’s Heritage Foundation speech was to blame for his exit said a key issue was the religious—and borderline apocalyptic—language he used, notably referring to abortion in terms of child sacrifice.
“That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” a Fox insider told Vanity Fair.
Since then, an op-ed posted on Fox News’s website has sought to make the case that GOP support for pro-life causes is a losing issue that it must abandon before the upcoming 2024 election.
Not surprisingly, BlackRock has been outspoken about its support for abortion by offering to cover abortion travel costs following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, and also adding abortion to its list of ESG criteria used to exert pressure on other companies.
• Other Culture-War Issues: Carlson was not the only recent Fox casualty. Popular weekend host Dan Bongino also found himself on the street after failing to come to terms on a contract extension, he claimed.
Bongino was one of the network’s most outspoken culture warriors, which likely put him at odds with the network’s editorial direction on things like transgenderism.
• Socialized Banking: Blogger Tom Luongo noted recently that BlackRock “is Davos’ main arm-twisting subsidiary” in foisting a Great Reset of the global economy.
Recent warning signs—from the debt-ceiling standoff to the collapse of several high-profile financial institutions to China’s efforts to turn the yuan into an alternative global reserve currency—point to a grim economic forecast in years ahead.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen may use this crisis as pretense to move toward a nationalized banking system relying on digital crypto-dollars that can track and regulate all Americans’ purchases.
As the nation’s leading private investor, BlackRock undoubtedly will have a central role in this transition. And the Fox Business Network may be a useful tool in disseminating its message.
Luongo’s website, “Gold, Goats ‘N Guns,” goes into much greater depth on an elaborate financial ruse involving a federal BlackRock bailout that is best left to him to explain.
• 2024 Election: Suffice it to say, the woke corporations and news media who played a significant role in dictating the 2020 presidential outcome will once again try to flex their power by colluding on a predetermined victory for whoever promises to do their bidding.
Fox News suffered severe backlash after its questionable decision to call Arizona prematurely in 2020, despite evidence of rampant vote fraud under its then-secretary of state, Katie Hobbs.
However, the decisions to oust Carlson and Bongino while selling out to woke corporations like BlackRock offer every indication that Fox will double-down next year on its dubious election forecasting.
As was the case with Drudge, the silencing of Fox News will help to empower smaller conservative outlets. Nonetheless, the splintering off of a strong, centralized information source on the Right is likely to take its toll on candidates trying to get their message out in an election where the stakes could not be higher.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Joe Biden will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarty on May 9 to speak about the debt ceiling but he has made clear that he will not negotiate lowering the nation’s debt weeks before the federal government runs out of cash to pay its bill.
The May 9 meeting was initiated by the Biden White House and all four congressional leaders, the Speaker of the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, are expected to attend.
“He is not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, adding the president “is willing to have a separate conversation about their spending, what they want to do with the budget.”
Biden had previously claimed he would not allow Republicans to use the debt ceiling as a “bargaining chip,” calling on GOP lawmakers to increase the ceiling and then negotiate about spending. This has been the president’s position since last year.
WH Press Sec. Karine Jean-Pierre says President Biden requested a meeting with congressional leaders next week to reassert that “he is not going to negotiate on the debt ceiling”:
“That is not going to change … He’s willing to have a separate conversation about their spending.” pic.twitter.com/lFWlEMICo9
The White House’s unwillingness to negotiate the debt ceiling comes a day after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress that the federal government could run out of money to pay its own spending on June 1, 2023.
“Given the current projections, it is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to increase or suspend the debt limit in a way that provides longer-term certainty that the government will continue to make its payments,” the Treasury secretary warned in a letter to Speaker McCarthy on May 1.
Economists warned that if the federal government fails to increase the debt ceiling financial chaos could ensue, a point echoed by Yellen’s letter.
“If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, it would cause severe hardship to American families, harm our global leadership position, and raise questions about our ability to defend our national security interests,” she continued.
The Republican-led House of Representatives narrowly approved Thursday a spending plan to raise the debt ceiling by approximately $1.5 trillion during the next fiscal year and limit its increase to only 1 percent in the subsequent years.
The McCarthy plan was rejected by all Democrat members of Congress and four fiscally conservative Republicans, who claimed the proposal did not go far enough in spending cuts. Majority Leader Schumer rejected the proposal calling it “dead on arrival.”
Biden and McCarthy have not met to discuss the debt ceiling since February.
Several Republican lawmakers slammed Biden’s reckless spending and unwillingness to negotiate.
“The president has got to step up to the plate and do what 65 percent of Americans want him to do: use the debt limit debate to meaningfully address reckless spending,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., via Twitter.
Thune’s concerns were echoed by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who called on Democrats to address spending.
“Democrats need to come to the table to address this out-of-control spending now–the markets won’t wait,” he said via Twitter. “We need urgency; let’s roll up our sleeves, get our colleagues together, & address the debt ceiling negotiations now.”
Democrats need to come to the table to address this out-of-control spending now–the markets won't wait. We need urgency; let's roll up our sleeves, get our colleagues together, & address the debt ceiling negotiations now. pic.twitter.com/YVd248hnkq
— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) May 2, 2023
“The US is $31 trillion in debt,” Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., also said on Twitter. “We should prioritize projects that communities need—not wasteful grants like Shakespearean virtual reality or Colonial Mexican Soundscapes.”
The US is $31 trillion in debt.
We should prioritize projects that communities need—not wasteful grants like Shakespearean virtual reality or Colonial Mexican Soundscapes. pic.twitter.com/8emKsNo5QN
— Sen. James Lankford (@SenatorLankford) May 2, 2023
House Republicans were similarly vocal in their criticism of wasteful spending.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greeene, R-Ga., slammed Biden over demands to increase to debt ceiling.
“Perfect example of things we have to cut in our budget and appropriations,” Greene said in reference to a whopping $500,000 tax-paid program for Pakistani teachers. “Joe wants to spend money like this while we are in debt at $31 Trillion and he runs his mouth demanding Congress give him a clean debt ceiling raise while the media cries ‘oh no, we are going to default!'”
Perfect example of things we have to cut in our budget and appropriations.
Joe wants to spend money like this while we are in debt at $31 Trillion and he runs his mouth demanding Congress give him a clean debt ceiling raise while the media cries “oh no, we are going to default!” https://t.co/OhKkkVhtV2
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) May 2, 2023
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office announced that Selena Chambers, a 41-year-old Tallahassee resident, was arrested and charged with battery on an elected official after she allegedly threw a glass of wine at Gaetz. Local law enforcement issued a $1,000 bond and released the alleged perpetrator the next day.
Gaetz, who was in the presence of his wife, detailed the harrowing assault on Tuesday’s episode of his podcast Firebrand with Matt Gaetz.
“We were enjoying, catching up with new friends,” Gaetz said on a snippet of the podcast shared on Twitter. “As I was chatting with one gentleman, a lady threw a drink on the both of us and she was promptly arrested. I want to thank the great folks at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office who ensured that this did not escalate, and everyone was kept safe.”
The Republican lawmaker defended his decision to press charges, citing the dangers of allowing protestors to assault elected officials.
“I will never allow the safety of Northwest Floridians to be compromised,” Gaetz in a statement released Tuesday. “I will be pressing charges against this individual in order to uphold the civility our community deserves. Thank you to the Walton County Sheriff’s office for taking swift action.”
Chambers, who Gaetz described as a “left-wing author” and a “donor to the Joe Biden presidential campaign,” previously wrote against former President Donald Trump and has voiced support for physical assault against politicians.
“It seems after the 2016 election, based on of her writing, she became very obsessed with Donald Trump, and she began to engage in something called the ‘resistance expression,’” Gaetz said before reading one article written by Saunders where she said, “resistance is expression, and that can take physical form.”
FEC filings showed that Chambers donated $100 earmarked for the Biden campaign and took to Twitter to call on Trump to be “deleted.”
The @WCSOFL is confirming reports that our agency responded to an incident at an event in Miramar Beach Saturday involving Representative Matt Gaetz.
A 41-year-old Tallahassee woman, Selena Chambers, was arrested after it was found she intentionally threw a glass of wine at… pic.twitter.com/ZD9kalzjVM
