Sen. Graham Hopping Mad at FBI Deception; ‘Somebody Needs to Go to Jail’

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Sen. Graham Hopping Mad at FBI Deception; ‘Somebody Needs to Go to Jail’

Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on Sunday that the newly declassified documents handed over to his committee reveal that the FBI deliberately lied to the Senate Intelligence Committee about the discredited Steele dossier.

“This document clearly shows that the FBI was continuing to mislead regarding the reliability of the Steele dossier,” Graham told Fox News. “The FBI did to the Senate Intelligence Committee what the Department of Justice and FBI had previously done to the FISA court: mischaracterize, mislead, and lie.”

Graham’s committee released a series of documents last month that “significantly undercut” the “reliability” of the Steele dossier, which was the basis for the phony investigation Democrats relied upon to launch the debunked Russian collusion conspiracy.

The first document revealed that Steele’s primary sub-source “disagreed with and was surprised by” the way Steele conveyed his intel in the dossier.

The second declassified document obtained by the committee contains type-written notes by former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, in which Strzok disagrees with certain assertions made in a New York Times article about the Trump campaign’s alleged ties to Russia.

In the notes, Strzok admits that “recent interviews and investigation … reveal Steele may not be in a position to judge the reliability of his sub-source network.”

Strzok also wrote that “the FBI may have been using foreign intelligence gathering techniques to impermissibly unmask and analyze existing and future intelligence collection regarding U.S. persons associated with the Trump campaign,” referring to former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

In short, these documents prove that the FBI’s “characterizations regarding the dossier were completely out of touch with reality in terms of what the Russian subsource actually said to the FBI,” Graham explained.

“What does this mean? That Congress, as well as the FISA court, was lied to about the reliability of the Russian subsource,” Graham continued. “Somebody needs to go to jail for this. It’s just amazing the compounding of the lies.”

Ethics Committee Nails Rep. Tlaib for Paying Herself from Campaign Illegally

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Ethics Committee Nails Rep. Tlaib for Paying Herself from Campaign Illegally

The House Ethics Committee has determined socialist radical Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., violated campaign finance rules by paying herself a campaign salary after she was no longer a candidate for elected office.

Tlaib was nailed after a year-long investigation, more than 600 pages of documents and five witness interviews resulted in evidence that the Detroit representative took campaign money for personal use after she won her 2018 congressional election.

The finding is a rare instance of legislative self-oversight, but the punishment amounts to less than the proverbial slap on the wrist.

The Democrat-controlled committee ordered Tlaib to pay $10,800 in restitution to her own campaign account and stopped short of further penalties citing a lack of “ill intent.”

“The committee did not find that she sought to unjustly enrich herself by receiving the campaign funds at issue,” the House Ethics Committee said in an official statement on Friday.

The committee, chaired by liberal Democrat Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida, reasoned that harsher penalties should not apply because Tlaib paid herself a salary that was below the legal limit and it allowed her to forgo outside employment “so that she could fully participate in campaign activities.”

“However, because she received some of those funds, totaling $10,800, for time periods in which she was no longer a congressional candidate, those funds were inconsistent with [the campaign law’s] personal use restrictions,” the committee concluded.

Tlaib’s socialist “Squad” cohorts Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, and Ilhan Omar, D-Minnesota, have also faced ethics complaints.

Ocasio-Cortez is accused of violating at least two provisions of the House Code of Official Conduct and possibly U.S. criminal law for making false statements about listing her live-in boyfriend as a staff member and getting him an official House email address.

Omar has faced ethics complaints about a potential immigration fraud scheme that involved marrying her own brother.

Omar has since remarried the owner of a campaign vendor that her congressional campaign has paid more than $1 million.

Tlaib represents an overwhelmingly Democrat district and won a primary election this week against the president of the Detroit City Council.

“If I was considered the most vulnerable member of the Squad, I think it’s safe to say the Squad is here to stay, and it’s only getting bigger,” she said in her victory speech.

Dem House Candidate Apologizes for Trysts w/ Students While a Professor

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Dem House Candidate Apologizes for Trysts w/ Students While a Professor

A Democrat House candidate is under fire after allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior surfaced this weekend.

Alex Morse, the current mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, is attempting to unseat incumbent Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., and take hold of the state’s first congressional district.

But that effort is now in jeopardy as Morse stands accused of having illicit sexual relationships with students while he was a university adjunct lecturer at several state colleges.

Morse claims he has done nothing to disqualify himself from Congress and has vowed to continue his campaign.

He blamed the alleged indiscretions on being gay, while simultaneously accusing critics of engaging in “age-old anti-gay stereotypes.”

“I have had consensual relationships with other men, including students enrolled at local universities that I’ve met using dating apps,” he admitted in a statement on Sunday.

None of the accusations seem to involve minors.

Using tinges of “woke” terminology, the progressive House candidate tip-toed between admitting fault and claiming victim status.

Morse acknowledged that “some students” felt “uncomfortable” with the interactions they had with him and added that his behavior was “unacceptable” for anyone with “institutional power.”

He also said, “I am being held to a different standard, one deeply connected to a history of surveilling the sex lives of people like me.”

Undergraduate college students are typically 18-22 years old, which was admittedly not young enough for Morse to abstain from pursuing sexual gratification while a university employee.

Other Massachusetts Democrats disagree.

Two Holyoke city council members have called for Morse to resign.

A third said he should take an unpaid leave of absence as mayor while the University of Massachusetts investigates whether he violated federal Title IX laws on sexual harassment and discrimination.

Morse has also been disinvited from all future university events by the College Democrats of Massachusetts and its chapters at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College.

The group issued a letter last week alleging that he engaged in a pattern of using “his position of power for romantic or sexual gain” over a period of years and at multiple Massachusetts colleges.

In his statement, Morse said he welcomes the investigations.

“I stand ready to meet with the University, the students, or any other people affiliated with the review process,” he said.

Councilman Michael J. Sullivan said he was “shocked” to learn that Morse was pursuing male college students with he was paid to teach, and said he was in “full support” of university investigations.

“Separately, I will be working with members of our City Council to begin our own investigation into any violations of municipal statutes, ordinances, or policies,” Sullivan said.

Councilman Terence Murphy urged city employees and volunteers on Sunday to report any similar concerns regarding Morse.

The allegations come just three before the all-important Democrat primary. Whoever wins the contest will almost certainly win in the liberal district’s general election.

Neal, Morse’s opponent, has been in Congress since 1989 and currently chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.

“I intend to take our campaign’s progressive, inclusive message to the voters of the First District,” Morse said in his statement, undeterred.

Sen. Johnson Subpoenas FBI for Obamagate Docs; Defends Probe of Biden/Ukraine

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Sen. Johnson Subpoenas FBI for Obamagate Docs; Defends Probe of Biden/Ukraine

(Headline USA) Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said Monday that he has subpoenaed the FBI to produce documents to his committee related to the Obamagate investigation.

The Wisconsin senator also defended a separate investigation he is leading into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Ukraine.

Johnson’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is one of multiple Republican-led Senate panels scrutinizing the FBI’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, which were found to be non-existent and was revealed to have no legitimate legal foundation to even be instigated.

Another, the Judiciary Committee, has released a series of documents in recent weeks that further discredit the probe, including material on Sunday that the chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, said raised questions about whether the FBI had misled Congress about the accuracy of information it received during the investigation.

The subpoena demands that the FBI produce by Aug. 20 the records that it gave to the Justice Department inspector general’s office, which concluded in a report last December that the FBI had made significant errors during its surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser.

The FBI said in a statement that it had received the subpoena and that the bureau had already been producing documents and information for Johnson’s committee.

”As always, the FBI will continue to cooperate with the Committee’s requests, consistent with our law enforcement and national security obligations,” the statement said.

In a separate statement on Sunday, the FBI said that it was continuing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s investigation.

Johnson publicized the subpoena along with a more than 5,000-word open letter in which he sought to explain the basis for his scrutiny of the Russia investigation and to defend his Biden probe against allegations that he was amplifying Russian disinformation.

“I felt it was important to provide this explanation of my investigations because of the concerted and coordinated attacks on my efforts that I have interpreted as a ‘brush back pitch’ to deter my actions and preemptively marginalize my committee’s findings,” Johnson wrote in an email.

He said he was concerned that the media was preparing to taint his committee’s findings as an extension of Russian propaganda.

Democrats in recent weeks have expressed alarm about the probe, and a statement Friday by William Evanina, the government’s chief counterintelligence official, called out by name a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has spread leaked recordings about Biden meant to be pejorative.

Johnson denied Monday ever receiving information from that lawmaker, Andrii Derkach, or being part of a Russian disinformation effort.

“As always, almost all of the documents we are seeking and will make public are from U.S. sources,” Johnson wrote in the letter.

The Biden-Ukraine issue is a politically freighted one. Johnson explained in further detail in a press release:

“This is where the Ukrainian story of Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter, begins. Following the Revolution of Dignity, U.S. foreign policy was focused on support for the pro-western, anti-corruption, and pro-democracy efforts in Ukraine. Unfortunately, Putin had a much different plan. Congress and the Obama administration were acutely aware of Putin’s displeasure and his penchant for destabilizing governments not to his liking. As a result, U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine focused on two main objectives: 1) security and economic assistance, and 2) advocacy for and support of anti-corruption, judicial, and other reforms.

On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and the media described him as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.” The next day, April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma. Six days later, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky. Fifteen days later on May 13, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, with public reports showing Hunter and his firm being paid $50,000 to $166,000 per month (totaling more than $3 million over five years) for his and Archer’s board participation.

All of this initial activity in Ukraine involving the Bidens, Hunter’s business partner, and a corrupt oligarch and his Ukrainian gas company occurred over a period of less than a month, and within three months of the Revolution of Dignity — a revolution against corruption in Ukraine. Following that revolution, Ukrainian political figures were desperate for U.S. support. Zlochevsky would have made sure relevant Ukrainian officials were well aware of Hunter’s appointment to Burisma’s board. Isn’t it obvious what message Hunter’s position on Burisma’s board sent to Ukrainian officials? The answer: If you want U.S. support, don’t touch Burisma.”

Hunter Biden has denied using his influence with his father to aid Burisma, and Biden has denied speaking with his son about his overseas business dealings.

Trump and his allies, including Johnson, have raised questions about Biden’s move as vice president in 2016 to pressure the Ukrainian government to fire its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who had previously led an investigation into Burisma’s owner.

Biden was representing the official position of the U.S. government, a position that was also supported by other Western governments.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

BARR: Democrats Support Radical Leftist Groups Waging ‘Urban Guerrilla Warfare’ Against American System

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BARR: Democrats Support Radical Leftist Groups Waging ‘Urban Guerrilla Warfare’ Against American System

Attorney General William Barr criticized Democrats for attempting to appease radical leftist groups, such as Antifa, that have launched a new form of “urban guerrilla warfare” against America and its constitutional system.

The Left’s “lust for power” has never been more evident than throughout the Black Lives Matter protests, Barr said, characterizing the BLM movement as an activist group comprised of “Bolsheviks” with a focus on “some form of socialism, communism.”

“They are a revolutionary group that is interested in some form of socialism, communism. They’re essentially Bolsheviks. Their tactics are fascistic,” he told Fox News host Mark Levin this weekend.

Antifa activists are even more malicious, Barr said.

“The way the guerrilla…hides out among the people as a fish in the ocean…what they do is they are essentially shielding themselves or shrouding themselves in First Amendment activity,” he explained. “They go into the demonstrations, which are exercising First Amendment activity, and they insinuate themselves in there to shield themselves. That’s where they swim. And what they do is they hijack these demonstrations and they and they provoke violence.”

The Democratic Party has allowed this to happen, Barr said.

It began on the day Trump won in 2016, “and from that point forward there’s been the resistance,” Barr continued. “They were trying to impeach him from Day One. They have done everything they can..and I think it’s because of the desire for power that the left wants.”

Power has become a “secular religion of the Left,” Barr claimed. “They want to run people’s lives so they can design utopia for all of us…and it’s the lust for power. And they weren’t expecting Trump’s victory. And it outrages them.”

This desire for power has led Democrats to withdraw “from the umbrella of classical liberal values that have undergirded our society since our founding,” he said.

“I think the left has essentially withdrawn from this model, and really represents a Rousseauian revolutionary party that believes in tearing down the system,” he said.  “They’re interested in complete political victory, they’re not interested in compromise, they’re not interested in dialectic exchange of views.”

The mainstream media is also responsible for this lurch towards the Left, Barr said, specifically citing the media’s refusal to accurately portray the violent riots taking over Democratic-run cities such as Portland, Chicago, and Seattle.

Instead of showing the destruction rioters have caused, the media has sold the American public a “lie” by “projecting a narrative” that the riots are really just “peaceful protests,” Barr said.

“You don’t see it on the networks. You don’t see it on the other cable stations. And yet you hear about these peaceful demonstrators. So it’s you know, it’s just it’s a lie. The American people are being told a lie by the media,” Barr said.

More Than 100 Arrests, 13 Officers Hurt Amid Looting in Upscale Chicago District

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More Than 100 Arrests, 13 Officers Hurt Amid Looting in Upscale Chicago District

(Headline USA) More than 100 people were arrested Monday following a night of looting and unrest that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in Chicago‘s upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city, authorities said.

Police Superintendent David Brown said it “was not an organized protest” but instead “an incident of pure criminality” that began following the shooting of a person by police the previous day in the city’s Englewood neighborhood.

At one point early Monday, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire. Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in the downtown area until further notice.

“This was straight up, felony criminal conduct,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. “This was an assault on our city.”

Those arrested were expected to face charges including looting, disorderly conduct, battery against police. Lightfoot said that the city has activated a neighborhood protection program that will be in place “for foreseeable days until we know our neighborhoods are safe.”

No officers were injured in the shooting, police spokesman Tom Ahern said on Twitter. Many of the businesses that were ransacked had recently opened after Chicago protests of George Floyd’s May 25 death in Minneapolis devolved into chaos.

The unrest began shortly after midnight and anti-police graffiti was seen in the area of the Magnificent Mile, which is one of Chicago’s most-visited tourist attractions. Hours earlier, dozens of people had faced off with police after officers shot and wounded a person Sunday in the Englewood neighborhood, located about 10 miles away.

Brown said after a crowd dissipated following that shooting “we are monitoring social media and we come across a post of a caravan of cars being prompted to go to our downtown and loot.”

Along the Magnificent Mile, people were seen going in and out of stores carrying shopping bags full of merchandise as well as at a bank, the Chicago Tribune reported, and as the crowd grew vehicles dropped off more people in the area. On streets throughout the downtown area, empty cash drawers from stores were strewn about and ATMs were ripped open.

Stores miles from downtown were also ransacked, with parking lots littered with glass and items from inside the stores. Clothes hangers and boxes that once contained television sets and other electronics were seen — evidence that thieves had taken racks of clothes and removed them from the hangers.

“This was obviously very orchestrated,” the Rev. Michael Pfleger, a prominent Roman Catholic priest and activist on the city’s South Side, told WBBM-TV as cameras panned the downtown area.

One officer was seen slumped against a building, several arrests were made and a rock was thrown at a police vehicle, the newspaper said. Police worked early Monday to disperse the crowds.

There was a large police presence Monday morning outside an Apple store located north of Chicago’s downtown area. Blocks away, debris was strewn in parking lots in front of a Best Buy and a large liquor store.

Train and bus service into downtown was temporarily suspended at the request of public safety officials, the Chicago Transit Authority said on Twitter. Bridges over the Chicago River were lifted, preventing travel to and from the downtown area, and Illinois State Police blocked some expressway ramps into downtown. Access was being restored later Monday morning.

Chicago and its suburbs, like many other cities, saw unrest following the death of Floyd. Chicago’s central business district and its commercial areas were shut down for several days after violence erupted and stores were damaged in the wake of marches protesting Floyd’s death. Floyd, a black man who was handcuffed, died after a white officer pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes after Floyd resisted arrest.

In the Sunday shooting in Englewood, police said in a statement that they responded about 2:30 p.m. Sunday to a call about a person with a gun and tried to confront someone matching his description in an alley. He fled from officers on foot and shot at officers, police said.

Officers returned fire, wounding him, and a gun was recovered, police said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment and three officers involved also were taken to a hospital for observation, the statement said.

More than an hour after the shooting, police and witnesses said a crowd faced off with police after someone reportedly told people that police had shot and wounded a child. That crowd eventually dispersed.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

China Sanctions Cruz, Rubio, Hawley, Cotton, & Other US Politicians

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China Sanctions Cruz, Rubio, Hawley, Cotton, & Other US Politicians

(Associated Press) China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the 11 had “performed badly” on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month.

The number of Americans named by the ministry exactly equals the number of Hong Kong and Chinese officials placed on a sanctions list by the U.S. last week over the crackdown.

China showed its determination to defy such pressure on Monday by arresting leading independent media tycoon Jimmy Lai and raiding the publisher’s headquarters.

“The relevant actions of the U.S. blatantly intervened in Hong Kong affairs, grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and seriously violated international law and the basic norms of international relations,” foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a daily briefing on Monday.

“China urges the U.S. to have a clear understanding of the situation, correct mistakes, and immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs and interfering in China’s internal affairs.”

Four other lawmakers were named by the foreign ministry: Senators Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Pat Toomey and Representative Chris Smith.

Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, said he was sanctioned for defending the victims of Communist Party rule, including Hong Kong students fighting for democracy.

“Chinese Communism is the most dangerous threat to freedom in the world, and I will never back down from fighting it,” he said in a statement.

The others sanctioned were National Endowment for Democracy President Carl Gershman, National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell, International Republican Institute President Daniel Twining, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, and Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House.

Beijing already placed a travel ban on Rubio, Cruz and Smith last month after Washington announced similar measures against Chinese officials linked to measures taken against Muslims in the northwestern Chinese region of Xinjiang.

The standing committee of China’s national legislature passed the National Security Law last month, bypassing the city’s Legislative Council and the public, where such legislation has faced stiff opposition for years.

The move came in response to months of sometimes violent anti-government protests last year that Beijing said were encouraged by foreign forces in a bid to overthrow Chinese rule over the former British colony that was handed over to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework meant to last until 2047.

Freedom Caucus Chairman: Time for Fauci and Birx to GO AWAY

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Freedom Caucus Chairman: Time for Fauci and Birx to GO AWAY

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, is calling for two top members of the “White House Coronavirus Task Force” to step down.

In a TownHall.com op-ed, Biggs rips into Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx for their poor public health performance and asserts that they have outlasted their usefulness while continuing to linger and bask in the media spotlight.

Biggs expressed particular contempt for Fauci, whom he called a media “showman” and “healthcare bureaucrat.”

Fauci, 79, has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984. His tenure is marked with notable scandals, including endangering foster children in AIDS drug trials and retaliating against a whistleblower when the program went horribly wrong.

White House economic advisor Peter Navarro recently lambasted Fauci in an unauthorized op-ed that claimed the longtime government health care director has been “wrong about everything.”

“When I was working feverishly on behalf of the president in February to help engineer the fastest industrial mobilization of the health care sector in our history, Fauci was still telling the public the China virus was low risk,” Navarro wrote.

Biggs hammered Fauci for his celebrity-seeking interviews and non-healthcare related public appearances.

“We have now reached the stage where the most dangerous place in Washington, D.C. is between Anthony Fauci and a camera,” Biggs wrote.

Fauci made headlines throwing a ceremonial first-pitch at a Washington Nationals baseball game last month. He was also photographed breaking Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines regarding masks and social distancing.

Biggs referenced a glowing Vanity Fair article about Fauci — in which he appears in rockstar sunglasses next to his pool — while recounting his “inconsistent, unpredictable and destructive” coronavirus advice to President Donald Trump.

“His policies have resulted in an economic disaster, a public mental health crisis, and a secondary public health crisis that will become more visible in the coming months,” Biggs said.

“State and local officials have been hanging on his words as if they were the tablets from the Mount…his public comments, that so many revere, have been casual, philosophical observations that are not necessarily based on science,” he continued.

The Arizona congressman also laid into Dr. Birx, who he referred to as Fauci’s “sidekick.”

Once bashed by the media for appearing to agree with President Donald Trump, Birx now says that children should not return to school until the virus “spread rate” is under 5 percent.

How did Birx arrive at the 5 percent determination? According to Biggs, she made it up.

Birx’s expert medical analysis is “without scientific support and appears to have been pulled like a rabbit from the hat in an arbitrary fashion,” Biggs concluded.

Ohio Gov.’s False-Positive COVID-19 Test Raises Backlash

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Ohio Gov.’s False-Positive COVID-19 Test Raises Backlash

(Headline USA) The Ohio governor’s positive, then negative, tests for COVID-19 have provided fuel for skeptics of government pandemic mandates and critics of his often-aggressive policies.

“I’m sure the internet is lighting up with ‘Well, you can’t believe any test,’ ” Mike DeWine said in a WCOL radio interview Friday, after a whirlwind of events the day before when the initial positive showing forced the Republican to scrub a planned meeting with President Donald Trump.

And on Sunday, he told CNN’s “State of the Union” that “people should not take away from my experience that testing is not reliable or doesn’t work.”

Instead of seeing Trump at the Cleveland airport, DeWine returned to this state capital for new testing with his wife, Fran, through Ohio State University’s medical center. They then went to their southwestern Ohio farm in Cedarville, where DeWine said he planned to quarantine for 14 days.

But within hours, he had received Columbus test results that were negative. The first test, part of protocol for people meeting with the president, was a rapid-result antigen test, while the Columbus testing was a genetic, laboratory test whose results are considered more reliable.

The governor’s office said Saturday another test for each by Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center again returned negative results for DeWine and his wife.

The conflicting results come as Americans have grown frustrated about access to testing and by slow results. Ohioans also remain divided over DeWine’s actions to deal with the pandemic, with some saying his early shutdown actions unnecessarily damaged businesses. He was an early advocate of wearing masks to stop the COVID-19 spread even as other Republicans in Ohio remain unconvinced.

State Rep. Nino Vitale, a conservative Republican from Urbana, tweeted a photo of DeWine wearing a mask minutes after the positive test was announced Thursday.

“I think the question must be asked. Has he not been wearing his mask, or do masks not stop the spread?” Vitale said in his post, which also stated he wished the governor no ill will.

DeWine said he received some “not so nice” texts during the day Thursday about wearing masks. He reasserted Friday that while they might not be 100% effective, they do help prevent spread and have been made a noticeable difference in the state’s most-populated cities.

Critics were blasting him on his official Twitter account, too.

DeWine, 73, a former U.S. senator and House member who is in his first term as governor, at first appeared to have been only the second U.S. governor to positive for the coronavirus.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced he contracted the virus last month. Stitt, a Republican who has been disdainful of mask mandates, said he contracted COVID -19 by hugging friends.

Longtime Cincinnati-area conservative activist Mike Wilson, who has analyzed and written about coronavirus data since he contracted COVID-19 this summer, saw a storm of strong reactions on his Facebook page including from some who said DeWine’s results show the pandemic is “a scam.”

“At this point, this is clearly not a hoax,” said Wilson, who has fully recovered from the virus.

He said continued pandemic-deniers are mostly “outliers,” but many other people are frustrated over what they see as DeWine’s overreactions and also about the testing issues. Test results, including false positives, affect individual lives by triggering quarantines that are a rising concern as Ohio schools prepare to reopen.

The number of positive cases in Ohio had decreased after the first surge, hitting a low in late May. But numbers again began to rise in mid-June as Ohio began to reopen businesses.

DeWine had resisted a statewide mask mandate until July 23. He quickly backed off an earlier try at a mask requirement inside businesses and balked at closing down bars, instead recently mandating a “last call” at 10 p.m. and an 11 p.m. closing time. Nearly 3,700 Ohio deaths have been linked to the coronavirus.

Wilson thinks by now, DeWine and other government officials should allow people to make their own decisions on which precautions they need or are willing to take.

“We’ve found that people’s individual behavior matters more than those government actions anyway,” Wilson said.

Adapted from reporting by Associated Press.

States Would Need to Kick in $Billion$ Under Trump’s Unemployment Plan

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States Would Need to Kick in $Billion$ Under Trump’s Unemployment Plan

(Associated Press) Whether President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear.

Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trump’s plan to bypass Congress, will sign on.

Trump announced an executive order Saturday that extends additional unemployment payments of $400 a week to help cushion the economic fallout of the pandemic. Congress had approved payments of $600 a week at the outset of the coronavirus outbreak, but those benefits expired Aug. 1 and Congress has been unable to agree on an extension. Many Republicans have expressed concern that a $600 weekly benefit, on top of existing state benefits, gives people an incentive to stay unemployed.

But under Trump’s plan, the $400 a week requires a state to commit to providing $100.

Many states are already facing budget crunches caused by the pandemic. Asked at a news conference how many governors had signed on to participate, Trump answered: “If they don’t, they don’t. That’s up to them.”

Trump expressed a different view on Sunday night, following a day of state officials questioning how they could afford even $100 per person in additional weekly payments. He told reporters as he returned to Washington that states could make application to have the federal government provide all or part of the $400 payments. Decisions would be made state by state, he said.

Several state officials questioned how Trump’s initial proposal would work and often expressed doubt that they could afford to participate at the level Trump initially set without using federal funds.

Aubrey Layne, secretary of finance for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said in a phone interview Sunday he believes it would be feasible for Virginia to participate in such a program if states are allowed to use money that’s been allocated to them under the already passed CARES Act. He said his preliminary understanding is that states can do so, but he and others are waiting to see the rules published.

The better solution, Layne said, would be for Congress to pass legislation.

“It’s ludicrous to me that Congress can’t get together on this,” he said. “I think it would have been better for the president to use his influence in those negotiations, rather than standing on the sideline and then riding in like a shining knight.”

Details about the program were confused on Sunday — and that was even before Trump’s declaration that states could ask the federal government to pay all or part of the $400 week payments.

On CNN’s “State of the Nation” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said conflicting things about whether the federal money was contingent on an additional contribution from the states. Initially Kudlow said that “for an extra $100, we will lever it up. We will pay three-quarters, and the states will pay 25 percent.” In the same interview, though, he later said that “at a minimum, we will put in 300 bucks … but I think all they (the states) have to do is put up an extra dollar, and we will be able to throw in the extra $100.”

A clarifying statement from the White House said the “funds will be available for those who qualify by, among other things, receiving $100/week of existing assistance and certify that they have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.”

Several advocacy groups that follow the issue, though, said it’s clear the way the executive order is structured that the federal money will be contingent on states making a 25 percent contribution.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called the plan “an impossibility.”

“I don’t know if the president is genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation,” Cuomo said. “But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington COVID mismanagement.”

In Connecticut, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that the plan would cost his state $500 million to provide that benefit for the rest of the year, and called Trump’s plan “not a good idea.”

“I could take that money from testing — I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Lamont said.

On CNN, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine praised Trump for issuing the order.

“He’s trying to do something. He’s trying to move the ball forward,” DeWine said.

Still, he was noncommittal about whether Ohio would participate.

“We’re looking at it right now to see whether we can do this,” he said.

In Maryland, Michael Ricci, spokesman for Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, said in an email that “we will wait on new guidance from US Department of Labor before looking at any (unemployment insurance) changes.”

In Minnesota, Department of Employment and Economic Development Commissioner Steve Grove said his agency is “awaiting further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor.”

Kevin Hensil, a spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania, said “reducing the benefit by a third will make it harder for families to get by and it places a larger financial burden on states.” He said state officials are studying the impact of the cuts.

In Louisiana, Christina Stephens, a spokeswoman for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said “Right now we are reviewing the President’s order to determine exactly what the impact to the state would be.”

And in Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a press release that Trump “cut federal funding for unemployed workers and is requiring states that are facing severe holes in our budgets to provide 25% of the funding.”

On ABC”s “This Week,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called it “an unworkable plan.

“Most states will take months to implement it, because it’s brand new. It’s sort of put together with spit and paste. And many states, because they have to chip in $100, and they don’t have money, won’t do it,” Schumer said.

Many states struggled to adjust outdated computer systems to accommodate the $600 payment, which along with the massive influx of new claims resulted in long delays in providing benefits. Reprogramming the computers again to accommodate the new amount could result in similar glitches.

On ABC, Kudlow said that many of those outdated systems have since been upgraded.

“I don’t think there will be a huge delay. Labor Department has been working with the states. The states are the ones that process the federal benefits before. So, I don’t see any reason why it would be all that difficult,” he said.

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