Daily Archives: January 25, 2021

House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy came under fire this weekend for claiming in a recent interview the entire country shares some responsibility for unrest at the Capitol earlier this month.

During a Full Court Press interview with former Fox News host Greta Van Susteren, McCarthy rejected the idea that President Donald Trump was entirely responsible for inciting the riot as Democrats attempt to impeach the former president after hes left office.

I thought the president had some responsibility when it came to the response. If you listen to what president said at the rally, he said, demonstrate peacefully. And then I got a question later about whether did he incite them. I also think everybody across this country has some responsibility, McCarthy told Van Susteren, according to a transcript obtained by Newsweek.

Trump detractors immediately seized on the comments, vilifying the Republican for declaring an uncomfortable reality.

A McCarthy spokesperson spun the California congressmans comments in a statement to Newsweek claiming the House minority leader is merely being misunderstood, arguing instead McCarthy meant to reiterate genuine calls for unity as a task placed on everyone.

I understand that some might want to spin McCarthys comments as spreading culpability of the actual rioters to everyone, but thats just plain wrong. He has maintained since the attacks that we all have a responsibility to lower the political temperature across the spectrum that has been building for years and unite as Americansthis isnt the first instance of political violence, a spokesperson told the magazine.

McCarthy also released a video chronicling his consistency condemning the violence, a consistency absent among Democrats when left-wing militants frequently broke out in riots in the name of social justice last year.

The initial interpretation of McCarthys remarks however, werent entirely wrong to begin with. Theyre just an uncomfortable reality legacy media refuses to reckon with.

No writer has explained corporate medias culpability in the Capitol attacks as succinctly as Federalist Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky in her article, To Heal, We Must First Acknowledge Plummeting Public Trust Is Reasonable.

Jashinsky highlights the story of Ashli Babbitt, a 35-year-old veteran who served in the military for 14 years before she was shot and killed storming the Capitol.Below is one of Babbitts final retweets on Twitter.

People I trust in DC 1) President Trump the end, the post reads.

While it might be misguided, these sentiments are emblematic of how many Americans feel towards Washington. U.S. institutions including Congress have failed them time and time again while lying and mocking them. Evidence of that is made clear on what happened Jan. 6.

Jashinsky writes:

Theyve watched their mayors and governors violate their own regulations for the sake of leisure or personal convenience or politics, crippling business and workers while they eat crabs. They then watched the medias nakedly unbalanced coverage of it all, wild bias from bonus-pocketing journalists purporting to be arbiters of fact and undisputed occupants of the moral high ground.

Their lives, like all of our lives, have been upended in just over a decade by products tech oligarchs promised would make us happier. Those same billionaires now join the chorus of elites who treat them as irredeemables and deplorables because they disagree with full-throated progressivism.

Now Democrats have passed a snap impeachment of a president already voted out of office, not featuring a single hearing with a single witness, forcing the Senate to conduct a trial for an ex-president. Theres no context for unity with the backdrop of impeachment, let alone a process playing out to punish a man only to be made a martyr from the partisan procedure.

Legacy medias conduct doesnt justify what happened at the Capitol several weeks ago. Nothing does. But legacys medias conduct did contribute to the unraveling of trust in the nations institutions, leaving millions, if not thousands, looking to Trump as the only figure they felt spoke with truth. So did the Democratic Partys normalizing political violence, the Republican Partys clinging to electoral fiction, academia breeding aggressively woke children running the nations newsrooms, and Hollywood unfairly mocking those refusing to conform to their left-wing standards.

Former Fox News Host Megyn Kelly, who now runs her own podcast with no allegiance to Trump, made the same point on BBC below, earning her the same scorn from the same sort of people refusing the same responsibility for playing any part in fomenting the the divisions that ultimately stormed the Capitol.

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McCarthy: Trump Isn't The Only Person To Blame For Jan. 6 Capitol Riot - The Federalist

As Washington, D.C., and federal officials around the country geared up for what many wrongly predicted would be an insurrection by Trump supporters on Inauguration Day, Antifa members rioted and denounced Joe Bidens presidency in cities across the nation.

In Portland, hundreds of violent Antifa rioters took to the streets to protest Bidens inauguration, with some vandalizing the Oregon Democratic Party headquarters, smashing windows, graffitiing the walls, and lighting dumpsters on fire.

Another group marched to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city, chanting, F-ck Joe Biden. Shortly after they arrived, federal law enforcement declared an unlawful assembly as the crowd lobbed objects at the officers and the building.

Police eventually arrested and charged multiple people in connection to the destruction, but during other rowdy gatherings in the area, some demonstrators called for revenge against police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres, carrying a banner painted with We dont want Biden.

In Seattle, Antifa rioters burned flags and wreaked havoc on businesses in Pike Place Market, a popular tourist attraction in the citys downtown. Some carried banners calling for the abolition of ICE, cops, prisons, borders, and presidents.

Police in Seattle arrested a handful of people in connection with the ongoing property damage and Antifa logo vandalism on the side of buildings all across the area.

In Denver, an Antifa group burned an American flag near the Colorado Capitol, while some displayed banners emblazoned with communist, anti-fascist, anti-Biden, and anti-Trump logos and statements.

Multiple rioters were also caught on camera assaulting other people during the gathering.

Just last summer, violent Black Lives Matter and Antifa rioters inflictedmore than$2 billion in damages on businesses, churches, federal buildings, and other downtown structures in some of these same cities. Through arson, looting, vandalism, and other crimes, rioters brought damage across more than 20 states, leaving at least 30 people dead in their wake. These riots were largely ignored by the media as just isolated instances of property damage or justified in the name of racial justice.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Inauguration Violence Erupts... From Antifa And The Left - The Federalist

Federalist Publisher Ben Domenech highlighted President Joe Bidens aggressive pursuit for a partisan, progressive agenda on day one in office this week, despite the Democratic presidents rhetorical themes of unity at his inauguration.

Youre not going to see a lot of unity in practice, Domenech said, as Biden signed a series of executive orders on Wednesday to open the door to taxpayer-funded abortions, rolling back policies of the Trump administration.

Bidens message Wednesday, Domenech said on Fox News The Ingraham Angle, was basically a cmon man, lets unify, message, and nothing offered in terms of anything tangible while he was surrounded by a scene of militants and a bunch of congressional leaders born before 1950, clinging to their power.

He couldnt even bring himself to compliment Vice President Pence who was there for the work that he did on Operation Warp Speed, which every American should be proud of, considering the kind of thing that was achieved there, Domenech added.

On Fox News Americas Newsroom Thursday, Domenech again emphasized that the scene at Wednesdays inauguration sends a message of fragility, not strength, where a bunch of people who are kind of holding on for dear life at the end of their political careers gathered for the event.

If youre seeing that scene as an American, you dont feel a lot of confidence in this new setup, in this new administration, Domenech said.

Bidens partisan executive orders were particularly problematic, particularly his erasure of womens sports in the name of unity. On Wednesday, Biden mandated that institutions such as schools that receive any federal funding allow biological males who identify as female to be welcomed into womens locker rooms and sports programs.

Thats going to be a major issue, a hugely controversial one if you look at polling, Domenech said.

By Thursday afternoon, #BidenErasedWomen already began trending on Twitter, where even left-wing feminists expressed anger over Bidens decision, perceiving the executive order to be a move effectively erasing progress on equality in sports.

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Ben Domenech: 'You're Not Going To See A Lot Of Unity In Practice' - The Federalist

Amazon offered the Biden administration vaccine distribution assistance with its vast trove of nationwide resources moments after President Joe Biden was sworn into office on Wednesday. Amazon, the company said, was ready to assist with the new presidents goal to vaccinate 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of the new administration.

We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administrations vaccination efforts, Amazons CEO for worldwide consumer business Dave Clark wrote. Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against COVID-19.

While on the surface, its a commendable gesture to be sure, its a delayed one, with no good explanation from Amazon as to why the company waited, more than a month after two vaccines had been cleared by the FDA for emergency use, to offer help until right after Biden took office. Meanwhile, states and cities remained locked down with government officials citing a raging virus to justify draconian measures, declaring livelihoods built on small businesses to be nonessential, while corporations such as Amazon thrive in the elite-driven pandemic.

Amazon refused to provide an on-the-record answer to The Federalist about whether the company had given the Trump administration the same offer it gave Biden Wednesday, though Trump officials told Fox News that the previous White House, which conducted the historic Operation Warp Speed, was given no such letter proposing assistance.

Amazon did tell The Federalist the company had been in contact with Operation Warp Speed and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but offered few details and did not say the company had extended a helping hand to facilitate public vaccination efforts. One letter addressed to the CDC, dated Dec. 16, requested that the government prioritize essential workers in its vaccination guidelines to give protection to its own employees.

We request that [the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices] continue to prioritize these essential workers who cannot work from home, like those working at Amazon fulfillment centers, AWS data centers and Whole Foods Market stores, Clark wrote to ACIP Chairman Dr. Jose R. Romero, according to Fox News.

The FDA granted emergency use authorization to Pfizer-BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 11. and approved Modernas on Dec. 18, each more than a month before Inauguration Day this week.

The five-to-six-week delay in offering resources when such assistance was available, as vaccination implementation struggled at the state level, likely came at a cost of thousands of lives as viral cases reached new heights in the new year, all while lockdowns enriched the coffers of the corporate tech giants profiting handsomely from the pandemic. The optics of the delay, without any substantive explanation for it, make it appear guided by animus toward Trump and is reminiscent of the Pfizer announcement of its vaccine efficacy days after the November election. Biden was informed of the vaccines effectiveness before officials in the Trump administration, who learned of it through the media.

The Trump administration devoted its resources primarily to vaccine development through Operation Warp Speed, successfully landing two reliable vaccines by the years end. Vaccination, however, has been left up to the states, a decision that now-President Biden has declared a mistake. He is moving to federalize vaccination efforts, aiming to give 100 million Americans immunity by the end of his first 100 days in office, which comes at the end of April.

Dr. Joel Zinberg, a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Conservative Enterprise Institute who worked on pandemic preparation in the Trump White House between 2017 and 2019, said Bidens goal was overly ambitious and cited the federal governments inexperience in providing direct health care. The federal government, Zinberg noted, isnt known for providing the most competent health care directly, as highlighted by recent problems at Veterans Affairs services.

This is going to have to be done from scratch, Zinberg said of the entire operation from facilities to logistics. So the prospect of this occuring in the next 100 days I think is pretty slim.

Amazons decision to provide access to its vast nationwide resources, however, provides a point of optimism that Bidens aspirational goals might be possible with the private-sector help not afforded from the same company to his Republican predecessor.

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Federalist: After Snubbing Trump And Americans, Amazon Offers Vaccine Help The Moment Biden Takes Office - The Federalist

Big Techs election interference to propel Joe Biden to the Oval Office appears poised to pay off as the president-elect considers tech-friendly corporate lawyers to lead the antitrust division at the Department of Justice.

According to The Intercept reporting with The American Prospect, Renata Hesse, a former Obama Justice Department official who went on to work for Google during the Trump years, is a top contender to lead the antitrust division at the DOJ during a pivotal moment for the California tech giants facing intense pressure from government regulators on both sides of the aisle. While in private practice, Hesse played a primary role in the Amazon merger with Whole Foods and also represented major pharmaceutical giants.

As recently as a couple years ago, Hesse seemed to dismiss antitrust concerns from Googles control of the online search market, the papers reported, highlighting testimony at a field hearing with the Federal Trade Commission. She also said that its really easy to switch away from Google if users dont like the product.

The Intercept and Prospect also reported that Juan Arteaga, another former Obama DOJ official, is in the mix to be assistant attorney general for antitrust. Arteaga represented AT&T in its merger with Time Warner and has defended JPMorgan along with several other major financial firms in fraud cases. Sources reportedly told the papers, however, that Arteaga is more likely to land as deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust under Hesse.

The leading contenders have raised anxieties among Big Tech critics that a Biden administration staffed with former tech lawyers and lobbyists deferential to their corporate interests would be a missed opportunity at a critical time to reign in the unchecked power of a runaway Silicon Valley. The House Antitrust Subcommittee released the findings of its 15-month-long investigation on Big Tech anticompetitive market practices last fall, detailing bipartisan support for changes in tackling the monopoly power of Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazon. There also remains a series of ongoing bipartisan state and federal antitrust lawsuits targeting Facebook and Google launched in recent months.

Forty national, state, and local groups sent an open letter to the incoming president Monday, warning Biden against choosing Big Tech elites to regulate Big Tech elites as the president-elects team considers a series of high-powered veterans of Silicon Valleys corporate class for key roles in the new administration.

As you prepare to take office, we urge you to avoid appointing to key antitrust enforcement positions individuals who have served as lawyers, lobbyists, or consultants for Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google, the groups wrote through the American Economic Liberties Project. Instead, we encourage you to appoint experienced litigators or public servants who have recognized the dangers of, rather than helped to exacerbate, these corporations market power.

Colorado Republican Congressman Ken Buck also decried the potential appointments of friendly tech veterans to roles where they might regulate the same industry they spent years protecting.

As for who might lead the Justice Department at the top, Biden nominated former 2016 Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland.

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Biden Plans To Put Big Tech In Charge Of Its Own Regulation - The Federalist

President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office, mandating that any schools that receive federal funding must function as if biological males who claim to be females are the same, and vice versa, or risk losing that funding. This pro-transgender policy extends to male athletes who claim their gender identity as a female should allow them to compete on womens teams, receive womens scholarships, and be admitted in womens locker rooms.

Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports, the executive order reads, promising that the Biden administration is committed to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Biden previously promised to pioneer a radical transgender agenda, telling the mother of an 8-year-old, gender-confused child at a town hall that he would flat-out change the law and eliminate former President Donald Trumps executive orders concerning sex and gender identity. His pledge received support and encouragement from now-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Joe Biden said that on his first day of office, he will give transgender students access to sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms in accordance with their gender identity in all federally funded schools. Do you think he has the ability to do this, and do you agree with his decision? a reporter asked Schumer.

I agree with the decision, and I know hell check things out thoroughly, legally, Schumer said.

During his campaign, Biden also vowed to use the Department of Education to investigate and address any violations of transgender students civil rights, including removing federal school funding or risking legal action. His new executive order also mandates that every agency must act to ensure the enforcement of this new rule within 100 days of Jan. 20.

Under Trump, the Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights found that a Connecticut policy that allowed biologically male student-athletes who identify as female to participate in female sports violated Title IX. Democrat Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii introduced legislation in the House in December that prevents biological men from participating in female sports.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Day One, Biden Destroys Girls' Sports With Anti-Science Executive Order - The Federalist

On this weeks WandaVision, we get the pregnancy episode and an homage to 1970s style sitcoms like The Brady Brunch. The episode, entitled Now in Color, shows Wanda going through the entire nine months of pregnancy in the span of an afternoon. At the end of last weeks episode, we saw her with a small baby bump, but now that bump is fully developed and off to the races.

The comedy in this version of the sit-com comes from the hilarious reactions caused by Wanda reaching certain milestones in her pregnancy.

When she has her first Braxton-Hicks contraction it blows out the power in her whole neighborhood and overloads all the devices in her kitchen.

When her water breaks, it causes the house to flood.

As the baby is about to be born, a stork shows up in the house, while Wanda is trying to hold down a normal conversation with a neighbor that stopped by.

Being a super-powered pregnant woman is not easy.

We also get Paul Bettany at his absolute best. His comedic timing is perfect, and his ability to play the fish out of water character makes this show as funny as it is weird. As an expectant father, hes as nervous as the rest of us were, but with the added pressure of his wifes entire pregnancy being condensed into an afternoon.

At one Vision asks the town doctor, How did this happen? We get perfectly appropriate to a 1970s sitcom answer from the M.D. about how When a man and woman love each other Originally the first Marvel television show was supposed to be The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but COVID-19 stepped in, production schedules were shifted and WandaVision became the first out of the gate. Its still early, but it appears were all better for it.

When Wandas little one who is either going to be named Tommy or Billy (depending upon which parent you ask) is finally on his way, Vision runs to find the doctor leaving Wanda at home alone, but thats when their neighbor Geraldine shows up. As we know, but Wanda does not, Geraldine is actually Monica Rambeau who we met as a child in the 1990s-set Captain Marvel.

Monica is stalked by a stork in this episode, but there to help with the birth of little Tommy, who as it turns outs, is just one of a set of twin boys. After Vision and the doctor have returned, and both babies are out and asleep in their crib, Wanda remarks that she had a twin brother once. Here is where the show illustrates that Wandas vision of her new life is starting to unravel. Monica says, He was killed by Ultron, wasnt he? This is the first mention of Wandas brother or Ultron in a long time in the MCU, and it does not go unnoticed by our super-powered new mom.

Wanda then confronts Monica, and asks, What did you say? Monica tries to deflect by mumbling something else. Meanwhile, Vision is outside talking to the neighbors, who sure are nosy in this small town, and theyre asking if Wanda is inside with Geraldine. Vision finds it odd that hes being asked this, and inquires why it matters.

The nosiest of nosy neighbors, Agnes, interjects that Geraldine is new in town, has no husband, and no home, and then Visions friend Herb tries to tell him something, but Agnes convinces him to keep it a secret (Bettany plays this so well). Earlier in the episode he remarks to Wanda that something is wrong in this town. Not liking that, she rewinds him and makes him say something else, but its clear thats Wandas vision of her perfect suburban sit-com life is beginning to crumble.

As Vision re-enters the house he finds that Geraldine has gone. He asks Wanda where she is, and Wanda says, She had to go home. We then see the city limits for the modern-day town of Westview, with Monica having been thrown out of town. Government vehicles, military trucks, and helicopters hover overhead, spotlights focused on the confused woman rolling on the ground.

If these twin boys are anything like the babies Wanda and Vision had in the comics, then it may indicate just who is the evil force behind this show.

In the comics, Wanda and Vision had twin boys named Tommy and Billy, but they werent truly human, so Wanda stole fragments of life from a villain named Mephisto to give them souls. Later, Mephisto who is essentially the Marvel version of The Devil destroyed Wandas children to absorb their mutant powers.

There have been several rumors that Mephisto is the big baddie for the next few Marvel movies including the third Spider-Man film and the second adventure of Dr. Strange. Could he get his introduction in WandaVision? It seems so.

Brad Jackson is a writer and radio personality whose work has appeared at ABC, CBS, Fox News, and multiple radio programs. He was the longtime host and producer of Coffee & Markets, an award-winning podcast and radio show with more than 1,500 episodes. Brad covers all things edible and cultural for The Federalist. You can find him on Twitter and Instagram at @bradwjackson.

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Things Are Beginning To Unravel On 'WandaVision' - The Federalist

On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Seattle talk show host Jason Rantz joins Culture Editor Emily Jashinsky and Senior Editor Chris Bedford to discuss outgoing President Donald Trump, incoming President Joe Biden, and how American institutions will handle the transition.

One of the biggest shifts following Bidens inauguration, Rantz said, will be the corporate medias coverage and role in promoting Bidens agenda.

If they go back to how theyre supposed to do their jobs, then I think well all be better for it, Rantz said. And we will point to the last four years as an embarrassing blip in the world of national and local media. And thats frankly for both sides, both right and left. There were a lot of people on the conservative side who leaned in so hard to President Trump. They built their brands on him being president. If he goes dark, youre going to impact a lot of the conservative media outlets that relied on that for content.

While the Republicans face their own obstacles following the election losses in the Senate and presidency, the Democratic party, Rantz warned, will also have to find its grounding during the Biden administration as the progressive rifts and splits will be highlighted.

They lost a whole bunch of seats because, I think, veering so far to the left on some of these cultural issues and the way we talk about businesses, small businesses and big businesses, is just a turnoff, and so I dont understand the strategycoming from the Democratic Party right now, Rantz said.

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Reshaped By Trump, Our Institutions Will Hobble Into The Biden Era - The Federalist

President Joe Biden proclaimed Inauguration Day A National Day Of Unity on Wednesday, following his first presidential address on Capitol Hill that featured a theme of unity while vilifying dissenters from the progressive agenda as white supremacists.

To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in democracy: unity, unity, Biden declared in his inaugural address, after having said the following just moments before:

The cry for survival comes from planet itself, a cry that cant be any more desperate or any more clear. And now a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

Bidens speech, absent a close reading of the transcript might have sounded genuine. It might have looked genuine, and it might felt genuine, but a closer examination of his first acts in office peel back the curtain of a figure in the White House whose calls for unity are deeply unserious. One cant unify a country while condemning many as white supremacists, let alone pursue a partisan progressive agenda on day one in office amid an aggressive impeachment of the predecessor.

The left doesnt want the country to unify. The left wants the left to unify with each other, while adopting the idea of de-programming as a new Democratic d-word to characterize their wishes of the right. In MSNBC host Joy Reids case, its de-Baathification.

By Friday, Bidens first 48 hours in office have launched the new administration with 17 executive orders, more than were issued in the first month of their presidencies by Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton combined. If it seems Biden is breaking records with executive orders right out of the gate, thats because he is. In the January of their first inauguration, Trump signed four, Obama eight, Bush two, Clinton two, George H.W. Bush one, and Ronald Reagan one.

The new presidents wave of executive orders is already signaling that his administration will serve as a vehicle for the progressive revolution despite empty rhetoric on the campaign trail disputing otherwise. On Wednesday, Biden accelerated the elevation of wokeism as a secular religion, rejecting history by immediately dismantling the 1776 Commission and reversing Trumps ban on seminars by promoting critical race theory throughout the federal government.

[Read the final report of the 1776 Commission, stripped by the Biden White House, here.]

Former Obama White House national security adviser Susan Rice, now head of Bidens Domestic Policy Council, has been tasked with leading the new administrations efforts to require agencies rooting out systemic racism to be a focal point of their mission. Bidens team said Rice will lead a robust interagency process to hold the federal government accountable for advancing equity for families across America.

The new White House has also effectively dismantled womens sports with a new anti-science executive order requiring institutions such as schools that receive federal funding to allow biological males who identify as females to be admitted to female sports programs and locker rooms.

Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports, the order reads, pledging the administrations commitment to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation.

Other executive orders passed in during unity week have included the reversal of the Mexico City policy barring taxpayer-funded abortions, removal of Trump-implemented travel bans, an ax to the border wall, and the reinstatement of sweeping Obama-era protections for undocumented immigrants.

Apart from signing a cascade of executive orders in his first days in office, Biden shattered norms when he fired the National Labor Relations Boards top prosecutor, a position that typically serves four-year terms. Peter Robb, who held the title of NLRB general counsel, refused Bidens request to resign prior to the end of his four-year tenure and was in turn fired on Bidens first day.

It was my understanding that the incoming administration intended to foster civility and unity in this country and in the governing of this country, promising to adhere to the rule of law and enabling its chief law enforcement officers the independence, free from White House interference, to enforce the laws of the United States, Robb initially wrote, declining the invitation to step down. A presidential removal of the NLRBs General Counsel prior to the expiration of his or her term violates these promises and principles.

Hours after Robbs successor, Deputy General Counsel Alice Stock, was announced to serve as acting general counsel, Biden fired her too.

Bidens first 48 hours have illustrated a one-sided pledge for unity that doesnt actually unify anything.

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Biden Follows 'Unity' Speech With 48 Hours Of Divisive Social Policy - The Federalist

Shortly after they demanded that 25,000 members of the National Guard provide security for President Joe Bidens inauguration, Washington, D.C. politicians quietly banished thousands of troops from the U.S. Capitol, forcing them to set up sleeping quarters in nearby parking garages on Thursday night.

While temperatures outside dropped to the low 40s, more than 5,000 Guardsmen, who didnt experience any of the predicted violent clashes on Inauguration Day, were forced to share one electrical outlet, two restroom stalls, and rest their heads on the concrete, without an explanation.

Yesterday dozens of senators and congressmen walked down our lines taking photos, shaking our hands, and thanking us for our service. Within 24 hours, they had no further use for us and banished us to the corner of a parking garage. We feel incredibly betrayed, one Guardsman told Politico.

Multiple senators, representatives, and other government officials on both sides of the political aisle decried the decision. Some offered up their offices as sleeping quarters, others brought them food, and some called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and other congressional leaders to provide answers.

The National Guard did not respond to The Federalists calls, but told other outlets, Guard leadership did not make the decision and were doing their best to provide rest shelter for troops who are still on 12-hour shifts protecting the Capitol and congressional grounds.

While the troops were eventually allowed back into the Capitol complex, it is still unclear as to who ordered that the Guardsmen be removed from the historic building so swiftly and why. Some sources suggest that it was at the request of a Democratic lawmaker, possibly Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts, who was upset that some of the troops werent wearing masks. Keating denied that his complaint was what spurred the decision and other congressional leaders such as Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not respond to The Federalists request for comment.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott also directed their states troops that were present in D.C. to return home Thursday night, shortly after news broke of the sleeping arrangements.

These folks are soldiers, not Nancy Pelosis servants, DeSantis said on Fox and Friends Friday morning. This is a half-cocked mission at this point and the appropriate thing is to bring them home, he added.

Despite the virtue signaling from both the left and the right, the Guards deportation from the Capitol comes mere days after Democrats encouraged the vetting of National Guard members, especially those assigned to provide security in D.C. following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, for ties to extremism and support for former President Donald Trump.

When you have Guardsmen and women coming from all over the nation at this time, I do think that it is prudent to make sure that they are being vetted and that anybody who cannot pledge allegiance to their missions, and may be pulled by other views, needs not only to be removed from this duty, they need to be removed from the Guard, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowsersaidon Tuesday.

Just days before, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., explained a similar concept to CNNs Jim Sciutto, saying that even though the Guard is 90-some-odd-percent male only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden.

Youve got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative I see that on my social media, and we know it. Theyre probably not more than 25 percent of the people that are there protecting us who voted for Biden, Cohen said. The other 75 percent are in the class, the large class of folks, who might want to do something.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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DC Elite Used National Guard As Props, Questioned Their Loyalty, Then Made Them Sleep In Parking Garage - The Federalist