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GOP lawmaker deletes tweet blasting CNN for 'full TV set' inside Capitol that was actually green screen

Republican Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) deleted a tweet Thursday that accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of allowing CNN or as Steube put it the “Communist News Network” to build a TV set in Statuary Hall. CNN had actually used a green screen displaying that section of the U.S. Capitol.

“In case you forgot the sham #January6thcommitteehearings are purely for TV ratings, Pelosi let The Communist News Network build a full TV set where Abraham Lincoln’s desk once stood,” Steube wrote.

Steube’s tweet attached a picture of CNN anchor Jake Tapper and others discussing the third publicly released hearing by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in front of the Statuary Hall green screen.

The hearing, televised during prime time Thursday evening, explored tensions between former President Trump and former Vice President Pence over Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pence to throw out the results of the 2020 election.

Trump and Pence experienced a rift when Pence resisted Trump’s urgings for the then-vice president to block the certification of electoral votes that elected President Joe Biden to his office, an action that lawyers told the Trump administration was unconstitutional.

Pence was the target of threats and insults during the Jan. 6 insurrection, when people marched on the Capitol chating “hang Mike Pence.” The committee said he was “unwavering” in his resistance to Trump’s belligerent calls to abuse his position.

“We’re fortunate for Mr. Pence’s courage on January 6th,” said committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) in the hearing. “Our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe.”

Trump and Pence have experienced further turbulence in their relationship since the end of the Trump administration, which came to head when both figures supported opposing candidates in the Georgia Republican gubernatorial primary.

Both men have also been rumored to be planning 2024 presidential runs, pitting them against one other to a new extent.

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How to celebrate Juneteenth this year

The U.S. will commemorate on Sunday the newest federal holiday and pivotal piece of history marking the date slavery ended in America.  

Juneteenth, the first holiday established by Congress since 1983, is celebrated on June 19, the day in 1865 when the remaining enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation issued two years earlier by Abraham Lincoln. 

President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law last June amid a continued racial reckoning following the death of George Floyd. The federal holiday, enacted on June 17, 2021, was already recognized by most states.  

The last federal holiday established by Congress was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring the iconic Civil Rights leader. 

“Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound — in my view — profound weight and profound power,” Biden said last year, adding it is a day Americans remember the “moral stain” of slavery. 

“The truth is, it’s not — simply not enough just to commemorate Juneteenth,” Biden continued. “After all, the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans didn’t mark the end of America’s work to deliver on the promise of equality; it only marked the beginning.”  

Knowledge of Juneteenth has only grown in the U.S. since it was made a federal holiday, recent polling shows. A Gallup survey released yesterday revealed that 88 percent of respondents knew at least a little about the significance of the day.  

Additionally, a majority of those surveyed by Gallup believe the history of Juneteenth should be taught in schools, reflecting a substantial increase since last year.  

There are a host of celebrations across the U.S. this weekend, including in Washington, D.C. where The Juneteenth Foundation kicked off four days of events for its Freedom Festival on Thursday. 

The weekend events are expected to feature celebrity guests such as rappers T.I., Rick Ross and Big Sean, musicians Maxwell and Keri Hilson, and former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. 

Juneteenth also serves as a day when Americans might remember persistent inequities experienced by the Black community that were again laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic. People in the D.C. area may register to screen “The Color of Care” at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The film “chronicles how Black Americans have been subjected to systematically substandard healthcare,” according to the museum. 

Those unable to attend larger events can also celebrate in other ways. Interested parties might visit Juneteenth.com to read a deeper history of how the day of freedom has evolved over generations. For those seeking to make an immediate impact, the site recommends supporting local, Black-owned businesses. 

“These grassroots, ground-level contributions make a daily impact on work, quality of life, and growth in the community,” the site read. “Make a daily, weekly, and yearly conscious effort to plant your economic seeds and watch them grow.”  

Americans could also support Black communities year around as the nation moves closer toward equality, activists say.  

“Support Black people before Juneteenth so it won’t look like a performance,” activist and multimedia journalist Lance Cooper tweeted.  

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To advance equity, score it like the budget

It is often said that we measure what we value. Since 1974, we have assigned a high value to the price tag of new bills: The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation score legislation for their effects on our national budget. 

These scores matter for the public debate around a proposal, but they also matter for policy. For example, after CBO’s budget scoring projected that the Affordable Care Act would cost more than predicted, the bill was revised to lower payments to states and physicians and increase enrollee costs. If this bill had been scored for its implications for equity in health care access and potential for equitable health outcomes, its equity score may have prompted revisions to promote patient well-being. 

Of course, it matters that we measure legislative effects on our budget. But fiscal responsibility is not our only value. In this new era of racial reckoning, Congress should introduce a scoring system to measure how proposed bills might affect racial equity.

Measuring progress on racial equity is top of mind these days. On his first day in office, President Biden signed an executive order for fashioning the federal government as a “model” for advancing racial equity, calling for a “whole-of-government” approach to fulfill the mandate. Last month, more than 90 agencies publicly released Equity Action Plans detailing the steps they are taking to create equitable processes and achieve equitable outcomes.

But the legislative branch has no system for joining this unprecedented federal effort. Now is the moment to change that.

Over the past year, PolicyLink and the Urban Institute have collaborated on the Equity Scoring Initiative (ESI), a multi-year effort aimed at equipping legislators with the tools they need to systematically assess a bill’s potential benefits or consequences for racial, gender, and other forms of equity.

We define equity as the fair, just and impartial treatment — and equal access to opportunity — for all people, especially those who have been historically marginalized, and the 100 million people with incomes below the federal poverty level.

Equity scoring would pose a central question: How might a proposed bill, if implemented, benefit or harm all people and communities? Would it ameliorate the effects of systemic and structural inequities? And for whom would it affect wealth, health, housing, education, criminal justice and other aspects of well-being?

In our vision, equity scoring, like the CBO system for projecting costs, would be embedded in the federal legislative process where it can inform debate and ensure Congress considers how legislation would advance or impede equity. And, like fiscal scoring, the discipline’s methods and tools would improve over time.

Knowing the potential impact of available policy options matters to legislators. In addition, people affected by a bill need better information about likely consequences for them before the law is considered to make their voices heard when it matters. And scoring offers transparency to the tens of millions who live with the consequences of everyday policy decisions and bear the burdens of policies that prove inequitable.

Without a robust equity scoring system that uses the best data and evidence to project future outcomes, we cannot know how a proposed bill might affect different populations. But we do know the centuries-old pattern by which adopted legislation leaves people of color in a different place than their white counterparts.   

For example, the structure of Opportunity Zones, created through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to address market failure and deploy capital to community economic development, has disadvantaged minority-operated businesses, smaller and rural projects, and the types of projects that could deliver maximum community benefit, according to Urban Institute research. If this legislation had first been scored for racial equity, lawmakers could have strengthened key provisions to avert the disparate impacts.

But future policies could be guided by equity scoring.

In this new era of racial equity accountability, our initiative seeks to transform the policy landscape by positioning racial equity at the center of the legislative process. Building the capacity for a robust equity scoring system would codify the major shift the executive branch began and clarify the stakes of legislative policy proposals for diverse communities.

We believe now is the time for the legislative branch to join the federal pursuit of equity by building the legislative capacity to score bills. Now is the time for Congress to affirm the importance of measuring what we value.

Sarah Rosen Wartell is the president of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit research organization that provides data and evidence that inspire solutions to advance upward mobility and equity. Michael McAfee is the president and CEO of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity.

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FDA signs off on COVID vaccines for kids age 5 and younger

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday gave the green light to COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5 and younger, a key step towards making the shots available to the youngest group of kids.

The agency authorized the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech for kids ages 6 months to 4 years old, as well as a vaccine from Moderna for kids up to age 5.

With the authorization, vaccines can start being shipped to states and other jurisdictions that pre-ordered the initial batch.

Advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet Friday and Saturday to discuss whether to recommend use of the shots in young kids. 

If all goes well, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky could sign off on a favorable recommendation as early as Saturday.

The Biden administration is aiming for vaccinations to start June 21.

More than a year and a half since vaccines began rolling out for adults, kids under 5 are the last group eligible to be vaccinated. There are about 18 million of them eligible.

FDA said the vaccines are safe and effective and prevent serious disease, though neither performed very well in preventing symptomatic disease, especially against the omicron variant.

Young kids are at risk from COVID-19 even if they don’t get sick as often as adults. According to FDA, 442 children younger than 5 had died of COVID through the end of May, a toll higher than for many other vaccine-preventable illnesses.

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Doctor who pushed hydroxychloroquine gets 60-day prison sentence for storming Capitol on Jan. 6

A doctor who gained public attention after promoting the unproven drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19 in a 2020 video retweeted by former President Trump was sentenced Thursday to two months in prison for her involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Simone Gold, the founder of anti-COVID-19 restriction group America’s Frontline Doctors, pleaded guilty in March to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds when she stormed the Capitol last year.

Gold will pay a $9,500 fine, the largest amount of money ordered to be paid by any of the 200 Jan. 6 rioters already sentenced, in addition to serving 60 days in prison, CNN reports.

“It ain’t about free speech,” said District Judge Christopher Cooper in Gold’s sentencing hearing. “January 6 was about a lot of things, but it wasn’t about free speech or Covid vaccinations … the only reason you are here is where and when and how you chose to express your views.”

America’s Frontline Doctors has characterized Gold’s trial and sentencing as “political persecution” and raised over $400,000 to support the prison-bound doctor, which Cooper called a “disservice to the true victims that day,” according to CNN.

Gold stormed the Capitol alongside other rioters and spoke to them through a megaphone once inside.

The day before, Gold made a speech at a “Stop the Steal” rally, where CNN reports she said: “If you don’t want to take an experimental biological agent deceptively named a vaccine, you must not allow yourself to be coerced!”

According to American Frontline Doctors, Gold “did not participate in any incident that involved violence or vandalism and has categorically rebuked any such activity.”

The group does not consider itself anti-vaccine, but has concerns about COVID-19 vaccines because of a perceived lack of “study” and “transparency.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Jury finds final parent in college admission scandal not guilty

A jury on Thursday found a Florida investor and CEO not guilty of charges that he bribed a Georgetown University figure for his daughter’s admission to the school, in part of the massive “varsity blues” college admission scandal that sent prominent actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman to prison.

The acquittal was characterized as “total vindication for both father and daughter,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

B/E Aerospace CEO Amin Khoury was declared not guilty of bribery and conspiracy to fraud and bribery after being accused of paying former Georgetown tennis coach Gordon Ernst almost $200,000 to put his daughter on the books as an athlete, raising her chances of being accepted to the prestigious university to almost certain.

Ernst pled guilty to soliciting and accepting bribes last year and faces up to four years in prison as well as forfeiture of $3,435,053.

Khoury is one of 40 parents who have been charged in the scandal, and the only who was found not guilty of charges.

A total of 56 parents and university officials have been convicted or pled guilty in the fallout of the varsity blues investigation, which was made public in 2019.

“These cases writ large have exposed the disturbing, improper, and inequitable role that wealth and privilege can play in distorting a system that is supposed to be merit based,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins according to the Journal, despite her self-described disappointment over the verdict of Khoury’s trial.

Rollins expressed confidence that the cases involved with the admission scandal “have resulted in enormous and systemic changes in the college-admissions process.”

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Watch live: Biden hosts Major Economies Forum

President Biden on Friday is slated to host the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate.

Biden will deliver remarks at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Watch the live video above.

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Crypto investor sues Elon Musk for $258B over Dogecoin 'pyramid scheme'

A cryptocurrency investor has sued Elon Musk for $258 billion, saying the Tesla co-founder ran a pyramid scheme via Dogecoin

The lawsuit filed by plaintiff Keith Johnson in New York, has accused Musk and his companies, Tesla and Space X, of running a “pyramid scheme” to inflate the price of the cryptocurrency.

The lawsuit added that, “Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all.”

According to the lawsuit, “since defendant Musk and his corporations Space X and Tesla, Inc. began purchasing, developing, investing, promoting, supporting and operating Dogecoin in 2019, plaintiff and the class have lost approximately $86 billion” in what it called a “crypto pyramid scheme.”

The lawsuit also details Musk’s tweets and videos on Dogecoin over the years. The lawsuit highlights how Musk referred to himself as the “DogeFather” while promoting his appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” in April 2021.

Johnson, who is referred in the lawsuit as an “an American citizen who was defrauded out of money by defendants’ Dogecoin Crypto Pyramid Scheme,” is suing for $86 billion in damages, representing the drop in the cryptocurrency’s value, and asking to triple those losses with an additional $172 billion.

He also wants Musk and his companies ordered to stop promoting Dogecoin and that Dogecoin trading be declared gambling under U.S. and New York law.

The Hill has reached out to Tesla and Johnson’s attorney for comment.

Musk announced in December last year that Tesla would accept dogecoin, a popular cryptocurrency, for Tesla merchandise. Musk also urged fast-food restaurant McDonald’s to start accepting cryptocurrency Dogecoin as a type of payment in January.

Reuters noted at the time that Dogecoin had increased by 5,859 percent in the last year, in part thanks to the support of Musk, who has called it the “people’s crypto.”

Dogecoin traded at about 5.8 cents on Thursday, down from its May 2021 peak of about 74 cents, Reuters reported.

Source: TEST FEED1

There’s no social justice without public safety

America’s deepest blue cities are sending progressives an unmistakable message: If your definition of “criminal justice reform” doesn’t include reducing crime and upholding public order, count us out.  

Crime has vaulted near the top of voters’ concerns, just after the economy and inflation. According to Gallup, 80 percent of Americans worry “a great deal” or a “fair amount” about crime, the highest level in two decades.

Such fears pose yet another midterm election hurdle for Democrats, on top of public angst over soaring prices and President Biden’s dismal public approval ratings. A recent poll found that voters give Republicans a 12-point advantage when asked which party they trust most to handle crime.

The public mood has swung dramatically since the public outcry in 2020 over the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other unarmed Black citizens. That put the national spotlight on police brutality and systemic racism in the criminal justice system.

During the pandemic, however, a sharp rise in murders and thefts, especially in the country’s major urban centers, has spread alarm and made public safety the burning issue. Strongly reinforcing that trend is the appearance of large homeless encampments beset by overdose deaths, violence and anti-social behavior by people with psychosis.

There’s also a backlash among urban Democratic voters and Black mayors like New York’s Eric Adams and San Francisco’s London Breed against the activist left’s fanciful ideas for criminal justice reform. The system needs an overhaul, but progressive calls for “defunding the police” or ignoring “quality of life” crimes defy common sense.

Last week, for example, voters in ultra-liberal San Francisco emphatically gave District Attorney Chesa Boudin the boot in a recall election. Boudin exemplified the new breed of “progressive prosecutors” who seem more committed to keeping offenders out of jail than protecting law-abiding citizens.   

A similar dynamic in Los Angeles propelled billionaire businessman Rick Caruso, who campaigned on hiring more cops and shutting down homeless camps, into a run-off election against Democratic Rep. Karen Bass in the city’s mayoral primary. There’s also an effort afoot to recall Los Angeles Country’s left-leaning district attorney, George Gascon.

Boudin, the son of Weather Underground radicals who served lengthy prison sentences, came to office in 2019 promising to reduce incarceration. His critics – including many who quit the prosecutor’s office in protest – objected to his reluctance to throw the book at people charged with heinous crimes; to add gun charges to gang members who use them in committing other crimes; to charge juveniles as adults; and to prosecute misdemeanors linked to homelessness, like trespassing, public drug abuse and urination.

Boudin had clashed with Mayor Breed, a no-nonsense Black woman who grew up in a squalid city public housing project. She declared a state of emergency in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, which has been blighted by the deadly fentanyl epidemic, a rash of street thefts and store looting, as well as unsafe and unsanitary homeless camps.

“It’s time that the reign of criminals who are destroying our city, it is time for it to come to an end,” she declared. “And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement.”

While Boudin played to a gallery of college-educated white progressives, Breed speaks for families and merchants in Black, Hispanic and Asian working-class neighborhoods who are fed up with shootings, looting and chaos in their streets. Even so, Boudin’s ouster and the earlier recall of three leftwing members of San Francisco’s school board showed that growing numbers of white liberals also fear that progressive shibboleths about crime and racial identity are making San Francisco unlivable.

Democrats are fortunate that Black mayors like Breed, Adams and Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot – whose city has seen a record 800 murders – are leading the charge to suppress crime and find more humane solutions to homelessness than simply dumping mentally unstable people on the streets.  

These Democrats have no use for the Republican “law and order” playbook. They have zero tolerance for racial profiling and police brutality, or harsh sentencing guidelines and indiscriminate incarceration, not to mention easy and unlimited access to guns. They want to spend more on a better model of policing and make social investments that mitigate historic inequities that breed anger, despair and crime in impoverished neighborhoods.

Unlike leftwing activists, however, they also know their constituents don’t want to be confronted by a false choice between “racial justice” and safety. In fact, Black and Hispanic Democrats are more likely than white Democrats to favor more spending on local police.

To overcome their trust deficit on crime, Democrats should heed these rank-and-file voices in their party and offer voters this fall a radically pragmatic approach to criminal justice reform that “refunds the police” but shifts from reactive and overly militarized “911 justice” to community policing. That entails moving cops out of their cars and making them visible fixtures in high-crime neighborhoods. It also means confronting police unions that block efforts to hold errant officers accountable for misconduct.   

Democrats also should embrace creative new approaches to homelessness. In California, for example, Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for “Care Courts” for people with severe psychosis. Courts could order them into 12 months of supervised treatment and housing, with the understanding that a refusal to accept could lead to involuntary confinement.

Above all, Democrats should put protecting America’s most vulnerable citizens from violence and disorder first, because there’s no social justice without public safety.

Will Marshall is president and founder of the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI).

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