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Trevor Reed: Prisoner swaps should not be controversial

Trevor Reed, a U.S. citizen who was recently freed after being detained in Russia for more than two years, said that prisoner swaps should not be controversial.

In an interview with CNN, Reed told host Jake Tapper that he doesn’t agree with the notion expressed by some critics who believe that foreign countries are holding Americans hostage as a form of leverage and that engaging in swaps incentivizes governments, saying that those countries will take American hostages no matter what. 

“The thing that you have to understand is countries like North Korea — Russia now, obviously, China, Syria, Iran, Venezuela — countries like that are going to take Americans hostage no matter what,” Reed told Tapper in the sit down interview, which will air on Sunday. “And even if they don’t receive some type of exchange for those prisoners, they will do that anyway just out of pure malice just to show the United States that, ‘We took your citizens.’” 

Reed also told Tapper that he believes that those countries will still continue to follow the practice if U.S. citizens still travel there.

The interview comes nearly a month after President Biden announced the release of Reed from Russian detainment. Reed’s release was a part of a prisoner exchange with a Russian national who was jailed in the U.S. for drug trafficking charges.

Notable U.S. citizens still detained in Russia included Paul Whalen, who was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison on espionage charges in 2020, and WNBA star Brittney Griner, whose detainment was extended for another  30 days last week on accusations of her being in possession of vape cartridges containing hashish oil. 

Reed also said that U.S. officials are willing to bring citizens back home who are detained, setting them apart from other countries. 

“The United States went out and made the ethical decision to exchange prisoners to get their innocent Americans out of that country, even while exchanging them for someone who’s more high profile and valuable in the United States,” Reed told Tapper.

“The Russians, the Chinese, Venezuelans, Iran, Syria, North Korea — none of them ever in their whole history have or ever would make an exchange for a prisoner who is just an average one of their citizens. They would never do that. And that’s what sets the United States apart.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Fetterman discharged from hospital following stroke days before election

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), who won the state’s Democratic Senate primary last week, was discharged from a hospital on Sunday following a stroke the Friday before voters cast ballots.

Fetterman said that he “could not be happier to finally be heading home” to Braddock, Pa. to be with his wife and the state’s second lady, Gisele, and his family.

“I want to take a moment and thank everyone,” he wrote in an emailed statement. “Gisele, myself, and the kids have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from folks across the commonwealth. Thank you everyone so much for having our backs and supporting us through this.”

Fetterman suffered a stroke on May 13 and underwent a procedure to implant a pacemaker on Election Day.

“I am feeling great, but per my doctor’s orders, and Gisele’s orders, I am going to continue to rest and recover,” Fetterman said. “Later this week I will have a follow-up visit with my doctors at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital.”

Following his Tuesday victory, Fetterman now aims to flip a Senate seat in November.

“I am going to take the time I need now to rest and get to 100% so I can go full speed soon and flip this seat blue,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

More than two-thirds in new poll say economy is 'bad'

A new poll shows 69 percent of Americans refer to the economy as “bad,” up from about 46 percent in the spring.

The CBS/YouGov survey, conducted May 18-20, also shows more than 60 percent of Americans agree that the state of the nation is “uneasy,” as well as “worrying” and “frustrating.”

Inflation hit a 40-year high in March and has remained near those levels. Meanwhile, gas prices continue to climb across the country. The Biden administration has been slammed for the economic woes, expected to be a major issue in the November midterm elections.

Republicans have seized on inflation as a major talking point for their campaigns, which they expect will benefit them come Election Day.

Democrats promise they are still the best party to fix rising prices while also mobilizing voters on other issues like abortion rights and addressing the rise of white supremacy, following a mass shooting in Buffalo that left 10 people dead, a majority of them Black.

In the new poll, a slight majority, or 51 percent, of Americans agree with the label of “weak” for the Democratic Party, while 49 percent agreed with the description of Democrats as “extreme.” More than 30 percent of Americans said that Democrats are “in touch” and “effective.”

About 54 percent of Americans, meanwhile, said Republicans are “extreme,” according to the poll, while half of all Americans said the GOP is “hateful.”

Still, Republicans earn higher marks for being “strong,” with 46 percent of Americans agreeing with that wording for the GOP. About 41 percent said Republicans were “weak,” and 37 percent said they were “caring.”

The CBS-YouGov poll of more than 2,000 adult residents has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

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Musk 'worried' Twitter has no incentive to fix spam bots

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that he is “worried” about Twitter having no plan to fix its spambots issue. 

In a tweet on Saturday, Musk responded to a user complaining about the social media platform’s new spam reporting tool being difficult to use.

“I’m worried that Twitter has a disincentive to reduce spam, as it reduces perceived daily users,” Musk said in a reply.

When another user asked if Twitter has gotten back to him about the changes, Musk implied that the social media platform refused to explain how they calculate their daily users as fake or spam accounts.  

“No, they still refuse to explain how they calculate that 5% of daily users are fake/spam,” Musk tweeted. “Very suspicious.” 

Musk has reached a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion but Musk put his initial plans to purchase the social media platform on hold earlier this month due to his concerns with spam and fake accounts on the platform.

Recently, Twitter launched a new initiative to handle misinformation on the platform, saying it will stop amplifying and promoting content about crises that are flagged to mislead users and will place warnings on tweets that violate the new policy.

Source: TEST FEED1

Jeffries says NY redistricting process was ‘hijacked’ by appeals court

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said New York’s redistricting process was “hijacked” by an appeals court after the new lines drawn for the state lumped a number of incumbents into the same district, forcing member vs. member primaries.

“The process unfortunately was hijacked by the Court of Appeals. A bad process has now led to a bad result,” Jeffries told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Chaos broke out in New York this week after a court-appointed special master released a new congressional map for the Empire State, which pitted lawmakers against one another. The special master was given authority of the maps after the appeals court said Democrats breached the state Constitution when they drew new congressional lines.

With the new maps, which were approved on Friday, Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) are set to face off against one another in the 12th Congressional District.

Jeffries, the chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, on Sunday said “the court of appeals was wrong in the decision that they made both on the substance and in terms of turning over redistricting to an out of town, unelected special master and a judicial overseer in Steuben County, who was a Republican.”

Jeffries on Tuesday detailed his concerns with the map.

“In Brooklyn and Queens, you’ve got four districts with significant pluralities of either African Americans or Latinos. … In this proposed map, the Black or Latino population was degraded in all four districts. Are you kidding me? That doesn’t happen by accident,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Rick Scott says Biden administration slow to respond to economic woes

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) on Sunday said the Biden administration has been slow to react to economic issues and rising inflation, calling it a political failure that could hinder Democrats in the upcoming midterm elections.

“The president is slow to react — whether it’s the border, whether it’s inflation, whether it’s gas prices — even Ukraine,” Scott told CBS host Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

“The election this fall is going to be about inflation, it’s going to be about the effectiveness of the Biden administration, and I think it will bode well for Republicans.”

Inflation hit a 40-year high in March and has remained near those levels throughout the spring, while gas prices have also continued to climb. Polls show that Biden’s job approval ratings on average remain below 40 percent, with Americans dinging the president primarily on what they deem his poor handling of the economy.

A new CBS poll conducted May 18-20 shows 69 percent of Americans believe the economy is “bad,” up from 46 percent in the spring.

Scott proposed some inflation-combating measures on Sunday, repeating his frequent calls to “decouple” from trade with China and create more jobs on American soil.

“We’ve got to get American manufacturing back,” he said. “When we do that … our wages will go up, we’ll have more jobs in this country.”

The Florida senator also said Republicans have a consistent message on how to bring down inflation, which will bolster them in the November elections. GOP candidates are discussing pragmatic measures like balancing budgets and watching government spending more closely, he added.

“We have to talk about the things we’re going to do to make it better for people,” Scott said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Shapiro says he would welcome Biden to Pennsylvania amid gubernatorial race

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) on Sunday said he would welcome President Biden to campaign for him in the Keystone State during his run for governor.

Asked by co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he would like Biden to campaign for him, Shapiro said “I’ll welcome him here,” noting the president’s ties to Pennsylvania.

“But I’m focused on running a race here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, listening to the people of Washington County, not Washington, D.C. That’s my focus, running a race that’s focused on meeting the needs of the good people in Pennsylvania,” he added.

The comments come less than one week after Shapiro won the Democratic primary for governor. He will now face state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), who has the backing of former President Trump, in the general election.

Democrats are expected to lose control of the House this November, which is in line with the historical trend of the president’s party losing seats in the next midterm races.

As Biden’s poll numbers continue to sink and issues such as inflation remain a concern, Democrats are wondering if candidates should welcome support from Biden in the lead-up to November, according to Newsweek and CBS News.

Source: TEST FEED1

Republican officials keep stoking white supremacist tropes — and we’re reaping the result

Among the enablers of the mentally deranged killer who slaughtered ten Blacks at a Buffalo grocery store last week are those who refuse to condemn the Great Replacement Theory and the Jan. 6 mob assault on the Capitol. 

These are two centerpieces of the sprawling, hate-filled cadre of white nationalists with whom the Buffalo assailant trafficked on social media.

Katheen Belew, a University of Chicago professor and my go-to expert on white racism (if you want to be informed on this threat read her 2021 “Field Guide to White Supremacy“), cites the centrality of the Jan. 6 attack to the mish mash of hate groups, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and militiamen who inhabit the “alt-right” internet landscape. 

The white nationalists on Jan. 6, she reminds me, “had an outsized impact because they were highly organized, showed up with tactical gear, and breached the building.” A purpose, she says, was “to radicalize others, and in Buffalo — whether he spoke of that day or not — the gunman was propelled by that wave of radicalization.”

Yet the vast majority of Republicans are unwilling to forcefully condemn the Jan. 6 riot, with many even defending it.

Examples abound.

The Republican National Committee declared it “legitimate political discourse” and censured two Republican lawmakers who have forcefully condemned the riot. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) still claims it was “by and large … a peaceful protest” with a few bad apples. Johnson’s a kook, but there isn’t exactly a lot of daylight between him and Republican House leadership. In the Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), while criticizing what happened, blocked a bipartisan independent investigation for fear it might hurt Republicans politically.

There were seven deaths associated with the Jan. 6 assault; approximately 150 police officers were injured, and it cost millions in damage. Those who contend it was “a peaceful protest” or “legitimate political discourse” should be required to watch HBO’s “Four Hours at the Capitol,” which captures the criminal violence of the mob attacking the outnumbered police. 

But this is old news.

What’s new, however, is growing evidence that the silence — or acquiescence — of Republican leaders has, in the words of Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, “enabled white nationalism, white supremacy and antisemitism.”

The Republicans’ dodge is dangerous.

“Anything short of direct condemnation will come across to white power activists as a green light for future violence, plain and simple,” Belew says. “We’ve seen this over and over again, in recent years and across time.”

It’s clearly linked to the even more destructive Great Replacement Theory, which posits that a Jewish conspiracy is afoot to culturally and demographically replace whites by non-whites in America.

The high priest of this trope is Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

And on Carlson’s show, the two threads come neatly together: When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) seemed to rather mildly criticize the Jan. 6 insurrection a year after the fact, he was brought to his knees by Carlson to whom he groveled and begged forgiveness.

Among the House Republican leadership, the lawmaker who replaced Cheney — dumped because she was speaking out against Trump’s incitement and subsequent inaction — is Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), a former moderate turned Trump worshiper. Stefanik pushed all the buttons in a Facebook ad charging that a “plan” by “radical” Democrats “to grant amnesty to 11 million illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority.”

I wonder if Ms. Stefanik thinks President George H.W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain or the pre-Trump Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — all supporters of comprehensive immigration reform — wanted to dilute the power of white people?

There are scores — maybe hundreds — of Republican officials who are stirring the same racial fears.

There is, as Liz Cheney said, an antisemitic element to this. Financier George Soros is a favorite target of Republicans, and when the Anti-Defamation League decried the replacement theory, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused the ADL of being “a racist organization.”

It defies credulity to think all this doesn’t embolden — give a little more license to — the white nationalists, neo-Nazis and other peddlers of hate like the Buffalo assailant. 

These elements are larger and more connected than most want to acknowledge, Belew has repeatedly written. It’s not just a lone wolf or some crazy hiding away in a remote shack. More than three quarters of domestic terrorism acts are committed by right-wing extremists; FBI director Christopher Wray has labeled them a priority for the bureau. 

A perverse irony is that more than a few conservatives are focusing on race this election year: assailing or banning the teaching of the “critical race theory” which holds that systemic racism is deeply embedded in the legal, social, economic and political structures in America. The theory is taught almost exclusively in leading law schools, but also is in a handful of training manuals and is accepted wisdom in a few elite media and private organizations.

Politically, it’s primarily a scare tactic. 

By contrast, promulgating the great replacement theory, vindicating the Jan. 6 assault, or perpetuating the lie that the last presidential election was stolen, is treacherous, giving aid and comfort to evil people prone to violence.

The standard Republican response when called on their dangerous rhetoric and quisling silence is to cite the First Amendment, claiming “liberal elites” want to muzzle them. I don’t want to censor these politicians or pundits. I do want to hold them accountable.

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Shapiro calls Mastriano ‘dangerous’ and ‘divisive’

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) on Sunday said Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R), whom he will face in the commonwealth’s gubernatorial race, is “dangerous” and “divisive.”

During an interview with co-anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Shapiro called out Mastriano for a number of policy stances, including abortion, and noted the state lawmaker’s presence in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

“He is extreme and he is dangerous. He would ban all abortion and jail doctors who perform it. He is, he was there on Jan. 6, and when the police told him to stop at the barricades, he kept marching. He is someone who wants to overturn not just the last election, but has made clear that he would pick the winner of the next one,” Shapiro said.

He continued also knocked his opponent on marriage equality and climate change and called him “a danger.”

“He wants to make it illegal to have same-sex marriage in Pennsylvania. He thinks climate change is fake. He is a danger. The contrast couldn’t be clearer,” Shapiro said.

“I’ve been focused on a future for Pennsylvania that grows our economy, that improves our schools, that makes sure that we have safe community. He’s been focused on re-litigating the past. He is dangerous and he is divisive,” Shapiro added.

Both Shapiro and Mastriano won their parties‘ nominations last week for Pennsylvania’s gubernatorial election. The winner will take over for Gov. Tom Wolf (D-Pa.), who is barred from running again because of term limits.

Mastriano drew headlines late in the primary race when he secured a last-minute endorsement from former President Trump. The state senator is a staunch Republican who focused a large part of his campaign on claims that the 2020 presidential election was tainted by fraud.

Source: TEST FEED1