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Congress GOP Justice Department The Biden Administration

WATCH A DOJ Official Give Jim Jordan A Brutal Fact-Check During House Hearing

A hearing of the House Judiciary Committee wound up proving just how little chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) knows about the law or U.S. history, with an official of the Justice Department having to give Jordan some embarrassing facts which completely undercut the point he was trying to make.

Jordan asked Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke about a civil rights investigation into Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, which the DOJ has accused of refusing to hire asylum recipients and refugees in direct violation of U.S. law.

“Did Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter have anything to do with the Justice Department’s decision to file that lawsuit against SpaceX?” Jordan asked Clarke.

Clarke told Jordan that the DOJ investigation of SpaceX began during the Trump administration.

“The investigation into SpaceX was open during the last administration, and we filed an administrative action under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an important law passed by this body with bipartisan support and signed into law by President Reagan,” she noted.

Jordan: “What are you alleging that SpaceX did wrong?”

Clarke: “In this case, we allege that the company is not compliant with the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act.”

Rather than accept that, Jordan asked, “They’re discriminating against refugees and asylum seekers, is that right?”

Once again, Clarke had to fact check Jordan.

“No, Chairman. Against people who have received refugee status and asylum status by our federal courts and who enjoy equal standing under federal law to U.S. citizens and naturalized citizens.

“The law requires equal treatment of these individuals.”

Jordan continued to press.

“I just want to cut to the chase. You’re suing SpaceX because they hired too many Americans, too many citizens.”

“And yet you bring the lawsuit after Mr. Musk purchases Twitter, now X, is that right?”

Clarke shut Jordan down by responding: “We apply the laws that this body gave us without fear or favor.”

Categories
GOP The Biden Administration

Buttigieg Has The Perfect Clapback To ‘Extremist’ Republicans Who Complain About Holiday Travel

As the nation prepares for Thanksgiving, which is traditionally one of the busiest holidays of the year, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has some advice for Republicans who are fond of complaining about the travel situation at this time of year: Don’t start whining because you haven’t done a damn thing to help alleviate the problem.

Speaking with reporters Monday, Buttigieg remarked:

“Bottom line is that, you know, in just two or three years, we’ve gone from people wondering whether the U.S. aviation sector as we knew it would survive to a mountain right now of record demand and record work going on to meet that demand.”

The secretary added:

“I need to stress that the progress I’ve discussed and the progress underway with regard to our aviation workforce, technology and infrastructure is not guaranteed. Every time extremist Republicans in Congress bring us to the brink of a government shutdown, it threatens to stop the momentum that we built around training and around protecting customer rights.”

“Every time they threaten to slash funding for DOT and short the FAA — and there’s a Republican proposal to do that on the cusp of reaching the House floor right now — it threatens to reverse all of this progress.”

Referencing a report from aviation experts that suggests the Federal Aviation Administration needs to hire more people and update its equipment, Buttigieg noted:

“So we’re doing everything we can with everything that we have. But if some voices in Congress got their way, we would have to freeze hiring new staff. We would be set back in modernizing computer systems, including the badly outdated system that forced the FAA to ground planes when there was an outage back in January. It would disrupt the progress that we’ve made. I’m certain that it would lead to more disruptions in air travel.”

In other words, until the Republicans get serious and fund the updates that need to be made, they should shut their mouths and endure whatever delays happen because they’re a big part of the problem.

 

Categories
Congress GOP The Biden Administration

Pete Buttigieg Testified Before Hostile Republicans – And He Kicked Their A**es: VIDEO

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg walked right into the proverbial lion’s den when he testified before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and he quickly schooled committee Republicans on topics ranging from climate change to subsidies for Big Oil.

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) suggested that Buttigieg was personally to blame for “killing” the U.S. auto industry by supporting the development of electric vehicles.

“I don’t know if you can justify or how you justify forcing my constituents to pay for EVs [electric vehicles] and EV infrastructure for coastal elites and wealthy people, but somehow you do,” Perry remarked.

Buttigieg: “Well, I need to point out that wealthy people were specifically excluded from the Inflation Reduction Act.”

Perry: “Well. Do you dispute that two-thirds of EV owners, are owned by people over 100,000, that make over 100,000?”

Buttigieg noted that the price of electric vehicles is going down and wondered if Perry was opposed “cutting their costs.”

“I’m not against cutting the cost. The market should do it,” Perry replied. “But you want the government, you want my taxpayers to pay to cut the cost.”

That led to Buttigieg asking about taxpayer-funded subsidies for the oil and gas industry.

“If you are of the view that there should be no subsidy to propulsion vehicles, then are you against oil and gas subsidies?”

Another GOP congressman told the secretary, “Nobody wants these electric vehicles unless you’re an elite that can afford them – people in may district sure as hell don’t want them.”

The secretary responded, “We’re doing this for three reasons, even though the EV revolution’s going to happen.”

Buttigieg also told Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) that “climate change is real,” which led the congressman to reply, “This one’s called Autumn.”

“Yeah, that’s the seasons changing which respectfully is not the same as the climate changing,” Buttigieg retorted.

But perhaps the best exchange was between Buttigieg and U.S. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), who asked the secretary about the cost of his “private” flights, to which he responded:

“I knew this might come up, so I brought some numbers. Since getting the job, I have taken—these are estimates, give or take a couple—but I’ve taken 638 flights.”

“607 of them were commercial, 10 of them were on military aircraft such as Air Force One, and 21 were on FAA aircraft—representing about 3 percent of the flights.”

He added, “Just once again, the way I usually travel is an economy class aboard an airliner like everybody else, when we do it differently, it’s often because it will save taxpayer money.”

Here’s some video clips from Buttigieg’s testimony:

 

Categories
Right Wing Morons The Biden Administration WTF?!

Conservatives Pitch A Hysterical Fit After Karine Jean-Pierre Is Featured In Vogue Magazine

It’s truly incredible to see what angers and vexes conservatives.

For example, almost every conservative gets upset if you make a joke about former president Donald Trump, whom many of them regard as second only to Ronald Reagan when it comes to being a champion for the right wing political movement.

That slavish devotion to Trump extends to members of his family, including his wife, Melania, who is often compared to former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, even though Mrs. Kennedy never worked as a nude model or supported her lavish lifestyle by allegedly serving as an “escort” (i.e. call girl) before she married her husband.

Melania, it should be noted, was never invited to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. Michelle Obama did. So has Dr. Jill Biden. And the so-called “snubbing” of Mrs. Trump absolutely enraged the MAGA faithful.

Having laid down that predicate background, the latest soul-rending anger from conservatives comes after White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was featured in Vogue, with the magazine reporting:

That quality of directness—blunt, with a touch of compassion—is Jean-Pierre’s currency at the briefing podium. She meets the White House press corps almost daily—favoring bright colors and bold eye shadow when she does—and, while she’s more reserved than some of her predecessors and less likely to respond to provocation with a social media–ready retort, she has sharpened her own technique: disarm with a smile, then lay out the facts at hand.

[ … ]

Still, there was no actual interview process in the lead-up to her promotion. News had already leaked that Psaki would leave for an anchor position at MSNBC, prompting speculation about a successor; Jean-Pierre was the obvious front-runner, and after a month, Biden called her into the Oval Office.

“It happened fast,” Jean-Pierre says. “The president and I had 20 seconds together.” 

“I remember she described her feeling as shell-shocked,” Psaki says. “It’s a little bit of an out-of-body experience when the president of the United States asks you to do something.”

“You’re kind of like, ‘Were there supposed to be fireworks happening? Mood music?’ ” Jean-Pierre says now. “There was none of that.” The press release came out a few minutes later.

Jean-Pierre, the daughter of Haitian immigrants who was raised in Paris and New York, is the prototypical American success story. What she’s accomplished should be celebrated as proof that the American dream does indeed still exist.

Unless, of course, your mind and heart are filled with envy, hate, bigotry, and bile. In other words, unless you’re a conservative, in which case you lash out and attack a person for their sexual orientation and the color of their skin, which is exactly what’s taking place on social media.

 

Categories
GOP Gun Nuts The Biden Administration

White House Puts MT Greene On Full Blast Over Her ‘Discredited’ Ideas About Assault Weapons

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is outraged that the Biden administration is once again calling for a ban on semiautomatic/assault weapons, but her argument against such legislation was vigorously swatted down by the White House.

On Twitter, Greene wrote:

The AR-15 is my favorite gun for hunting & home defense. Banning “assault weapons” will not stop a transgender from shooting up his own LGBTQ community or any other murderer already breaking laws to kill people. More gun control laws just create more defenseless victims.

Joe has been a career politician in office longer than I’ve been alive and he knows NOTHING about guns. Joe is an elite politician who enjoys the protection of AR-15’s but wants to take your guns away and leave you defenseless at the mercy of criminals who don’t care about laws.

I will always protect American’s GREAT Second Amendment! No Assault Weapons Ban!!

What the administration had to say in response is on point and perfectly rebuts Greene’s knuckle-dragging reaction to the issue of gun violence in the United States, which has the most lenient gun laws in the world along with more deaths from guns than any other nation on the planet.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates issued this statement:

These sentiments, from a politician who has called for violence against those with whom she disagrees, are not only inherently discredited – but they prove President Biden’s point. An assault weapons ban is one of the most effective actions we can take to support law enforcement in the fight against gun crime. Police chiefs have attested to that and the American people support doing so. Choosing the gun industry lobby over keeping our streets safe and protecting our children’s lives is flatly unacceptable, which is why President continues to advocate for an assault weapons ban.