Category: The Biden Administration

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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 We would be set back in modernizing computer systems, including the badly outdated system that forced the FAA to ground planes when there was an outage back in January.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.

 

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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
Fox News The Biden Administration

WATCH Fox’s Peter Doocy Get Slapped Down By National Security Expert John Kirby 

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy got his head handed to him Monday by National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby (who just so happens to be a retired Navy admiral), when the Fox reporter tried to suggest that President Joe Biden would rather allow oil companies to drill in Venezuela than the United States.

At the daily press briefing, Doocy asked Kirby:

“Why is it President Biden would rather let U.S. companies drill for oil in Venezuela than here in the U.S.?”

Kirby replied:

“That’s not an accurate take.”

Doocy insisted, “Earlier this month, he said no more drilling!”

Once again, Kirby set Doocy straight using facts:

“The president has issued 9,000 permits for drilling on U.S. federal lands. 9,000 being unused. There are plenty of opportunities for oil and gas companies to drill here in the United States.

“Our expectation is that there won’t be a whole lot of oil coming out of there and it will have to be shipped to the United States.”

Still not satisfied, Doocy inquired:

“Does the president think there is some benefit to the climate to drill oil in Venezuela and not here?”

And that’s when Kirby laid a verbal smackdown on Doocy, telling him:

“It has nothing to do with a benefit to the climate. Again, there are 9,000 unused permits here in the United States on federal land that oil and gas companies can and should take advantage of. 9,000! And we’re talking about one there in Venezuela.”

For two years now, Fox has been trying to suggest that Biden won’t allow Big Oil to drill in the United States. But that’s a enormous lie. So now they’re trying to reframe their BS and pretend that the administration would rather see drilling in Venezuela. However, that’s a massive lie, too, and Admiral Kirby let Doocy know he was spouting nonsense.

It’s so much fun watching someone use facts to counter crap.

Here’s the video:

Categories
Fox News Joe Biden The Biden Administration WTF?!

Fox News Accuses The Biden Administration Of Being ‘Too Pro-Christmas’

For years, Fox News and others on the right have suggested that liberals and progressives are antagonistic to anything religious or sacred, even going so far as to declare that there’s a “War on Christmas.”

Now, however, it seems Fox has decided that the Biden White House is “too pro-Christmas” and is overlooking Thanksgiving, according to Alex Henderson of AlterNet.

At 6 PM on Monday, November 21, Fox News announced its “all-American Christmas tree lighting.” But only four later, on far-right host Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show, “The Ingraham Angle,” the following words appeared on the screen: “Biden White House Jumps the Gun on Christmas.”

Twitter quickly reminded Fox of their enormous hypocrisy.

https://twitter.com/aaronklemz/status/1595080528205647872?s=20&t=7M8-o8uWNWuD-VfNp1BQFA

Categories
GOP Racism The Biden Administration

Gloves Off: Karine Jean-Pierre Puts MAGA Racists In Their Place With A Brilliant Comparison

The issue of race and racism has been in the news quite a lot over the past few days, thanks to two major news stories that have garnered lots of attention and commentary from all sides of the political spectrum.

The first story involves Kanye West (who now prefers to be called Ye) but will be referred to by his given name to avoid confusion.

Kanye decided it would be a great idea to make a incredibly insensitive antisemitic comment in which he basically declared war on Jewish people.

Specifically, West posted this on social media, and got his Twitter account suspended as a result:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) is also in hot water for saying the following at a Trump rally over the weekend:

“I have never seen like the crime in this country. We all grew up respecting the police. Our moral values. Doing what we could do to help law enforcement in this country. The Democratic party, they have a majority, they could stop this crime today. Some people say, well, they’re soft on crime. No, they’re not soft on crime, they’re pro crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparations because they think the people that do the crime are owed that. Bulls***. They are not owed that.”

And now we have Nury Martinez, Los Angeles City Council President and and a Democrat, who made horrific comments that are also blatantly racist, The Los Angeles Times reports:

Behind closed doors, Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made openly racist remarks, derided some of her council colleagues and spoke in unusually crass terms about how the city should be carved up politically.

The conversation remained private for nearly a year, until a leaked recording reverberated explosively Sunday and turned the focus of a sprawling metropolis toward Los Angeles City Hall.

Martinez is being pressured to resign her post, but Tuberville is under no such call from his GOP colleagues, which led a reporter to ask White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at the Tuesday press briefing for her thoughts and those of President Joe Biden on the matter of Nury Martinez, to which she responded:

“Here’s the difference between Democrats and MAGA Republicans. When a Democrat says something racist or antisemitic, we hold Democrats accountable. When a MAGA Republican says something racist or antisemitic, they are embraced by cheering crowds.”

That says it all, and perfectly.