Category: US

Categories
US

Dick Cheney rips ‘coward’ Trump in election ad for daughter Liz

Dick Cheney rips 'coward' Trump in election ad for daughter Liz

Former Vice President Dick Cheney looks on as his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., takes the oath of office on the House floor on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2017.

Bill Clark | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

Former Vice President Dick Cheney assailed ex-President Donald Trump as a “coward” and a prime threat to the United States in a new campaign ad for his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney, days before her Republican primary election in Wyoming.

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who has posed a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” the elder Cheney said in a straight-to-camera ad, which was shared online Thursday afternoon.

“He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” said Cheney, 81, who served for eight years as vice president in the George W. Bush administration.

“He is a coward. A real man wouldn’t lie to his supporters,” Cheney said. “He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down, I think most Republicans know it.”

The 60-second spot, titled “He Knows It,” will run across Wyoming and online starting Friday, the Cheney campaign said. The ad comes less than two weeks before the Wyoming Republican primary, where the incumbent Cheney appears to be in trouble.

Cheney is Trump’s biggest Republican critic in Congress and a leading member of the House select committee investigating him over the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. For her refusal of her to back down from her criticisms of the former president, she has been largely ostracized by her party of her and condemned by Trump’s loyal base of Republican voters.

Polls of the Aug. 16 Wyoming primary show Cheney trailing her top Republican opponent, Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, by wide margins. Hageman has echoed Trump’s false claims that his loss of him to President Joe Biden in the 2020 election was “rigged” by widespread fraud.

Yet Cheney, unlike some other House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot, has kept up her vocal attacks on Trump over the “Big Lie.”

Her persistence may have damaged her standing among some Republican voters, but it has not hampered her fundraising efforts: She has far outraised her competitors while assuring key donors and supporters that she will continue to hold Trump accountable. Dick Cheney has been involved in these talks as well, CNBC previously reported.

“Lynne and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the Constitution when so many in our party are too scared to do so,” Dick Cheney said in the ad.

“Liz is fearless. She never backs down from a fight. There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office. And she will succeed,” he said in the ad .

“I’m Dick Cheney. I proudly voted for my daughter. I hope you will too,” he said.

.

Categories
US

US declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency

US declares monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency

Aug 4 (Reuters) – The United States has declared monkeypox a public health emergency, the health secretary said on Thursday, a move expected to free up additional funding and tools to fight the disease.

The US tally topped 6,600 on Wednesday, almost all of the cases among men who have sex with men.

“We’re prepared to take our response to the next level in addressing this virus, and we urge every American to take monkeypox seriously,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at a briefing.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

The declaration will improve the availability of data on monkeypox infections that is needed for the response, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said, speaking alongside Bacerra.

The US government has come under pressure for its handling of the outbreak.

The disease began spreading in Europe before moving to the United States, which now has the most cases in the world. Vaccines and treatments have been in short supply and the disease often left for historically underfunded sexual health clinics to manage. read more

The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” its highest alert level. The WHO declaration last month sought to trigger a coordinated international response and unlock funding to collaborate on vaccines and treatments. read more

Governments are deploying vaccines and treatments that were first approved for smallpox but also work for monkeypox.

The US government has distributed 600,000 doses of Bavarian Nordic’s (BAVA.CO) Jynneos vaccine and deployed 14,000 of Siga Technologies’ (SIGA.O) TPOXX treatment, officials said, though they did not disclose how many have been administered.

Walensky said the government aims to vaccinate more than 1.6 million high-risk individuals.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said the agency was considering freeing up more Jynneos vaccine doses by allowing doctors to draw 5 doses of vaccine from each vial instead of the current 1 dose by using a different subcutaneous method of inoculation.

US President Joe Biden this month appointed two federal officials to coordinate his administration’s response to monkeypox, following declarations of emergencies by California, Illinois and New York. read more

First identified in monkeys in 1958, the disease has mild symptoms including fever, aches and pus-filled skin lesions, and people tend to recover from it within two to four weeks, the WHO says. It spreads through close physical contact and is rarely fatal.

Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, told Reuters on Thursday that it was critical to engage leaders from the gay community as part of efforts to rein in the outbreak, but cautioned against stigmatizing the lifestyle.

“Engagement of the community has always come to be successful,” Fauci said.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Manas Mishra and Amruta Khandekar in Bengaluru, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, Caroline Humer and Leela de Kretser, Editing by Anil D’Silva, Deepa Babington and Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

Categories
US

Nebraska State Patrol investigating situation with multiple fatalities

Nebraska State Patrol investigating situation with multiple fatalities

A total of four people were found dead Thursday in two separate homes in a northeast Nebraska town, and authorities said fire was involved at both locations. Around 3 am, the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about an explosion at a residence in Laurel and fire teams found a person dead inside the home, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. As investigators arrived at the scene, a second fire was reported a few blocks away, authorities said. Three people were found dead in the second residence and fire crews worked to preserve evidence while putting out the fire, according to Nebraska State Patrol. Investigators are still processing the second scene. “This is a tiny, safe community, we aren’t sure if they knew each other, but everyone knows everyone in this community,” Cedar County Sheriff Larry Koranda said. “If people see something out of the ordinary, call the state patrol.” Four people are dead at two different crime scenes that are about five blocks apart in Laurel, which is in Cedar County, is home to fewer than 1,000 people and is about 100 northwest of Omaha. Shortly after the second fire, a silver sedan, reportedly driven by a Black male, was seen leaving Laurel and may have picked up a passenger before leaving town, according to the Nebraska State Patrol. Law enforcement said it’s possible the suspects received burn injuries. The Nebraska State Patrol said they are looking for security cam footage that may aid the investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the state patrol at 402-479-4921. The state patrol is investigating if there’s a connection between the two fires, NSP spokesperson Cody Thomas told KETV NewsWatch 7.

LAUREL, Neb. —

A total of four people were found dead Thursday in two separate homes in a northeast Nebraska town, and authorities said fire was involved at both locations.

Around 3 am, the Cedar County Sheriff’s Office responded to a call about an explosion at a residence in Laurel and fire teams found a person dead inside the home, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

As investigators arrived at the scene, a second fire was reported a few blocks away, authorities said.

Three people were found dead in the second residence and fire crews worked to preserve evidence while putting out the fire, according to Nebraska State Patrol. Investigators are still processing the second scene.

“This is a tiny, safe community, we aren’t sure if they knew each other, but everyone knows everyone in this community,” Cedar County Sheriff Larry Koranda said. “If people see something out of the ordinary, call the state patrol.”

Four people are dead at two different crime scenes that are about five blocks apart in Laurel, which is in Cedar County, is home to fewer than 1,000 people and is about 100 northwest of Omaha.

Shortly after the second fire, a silver sedan, reportedly driven by a Black male, was seen leaving Laurel and may have picked up a passenger before leaving town, according to the Nebraska State Patrol.

Law enforcement said it’s possible the suspects received burn injuries. The Nebraska State Patrol said they are looking for security cam footage that may aid the investigation. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the state patrol at 402-479-4921.

The state patrol is investigating if there’s a connection between the two fires, NSP spokesperson Cody Thomas told KETV NewsWatch 7.

multiple fatalities in laurel nebraska

Doug Furlich

Image from the scene of multiple fatalities in Laurel, Nebraska.

.

Categories
US

Dick Cheney torches Trump in ad: ‘He’s a coward’

Dick Cheney torches Trump in ad: 'He's a coward'

Rep. Liz Cheney with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, at his house in Virginia after she was ousted from her GOP leadership role on May 12, 2021.

Rep. Liz Cheney with her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, at his house in Virginia after she was ousted from her GOP leadership role on May 12, 2021. (David Hume Kennerly/Center for Creative Photography/University of Arizona via Getty Images )

In a new campaign ad for his daughter Rep. Liz Cheney, former Vice President Dick Cheney does not mince words about former President Donald Trump, calling him a “coward” and a “threat to our republic.”

“In our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney, wearing a cowboy hat and looking directly into the camera, says in the ad. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He is a coward. A real man would not lie to his supporters of him.”

Polls in Wyoming show Liz Cheney trailing attorney Harriet Hageman in the GOP primary race to decide which Republican will be nominated for the general election in the deep-red state. Cheney, who is running for a fourth term in office, is the vice chairwoman for the Jan. 6 select committee investigating Trump’s role in the riot at the US Capitol stemming from the former president’s efforts to overturn his loss from him to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

Based on testimony from several former members of the Trump administration as well as Republican election officials and lawmakers in states Trump lost in 2020, the committee has made a case that he knowingly pushed false claims that election fraud cost him victory. Dick Cheney concurred with that assessment in the ad for his daughter of him.

“He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it, and deep down I think most Republicans know it,” the former vice president says. “lynne [Liz Cheney’s mother] and I are so proud of Liz for standing up for the truth, doing what’s right, honoring her oath to the Constitution, when so many in our party are too scared to do so.”

On his daughter’s role on the select committee, Cheney said, “There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office, and she will succeed.”

Liz Cheney was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection” regarding his role in the riot at the US Capitol. Wyoming’s Republican Party promptly censored her for that vote, and she was then stripped of her leadership role in the party by her fellow Republicans in Congress.

As of Thursday afternoon, Trump had yet to respond to the new ad on his social media platform, Truth Social.

Categories
US

Dick Cheney in new ad: No individual is ‘greater threat to our republic’ than Trump

Dick Cheney in new ad: No individual is 'greater threat to our republic' than Trump

Dick Cheney calls Donald Trump a “coward” and a “threat to our republic” in a new ad for his daughter, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who is facing a primary challenger backed by the former president.

The ad featuring the former GOP vice president offering the lacerating take on Trump was released Thursday, weeks before voters go to the polls.

“In our nation’s 246 year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him,” Dick Cheney says in the one-minute ad, titled “He Knows It.”

“He is a coward. A real man would not lie to his supporters of him. He lost his election and he lost big. I know it, he knows it and deep down I think most Republicans know it.”

Liz Cheney voted to impeach Trump and lost her position in GOP leadership over her views. She is now the vice chair of the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Dick Cheney said that he and his wife were “proud” of their “fearless” daughter, saying she was “honoring her oath to the Constitution.”

“There is nothing more important she will ever do than lead the effort to make sure Donald Trump is never again near the Oval Office again. And she will succeed. I am Dick Cheney. I proudly voted for my daughter. I hope you will too,” he ends the ad by saying.

Liz Cheney is fighting for her political life ahead of her primary on Aug. 16 as she faces Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman (R).

She drew the ire of Trump after she became one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach him over his role in the Jan. 6 attack.

Cheney has listed the help of top Wyoming names like former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), who appeared in a campaign ad for her in June. Earlier this week, she touted a picture of actor Kevin Costner, who wore a shirt saying “I’m for Liz Cheney”

A poll released last month by the Casper Star-Tribune showed Cheney trailing Hageman by more than 20 points, with the women at 30 percent and 52 percent, respectively.

The Hill has reached out to a Trump spokesperson for comment.

Categories
US

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Mistrial denied as jury weighs damages against Alex Jones in Sandy Hook defamation trial

Aug 4 (Reuters) – A Texas judge denied Alex Jones’s motion for a mistrial on Thursday as jury deliberations summarized in a defamation case over the US conspiracy theorist’s false claims about the Sandy Hook mass shooting.

The mistrial request followed the disclosure during the two-week-long trial that Jones’s lawyer accidentally sent two years of the US conspiracy theorist’s text messages to the plaintiffs.

Federico Andino Reynal, an attorney for Jones, told Judge Maya Guerra Gamble that attorneys for the plaintiffs should have immediately destroyed the records. An attorney for the parents, Mark Bankston, used the texts to undercut Jones’ testimony during cross-examination on Wednesday.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, is on trial to determine the amount of damages he owes for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012 .

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of slain six-year-old Jesse Lewis, are seeking as much as $150 million from Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems LLC, for what their lawyer has called a “vile campaign of defamation.”

Heslin told jurors on Tuesday that Jones’ falsehoods had made his life “hell” and led to a campaign of harassment and death threats against him by people who believed he lied about his son’s death.

Jones previously claimed that the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the Sandy Hook tragedy and that the shooting was staged using crisis actors.

Jones, who later acknowledged that the shooting took place, told the Austin jury on Wednesday that it was “100% real.”

Gamble issued a rare default judgment against Jones in the case in 2021.

Free Speech Systems declared bankruptcy last week. Jones said during a Monday broadcast of Infowars that the filing will help the company stay on the air while it appeals.

Jones faces a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable in a default judgment.

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approaching sound of police sirens.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder, Amy Stevens and Howard Goller

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

.

Categories
US

Alex Jones’s Texts Could Be Given to Jan. 6 Panel, Lawyer Says

Alex Jones's Texts Could Be Given to Jan. 6 Panel, Lawyer Says

WASHINGTON — The lawyer for plaintiffs who are suing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said Thursday that he plans to turn over two years of text messages from Mr. Jones’s phone to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The lawyer, Mark Bankston, who represents Sandy Hook parents suing Mr. Jones in defamation lawsuits for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting, said in court in Austin, Texas, that he planned to turn over the texts unless a judge instructed him not to do so.

“I certainly intend to do that, unless you tell me not to,” Mr. Bankston told the judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, who appeared unsympathetic to requests from Mr. Jones’s lawyers that Mr. Bankston return the materials to them.

When lawyers raised the possibility that the texts could be subpoenaed by the committee, the judge replied, “They’re going to now. They know about them.”

A person familiar with the House committee’s work said the panel had been in touch with the plaintiffs’ lawyers about obtaining materials from Mr. Jones’s phone.

Mr. Bankston said in court that Mr. Jones’s lawyers mistakenly sent him text messages from Mr. Jones, as they attempted to defend him in court for broadcasting conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax and that the families were actors.

Mr. Bankston said they included texts with the political operative Roger J. Stone Jr. Mr. Bankston said he had heard from “various federal agencies and law enforcement” about the material.

“Things like Mr. Jones and his intimate messages with Roger Stone are not confidential. They are not trade secrets,” Mr. Bankston said.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has been pushing to obtain Mr. Jones’s texts for months, saying they could be relevant to understanding Mr. Jones’s role in helping organize the rally at the Ellipse near the White House before the riot . In November, the panel filed subpoenas to compel Mr. Jones’s testimony and communications related to Jan. 6, including his phone records of him.

The committee also issued a subpoena for the communications of Timothy D. Enlow, who was working as Mr. Jones’s bodyguard on Jan. 6.

In response, Mr. Jones and Mr. Enlow sued in an attempt to block the committee’s subpoenas. Mr. Jones eventually appeared before the panel in January and afterward said he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination nearly 100 times.

“I just had a very intense experience being interrogated by the Jan. 6 committee lawyers,” he said at the time. “They were polite, but they were dogged.”

Even though Mr. Jones refused to share information with the committee, he said the investigators seemed to have found ways around his lack of cooperation. He said the committee had already obtained text messages from him.

“They have everything that’s already on my phones and things,” he said. “I saw my text messages” with political organizers tied to the Jan. 6 rally.

According to the Jan. 6 committee, Mr. Jones facilitated a donation from Julie Jenkins Fancelli, the heiress to the Publix Super Markets fortune, to provide what he described as “80 percent” of the funding for the Jan. 6 rally and indicated that White House officials told him that he was to lead a march to the Capitol, where Mr. Trump would speak.

Mr. Jones and Mr. Stone were among the group of Trump allies meeting in and around, or staying at, the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, which some Trump advisers treated as a war room for their efforts to get members of Congress to object to the Electoral College certification, which was taking place when the riot swamped the building.

Mr. Jones conducted an interview with Michael T. Flynn, who served briefly as national security adviser to Mr. Trump, from the Willard on Jan. 5 in which the men spread the false narrative of a stolen election.

Mr. Jones was then seen among the crowd of Mr. Trump’s supporters the next day, amplifying false claims but also at times urging the crowd to be peaceful. Among those who marched alongside him to the Capitol was Ali Alexander, a promoter of the “Stop the Steal” effort who has also been issued a subpoena.

“The White House told me three days before, ‘We’re going to have you lead the march,’” Mr. Jones said on his internet show the day after the riot. “Trump will tell people, ‘Go, and I’m going to meet you at the Capitol.’”

Categories
US

Former Puerto Rico governor arrested by FBI, her attorney says

Former Puerto Rico governor arrested by FBI, her attorney says

One of her attorneys, Peter John Porrata, told CNN Vazquez will plead not guilty to the charges. She was released on bond after a brief hearing Thursday.

“I am innocent and a great injustice has been committed,” Vázquez told reporters after her release. “I have committed no crime.”

A onetime political consultant for Vázquez and the president of an international bank have pleaded guilty to participating in the bribery scheme, according to a DOJ statement.

A former FBI agent and the owner of the international bank that operated in San Juan also participated in the alleged scheme, federal officials say.

From December 2019 through June 2020, the 62-year-old former governor allegedly conspired in a scheme to finance her gubernatorial campaign, according to the DOJ.

Puerto Rico Fast Facts

Vázquez allegedly received more than $300,000 from two businessmen to finance political consultants during her campaign, Stephen Muldrow, US Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, told reporters Thursday.

Vazquez and others are charged with conspiracy, federal bribery programs and honest services wire fraud.

The ex-governor, who is named in three of seven counts in an indictment, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

“The alleged bribery scheme rose to the highest levels of the Puerto Rican government, threatening public trust in our electoral processes and institutions of governance,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. said in a statement.

The bribes were allegedly paid in exchange for Vázquez making an appointment to the Office of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions that benefited businessmen involved in the scheme, Muldrow said.

The indictment alleged the owner of the international bank and his consultant — the former FBI agent — agreed to provide funding for Vázquez’s campaign in exchange for her replacing the island’s top bank regulator with one of their choosing. At the time, the bank was the “subject of an examination” by the regulatory agency, federal prosecutors say.

Muldrow said the island’s current governor, who defeated Vázquez in an election, was not involved in the scheme.

A former Secretary of Justice, Vázquez served as governor of the US territory from 2019 to 2021. Her appointment came after disgraced former governor Ricardo Rosselló was forced to step down following islandwide protests against his government.

She became Secretary of Justice in January 2017 — with a mandate that included fighting corruption on the island — and was an ally of Rosselló.

In 2018, Vazquez came under fire for allegedly intervening on behalf of her daughter in a case stemming from a home theft. She faced charges of violating government ethics laws. But a judge later ruled there was insufficient evidence to arrest her.

Arrest affects ‘the confidence of our people’

Vázquez’s brief tenure as governor was contentious.

Her ties to the disgraced former governor brought scrutiny. Critics accused her of failing to open investigations against members of her own party de ella, particularly Rosselló and his administration’s handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

In January 2020, Puerto Ricans poured onto the streets of San Juan calling for her resignation after Hurricane Maria supplies were found in a warehouse in the city of Ponce, more than two years after the storm.

Later that year, Puerto Rican officials confirmed Vásquez was being investigated for suspicion of mishandling resources meant to mitigate earthquake damage on the island.

Mayra Velez Serrano, a professor of political science at the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras, said Thursday that many people on the island were shocked at the arrest but not entirely surprised.

Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans don't have constitutional right to some federal benefits

“That the former Justice Secretary … and ex-governor, who is married to a judge, that she was involved in anything like this and that she was arrested is still shocking,” Velez said. “This continues to undermine the public’s confidence in the political system and their politicians and the two main parties.”

Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Pierluisi, who was elected governor after defeating Vásquez in a primary election, said Thursday, “Under my administration there is zero tolerance for corruption.”

“Today we see once again that no one is above the law in Puerto Rico,” Pierluisi, a member of the same pro-commonwealth party as Vásquez, said in Spanish via Twitter.

The arrest “certainly affects and lacerates the confidence of our people,” the governor said.

“I reiterate that in my administration we will continue to have a common front with the federal authorities against anyone who commits an improper act,” said the governor.

“Wherever it comes from and whoever it may implicate, as well as promoting initiatives and following up on the bills that I have presented to combat corruption,” he said.

In 2019, Rosselló handpicked Pierluisi as his successor.

His short-lived tenure came to an end after just five days when Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court declared his governorship unconstitutional.

Vázquez was subsequently sworn in. “In light of the decision by the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, I must step aside and support the Secretary of Justice of Puerto Rico,” Pierluisi had said in a statement at the time.

Pierluisi then won the election for the seat in November 2020.

.

Categories
US

‘The View’ names Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ana Navarro as new co-hosts for Season 26

'The View' names Alyssa Farah Griffin, Ana Navarro as new co-hosts for Season 26

“The View” announced Alyssa Farah Griffin and Ana Navarro as co-hosts on the panel.

Live on the Emmy Award-winning daytime talk show, the two Republicans were welcomed as co-hosts. They join moderator Whoopi Goldberg, and co-hosts Joy Behar, Sunny Hostin and Sara Haines.

After making 29 appearances throughout Season 25, Farah Griffin will fill the conservative seat at the Hot Topics table. The communications strategist served as the top spokesperson for the president, vice president and secretary of defense from 2017-2020, making her the only person ever to hold each of these positions. She’s also the recipient of the Secretary of Homeland Security’s Award for Distinguished Public Service and serves on the board of the American Conservation Coalition.

“I couldn’t be more honored and thrilled to join the ladies of ‘The View,’” Farah Griffin told ABC News. “The show paved the way for women speaking up and speaking out on TV.”

“At a time when our country is so divided, often on partisan lines, I’m honored to represent the conservative perspective,” she continued. “I hope to model what is too often lost by our elected leaders: learning from others, disagreeing respectfully, and focusing on finding real solutions for our country.”

Following the on-air announcement of her new seat at the Hot Topics table, Farah Griffin shared her thoughts on the role.

“If anyone had ever told me I’d be sitting at a table with Whoopi Goldberg, I would have said, ‘You are crazy.’ It is such an honor to be with you ladies every day on this set, and it’s particularly exciting for me today,” Farah Griffin said on “The View” Thursday. “I was trying to come up with the word to describe how I feel about this, and ‘honored’ is all that comes to mind.”

She went on to explain how the last few years of her life had “been a bit turbulent” for her. “I worked for an administration that I ended up speaking out against fervently and continue to daily. That changes a lot in your life. I lost a lot of friends. I’m estranged from family members, but I have to say this, I am so proud to have found my voice. I was, you know, a president’s spokesperson, I was a vice president’s spokesperson, I was way too many Republican men’s of Congress spokesperson, but now it is my voice.”

“Listen, it’s going to get sporty sometimes, but I adore you women,” she continued. “Thank you ladies, and thank you to the whole ‘View’ team. I’m so excited.”

Navarro is officially a co-host after joining the show in 2015 for Season 19 as a contributor and making recurring appearances on the panel since November 2018 as a guest co-host. A political strategist, she is a Republican commentator with expertise on Latin America, Florida and Hispanic issues.

While the show is based in New York City, Navarro will continue to commute from her home in Coral Gables, Florida, where she lives with her husband, Al Cardenas, and their miniature poodle, Chacha.

“’The View’ is an institution and incomparable platform for women of different backgrounds to share their opinions and insights. It’s been a long courtship, but we’re finally making it official,” Navarro told ABC News. “I love being on the show, and I love living in Miami. I’m happy I will be able to do both. Thank you to ABC News, ‘The View’ family and our loyal viewers for their continued support.”

After the official announcement of her seat at the Hot Topics table, Navarro shared her thanks with viewers and ABC.

“After many years, many hair styles, many pounds up and down, and appearances as a guest, a contributor, Snow White, a guest co-host, we’re finally putting a ring on it and making it official,” she said on Thursdays show. “I want to thank the very loyal ‘View’ fans. I’ve read you. I’ve heard you. I’ve seen you.”

“This is not the right time for me or for the show to make it full-time. I have other work commitments. I have a life. I have a husband in Miami who I thank for understanding my absences. I have a very clingy dog. I have all these things I love in Miami. Leaving all that behind every week is tough, but I also love, love, love doing this show, and I want to thank ABC, especially Brian Teta and Kim Godwin and her team, “she continued.

“Most weeks I’m on a plane at least four times a week, and I spend countless hours on plans, at airports, in hotels. Sometimes it gets lonely, but I also know it’s a huge, enormous, incomparable privilege to be part of a 25-year institution, and whether people like it or not, whether some people acknowledge it or not, it is the relevance and the importance and the platform that ‘The View’ represents,” Navarro said.

“We at this table have spent a lot of time — a lot of time — talking about representation and saying representation matters, and that means that when a little Latina immigrant girl born in Chinandega, Nicaragua, who came to this country at the age of eight as a political refugee and found her home here gets the opportunity and the chance to have a platform, you grab it with both hands, and you run with it,” she added.

News of a co-host being announced on Thursday was shared with the public, but viewers were surprised by the added announcement that named a second co-host. The panel will now consist of six seats.

Executive producer Brian Teta spoke on the decision to ABC News.

”We promised to take a little time to fill the seat and we have found the right match and a welcome addition to the show with Alyssa,” Teta said. “She is willing to share her unique political experience and brings a strong conservative perspective while holding her own de ella in tough debates with her co-hosts and guests on both sides of the aisle.”

“Ana has made an indelible impact on ‘The View’ since the first time she joined us at the table,” Teta continued. “She is a strong independent thinker with savvy insight, not to mention that she is whip-smart and fiercely funny. We are very happy to officially welcome her as a co-host.”

”The View”’s original podcast series “Behind the Table” is available for free on major listening platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, TuneIn, Audacy and the ABC News app.

Categories
US

Hungary leader Viktor Orban addresses CPAC Dallas amid ‘mixed race’ blowback

Hungary leader Viktor Orban addresses CPAC Dallas amid 'mixed race' blowback

Comment

DALLAS — Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister who has consolidated autocratic power with hard-right opposition to immigration and liberal democracy, will address an adoring crowd of thousands of Americans in Dallas on Thursday.

His speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) has gone ahead despite Orban’s latest controversy: a speech in which he railed against Europe becoming “mixed race,” saying that Europeans did not want to live with people from outside the continent. One of his own close advisers resigned in protest, calling the speech “pure Nazi.”

But Orban has found defenders among prominent American conservatives, including former president Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Ohio Senate candidate JD Vance. On his way to Dallas, Orban stopped to visit Trump at his golf club in Bedminster, NJ In a statement, Trump called Orban his “friend” from him and said he valued his perspective on him. “Few people know as much about what is going on in the world today,” Trump said.

On Wednesday, Carlson defended Orban from the negative media coverage of the speech.

“So Viktor Orban is now a Nazi because he wants national borders?” Carlson said. Carlson helped raise Orban’s US profile with a special broadcast from Budapest last year, during which he praised Orban’s Hungary as a role model for Americans.

“It’s a disgrace,” said Al Cardenas, a Republican operative who previously ran the American Conservative Union, which organizes CPAC, and has been critical of the group since then. “In the midst of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, to invite a pro-Putin leader is inexcusable.”

Matt Schlapp, who leads the American Conservative Union, has defended Orban’s invitation in the name of free speech.

“Let’s listen to the man speak,” Schlapp told Bloomberg News. “We’ll see what he says. And if people have a disagreement with something he says, they should raise it.”

Some at the convention Thursday said they were eager to hear Orban clarify his remarks on race.

“As a person who, I am mixed race, I’m in a mixed-race relationship, I would like to see what he is going to say to that, put something positive to that,” said Raven Harrison, an unsuccessful primary candidate for Congress from outside Dallas. “I’m not willing to villainize him for that at this point.”

Orban’s appearance in Dallas comes after a CPAC spinoff hosted in Hungary in May, featuring a videotaped address from Trump in which he said he was “honored” to endorse Orban’s recent reelection.

In power since 2010, Orban has come to dominate and reshape Hungary’s political system not through a Soviet-style police state but rather through constitutional changes and the weakening of civil society. He has alienated NATO allies with opposition to punishing Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine. Orban’s increasing isolation of him in Europe has added urgency to his long-running overtures of him to bolster relations with the United States through the Republican Party.

CPAC Hungary was a celebration of Orban’s policies, including its sidelining of mainstream media. Several of the outlets that applied to cover the conference were denied credentials. Schlapp said that he did not do much to change the coverage.

“I went out and gave a press conference and they still called me a white nationalist,” Schlapp recalled. “I was like, I don’t know if it does any good, if that’s what their editors are attempting on them writing.”

In his own speech at CPAC Hungary, Orban did not discuss race, and focused more on the celebration of national identity and traditional values ​​that excite American conservatives. The Hungarian leader called his country from him “the laboratory in which we tested the antidote to dominance by progressives,” listing twelve points for conservative success — from prioritizing economic growth to “expos[ing] your enemies’ intentions.”

That approach has clicked with American conservatives. Under Schlapp’s leadership, the American Conservative Union has organized more CPACs around the world and also invited right-wing populists to address the crowds in the United States.

A year before voters in Britain voted to leave the European Union, Brexit Party founder Nigel Farage got a high-profile CPAC speaking slot. Three years later, the crowd got to hear from Marion Maréchal-Le Pen’s, a politician and niece of Marine Le Pen, standard-bearer of France’s far-right party. After the 2018 election of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Schlapp’s group began holding conferences in Brazil, where politicians from the leading right-wing party discussed how to defeat a left that “denies family values.”

Vance, the “Hillbilly Elegy” author and Republican nominee for Senate in Ohio, said at a conservative academic conference last year that the “childless left” was undermining America, and he pointed to Orban’s policy of generous tax breaks for parents who have three or more children.

“Why can’t we do that here?” Vance asked. “Why can’t we actually promote family formation?”

After Orban’s party won this year’s election, One America News anchor Jack Posobiec celebrated on a podcast hosted by Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. “He stands for nationalism. He stands for borders,” Posobiec told Kirk. “He stands for sovereign national identity for his people from him, and standing up for a new type of conservatism where it’s not about tax cuts to corporations; [it’s] about taking the family unit and centering it.”

Both Vance and Posobiec will speak to the conference Friday.