Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

UPDATED: 25 Dems In Congress Who Said Law Enforcement ‘Murdered’ Breonna Taylor

Ayanna Pressley

Breonna Taylor

Ilhan Omar

Joaquin Castro

Kamala Harris

Rashida Tlaib

Ted Lieu

He&#8217;s late to the party, but former Vice President Joe Biden is all aboard the impeachment train, according to a new report.
&#8220;Joe Biden will publicly use a Tuesday afternoon press conference to back the impeachment of President Trump if he fails to cooperate with Congress over claims by an intelligence community whistleblower about his dealings with Ukraine,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/joe-biden-to-call-for-trump-to-be-impeached">Washington Examiner</a> reports.
&#8220;He’s going to make the point that Trump’s latest abuses are on top of all of his prior abuses. He’s going to call on Trump to comply with all of Congress’ outstanding, lawful requests for information — in the Ukraine matter, and in the other investigations — and if Trump does not comply, Congress has no choice but to impeach,&#8221; a Biden campaign spokesman told the Washington Examiner.
Plenty of other prominent Democrats have already espoused support for impeachment.
&#8220;If in fact, he was pressuring the Ukrainian president to open an investigation on the former vice president, Vice President Biden, that’s an incredible abuse of power,&#8221; Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said. &#8220;A sitting president trying to basically force another president of another country to go after a political rival that by itself … is worthy of impeachment.&#8221;
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took to Twitter on Tuesday to say: &#8220;The House must impeach. It must start today.&#8221;
Warren also accused Congress of standing idly by as Trump abuses his presidential powers. &#8220;By failing to act, Congress is complicit in Trump&#8217;s latest attempt to solicit foreign interference to aid him in U.S. elections,&#8221; Warren said. &#8220;Do your constitutional duty and impeach the president.&#8221;
&#8220;A president is sitting in the Oval Office, right now, who continues to commit crimes,&#8221; Warren tweeted. &#8220;He continues because he knows his Justice Department won&#8217;t act and believes Congress won&#8217;t either. Today&#8217;s news confirmed he thinks he&#8217;s above the law. If we do nothing, he&#8217;ll be right.&#8221;
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been pushing impeachment for months, asserting in May that &#8220;this president must be held accountable and I believe that the Judiciary Committee should begin impeachment inquiries.&#8221;
Even a Republican presidential candidate is on board, but he thinks the penalty should be worse than impeachment.
&#8220;Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election, it couldn&#8217;t be clearer. And that&#8217;s not just undermining democratic institutions, that is treason,&#8221; former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld said on MSNBC&#8217;s &#8220;Morning Joe.&#8221; &#8220;It’s treason pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. Code is death. That’s the only penalty.&#8221;
Weld also said that impeachment could be an option. &#8220;The penalty under the Constitution is removal from office, and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal.&#8221;
The Trump campaign quickly condemned Weld&#8217;s comments.
&#8220;The media’s affliction with Trump Derangement Syndrome [(TDS)] has driven them into an actual discussion of the proposed execution of the president of the United States,&#8221; communications director Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. &#8220;In severe cases of TDS such as this, immediate consultation with a physician is recommended.&#8221;
House Democrats will meet on Tuesday behind closed doors with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to discuss moving forward with impeachment. Pelosi has so far resisted calls for impeachment, but pressure has grown in the last several weeks, especially after the emergence of the Ukraine story.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that in a July 25 phone call, Trump allegedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky &#8220;about eight times&#8221; to cooperate with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on an investigation into Biden&#8217;s son, who worked with a natural gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
Biden in 2016, meanwhile, reportedly called for the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating allegations about Hunter. At the time, Hunter Biden held a directorship with the company, earning $50,000 a month. There are also allegations that as vice president, Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid unless the prosecutor was fired.

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Biden To Call For Trump Impeachment: ‘Congress Has No Choice’

Bernie Sanders

Elizabeth Warren

Impeachment

Joe Biden

The nation seems to be in the midst of a hostage crisis. We, the people, are having to decide which political party will be the hostage takers. Do we stay with the Republicans and the erratic leader who has, at least, given us a good economy? Do we go with the Democrats, who offer us a few dozen potential leaders who are more stable but also more focused on upending the American economic and socio-political system?
For all the talk about Donald Trump upending American norms, his presidency has not been very abnormal. His personal behavior surely is and grates on voters. His policies are pretty mainstream. Among the President&#8217;s core supporters are evangelical voters because he has used his office and judicial appointments to protect them.
Progressive activists have harassed Christian educational institutions, Christian bakers and florists, Christian adoption and pregnancy agencies and even churches themselves. Progressive Democrats have pledged to drive them from business. I have a hard time blaming Christians for sticking with Trump in the face of this secular onslaught that much of the media ignores or downplays as it is happening.
For the Left, it is not just that they won the popular vote but that Trump is the one who beat them. They created a myth that Russia actually stole the election. They reacted viscerally as Republicans tried to roll back the gains they made under Barack Obama. They also have hit on a core complaint against President Trump: His presidency may not be outside the norms of American discourse, but his personality is. He is always in everyone&#8217;s face. He is always fighting. He is always in a rush to insult his opponents. The left and the rest of us are used to George W. Bush, who regularly had invective heaped upon him and always turned his cheek.
We had two mass shootings over the weekend. The Democrats rushed out to make it all about the President. When it turned out the shooter in Dayton, Ohio, was a radical progressive who loved Elizabeth Warren, the media demanded everyone be quiet because it did not appear his politics inspired his shooting rampage. That, by the way, is not something the media ever does when someone with right-of-center ideology opens fire. In those cases, it is always about his politics. In cases where a shooter has no ideology, the media mostly presumes he must be a right-winger. But when a Warren fan opens fire? You&#8217;d better shut up or the media will shame you.
In El Paso, the shooter was anti-immigrant. He believed they were invading. The media helpfully pointed out the President has run ads calling the situation at the border an invasion. The press tied the shooter directly to the President. Pundits called the President and his supporters racists. A man on Meet the Press, with no pushback except from the lone Republican panelist, said using the phrase &#8220;illegal immigrant&#8221; is white nationalism. Lost in all of this is that the shooter had progressive worries about overpopulation and the environment.
Our unusual President felt compelled to push back as progressives blamed him for the shooting. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat whose brother is running for president, circulated a list of Trump donors and highlighted their small businesses. Members of the press defended Castro: &#8220;It is public information,&#8221; journalists said. So are their home addresses (on their local tax assessor&#8217;s website), but I bet they would be outraged if that information got circulated. These were Trump donors, though, so much of the press and the left are OK with harm against them.
National discourse has gone insane. Partisans now view the other side as bad, the enemy or evil, not just opponents. What about those of us with friends across the divide? These days, there seems to be no home in politics for people who have principles and values but are willing to say that their own side might be wrong and neither side should give into hate. There is this sense there may be no going back to normalcy. We should all be troubled by that.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

Donkey and Elephant Illustration

ERICKSON: We Can’t Go Back, Can We?

Democratic Party

Donald Trump

Republican Party

In response to tweeting the names of several Trump campaign donors within his district, House Republicans have now called for an ethics probe into Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), reports <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/456902-house-conservatives-call-for-ethics-probe-into-joaquin-castro-tweet">The Hill</a>.
Earlier this week, following a horrific shooting at a Wal-Mart in El Paso, Texas, Castro publicly shared the names of Trump donors under his governance, alleging that they were helping to fund a campaign of hate and white supremacy.
&#8220;Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump — the owner of [redacted], owner of the [redacted], realtor [redacted], etc.,&#8221; wrote Castro&#8217;s tweet, which included a link to 44 donors. &#8220;Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as &#8216;invaders.'&#8221;
After both conservatives and some members of the liberal media criticized Castro for inciting harassment against Trump donors, House Republicans wrote a letter to House Ethics Committee Chairman <a href="https://thehill.com/people/ted-deutch" data-nid="186547">Ted Deutch</a> (D-FL) and ranking member Rep. <a href="https://thehill.com/people/kenny-marchant" data-nid="186517">Kenny Marchant</a> (R-TX) asking to have Castro&#8217;s conduct investigated. Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) spearheaded the letter, which was signed by GOP Reps. <a href="https://thehill.com/people/matthew-matt-gaetz" data-nid="357232">Matt Gaetz</a> (FL), <a href="https://thehill.com/people/jody-hice" data-nid="228673">Jody Hice</a> (GA), Debbie Lesko (AZ.), <a href="https://thehill.com/people/jeff-duncan" data-nid="186581">Jeff Duncan</a>(S.C.), <a href="https://thehill.com/people/randy-weber" data-nid="188012">Randy Weber</a> (TX) and <a href="https://thehill.com/people/theodore-ted-budd" data-nid="353675">Ted Budd</a> (N.C.).
&#8220;Posting a target list of private citizens simply for supporting his political opponent is antithetical to our principles and serves to suppress the free speech and free association rights of Americans,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;These acts must immediately be investigated to determine if Rep. Castro has violated the ethical rules of this institution.&#8221;
&#8220;By publishing a list of private citizens who donated to his political opponent, Rep. Castro sought to encourage harassment against those citizens simply on the basis of their political beliefs,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;It cannot be fairly argued that Rep. Castro had any other purpose in posting that list and telling his activist followers that those individuals were inciting hate. Whether he intended to provoke physical violence or merely verbal harassment, his intent was to chill the free speech and free association rights of Americans.&#8221;
Rep. Castro has since defended himself by noting that the information he shared was already public, and that he did not call for harassment.
&#8220;The information shared by Representative Castro is publicly available through the Federal Election Commission and the kind that&#8217;s routinely reported in media outlets of every political persuasion,&#8221; Castro spokeswoman Katherine Schneider said. &#8220;Their letter is a disingenuous attempt by pro-dark money, far-right legislators to limit Americans&#8217; ability to track money in politics. They would prefer large contributions to be kept secret so that there&#8217;s no meaningful transparency in political giving. We look forward to hearing from the Committee if the request is considered.&#8221;
2020 presidential candidate Julian Castro has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50450/watch-julian-castro-defends-brother-ignores-hank-berrien">defended his brother&#8217;s behavior</a> on the same grounds while denouncing harassment against Trump supporters.
&#8220;My brother put out a list of names of people who had maxed out to the Trump campaign. That is public information. That information is put out all the time, and for anybody to pretend or suggest that it&#8217;s not, that&#8217;s just untrue,&#8221; Julian told reporters. &#8220;Let me also be clear: He did not put down anybody&#8217;s private information; he did not put down their addresses; he did not put down their phone numbers. What he did is not doxxing; anybody who understands what doxxing is knows that tha&#8217;’s what — he did not do that, all right? What he did was he put forward publicly available information that was already out there.&#8221;

A Conversation With Joaquin Castro

House Republicans Call For Ethics Probe Into Joaquin Castro For Sharing Trump Donor Names

Julian Castro

Speaking to reporters at the Iowa State Fair, former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary and current Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro defended his brother, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), after Joaquin publicly revealed the names of 44 people in San Antonio who donated to President Trump and created a public furor.
Joaquin Castro not only revealed the names of the donors; he linked them to racist hatred, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50324/rep-joaquin-castro-doxes-trump-supporters-his-amanda-prestigiacomo">tweeting</a>, &#8220;Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump — the owner of [redacted], owner of the [redacted], realtor [redacted], etc. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as &#8216;invaders.'&#8221;
A reporter asked Julian Castro, “Some of these Trump donors are being targeted and harassed. Republican or Democrat, why is that okay?”
Castro replied, “It is not okay for anybody to harass anybody else. It doesn’t matter where somebody’s coming from, from the Right or from the Left. It’s not okay for people to harass other people and nobody ever said that it was.&#8221;
The reporter persisted, “So then why post the list online?” Another reporter echoed, “Is it an act of intimidation?”
Castro answered, “My brother put out a list of names of people who had maxed out to the Trump campaign. That is public information. That information is put out all the time, and for anybody to pretend or suggest that it’s not, that’s just untrue.”
The first reporter queried, “Didn’t he single them out?”
Castro, dodging the questions of whether his brother was attempting to intimidate Trump supporters as well as the question as to the motives for his brother’s actions, pontificated, “Let me also be clear: He did not put down anybody’s private information; he did not put down their addresses; he did not put down their phone numbers.”
A reporter pushed, “But he singled them out, Mr. Secretary.”
Castro continued his deflection: “What he did is not doxxing; anybody who understands what doxxing is knows that that’s what — he did not do that, all right? What he did was he put forward publicly available information that was already out there. “
Then Castro ignored the fact that some of the donors were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50444/watch-trump-supporter-outed-castro-shreds-him-hank-berrien">furious</a> at the attempt to intimidate them; he turned to attacking President Trump: “The right wing wants to make this a story because they want to pretend, like in some way that’s equivalent to the hate and division that Donald Trump is fostering in this country. It is not. I guess, what Donald Trump wants, is that he wants these donors to be secret. He doesn’t want you to know that they’re donating to him.”
A reporter pointed out, “Do you know that they’re donating to you too?”
Castro repeated, “He doesn’t want you to know that they’re donating to him because that’s inconvenient for him. Maybe he believes that these people are embarrassed that they’re donating to him.”
Video below:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Absolutely pathetic.
Julián Castro refuses to condemn brother’s tweet targeting Trump donors. <a href="https://t.co/Fv6xvXWNcU">pic.twitter.com/Fv6xvXWNcU</a>
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveGuest/status/1159861595297767424?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

Presidential Candidate Julian Castro Campaigns In Los Angeles

WATCH: Julian Castro Defends Brother, Ignores Intimidation Of Trump Donors, Attacks Trump Instead

On Thursday, a Texan who was one of the people outed by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) for donating to President Trump fired back on Fox &amp; Friends, saying that his own father fought in World War II to give Americans the right to vote for whomever they chose.
In an interview with Willie Geist on MSNBC, Castro had defended his actions, snapping, &#8220;Unless you support the white nationalism and the racism that Donald Trump is paying for and fueling, then I hope you, as a person of good conscience, will think twice about contributing to his campaign.”
Speaking on Fox &amp; Friends, Mark Hanrahan, the CEO of Mid-American Aerospace, was asked, “First of all, your name is on this list; you find out about it from, I believe it’s from your children, who saw it on Twitter. Are you deterred by what was the intended impact on you?”
Hanrahan answered, “Quite frankly, maybe I was little bit naïve, but I was angered by the fact that anybody would — being outed as a contributor wasn’t the problem, but tying me to that horrific tragedy in El Paso was galling. It just made me sick to my stomach. So when I was called by a reporter I did agree to chat and go into what had happened.”
Hanrahan was then asked, “I think Castro told Willie Geist that it was not his intention to harass or to target individuals. Do you buy that?”
Hanrahan replied:
<blockquote>Not at all. I saw the interview with Willie Geist and he started backpedaling a little bit. But the truth is that he knows exactly what he is doing. Once again — I mean, America is a free country; my dad fought in Italy as a combat soldier in World War II and he was a big advocate of the First Amendment. He always said that Voltaire was his guide; that he didn’t agree with what you said but he would defend with his life your right to say it. The notion that I’m not free to support or think what I think and to be bullied with slurs of racism, I think a lot of people of my generation that support the president are tired of it.</blockquote>
When he was asked why someone like Joaquin Castro and other Democrats thought that outing someone’s name would intimidate them not to support a certain candidate, Hanrahan pointed out, “I think it’s been going on a long time; they’ve spit in little Trump’s face; they’ve harassed people at restaurants and I think that they think that is a tactic that will work. I don’t really understand it; I think it’s demagoguery.” He said of the fallout from Castro’s list, “There’s a certain amount of skittishness, mostly the millennial crowd; I work with a bunch of twenty-thirty-year-olds, and some of them were, hell, they wanted to lock the front door and I thought that was kind of ridiculous. I recently received some emails, I guess, that were unkind, but quite frankly I think — all I’ve received is a lot of unkind comments by people that have known me throughout my life. I’ve been contacted by kids I haven’t talked to for thirty years.”
Hanrahan concluded, “I pray that Joaquin Castro is treated like he should be treated. He wasn’t just publishing a list of donors; he was hoping that they would be discombobulated or harassed or whatever … I just think we have, In America, the right to free speech, and I and a lot of people who support the president, we’re not going to be called, we’re not going to be called racist and other slurs without fighting back. I think it was just a matter of time; if it hadn’t been Trump it would have been somebody else. The working class of America was not going to sit still forever.”
Video below:
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Hanrahan

WATCH: Trump Supporter Outed By Castro Shreds Him In Interview

On Wednesday&#8217;s episode of &#8220;The Ben Shapiro Show,&#8221; Ben Shapiro discusses the disunity in the country fostered by Trump&#8217;s critics after the shooting, particularly how it&#8217;s underscored by a Democratic Congressman who doxxed his constituents because of their support for Trump. Video and partial transcript below:
The media are running with all of this that Trump is a divisive figure, that he shouldn&#8217;t show up [to El Paso and Dayton]. So, <a href="http://www.abc15.com/news/national/critics-question-whether-trump-visit-to-el-paso-and-dayton-will-help-healing">CNN</a> has a headline today, &#8220;Critics Question Whether Trump Visit to El Paso and Dayton Will Help Healing.&#8221; Well, no bleep, Sherlock. I mean, of course they&#8217;re questioning that. This is part of the narrative and it&#8217;s also part of the entire debate. According to CNN, Trump will travel Wednesday &#8220;to the scenes of back-to-back mass shootings that stunned the nation and left at least 31 people dead, but his appearances in Ohio and Texas aren&#8217;t being well received by all local officials — some of whom say it would be best if the commander in chief avoided their grief-stricken cities. Exact plans for Trump&#8217;s visits to Dayton and El Paso haven&#8217;t been released and were still being finalized by the White House advance teams on Tuesday afternoon.&#8221;
There was the same sort of hubbub in the run-up to President Trump visiting Pittsburgh in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting. Everything went fine in Pittsburgh, it was fine. There were a few protesters, that was it. But obviously that&#8217;s not really what the media want here. What the media want here is not a unifying moment; what they want is a divisive moment.
According to CNN, &#8220;The question his critics have is whether he will comfort their cities in mourning or deepen the divisions.&#8221; Well, I could ask the same question of the media. Are they interested in comforting the cities in mourning, or are they interested in deepening political divisions for political purposes? <a href="https://www.abc15.com/news/national/critics-question-whether-trump-visit-to-el-paso-and-dayton-will-help-healing">CNN</a> says, &#8220;Trump has at most moments of his presidency appeared more focused on driving a divisive political message than acting as a unifier. While he has expressed intense interest in appearing &#8216;presidential,&#8217; including through the military trappings of the job, he has not eagerly adopted the tone his predecessors have used from the Oval Office or other official settings.&#8221;
All of that may be true. It is also true that Barack Obama is a highly divisive president, just in a very different and more subtle way. I&#8217;m not going to equate the level of the rhetoric of the two, but there is no question that Barack Obama was deeply divisive, and people had similar questions. I mean he showed up to Dallas — after the Dallas police shooting —and nobody said he shouldn&#8217;t. Nobody said he shouldn&#8217;t come.
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What all of this leads up to is the conclusion that for a lot of folks on the left, they&#8217;re actually unhappy at Trump now trying to do the &#8220;unity&#8221; routine. They&#8217;re unhappy about it because what they would prefer is that unity not take place. What they would prefer is the continuing narrative that Trump is a white supremacist and his supporters are white supremacists. This is why Joe Biden is planning an entire address in Iowa today, about white supremacists, in which presumably he will blame President Trump for the shooting in El Paso, Texas.
And it&#8217;s not just Joe Biden; over the last 24 hours something truly egregious has been done by a congressperson named Joaquin Castro (D-TX). So, Joaquin Castro is the congressperson from San Antonio. He is engaged in the widespread mythmaking now, on the part of members of the media and on the left that everyone on the right is supportive of a mass shooting. So, they use the transitive property. It goes something like this: President Trump is responsible for the El Paso shooting — that&#8217;s not true — but they say Trump is responsible for the El Paso shooting. Then they say, therefore, anyone who supports Trump is, by the transitive property, responsible for the El Paso shooting. So, Joaquin Castro is Julian Castro&#8217;s (D-TX) brother and a congressperson from San Antonio. He put out a target list; he <a href="http://twitter.com/Castro4Congress/status/1158576680182718464">tweeted out</a>:
<blockquote>Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump —the owner of Bill Miller barbecue, owner of historic Pearl, realtor Phyllis Browning etc. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as &#8220;invaders.&#8221;</blockquote>
And then he put out a full list, a list of 44 different people. I don&#8217;t believe that&#8217;s the actual full list of everybody who maxed out to Trump in San Antonio. I&#8217;ve seen the list from the FEC; it&#8217;s a bit longer. But in any case, he puts out a list of 44 people in his own district — with their names — who are funding Trump. The idea being that he would like to see them bear some sort of public scrutiny; he would like to see them harassed. That&#8217;s something he would like to see, something bad happen to them. This is doxing. Now people say that it is publicly available information. Yes, doxing can be publicly available information. The question is whether you are driving people to target people based on their political viewpoint. And that&#8217;s exactly what Joaquin Castro is doing right there.
He&#8217;s not trying to hide the ball on this stuff, by the way. This does have consequences. We live in a time when people were standing outside Mitch McConnell&#8217;s house, outside his home that&#8217;s publicly available information. It is also disgusting. People are standing outside Mitch McConnell&#8217;s home and chanting at him and calling for his death. People have shown up outside Tucker Carlson&#8217;s home. Over the last 24 hours, a self-described member of Antifa in New York called for people in L.A. to show up at my house and harass me or kill me on Twitter. We filed the appropriate police reports. It is in law enforcement&#8217;s hands now. And as always, I do have 24/7 security.
You want to make the country a worse place? This is how you do it, right here. This is making the country a worse place because not only is the suggestion that people are responsible for the shooting who were not responsible for the shooting, the idea is we are now going to publicly put their faces out there and make them targets. I mean basically Joaquin Castro&#8217;s calling these people accessories to murder. He&#8217;s saying Trump is an accessory to murder, and then these people are accessories to Trump, so they are accessories to murder. There is a conspiracy to murder and therefore these people are part of that. They are part of that problem.
How do you think people are going to react to that? You want to talk about heightening rhetoric and incitement? This is a lot closer to that than anything that Trump has said about illegal immigration. His statements about illegal immigration are generalized and somewhat vague. They are not targeted to specific individuals &#8230; I mean the media went nuts when Trump said Elijah Cummings (D-MD) is a crap congressperson. The media went crazy when someone took a picture of AOC (D-NY) eating a burger in public. And now the media are covering for this. They&#8217;re covering for Joaquin Castro putting out a target list of people, who donated to Trump, which is specifically designed to incite action against those people. There&#8217;s no other reason to put out the list, it&#8217;s why it&#8217;s being done. It&#8217;s disgusting; it&#8217;s divisive; it&#8217;s wrong. But Democrats are out there defending it because this runs as part of their narrative.
<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ben-shapiro-show/id1047335260">Download full episode of the &#8220;Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special” on iTunes.</a>
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/show/ben-shapiro-show">Watch the &#8220;Ben Shapiro Show Sunday Special” on-demand!</a>

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SHAPIRO: Democrats And The Media Want Division, Not Unity

Barack Obama

Ben Shapiro

Elijah Cummings

Media

Mitch McConnell

On Wednesday, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) was called out by MSNBC host Willie Geist for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50324/rep-joaquin-castro-doxes-trump-supporters-his-amanda-prestigiacomo">doxxing</a> Trump supporters in his district following the mass shooting in El Paso, Texas that left 22 dead and injured dozens more. Castro, who is the brother of former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and the campaign chairman of his brother&#8217;s 2020 presidential campaign, shifted blame for the doxxing, weakly telling Geist he &#8220;didn&#8217;t make the graphic&#8221; that exposed the names and employers of 44 individual San Antonio Trump donors. The donor list that Castro doxxed included retirees and homemakers.
&#8220;What do you say to those people this morning who said, I made a campaign donation and now I&#8217;m gonna be harassed; I’m gonna have people protesting outside my business or perhaps even my home?&#8221; Geist asked Castro. &#8220;Do you want them to repent for their support for Donald Trump or, what do you want from them?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, the first thing is, I don&#8217;t want anybody harassed or targeted —&#8221;
&#8220;But they will be,&#8221; Geist interrupted, &#8220;because you put their names in public.&#8221;
&#8220;Look, that was not my intention,&#8221; Castro answered.
&#8220;But that&#8217;s what will happen,&#8221; the MSNBC host stated flatly.
&#8220;These things are public,&#8221; argued the Texas congressman. &#8220;No, what I would like for them to do is think twice about supporting a guy who is fueling hate in this country.&#8221;
&#8220;Congressman, do you agree that in this culture — and believe me, I make no equivalency to what Donald Trump&#8217;s doing; we&#8217;re on the record on this show three hours a morning about the ads that they&#8217;re putting about, about the rhetoric that he uses — but if you agree that rhetoric can lead to incitement, even if it just triggers one person to do something terrible, does it give you any pause about putting these people&#8217;s names out in public?&#8221;
&#8220;Well, Willie, they&#8217;re already public, they&#8217;re already out there,&#8221; deflected Castro.
But Geist pressed again, &#8220;There are 11 retirees and one homemaker who are not public.&#8221;
Castro — a powerful member of Congress with a Twitter platform with over 200,000 followers (the Democrat quote-tweeted the graphic on his personal account, too) — shifted blame for the doxxing. &#8220;And this was already circulating, I shared it, so I didn&#8217;t create the graphic.&#8221;
It&#8217;s notable that Castro not only doxxed the Trump donors when he did, but he dangerously tied them to the bloody El Paso massacre. &#8220;Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump — the owner of [redacted], owner of the [redacted], realtor [redacted], etc.,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as &#8216;invaders.'&#8221;
Castro’s irresponsible tweet is still up on Twitter and he has only doubled down further since the initial backlash. For example, when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) pressed the congressman about the tweet, Castro responded: &#8220;No one was targeted or harassed in my post. You know that. All that info is routinely published. You’re trying to distract from the racism that has overtaken the GOP and the fact that President Trump spends donor money on thousands of ads about Hispanics &#8216;invading&#8217; America.&#8221; He added, &#8220;Donald Trump has put a target on the back of millions. And you’re too cowardly or agreeable to say anything about it. How about I stop mentioning Trump&#8217;s public campaign donors and he stops using their money for ads that fuel hate?&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">This exchange is *chef kiss*
Rep. Castro: “Look I don’t want anyone to be harassed or —“
Willie Geist: “Well they will be because you put their names out there.”
Rep. Castro: “That was not my intention —“
Willie Geist: “But that’s what will happen.” 
<a href="https://t.co/yTOwgiOlVi">pic.twitter.com/yTOwgiOlVi</a>
— Calli Norton (@CalliNorton) <a href="https://twitter.com/CalliNorton/status/1159107279087722498?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50324/rep-joaquin-castro-doxes-trump-supporters-his-amanda-prestigiacomo">Rep. Joaquin Castro Doxes Trump Supporters In His District Following Mass Shooting; Tlaib Backs Him</a>

WATCH: Joaquin Castro Squirms When MSNBC Host Calls Him Out For Doxxing Trump Supporters

Crime

El Paso Shooting

Shooting

Texas

Trump Supporters

Violence

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX), the lesser known and perhaps more dimly witted of San Antonio&#8217;s politically ambitious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49162/where-does-julian-castro-stand-issues-heres-josh-hammer">Castro twins</a>, has responded to the recent leftist narrative that President Donald Trump&#8217;s rhetoric has placed certain Americans in direct danger by publicly shaming and therefore indirectly endangering some of his very own constituents.
Sometimes you just can&#8217;t make this stuff up.
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50324/rep-joaquin-castro-doxes-trump-supporters-his-amanda-prestigiacomo">reported</a>, Castro took to Twitter yesterday to dox 44 San Antonio-based Trump supporters. A sitting United States congressman and twin brother of a current presidential candidate literally outed constituents who happen to support the opposing political party for the express purpose of attempting to shame the constituents and gin up outrage against them.
Whether we live in the greatest nation-state in the history of human civilization or in a third-world banana republic is, in the year 2019, sometimes sadly difficult to discern.
Notable Republicans were quick to condemn Castro for his reckless tweet. Trump re-election communications director tweeted, &#8220;How low have Dems sunk? This is Joaquin Castro, Congressman &amp; chair of his brother&#8217;s campaign. Naming private citizens &amp; their employers, targeting them for political views and exercising 1st Amendment rights. Should delete &amp; apologize. Castro campaign should disavow.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">How low have Dems sunk?
This is Joaquin Castro, Congressman &amp; chair of his brother&#8217;s campaign.
Naming private citizens &amp; their employers, targeting them for political views and exercising 1st Amendment rights.
Should delete &amp; apologize. Castro campaign should disavow. <a href="https://t.co/5MSJPBBaF0">pic.twitter.com/5MSJPBBaF0</a>
— Tim Murtaugh (@TimMurtaugh) <a href="https://twitter.com/TimMurtaugh/status/1158782468046110726?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Even the normally spineless House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was able to summon righteous indignation, tweeting, &#8220;Targeting and harassing Americans because of their political beliefs is shameful and dangerous. What happened to &#8216;when they go low, we go high?&#8217; Or does that no longer matter when your brother is polling at 1%? Americans deserve better.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Targeting and harassing Americans because of their political beliefs is shameful and dangerous. What happened to “when they go low, we go high?” Or does that no longer matter when your brother is polling at 1%? Americans deserve better. <a href="https://t.co/PiFcifpxc1">https://t.co/PiFcifpxc1</a>
— Kevin McCarthy (@kevinomccarthy) <a href="https://twitter.com/kevinomccarthy/status/1158840773435154433?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) tweeted, &#8220;EVERYONE needs to tone the hateful partisan rhetoric way down. This is WRONG &amp; Castro should retract it. In our constitutional Republic, the People rightly hold their representatives accountable; elected representatives should not be vilifying &amp; doxxing their own constituents.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">EVERYONE needs to tone the hateful partisan rhetoric way down. This is WRONG &amp; Castro should retract it. In our constitutional Republic, the People rightly hold their representatives accountable; elected representatives should not be vilifying &amp; doxxing their own constituents. <a href="https://t.co/rrgQbK7PLU">https://t.co/rrgQbK7PLU</a>
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1158853864298295296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
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It is impossible to overstate just how <a href="https://theresurgent.com/2019/08/07/this-is-highly-irresponsible-why-are-some-in-the-media-defending-it/">reckless and myopic a stunt</a> Castro has pulled here. A congressman who helps directly control the levers of power in the United States of America has effectively sicced the foaming-at-the-mouth leftist mob upon American civilians. American civilians, that is, who reside in Castro&#8217;s own city! Castro is almost assuredly clueless as to the hell that he has wrought — the profoundly dangerous and harrowing precedent he has helped promulgate. Consider Angelo Codevilla&#8217;s timely <a href="https://amgreatness.com/2019/08/06/igniting-civil-war/">essay</a> this week at American Greatness: &#8220;[I]t would be surprising if many ordinary followers have not concluded that harassing if not harming conservatives in restaurants, airports, as well as in their public functions is not just permissible but praiseworthy, and if thousands of persons who exercise power over cities, towns and schools have not concluded that facilitating such harassment and harm is their duty.&#8221;
Progressives seem increasingly comfortable, alas, with this brave new world — where politics becomes an all-consuming blood sport and the most cynical and nihilistic of tactics are bestowed with legitimacy.
The First Amendment is the crown jewel of our Bill of Rights. The Free Speech Clause is the smaller crown jewel within that broader crown jewel. And political speech — the right to freely give voice and efficacy to political causes, much like pamphleteer Thomas Paine did with &#8220;Common Sense&#8221; in the colonial-era Philadelphia town square — is, as Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/98-963.ZD1.html">Nixon v. Shrink Missouri PAC</a>, &#8220;the primary object of First Amendment protection.&#8221;
The natural goal of Castro&#8217;s stunt is therefore to intimidate free citizens from exercising &#8220;the primary object&#8221; of the miniature crown jewel of the broader crown jewel of the Bill of Rights. Like every tinpot dictator and would-be tyrant before and after him, Castro&#8217;s goal is to cow free citizens into subjects — to sap the very sovereignty of which the constitutional Preamble&#8217;s &#8220;We the People&#8221; speaks. Castro must be rebuked and excoriated for such grandiose flirtations with totalitarianism. We <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Militant-Normals-Americans-Rebelling-Democracy/dp/154608195X">&#8220;Normals&#8221;</a> will never, ever be silenced by the supercilious mob.
Speaking of Justice Thomas, he saw this day coming. Ever the prescient jurist, here was Thomas opining in the landmark political speech-affirming 2010 case of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZX1.html">Citizens United v. FEC</a> (internal citations omitted): &#8220;Disclaimer and disclosure requirements enable private citizens and elected officials to implement political strategies specifically calculated to curtail campaign-related activity and prevent the lawful, peaceful exercise of First Amendment rights. &#8230; I cannot endorse a view of the First Amendment that subjects citizens of this Nation to death threats, ruined careers, damaged or defaced property, or pre-emptive and threatening warning letters as the price for engaging in core political speech, the primary object of First Amendment protection.&#8221;
Indeed. Absolute shame on Joaquin Castro, the latest would-be despot to emerge in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49056/hammer-democratic-party-fundamentally-unfit-lead-josh-hammer">fundamentally Orwellian and tyrannical</a> political party.

Joaquin Castro.jpg

HAMMER: Joaquin Castro Doxxing Trump Donors Is The Very Definition Of Tyranny

Constitution

First Amendment

Free Speech

Leftism

Money In Politics

San Antonio

Supreme Court

On Wednesday, one of the Trump donors whose name was exposed by Texas Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro had a surprise for the Texas legislator: he has donated to Castro before but he’s through with him now.
Wayne Harwell told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/joaquin-castro-outed-one-of-his-own-donors-in-bid-to-shame-trump-supporters">Fox News</a>, “I was also on a list of people that gave to Castro and if he dislikes me enough that he wants to put my name out there against Trump, I’m not going to give money to him. Obviously Castro feels pretty strongly against me.” He added, “I’m pretty independent, but I support Trump.”
Federal Election Commission records show Harwell donated $1,000 to Castro’s campaign in September 2011. He donated $5,600 to the Trump Victory committee and $2,800 to the Trump campaign in 2019; he donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Castro, the campaign chairman for the presidential campaign of his brother Julian, exposed the names of 44 Trump donors in a tweet. He wrote, “Sad to see so many San Antonians as 2019 maximum donors to Donald Trump. Their contributions are fueling a campaign of hate that labels Hispanic immigrants as ‘invaders.’”
Harwell reacted to the tweet, snapping, “I think some of the Democratic rhetoric is more hateful than some of Trump’s rhetoric. I think the San Antonio community needs to take a real deep look at what Castro is doing. Why is he doing this? If he wants to play in Washington, he needs to move to Washington. If he wants to play in San Antonio, he needs to at least be sensitive. The rest of the community is sensitive. We’re sensitive to both Republican and Democrat views. A lot of us here in San Antonio are independents.” He concluded, “I hope his constituents remember this.”
Another victim of Castro’s, Justin Herricks, told Fox News, “As a country, as a whole, we’ve got much bigger issues than trying to fight amongst ourselves. I feel pretty good about what I’ve done, and who I support. Everybody else is pretty open with what they believe in on the other side, so why can’t I? What’s the problem?”
Herricks also disputed Castro’s claim about Trump donors and Hispanics, asserting, “Probably a good 50 to 70 percent of my employment is Mexican people. You can’t have that argument. Everyone on that list, I would be safe to say, has done way more for Hispanic people than Castro ever has thought of doing. I don’t know the guy, but how many employees does he have compared to all of the people on the list?”
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50324/rep-joaquin-castro-doxes-trump-supporters-his-amanda-prestigiacomo">reported</a>, after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) criticized him for posting the tweet exposing Trump donors, Castro doubled down, saying, &#8220;No one was targeted or harassed in my post. You know that. All that info is routinely published. You&#8217;re trying to distract from the racism that has overtaken the GOP and the fact that President Trump spends donor money on thousands of ads about Hispanics &#8216;invading&#8217; America.&#8221; He added, &#8220;Donald Trump has put a target on the back of millions. And you’re too cowardly or agreeable to say anything about it. How about I stop mentioning Trump&#8217;s public campaign donors and he stops using their money for ads that fuel hate?&#8221;
But House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was shot and critically wounded in an attack at a congressional baseball game, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50337/steve-scalise-slams-joaquin-castro-outing-trump-molly-prince">slammed</a> Castro for his actions, tweeting, “People should not be personally targeted for their political views. Period. This isn’t a game. It’s dangerous, and lives are at stake. I know this firsthand.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">If the events of this past weekend taught us anything, it’s that we need to stop seeing our neighbors as political enemies. This kind of dangerous targeting isn’t how we heal our nation.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveScalise/status/1158842581847089154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>

surprise

Joaquin Castro Outed Trump Supporters. One Has A Big Surprise For Him.

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