This article is adapted from today’s Morning Wire Afternoon Update. To listen to the podcast version, click <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/morning-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.
Pence To Comply With J6 Subpoena
Former <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pence-says-he-wont-appeal-ruling-requiring-him-to-testify-to-jan-6-grand-jury" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vice President</a> Mike Pence will comply with a subpoena to testify about the events of January 6th. Daily Wire reporter Brandon Drey joined Afternoon Update with more:
<blockquote>DREY: A spokesman for Pence told Politico that he “will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law.” Last month, a U.S. District Court ruled that Pence must comply with a grand jury subpoena issued by the investigation’s special counsel. Pence initially challenged the subpoena, citing constitutional protections relating to his role as president of the Senate. However, the judge’s ruling still requires Pence to answer questions about any illegal acts by Trump.</blockquote>
Indiana, Idaho Ban Sex-Change Surgeries And Puberty Blockers For Minors
This week, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/indiana-and-idaho-ban-trans-treatments-for-minors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Republican governors</a> in Indiana and Idaho signed bans on sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers for minors. Meanwhile, New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy signed an executive action that makes the Garden State a “<a href="https://twitter.com/TimMeadsUSA/status/1643704758102896642?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">safe-haven</a>” for such procedures.
Idaho Bans Minors Traveling For Abortion Without Parental Consent
Also in Idaho, Republican Governor Brad Little <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/idaho-governor-signs-ban-on-abortion-trafficking#:~:text=BOISE%2C%20Idaho%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94,an%20abortion%20without%20parental%20consent." target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed a law banning individuals</a> from traveling with a minor to another state for an abortion, or helping a minor obtain an abortion-inducing drug, without permission from parents. Violating this law is punishable by up to five years in prison.
RFK, Jr. Runs For President
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-files-to-run-for-president-in-2024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">filed to run for the presidency in 2024 on Wednesday</a> as a Democrat. Kennedy is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator assassinated in 1968 while running for president. RFK, Jr. has earned a reputation as an environmental lawyer and a best-selling author, but in recent years has garnered attention for his stance against vaccines. He is up against best-selling author Marianne Williamson, who declared her candidacy last month, and, presumably, President Joe Biden. 

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French Protestors Storm BlackRock Over Retirement Age
French activists <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/activists-storm-blackrock-headquarters-in-paris-amid-pension-reform-protests" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stormed</a> the Paris offices of financial giant BlackRock on Thursday amid ongoing protests against the nation’s recent pension reforms.
Citizens have been protesting for nearly two weeks after French President Emmanuel Macron overrode a provision in the nation’s constitution to advance a bill through Parliament that raised the retirement age from 62 to 64. Labor unions and other entities have organized nationwide strikes and protests in response to the move — which came amid concerns about the state retirement fund’s looming insolvency. Demonstrators briefly entered the historic Le Centorial building in central Paris and lit firecrackers as they chanted anti-government slogans. The aggressive protests over have led to police using tear gas in their attempts to mitigate more violent demonstrations. The town hall of Bordeaux was set ablaze at the outset of the protests last month.
To listen to the audio version of this podcast, <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/morning-wire/id1576594336" target="_blank" rel="noopener">click here</a>. And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.

Thursday stock photo

Thursday Afternoon Update: Pence To Comply With J6 Subpoena, GOP States Protect Kids, RFK Jr. For President

2024 Election

BlackRock

France

Idaho

Indiana

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The granddaughter of Robert F. Kennedy and her young son are presumed dead after the two took a canoe into the choppy Chesapeake Bay waters to retrieve a soccer ball and got swept away.
The U.S. Coast Guard late Friday suspended the search for Maeve Kennedy Townsend McKean, 40, and McKean’s 8-year-old son, Gideon Joseph Kennedy McKean. Numerous teams had searched for 26 hours, covering more than 3,600 square miles of air, land and sea, authorities said.
&#8220;This was a difficult case, and even more difficult to make the decision to suspend the search,&#8221; Cmdr. Matthew Fine said in a statement. &#8220;Our crews and partners did everything they could to find them. We&#8217;ve kept the family informed at every step during the search, and our thoughts are with them tonight.&#8221;
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The family was at a waterfront home near Annapolis, Maryland, on Thursday. At about 4 p.m., children were kicking a ball back and forth in a yard, and the ball went into the water, McKean’s husband, David McKean, told The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/member-of-kennedy-family-and-her-son-identified-as-missing-boaters-in-chesapeake-bay/2020/04/03/e0cfc9e2-75b4-11ea-a9bd-9f8b593300d0_story.html">Washington Post</a>.
He said his wife and son “popped into a canoe to chase it down. They just got farther out than they could handle and couldn’t get back in,” he told The Post.
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He said the family had been at the Shady Side home of Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, a former lieutenant governor of Maryland.
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Kennedy Townsend described her daughter as a dedicated mother of three and public servant with a “fire emanating from her soul.”
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“My heart is crushed, yet we shall try to summon the grace of God and what strength we have to honor the hope, energy and passion that Maeve and Gideon set forth into the world,” she said in a statement.
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Kennedy Townsend, 68, is the daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel Kennedy.
According to her statement, McKean was executive director of the Georgetown University Global Health Initiative and taught bioethics and human rights there as an adjunct professor.
McKean&#8217;s mother also gave a statement to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/04/03/kennedy-tragedy-maeve-kennedy-townsend-mckean-son-missing-boaters/2941455001/">USA Today</a>.
&#8220;Maeve was vivid,&#8221; Kennedy Townsend said. &#8220;You always knew when she was in a room. Her laughter was loud, unabashed and infectious. She did everything with her full self and her whole heart. She gave the best hugs, sang loudly and out of tune, danced, wrestled, argued, forgave. Maeve shone &#8230; The role she treasured most was mom.&#8221;
McKean&#8217;s husband also posted a statement on <a class="gnt_ar_b_a" href="https://www.facebook.com/mckean.david/posts/10163553754455487" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-t-l="|inline|intext|n/a">Facebook</a> Friday evening.
&#8220;I am writing here to address the countless people who have loved my wife Maeve and my son Gideon. As many of you have seen, they went missing in the Chesapeake Bay yesterday afternoon,&#8221; he wrote.
 &#8220;Despite heroic efforts by the Coast Guard and many state and local authorities, the decision has now been made to suspend the active rescue effort. The search that began yesterday afternoon went on throughout the night and continued all day today. It is now dark again. It has been more than 24 hours, and the chances they have survived are impossibly small. It is clear that Maeve and Gideon have passed away. The search for their recovery will continue, and I hope that that will be successful.&#8221;
David McKean also provided more details about what happened.
&#8220;We were self-quarantining in an empty house owned by Maeve’s mother Kathleen on the Chesapeake Bay, hoping to give our kids more space than we have at home in DC to run around,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;Gideon and Maeve were playing kickball by the small, shallow cove behind the house, and one of them kicked the ball into the water. The cove is protected, with much calmer wind and water than in the greater Chesapeake. They got into a canoe, intending simply to retrieve the ball, and somehow got pushed by wind or tide into the open bay. About 30 minutes later they were spotted by an onlooker from land, who saw them far out from shore, and called the police. After that last sighting, they were not seen again. The Coast Guard recovered their canoe, which was capsized and miles away, at approximately 6:30 yesterday evening.&#8221;
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Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Hosts 2019 Ripple Of Hope Gala & Auction In NYC – Arrivals

RFK Granddaughter, 40, And Son, 8, Presumed Dead After Boating Mishap

Former President Barack Obama has been awarded yet another prize for his commitment to &#8220;peace,&#8221; though this time it&#8217;s not the Nobel, it&#8217;s the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope award, bestowed for Obama&#8217;s &#8220;work toward a more peaceful and just world.&#8221;
<a href="http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/06/barack-obama-rfk-human-rights-award/">The Daily Caller reports</a> that the center announced Obama as the award recipient Monday night, but that no mention was made of Obama&#8217;s long and storied history of drone strikes (one occurred approximately every half hour of his presidency, at least in his second term), or his larger foreign policy narrative.
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We are honored to present <a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BarackObama</a> with our 2018 Ripple of Hope Award. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RFK50?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RFK50</a> <a href="https://t.co/7MEAZ5vwOs">pic.twitter.com/7MEAZ5vwOs</a>
&#8212; RFK Human Rights (@RFKHumanRights) <a href="https://twitter.com/RFKHumanRights/status/1026456623311716354?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
Obama responded by crediting Robert F. Kennedy with inspiring his own political ambitions.
&#8220;Bobby Kennedy was one of my heroes,&#8221; Obama tweeted in response to the announcement. &#8220;He was someone who showed us the power of acting on our ideals, the idea that any of us can be one of the &#8216;million different centers of energy and daring&#8217; that ultimately combine to change the world for the better.&#8221;
The DC notes that Obama has fallen under harsh criticism for human rights violations that occurred under his tenure as president. One report from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism even claims that covert drone strikes killed more than 1,000 civilians during his presidency. His lack of leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan left vacuums of leadership in the Middle East that created desperate situations that may have led to more bloodshed.
Obama will receive the award at a gala later this summer.

Former President Barack Obama Awarded ANOTHER ‘Peace Prize’

Barack Obama

On Friday, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/chappaquiddick-ted-kennedy-distortortion.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&amp;smtyp=cur">The New York Times</a> did its level best to defend the bloated corpse of Senator Teddy Kennedy (D-MA), one of the worst human beings ever to occupy a seat in the Senate, from a recapitulation in film form of the night he left a woman to drown in a shallow river in Chappaquiddick. The new movie Chappaquiddick ably tells the tale of how Teddy drove a car into the river with Mary Jo Kopechne, then somehow escaped the vehicle and went to sleep, only telling the police about the incident the next day &#8212; and how the Kennedy family worked with local authorities to cover up the crime and ensure that Kennedy never served a day in jail.
But in a truly stunning op-ed in The New York Times, Teddy biographer Neil Gabler says that Chappaquiddick is in fact too harsh on Senator Kennedy &#8212; who is depicted in the film as confused and remorseful throughout the situation, and a victim of his family&#8217;s predations as well as his own weakness.
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Ted Kennedy was a real man living out a real life. His political opponents could and did distort that life for their advantage. But just how many liberties can an artist or entertainer take when deploying a biographical subject? <a href="https://t.co/qbhg0IO9jT">https://t.co/qbhg0IO9jT</a>
&#8212; NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/982337917065580545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 6, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Hilariously, Gabler contends that &#8220;no one but the most lunatic conspiracy theorists see this as anything but a tragic accident in which nothing much was covered up.&#8221; Really? A senator known for being drunk off his ass is found to have been in a car with a young woman who is not his pregnant wife in the middle of the night, her dead body ends in a river, he goes home and sleeps it off, and nothing much was covered up? Anyone else would have gone to jail for DUI manslaughter at the slightest.
But according to Gabler, the real victim of Chappaquiddick is Kennedy:
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Ted Kennedy has not passed into the public domain in this sense, so one tampers with his life at the peril of turning it into tawdry melodrama. This is especially true of the Kennedy family, who remain politically active, and divisive.
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Ted Kennedy isn&#8217;t in the public domain? He was in the public domain in all senses. And he was a garbage human being, even if the Left liked his politics. But according to Gabler, &#8220;Mr. Kennedy immediately and forever after felt deep remorse and responsibility for the accident; it haunted him.&#8221;
In reality, Kennedy was so haunted that he would go on to create &#8220;waitress sandwiches&#8221; with fellow Senator Chris Dodd (D-DE), as <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/kennedy-ted-senator-profile?printable=true">Michael Kelly reported</a>:
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As Gaviglio enters the room, the six-foot-two, 225-plus-pound Kennedy grabs the five-foot-three, 103-pound waitress and throws her on the table. She lands on her back, scattering crystal, plates and cutlery and the lit candles. Several glasses and a crystal candlestick are broken. Kennedy then picks her up from the table and throws her on Dodd, who is sprawled in a chair. With Gaviglio on Dodd&#8217;s lap, Kennedy jumps on top and begins rubbing his genital area against hers, supporting his weight on the arms of the chair. As he is doing this, Loh enters the room. She and Gaviglio both scream, drawing one or two dishwashers. Startled, Kennedy leaps up. He laughs. Bruised, shaken and angry over what she considered a sexual assault, Gaviglio runs from the room.
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Yes, clearly Kennedy learned his lesson.
But according to Gabler, Chappaquiddick is a smear job &#8212; despite the fact that the movie doesn&#8217;t imply that Kennedy was even drunk (which he likely was) or that he was having an affair with Kopechne (which he may have been). Gabler&#8217;s real complaint is that people may begin to see Kennedy for the monstrous human being he was, even if you agreed with his politics:
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Fake history is no better than fake news; it&#8217;s maybe worse. It is very possible that over time, through the osmosis of social media, the despicable Kennedy of this movie will eradicate the honorable if flawed real one.
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The New York Times should know fake news when it sees it. And it&#8217;s fake news to suggest that Chappaquiddick was an innocent incident, that Teddy Kennedy was a responsible human being, and that retelling the story of Mary Jo Kopechne 50 years after the fact is some sort of blot on Kennedy&#8217;s stellar reputation.

NYT Prints Op-Ed Defending Teddy Kennedy For Leaving A Woman To Drown, Calls ‘Chappaquiddick’ Film ‘Fake History’

New York Times

Ted Kennedy biographer Neal Gabler, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/06/opinion/chappaquiddick-ted-kennedy-distortortion.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&amp;smtyp=cur">whining</a> in The New York Times on Friday, accused Chappaquiddick of &#8220;outright character assassination.&#8221; He insinuates that the critically-acclaimed film dishonestly portrays the night Kennedy killed a young campaign secretary by drunkenly driving her off a bridge and leaving her to drown, but Gabler fails to point to any historical inconsistencies other than the amount Bruce Dern&#8217;s Joseph Kennedy Sr. should have slurred his speech. The charge rings hollow, as Ted Kennedy&#8217;s character committed suicide long ago, no assassination necessary.
Everything about Chappaquiddick &#8212; writing, acting, directing, casting, etc. &#8212; is quite good. Most importantly, the film accurately depicts the events that took place the night of July 18, 1969. Ted Kennedy, then the senior senator from Massachusetts, invited a group of six single, female campaign secretaries to join him and five married, male friends for a party at a cottage on Chappaquiddick Island near Martha&#8217;s Vineyard. At 11:15 p.m., Kennedy drunkenly took Mary Jo Kopochne, who left her purse and hotel key at the cottage, for a late night drive in his mother&#8217;s car. He drove off the bridge, swam to safety, and left Kopechne to drown. Kennedy then walked past four houses without alerting any neighbors to the accident, returned to the cottage, told his cousin and friend what had happened, and eventually returned to his hotel room in Edgartown. Throughout the night and early next morning, Kennedy attempted to establish an alibi and made several phone calls to friends for advice on how best to cover it all up. He lied in official testimony, temporarily donned an obviously unnecessary neck brace, and played the victim. At no point before police discovered the submerged car and Kopechne&#8217;s body did Kennedy report the crash to authorities.
Since that hazy night, Ted&#8217;s co-partisans have likewise attempted to cast him as the victim in the whole affair: the persevering public servant who overcame tragedy to emerge as the &#8220;Lion of the Senate.&#8221; When Kennedy died in 2009, accolades poured in from Democrats and the mainstream media &#8212; but I repeat myself &#8212; almost all of which lauded the &#8220;the Lion of the Senate.&#8221; Now at last the popular culture honestly depicts Ted Kennedy as the womanizing, man-slaughtering, duplicitous, lying, cheating, cowardly drunk that he was.
So why now? It certainly is not because some crypto-conservatives have managed to sneak one by Hollywood&#8217;s left-wing gatekeepers. Virtually everyone involved in the film appears to lean politically to the left, from star <a href="http://deadline.com/2018/03/chappaquiddick-jason-clarke-senator-ted-kennedy-scandal-movie-1202355677/">Jason Clarke</a> to director <a href="http://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/chappaquiddick-movie-ted-kennedy-jason-clarke-byron-allen-right-wing-press-1201949529/">John Curran</a>, who responded to an interview request from Fox News&#8217; Sean Hannity with a curt, &#8220;No f***in&#8217; way. I&#8217;m not embracing the Right.&#8221; Even the notoriously left-leaning critics <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chappaquiddick/">like it</a>. No, Chappaquiddick got made, not because Hollywood has embraced the Right, but because Democrats have embraced the Left. The Democrat Party still excuses all sorts of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dY77j6uBHI">evil</a><a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/dec/12/lie-year-if-you-like-your-health-care-plan-keep-it/">doers</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/03/11/elizabeth-warren-rejects-dna-test-to-settle-native-american-heritage-claim/">ne&#8217;er-do-wells</a>, but &#8220;<a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/chappaquiddick-tells-an-eerily-modern-story-in-the-age-of-metoo/">time&#8217;s up</a>&#8221; at least for the degenerate, straight, white men in its ranks. Intersectional hyenas are devouring their own &#8212; even their lions of the Senate. Conservatives should grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.

REVIEW: In ‘Chappaquiddick’, Ted Kennedy Finally Depicted As The Degenerate He Was

Democratic Party

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Ted Kennedy

One measure of how old we&#8217;re getting is realizing how many voters today have no familiarity with the Chappaquiddick scandal. In July of 1969, then-Sen. Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge into a pond with a young woman in the passenger seat and left the scene of the accident alone. Kennedy waited 10 hours to report it, and Mary Jo Kopechne died.
This is one compelling reason why many older voters thought liberals sounded preposterous when they suggested Donald Trump&#8217;s presidential campaign should be canceled over the &#8220;Access Hollywood&#8221; tape of him boasting of grabbing women in the crotch. Kennedy had a woman&#8217;s death on his resume, and it never stopped the left from boosting him as the finest presidential timber.
How far has the manipulative Kennedy dynasty fallen? Somehow, the movie &#8220;Chappaquiddick&#8221; was made with well-known actors and distributed to movie theaters. Seven years ago, pressure caused the History Channel to deep-six a dramatic Kennedy miniseries (it ended up on the obscure cable channel Reelz).
This movie is drawing favorable reviews from the movie critics. That&#8217;s in part because they recognize the filmmakers didn&#8217;t make a hard-edged cartoon &#8212; like, for example, the way Oliver Stone smeared then-President George W. Bush in 2008. From the first moments, the Ted Kennedy in this film is haunted by his older brothers, who were inflated into political giants, and spurned as a loser by his nearly mute father, who suffered a stroke in 1961.
Staying close to the historical record is brutal enough. Kennedy left the scene of a fatal accident, failed to report it for hours, lied to investigators and the public about how and when it happened, and then expected that everyone would accept what he had done and re-elect him. The film notes at the end he was re-elected overwhelmingly and became known (to some) as the &#8220;Lion of the Senate.&#8221;
It also shows how the Kennedy political machine arrived to manipulate the press, and even the Kopechne family. There was no autopsy. This was pitched as another Kennedy tragedy, and the national media eagerly xeroxed the narrative.
One of the things that the moviemakers get wrong is the idea that the press were hostile. The only named reporter in the movie was James Reston of The New York Times, who the script suggests was skeptical of Kennedy&#8217;s claim of having suffered a concussion. In real life, Reston was, in the words of media critic Jack Shafer, one of those who &#8220;attended to the family&#8217;s legend like priests on retainer.&#8221;
Reston&#8217;s first draft on Chappaquiddick began, &#8220;Tragedy has again struck the Kennedy family.&#8221; Mention of the actual victim was submerged in paragraph four. Luckily, the Times advised Reston to edit it and mention the actual victim in the lede. After Kennedy spoke to the nation with his dishonest narrative about what happened, Reston oozed again that he was a &#8220;tragic &#8216;profile in courage.'&#8221;
For the rest of Sen. Kennedy&#8217;s life, the media treated Chappaquiddick as an extremely distasteful subject only conspiracy-obsessed right-wingers thought was important. Whenever the scandal surfaced, journalists turned it into a story of &#8220;redemption.&#8221;
That&#8217;s still happening. Former Boston Globe reporter Peter Canellos, now executive editor of Politico Magazine, did a write-up on the movie and oozed that it &#8220;marked the start of one of the most remarkable revivals in American politics, as Kennedy settled down to the hard work of legislating and, almost as penance, went on to amass the most impressive list of accomplishments in Senate history.&#8221;
As long as a politician can pass &#8220;landmark&#8221; liberal bills, his personal scandals are washed away by liberal journalists. And they call themselves idealists.
L. Brent Bozell III is the president of the Media Research Center. Tim Graham is director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and executive editor of the blog NewsBusters.org. To find out more about Brent Bozell III and Tim Graham, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

BOZELL: A Brutal Revisitation Of Chappaquiddick

The Democratic Party, in its infinite wisdom, had what they thought was a truly great idea for a backdrop for Massachusetts representative Joe Kennedy&#8217;s rebuttal to President Trump&#8217;s State of the Union speech on Tuesday night: an old car with its hood propped up.
There were those who thought the allusions that might be drawn from using such a backdrop for a member of the Kennedy family might not have been a good idea:
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Bravo to the Dem advance staffer who decided to put a Kennedy in front of a car wreck on national TV.
&#8212; Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) <a href="https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/958550325065146369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Don&#8217;t say &#8220;Kennedy&#8221; and &#8220;car wreck&#8221; in the same sentence.
&#8212; Chris11962 (@Chris11962) <a href="https://twitter.com/Chris11962/status/958554941676769280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://t.co/vv3UC8Bn5R">pic.twitter.com/vv3UC8Bn5R</a>
&#8212; Karen Schriefer (@karensfirmitup) <a href="https://twitter.com/karensfirmitup/status/958562084396064768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Maybe the same one who thought it was a good idea for Ted Kennedy to ask questions during a Senate hearing on water boarding
&#8212; Claire Mahoney (@TaggertGirl) <a href="https://twitter.com/TaggertGirl/status/958554870738571264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Their original idea was for him to speak at a golf course in front of a water hazard.
&#8212; Daniel De Mato (@DanielDeMato) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielDeMato/status/958554999184855042?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 31, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As one Kennedy once said, &#8220;Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.&#8221;
Video of Kennedy below:
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Democrats’ Backdrop For Joe Kennedy’s Rebuttal Goes Over The Edge

Donald Trump

The supposed party of diversity has tapped the most privileged, most established, most disconnected from anything minority or working class person, to give the rebuttal to President Trump&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; address: a Kennedy.
I could be wrong, but if the Democrats want to run on the ticket of &#8220;Trump is a racist&#8221; in 2020, it seems rather boneheaded to pick a member of the most elite, aristocratic families this side of Rockefeller to represent your movement.
According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/25/state-union-2018-joe-kennedy-response-370845">Politico</a>, &#8220;Rep. Joe Kennedy, a rising star in the Democratic Party, will deliver the Democratic response to President Donald Trump&#8217;s State of the Union on Tuesday.&#8221;
As the grandson of Bobby Kennedy, the representative from Massachusetts quickly shot to national stardom during the 2016 presidential election when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention. He will likely follow in the footsteps of his elders by serving in the Senate, because political dynasties are all the rage in America these days.
&#8220;While President Trump has consistently broken his promises to the middle class, Congressman Kennedy profoundly understands the challenges facing hardworking men and women across the country,&#8221; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a statement.
The 37-year-old congressman has most notably criticized Republicans for attempting to repeal and replace Obamacare.
One video of Kennedy that had over 10 million views on Facebook, featured him criticizing House Speaker Paul Ryan for pushing to dismantle Obamacare.
Delivering the Spanish-language response will be Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, a Peruvian immigrant.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that Kennedy will help contribute to the Democratic message that benefits middle-class Americans, completely unaware that Joseph Kennedy represents the exact opposite.
&#8220;In their responses to the President&#8217;s address, Congressman Kennedy and Virginia Delegate Guzman will both do an excellent job in making clear that Democrats are laser-focused on enacting policies to benefit middle-class Americans, not special interests or the wealthiest,&#8221; Schumer said in a statement.
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So Much Diversity: Democrats Pick A Kennedy For ‘State of the Union’ Rebuttal

President Trump didn&#8217;t bother with the Kennedy Center Honors this year.
Apparently, neither did viewers.
&#8220;CBS&#8217; broadcast of Kennedy Center Honors clocked its lowest ratings result in people-meter history, dating back to 1987. The Tuesday 9-11 PM broadcast fumbled 28% of last year&#8217;s 8.620 million total viewers, to 6.169 million,&#8221; Deadline reported. &#8220;The demo dive: 30% from last year&#8217;s 1.0 rating to 0.7. The 2006 telecast ran on the same Tuesday, December 27, though the extra day between the broadcast and Christmas might have benefited last year&#8217;s broadcast by separating it further from holiday distractions and travel.&#8221;
In recent years, the U.S. president has attended the Kennedy Center Honors, which is pre-recorded and broadcast around Christmastime. Trump announced early on that he would skip the December 3 awards ceremony &#8212; and bail on the normal White House reception for recipients, as well.
&#8220;The President and First Lady have decided not to participate in this year&#8217;s activities to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction,&#8221; an August statement from the White House read.
The White House decision came after some honorees said they would boycott the White House reception. &#8220;In light of the socially divisive and morally caustic narrative that our existing leadership is choosing to engage in, and in keeping with the principles that I and so many others have fought for, I will be declining the invitation to attend the reception at the White House,&#8221; dancer and choreographer Carmen de Lavallade said.
But Trump beat them to the punch. You don&#8217;t want to come? You&#8217;re not invited, anyway.
The Kennedy Center ceremony has become increasingly politicized over the years, with inductees taking the opportunity to do what they do best &#8212; offer their unsolicited opinions on things they know nothing about. During George W. Bush&#8217;s tenure, honoree Paul McCartney skipped the event, rescheduling his award when Barack Obama was president.
This year&#8217;s event honored de Lavallade, singers Gloria Estefan and Lionel Richie, rapper LL Cool J and TV writer/producer Norman Lear &#8212; who also said he wouldn&#8217;t attend a White House reception.
But the absence of Trump didn&#8217;t keep the honorees from dissing him. &#8220;I&#8217;m thankful he chose not to come,&#8221; Estefan said on the red carpet. &#8220;All it does is overshadow the accomplishments of people who spent a lifetime trying to do something.&#8221;
Still, TV experts were expecting the show to pull some big numbers.
&#8220;The broadcast should have been a ratings humdinger, marking, as it did, the ceremony&#8217;s 40th anniversary and John F. Kennedy&#8217;s 100th birthday. But, for the first time in two decades, the President of the United States did not attend the ceremony, saying he and the First Lady were giving it a miss &#8216;to allow the honorees to celebrate without any political distraction&#8217; &#8211; which, loosely translated, means Donald Trump is not in perfect harmony with the arts community,&#8221; Deadilne wrote.
&#8220;Too bad, because JFK&#8217;s daughter Caroline Kennedy gave maybe her zippiest-ever KenCen opening speech, talking about her father&#8217;s commitment to &#8216;the rule of law, to religious tolerance and racial justice, to nuclear disarmament and scientific innovation.'&#8221;
Ugh. Now we see why Trump skipped the affair.

Trump Skipped Kennedy Center Honors — So Did TV Viewers

Businesswoman and author Callista Gingrich continues her Ellis The Elephant series of children&#8217;s books in this whimsical story Remember The Ladies which highlights several First Ladies throughout American history. It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon and available in bookstores October 10. 
Similar to previous books in the series, Ellis travels through history where he learns about the wives of several presidents, including Martha Washington, Dolley Madison, Mary Todd Lincoln, Jackie Kennedy, Laura Bush, and several others. Ellis learns how each First Lady played a pivotal role in their husband&#8217;s administration. For instance, Ellis witnesses Nancy Reagan&#8217;s &#8220;Just Say No&#8221; anti-drug campaign. 
The author does a great job of taking Ellis on a rhyming adventure through history starting with Washington and ending with Michelle Obama. It has some interesting historical facts, but it does not get so deep that a child would not understand what the story is saying. It is engaging and non-partisan, focusing on the accomplishments of each First Lady. 
It is well illustrated by Susan Arciero who has drawn the artwork for previous Ellis the Elephant books and does a great job bringing the story to life. 
Callista Gingrich is the author of previous Ellis the Elephant books including Sweet Land of Liberty, Land of the Pilgrims&#8217; Pride, Yankee Doodle Dandy, From Sea to Shining Sea, Christmas in America, and Hail to the Chief. She also co-wrote Rediscovering God in America and Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny with her husband, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
She is currently President Trump&#8217;s nominee to serve as United States Ambassador to the Holy See in Vatican City.

Book Review: Remember The Ladies By Callista Gingrich

Abraham Lincoln

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Laura Bush

Michelle Obama

Nancy Reagan

Newt Gingrich

Ronald Reagan

The Vatican

Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination. Since then, innumerable conspiracy theories have propped up attempting to explain the Democratic president&#8217;s untimely death. Everyone from the Russians to the CIA have been implicated in the Kennedy assassination, despite the US government&#8217;s comprehensive inquiry dispelling the vast array of conspiracy theories.
Still, many Americans are skeptical about the government&#8217;s official account, sensing that something else was amiss on that sunny day in Dallas. Here are 7 things you need to know about the JFK assassination.
1. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald as the presidential motorcade passed by the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas.
2. According to the Warren Commission report commissioned shortly after Kennedy&#8217;s death, Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy. According to the report, Oswald was not involved in a conspiracy. Jack Ruby, Oswald&#8217;s killer, the commission determined, also acted alone.
3. But another report, spearheaded by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_on_Assassinations">United States House Select Committee on Assassinations</a> (HSCA) challenged the Warren Commission&#8217;s findings, concluding in 1979 that Kennedy was &#8220;probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy.&#8221; 
The HSCA also believed that there was &#8220;a high probability that two gunmen fired at [the] President&#8221; based on acoustic analysis. Oswald fired the first three rifle shots, but another shooter may have fired more gunshots. Most damning of all, the HSCA determined that the federal investigation into the assassination was &#8220;seriously flawed&#8221; to the point where a cover-up or conspiracy at the highest levels of government was possible
4. The HSCA recommended that the acoustic data undergo further analysis. That analysis failed to substantiate the conclusion that there was a second shooter. 
&#8220;Reliable acoustic data do not support a conclusion that there was a second gunman&#8221; notes an investigative report. As a result, the Justice Department closed the book on the investigation, concluding &#8220;that no persuasive evidence can be identified to support the theory of a conspiracy in &#8230; the assassination of President Kennedy.&#8221;
5. Conspiracies swirling around the Kennedy assassination have captivated the American public, leading to the publication of over 1,000 books about the topic. 
The vast majority of these books are critical of the Warren Commission&#8217;s findings and espouse claims about conspiratorial plots. Referred to as the &#8220;mother of all conspiracy theories,&#8221; the Kennedy assassination continues to enthrall the public imagination with over half of all Americans believing that a conspiracy is likely.
6. The most popular conspiracy theory is the &#8220;Second Shooter on the Grassy Knoll&#8221; claim, which argues that President Kennedy was shot from multiple angles.
Citing allegations of evidence tampering, procedural abnormalities when conducting the autopsy on Kennedy&#8217;s body, and the existence of blurry photographs supposedly identifying the shooters, these conspiracy theorists believe the head shot that ultimately led to Kennedy&#8217;s death was fired from a shooter on the grassy knoll. Oswald, these conspiracy theorists argue, fired non-fatal shots.
7. Ted Cruz&#8217;s father was not involved in the Kennedy assassination. Sorry, Donald Trump.

7 Things You Need to Know About the JFK Assassination

Ted Cruz

How did the famed Kennedy family celebrate July 4th?
By partying at the family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, and putting up a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3673642/Kennedy-family-BASHES-Trump-Fourth-July-weekend-pinata-Donald-Cape-Cod-compound.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailus">Donald Trump piñata</a>.
The colorful piñata showed Trump in a blue suit; delighted with the idea of sharing the fun, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.&#8217;s daughter Kathleen &#8220;Kick&#8221; Kennedy posted a photo of the piñata, captioning it, &#8220;It&#8217;s yuge party!&#8221;

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The Kennedy family had a piñata of Donald Trump at their Fourth of July weekend party <a href="https://t.co/0AlkFmZaHN">https://t.co/0AlkFmZaHN</a>
&#8212; Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyMail/status/749993190904696833">July 4, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Garnering &#8220;likes&#8221; from celebrity luminaries such as actress Glenn Close, Hardball host Chris Matthews&#8217; son Thomas, E! reality star Jessica Joffe, singer Santigold and publishing heiress Anne Hearst, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg&#8217;s daughter Georgina, Kennedy later deleted the Instagram post.
Jamie Johnson, who produced and directed the 2003 documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o46HH-TfNY">Born Rich</a>, which featured Trump&#8217;s daughter Ivanka, also liked the post. 
The Kennedy family has almost universally backed Hillary Clinton; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. supported her in 2008 when she ran against Barack Obama; Robert Jr.&#8217;s brother Joseph II, and Joseph&#8217;s son Joseph P. Kennedy III, both of whom have served in the House, have publicly endorsed Clinton; Kathleen Hartington Kennedy Townsend, former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, is supporting Clinton. One notable exception is Caroline Kennedy, who has not made a public statement; she supported Barack Obama in 2008.
After Trump entered the presidential race last year, his comments about Mexicans triggered an artist to <a href="pi%C3%B1ata">create a piñata</a> which became quite popular. The artist, Dalton Ávalos Ramírez, also has <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-man-behind-the-trump-pinata">created piñatas</a> of Ted Cruz, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus, the Dutch footballer Arjen Robben, the drug kingpin El Chapo Guzman and Enrique Peña Nieto, the president of Mexico.

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