President Donald Trump gave thanks to his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, on Monday night for leaving so many federal judicial vacancies when he left the White House after his term expired.
&#8220;Well, thank you, Mr. President, for making America great again,&#8221; Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) said during a rally in Lexington, Kentucky. &#8221; &#8230; and working together we are changing the federal courts forever.&#8221;
&#8220;Nobody has done more to change the court system in the history of our country than Donald Trump,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And Mr. President, we are going to keep on doing it &#8212; my motto is leave no vacancy behind.&#8221;
Trump, who was hosting a rally in the Blue Grass state in preparation for tomorrow&#8217;s gubernatorial election, was joined by McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). McConnell is widely credited with holding the seat for Justice Neil Gorsuch, Trump&#8217;s first nomination to the Supreme Court. He also was instrumental in pushing through Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh&#8217;s confirmation despite wildly contentious hearings with the Senate Judiciary Committee.
&#8220;So, President Obama left Mitch, and me, and Rand, and all of us, he left 142 openings for judges,&#8221; Trump told the crowd. &#8220;You&#8217;re not supposed to allow any, you don&#8217;t do that. You know, they say the most important thing that a president can do is federal judges, including the Supreme Court, obviously.&#8221;
&#8220;And I came in and I said &#8216;how many do we have?&#8217; And they said &#8216;how many what, sir?&#8217; I said &#8216;judge openings.&#8217; And I thought they would say none, or one, or two. They said &#8216;Sir, we have 142.&#8217; I said &#8216;what?&#8217; I said &#8216;tell me again.&#8217; They said 142,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So Mitch, and I, and Rand would like to thank very much President Obama because nobody has ever been so generous in their life.&#8221;
The Senate has confirmed more than 150 of the president&#8217;s judicial nominees since he was sworn into office.  Trump has often touted the record number of conservative judges that he has been able to successfully confirm to the bench, which many consider to be his greatest accomplishment and will ultimately be his legacy. However, he has also expressed frustration with the slow-moving confirmation process, accusing Democrats of stonewalling his executive and judicial nominees alike.
The president has facetiously expressed gratitude to Obama in the past for failing to fill all the federal judicial occupancies that remained during his administration. When Trump first took office, there were more than 100 lifetime appointee vacancies in the lower court, including 17 in the United States Court of Appeals. While the Supreme Court reviews approximately 75 cases per year, the Court of Appeals hears tens of thousands, for which they are the last word.
&#8220;They are the ones that judge all of your disputes,&#8221; Trump said of the lower courts in March 2018. &#8220;They judge what is fair on the environment and what is not.&#8221;
&#8220;I don&#8217;t know why Obama left that,&#8221; he added, referring to the vacancies. &#8220;It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us.&#8221;

President Trump Holds Rally In Tupelo, Mississippi

President Trump Gives Thanks To Obama For Leaving So Many Judicial Vacancies

Barack Obama

Donald Trump

Mitch McConnell

The war between President Trump and the House Democrats continues to escalate, as Democrat-led House committees issue subpoenas related to the impeachment inquiry, while the White House refuses to cooperate, and Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi trade barbs both publicly and behind closed doors.
On Wednesday, Democrats walked out of a closed-door meeting with Trump about Syria after the president allegedly called Pelosi either a &#8220;third-rate politician&#8221; or a &#8220;third grade politician&#8221; — like everything else, the exact phrasing of his alleged put-down is in dispute. In response, Trump took to Twitter to troll his political opponents, mocking Pelosi&#8217;s &#8220;total meltdown&#8221; while sounding the alarm about her mental health and blasting the Democrats&#8217; &#8220;witch hunt&#8221; impeachment efforts.
&#8220;What we witnessed on the part of the president was a meltdown, sad to say,&#8221; Pelosi told reporters in a joint press conference with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer after the mess of a meeting on Wednesday.
The president, the Democrats claim, insulted &#8220;third-rate&#8221;/&#8221;third grade&#8221; Pelosi and suggested that they &#8220;probably appreciated communist Islamic State terrorists in the Middle East,&#8221; <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pelosi-dems-trump-syria-white-house-meeting-storm-out">Fox News</a> reports.
&#8220;I pray for the president all the time, and I tell him that — I pray for his safety and that of his family,&#8221; Pelosi said later Wednesday. &#8220;Now, we have to pray for his health — because this was a very serious meltdown on the part of the president.&#8221;
But Trump says the only one who truly had a meltdown was Pelosi, and her mental health is what should really concern Americans.
&#8220;Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged meltdown!&#8221; Trump tweeted along with an image of Pelosi standing up during the meeting in apparent protest of his comments (tweets below).
&#8220;The Do Nothing Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer stormed out of the Cabinet Room!&#8221; he tweeted, this time with a photo of the Democrats&#8217; now-empty seats.
Prior to the &#8220;Nervous Nancy&#8221; tweet, Trump posted another photo of Pelosi and her fellow grim-faced Democratic leaders at the meeting, trollingly asking, &#8220;Do you think they like me?&#8221;
&#8220;Nancy Pelosi needs help fast!&#8221; Trump tweeted later, in an echo of her condescending comments about his mental health. &#8220;There is either something wrong with her &#8216;upstairs,&#8217; or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!&#8221;
Trump, who&#8217;s been even more busy on Twitter than normal, has been repeatedly tweeting and retweeting on the impeachment inquiry.
One of his particular targets is House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), whom he&#8217;s calling on House Republicans and any &#8220;honest House Democrats&#8221; to &#8220;vote to censure for &#8220;his brazen and unlawful act of fabricating (making up) a totally phony conversation with the Ukraine President and U.S. President, me.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-schiff-pressured-witness-to-say-trump-pressured-ukraine-to-investigate-biden-report-says">Schiff Pressured Witness To Say Trump Pressured Ukraine To Investigate Biden, Report Says</a>
Trump has also retweeted posts by other Republicans, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, who warned that Democrats are &#8220;trying to impeach [President Trump] behind closed doors &#8230; excluding the public, the press, and even Members of Congress from this process.&#8221;
Trump has also highlighted tweets by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell condemning the Democrats for how they are handling the inquiry.
&#8220;Already, House Democrats’ impeachment &#8216;inquiry&#8217; is violating norms and precedent,&#8221; McConnell wrote in a post retweeted by Trump. &#8220;They are denying Republicans and President Trump the same rights that Democrats and President Clinton received during those impeachment proceedings.&#8221;
Some of Trump&#8217;s many impeachment-themed tweets below:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nancy Pelosi needs help fast! There is either something wrong with her “upstairs,” or she just plain doesn’t like our great Country. She had a total meltdown in the White House today. It was very sad to watch. Pray for her, she is a very sick person!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184620202480193537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Republicans are totally deprived of their rights in this Impeachment Witch Hunt. No lawyers, no questions, no transparency! The good news is that the Radical Left Dems have No Case. It is all based on their Fraud and Fabrication!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184435422346305537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> was measured &amp; decisive today. <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerPelosi</a> walking out was baffling but not surprising w NO intention of participating in a mtg on nat’l security. Dem “leadership” chose to storm out &amp; whine to cameras, everyone else stayed to work on behalf of our country.
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) <a href="https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1184590572654354432?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Do you think they like me? <a href="https://t.co/TDmUnJ8HtF">pic.twitter.com/TDmUnJ8HtF</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184595335794036737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Nervous Nancy&#8217;s unhinged meltdown! <a href="https://t.co/RDeUI7sfe7">pic.twitter.com/RDeUI7sfe7</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184597281808498688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
The Do Nothing Democrats, Pelosi and Schumer stormed out of the Cabinet Room! <a href="https://t.co/hmP4FNhemv">pic.twitter.com/hmP4FNhemv</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184600576245583873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Hope all House Republicans, and honest House Democrats, will vote to CENSURE Rep. Adam Schiff tomorrow for his brazen and unlawful act of fabricating (making up) a totally phony conversation with the Ukraine President and U.S. President, me. Most have never seen such a thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1184638812150009858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
People all across the country should be alarmed.
Pelosi and Schiff are trying to impeach <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> behind closed doors. They&#8217;re excluding the public, the press, and even Members of Congress from this process.
What are they trying to hide? <a href="https://t.co/dCp2yaecj1">pic.twitter.com/dCp2yaecj1</a>
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveScalise/status/1184543333835792384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Already, House Democrats’ impeachment “inquiry” is violating norms and precedent. They are denying Republicans and President Trump the same rights that Democrats and President Clinton received during those impeachment proceedings.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1184497593516285956?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Washington Democrats have been engaged in a three-year-long impeachment parade in search of a rationale. Prominent House Democrats were promising impeachment at the very beginning of this presidency. Fairness and due process are not their objectives here.
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1184497591679107072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;

Trump Sounds Alarm: Pelosi Needs Help!

Adam Schiff

Impeachment

Nancy Pelosi

Steve Scalise

With the Democrat-controlled House charging full steam ahead toward the impeachment of President Trump, many have begun to look ahead to the potential response by the Republican-majority Senate and how &#8220;<a href="https://www.apnews.com/da3f87e9c5da4e12b4022b0bd84f59ec">Cocaine Mitch</a>&#8221; McConnell might handle the politically precarious situation. Will McConnell simply change the rules and refuse to take up impeachment, or will he stick with precedent established over three decades ago and oversee the &#8220;rapid disposition&#8221; of an impeachment trial?
In an interview on Monday, McConnell squelched any speculation of attempts to sidestep impeachment by making clear that he would &#8220;have no choice&#8221; but to initiate the trial. The majority leader, however, also suggested that the trial might not give the media much time to hype it up.
&#8220;I would have no choice but to take it up,&#8221; McConnell <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-says-if-house-impeaches-trump-senate-rules-would-force-him-to-start-a-trial/2019/09/30/4d58c2d6-e3b5-11e9-b7da-053c79b03db8_story.html">told</a> the press on Monday. &#8220;How long you&#8217;re on it is a whole different matter, but I would have no choice but to take it up, based on a Senate rule on impeachment.&#8221;
&#8220;The Senate impeachment rules are very clear,&#8221; the Kentucky senator added. &#8220;The Senate would have to take up an impeachment resolution if it came over from the House.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Some Democrats have speculated that <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@senatemajldr</a> Mitch McConnell would not hold a Senate trial if Trump were impeached by the House.
But McConnell told <a href="https://twitter.com/NPREmbedded?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NPREmbedded</a> &#8211; definitively and on the record &#8211; that if the House impeached, the Senate *would* hold a trial.
🔊LISTEN: <a href="https://t.co/kOD1PRUqoK">pic.twitter.com/kOD1PRUqoK</a>
— Tom Dreisbach (@TomDreisbach) <a href="https://twitter.com/TomDreisbach/status/1177622099675860992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 27, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That Senate rules also require a two-thirds majority vote in support of impeachment. In other words, 67 Senators would need to vote in favor of impeaching the president for it to pass.
After gaining more ground in the 2018 midterm elections, Republicans now hold 53 seats in the Senate while Democrats hold just 45, with two Independents often aligning with the Democrats. That means a total of 20 Republicans would have to vote in favor of impeachment for it to go through.
In its coverage of McConnell&#8217;s comments, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-says-if-house-impeaches-trump-senate-rules-would-force-him-to-start-a-trial/2019/09/30/4d58c2d6-e3b5-11e9-b7da-053c79b03db8_story.html">The Washington Post</a> notes that &#8220;the two previous presidential impeachment trials — of Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1999 — were led by a Republican-controlled Senate with a Democrat in the White House.&#8221; As a senior Republican official told the outlet, &#8220;This is uncharted territory.&#8221;
The precedent McConnell assured the public that he intends to keep should the House impeach Trump was spelled out in a 1986 memorandum sent by the Senate Parliamentarian to the Secretary of the Majority.
&#8220;[B]oth the rules and the precedents argue for a rapid disposition of any impeachment trial in the United States Senate,&#8221; wrote Parliamentarian Robert Dove in the 1986 memo, as reported by <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-28/senate-has-no-way-to-sidestep-an-impeachment-enquiry-aide-says">Bloomberg</a>. The House &#8220;must immediately be informed that the Senate is ready to receive the managers &#8216;whensoever the Senate shall receive notice&#8217; of an impeachment,&#8221; wrote Dove.
On Monday, House Democrats took one of its more significant steps yet in its impeachment effort, subpoenaing Trump&#8217;s personal lawyer, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
&#8220;The Committees are investigating the extent to which President Trump jeopardized national security by pressing Ukraine to interfere with our 2020 election and by withholding security assistance provided by Congress to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression, as well as any efforts to cover up these matters,&#8221; the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/read-it-house-subpoenas-rudy-giuliani-heres-the-letter">letter</a> sent by the Democrat-led House Intelligence Committee reads.
<div class="advertisment">
<div class="connatix">&#8220;Our inquiry includes an investigation of credible allegations that you acted as an agent of the President in a scheme to advance his personal political interests by abusing the power of the Office of the President,&#8221; it continues. &#8220;A growing public record, including your own statements, indicate that the President, you, and others appear to have pressed the Ukrainian government to pursue two politically-motivated investigations. The first is a prosecution of Ukrainians who provided evidence against Mr. Trump’s convicted campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The second relates to former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who is challenging President Trump for the presidency in 2020.&#8221;</div>
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Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-media-started-pushing-trumps-impeachment-within-days-of-his-election">WATCH: Media Started Pushing Trump’s Impeachment Within Days Of His Election</a>

McConnell: Yes, We’d Have To Take Up Impeachment

A progressive super PAC took a shot at Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by creating a browser extension for Google Chrome, which will automatically replace the words &#8220;Mitch McConnell&#8221; with &#8220;Moscow Mitch.&#8221;
American Bridge 21st Century launched the browser extension with the goal to &#8220;help expose&#8221; the Republican leader as &#8220;a puppet for the Russian government&#8221; over his initial refusal to pass legislation funding states&#8217; efforts to ramp up election security.
&#8220;Moscow Mitch McConnell continues to put our country at risk to foreign meddling by blocking critical legislation to improve the security and integrity of our elections,&#8221; Zach Hudson, the communications director for American Bridge 21st Century, told <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/462364-liberal-ssuuper-pac-launches-browser-extension-replacing-mitch-mcconnell">The Hill</a> on Friday.
&#8220;While we know this nickname hurts Mitch McConnell&#8217;s feelings, the American people deserve to see McConnell for who he really is: a stooge doing [Russian President] Vladmir Putin&#8217;s dirty work,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;This extension will help do that.&#8221;
American Bridge 21st Century was formed in a partnership with Media Matters for America in 2010 as an opposition research outlet for the Democratic Party. The group compiles data on Republicans by monitoring and tracking &#8220;every handshake, every utterance by Republican candidates … looking for gotcha moments that could retail political ambitions or provide fodder for television advertisements by liberal groups,&#8221; according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/us/politics/09trackers.html?_r=0">The New York Times</a>.
Democratic lawmakers and members of the left-wing media dubbed McConnell as &#8220;Moscow Mitch&#8221; over his unwillingness to bring the election security legislation to the floor for a vote, claiming that he was supporting Russia&#8217;s interference in American elections.
Stand Up America, a left-wing organization founded to resist President Donald Trump&#8217;s conservative agenda, launched a campaign against McConnell by putting up billboards throughout his home state of Kentucky. The billboards demanded McConnell take up the election security bill that passed in the Democratic-led House earlier in the session, and also referred to the Republican leader as &#8220;Moscow Mitch.&#8221;
Interestingly, McConnell expressed support on Thursday to allocate $250 million to states for additional election security. The move is largely seen my many as a major turnaround for the Senate majority leader who initially pushed back on what he referred to as a Washington takeover.
&#8220;Did he? Is that right?&#8221; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) replied on Friday when a reporter informed him on McConnell&#8217;s decision. &#8220;No more invitations to the Kremlin for him.&#8221;
McConnell has been vocal about his dislike of the nickname, which comes in stark contrast to the Democrat-dubbed &#8220;Grim Reaper&#8221; nickname that he has playfully touted.
&#8220;It&#8217;s an effort to smear me. You know, I can laugh about things like the Grim Reaper, but calling me Moscow Mitch is over the top,&#8221; he told talk radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier in the month.
&#8220;The more liberal special interest groups attack Mitch McConnell, the stronger he becomes,&#8221; Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) told The Hill on Friday. &#8220;His standing in the way of Democrats&#8217; socialist agenda sure has made this bunch obsessed with him.&#8221;

Progressive Super PAC Trolls McConnell With ‘Moscow Mitch’ Browser Extension

The following is satirical.
Congress is back in session and ready to take on the number one crisis facing America, namely that Congress is back in session. The lawmakers return to Washington facing a full agenda, including financing the government so they can get money to pay for Congress so they can finance the government so they can get money to pay for Congress so they can finance the government.
D.C. residents welcomed the legislature back by running away from the capitol building in a panicked mob, clutching their wallets and screaming as if Godzilla was chasing them. When they found out Godzilla actually was chasing them, they calmed down and said, &#8220;That&#8217;s a relief. We thought it was Congress.&#8221;
On the House side, Democrat Jerry Nadler said he had enjoyed a lazy summer just wasting time and spending money by way of practicing for his return to government work. Nadler&#8217;s list of things to do includes threatening to impeach President Trump, threatening to investigate President Trump, threatening to investigate impeaching President Trump and subpoenaing the last few Americans he hasn&#8217;t interrogated yet including the scary clown from the Stephen King movie and the guy who runs the Dairy Queen in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she was happy to come back from wherever she&#8217;d been to wherever she was now and was looking forward to churning out useless anti-Trump bills that would never become law until she had completely wasted the rapidly dwindling time remaining to her life.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell listed his priorities as getting more judges confirmed, talking very slowly with a dead pan expression, and then getting more judges confirmed and then talking slowly some more. McConnell was asked yesterday why he hadn’t mentioned gun control in his agenda. He should be done with his answer sometime this afternoon.
Meanwhile, though the parties remain sharply divided, Congress hopes to bring the nation together on the issue of giving them more money for their important work of getting more money.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51533/democrat-fired-after-tweets-surface-saying-its-andrew-klavan">Democrat Fired After Tweets Surface Saying ‘It’s A Free Country’ [Satire]</a>

Godzilla

Americans Run Screaming In Terror As Congress Returns To Work [Klavan]

Congress

Jerrold Nadler

Satire

Two coal minors depicted in Kentucky Senate hopeful Amy McGrath’s campaign ad are demanding that the Democratic candidate stop using their image for partisan politics.
Christopher Thacker, the attorney for coal miners Randy Robbins and Albrow Hall, sent a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6382857-2144-001.html">cease and desist letter</a> to McGrath’s campaign on Wednesday after a video of the duo was — unknowingly to them — used in the political advertisement.
“They are personally offended at seeing their images being used in a political attack ad that does not reflect their personal feelings or beliefs,” Thacker wrote in the letter. “It is simply wrong for the McGrath Campaign to use individual miners suffering from black lung disease as political pawns without their permission or consent.”
Robbins and Hall, two members of their local chapter of the Black Lung Association, participated in a trip to the nation’s capital to meet with lawmakers over the summer as part of an effort to urge Congress to reinstate a higher excise tax on coal companies that would subsequently help fund their medical care.
McGrath’s campaign ad features a reenactment of the group of coal miners on their ten-hour bus ride from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. in what Thacker says the miners were led to believe was footage to be used for a documentary on the Black Lung Association.
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AhehvPagxlE" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
At the time, some of the miners were disappointed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had only met with them for a short amount of time, reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-coal-blacklung/us-coal-miners-discouraged-by-black-lung-meeting-with-mcconnell-idUSKCN1UI18G">Reuters</a> in July. However, neither Robbins nor Hall felt that way.
“Randy and Albrow felt that the trip was a success. They deeply appreciated the warm reception they received from a number of elected representatives who took the time to meet with the group, including Senator Mitch McConnell,” Thacker wrote. “They were therefore happy to cooperate when they were contacted several weeks later to participate in the filming of a reenactment of the bus trip.”
The attorney also stated that Robbins and Hall were “shocked and outraged” when they saw their images prominently featured in the ad’s opening scene.
“They do not believe that black lung is or should be mad into a partisan political issue,” Thacker continued. “Black Lung does not discriminate by party affiliation, and my clients believe that people of good will from both political parties are working hard to address the needs of coal miners with black lung disease.”
The McGrath campaign, however, claims that the miners were aware that the footage would be used in an attack ad. Terry Sebastian, McGrath’s spokesperson, said they were not only informed but were given the opportunity to sign up for campaign apparel at the time, reported <a href="https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article234737737.html">The Lexington Herald Leader</a>. He also stated that the McGrath campaign has not yet official received the cease and desist letter, but that it is now reviewing the request.
McConnell’s campaign, Team Mitch, responded to the controversy over Twitter.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Amy McGrath exploits coal miners. Who could have seen this coming? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYSen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KYSen</a> <a href="https://t.co/jjzZTcLuWi">https://t.co/jjzZTcLuWi</a> <a href="https://t.co/f7juJlmBzc">pic.twitter.com/f7juJlmBzc</a>
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/Team_Mitch/status/1169638145589219328?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
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“Amy McGrath exploits coal miners,” Team Mitch tweeted with a link to the report. “Who could have seen this coming?”

President Trump Meets With GOP Senators During Their Weekly Policy Meetings

Coal Miners Demand That Mitch McConnell’s Democratic Challenger Stop Using Their Image In Attack Ad

Kentucky

Jim Carrey used to be a comedian and a beloved actor. Now he spends his days drawing horrifying images and tweeting about his hate for Republicans.
On Wednesday, Carrey tweeted a drawing of a three-fingered hand holding a bloody hundred-dollar bill next to a candle.
“10,000 gun deaths in 2019 and the year is far from over. What Osama bin Laden did to us was terrible but he doesn’t hold a candle to Mitch McConnell,” Carrey wrote when tweeting out the drawing.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">10,000 gun deaths in 2019 and the year is far from over. What Osama bin Laden did to us was terrible but he doesn’t hold a candle to Mitch McConnell. <a href="https://t.co/o68JXxWlUX">pic.twitter.com/o68JXxWlUX</a>
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) <a href="https://twitter.com/JimCarrey/status/1169298852223959040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2019</a></blockquote>
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The Washington Times reported that McConnell’s presence in the senate has had no effect on gun-related deaths in the United States. “In 1983, the year before <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/mitch-mcconnell/">Mr. McConnell</a> was first elected to the U.S. Senate, there <a href="https://www.infoplease.com/us/mortality/deaths-firearms-1979-2010" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were</a> more than 31,000 gun deaths in the U.S., the outlet reported.”
In 2017, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 39,773 total gun deaths. That year had the highest total gun deaths since 1968, the earliest years for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has data. The Pew Research Center looked into the numbers in August:
<blockquote>This was slightly more than the 39,595 gun deaths recorded in the prior peak year of 1993. Both gun murders and gun suicides have gone up in recent years: The number of gun murders rose 32% between 2014 and 2017, while the number of gun suicides rose each year between 2006 and 2017 (a 41% increase overall).
Gun suicides reached their highest recorded level in 2017. But the number of gun murders remained far below the peak in 1993, when there were 18,253 gun homicides – and when overall violent crime levels in the U.S. were <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/03/5-facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/">much higher than they are today</a>.</blockquote>
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was the Senate Majority Leader in 2017, but he was not in that position in 1993. That position was held by Sen. George J. Mitchell (D-ME) that year and in the years preceding.
Further, the high number of gun deaths in 2017 does not include a look at the country’s population. Pew reported that the rate of gun deaths in 2017 was 12 per 100,000, “the highest rate in more than two decades, but still well below the 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974, the highest rate in the CDC’s online database.”
The majority of gun-related deaths involve suicides. There is some research to suggest that a lack of access to a gun would prevent many of these suicides, but there is also the possibility that a person intent on harming themselves would not stop because they didn’t have a gun.
What all these numbers show, however, is that gun-related deaths are not tied to any politician or party. Further, the “common sense” gun control solutions politicians and celebrities like Carrey support would do nothing to stop any of the mass shootings constantly exploited by the media, nor would new laws stop criminals who already intend to break laws by committing such crimes.

2019 Summer TCA Press Tour &#8211; Day 11

Jim Carrey: Osama Bin Laden ‘Doesn’t Hold A Candle To Mitch McConnell’

Guns

Jim Carrey

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell trolled Senate Democrats who are eager to get rid of the filibuster, tweeting, “The last time Democrats changed longstanding Senate rules for short-term partisan benefit, here is what it got them: Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And 43 new lifetime circuit judges, the most ever at this point in a presidency.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The last time Democrats changed longstanding Senate rules for short-term partisan benefit, here is what it got them: Justice Neil Gorsuch. Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And 43 new lifetime circuit judges, the most ever at this point in a presidency <a href="https://t.co/lwhqan9gRG">pic.twitter.com/lwhqan9gRG</a>
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1164580580555743232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
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McConnell also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/22/opinion/mitch-mcconnell-senate-filibuster.html">published an op-ed</a> in The New York Times warning the Democrats not to go down the path they are currently espousing. He started by quoting his prophetic statement from 2013, when the Democrats, led by Harry Reid, changed the procedure so that debate on most judicial nominations would require only a simple majority 60-vote supermajority vote required heretofore. McConnell noted at the time, “You’ll regret this, and you may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”
McConnell recalled, “I tried a practical argument. The political winds shift often, I reminded my Democratic friends. And I doubted they’d like their new rules when the shoe was on the other foot.” He wrote that many Democrats regret their 2013 decision, then added, “Nevertheless, the far left now wants Democrats to touch the hot stove yet again. This time, they want to erase the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/us/politics/climate-change-filibuster.html?module=inline">end debate on legislation</a>.”
McConnell pointed out that when the GOP retaliated, the Democrats couldn’t handle it, and now, “The Senate has taken a step back toward its centuries-old norms on nominations: limited debate and a simple majority threshold.”
He warned, “On legislation, however, the Senate’s treasured tradition is not efficiency but deliberation. One of the body’s central purposes is making new laws earn broader support than what is required for a bare majority in the House.”
McConnell said bluntly, “Our country doesn’t need a second House of Representatives with fewer members and longer terms. America needs the Senate to be the Senate. I recognize it may seem odd that a Senate majority leader opposes a proposal to increase his own power. Certainly it is curious that liberals are choosing this moment, when Americans have elected Republican majorities three consecutive times and counting, to attack the minority’s powers. But my Republican colleagues and I have not and will not vandalize this core tradition for short-term gain. We recognize what everyone should recognize — there are no permanent victories in politics.”
McConnell cautioned, “No Republican has any trouble imagining the laundry list of socialist policies that 51 Senate Democrats would happily inflict on Middle America in a filibuster-free Senate … the Democratic Party is racing leftward, with presidential debates that make the 2008 exchanges between Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards look downright conservative by comparison …”
He concluded, “I hope the saner voices among Democrats can help their compatriots see reason. Unless and until that happens, Americans must never let this radical movement gain enough power to vandalize the Senate. If future Democrats shortsightedly decide to reduce the Senate to majority rule, we’ll have lost a key safeguard of American government. And — stop me if you’ve heard this one — they’d regret it a lot sooner than they think.”

McConnell Trolls Dems: The Last Time You Changed Senate Rules, You Got THIS

Filibuster

U.S. Senate

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has been repeatedly asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to consider running for the soon-to-be vacated Senate seat currently held by long-time Senator Pat Roberts (R-KA), according to the <a href="https://www.apnews.com/fbc55a6d6e6f40eba760c8d58a720b35">Associated Press</a>.
Pompeo, who briefly served as CIA director before assuming his current position, has publicly denied that he has any interest in running for Senate. According to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/kansas-gop-weighs-senate-hopefuls-while-pining-for-pompeo-11565721022">Wall Street Journal</a>, in late July he told the Economic Club of Washington that the idea is &#8220;off the table.&#8221;
But the Associated Press notes that if Pompeo does not decide to run, it could lead to the party nominating Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who lost his race for governor last year.
&#8220;Some in the party are afraid [Kobach] will again tap a conservative base, emerge from a crowded primary, alienate moderate voters and lose an otherwise safe seat that Republicans likely need to maintain their narrow Senate majority,&#8221; says the news agency.&#8221;
Republican adviser David Kensinger says &#8220;Pompeo getting into the race solves the problem,&#8221; reports the Associated Press.
At his inaugural campaign speech last month, Kobach spoke strongly in favor of President Trump&#8217;s agenda. Kobach also declared to his supporters that &#8220;this is not the time for a quiet senator,&#8221; as reported by the <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article232407992.html">Kansas City Star</a>
&#8220;It&#8217;s not a time for a senator who wants to make everybody happy and doesn&#8217;t want to take a stand. It&#8217;s not a time for a senator who is Republican-lite,&#8221; said Kobach.
The Kansas City Star notes that &#8220;Democrats view Kobach&#8217;s entry into the race as an opportunity to win a Senate seat in the GOP-leaning state for the first time since 1932.&#8221; Democrats plan to direct &#8220;major&#8221; money to the race if Kobach ultimately wins the nomination, the outlet reports.
As noted by The Wall Street Journal, Kobach is also one of the few declared candidates who has not agreed to leave the race should Mike Pompeo declare his candidacy. &#8220;I would have to assess the situation,&#8221; he said about the prospect of bowing out.
While sources have told the Journal that Pompeo is McConnell&#8217;s preferred candidate, Pompeo has also signaled that he may have future presidential aspirations after President Trump leaves office.
&#8220;America has given me an awful lot,&#8221; said Pompeo, as reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/mike-pompeo-confirms-hes-interested-in-presidential-run">Washington Examiner</a> last month. &#8220;And if I thought I could do a good turn, there&#8217;s nothing I wouldn&#8217;t consider doing for America.&#8221;
The filing deadline to run for the open seat is June 1, 2020.

Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo Briefs Senators On Situation In Iran

McConnell Nudging Trump Administration Official Toward Senate Run

2020 Election

Mike Pompeo

Republican Party

Trump Administration

According to a spokesman for the United States Pacific Fleet, China banned two US warships from visiting Hong Kong and accused members of Congress from both parties of being “the black hand” behind the protesters in Hong Kong rallying against the government of Communist China.
As <a href="https://www.stripes.com/news/pacific/china-rejects-request-for-two-us-navy-ships-to-visit-hong-kong-amid-civil-unrest-1.594218">Stars and Stripes</a> reported, “The amphibious dock ship USS Green Bay intended to make a visit on Saturday and the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Erie planned to stop there later in September, Cmdr. Nate Christensen, deputy spokesman for U.S. Pacific Fleet, told Stars and Stripes Wednesday in an email.” The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville visited Hong Kong last November, followed by the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf in April.
The demonstrators are protesting Communist China’s extradition of people who would be tried in Communist Party-controlled courts in mainland China. Both Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have vehemently condemned the Chinese Communist government on Twitter.
The Office of the Commissioner of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong stated, “Certain members of the U.S. Congress confuse right and wrong, confound black and white, and incite violence and crimes. They use their words and actions to prove that they are the black hand behind extreme and violent individuals.”
Hua Chunying, a spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry, had said the day before:
<blockquote>The U.S. denied on many occasions its involvement in the ongoing violent incidents in Hong Kong. However, the comments from those members of the US congress have provided the world with new and powerful evidence on the country&#8217;s involvement. By neglecting and distorting the truth, they whitewashed violent crimes as a struggle for human rights and freedom, and deliberately misinterpreted the work of Hong Kong police as violent repression when the police were only enforcing the law, fighting crimes and upholding social order … We solemnly remind you this plain truth: Hong Kong affairs are entirely China&#8217;s internal affairs, and you are neither entitled nor qualified to wantonly comment on them. Mind your own business and stay out of Hong Kong affairs.</blockquote>
McConnell had stated, “The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom. Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable. As I have said on the Senate floor: The world is watching.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The people of Hong Kong are bravely standing up to the Chinese Communist Party as Beijing tries to encroach on their autonomy and freedom. Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable. As I have said on the Senate floor: The world is watching. <a href="https://t.co/5VPm5P4PfB">https://t.co/5VPm5P4PfB</a>
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1160915602040602624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Pelosi decided to emulate McConnell roughly 11 hours later. She referred to Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam, tweeting, “It is alarming to watch the #HongKong police with support from Beijing intensify their use of force against the protesters and label them violent criminals. I urge Carrie Lam to meet with protest leaders to listen and act on their legitimate grievances including withdrawing the extradition bill, ending police violence &amp; granting universal suffrage. The people of Hong Kong are trying to preserve the promise of One Country — Two Systems. If we don’t speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out elsewhere.”
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">It is alarming to watch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/HongKong?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#HongKong</a> police with support from Beijing intensify their use of force against the protesters and label them violent criminals.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1161087733739270145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">I urge Carrie Lam to meet with protest leaders to listen and act on their legitimate grievances including withdrawing the extradition bill, ending police violence &amp; granting universal suffrage.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1161087734821335040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The people of Hong Kong are trying to preserve the promise of One Country &#8211; Two Systems. If we don’t speak out for human rights in China because of commercial interests, we lose all moral authority to speak out elsewhere.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1161087736574615552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 13, 2019</a></blockquote>
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Hong Kong, which was a British colony, was turned over to the Chinese Communist government in 1997. As <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7355919/China-bans-two-warships-visiting-Hong-Kong-amid-protest-row.html">The Daily Mail</a> noted, “The unrest escalated dramatically yesterday after anti-riot police officers stormed Hong Kong International Airport and fired pepper spray at protesters during bloody clashes that resulted in five arrests … China’s Hong Kong Liaison office said today that anti-government protesters were no different to “terrorists” after two mainland Chinese citizens were attacked by demonstrators at the airport “for being undercover agents.”

Helicopter

China Gets Tense: Bans Two U.S. Warships From Visiting Hong Kong

China

Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as a “common enemy” for not bringing a host of Democrat-backed anti-gun legislation to the Senate floor for a vote following a slew of recent mass shootings.
“Everyone has agreed on one commonality and that is guns. Whether the person is a white supremacist, whether the person is mentally ill, whether the person is inspired by somebody or just lashing out, the gun is the common factor,” Host Noah Trevor told Pressley during her appearance on “The Daily Show.” “What do you think America can do about people’s easy access to guns?”
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“First, I want to say that guns are the common factor, and the common enemy in all this is Mitch McConnell,” Pressley responded. The Massachusetts congresswoman recited McConnell’s office phone number on air and urged viewers to lobby the Kentucky senator to pass a series of gun control measures.
Pressley’s heated assertion comes only a week after a crowd gathered at the majority leader’s home late at night as he was recovering from a broken shoulder. McConnell’s re-election campaign posted a video of the “angry left-wing mob,” where protesters can be heard wishing harm upon the senator. On the recording, an individual states that she hopes somebody would “just stab the mother***er in the heart” and wants for him to “break his neck.”
Pressley argued that if Congress would pass the so-called assault weapons ban and mandate universal background checks, then millions of American lives would be saved. She also added that the straw purchases and gun trafficking are two other issues that need to be addressed.
“So why haven’t we acted?” Pressley asked. “Because of a deficit of political courage and leadership despite a mandate from American citizens from every walk of life.”
After a deadly mass shooting at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, the government took swift action to change the country’s gun laws and initiated a nationwide gun confiscation of most automatic and semi-automatic firearms. Pressley repeatedly praised the move during her appearance on The Daily Show.
“We also know that there are more guns than people [in the United States],” Pressley said. “For as long as that is the case, you are going to see an intersectionality of violence.”
Despite naming McConnell as the “common enemy,” the progressive congresswoman claimed that President Donald Trump’s “dangerous” rhetoric is the reason why a deadly mass shooting was carried out in El Paso, Texas, which resulted in the death of more than 20 individuals and injured more than two dozen others.
She further contended that Trump has a long history of not only “racist rhetoric,” but also has “racist actions” and introduces new “racist, xenophobic policies” every day.
“This is really a distraction. These are things that he does to distract us from the corruptness, the chaos, and the callousness of this administration,” Pressley said. “But I cannot pretend this rhetoric isn’t dangerous – it’s exactly why El Paso happened.”

Ayanna Pressley

WATCH: Squad Member Ayanna Pressley Reveals The ‘Common Enemy’ In Mass Shootings — It’s Not Trump

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

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Ben Shapiro

Democratic Party

Elijah Cummings

Joaquin Castro

Julian Castro

Media

On Monday night, dozens of left-wing activists converged on the Louisville home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to protest for gun control. Video of one of the protesters, Black Lives Matter activist Chanelle Helm, calling for violence against McConnell — initially posted on Facebook and then tweeted out by congressional staffer Ben Goldey — quickly went viral, retweeted by the McConnell re-election campaign and Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra. By Tuesday, Twitter had locked all three accounts until they pulled their posts featuring the video.
In the since-pulled video, which was first live-streamed on Facebook, one of the protesters says about McConnell&#8217;s recent shoulder injury that maybe someone is using a &#8220;voodoo doll&#8221; against the senator. Helm responds, &#8220;Just stab the motherf***er in the heart, please.&#8221; She went on to say she hopes he suffers &#8220;one of those heart attacks where they can&#8217;t breath, and they&#8217;re holding their chest and they fall backwards.&#8221; Instead of nursing a &#8220;broken arm&#8221; after his fall, she said, &#8220;he should have broken his raggedy, wrinkled-ass neck.&#8221;
On Tuesday, Twitter told Goldey, the McConnell campaign, and Saavedra to remove their posts, saying the video violated the platform&#8217;s policies on &#8220;violent threats&#8221; and temporarily blocked their accounts until they agreed to remove the tweets.
&#8220;My account was temporarily suspended after posting a video of far-left activists chanting death threats at Senator McConnell,&#8221; Goldey tweeted after his account was reactivated.
McConnell&#8217;s campaign likewise had their account, @Team_Mitch, locked. Campaign Manager Kevin Golden told <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/08/07/twitter-suspends-mitch-mcconnell-account-protest-video/">The Daily Caller</a>, &#8220;Twitter locked our account for posting the video of real-world, violent threats made against Mitch McConnell.&#8221;
Though Twitter claimed they wanted the video pulled to protect McConnell, Golden noted to The Daily Caller that the platform allowed #MassacreMitch to trend over the weekend. The campaign initially pushed back against the company&#8217;s demand, but after Twitter locked their account, they were forced to delete the post.
In a tweet thread Wednesday, Saavedra gave an account of what took place and highlighted the apparent double standard held by Twitter. &#8220;Twitter asked me yesterday to delete this tweet,&#8221; he wrote, including an image of his initial tweet detailing Helm&#8217;s comments. &#8220;It showed a person allegedly calling for violence against Mitch McConnell. The person appears to be a BLM activist who has met with Elizabeth Warren. I said no and they suspended me *and* McConnell&#8217;s re-election campaign.&#8221;
&#8220;They told me, in a private message, that they were going to remove the video contained in the tweet, which was embedded from someone else&#8217;s account,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;They also asked me to delete my tweet, which was separate. My tweet was newsworthy and factually accurate I said no. They said it was for McConnell&#8217;s safety that they wanted the video removed. They could have removed the video and not my tweet. Keep in mind, Twitter allowed (#)MassacreMitch to trend on the platform for days and there are multiple tweets on this platform that list where he lives.&#8221;
&#8220;I told Twitter that their logic did not make sense, that they wanted the tweet for McConnell&#8217;s safety, because of many of the tweets they leave up and claim do not violate their rules,&#8221; he added. He then provided some examples of egregious posts by the Left allowed to remain up. Below is the beginning of Saavedra&#8217;s thread, followed by a few select posts:
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Twitter asked me yesterday to delete this tweet:
It showed a person allegedly calling for violence against Mitch McConnell
The person appears to be a BLM activist who has met with Elizabeth Warren
I said no and they suspended me *and* McConnell&#8217;s re-election campaign
THREAD: <a href="https://t.co/RSospX3212">pic.twitter.com/RSospX3212</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1159189557490774016?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">I told Twitter that their logic did not make sense, that they wanted the tweet for McConnell&#8217;s safety, because of many of the tweets they leave up and claim do not violate their rules
I pointed out these tweets to Twitter as examples: <a href="https://t.co/wpgQFUEEd1">https://t.co/wpgQFUEEd1</a> <a href="https://t.co/dqnWtLwQv9">pic.twitter.com/dqnWtLwQv9</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1159197184992010241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en">This pic is of Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann, who was falsely smeared by the media
Sandmann and his school received death threats over what happened
Twitter took no action against this tweet
Sandmann is a minor<a href="https://t.co/FuPhmcH4Hq">https://t.co/FuPhmcH4Hq</a> <a href="https://t.co/paUNr2Gl3t">pic.twitter.com/paUNr2Gl3t</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1159198522303844353?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Peter Fonda called for women in the Trump administration to stripped naked and physically beaten
He called for Trump admin officials to have their kids taken from them and thrown in cages with pedophiles
Twitter allowed him to keep his verified account <a href="https://t.co/Zww5HmvDUt">https://t.co/Zww5HmvDUt</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1159199730598965250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50321/republicans-move-take-most-significant-gun-control-james-barrett">Republicans Move To Take Most Significant Gun Control Action In Decades</a>

mitch_mcconnell_gi.jpg

Twitter Forces McConnell Campaign To Pull Video Showing Violent Threats Against Him

Gun Control

Twitter

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) blasted Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Tuesday for a statement that his campaign never issued.
The incident first began after a photograph of a group of young men, donning the majority leader’s campaign t-shirt and posing with a cutout of the New York congresswoman, circulated around social media. The picture was taken over the weekend at the annual Fancy Farm picnic in Kentucky and was posted to Instagram with the caption “break me off a piece of that Fancy Farm.”
“Hey [McConnell] – these young men look like they work for you,” Ocasio-Cortez said referencing the picture. “Just want to clarify: are you paying young men to practice groping [and] choking members of Congress [with] your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch? Thanks.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Hey <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@senatemajldr</a> &#8211; these young men look like they work for you.
Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping &amp; choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TeamMitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#TeamMitch</a>?
Thanks. <a href="https://t.co/ysRJuwonUx">https://t.co/ysRJuwonUx</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1158541787549581313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
A spokesman for the McConnell campaign responded to Ocasio-Cortez, <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/08/06/mitch-mcconnell-responds-to-viral-aoc-team-mitch-cutout-groping-photo/">denying that the group had any affiliation</a> with the Senate majority leader. He further slammed the self-proclaimed “radical” congresswoman and left-wing media for using the picture to “demonize, stereotype, and publicly castigate every young person who dares to get involved with Republican politics.”
<div class="embed tweet"></div>
“These young men are not campaign staff, they’re high schoolers,” Kevin Golden, McConnell’s campaign manager said in a statement. “It’s incredible that the national media has sought to once again paint a target on their backs rather than report real, and significant news in our country.”
“Team Mitch in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender,” Golden said in a separate statement.
The campaign later followed up in a series of tweets contending that the freshman congresswoman and liberal Twitter personalities are trying to publicly reveal the personal information of the minors, and further stated that the same individuals “are cheering on thousands of accounts calling for Senator McConnell to ‘break his neck.’”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and liberal Twitter personalities are trying to dox some underage kids for taking a photo with a cutout at the Fancy Farm political picnic and are cheering on thousands of accounts calling for Senator McConnell to &#8216;break his neck.’
— Team Mitch (@Team_Mitch) <a href="https://twitter.com/Team_Mitch/status/1158768013765685250?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The campaign’s Twitter account also posted a video of an “angry left-wing mob” that showed up at McConnell’s private residence only a night prior. On the recording protesters can be heard <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/50274/far-left-protesters-mcconnells-home-just-stab-ryan-saavedra">wishing harm upon</a> the Senator, such as saying they hope somebody would “just stab the motherf***er in the heart.” McConnell has been recovering from a broken shoulder after he fell in his home.
The Daily Beast reported on the heated exchange on Tuesday, but rather than quoting McConnell’s response, the left-leaning news outlet misleadingly paraphrased the comment when posting the article to the brand’s Twitter account.
“Mitch McConnell’s campaign manager essentially says boys will be boys in response to that image of teens groping and choking a cutout of [Ocasio-Cortez],” The Daily Beast tweeted along with the published article.
Ocasio-Cortez immediately seized upon the made-up statement and further implied that the majority leader has an agenda against women:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">“Boys will be boys.”
Is that also the reason why you’ve chosen to block the Violence Against Women act too, <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@senatemajldr</a>?
It prevents dating partners w/ records of abuse + stalking women (also an early warning sign from many mass shooters) from obtaining a gun. <a href="https://t.co/shWCRmEv60">https://t.co/shWCRmEv60</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1158832134339092480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
“Boys will be boys,” Ocasio-Cortez replied quoting The Daily Beast. “Is that also the reason why you’ve chosen to block the Violence Against Women act too, [McConnell]? It prevents dating partners [with] records of abuse + stalking women (also an early warning sign from many mass shooters) from obtaining a gun.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WheresMitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WheresMitch</a> on HR8<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WheresMitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WheresMitch</a> on the Charleston Loophole<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WheresMitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WheresMitch</a> on the Violence Against Women Act
Boys will be held accountable for their actions, starting with Mitch McConnell.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WheresMitch?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WheresMitch</a>
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) <a href="https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1158834015102783488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
The New York congresswoman followed up with two identical tweets questioning where McConnell stands on issues such as H.R. 8, a bill establishing background checks between private parties, and H.R. 1112, dubbed the “Charleston Loophole” bill.
“Boys will be held accountable for their actions, starting with Mitch McConnell,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “#WheresMitch”

Ocasio-Cortez Slams Mitch McConnell Over A Quote His Campaign Never Said

Debra Messing celebrated the prospect of violence against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, according to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/debra-messing-tweet-mitch-mcconnell-dana-loesch">Fox News</a>.
&#8220;Messing has been vocal on Twitter following the two mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio which took the lives of dozens of people this past weekend,&#8221; reports the outlet. &#8220;The &#8216;Will and Grace&#8217; star quickly found herself in hot water after she tweeted a response to a user&#8217;s tweet that some called &#8216;sick.'&#8221;
Responding to a Twitter user that called for violence against McConnell and Loesch, Messing enthusiastically said, &#8220;Yesssssssssss.&#8221;
&#8220;If I get killed in a mass shooting please cremate me and throw my ashes into Mitch McConnell’s and Dana Loesch’s eyes while I’m still smoldering,&#8221; read the original tweet, prompting Messing to reply: &#8220;THIS. Yesssssssssss.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">THIS. Yesssssssssss. <a href="https://t.co/Hd1BD5lFtL">https://t.co/Hd1BD5lFtL</a>
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) <a href="https://twitter.com/DebraMessing/status/1158443561156796416?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Messing&#8217;s reply immediately garnered attention on social media, with multiple users denouncing it as an incitement of violence against the two public figures.
&#8220;Debra — people from all political leanings consume your shows and enjoy you and them. Why would you take a deep dive into the disgusting by reacting like this to a horrific tweet? Take a breath. Get out of the Hollywood mindset for a second and be a person. Thanks,&#8221; said talk show host Joe Pags Pagliarulo.
&#8220;I loved &#8216;Will &amp; Grace&#8217; &#8230; but you’re obviously a sick person. Please seek help. Seriously,&#8221; said another user.
Messing has issued no apology in the face of the backlash. On Monday, when appearing on Alyssa Milano&#8217;s podcast &#8220;Sorry Not Sorry,&#8221; she even called for President Trump&#8217;s impeachment.
&#8220;This is my statement about whether impeachment is the appropriate road to take against the sitting president,&#8221; said Messing on the show. &#8220;It was given before the devastating and preventable four mass shootings in the last 24 hours. I should have included the blocking of background checks as another dereliction. Please don’t bother wishing me death or attack me. This is my account, it’s my opinion, if you don’t like to hear it, don’t follow me.&#8221;
Debra Messing&#8217;s celebration of potential violence against McConnell came just before a cadre of <a href="https://www.lifenews.com/2019/08/06/liberal-protestors-outside-mitch-mcconnells-home-want-him-to-break-his-neck-or-have-a-stroke/">leftist protestors descended on his house</a>, where many openly wished McConnell would violently suffer.
&#8220;I just want him to have a stroke, that is all,&#8221; said one woman at the house. &#8220;One of those heart attacks where they can’t breathe, and they’re holding their chest and they fall backwards.&#8221;
&#8220;He’s in there nursing his broken arm. He should have broken his raggedy, wrinkled-a** neck,&#8221; she later said. &#8220;Everybody needs to show up wherever this he is at and make him just regret his f***ing life, period.&#8221;
Later, a male protester said to &#8220;just stab the motherf***er in the heart.&#8221;
Media figures other than Debra Messing have made similarly disgusting statements regarding conservatives associated with President Trump. CNN contributor Reza Aslan, for instance, said that Kellyanne Conway is a &#8220;depraved evil&#8221; that must be eradicated.
&#8220;You are &#8216;the depraved evil&#8217; we need to eradicate,&#8221; Aslan said in response to Conway&#8217;s call to eradicate the evil seen over the weekend.

Hamptons Magazine Hosts Debra Messing Issue Celebration

Debra Messing Celebrates Potential Violence Against Dana Loesch, Mitch McConnell

Dana Loesch

Hollywood

On Monday night, late night left-wing-politico-who-masquerades-as-a-comedian Jimmy Kimmel went on a rant in which he branded Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell an “evil soulless odd creep,” called Republicans “cowardly” for refusing to appear on left-wing cable news shows after the mass shootings over the weekend, and finished with a flourish, referring to Trump supporters as people who have been “repeatedly punched in the head” and calling President Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric the “Douches of Hazzard” for being fans of MMA fighter Colby Covington.
Kimmel began, “After another weekend of sadness and outrage in the United States, we had two more mass shootings — one on Saturday in El Paso, the other in Dayton Sunday morning — horrible senseless tragedies, again with many lives lost, and again our leaders in one party in particular are offering not much more than their thoughts and their prayers.”
Kimmel continued, “I was thinking and praying about it and both parties say, they say one thing, that we&#8217;re too divided, and this is something we hear a lot, that we need to find something we can agree on. Well, here&#8217;s something that we can agree on: Too many people are being shot with high-powered weapons. I think we agree on that. We agree on this, too: they did a poll last year; 97% of gun owners — these are gun owners — support universal background check. 97%. That&#8217;s unheard of. You can ask people, &#8220;Is ice cream delicious,&#8221; and not get 97%.”
Then Kimmel started getting truly nasty, not only calling McConnell names but boasting that McConnell should get his “bony gray ass” to work to pass bills Kimmel approved of:
<blockquote>The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, this evil soulless old creep, won&#8217;t even allow the Senate to vote on a bipartisan bill to require background checks for gun purchases a gun shows. There are two bills, each written by Democrats and Republicans together, because background checks, something we agree on, these bills, the bills passed in the House in February and to become law we&#8217;d have to pass them in the Senate too. But Mitch McConnell made sure the Senate couldn&#8217;t even vote on them, he didn&#8217;t bring them to the floor; they left for recess. So tell Mitch McConnell we have some good news. Call him and tell him the good news is we agree on something for a change: we agree that he needs to drag his bony gray ass into work to vote on these bills. Let&#8217;s start with that thing that we all agree on, and go from there, ok?</blockquote>
Kimmel then segued to attacking Republicans for refusing to go on CNN, where they would likely be pilloried for not hewing to the leftist party line: “It&#8217;s unbelievable. Yesterday, 49 Republican members of Congress refused to go on CNN to talk about the shootings. Now the cops in Dayton ran into the line of fire to stop the guy shooting. The politicians were too cowardly to go on cable television to talk about it.”
Then Kimmel got really manipulative, implying that President Trump was so uncaring about the shootings over the weekend that he instead tweeted celebrating the release of A$AP Rocky from a Swedish prison. Kimmel stated, “And meanwhile, this is what our president was busy with this weekend.” He showed a clip of Trump’s tweet.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A$AP Rocky released from prison and on his way home to the United States from Sweden. It was a Rocky Week, get home ASAP A$AP!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1157345692517634049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
One problem: the tweet was issued on Friday, before the shootings in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend.
Kimmel mocked Trump for tweeting a shout-out to MMA fighter Colby Covington. He continued, &#8220;Like many Americans who have been repeatedly punched in the head, Colby Covington is a big Donald Trump supporter. And there&#8217;s nothing Donald Trump loves more than people who love Donald Trump.&#8221; Kimmel then mocked President Trump&#8217;s sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, for attending a Colby Covington match, calling them, &#8220;The Douches of Hazard.&#8221;
Video below:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sB0wWEFIr50" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>

ABC&#8217;s &#8220;Jimmy Kimmel Live&#8221; &#8211; Season 17

WATCH: Jimmy Kimmel Mocks Trump Supporters, Trump&#8217;s Sons, And McConnell In Vicious Rant

Donald Trump Jr.

Eric Trump

Jimmy Kimmel

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed on Monday that he requested the help of three Republican senators to brainstorm bipartisan solutions to address the recent slew of mass shootings.
McConnell tapped Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, after talking to the three men about the task.
&#8220;I asked them to reflect on the subjects the president raised within their jurisdictions and encouraged them to engage in bipartisan discussions of potential solutions to help protect communities without infringing on Americans’ constitutional rights,&#8221; the majority leader said in a statement.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">My statement regarding President Trump&#8217;s call for bipartisan, bicameral cooperation following the mass murders in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. <a href="https://t.co/Rz6moSkwY6">https://t.co/Rz6moSkwY6</a> <a href="https://t.co/OcAnArpF5t">pic.twitter.com/OcAnArpF5t</a>
— Leader McConnell (@senatemajldr) <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr/status/1158501340206813184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 5, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
McConnell’s comments come on the heels of back-to-back mass shootings over the weekend. On Saturday, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart shopping complex in El Paso, Texas, murdering more than 20 individuals and injuring over two dozen others. A second attacker took the lives of nine people and injured nearly 30 others after he gunned down people in a bar in Dayton, Ohio early Sunday morning.
President Donald Trump urged all Americans to come together and called for bipartisan cooperation on determining potential solutions.
&#8220;Open wounds cannot heal if we are divided,&#8221; Trump said while addressing the nation. &#8220;We must seek real bipartisan solutions. We have to do that in a bipartisan manner that will truly make America safer and better for all.&#8221;
He further highlighted four areas of focus: reforming mental health laws, ending the glorification of violence, enacting so-called &#8220;red-flag laws,&#8221; which allow for temporary gun confiscation from individuals deemed a danger to oneself or to others, and improve ways to identify early warning signs and subsequently prevent future mass shootings from occurring.
Accordingly, Trump announced that he directed the Department of Justice to work in concert with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as in partnership with social media companies to develop tools that can detect potential mass shooters before they attempt to carry out violence.
&#8220;It was serious, bipartisan work that led to last year’s successful passage of the Fix NICS Act and the STOP School Violence Act,&#8221; McConnell said. &#8220;Only serious, bipartisan, bicameral efforts will enable us to continue this important work and produce further legislation that can pass the Senate, pass the House, and earn the president’s signature.&#8221;
&#8220;Partisan theatrics and campaign-trail rhetoric will only take us farther away from the progress all Americans deserve,&#8221; he added.
All three Senate chairmen confirmed their conversation with the majority leader over Twitter.
&#8220;Really appreciate talking with Senator McConnell today and appreciate his desire to find bipartisan solutions after these tragic shootings,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1158518041069703171?s=20">Graham said</a>. &#8220;Senator McConnell is seeking solutions rather than political blame, and is prepared to work with Democrats in the House and Senate to put legislation on the President’s desk that will help the problem.&#8221;
&#8220;Especially in a nation with a constitutional right to bear arms, new laws from Washington D.C. alone won’t stop the violence – it will take a change in behavior,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/SenAlexander/status/1158496100959105025?s=20">Alexander tweeted</a>. &#8220;Every day our internet democracy displays millions of hateful thoughts. To change this behavior, each of us have a responsibility to replace these hateful thoughts with statements that respect the dignity of every individual regardless of their background.&#8221;
&#8220;It will be important for any solution we consider to be able to pass the Senate and the House and earn the president’s signature,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/SenatorWicker/status/1158499024783196160?s=20">Wicker added</a>.

Senate Clears Two-Year Debt-Limit Extension For Trump To Sign

McConnell Gathers Three Senators To Craft Bipartisan Response To Mass Shootings

Lindsey Graham

Shooting

Far-left demonstrators appeared at Mitch McConnell&#8217;s home in Louisville on Monday night and protested the 77-year-old who is recovering from a broken shoulder after he fell.
A short clip of the protesters was posted to Twitter by Ben Goldey, a life-long Kentuckian.
In the video, one person says they hope someone uses a &#8220;voodoo doll&#8221; on McConnell.
Another person in the video says they hope somebody &#8220;just stab the mother f***er in the heart, please.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">A woman is on Facebook Live, outside of Senator McConnell’s home in Louisville, saying she hopes someone “just stabs the mother f*cker in the heart, please.” <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KYSen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KYSen</a> <a href="https://t.co/sHaPWqn32J">pic.twitter.com/sHaPWqn32J</a>
— Ben Goldey (@BenGoldey) <a href="https://twitter.com/BenGoldey/status/1158562980629536768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
This is a breaking news story, refresh the page for updates.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) speaking at a

Far-Left Protesters At Mcconnell’s Home: ‘Just Stab The Mother F***er In The Heart’

The Senate confirmed more than a dozen of President Donald Trump&#8217;s lifetime judicial nominees during the two days that the country was captivated by the latest 2020 Democratic Party presidential debates.
&#8220;For too long, fairly uncontroversial judicial nominees just like these have been held up and delayed by our Democratic colleagues even when the vacancy qualifies as a judicial emergency,&#8221; Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. &#8220;Uncontroversial district judges used to be confirmed promptly in big groups by voice vote.&#8221;
Four federal district court judges were successfully confirmed on Tuesday and another nine were confirmed the following day. Of the 13 total confirmations, three judges — Karin Immergut in the District of Oregon, John Milton Younge in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Mary Rowland in the Northern District of Illinois — were passed by voice votes.
The latest round of confirmations solely focused on U.S. district court judges — thereby representing a pivot from McConnell&#8217;s prior focus on filling circuit court vacancies. Republicans had initially hoped to push through 19 of Trump&#8217;s judicial picks before senators went back to their home states for the month-long August recess.
The Senate has confirmed more than 130 of Trump’s judicial nominees since the president was sworn into office, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Trump has often touted the record number of conservative judges that he has been able to successfully confirm to the bench, however he has also expressed frustration with the slow-moving confirmation process, accusing Democrats of stonewalling his executive and judicial nominees alike.
&#8220;Hundreds of good people, including very important Ambassadors and Judges, are being blocked and/or slow walked by the Democrats in the Senate,&#8221; Trump tweeted in March. &#8220;Many important positions in Government are unfilled because of this obstruction. Worst in U.S. history!&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Hundreds of good people, including very important Ambassadors and Judges, are being blocked and/or slow walked by the Democrats in the Senate. Many important positions in Government are unfilled because of this obstruction. Worst in U.S. history!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/973907142649397251?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>
While the Senate advanced 13 lifetime judges, the Democratic Party was holding the second debate series for its 2020 presidential primary candidates. Consequently, seven Democratic senators skipped the judicial votes in order to appear on the debate stage.
Prior to the debate, a coalition of four progressive advocacy groups <a href="https://www.acslaw.org/inbrief/acs-sign-onto-letter-urging-cnn-to-ask-democratic-presidential-candidates-about-the-supreme-court/">sent a letter to CNN</a> urging the network to question the primary candidates on the Republicans&#8217; plan to move America &#8220;right of center&#8221; with judicial confirmations.
&#8220;Confronting this generational shift in our courts will be one of the most pressing issues for the next president — in fact, the viability of his or her entire agenda depends on it,&#8221; the letter read. &#8220;At this week’s Democratic presidential primary debate, we urge you to ask presidential candidates how they will respond to the crisis in our courts.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a critical issue that somehow escaped the meaningful discussion in the first Democratic debates in June,&#8221; the letter continued. &#8220;The failures of the debate moderators to ask a single question about the Supreme Court was particularly confounding since the Court issued its highly controversial, 5-4 ruling to allow partisan gerrymandering on literally the same day as the second debate, and yet the candidates were not asked to respond at all.&#8221;
CNN, however, declined to question candidates about the judiciary during the second debate.

Senate Confirms A Slew Of Trump’s Lifetime Judicial Nominees While Democrats Are Busy Debating

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

Supreme Court

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed MSNBC and The Washington Post on Monday from the Senate floor over the baseless smears they have promoted that McConnell is a Russian asset.
McConnell&#8217;s impassioned speech came in response to attacks from over the weekend where he was labeled &#8220;Moscow Mitch&#8221; after left-wing columnist Dana Milbank wrote an op-ed about McConnell blocking a highly partisan Democrat election reform bill last week.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t normally take the time to respond to critics in the media when they have no clue what they&#8217;re talking about,&#8221; McConnell said. &#8220;But, this modern-day McCarthyism is toxic, and damaging, because of the way it warps our entire public discourse.
&#8220;Last week I stopped Democrats from passing an election law bill through the Senate by unanimous consent, a bill that was so partisan that it only received one Republican vote over in the House,&#8221; McConnell said. &#8220;My Democratic friends asked for unanimous consent to pass a bill that everyone knows isn&#8217;t unanimous and never will be unanimous. So I objected.&#8221;
&#8220;Over the last several days I was called unpatriotic, un-American, and essentially treasonous by a couple of left-wing pundits on the basis of bald-faced lies,&#8221; McConnell continued. &#8220;I was accused of aiding and abetting the very man I&#8217;ve singled out as an adversary and opposed for nearly 20 years: Vladimir Putin.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">&#8220;This modern day McCarthyism is toxic&#8221; &#8211; <a href="https://twitter.com/senatemajldr?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@senatemajldr</a>
&#8220;Lies, innuendo, baseless accusations&#8221; hysterical claims of &#8220;treason!&#8221;
It&#8217;s what the Democrats and their allies in the media have done to <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDonaldTrump</a> for 3 years
No one has done more to sow discord than them
Enough! <a href="https://t.co/qCCidhFE8X">pic.twitter.com/qCCidhFE8X</a>
— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) <a href="https://twitter.com/LizRNC/status/1155935744717778944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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McConnell continued: &#8220;Now, at least [MSNBC] is honest about what it offers, and it isn&#8217;t journalism. Immediately after the host finished his angry string of false claims [calling] me un-American, another panelist chimed in to applaud the remarks and here&#8217;s what he said: &#8216;We&#8217;re at war. It&#8217;s time for the Democrats to wake up and we&#8217;re not necessarily going to play fair.'&#8221;
&#8220;Let&#8217;s remember how deep MSNBC waded into the conspiratorial fever swamp over the past 2 years,&#8221; McConnell added. &#8220;They gave airtime to one guest who has publicly tweeted … that a former White House adviser was close to being executed for espionage and that Chief Justice Roberts had sent the marshal of the Supreme Court to the White House to threaten the president.&#8221;
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Mitch McConnell slams MSNBC: “They gave airtime to one guest who has publicly tweeted that a former White House adviser was close to being executed for espionage and that Chief Justice Roberts had sent the marshal of the Supreme Court to the White House to threaten the president” <a href="https://t.co/1daMR3ArIa">pic.twitter.com/1daMR3ArIa</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1155931447707881472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2019</a></blockquote>
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