Brian Flood, Ramiro Vargas
Wed, July 17, 2024 at 1:48 PM MDT·4 min read
14
MSNBC analyst Michael Steele was accused of pushing "conspiracy theories" on Tuesday night when he questioned if former President Trump’s ear was actually hit by a high-caliber bullet.
Trump walked away from an assassination attempt on Saturday during a Pennsylvania rally, getting grazed in the ear by a bullet that came inches from killing him. Trump sported a bandage on his ear at the Republican National Convention on Monday.
"Let’s start with last night and the Band-Aid …. It’s been three days, going on four, since this horrific event occurred. A person lost their life, two have been severely injured, and yet we’ve not received a medical report from the hospital, nor have we received a medical report from the campaign, or from the Trump organization about the extent of the damage to his ear," Steele said during MSNBC’s coverage of the RNC.
"If he was shot by a high-caliber bullet, there should probably be very little ear there," he continued. "And so, we’d like to know that. Is there cosmetic surgery involved? What is the prognosis for recovery? Were there stitches? What is the extent and nature of the damage to his ear? Was it caused by a bullet, as opposed to, as some reports … saying it was actually shards of glass from the teleprompter?"
MSNBC analyst Michael Steele was accused of pushing "conspiracy theories" on Tuesday night when he questioned if former President Trump’s ear was actually hit by a high-caliber bullet.
Steele, who served as Republican National Committee chair before emerging as an anti-Trump MSNBC pundit, said there are "a lot of questions" around it.
"And yet, there has been no response to that," said Steele, who also co-hosts a left-wing weekend MSNBC program.
Host Ari Melber responded by noting that people have called for President Biden’s medical records, so getting more information on Trump’s ear would be "appropriate."
Mediaite reported Steele "flirted with conspiracy theories" surrounding the attempted assassination. James Golden, a longtime Rush Limbaugh producer who goes by Bo Snerdley, said Steele "appears to be casting doubt on Donald Trump's injuries."
Former NBCUniversal executive Mike Sington posted the clip on X and wrote, "Steele questions lack of transparency with Trump’s injury, floats conspiracy theory."
Dispatch editor John McCormack called Steele’s comments "bizarre" because "we all saw this happen almost in real-time and have photos and videos." NewsBusters editor Nicholas Fondacaro accused Steele of pushing "debunked conspiracy theories."
MSNBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Emma Richter For Dailymail.Com
Published: 14:29 EDT, 14 July 2024 | Updated: 05:35 EDT, 15 July 2024
After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, screaming liberals had full-blown meltdowns over the shooter narrowly missing the 45th US president.
At a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening 20-year-old registered Republican and Biden donor, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire on the presidential candidate.
A bullet struck Trump in the ear as Secret Service agents circled around to shield him. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old retired fire chief for Buffalo Township, was killed. Two other men were left in critical condition.
Secret Service agents could be heard shouting 'the shooter is down' in the ensuing chaos and the gunman was later confirmed dead.
But warped liberals shared their disappointment in Crook's aim, insinuating that they wished Trump had been fatally shot.
Celeste, who goes by cele2t3, screamed in a TikTok video about how upset she was that Trump hadn't been seriously injured or killed in the attempted assassination Saturday.
'We were a second away, we were a centimeter away from half of the problem being gone and you missed,' Celeste, who goes by cele2t3, screamed in a TikTok video.
Driving in a car, Celeste shared her initial reaction to hearing the sudden news.
'I just found out about this sh**, it just happened, I haven't even had a second to process.
She screams at the top of her lungs: 'You're telling me somebody finally had the ba**s to bring a "pew pew" and it missed?!'
Celeste continues to complain that the shooter was just a 'centimeter' away from fatally injuring Trump.
'There was a white man attached to that trigger- I know it!
'We were a centimeter away, Ughhhhhh,' she screams as the video, which has since been deleted, ends.
Xander, who goes by the name super99x on TikTok, also expressed how upset he was that Crook shot Trump in the ear
Celeste wasn't the only person who decided to share how discouraged the violent encounter made them.
Xander, who goes by the name super99x on TikTok, also expressed how upset he was with Crooks.
He screams into the microphone: 'How do you miss that?
'We don't miss those! Come on man! F***!
'We don't miss those! One shot at greatness to be mentioned in the history books and you missed the shot?' Xander then faces the wall and pretends to cry.
Another TikToker, Lisaamanuel claimed Saturday was 'the worst day of her life' after she found out Trump was injured in the shooting.
'Just got out of the movies and for a split second I though Donald Trump had been assassinated.
'And I though to myself, "this is the best f****** day of my life, and then he wasn't, so it's the worst day of my life,' she says.
Her friend is heard in the background telling her not to post the video. She has since deleted the clip.
A Democratic congressman's staffer faced the ultimate penalty after she was fired for a vile post ridiculing the shooter's aim when he opened fire on Trump.
On Saturday evening, shortly after gunfire broke out, Jacqueline Marsaw, 61, the former field director for Mississippi Congressman Bennie G. Thompson shared her thoughts on Facebook.
Marsaw, the president and vice president of a local NAACP in Natchez, Mississippi, garnered the attention of Republicans across the country. She has since deleted the post and her account, but screenshots have been reposted across social media.
She shared: 'I don't condone violence but please get some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time ooops that wasn't me talking.'
Marsaw has since been fired from her position. 'I was made aware of a post made by a staff member and she is no longer in my employment,' Thompson said.
Marsaw, who is also secretary, president and vice president of a local NAACP, was previously venerated as a 'hometown hero' by WJTV.
Former Speaker of the US House of Representative, Newt Gingrich, was left appalled by Marsaw's posts.
'She should be fired today. Thompson introduced the resolution to cut off secret service protection for President Trump. With staff like this the poison is deep.'
Following the attempted assassination, Thompson took to X and shared how horrified he was.
'There is no room in American democracy for political violence. I am grateful for law enforcement’s fast response to this incident.
'I am glad the former President is safe, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved,' he added.
In a follow up post, she said: 'That's what your hate speech got you!!' [SOURCE]
USA TODAY
6/21/2024, 3:43 PM
Published 1:57 p.m. ET June 18, 2024 Updated 1:58 p.m. ET June 18, 2024
A Texas Democrat running for county commission was taken into custody after being accused of
creating a fraudulent social media profile to send hateful messages to his official account.
Taral Patel, a Fort Bend county commissioner candidate in Precinct 3, was arrested by the Texas
Department of Public Safety on Wednesday, KTRK and TND reported. He was charged with third-degree
online impersonation, a felony, and misrepresentation of identity, a misdemeanor.
USA TODAY contacted Texas Public Safety and the Fort Bend District Attorney's Office for additional
comment. Patel's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fort Bend County is about 38 miles from Houston.
Last September, Patel created a post on his campaign page claiming that he received a
slew of hate comments from the supporters of his Republican opponents. Attached to the
post were screenshots of the alleged messages.
"As your Democratic candidate for County Commissioner, I am always open to criticism of
my policy positions and stances on issues," Patel stated. "However, when my Republican
opponents supporters' decide to hurl #racist, #anti-immigrant, #Hinduphobic, or
otherwise disgusting insults at my family, faith community, colleagues, and me - that
crosses a line."
Arrest documents obtained by KTRK say that the post sparked Patel's Republican
challenger, Andy Meyers, to ask the DA to investigate the matter. According to the report,
Meyers informed law enforcement that he was familiar with an account dubbed "Antonio
Scalywag" that took digs at him in the past.
The probe revealed that the account, which had a phony profile picture of a random man,
was linked to Patel's personal information. Investigators allege Patel used the profile
between October 2022 and May 2024, KVUE reported.
Following Patel's arrest, the Fort Bend County GOP released a statement likening the
accused's alleged actions to Jussie Smollett, an actor who was found guilty of staging a
2019 attack, according to reports.
"Patel garnered widespread news coverage...for claiming racist social media posts were
made against him," chairman Bobby Eberle wrote in a statement. "Now, based on the
arrest warrant and much like Jussie Smollet, it appears that Patel used a fake Facebook
account to send racist messages to himself and then blamed his political opponents."
It continued: "Whether Republican or Democrat, such tactics should be unequivocally
condemned by all who value integrity and accountability in politics. This is not a partisan
issue, and the good people of Fort Bend County should be able to trust that when
allegations are made, they are sincere."
Reports say Patel bonded out and is scheduled to appear in court in late July.
Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at
tardrey@gannett.com. [SOURCE]
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — San Diego Police are investigating after they say a man who said he was a victim of a hate crime was shown on video assaulting a pregnant woman.
According to San Diego Police, officers received calls about a man attacking a pregnant woman on the 900 block of 6th Avenue just after 10:40 p.m. on June 12.
“Officers were dispatched and arrived within minutes, but the suspect had already fled the scene,” the department said.
The department said the woman was bleeding and suffering from injuries when officers arrived. She was taken to the hospital for treatment.
Just before midnight, police received a report on the 1200 block of Market Street from a man who said he was set on fire, the department said.
RELATED: Gay man set on fire in 'hate-filled' attack in Hillcrest
“Investigators determined that this man was the suspect who battered the pregnant woman from the earlier incident at 900 6th Avenue,” police said. “Investigators have since determined the pregnant female was responsible for the burn injuries.”
Detectives have since located security footage San Diego Police say shows the “initial physical assault by the man on the pregnant woman and the subsequent use of fire as a weapon by the pregnant woman on the man.”
“This is a complex investigation, and detectives are examining all aspects and allegations. The San Diego Police Department takes all crimes of violence extremely seriously. We recognize the community’s interest in this case and are working to balance transparency with protecting the active criminal investigations.” [SOURCE]
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving was reportedly pressured by Pelosi for less security. James Keivom pic.
By Miranda Devine
December 21, 2022
6:00pm
Updated
House Republicans issued a scathing report Wednesday exposing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s key role in the catastrophic security and intelligence failures that left the US Capitol vulnerable to a violent attack on January 6, 2021.
Days after Pelosi’s Jan. 6 select committee recommended insurrection charges against former president Donald Trump over the Capitol riot, Republicans have hit back with a counter-investigation apportioning blame for the internal security breakdown on Jan. 6 to Pelosi and a dysfunctional Capitol Police intelligence division.
“Leadership and law enforcement failures within the U.S. Capitol left the complex vulnerable on January 6, 2021,” says the report, which is based on a trove of texts and email messages, and testimony from Capitol Police leaders and rank-and-file officers.
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving, who answered to Pelosi as one of three voting members of the Capitol Police Board, “succumbed to political pressures from the Office of Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leadership,” was “compromised by politics and did not adequately prepare for violence at the Capitol.”
Pelosi and her staff “coordinated closely” with Irving on security plans for the Joint Session of Congress on Jan. 6, but Republicans were deliberately left out of “important discussions related to security.”
And, in an apparent attempt to hide from Republicans the fact that they were being excluded from discussions, Irving asked a senior Democratic staffer to “act surprised” when he sent “key information about plans for the Joint Session on Jan. 6, 2021, to him and his Republican counterpart.”
The staffer replied sardonically: “I’m startled!”
The report also claims that “staff within the House Sergeant at Arms office emailed Paul Irving that January 6th was Pelosi’s fault,” although it provides no evidence for the assertion.
When Irving was forced to resign after the riot, an email from an unnamed staffer in his office criticized Pelosi’s “knee-jerk reaction to yesterday’s unprecedented event” and described his resignation as “spectacularly unjust, unfair, and unwarranted. This is not your fault. Or [Capitol Police chief Steven] Sund’s fault.”
The Republicans responsible for the withering report — Jim Banks (R-IN), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) and Troy Nehls (R-TX) — are the five congressmen originally nominated to sit on the Jan. 6 committee, until Pelosi vetoed Banks and Jordan. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled the rest of his nominees in protest. Pelosi then installed two Never Trump Republican outcasts, Liz Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger.
Given Pelosi’s assiduous grooming of Cheney, no doubt it suited both their interests to focus the final Jan.6 committee report on Trump — and not on Pelosi’s culpability.
House Republicans released a report which blamed Nancy Pelosi for the lack of security on Jan. 6. Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
But now the Republicans Pelosi rejected have skewered her in their rival report, dredging up some of what she tried to hide, despite complaining of obstruction from the personnel she controls.
The report insinuates that the Speaker left the Capitol Police without backup on Jan. 6 because “widespread concern from Democratic leadership over ‘optics’ in the aftermath of the Summer 2020 ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests prevented early deployment of the National Guard.”
Irving was forced to resign following the riot. James Keivom pic.
Chief Sund begged repeatedly for troops but has testified that Irving rebuffed him over concern about “optics.” During the violence on Jan. 6, Sund repeated his request, but help was delayed until after the riot ended, because Irving needed to run it up the chain of command, a.k.a. Pelosi.
“The Speaker’s office was heavily involved in planning and decision-making before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and micromanaged the Sergeant at Arms.”
From early December 2020, Pelosi aides attended regular meetings with Irving and Sund to discuss the security plan. So hands-on was Pelosi’s chief of staff Terri McCullough that, at one point, she was editing details of parking, event timing and “language regarding official business visitors” for the Joint Session.
To illustrate the intense involvement of Pelosi’s office, on Jan. 6 alone, the report records 36 communications between Irving and Pelosi staffers, including 11 with McCullough, and 20 with Jamie Fleet, a Pelosi aide who doubled as a Democratic staff director.
Pelosi’s repeated assertions that she has “no power over the Capitol Police” are rejected.
“This is false,” says the report. “Documents provided by [current] House Sergeant at Arms show how then-House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving carried out his duties in clear deference to the Speaker, her staff, and other Democratic staff . . .
“House Rules dictate . . . that the Sergeant at Arms is to report directly to the Speaker of the House.”
Pelosi has repeatedly said she has no control over the Capitol Police. James Keivom pic.
Indeed, the report says that Pelosi regularly exercised her authority over security matters, “when she directed the use of magnetometers outside the House chamber in the name of safety . . . Similarly, she required masks in the House chamber [and] exerted influence on security protocols at the Capitol related to the perimeter fence . . . She also oversaw the fencing that was erected for a purported rally on September 18, 2021, that never materialized.”
The report of the Republican refuseniks is an appetizer to potential future investigations next year when they regain subpoena power. It makes sensible recommendations to prevent another disaster, including reform and oversight of the Capitol Police Board.
Far from being a revenge ploy, it identifies security flaws it claims have not been remedied, including the breakdown of intelligence that had the Capitol Police (USCP) flying blind and hopelessly outnumbered when “criminal rioters assaulted police officers, broke into the U.S. Capitol, damaged property, and temporarily interfered with … the Joint Session of Congress.”
The Capitol Police Intelligence Division “failed to warn USCP leadership and line officers about the threat of violence,” despite having “obtained sufficient information from an array of channels to anticipate and prepare for the violence.”
In fact, the final intelligence threat assessment three days before the riot did warn of a violent scenario in which “Congress itself” could be attacked by armed Trump supporters. But the warning was buried towards the end of the 15-page document and was not included in the up-front summary, so was overlooked. Nor was the warning mentioned in three subsequent daily intelligence reports.
Pelosi reportedly wanted less police to preserve the optics following Black Lives Matter protests. James Keivom pic.
The Republicans blame much of the intelligence failure on the assistant director of the USCP intelligence division, Julie Farnam, who had joined the Capitol Police from the Department of Homeland Security only 10 weeks before the riot.
Analysts testified that “the section became ‘nonfunctional’ immediately upon Farnam’s arrival as she tried to “consolidate power for herself to the detriment of the safety and security of the Capitol.”
“Documents and testimony show that, immediately upon joining the USCP, and without time to acclimate, Farnam began to dismantle the systems that had kept the Capitol safe for so long,” the report alleges.
“Information about planned protests and threats of violence were siloed and not properly analyzed and disseminated during this key period because of Farnam’s misplaced priorities.”
One analyst testified: “at the time of January 6, we were not doing proactive searches of social media like we had been before. We were strictly reactive.”
As a result, USCP leadership “were not fully informed about the severity of the threats against the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021”.
However, Farnam told CBS this year that her team does not bear any responsibility for the attack on the Capitol and provided adequate threat assessments to police leadership before the riot.
“I think we did an excellent job . . . I am the one who has worked tirelessly . . . to right this ship.”
After cataloguing so many tragic failures, the report concludes on a poignant note with messages to Irving from friends in the aftermath of the attack on the Capitol.
“You’re quite something to take this one for the team, Paul, as they say. I know how these things work and you know I do, too.” [SOURCE}
A former Tennessee government official who was fired amid controversy over vaccine access for teenagers has denied sending herself a dog muzzle she told authorities was delivered anonymously, possibly as a warning to be quiet, after investigators determined it was ordered using her own credit card.
Dr Michelle Fiscus was previously the state medical director of vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization. She was fired in July, after sharing a memo that cited a state law about whether adolescents can obtain medical care, including Covid-19 vaccines, without parental permission.
The memo led Republican lawmakers to question whether Fiscus was challenging parental authority. She was fired over alleged failures to maintain good working relationships, ineffective leadership and management of the state’s vaccine program, and alleged attempts to steer state money to a nonprofit she founded.
In response, Fiscus shared years of stellar performance evaluations and claimed her firing was politically motivated. Fiscus said she received the muzzle a week before her firing. Muzzles are used to stop dogs biting animals or people.
According to Fiscus, the muzzle was sent anonymously to her office through Amazon. Fiscus said she contacted Amazon to figure out the sender but the company refused to disclose the identity.
“At first, I thought that was a joke and contacted a few friends, and then, when no one claimed it, I realised that that was something that was sent to me as some kind of a message,” she said.
Fiscus reported the incident to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. She also told her husband: “They obviously didn’t know me, because they sent me a size three which is for beagles and I’m obviously a pit bull, which requires a size six.”
On Monday, a TDSHS report found that the muzzle was paid for with Fiscus’s credit card.
“Based on the information provided to us by Amazon via subpoena, and on information derived from interviews, there is no evidence to indicate that the dog muzzle was intended to threaten Dr Fiscus,” special agent Mario Vigil wrote.
In response, Fiscus tweeted: “I asked Homeland Security to investigate the origin … Hold tight. No, I didn’t send it to myself.”
In a statement to WTVF-TV Nashville, she added: “We now learned that a second Amazon account had been established under my name using what appears to be a temporary phone, possibly in Washington state. I have asked Homeland Security for the unredacted report so that I can investigate further and am awaiting their response.”
In an interview with NewsChannel5, Fiscus admitted the muzzle charge did show up on her bank statement but denied she bought it herself. She said she still does not know who was behind the purchase, but would not rule out state employees.
“I think there’s enough information at the state if they wanted to fabricate this,” she said. “They have access to my credit card. They know my office address. It could be done.” [SOURCE]
