SpaceX spacecraft docks with International Space Station on historic NASA mission

By James Rogers | Fox News

The SpaceX Dragon Endeavour capsule docked with the International Space Station, ending its 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. (NASA TV)

SpaceX’s Dragon Endeavour spacecraft crewed by NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken has docked with the International Space Station on its historic Demo-2 mission.

The spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center Saturday. The mission is the first time that astronauts have launched from American soil since the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011.

The mission is also the first time a private company, rather than a national government, has sent astronauts into orbit.

The spacecraft made its 'soft capture' docking with the International Space Station at 10:16 am ET after an almost 19-hour journey to the orbiting space lab. The space station was 262 statute miles above the border of northern China and Mongolia when the docking occurred. "Hard capture" docking was complete at 10:28 am ET with the full docking sequence complete two minutes later.

Happy to be aboard!" said Hurley when the capsule was docked.

The hatch is expected to open around 12:45 pm ET, with a welcome ceremony at 1:15 pm ET.

"Welcome home @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug! America’s two favorite dads in space have docked to the @Space_Station," tweeted NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

President Donald Trump and Mike Pence, who is chairman of the National Space Council, were at Kennedy Space Center to watch Hurley and Behnken lift off from storied launch pad 39A, which was also used for the Apollo and space shuttle programs.

On Saturday evening Hurley announced that the spacecraft, previously known as capsule 206, has been renamed Endeavour, continuing the tradition of astronauts naming their capsules.

“We would like to welcome you aboard capsule Endeavour,” he said. “We chose Endeavour for a few reasons – one, because of the incredible Endeavour NASA, SpaceX and the United States has been on since the end of the shuttle program in 2011. The other reason we named it Endeavour is little more personal – Bob and I, we both had our first flight on Shuttle Endeavour and it just meant to much to us to carry on that name.”

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers

https://www.foxnews.com/science/spacex-spacecraft-docks-with-international-space-station-historic-nasa-mission

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At Trump request, Pentagon puts military police on alert to go to Minneapolis

By James Laporta | Associated Press

FILE - In this March 18, 2020, file photo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper with President Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

As unrest spread across dozens of American cities on Friday, the Pentagon took the rare step of ordering the Army to put several active-duty U.S. military police units on the ready to deploy to Minneapolis, where the police killing of George Floyd sparked the widespread protests.

Soldiers from Fort Bragg in North Carolina and Fort Drum in New York have been ordered to be ready to deploy within four hours if called, according to three people with direct knowledge of the orders. Soldiers in Fort Carson, in Colorado, and Fort Riley in Kansas have been told to be ready within 24 hours. The people did not want their names used because they were not authorized to discuss the preparations.

The get-ready orders were sent verbally on Friday, after President Donald Trump asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper for military options to help quell the unrest in Minneapolis after protests descended into looting and arson in some parts of the city.

Trump made the request on a phone call from the Oval Office on Thursday night that included Esper, National Security Adviser Robert O’ Brien and several others. The president asked Esper for rapid deployment options if the Minneapolis protests continued to spiral out of control, according to one of the people, a senior Pentagon official who was on the call.

”When the White House asks for options, someone opens the drawer and pulls them out so to speak.” the official said.

The person said the military units would be deployed under the Insurrection Act of 1807, which was last used in 1992 during the riots in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King trial.

“If this is where the president is headed response-wise, it would represent a significant escalation and a determination that the various state and local authorities are not up to the task of responding to the growing unrest," said Brad Moss, a Washington D.C.-based attorney, who specializes in national security.

Members of the police units were on a 30-minute recall alert early Saturday, meaning they would have to return to their bases inside that time limit in preparation for deployment to Minneapolis inside of four hours. Units at Fort Drum are slated to head to Minneapolis first, according to the three people, including two Defense Department officials. Roughly 800 U.S. soldiers would deploy to the city if called.

Protests erupted in Minneapolis this week after video emerged showing a police officer kneeling on Floyd's neck. Floyd later died of his injuries and the officer, Derek Chauvin, was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.

The protests turned violent and on Thursday rioters torched the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct near where Floyd was arrested. Mayor Jacob Frey ordered a citywide curfew at 8 p.m. local time, beginning on Friday. In that city, peaceful protests picked up steam as darkness fell, with thousands of people ignoring the curfew to walk streets in the southern part of the city. Some cars were set on fire in scattered neighborhoods, business break-ins began and eventually there were larger fires.

The unrest has since spread across the country, with protests, some violent, erupting in cities including Washington DC, Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver and Los Angeles.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered 500 of his National Guard troops into Minneapolis, St. Paul, and surrounding communities.

But a Pentagon spokesman said Walz did not ask for the Army to be deployed to his state.

“The Department has been in touch with the Governor and there is no request for Title 10 forces to support the Minnesota National Guard or state law enforcement," the spokesman said, Title 10 is the U.S. law that governs the armed forces, and would authorize active duty military to operate within the U.S.

Alyssa Farah, the White House director of strategic communications, said the deployment of active-duty military police is untrue.

“False: off the record - title 10 not under discussion,” said Farah in an email response. No off-record agreement was negotiated with The Associated Press.

The 16th Military Police Brigade forwarded the AP's questions to the Defense Department.

The three officials with direct knowledge of the potential deployment say the orders are on a classified system, known as the Secret Internet Protocol Router or SIPR for short.

Active-duty forces are normally prohibited from acting as a domestic law enforcement agency. But the Insurrection Act offers an exception.

The Act would allow the military to take up a policing authority it otherwise would not be allowed to do, enforcing state and federal laws, said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor who specializes in constitutional and national security law.

The statute “is deliberately vague” when it comes to the instances in which the Insurrection Act could be used, he said. The state’s governor could ask President Donald Trump to take action or Trump could act on his own authority if he’s determined that the local authorities are so overwhelmed that they can’t adequately enforce the law, Vladeck said.

“It is a very, very broad grant of authority for the president,” he added.

Associated Press reporters Lolita Baldor, Michael Balsamo, and Zeke Miller contributed to this story.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/at-trump-request-pentagon-puts-military-police-on-alert-to-go-to-minneapolis

Minneapolis Third Precinct police station set on fire after rioters break in

By Dom Calicchio | Fox News

The Third Precinct police station in Minneapolis was set ablaze Thursday night as violent protests continued in the city -- and other cities across the U.S. -- following Monday's death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in police custody.

In response, more than 500 members of the National Guard were heading to the Twin Cities region, called in by Gov. Tim Walz, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis reported.

Rioters broke into the precinct around 10 p.m. local time, after police on the rooftop previously tried to disperse a gathering crowd using "flash bang" shots and tear gas, according to reports.

The rioters entered the building and sparked the fire after police officers on the roof were rescued by helicopter, reports said.

A short time later, city officials warned the rioters that the risk of an explosion existed at the site because of unconfirmed reports that gas lines may have been cut, FOX 9 of the Twin Cities reported.

Mayor Jacob Frey said police officers were evacuated from the building at his direction, the station reported.

Frey said the fire department was working to respond to multiple arson fires in the city. He urged people to move away from the police precinct and made a call for unity.

"We all need to work together to ensure the safety of our friends, family, and Minneapolis residents," the mayor said, according to FOX 9. "And right now working together means clearing the area."

The precinct is located only a short distance away from where Floyd died Monday. Video images showing Floyd lying in the street, with a police officer's knee against his neck, sparked outrage across the nation.

Four police officers connected to the incident were fired Tuesday -- with Hennipen County Attorney Mike Freeman considering murder charges against them.

At the request of President Trump, federal authorities are also looking into the case.

Earlier Thursday evening, a separate fire erupted about two blocks from the police station -- with no apparent immediate signs of response from the city's fire department.

On Wednesday, rioters were shown vandalizing the same police station that officers were defending Thursday night.

Across the Twin Cities region, businesses were seen boarded up in a bid to prevent vandalism and looting.

Around midday Thursday, dozens of looters rushed toward a Target store in an apparent attempt to loot it but were turned away by responding police, The Associated Press reported. The crowd then moved on to other nearby stores.

Target, with corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, later announced it was temporarily closing about two dozen stores in the Twin Cities area.

Minneapolis also shut down much of its light-rail and bus systems through Sunday out of safety concerns, the Associated Press reported.

In St. Paul, spokesman Steve Linders said authorities were dealing with incidents in roughly 20 different parts of the city.

More unrest was reported Thursday evening in cities such as New York City, Denver, Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky.

Dom Calicchio is a Senior Editor at FoxNews.com. Reach him at dominick.calicchio@foxnews.com.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/minneapolis-third-precinct-police-station-set-on-fire-after-rioters-break-in

Proxy voting, an unconstitutional abuse of power

By William Haupt III | The Center Square

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 26, 2020. – Photo by Susan Walsh / AP

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

– Thomas Sowell

At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, the one most contentious issue the delegates had to deal with was representation. Fisticuffs broke out as lines were drawn in the sand, on how power was to be divided and who would be able to pass which laws and who would have the last word enforcing them. This battle ensued during the dog days of the summer in Philadelphia while the concept of a central government with three branches was debated along with the role of each individual branch. The issue of representation was so perverse it put the success of the entire convention in jeopardy.

When the Convention got so out of hand it looked as though all was lost, Roger Sherman proposed what would become the skeletal corpus of our government, “the Great Compromise.” He proposed each state would be represented by population in the House and they would have equal numbers of votes in the Senate. Senators chosen by state legislatures would protect state rights and the House Representatives chosen by voter would insure every American had a voice in government.

Article One of our Constitution established the legislative branch of government, Congress. It was bicameral consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. It granted Congress limited powers and restricted ability to pass necessary and proper law to enforce them. It also established the procedures for passing bills with limits on powers. This insured they never usurped the will of the people or abused those powers to disenfranchise the voice of voters in every American region.

“The question is how our rights are equally and effectually guarded in society.”

– Roger Sherman

The House of Representatives last week passed a bill to spend over $3 trillion for Covid-19 relief and a rules change to allow lawmakers to vote remotely during the pandemic. The measure barely passed by nine votes and reflects all leftist priorities and is the largest relief package in U.S. history.

If the Senate approved this bill, the House would have a free reign to pass anything they wished. It was written by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and went directly to the floor. It was the socialist wish list and more. It would give federal aide to illegal immigrants, federalized elections, released prisoners, and allocated money to the growers of cannabis. It restructured Congress to allow voting by proxy, which would disenfranchise all opposing voters and give Pelosi and her socialist comrades unadulterated control of Congress.

In agreeing on this atrocity, House Democrats openly violated our Constitution with this proxy voting scheme. Our founders mandated Congress to convene and deliberate. The Constitution requires a “quorum of members” be present to pass all laws. In times of a national crisis, changes in rules may be necessary. But when they are contrived with open partisan maneuvering to bypass the tenants of our Constitution to eliminate the voice of the people in government, this is tyrannical despotism.

This latest support for abridgment of Congressional power shows how untrustworthy House leftists are. Just a few weeks ago in the heart of the COVID crisis when it was suggested Congress vote by “proxy,” Pelosi said on the House floor, “We are the captains of the ships. We are the last to leave. Proxy voting calls on Congress to abandon the ship, to be the first to leave for months or even the rest of the session. For members to leave and never have to return to session is totally wrong.”

This is the first time in American history that such a conspicuous abuse of power by Congress has been attempted! There are 435 members that represent the voters of America. There are districts created to represent the wishes and demands of the voters in each precinct. We evaluate districts for changes every two years. Each district “loans” their voice and their power to those members of Congress that they elect to “represent” and vote for “them” in the halls of Congress in Washington.

This new leftist scheme of a proxy-ship would enable 20 people to have control of Congress, since each member represents 10 proxies. The 435 members who represent regions around the nation would no longer be accountable to voters that elected them. This would also enable Democrats to have 20 people with 10 proxies to pass every bill without approval from one voter. This would be a flagrant abuse of power.

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.”

– Edmund Burke

This contrivance would reconstruct Congress and nullify the Great Compromise without the states ever voting on a constitutional amendment. Members of Congress would do what their party told them to do, not what the people who elected them and “loaned’ them the authority to do for them.

Pelosi could sit in her office and compose the biggest government monetary give-away bill that’s ever been written in the history of government. And it would not be vetted in one committee. The bill would go directly to the chamber floor without amendments or objections from one person.

It was revealed that Pelosi’s “left hand man” in Congress, Jim Clyburn, recently said that he believes COVID-19 is a perfect time to restructure government to meet the needs of Democrats. The socialist left is not looking at COVID-19 as an obligation to work with the president to resolve a crisis for Americans. They see it as an opportunity to reinvent government for the socialist, liberal far left.

When Roger Sherman proposed the Great Compromise, he said “this government should be made to represent all people in each sovereign state.” He would be turning over in his grave if Pelosi were to succeed with this assault against voters by her and the socialist liberal left. It would be a coup to give unlimited power to the House speaker and violate every principle our founders wanted to bring to America.

“Congress is too old. They don't have a stake in the game.”

– Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

President Donald Trump has worked tirelessly with other world leaders to contain and to find a way to stop the spread of COVID-19. He finally forced the Chinese to share data with other nations in an effort to discover the true source of this virus so a legitimate vaccine can be created. Since this crisis began, he has asked for bipartisan support to work with him and public health officers to help manage this pandemic. But Congress has rebuffed him and the American people to gain favors for their party.

Author Ken Blanchard wrote, “None of us is as smart as all of us.” We’re the most powerful nation in the world because ‘When the going gets tough, America gets going.” We brought communism to its knees in the Soviet Bloc and Korea. We’ve defended world freedom in two great wars against a common enemy. One can only imagine how quickly this crisis would have resolved if Congress had worked with the president against this common enemy COVID-19 – instead of working against him.

Roger Sherman dedicated his life to this nation. He was the only founder to sign all Revolutionary documents: The Declaration of Independence, The Articles of Confederation and The Constitution. As Roger Sherman looks down from the heavens above he has got to be ashamed to see what his Congress is doing to his beloved America.

 “Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul.”

– Alexis de Tocqueville, 1832

Contributing Columnist William Haupt III is a retired professional journalist, author, and citizen legislator in California for over 40 years. He got his start working to approve California Proposition 13.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/national/op-ed-proxy-voting-an-unconstitutional-abuse-of-power/article_006383b8-9c32-11ea-b537-bbb8d75ecc58.html

Science Says: Lockdowns Could Kill More Of Us Than The Coronavirus

By I & I Editorial Board

We’ve listened intently as mainstream media outlets, both print and broadcast, have lectured us and the rest of America on the lifesaving virtues of the Wuhan virus lockdown. While it may well be true that it saved lives from the virus, what about the lives lost to the lockdown?

The economic devastation from the lockdown has had brutal consequences, in particular for small businesses, their owners and their often low-wage employees. With 38.6 million suddenly unemployed and applying for benefits, jobless rates shooting toward 20%, and bankruptcies crushing major industries, such as retailing, the near-term outlook is grim if the lockdowns continue.

Contrary to the now-trite progressive chant of “we’re all in this together,” those at the struggling bottom rungs of our once-thriving economy bear the brunt of the lockdown — not the privileged minority with secure government jobs or stable stay-at-home telecommuting gigs impervious to such things as shutdowns.

No, we’re not “all in this together.” And doctors, economists and others are concluding that the costs in lives lost may actually exceed the benefits, a classic case of the cure being worse than the disease.

A group of 600 doctors recently signed a letter sent to the president seeking an end to the lockdown. These doctors braved the opprobrium and possible political harassment from some of their fellow citizens to warn us all that the number of suicides from the lockdown’s crushing economic and psychological effects appears to be soaring.

“We are alarmed at what appears to be the lack of consideration for the future health of our patients. The downstream health effects of deteriorating a level are being massively under-estimated and under-reported. This is an order of magnitude error,” the letter said.

“The millions of casualties of a continued shutdown will be hiding in plain sight, but they will be called alcoholism, homelessness, suicide, heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure,” the letter continues. “In youths it will be called financial instability, unemployment, despair, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancies, poverty, and abuse.”

As Dr. Mike deBoisblanc, head of trauma at John Muir Medical Center in the San Francisco Bay Area, recently told a local ABC affiliate: “We’ve never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time. I mean, we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.” 

Worse, badly needed medical procedures have been put off due to shutdowns.

A recent news story predicted “thousands” of cancer deaths due to postponed cancer surgeries in England. Expect nothing different here. Many Americas with life-threatening ailments also have had treatments “postponed” so that we could flatten the curve.

Those arguing loudest for a continued shutdown of our cities and towns and the enormous economy they represent are among the first to scream “science!” when anyone questions their bad ideas, including the lockdown.

Well, doctors are on the cutting edge of health science. So why don’t lockdown supporters heed their words?

In fact, we may be on the verge of a far more serious long-term plague than COVID-19: a wave of what social scientists and doctors now call “deaths of despair.“

How serious is it?

An early May study by the Well-Being Trust and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care predicted 75,000 added deaths from COVID-19 lockdown-related stress and depression. But, if the economic recovery is slow and unemployment remains high, the number of deaths, the study warned, could shoot as high as 154,037.

For the record, that latter death toll is well more than the Wuhan virus is likely to kill.

“The collective impact of COVID-19 could be devastating,” according to the report, which blames lockdown-related factors such as “economic failure with massive unemployment, mandated social isolation for months and possible residual isolation for years, and uncertainty caused by the sudden emergence of a novel, previously unknown microbe.

“The economics of COVID-19 have already caused a massive jump in unemployment: job loss leading to personal and professional economic loss across all business sectors. Hourly workers as well as salaried professionals have been laid off and furloughed indefinitely.”

As we’ve said before, the predictions of disaster in states reopening have been wrong. Georgia, Florida and Texas so far are doing fine, and their economies are starting to perk up. Las Vegas, taking their lead, plans to reopen casinos in early June.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control show that coronavirus infection fatality rates (IFR) are basically only slightly worse than for a bad flu season. The current IFR rate of 0.26%, based on CDC data, is way below the 3.4% (and higher) rates that the World Health Organization and others used to scare us and shut down much of the global economy.

The lockdown may turn out to be one of the worst policy mistakes in American economic history. If so, it prompts the question: Did we really need to shutter our powerful economic machine to control the virus?

It sure doesn’t look that way. Not only will we be saddled with lower incomes, lost revenues and trillion-dollar deficits for years to come as a result of the lockdown and uncontrolled government spending, but working Americans who had made such nice economic gains in recent years will start slipping down the income ladder.

That will lead to a tragic, but sadly predictable, uptick in depression, drug use, alcohol abuse and suicide, among other outcomes, as we recently wrote. It may well be those, and not COVID-19 deaths, will be the lasting, tragic legacy of the Wuhan virus.

To repeat: It’s time we ended this insane national lockdown, if only to restore some sense of normalcy to America. And maybe save tens of thousands of lives while we’re at it.

https://issuesinsights.com/2020/05/26/will-the-lockdown-kill-more-americans-than-the-wuhan-virus/

Red Wave Coming? GOP Sweeps Election in Virginia Democratic Stronghold

By Ellie Bufkin|Townhall.com

Source: AP Photo/Steve Helber

With the November general election less than six months away, results of local and special elections are giving an eye-opening preview of possible voter behavior. While recent polls still show Democratic hopefuls, including presumed presidential nominee Joe Biden, edging out their Republican counterparts in competitive parts of the country, actual ballots are telling a very different story. 

Special congressional elections in California and Wisconsin this month both yielded Republican victors after Democrats launched strong campaigns in other races. In California, Republican Mike Garcia beat Democrat Christy Smith by almost 10 points after receiving 10,000 fewer votes in the primary election just two months earlier. Garcia replaced Democrat Katie Hill, who resigned at the end of 2019, flipping a California House seat from blue to red for the first time in more than 20 years. 

As stunning as Garcia's resounding victory for Republicans in California was, however, a shocking GOP blowout in the Staunton, Virginia city council election this week has given Democrats a reason to be alarmed. 

Like many cities in Virginia through the last several years, Staunton has trended toward liberal candidates in national and municipal elections, supporting Barack Obama in both the 2008 and 2012 elections, and Hillary Clinton in 2016. The city also helped buoy Democratic governors Terry McAuliffe and Ralph Northam to victory in the past two gubernatorial elections while consistently electing a majority of Democrats to the city council.

Following the 2019 'Blue Wave' in Virginia legislature elections, however, residents of Staunton, which is supported in large part by private liberal arts college Mary Baldwin, came out in droves to support Republicans this week. Three Democratic council members lost to their Republican challengers in an unprecedented sweep by the GOP with a voter turn out that smashed previous election cycles. 

More than 17,000 votes were cast in the in the election in which all four council members were vying to protect their seats. The last Staunton election for all four members was in 2016 in which fewer than 7,000 votes were cast. One Virginia political analyst, Chris Graham, of the Augusta Free Press described the results as "stunning almost beyond words."

Noting the eye-popping voter turnout, Graham credited Democrats for getting more votes than they did in the last cycle. However, Republican voters left no chance for defeat, with a turnout "more akin to, not quite a presidential year, but approaching gubernatorial their rivals at polls," according to Graham. 

Following the 2019 Virginia election in which Democrats took control of the state senate and the House of Delegates, liberal policy pushes by local lawmakers and Governor Northam have soured residents of the state on many Democrats. Anti-gun legislation signed by Northam earlier this year drew massive protests in the state capital of Richmond and have drawn a line in the sand between residents and progressive lawmakers. 

Northam also angered Virginians at the onset of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic in the state, becoming one of the first Democratic governors to enact strict lockdown orders and called for a shutdown into mid-June just weeks into the crisis. He has since eased on his stringent orders for the state, but as he keeps the most populous counties in the northern part of the state on continued restriction and continues with a very slowly phased reopening plan everyone else, criticism against him remains at a fever pitch. 

Election analysts and representatives of the August County Republican Committee agree that the unpopular gun legislation and Northam's response to COVID-19 factored into the GOP shellacking in Staunton this week. 

"I’m rarely shocked by something that happens in politics, but I have to admit, I didn’t see this one happening," Graham said in a post-election analysis. 

"This turning point for the city shows that the citizens want a change in their government," Austin Armentrout of the ACRC told Townhall. "Many people are getting involved in politics and making their voices heard around our country, and it is resulting in Republican victories. The Staunton City Council Election was one of many in the Commonwealth of Virginia that show a growing momentum for Republican candidates that will carry through into November when President Donald Trump and Congressman Ben Cline [R-VA 06] are re-elected."

With Republican victories in California and Virginia already on the books for 2020, Democratic Party operatives will be forced to look at how to reach voters clearly frustrated with state lockdowns that are almost entirely perpetuated by Democratic governors. Likewise, Democratic congressional candidates and incumbents must stand behind their actions during the last two years in which they pushed an unfounded impeachment of the president and blocked attempts to help Americans during the pandemic. 

The trouncing in Staunton, a city that has supported almost every Democrat for more than 15 years, is a bellwether that Democrats across the country would be foolish to ignore. 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/elliebufkin/2020/05/22/red-wave-coming-democratic-stronghold-city-in-virginia-stunned-by-gop-sweep-n2569269?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=1b87ed489cb499e9d52de389e64c7f01&recip=19399969

NAACP blasts Joe Biden's claim that it endorsed him every time he’s run for office

By LAUREN EDMONDS and MATTHEW WRIGHT and NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

NAACP President Derrick Johnson (pictured) said in a statement that the organization does not endorse political candidates at any level

During an interview with Charlamagne tha God, Biden claimed the NAACP has endorsed him each time he's run for office

The statement comes in response to comments the presumptive Democratic nominee made Friday during an 18-minute interview with radio host Charlamagne tha God on The Breakfast Club.  

Biden claimed that the NAACP has supported him each time he's run for office in an attempt to prove his consistency in supporting the black community.   

'Take a look at my record. I extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. I have a record that is second to none. The NAACP’s endorsed me every time I’ve run,' said Biden.

'Take a look at the record.' 

But Johnson assured in his statement that 'the NAACP has one mission and that is fighting for and advancing our Black communities towards an equitable reality.' 

Charlamagne was angered that people talked about how the coronavirus was devastating the black community but failed to talk about 'health issues stemming from systemic racism that has never been fixed.'

The radio host then turned his critique directly to Biden. He slammed Biden's work on the 1994 crime bill, which many have critiqued for its effects on mass incarceration, especially for African Americans. 

Photo: Biden pictured with Bill Clinton during the signing ceremony for the bill

'Like I said before if you have created legislation that has hurt then you have to create legislation that helps, it's just that simple,' Charlamagne continued. 'The whole system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt and he has been a very intricate part of that system.

'Whether you're talking about '84 with the mandatory minimum sentences for drug dealers, when you talk about '86 with crack laws that gave you more time for crack cocaine and powder cocaine, or if you talk about the '94 crime bill.        

'He really was one of the people on the front lines when it came to the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration. If he wants to be president, he needs to fix that.' 

Following the passage of the federal crime bill in 1994, incarceration rates climbed for 14 years, according to the ACLU. Many have slammed Biden's work on the bill to contributing to some of the disparities still impacting many today.

Biden apologized to black business leaders for telling the popular radio show host that he 'ain't black' if he can't discern the better presidential candidate between Biden and President Trump. 

'I should not have been so cavalier. I've never, never, ever taken the African-American community for granted,' Biden said, according to the Associated Press. 'I shouldn't have been such a wise guy.' 

Biden added that, 'No one should have to vote for any party based on their race, their religion, their background,' on a conference call with the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce Friday afternoon.

Among those who criticized Biden for what he said was Diddy, tweeting, 'Aye bruh @JoeBiden I already told you the #BlackVoteAintFree.' 

President Trump and his surrogates also took advantage of Biden's gaffe.   

Click below to read the rest of this article.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8350803/NAACP-blasts-Joe-Bidens-claim-endorsed-time-hes-run.html

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Dem Strategist Wrongly Assumes Two Black Models Won't Vote for Trump

By Bronson Stocking | Townhall.com

Source: Twitter/Screenshot

The media's liberal bias is always apparent, but especially after a Democrat does or says something so horrific that it would constitute political-suicide if a Republican had done or said the same thing. A good example of this is Joe Biden's recent comments that black voters who support President Trump "ain't black." 

Instead of calling Biden a "racist," exploring "links" between Biden and the Klan, and bringing "experts" on to "de-code" Biden's "dog whistles" to white supremacists everywhere, when it's a Democrat in hot water, the liberal media frame the discussion as "Republicans pounce," or, in this instance, "THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN CAPITALIZES ON BIDEN'S REMARKS," as the CBS News chyron read on Sunday. 

The big news covered by CBS is not Biden's racist comments but how the Trump campaign is responding to those racist comments. 

"Within hours they had these t-shirts, 'you ain't black,' that were on sale at the president's online store," a CBS host asked Democratic strategist Joel Payne, as pictures of two black models wearing the Trump campaign's t-shirts appeared on the screen. "The campaign has confirmed a million-dollar ad blitz against the former vice president. Ads have already begun circulating online within hours. How does the Biden camp combat these kind of aggressive moves particularly online by the Trump campaign?"

The Democratic strategist answered by questioning whether the two models wearing the campaign's t-shirts would actually vote for President Trump. 

"It's so interesting, the two models you showed showing those shirts, I wonder if they would actually vote for Donald Trump. That might be a good question for an industrious journalist to dig into," said Payne. 

Well, not much digging was needed as both models happen to be full-time staff members for the Trump campaign. 

Payne must be so wrapped up in identity politics that he can't even imagine two black people, wearing pro-Trump t-shirts, might actually vote for President Trump, much less work on his campaign. 

Here's the embarrassing moment, or, as the liberal media would put it, here's the Trump campaign capitalizing on Payne's comments: 

Following the CBS News segment, Trump campaign Senior Adviser Katrina Pierson confirmed that both individuals were full-time staff members on the Trump team. 

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/bronsonstocking/2020/05/24/watch-dem-strategist-wrongly-assumes-two-black-models-wont-vote-for-trump-n2569376?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl_pm&newsletterad=&bcid=1b87ed489cb499e9d52de389e64c7f01&recip=19399969

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NEWS PRESS RELEASE

NAACP STATEMENT ON ENDORSEMENT COMMENT BY FORMER VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

MAY 22, 2020

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, made the following statement about a remark by former Vice President Joe Biden during his Friday morning interview on “The Breakfast Club.”

“Yesterday, former Vice President Joe Biden made a comment about the NAACP’s endorsement. We want to clarify that the NAACP is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse candidates for political office at any level. Persons affiliated with the NAACP at the national, state, and local levels are free to make candidate endorsements in a personal capacity, but they do not reflect support by the NAACP as an organization. The NAACP has one mission and that is fighting for and advancing our Black communities towards an equitable reality. Our primary focus at this moment is to ensure that our communities that have been victims of domestic terrorism and disproportionately impacted by this pandemic have the opportunity to cast their powerful vote come November.”

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Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation’s oldest and largest nonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our six “Game Changer” issue areas at naacp.org.

https://www.naacp.org/latest/naacp-statement-endorsement-comment-former-vice-president-joe-biden/