After other media outlets picked up the New York Times article about a “worrisome” new virus variant allegedly spreading throughout the city, scientists and health officials blasted the paper for inciting fear based on unpublished, non-peer-reviewed studies.
The New York Times on Thursday published an article about the spread of a possible new COVID variant in New York City. After the article was picked up widely by other mainstream media outlets, scientists and public health officials were quick to condemn what they said was the “potentially premature release of unfinished research.”
A new virus variant is spreading rapidly in New York City, and it carries a mutation that may weaken the effectiveness of vaccines, researchers said. https://t.co/8mK7AKjjvS
The Times cited studies from two teams of researchers. One study, posted online Tuesday, was led by a group of researchers at the California Institute of Technology. The other study, which had been obtained by the Times but not yet made public, came from a group of researchers at Columbia University.
Neither study had been peer reviewed, published in a scientific journal or shared with public officials before being published by the Times, according to NBC New York.
CNN, which also received a copy of the Columbia study, ran with the Times’ story that researchers had found a worrying new variant in New York City that was “alarming,” “surging” and might be “more contagious” and cause more “severe disease.”
CNN did admit that the research was in its very early stages, had not been published or peer reviewed and needed “more work.”
“To be quite clear, I think neither of us did anything wrong,” said the author of the article, Apoorva Mandavilli, in a tweet. “It is our job to report and bring information to light. Sometimes that’s at the pace of science, but sometimes not.”
To be quite clear, I think neither of us did anything wrong. It is our job to report and bring information to light. Sometimes that's at the pace of science, but sometimes not.
However, scientists and health officials criticized the premature release of unfinished research, arguing that there was no evidence that the new variant has contributed to the case trajectory and that it was not currently a cause for public health concern.
Commenting on the controversy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman of Children’s Health Defense, said:
“This is yet another example of the New York Times’ double standard and hypocrisy on all things vaccine. The Times regularly bashes me for promoting vaccine ‘misinformation’ even though I religiously cite all of my published posts to published, peer-reviewed sources or government databases. Yet here we have the Times promoting panic by citing an article that is neither peer reviewed nor published and that has none of the indicia of accuracy or credibility.”
When Eric Topol, physician, scientist, professor of molecular medicine and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute asked on Twitter why academic groups were forwarding “preprints” that are not posted directly to the media without the biomedical community having a chance to review, Nathan Grubaugh, a professor at the Yale School of Public Health responded:
“This wasn’t even a ‘pre-print’ – I was asked to provide comment on someone’s draft manuscript that still had tracked changes and didn’t include the figures. Based on this, the NYT wrote a story. This is an absolute mess.”
This wasn't even a "pre-print" – I was asked to provide comment on someone's draft manuscript that still had tracked changes and didn't include the figures. Based on this, the NYT wrote a story. This is an absolute mess. https://t.co/COG7SS5ROX
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spokesperson, Bill Neidhardt tweeted that it’s great Columbia and others are locking into COVID variants, but “please, please for the love of all that is holy share the data with public health officials before you publicize pre-writes that still have track changes with the NY Times. That’s all.
It’s great that Columbia and other academics are looking into COVID variants. But please, please for the love of all that is holy share the data with public health officials before you publicize pre-writes that still have track changes with the NY Times. That’s all. https://t.co/XR3QWNewnr
One of de Blasio’s senior public health advisors, Dr. Jay Varma called the reporting “pathogen porn” that was not helpful to public health. He tweeted a plea to academics to “review high-impact studies with government health departments before marketing it to the media.”
Why are academic groups forwarding "preprints" that are not posted directly to the media without the biomedical community having a chance to review? Isn't a preprint enough? is this a new pre-pre-print trend? Concerning.
Some variants are variants of interest and some variants are a public health concern. “As far as the Columbia report,” Varma said during the mayor’s daily coronavirus briefing, “we need to just consider this a variant of interest — something that is interesting that we need to follow and track.” Varma encouraged New Yorkers to be a “little skeptical” with what they read.
Viruses mutate all the time, including the virus behind COVID-19. Virus mutations, which are random errors that occur when a virus reproduces, appear frequently due to the number of viruses replicating in a short period of time when transmission is extensive, according to Quanta Magazine.
After 15 months of evolution, SARS-CoV-2 has sequenced more than 600,000 times, said Topol citing The Economist. The new variant called B.1.526 first appeared in November but has become the latest addition to a growing number of viral variants that have arisen in the U.S.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, New York’s health commissioner, said there was no evidence to suggest the variant identified in the Columbia report had contributed to case numbers, which have continued to decrease since the holiday spike.
According to NBC New York, when Topol took to Twitter to question why the Times report on a possible “scariant” had been published without biomedical review, author Apoorva Mandavilli said she wanted readers to see both lines of evidence at once and everyone quoted in the article had seen the manuscript and thought it looked legit.
“It [referring to the Columbia study, which also cited pre-publication data from Caltech] should be out soon!”
Mandavilli said in a tweet that the blast by NBC New York was not really a criticism of her, but of another writer and she was blamed.
Two New York Times journalists wrote about viral variants, and only the other journalist had used entirely unpublished data, tweeted Mandavilli. She said he [the other journalist] didn’t get grief because he was a white male, though she thinks neither of them did anything wrong.
Although the preprint by Columbia is now available online, it has not been certified by peer review — a process by which a journal’s editors take advice from various experts who assess the paper and identify weaknesses in its assumptions, methods and conclusions.
According to medRxiv, an online archive and distribution server for complete but unpublished manuscripts (preprints) in the medical, clinical and related health sciences, preprints like the Columbia study should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information, as it might contain errors, has not been finalized by the authors and may contain information not endorsed by the scientific or medical community.
Journalists are urged to emphasize the preprint has yet to be evaluated by the medical community and that the information presented may be erroneous.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 681 points, or 2.2%, in midday trading, while the S&P 500 climbed 2.2%. Both indexes were on track for their biggest one-day gains since November. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite was up 2.3%.
The gains marked a robust rebound after all three indexes declined last week, weighed down by losses among tech stocks.
Monday’s advance came as the yield on 10-year Treasury notes, the benchmark borrowing cost in U.S. debt markets, slipped to 1.431% from 1.459% Friday. Yields fall when bond prices rise.
Stocks, and particularly shares of tech companies, have been buffeted by volatile moves in government-bond markets in recent trading sessions. A long period of low interest rates underpinned the stock market’s boom over the past year, by making it less attractive for investors to put money in bonds. Last week’s climb in yields called that into question. It also raised the specter that the U.S. Federal Reserve might put an end to easy-money policies to combat inflation.
Not just Tesla: Tech analyst says electric vehicle stocks could soar 50% this year Electric vehicle stocks could climb by 50% this year, according to Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, who thinks there's enough room in the market for Tesla rivals.https://t.co/8RE1SBFmnS
While it may be appropriate to label Max Lucado “Christian-lite”, I don’t believe it’s fair to call him a Christian Leftist (at least not yet). His recent retraction and apology for his past sermons regarding same-sex marriage though have left many Christians wondering if the best selling author of over 100 faith titles folded to the pressures of progressive ideology this past week. Lucado, who claims to still personally affirm a biblical view of marriage and sexuality, faced backlash after being invited to speak at the Washington National Cathedral by the left-leaning Episcopal Church’s Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Paul in the City and the Diocese of Washington. Ultimately, Lucado was allowed to address the church through the virtual event, but not without demands for leadership to rescind his invitation and to cancel his talk after statements from a 2004 sermon he preached condemning same-sex marriage surfaced.
Max Lucado apologises for past sermon on same-sex marriage after critics complain about National Cathedral invitation https://t.co/XN5xmoUlyv
Several issues are wrong with this situation, notwithstanding Lucado’s own response, but’s let start by addressing the greater problem – that a so-called ‘Christian church’ would support a liberal LGBT agenda over the teachings of Jesus, scriptural interpretation, and 2000 years of well-established church history. At some point in time, in denominations like this sect of the Episcopal church, Christian views on original sin, morality, and the dangers of libertine sexuality were replaced with a rampant embrace of licentiousness and every en vogue moral departure. In the past, this form of neo-Christianity, which has more in common with Marx than Christ, was mostly isolated to academic circles, but over the past few decades it has leaked it’s left-leaning heresy into the pulpit and now into the pews.
With that said, Lucado’s response doesn’t make him apostate, and any cries from Christians to ‘cancel him’ only cause us to resemble the leftist mobs we criticize. What it does show though is how easy it is for a solid Christian leader to succumb to political pressure and fall short of defending the faith.
Evangelical megachurch pastor Max Lucado has apologized for language he used in a 2004 sermon on same-sex marriage after the LGBTQ community objected to him acting as guest pastor at Washington National Cathedral Feb. 7.https://t.co/guwmxztaK9pic.twitter.com/fgrJqjUL5U
The early church dealt with a similar issue which was vividly captured in St. Cyprian’s work, The Lapsed: The Unity of the Catholic Church, in which he tells of Christians who folded to pressure from the Roman state to offer a pagan sacrifice contrary to their faith. Individuals who conformed to the religious demands of the empire, only to later return to the church to reconfirm their faith in Christ, were known at that time as ‘the lapsed’.
Of course, Lucado didn’t go as far as to offer a pagan sacrifice, but he did seemingly apologize for holding scriptural beliefs. In the end, his efforts failed to satisfy his progressive opponents and unfortunately caused his fellow Bible-believing base to question his witness. I won’t be so bold as to call Lucado “lapsed,” but I do believe his efforts were misguided. Nonetheless, as St. Cyprian modeled to the early church, individuals like Lucado, assuming he continues to embrace a biblical worldview, should be allowed back into believers’ good graces – though not without caution.
In line with biblical grace, let’s remember it’s easy for those who have never experienced a furious onslaught from a cancel culture mob to criticize. It is hard to say what any of us would do if we were to undergo this type of societal attack against our careers and livelihood. With that said, the right answer for Christians is to always hold fast to scripture and to never apologize for God’s word.
Former President Donald Trump says he was concerned days before the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol about the size of the crowd expected near the Capitol and requested 10,000 National Guard troops to be deployed, but that his request was rejected because House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other leaders did not like the optics.
Trump says he requested 10K National Guard troops at Capitol on day of riot https://t.co/rwKn3R6Cej
“I requested, I said this rally will be bigger than anything thinks,” Trump told Fox News’ Steve Hilton on “The Revolution” Sunday night, in an interview airing after his CPAC speech. “Everyone said we’ll be at the rally. It was, I think, the largest crowd that I have ever spoken to before. I have spoken to big crowds, hundreds of thousands of people, more than that, but hundreds of thousands of people.”
Trump said he “gave the number” to the Department of Defense that 10,000 members of the National Guard would be needed.
“They took that number, from what I understand, they gave it to people at the Capitol, that is controlled by Pelosi, and I heard they rejected it because they didn’t think it would look good,” said Trump.
According to the National Guard’s website, “the President of the United States can activate the National Guard for participation in federal missions. Examples of federal activations include Guard units deployed to Kosovo and the Sinai for stabilization operations and units deployed to the Middle East and other locations in the war on terrorism.”
On the day after the riot, Trump said in a recorded video that he “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.”
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo” that Trump issued a “direct order” to have up to 10,000 troops ready.
Meanwhile, according to Jane Campbell, the president and CEO of the U..S. Capitol Historical society, Capitol Complex security is the direct responsibility of a four-member Capitol Police Board, which includes both the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, who report to the leaders of those chambers, reports PolitiFact.
Paul Irving, who had been the House sergeant-at-arms at the time of the attack, Michael Stenger, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms, and Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund all resigned after the attack.
According to reports from The Washington Post and The New York Times, Irving told Sund he didn’t want troops at the Capitol on Jan. 6 because of “bad optics.”
Pelosi’s office and the Defense Department have not immediately responded to Trump’s comments, reports Fox News.
Trump also told Hilton that he “hated” to see what unfolded at the Capitol, but denied that he was watching the events unfold on television in real time and compared the riot to unrest that took place in cities such as Portland and Seattle last summer.
Four people were arrested in Texas last month on 150 counts of voter fraud dating back to the 2018 Medina County Primary Election, according to reports.
The Texas attorney general’s Election Fraud Unit on Feb. 11 arrested Medina County Justice of the Peace Tomas Ramirez, and earlier detained Leonor Rivas Garza, Eva Ann Martinez and Mary Balderrama on election fraud allegations, News4SA reported.
According to a release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, the case involved allegations of vote harvesting at assisted living centers in Medina County in the 2018 Medina County Primary Election.
Ramirez faces one count of organized election fraud, one count of assisting voter voting ballot by mail, and 17 counts of unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope, according to the news outlet.
Balderrama is charged with one count of organized election fraud, nine counts of illegal voting, two counts of unlawful possession of ballot or ballot envelope, one count of mail ballot application, two counts of unlawfully assisting voter voting by mail, two counts of tampering with government record, and eight counts of election fraud.
Garza faces a single count of organized election fraud, two counts of illegal voting, eight counts of unlawful possession of a ballot or ballot envelope, two counts of election fraud and four counts of fraudulent use of an absentee ballot by mail.
This shows Mail ballot vote fraud in Texas.
“Investigators said Mohamed opened a post office box under the name of a nursing home then “forged at least 84 voter registration applications” and sent those ballots to that post office box.”
Martinez is charged with a single count of organized election fraud, nine counts of illegal voting, 28 counts of unlawful possession of ballot or ballot envelope, three counts of purportedly acting as an agent, five counts of tampering with government record, 14 counts of election fraud, and four counts of fraudulent mail ballot application, according to News4SA.
The Texas attorney general’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment by The Epoch Times.
In a separate incident, Raquel Rodriguez, a Texas woman who bragged about being able to deliver thousands of votes for tens of thousands in cash was arrested in January on charges including election fraud and illegal voting.
Rodriguez was filmed during an undercover project by Project Veritas, an investigative journalism nonprofit. She was recorded in footage released last year that she could deliver “at least 5,000” votes “county-wide” for $55,000 in cash and that it would hire her “entire team.” She acknowledged what she was discussing could land her prison time.
Based on the footage, Paxton, a Republican, opened an investigation. That probe led to the arrest, Paxton announced on Jan. 13.
Rodriguez faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years if convicted.
A woman accused of voter fraud in San Antonio has been arrested & charged with illegal voting, unlawfully assisting people voting by mail & unlawfully possessing a ballot.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced a barrage of criticism from fellow Democrats after The New York Times reported that the second former aide in four days had accused him of sexual harassment.
Why it matters: Cuomo had faced a revolt from legislators for his handling of nursing-home deaths from COVID. Now, the scandal is acutely personal, with obviously grave political risk.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Corteztweeted that the women’s “detailed accounts of sexual harassment by Gov. Cuomo are extremely serious and painful to read,” and said the state attorney general should investigate.
She was among several Democrats said an “independent review” announced by Cuomo was inadequate.
“This is no joke,” Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) tweeted above the Times story. “There must be an independent investigation into these allegations. The accused CANNOT appoint the investigator. PERIOD.”
Charlotte Bennett, 25, an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until November, told The Times (subscription) that the governor, 63, had harassed her during the height of the state’s COVID fight, including asking whether “she had ever had sex with older men.”
The most disturbing encounter came June 5, when she was alone with Cuomo in his Capitol office, The Times reports:
[S]he said the governor had asked her numerous questions about her personal life, including whether she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships, and had said that he was open to relationships with women in their 20s — comments she interpreted as clear overtures to a sexual relationship.
Bennett said Cuomo complained about being lonely during the pandemic, mentioning that he “can’t even hug anyone,” then asking her: “Who did I last hug?”
Cuomo requested an independent review, and said in a statement that he had intended to act as a mentor: “I never made advances toward Ms. Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate.”
Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” that she wants an independent investigation and said of the one Cuomo announced: “I wouldn’t consider that to be independent.”
On Wednesday, former aide Lindsey Boylan, 36, wrote that Cuomo suggested: “Let’s play strip poker.”
A second former aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has come forward with allegations of sexual harassment, which came just days after his first accuser made her claims public.
Charlotte Bennett, who is described by The New York Times as “an executive assistant and health policy adviser in the Cuomo administration until she left in November,” alleges that Cuomo “asked her questions about her sex life, whether she was monogamous in her relationships and if she had ever had sex with older men.”
The 25-year-old staffer described to the Times an incident that took place in June when she was “alone” with the 63-year-old governor in his State Capitol office. According to the report, he allegedly asked her if she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships and that he was open to having relationships with women in their 20s, which were noted by the Times as “comments she interpreted as clear overtures to a sexual relationship.”
While Bennett alleges that Cuomo never tried touching her, the governor’s “message” during that exchange was “unmistakable to her.”
“I understood that the governor wanted to sleep with me, and felt horribly uncomfortable and scared,” Bennett told the Times. “And was wondering how I was going to get out of it and assumed it was the end of my job.”
According to the Times, Bennett disclosed the incident to Cuomo’s chief of staff Jill DesRosiers less than a week later and submitted a lengthier statement to Cuomo’s special counsel Judith Mogul towards the end of the month. She was also transferred to another job as a health policy adviser, placing her on the opposite side of the Capitol building.
Bennett told the Times she didn’t persist in seeking an investigation because she “wanted to move on” and that she was content with her new job.
In a press release on Saturday, Cuomo called Bennett a “hardworking and valued member of our team during COVID” who has “every right to speak out.”
“When she came to me and opened up about being a sexual assault survivor and how it shaped her and her ongoing efforts to create an organization that empowered her voice to help other survivors, I tried to be supportive and helpful,” Cuomo said in a statement, which was issued to the Times. “Ms. Bennett’s initial impression was right: I was trying to be a mentor to her. I never made advances toward Ms. Bennett nor did I ever intend to act in any way that was inappropriate. The last thing I would ever have wanted was to make her feel any of the things that are being reported.”
Cuomo added that he will “have no further comment” until a “full and thorough outside review” of Bennett’s claims is conducted and concluded.
As the Times noted in its report, Cuomo did not deny Bennett’s claims about asking such personal questions.
Cuomo’s special counsel Beth Garvey also released a statement, which read, “Ms. Bennett’s concerns were treated with sensitivity and respect and in accordance with applicable law and policy. The matter was promptly escalated to special counsel. Ms. Bennett received the transfer she requested to a position in which she had expressed a long-standing interest, and was thoroughly debriefed on the facts which did not include a claim of physical contact or inappropriate sexual conduct. She was consulted regarding the resolution, and expressed satisfaction and appreciation for the way in which it was handled.”
“The determination reached based on the information Ms. Bennett provided was that no further action was required which was consistent with Ms. Bennett’s wishes.”
Fox News reached out to Bennett and DesRosiers for comment.
Lindsey Boylan, Cuomo’s first accuser, expressed her support for Bennett.
“I am with you Charlotte. We are with you. Always,” Boylan wrote. “I am so proud of you Charlotte.”
Boylan, the former deputy secretary for economic development and a special adviser to Cuomo, published a bombshell essay Wednesday on the website Medium. She accused the governor of going “out of his way to touch me on my lower back, arms and legs,” forcibly kissing her on the lips during a one-on-one briefing, and suggesting that they “play strip poker” during a plane ride.
Cuomo’s office denied Boylan’s harassment claims, calling them “simply false” and insisting the strip poker comment “did not happen.”
Meanwhile, the prominent Democrat is also facing a growing scandal over his controversial policy of ordering COVID-positive patients into nursing homes in the early months of the pandemic and is now reportedly facing investigations by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney over an alleged cover-up of nursing home deaths in his state.
CNN, the home network of Cuomo’s kid brother Chris Cuomo, has given the governor unprecedented cover in downplaying his various scandals. The far-left network previously gave developments into his nursing home controversy little to no airtime — and allowed the “Cuomo Prime Time” anchor free rein to conduct friendly, comical interviews with the embattled Democrat in the early months of the pandemic. CNN also went roughly 24 hours without acknowledging Boylan’s damning sexual harassment claims after she came forward.
Cuomo himself appeared to offer a holier than thou stance during the contentious 2018 confirmation battle of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. As President Trump’s SCOTUS nominee faced allegations of sexual misconduct, Cuomo suggested that he take a “polygraph test” like his prominent accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford did.
“If he does not take a polygraph test, it is the ultimate, ‘he said, she said,'” Cuomo said at the time.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton suggested that Big Tech firms should be treated like utility or phone companies in terms of regulation.
Over the past several years, there have been calls for the federal government to regulate Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon, and other Big Tech firms as these companies can exercise great control over what can and cannot be discussed on their platforms. Some conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, have said the Section 230 law in the Communications Decency Act of 1996 should be repealed or at least changed, while others have said that Big Tech companies have violated antitrust laws and have pursued monopolistic practices.
Paxton, a Republican, told The Epoch Times’ “Crossroads” that these companies “control the entire platform” and can choose who to keep or who to cancel.
“And so there is no other choice other than” regulating them, he said, suggesting they be regulated like a “utility company.”
These firms “have to provide power to everybody, because you’re the only choice,” Paxton remarked. “Normally, I’d say your rights private company can do what they want,” he said, “And consumers have choices.”
But in terms of social media, “consumers don’t have a choice, they have no choice,” he said. “And so we have to regulate that and make sure that free speech is not being controlled by a few very wealthy tech people.”
In the wake of accounts being suspended or posts being deleted by moderators on Facebook or Twitter, there have been arguments that conservatives should instead create their own social media platforms. However, with Parler being taken down by Amazon Web Services and being deleted from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, some have argued that it’s a sign these companies hold too much over. Another alternative social media platform, Gab, suffered similar blows several years ago after a mass shooting suspect posted his intentions to open fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue. As a result, Gab was forced to create its own payment processor and host its own servers.
When applying the term “public utility” to social media, it implies that these websites are public necessities and as a result, should be regulated by the government. These companies are being increasingly viewed as vital for living in an interconnected world, some have argued that living a successful life would be difficult without them.
Paxton also said that his office is investigating five companies “related to the whole issue of the president being deplatformed” last month.
In mid-January, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Twitch, and others suspended Trump’s accounts following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. Twitter executives later said that Trump likely will never be able to return to the social media account.
But Trump, who favored Twitter to make announcements and voice his frustrations, said last week that Twitter has “become very boring” and suggested that “millions of people are leaving.”
The proposed Equality Act of 2021 (H.R. 5) would make mainstream beliefs about marriage, biological facts about sex differences, and many sincerely held beliefs punishable under the law. The Equality Act makes discrimination the law of the land by forcing Americans to conform to government-mandated beliefs under the threat of life-ruining financial and criminal penalties. Presented as a bill with commonsense and decent protections against discrimination, H.R. 5 is anything but. The Equality Act politicizes medicine and education and demolishes existing civil rights and constitutional freedoms.
Part of last nights’s monologue – while Dems cheer on the Equality Act – here are the consequences they don’t want to talk about… pic.twitter.com/2bzgR2h66B
Every person should be treated with dignity, and no one should face discrimination. But the Equality Act makes discrimination the law of the land.
The so-called Equality Act is anything but. It would give government the power to dictate how Americans think and act regarding gender and sex.
This bill violates Americans’ constitutional freedoms and weaponizes civil rights law to punish those who do not hold the “correct” beliefs.
Myth 1: The Equality Act Simply Punishes Discrimination Against People Who Identify as Gay or Transgender
Fact: The Equality Act—introduced as H.R. 5 in the House of Representatives on February 18, 2021—makes mainstream beliefs about marriage, as well as basic biological facts about sex differences, punishable under the law. Every person should be treated with dignity and respect and no one should face discrimination. But the Equality Act makes discrimination the law of the land by forcing Americans to conform to government-mandated beliefs under the threat of life-ruining financial and criminal penalties. The 1964 Civil Rights Act outlawed state-sanctioned discrimination that caused systematic economic and material harm to black Americans. The Equality Act is different: It forces every American to agree with controversial government-imposed ideology on sexuality or be treated as an outlaw. The Equality Act demolishes existing civil rights and constitutional freedoms.
Myth 2: The Equality Act Preserves Religious Freedom
Fact: The Equality Act guts the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and threatens constitutional freedoms by eliminating conscience protections from the Civil Rights Act. If enacted, H.R. 5 would force employers, medical professionals, educators, and religious organizations to allow men into women’s shelters, pay for or perform sex-change operations, and engage in speech that violates their consciences. Faith-based adoption and foster care agencies would be forced to violate their belief that every child deserves a mother and a father. Section 2(a)(2) of the bill refers to the belief that marriage is between a man and a woman as a “sex stereotype.” This stigmatizes the beliefs of hundreds of millions of Americans, including Catholics, Evangelicals, Jews, Mormons, and Muslims.
Check out my interview with NTD about the Equality Act, which just passed the House. This legislation is an all-out assault on religious freedom and must be resisted. https://t.co/QsRoFqIH5T
Myth 3: The Equality Act Does Not Expand the Scope of Federal Civil Rights Law
Fact: By expanding the definition of “public accommodations” under Title II of the Civil Rights Act to include “any establishment that provides a good, service, or program, including a store, shopping center, online retailer or service provider, salon, bank, gas station, food bank, service or care center, shelter, travel agency, or funeral parlor, or establishment that provides health care, accounting, or legal services,” many more individuals and establishments would, in fact, become liable to discrimination claims, including doctors who do not want to perform abortions.
Myth 4: The Equality Act Is Irrelevant to Abortion
Fact: H.R. 5 endangers unborn children. The Equality Act opens the door to taxpayer funding for elective abortions, which the vast majority of Americans oppose, regardless of political affiliation. The bill does not contain any conscience protections for those with moral or religious objections to paying for or performing abortions. It also takes away judicial relief by blocking claims based on the RFRA. The Equality Act expands the term “sex” to go far beyond the state of being male or female, and includes “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition.” Both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the 3rd Circuit Court have interpreted “related medical condition” to include abortion. This expanded definition of sex applies to public accommodations, which—under the Equality Act—includes providers of “health care.” This definition also applies to section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is the act’s nondiscrimination provision guaranteeing that people will not be denied benefits in a federally run or federally funded health program. Section 1557 of the ACA looks toTitle VI of the Civil Rights Act, which addresses nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs, to interpret what constitutes discrimination. If the Equality Act were to pass, section 1557 nondiscrimination regulations could be used against providers who refuse to perform abortions, or againsthospitals that receive federal funding and do not provide abortions. The Reproductive Blueprint promoted by Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and other abortion industry actors specifically calls on the Biden Administration to interpret section 1557 in this manner.
Myth 5: The Equality Act Is Good for Women and Upholds Title IX of the Education Amendments Act, Which Prohibits Sex Discrimination Against Girls and Women
Fact: The Equality Act’s changes to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act do not uphold Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments Act. Gender-identity policies will require biological males to be permitted to participate in female-only activities. In sports, the physical bodies of biological males (even after two years on estrogen) put them at an obvious unfair advantage over female athletes, who are losing out on opportunities and scholarships designed for girls and women.Three brave female high school athletes in Connecticut are suing the state because two boys who identify as girls defeated them in track and field and demolished the state records held by 15 other girls.
Myth 6: Safety and Privacy in Sex-Specific Spaces Will Not Be Diminished
Fact: All single-sex spaces will be open to both sexes under the Equality Act. The Equality Act adds sexual orientation and gender identity rules to Title III of the Civil Rights Act on “public facilities” as well as to public accommodations (Title II) and federal funding (Title VI). This would create a nationwide transgender policy in single-sex facilities. It would affect everything from girls’ and women’s showers and locker rooms to women’s shelters and women’s prisons, endangering safety and diminishing privacy. Giving people blanket permission to enter private spaces for the opposite sex enables sexual predators to exploit the rule and gain easy access to victims.
If passed, the Equality Act would devastate women’s sports and open the door for men who identify as women in restrooms, dorms, locker rooms, women’s shelters, and much more. You can read more here in my @DecisionNews article: https://t.co/jYGmacLvKL
Myth 7: The Equality Act Treats All Students Fairly, Promotes Inclusion, and Cannot Affect School Curricula
Fact: By adding sexual orientation and gender-identity rules to the Civil Rights Act’s Title IV on “desegregation of public education,” the Equality Act could pave the way for K–12 federal courts to require sexual orientation and gender-identity curricula the same way they required black history curricula. All children deserve to learn in an environment where they and their views are treated with respect. Imposing one political viewpoint on students about questions of gender and sexual orientation stigmatizes and excludes those who hold disfavored (read: mainstream) views. Denying a child the right to a supportive educational environment effectively denies that child meaningful access to the right to an education. Additionally, changing Title VI to include sexual orientation and gender identity means that any school, even private and parochial schools that receive federal assistance, would have to adopt transgender policies in sports and private facilities.
Myth 8: Doctors Will Not Be Forced to Perform Sex-Change Operations or Prescribe Hormones for “Gender Affirmation”
Fact: As a result of the expanding definition of public accommodations, as well as changing federal funding requirements, doctors (and counselors) could be punished for treating gender dysphoria according to their own best medical judgment. Even a referral to another doctor could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act. If a doctor performs a double mastectomy to treat cancer, she must also do so for a woman who identifies as a man. Transgender individuals have already sued hospitals for discrimination in New Jersey and California because the hospitals refused to perform surgeries, including mastectomies, for “gender affirmation.” This, despite the fact that evidence has shown that “transitioning” does not provide any lasting mental health benefits. In fact, many patients who undergo a sex change end up with damage to their physical health, such as heart problems and decreased bone density, as well as loss of fertility.
Myth 9: Parental Rights Will Remain Unchanged
Fact: The Equality Act’s politicization of medicine and education through gender ideology will undermine parental rights. Since most schools will be pressured to comply with sexual-orientation and gender-identity policies, parents will have limited educational choices for their children. Those who do not believe that their daughters should have to compete against biological males in sports, or who do not believe their daughters and sons should have to share bathrooms with members of the opposite sex, will be hard pressed to find schools where this is not happening. Parents should not have to sacrifice their children’s safety in order to attend school. Counseling that has proven to help children suffering from gender dysphoria reconcile with their bodies will no longer be considered an acceptable approach. This means that parents will be left without therapeutic alternatives that do not cause irreversible harm to their children’s bodies. A judge in Ohio terminated the rights of parents who opposed administering testosterone to their underage daughter and wanted her to go to counseling for gender dysphoria instead.
Equality Act: "Do you want to have equal opportunity?"
Americans: "Yes"
Equality Act: "Do you want to end gender discrimination?"
Americans: "Yeah"
Equality Act: "Good, your children can change their gender and if you object, we take them."
Myth 10: The Equality Act Helps Children in Need of Foster Homes and Adoption
Fact: The Equality Act hurts vulnerable children by punishing faith-based adoption and foster-care agencies that believe that every child deserves both a mother and a father and that children’s bodies should not be irreversibly harmed by hormonal or surgical interventions due to gender dysphoria. Imposing this radical ideology on child-welfare providers will reduce the number of “forever families” for the more than 424,000 foster children in need of them. Adding sexual-orientation and gender-identity requirements to laws in Massachusetts and Illinois diminished the supply of foster families at the same time that more children needed them due to the opioid crisis.
The Equality Act is the most astonishingly radical, anti-religious legislation I've seen. I suspect if communities of faith in Democrat districts knew how bad this bill was, half those members would not be re-elected.https://t.co/zrGArHIXDr
Myth 11: The Supreme Court’s Decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, Requires the Equality Act’s Changes to Civil Rights Law
Fact: The Equality Act goes far beyond the Supreme Court’s 2020 Bostock ruling. While Bostock invented a misguided theory of sex discrimination in employment law, it did not redefine “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity. But the Equality Act does. Bostock was limited to employment law; the Equality Act adds “sexual orientation and gender identity” to all of the nation’s civil rights laws. Because Bostock was limited to employment, it said nothing about schools, sports, or medicine. The Equality Act adds sexual orientation and gender identity to all of them.
This article is a compilation of analyses from multiple sources (see at bottom).
Biden accepts China’s horrific genocide of the Uighur people
Biden has made it clear that he will not “speak out against” China’s abuse of the Uighur ethnic minority in China, even though a bipartisan commission of the United States Congress stated that China has possibly committed “genocide” in its treatment of Uighurs and other minority Muslims in its western region of Xinjiang.
Joe Biden on China’s human rights violations and genocide against the Uighurs: “culturally there are different norms”
The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) said new evidence emerged in the past year that “crimes against humanity–and possibly genocide–are occurring.”
Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has declared that China is committing “ongoing” genocide against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang province, less than 24 hours before leaving office, The Guardian reports.
In his statement, Pompeo said: “I have determined that the PRC [People’s Republic of China], under the direction and control of the CCP, has committed genocide against the predominantly Muslim Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”
“I believe this genocide is ongoing, and that we are witnessing the systematic attempt to destroy Uighurs by the Chinese party-state,” he added.
Pompeo’s declaration also accused China of crimes against humanity.
We shouldn’t worry about hurting General Secretary Xi’s feelings. We should focus on protecting the American people and championing American values. We must remain tough on China.
Dominic Raab, the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, denounced torture, forced labour and sterilization that he said were taking place against Muslim Uighurs on an “industrial scale”.
“The situation in Xinjiang is beyond the pale,” Raab told the Geneva forum where China is among the 47 member states.
“The reported abuses – which include torture, forced labour and forced sterilisation of women – are extreme and they are extensive. They are taking place on an industrial scale,” he said.
Such abhorrent behavior is acceptable because, according to Biden, China merely has “different norms.” Biden said during a CNN town hall on Tuesday that Chinese President Xi Jinping “gets it” when Biden criticizes China’s for holding the Uighurs in internment camps and other human rights abuses, according to Breitbart.
Biden explained to Xi, “no American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn’t reflect the values of the United States.”
Anchor Anderson Cooper said, “You just talked to China’s president.
Biden said, “Yes, for two hours.”
Cooper said, “What about the Uighurs?”
Biden said, “We must speak up for human rights. It’s who we are. My comment to him was — and I know him well, and he knows me well. We had a two-hour conversation.”
Cooper said, “You talked about this too.”
Biden said, “I talked about this too. not so much refugee, but I said, look, Chinese leaders —if you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been the time China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home. It’s vastly overstated, but the center of principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be a united, tightly controlled China. And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.”
He continued, “I point out to him no American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn’t reflect the values of the United States. So, the idea that I’m not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs in Western Mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the one-China policy by making it forceful. I said, and he gets it, culturally there are different norms in each country, and their leaders are expected to follow.”
Cooper said, “When you talk to him about human rights abuses, is that just — is that as far as it goes in terms of the U.S.? or is there any actual repercussions for China?”
U.N. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that China is restricting basic civil and political freedoms in the name of national security and COVID-19 measures https://t.co/eM7Ehg10J0pic.twitter.com/c9R17X2ToN
Canadian MPs vote to label Beijing's treatment of Uighur minority as genocide China claims policy in Xinjiang is "shining example" of human rights progress Rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs, other Muslim minorities incarcerated in camps there pic.twitter.com/KBCnuMN514
Biden said, “Well, there will be repercussions for China, and he knows that. What I’m doing is making clear that we, in fact, are going to continue to reassert our role as spokespersons for human rights at the UN and other agencies that have an impact on their attitude. China is trying very hard to become the world leader, and goat that moniker and be able to do that, they have to gain the confidence of other countries. As long as they’re engaged in activity that is contrary to basic human rights, it’s going to be hard to do that. But it’s more much more complicated. I shouldn’t try to talk China’s policy in ten minutes on television.”
But the Uighurs who survived the concentration camps have lived through daily gang rapes by Chinese government agents, including the rape and torture of women through the use of electric batons, as National File reported.
Testimony in a recent BBC report add new and horrific details as to the extent of the torture human beings suffered in the camps. A particularly grisly claim is that Chinese Communist guards use electric batons to rape women, electrocuting them from the inside.
One of the survivors interviewed by the BBC, Tursunay Ziawudun, said she endured nine months in a Xinjiang concentration camp and was subjected to torture and gang-rape on almost a daily basis.
This is not a “cultural” difference. And Jinping doesn’t “get it.” Rape and genocide are wrong. Full stop. To handwave such atrocities is not a sign of cultural awareness but psychopathy.
If Biden will ignore China’s genocide against the Uighurs, what will he allow China to do to the United States?
Biden opens door for China to infiltrate U.S. universities
Joe Biden’s administration stealthily eliminated a Trump-era proposal mandating that educational institutions in the U.S. disclose their relationship with the Confucius Institute, which has close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Ministry of Education. Confucius Institutes are well-documented instruments of Chinese Communist soft power to expand the U.S. adversary’s influence and allies abroad, according to The Federalist.
The Biden administration is marbled with Chinese Communist sympathizers, allies, and assets that extend to the president’s household and possibly the president himself. Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden was reportedly given $3 million by a Communist Party-tied Chinese businessman for “introductions alone,” and a whistleblower business partner of Hunter’s says Joe Biden was well aware of these dealings.
“The family of the incoming commander-in-chief was reportedly given an interest-free loan of $5 million by businessmen with ties to the Chinese military, while Biden’s son Hunter called his Chinese business partner the ‘spy chief of China,’” Lee Smith recently summarized in Tablet magazine.
The order Biden’s administration rescinded, first introduced to the Department of Homeland Security by the Trump administration on Dec. 31, 2020, originally sought to require “Student and Exchange Visitor Program Certified Schools to Disclose Agreements with Confucius Institutes and Classrooms,” a process the administration hoped would curb communist China’s attempts to steal intellectual property and learn other compromising information about the U.S.
EXCLUSIVE: Texas Southern University once involved in contract giving China broad control of its Confucius Institutehttps://t.co/bAoKFstIlL
While the Confucius Institute claims to build “public educational partnerships between colleges and universities in China and colleges and universities in other countries,” federal agencies concluded the organization was a national security threat that warranted action.
Following years of various infiltration by communist China into American institutions such as higher education and Democrat political circles, former President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo often spoke out against the communist nation and its extensions into the United States, specifically warning of the danger associated with the international organization that partners with approximately 500 U.S. schools and 65 U.S colleges.
“[The Confucius Institute] is an entity controlled by the PRC that advances Beijing’s global propaganda and malign influence campaign on U.S. campuses and K-12 classrooms,” Pompeo said in August 2020.
Despite the previous administration’s warnings, Biden’s team discreetly and quickly withdrew the rule proposal on Jan. 26, 2021 as depicted on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) website without explanation, opening the door for the Chinese propaganda and soft power centers to continue to operate on campuses around the nation without oversight.
The move comes shortly after the CCP’s propaganda paper, The China Daily, called on Biden to start “correcting” the Trump administration’s “fearmongering of the Confucius Institute.”
Currently, the China’s People’s Liberation Army appears to have thousands of undercover spies in the United States posing as graduate students as universities.
Democrats appear to be deeply complicit in Chinese influence operations, so more decisions in China’s interest are to be expected from a Biden administration.
“Incoming Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked at a Beltway firm called WestExec, which scrubbed its work on behalf of the CCP from its website shortly before the election. Longtime Biden security aide Colin Kahl, tapped for the No. 3 spot at the Pentagon, worked at an institute at Stanford University that is twinned with Peking University, a school run by a former CCP spy chief and long seen as a security risk by Western intelligence services,” Smith also noted.
According to the FBI, a Chinese government spy for years slept with Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, gathering plentiful information to use against the United States. Democrats have chosen to keep Swalwell on the House intelligence committee.
Biden surrounds himself with China-linked figures
William Burns
Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns, has a history of cooperating with organizations linked to the CCP, according to Breitbart.
The Republican Study Committee conducted (RSC) an in-depth study of Biden’s “weakness” on China explaining Burns’ associations with prominent CCP members.
While hile Burns was president of the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he welcomed Zhang Yichen–a Chinese businessman linked to two major CCP organizations, the Chinese People’s Political Consultive Conference, and the Center for China Globalization–to the board, according to the RSC study.
Zhang’s firm, along with the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation, an organization connected to the CCP and responsible for “United Front” work in the U.S., gave Carnegie millions of dollars to help build the think tank’s Beijing-based Carnegie-Tsinghua center.
China Joe's CIA nominee William Burns is precisely the kind of grifter one would expect Joe Biden to pick. https://t.co/05ALfd8QqM
If confirmed by the Senate, Burns would be the first CIA leader whose experience is largely from the State Department, where he served under both Republican and Democrat presidents. He rose through the diplomatic corps ranks to become deputy secretary of state before retiring in 2014 to run the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace.
While at the State Department, Burns helped negotiate former President Barack Obama’s 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which failed to stop the regime’s desire to weaponize its program. Instead, the deal paved the way for them to do so legally in the future. Former President Donald Trump canceled the deal.
After Trump took office in 2017, Burns held his tongue until 2020, when he began writing highly critical pieces of the Trump administration’s policies in Foreign Affairs and other publications. Burns has been a staunch advocate of “rebuilding and restructuring the foreign service,” positions he shares with Biden.
“Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats before they can reach our shores,” Biden said. “The American people will sleep soundly with him as our next CIA director.”
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on a 78 to 20 vote, Breitbart reports.
Democrat Senators confirmed the new U.S. envoy to the U.N. with the help of 26 Republicans.
During her confirmation hearing last month, the 68-year-old African American woman vowed to fight Communist China’s global influence, saying that Beijing’s “authoritarian agenda” is the antithesis to U.N. values.
However, the conservative House of Representative’s Republican Study Committee (RSC) issued a report last week accusing the ambassador-to-be of downplaying China using its growing political and economic clout to undermine America’s push for democratic values in Africa.
Moreover, the report added, “Thomas-Greenfield is former Senior Vice President for the Albright-Stonebridge Group, which has held a number of senior CCP officials as clients including Jin Ligang, a former senior Chinese government official.”
Madeleine Albright’s Consulting Firm Took Millions in Coronavirus Relief Funding
The Albright Stonebridge Group has deep ties to China, employs former Chinese gov't officials & Biden staffers.
Ambassador Greenfield has a history of troubling comments praising and welcoming China’s role in Africa. As Senator Ted Cruz [R-TX] has pointed out, in 2006, Greenfield said she was not concerned about China’s growing influence in Africa, and in 2013 she stated that she does not see the U.S. competing with China in Africa.
Sen. Cruz and Republicans expressed concern over a 2019 speech the diplomat gave on “China-U.S.-Africa Relationships” at the Savannah State University Confucius Institutes’ fifth-anniversary lecture event.
Sen. Ted Cruz is delaying a vote on U.N. Ambassador nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield over her past comments on China. https://t.co/rBep7RhR6G
In May 2014, Thomas-Greenfield said she was not concerned about China buying its way into controlling Africa, that African leaders should work to get the best possible deal with China, and in fact we were also "working closely with the Chinese." pic.twitter.com/EteRlAgche
And then in March 2019, Thomas-Greenfield again said she did not see the U.S. as competing with China for influence in Africa and with African leaders and that our role was "to ensure that they have the capacity to strike and negotiate better deals with the Chinese." pic.twitter.com/4N7BEu8Uxi
The Washington Post carried excerpts of the speech in which she called Chinese intervention in Africa a “win-win-win situation” for China and American.
She indicated Beijing’s presence in Africa would pave the way for U.S. and human rights violator China to work together to promote “good governance, gender equity, and the rule of law.”
“I see no reason why China cannot share in those values,” she added. “In fact, China is in a unique position to spread these ideals given its strong footprint on the continent.”
During her confirmation hearing, the nominee expressed regret for comments at the Savannah State University Confucius Institute. She said she now backs an effort to crack down on the Confucius Institutes that begun under the Trump Administration.
Still, Republicans cited the 2019 speech for voting no.
Fox News quoted Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as declaring in a statement:
Let’s be clear that Linda Thomas-Greenfield has a record of praising and sympathizing with the Chinese Communist Party. It is not an anomaly. An Africa expert, between 2013 and 2019 she testified before both chambers of Congress that the U.S. ‘is not competing with China in Africa.
Using a procedural move to push the Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote from earlier this month, Sen. Cruz delayed the timeline for her confirmation, to no avail.
All 20 Senators who voted against the nomination of Thomas-Greenfield were Republicans. Another 26 GOP lawmakers joined Democrats in confirming her nomination.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a former director general and HR director of the Foreign Service, will be nominated to be U.N. ambassador. Biden is returning the job to cabinet-level status, giving Thomas-Greenfield a seat on his National Security Council. https://t.co/FhrI3PlVmcpic.twitter.com/BGpzzuuO5A
The RSC members lambasted Thomas-Greenfield’s suggestion that Beijing and Washington can work together in Africa, considering China is promoting communism as an alternative to democratic values on the continent and is a strategic U.S. rival seeking to replace America as the world’s leading superpower.
Beijing has deliberately and aggressively weaponized its political and financial investments in Africa to displace the United States as an influential force on the continent.
Beijing’s engagement in Africa resembles a new form of colonialism consisting of “debt-trap diplomacy” that seeks to saddle borrowing countries with difficult-to-pay enormous debts collateralized with natural resources or other strategic assets to increase Beijing’s leverage on the continent.
In 2019, a top U.S. commander warned that China might expand its military presence in Africa.
Hunter Biden
The Wall Street Journal reported that Hunter Biden’s family name aided deals with foreign tycoons, landing Hunter’s business dealings at the center of a federal tax investigation.
Hunter Biden ramped up business activities with European and Chinese tycoons as his father exited the vice presidency four years ago. For him it was a potential path to income; for the tycoons, the Biden family name promised to burnish their reputations.
The dealings got the younger Mr. Biden a discounted stake in a private-equity firm in China and consulting arrangements with a Romanian property magnate and overall allowed him to maintain a globe-trotting lifestyle, according to interviews, documents and communications reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. A Chinese energy tycoon gave Mr. Biden a 2.8-carat diamond, and entities linked to him wired nearly $5 million to Mr. Biden’s law firm, according to an investigation by Senate Republicans.
These arrangements now loom over President-elect Joe Biden. A federal criminal tax investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings is underway, with findings potentially trickling out in coming months. His business ties to well-connected people in China and other places could add to scrutiny of foreign-policy decisions taken by the Biden administration over possible conflicts of interest. All are likely to provide ammunition to Republicans.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), who has led the Senate Finance Committee whose Republican staff helped investigate Hunter Biden, has said he would continue to look into what he says are possible counterintelligence and criminal concerns related to Mr. Biden’s business dealings.
“Based on all the facts known to date, Joe Biden has a lot of explaining to do,” Mr. Grassley said recently.
Sen. Chuck Grassley: "Have you discussed this Hunter Biden case with the president or anyone else?"
