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Biden says ‘killer’ Putin will ‘pay a price’ for alleged US election meddling, Russia cries foul

US President Joe Biden has said that his administration is preparing a harsh response after American security agencies reported that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2020 US elections in favor of his opponent, Donald Trump.

In an interview with the ABC news channel published on Wednesday, Biden was asked by Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos whether he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was “a killer.”“Mmm hmm, I do,” Biden replied.

He added that he had previously warned his counterpart in Moscow that the US would potentially take action if it found evidence of Russian interference in the election. “He will pay a price,” Biden said. “We had a long talk, he and I… I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me.’ If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.”

On Tuesday, a joint report by Washington’s spy agencies, including the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security was declassified. It declares that Russia attempted to influence the 2020 vote with the aim of “denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US.”

The campaign, it insisted, was carried out by proxies including “Ukraine-linked individuals with ties to Russian intelligence and their networks,” who sought to smear the Democratic candidate for allegedly corrupt links to Kiev. It is not immediately clear how this supposed web of influence leads back to Moscow. However the report claims that Russia “almost certainly views meddling in US elections as an equitable response to perceived actions by Washington and an opportunity to both undermine US global standing and influence US decision-making.”

In the wake of the analysis, American media reported that the country was expected to unveil sanctions on Russia as early as next week in response to the alleged attempts to influence the election. Asked about the report, an anonymous Biden staffer told Reuters that the president had “been clear” that the United States would respond to destabilizing Russian actions.

However, Russian diplomats have dismissed the intelligence agencies’ verdict. In a post on its Facebook page, Moscow’s embassy in Washington said that the document “is another set of groundless accusations against our country of interfering in American internal political processes.” The officials argue that “the conclusions of the report on Russia conducting influence operations in America are confirmed solely by the confidence of the intelligence services of their self-righteousness. No facts or specific evidence of such claims were provided.”

At the same time, the envoys accuse Washington of practicing “megaphone diplomacy” in an attempt “to maintain a negative image of Russia [and] to blame external players for destabilizing the situation inside the country.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added his voice to those criticizing the intelligence report. “Russia did not interfere in previous elections and did not interfere with the elections mentioned in this 2020 report,” he insisted. “Russia has nothing to do with any campaigns against any of the candidates. In this regard, we consider this report to be incorrect.” Instead, he argued, the allegations were being used as an “excuse” to introduce new sanctions on the country.

DHS Secy. Mayorkas Testifies Before House Committee On Growing Border Crisis

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was recently grilled over the ongoing crisis at the southern border. While testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, he said the department has continued to enforce immigration laws while “restoring fairness and efficiency.”

This comes as the Biden administration has remained under fire for undoing President Trump’s immigration policies and putting the U.S. on pace for the highest number of apprehensions at the border in two decades.

“I’m deeply concerned that this administration has created a border crisis through predictably misguided policies and executive orders, denied the reality of the situation and dodged accountability,” stated Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), ranking member of the committee. “At the same time that American schools remain closed across the country, the United States border is open to foreign nationals.”

“After taking office, President Biden wasted no time,” Katko continued. “In fact, one of his first acts was to pull out of his pen and unravel our border security and immigration enforcement posture.”

Despite the Biden administration’s claims of “fairness,” over 4,000 migrant children were reportedly in Border Patrol custody over the weekend with a majority remaining in detention over the 72-hour limit.

CNN hemorrhaging viewers since Trump left office, down nearly 50% in key measurables

Liberal network has lost 47% of primetime audience among the 25-to-54 demographic most important to advertisers

CNN has been hemorrhaging viewers since former President Trump left office, losing roughly half of its audience in key measurables since January following a brief post-Election Day spike.

CNN averaged 2.5 million primetime viewers from Nov. 4, the day following the presidential election, through Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. But viewers fled the liberal network once President Biden took office, and CNN has averaged only 1.6 million primetime viewers from Jan. 21 through March 15.

CNN’s viewership during the primetime hours of 8-11 p.m. ET dropped 36% since Biden took office after it spiked following Election Day. CNN’s primetime viewership decline was even sharper among the key demographic of adults age 25-to-54, plummeting 47% during the same period.

CNN’s viewership also suffered among the total day audience since Trump left office, leaving the liberal network without its bête noire.

CNN averaged 1.7 million viewers from Nov. 4 through Jan. 20, but it dropped to 1.1 million since Biden took office for a 34% fall. During the same period, CNN shed 44% of its total day viewers among the key demo, dropping from an average of 483,000 to only 272,000.

Longtime broadcaster Ted Koppel famously mocked CNN’s Brian Stelter to his face back in 2018, telling the network’s media pundit that “CNN’s ratings would be in the toilet without Donald Trump.”

Stelter shook his head in disagreement, but it turns out that Koppel was onto something.

CNN’s ratings’ nosedive is even worse when tossing out the weeks following Election Day.

CNN averaged 3.1 million primetime viewers from Dec. 28 through Jan 20, but it plummeted to 1.6 million from Inauguration Day to the present for a drop of 49%. When it comes to the key demo, CNN lost a staggering 58% of its viewers during the same time frames.

CNN also lost nearly half its viewers among the total day audience, too.

CNN averaged 2.2 million total day viewers from Dec. 28-Jan. 20, owed in part to viewers flocking to cable news for coverage of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and its aftermath. However, the network has since averaged only 1.1 million viewers for a significant 48% decline.

In addition to the declining viewership, CNN has been embarrassed by its handling of multiple scandals surrounding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat.

The network notoriously allowed his younger brother, Chris Cuomo, to conduct a series of playful interviews in 2020 while largely avoiding lingering questions about the nursing home crisis in New York. CNN was then mocked for imposing a ban on the “Cuomo Prime Time” host intervening his big brother once the governor became engulfed with sexual harassment allegations.

All data is courtesy of Nielsen Media research.

Trump Reveals When He’ll Announce Decision on 2024 Campaign

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday “we’re going to take a look and we’ll see” after being asked if he was considering a 2024 presidential run.

“Will you run again, Mr. President? Are you considering 2024?” host Maria Bartiromo asked Trump on Fox News.

“Well based on every poll, they want me to run again, but we’re going to take a look and we’ll see,” he said.

“First steps first, we have to see what we can do with the House,” the former president said.

“I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House,” he added, pointing to gains Republicans made in the lower chamber of Congress in the last elections.

“I think we have a chance to do better in the Senate. We need leadership in the Senate, which frankly, we don’t have,” Trump said.

Trump indicated he would make his decision about running again following the 2022 midterms.

“We’ll make our decision after that,” he said.

It’s not the first time Trump has been asked about his 2024 plans.

Trump would not reveal his 2024 plans during his appearance last month on the Newsmax TV segment “Greg Kelly Reports,” but said the poll numbers still show that Americans support him.

“I won’t say yet, but we have tremendous support. And I’m looking at poll numbers [that] are through the roof,” Trump told Newsmax.

Trump said any hope that impeachment would relegate him to political limbo has effectively failed.

“I’m the only guy who gets impeached and my numbers go up,” Trump said. “Figure that one out.

“Let’s say somebody gets impeached, typically your numbers would go down. They would go down like a dead balloon.”

But after the Senate acquitted Trump on the charge of inciting an insurrection during the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion, the opposite happened, according to Trump.

“The numbers are very good; they’re very high; I think they’re higher than they were before the election, and they were high at the election,” the former president added. “They like the job — we did a great job.”

Biden Says Cuomo May Have To Resign, Urges Public To ‘Believe All Women’ Alleging Sexual Assault’

New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo has continued to lose allies in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct, including from those who have faced similar accusations like Joe Biden.

During an interview with George Stephanopoulos for ABC News, Biden distanced himself from the disgraced governor while walking back comments he made this past weekend. He had previously urged New Yorkers to “wait to see what the investigation will bring.”

Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment by at least seven women in the past few weeks. Most recently, a journalist named Jessica Bakeman claimed the governor harassed her on multiple occasions from 2012 to 2014.

The accusations have bolstered ongoing calls to remove him from office, which began after claims surfaced regarding his mishandling of COVID-19 cases in nursing homes across the state.

Biden has joined a growing list of high-profile Democrats who have called for Cuomo to resign, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and 16 Democrats in Congress.

However, few have pointed out that Biden’s condemnation came nearly one year to the day after Tara Reade, one of Biden’s former staffers, told Katie Halper details about how Biden had sexually assaulted her while she worked in his office. Despite this, Biden received little criticism from the rest of his party and later became the Democrat’s presidential nominee.

Biden’s remarks suggest Cuomo has become a toxic liability for the Democrat Party due to his mounting problems.

GOP Senators Allege Biden Broke Law With Border Wall Halt

Senate Republicans accused President Joe Biden of breaking federal budget law when he ordered a halt to construction of a southern border wall and say the action contributed to a surge in illegal border crossings.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and 39 other Republicans wrote a letter to the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday seeking an investigation into the president’s actions, which they allege violated a 1974 act forbidding the executive branch from refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress.

“On Jan. 20, in one of the first official acts of his presidency, Joseph Biden suspended border wall construction and ordered a freeze of funds provided by Congress for that purpose. In the weeks that followed, operational control of our southern border was compromised and a humanitarian and national security crisis has ensued,” the letter states. “The President’s actions directly contributed to this unfortunate, yet entirely avoidable scenario. They are also a blatant violation of federal law and infringe on Congress’s constitutional power of the purse.”

The letter was organized by West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican on the Homeland Security spending panel. It asks GAO head Gene Dodaro to issue a legal opinion on whether the Impoundment Control Act was violated.

The fiscal 2021 spending bill that Congress passed in December has $1.4 billion for border wall and related spending.

In 2019, President Donald Trump transferred money earmarked for military construction to be used instead for building the border wall. A federal appeals court last year found the transfer illegal.

Republicans this week have focused on the surge of migrants crossing the U.S. border from Mexico, with lawmakers traveling to the region to highlight the issue. Biden has ordered federal disaster officials to the area to handle the surge, while Democrats have said that border crossings remained at roughly the same level during the Trump administration. They also have argued that the border wall is ineffective.

Segregation: Columbia University Holding 7 Graduation Ceremonies Divided By Race, Sex, & Income

The allegedly progressive modern left is bringing segregation back to America, but this time it won’t only be black and white people who are divided.

The division is being sowed between race, sexual orientation, immigration status and income levels.

New York City’s prestigious Columbia University will be hosting separate graduation ceremonies for students with different backgrounds next month.

Native, Asian, Latino and Black students will each have their own graduation ceremonies, along with an LGBTQ ceremony.

First-generation and low-income students will also have their own graduations.

Contributing to COVID-19 fear-mongering, the school’s ceremonies will all take place online.

“These events provide a more intimate setting for students and guests to gather, incorporate meaningful cultural traditions and celebrate the specific contributions and achievements of their communities,” a statement on the school’s website explains.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) slammed the idea of segregated graduation ceremonies, saying critical race theory is to blame for the divisive idea.

“Critical race theory is the belief that people have value based on the color of their skin, and that our race defines everything about us. It’s not just false—it’s dangerous,” Cotton wrote.

He continued, “The problem is not just one ‘woke’ university embracing discrimination. Critical race theory is being pushed on our kids at school, it’s peddled by HR departments at corporations, and the Biden administration has embraced it under the guise of ‘racial equity.’”

President-in-waiting? Harris seizes spotlight with Biden’s future uncertain

Vice President Kamala Harris is racing across the nation promoting the coronavirus relief package and stressing the importance of vaccination, giving many voters their first good look at the possible president-in-waiting.

The focus on Ms. Harris is growing with each passing day given that she is a heartbeat away from the presidency — and that heart belongs to a 78-year-old who might not seek a second term.

Ms. Harris’ role in the White House remains a work in progress and without a designated portfolio of duties.

For now, the 56-year-old former U.S. senator and California attorney general mostly serves as President Biden’s stand-in and understudy.

She is a regular presence at the president’s daily intelligence briefing and has made several calls to foreign leaders in Mr. Biden’s stead.

“Seems as though VP Harris’ role is still being shaped,” said Christy Setzer, a Democratic strategist. “Some aspects of her job are obvious: casting tiebreaking votes in a 50-50 Senate, leading outreach to women and communities of color on the administration’s policies.

“I suspect Harris will also take on her own meaty piece of the work, as Biden did when he led efforts for the middle class on the Recovery Act,” Ms. Setzer said.

Indeed, President Obama tasked Mr. Biden with acting as a bridge between Capitol Hill and the White House. He oversaw the stimulus program, the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and a gun control deal that ultimately died in Congress.

Signaling that he wants Ms. Harris to play a similar role in his administration, Mr. Biden has said he wants her to “participate in everything that I did” and “be the last person in the room” when he makes big decisions.

Ms. Harris has been a constant presence at Mr. Biden’s side.

She has been seen sitting alongside him during meetings with lawmakers at the Oval Office. She stood by his side last week when he signed the American Rescue Plan into law and then led him out of the room.

Her first 50-plus days in office have tested her ties with her former colleagues in Congress and the far-left wing of the Democratic Party.

Liberal activists said she blew a chance to include a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage in the coronavirus rescue plan by refusing to overturn a Senate parliamentarian ruling that it was out of order.

Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris split up this week as part of a concentrated push to highlight lesser-known parts of the relief package such as a child tax credit and extensions of unemployment benefits and the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses.

Ms. Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, on Monday visited a vaccine clinic at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas.

“What I want to do is make sure that people know what they’re entitled to in the American Rescue Plan,” she said.

They followed that up Tuesday by traveling to Denver to speak with the head of a COVID-19 vaccination clinic and participate in a listening session with small-business owners at an empanada shop.

Ms. Harris said the administration is focused on ensuring that vaccinations are distributed with equity in mind.

“The president and I from the beginning of this have made it one of our highest priorities to make sure that we are taking into account racial disparities and that we supply folks on the ground with the resources you need so that we have equitable outcomes,” Ms. Harris said.

At the second stop, Ms. Harris said, “Small businesses are really part of the heartbeat of every community.”

Mr. Emhoff is settling into his role as the nation’s first second gentleman after leaving his law firm, DLA Piper.

Democrats hope the rescue package is the first accomplishment on a long Biden administration to-do list, which includes spending trillions of dollars on infrastructure, reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change, cutting the cost of college tuition, expanding health care, enacting universal background checks on gun purchases, and criminal justice reform.

David McCuan, chairman of the political science department at Sonoma State University, said Ms. Harris has plenty of time to “develop her own sizzle” by carving out a legislative corner of her own.

“The challenge is how you put meat on the bones [of her vision] and not be a potted plant and carry the water of the main man,” Mr. McCuan said. “That is where I think there is still a search for that role and what comes next.”

Mr. McCuan said Ms. Harris could end up leading on an issue such as infrastructure. “It is not sexy,” he said, but it could help deflect some of the criticism that she has been short on substance.

Mr. McCuan said pressure is on the Harris team to step into the limelight because Mr. Biden’s political future is uncertain.

“You have the race to solidify her position as a next-generation leader of the party, while the base of the party is rapidly changing,” he said.

Mr. McCuan said Ms. Harris’ best chance of making an early big splash could be a response to the push to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and one of her biggest allies in the state.

“The recall in California will become the warm-up battle for the 2022 general election,” he said.

Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, said Ms. Harris appears to be focused on filling a gap on her resume by focusing on foreign affairs. He noted the vice president’s conversations with several foreign leaders.

“She apparently wants to be a strong voice on national security issues,” Mr. Bannon said.

She was reportedly “heavily engaged” in discussions last month before Mr. Biden ordered an airstrike on Iran-backed militias that the Pentagon said were responsible for attacking Americans and allied forces in Iraq.

Mr. Bannon said Ms. Harris faces a bigger challenge than most other vice presidents because it is not clear whether Mr. Biden plans to run for reelection.

She could be working within a four-year rather than eight-year window when it comes to delivering as vice president and setting the stage for a presidential run of her own.

“Look at poor Mike Pence. I don’t think he ever carved out an identity for himself under Donald Trump,” Mr. Bannon said. “He played the loyal soldier even when Trump went completely off the deep end.

“That is why so many vice presidents never become president: because they never carve out an identity for themselves.”

Italy Seizes Nearly 400K AstraZeneca Doses, Starts Investigation After Man Dies Following Shot

(Newsweek) Officials in Italy have seized nearly 400,000 doses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine and are conducting a criminal investigation after a man died hours after receiving the shot.

On Monday, prosecutors in the northern Italian region of Piedmont said they had seized the doses after Sandro Tognatti, a 57-year-old music teacher, fell ill and died shortly after getting vaccinated on Sunday.

Officials have not yet determined if Tognatti’s death is related to the inoculation. On Sunday, Piedmont’s regional government suspended the use of a vaccine batch, and prosecutors the next day said it was important to seize doses to ensure the vaccine “does not lead to further consequences.”

“It is therefore important to ensure that continued administration of the drug throughout the country does not lead to further consequences [harmful or fatal]…until we are completely sure that [Tognatti’s] death cannot be attributed to the above-mentioned inoculation,” prosecutor Teresa Angela Camelio said in a statement, according to Reuters.

The teacher received his vaccine in his hometown of Biella on Saturday afternoon and went to bed that night with a high fever, his wife told Italian media. The next morning, an ambulance was called after his condition worsened, but he died shortly after, the New York Post reported.

Prosecutors opened the probe into his death later that day and are investigating it as a possible manslaughter, according to the newspaper.

The investigation comes after a similar situation happened last week in Sicily, when local magistrates ordered the seizure of a separate batch of AstraZeneca vaccines after two men who had recently been inoculated suddenly died, Reuters reported.

However, the national Italian government has said it does not have evidence of a connection between the deaths and the shots and has allowed the vaccine administration to continue.

Meanwhile, the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was created by British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, has faced growing scrutiny across other European countries.

So far, 17 European countries have suspended use of the vaccine after unconfirmed suspicions that it may be responsible for causing blood clots in some recipients. Out of more than 17 million people vaccinated with the shot in the European Union and Britain, there have been 37 reports of blood clots.

The 17 countries are Austria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Despite those concerns, numerous scientific bodies—including the World Health Organization, the European Medicines Agency and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency—have stressed that there is no evidence of a link between the vaccine and blood-clotting incidents.

Reached for comment on Tuesday, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca directed Newsweek to a statement from the company in which it said “the safety of all is our first priority.” The company added, “We are working with national health authorities and European officials and look forward to their assessment later this week.”

The statement continued, “Around 17 million people in the EU and UK have now received our vaccine, and the number of cases of blood clots reported in this group is lower than the hundreds of cases that would be expected among the general population.”

AstraZeneca has not yet been approved for use in the U.S. On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, assured Americans about the U.S. vaccines.

“Thus far—you have to keep following these things very carefully—there are no safety signals that turn out to be red flags,” Fauci said.

Feds mistakenly gave away $692M in duplicate PPP loans

Some businesses struggled to access loans through the program, a key coronavirus rescue fund

The Small Business Administration mistakenly paid close to $692 million in duplicate Paycheck Protection Program loans to thousands of small businesses, even as others struggled to secure enough financing to stay afloat during the pandemic, according to a new report published by the agency’s in-house watchdog.

The Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General said in a report released Monday that between April 3 and Aug. 19, lenders made more than one loan disbursement to 4,260 borrowers, including 2,689 with the same tax ID number and 1,571 with the same business name and address.

In response to the report, the SBA said it would recover the improper payments and prevent loan forgiveness on the second — meaning some businesses may have to pay back the duplicate loan if they can.

The watchdog added it did not find any evidence that borrowers intentionally exploited the program in order to obtain more than one loan.

The SBA identified issues last year that allowed the duplicate loan applications to be processed, but has since turned off controls for its electric loan-application system and will rely on loan reviews to eliminate duplicates moving forward, according to the report.

“Establishing strong controls to prevent improper or duplicate disbursements from occurring during initial loan processing is more effective than attempting to identify and resolve improper disbursements in the loan review phase,” the report said. “SBA’s efforts should focus on safeguarding funds up front, as it is more prudent and effective to prevent a loan from occurring than attempting to recover funds after the loan has been disbursed.”

Congress established the rescue fund, which provides government-backed forgivable loans to small businesses if they maintain their payroll, one year ago with the passage of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. In total, lawmakers have approved about $806 billion in funding for the program.

The rescue fund reopened to applicants at the end of January following the passage of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package. Any business with fewer than 500 employees can apply for a first-time loan, and any business that already received a PPP loan can apply for a second if it employs fewer than 300 workers

Businesses can choose to spend the funds over any period of time between eight and 24 weeks. At least 60% of the money must be spent on maintaining payroll in order to receive full forgiveness.

The interest rate is still 1%.

The program closes on March 31, although a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers has introduced legislation to extend the deadline by two months, until May 31.

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