Month: April 2024

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Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) spoke to The Gateway Pundit correspondent Jordan Conradson on Thursday after announcing he added his name in support of the Motion to Vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson.

The Gateway Pundit reported on Thursday that Gosar became the third Republican, joining Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), to support a Motion to Vacate the Chair and remove Mike Johnson as House Speaker. “Nearly 11 million illegal aliens have crossed our southern border in the past three years. My congressional district in Arizona, ground zero for the invasion, is getting pummeled by the surge of lawbreakers. These illegal aliens have brought violent crime, deadly drugs, human trafficking and are depleting resources and services meant for U.S. citizens. In fact, every state has become a border state. Communities across the country are being ravaged, families are being destroyed and Americans in need are being ignored,” Gosar said in response to Mike Johnson’s latest anti-American foreign aid package, announced Wednesday.

Speaker Johnson arrogantly declared himself a “wartime speaker” before announcing the massive foreign aid package to fund multiple countries oceans away — but not the United States. The United States is not even at war with anyone!

Next, Congress will presumably declare war somewhere to make Johnson’s self-fulfilling prophecy come true.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, The House of Representatives on Saturday passed three bills to hand out $95 Billion in “foreign aid” to Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and other non-U.S. involved conflict zones around the world. Of the $95 Billion, over $60 Billion was allocated for Ukraine.

The handout to Ukraine was sold to the American people as a “loan.” However, as The Gateway Pundit reported, the package Johnson announced Wednesday includes terms that will allow the President to cancel 50% of Ukraine’s debt after November 15, 2024, and the remaining 50% after January 1, 2024. It’s no wonder Joe Biden came out “strongly” in support of the package, urging the House and Senate to pass it.

Two bills, the Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024 and the Ukraine Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2024, both passed the House with more support from Democrats than Republicans.

All 112 “Nay” votes on a bill to send $60 billion to Ukraine came from Republicans, with 101 Republicans voting “AYE” with 210 Democrats. Every single Democrat voted in favor of sending additional taxpayer money to secure a foreign border, more than doubling the number of Republican votes in favor.

BREAKING: House RINOS Pass Mike Johnson’s Biden Backed $95 BILLION in Foreign Aid Bills Including ADDITIONAL $60.84 BILLION to Ukraine – Here Are The RINOs Who Voted to Fund Conflicts Oceans Away

Ukraine funding, which received more support from Republicans than Democrats, comes after Republicans under Mike Johnson’s leadership gave up a $1.2 trillion spending bill with more support from Democrats than Republicans and reauthorization for warrantless searches of Americans under FISA Section 702. 

Asked why Mike Johnson would bring this fake Ukraine “loan” bill to the floor, Gosar told us that Democrat Chuck Schumer put all of this in there and speculated that “Johnson was forced to bring this to the floor.” Gosar added, “This is all done from the defense perspective. This is coming from the military complex Eisenhower warned us about.”

In addition to Mike Johnson, Gosar was also asked about his so-called Republican colleague from Arizona, Rep. Juan Ciscomani.

Ciscomani was the only Representative in the Arizona Republican delegation who voted in favor of the $1.2 trillion spending package and the renewal of FISA warrantless spying. He also joined Rep. David Schweikert of Arizona in voting for a $60 billion handout to Ukraine on Saturday.

Gosar said, “It’s very, very important for people in his district to talk to him and tell him their opinion” and hold him accountable, which can also be done through voting in the primary elections.

The Gateway Pundit previously spoke with Ciscomani Primary challenger Kathleen Winn to discuss Ciscomani’s voting record on anti-American policies. Winn chimed in again on Ciscomani’s votes to send $95 billion to foreign countries and leave our border wide open, telling The Gateway Pundit, “It’s one thing to say you want to secure the border and another to do something. Ciscomani’s vote did neither to make Arizona or America safer.” She continued, “Once again, he is not honoring the request of his constituents, and voters should respond in kind.”

Watch the full interview with Rep. Paul Gosar below:

Conradson: What finally brought you to this decision?

Gosar: Well, we get this package and the more we find out about this package, the worse it gets. The key here is we have an invasion going of illegal aliens on our southern border, and the speaker promised that this would be a hill to die on, that we would have that support for our border security and for America, its homeland. And we didn’t get that at all. And there’s something wrong when you can’t protect your own homeland, but yet, you’re dealing with a war out in Ukraine, you know, that they’re losing badly. Then you got another war going on in the Middle East with Israel and Hamas, and now Iran. So, I could not live with myself if I didn’t say, ‘Listen, he’s not doing the will of the people. We need to listen to people.’ This is the number one issue in our country is this illegal immigration charter.

Conradson: And every single Arizona Republican, except for one, kind of sees how this issue is affecting the country and the state of Arizona. Every single Arizona Republican except for Juan Ciscomani seems to be not in favor with passing this bill and in favor of securing our border. And just to remind everybody, this is the third major loss for Republicans in the last month. First, we have the $1.2 trillion spending package, which did nothing to secure the border. Next, we have FISA renewal, which harms Americans, and now we have this. Why is it that your colleague Ciscomani will not vote for pro-American policies?

Gosar: I don’t know you got to talk to him. And I think it’s very, very important for people in his district to talk to him and tell him their opinion. You know, we’re a vast nation, so there’s a lot of different opinions out there, but that’s why the debate is there. That’s why we elect people but you also have to not stop there but hold them accountable. I’ve been held accountable a lot of times, Jordan, you know, from my animé to, you know, taking other things down. So, from that standpoint, there’s always going to be consequences. If there are no consequences and they’re not followed through with, you just go around and pass things. But you know, somebody’s really worse about this. They started this a little bit earlier. This bill, you know, in FISA, we at least got rid of 70% of the bill. What I mean by that is they wanted to renew it for seven years. We renewed it for two years. That’s key because they put it into the Trump administration, the future Trump administration, where he can actually help us kill it — get through total reforms. Yeah, it was disheartening that we didn’t get the warrant. But even Warren Davidson’s bill, [H.R. 4639 – Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act], passed the House, and it’s got a chance to go through the Senate and get signed into law. So, we’ll see, we’ll see. But once again, the money issue on this on our border; the money’s there. You know, we were responsible for killing the COVID national emergency. Were the only non-president to ever kill a national emergency. There’s tons of money in there; they keep flaunting this money in front of us, whether it be the $10,000 credit card up in New York to the $1,000 per illegal alien, the housing, the feeding of them. All this is coming from there. It’s flushed with money. The government is flushed with money, and the federal government’s trying to use it against us. Why don’t we use that accordingly? Why can’t we leverage Ukraine to get our own border secure?

Conradson: With this foreign aid bill, they claim it’s a loan, but really it’s a giveaway. I mean, it gives the President power to forgive 50% of the loan here in November before President Trump takes office. If President Trump doesn’t take office, if they’re able to steal the election, they can forgive 100% of the loan. What is this? Why did Johnson bring a bill like this to the floor?

Gosar: Well, I think Johnson was forced to bring this to the floor. You know, Thomas Massie will tell you this started out as a veterans bill, H.R. 815, and it was advancement of health care for veterans in rural settings. So Schumer guts it, and he puts his crappy bill in here. This is all done from the defense perspective. This is coming from the military complex Eisenhower warned us about. That’s where this is coming from. So, yeah, you’re exactly right. The money is going to Hamas even though they say it’s not. How do you give that other aid to Israel, but it’s coming contingency with it? There’s really no contingencies on Ukraine. You know, and I offered amendments, Jordan, you know, to start the peace talks, because what we’re hearing is is that from real people, from real situations, from real time, is that Ukraine’s badly getting destroyed and that the young people in Ukraine aren’t wanting to antie up because they’re just going to be fodder for death. Something’s wrong here. And we’re just funneling money to all sides of the war. So, is this really about making money for the industrial war complex? Or is it about true liberty and freedom?

The post EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Paul Gosar Speaks to The Gateway Pundit About House Bill to Send $60 Billion to Ukraine and His Support on Motion to Vacate and Remove Speaker Mike Johnson appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) did not hold back when describing some of his Republican colleagues in Congress.

Appearing on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ with host Dana Bash, Gonzales was asked about the passing of the recent multi-billion foreign aid package and the possibility that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson may be removed from office.

Rather than taking a diplomatic tone in favour of party unity, the Texas Congressman unloaded on Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Bob Good (R-VI), making various spurious allegations about their political and private lives.

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

BASH: So, you voted yes on the foreign aid package. Do you have confidence that at this point, given that it is still possible that Marjorie Taylor Greene will push to vacate, to kick out of the Speaker’s chair, that he can survive?

GONZALES: He will survive. Look, the House is a rough and rowdy place, but Mike Johnson is gonna be just fine. I served 20 years in the military. It’s my absolute honor to be in Congress, but I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties. Bob Good endorsed my opponent, a known neo-Nazi.

These people used to walk around with white hoods at night. Now they’re walking around with white hoods in the daytime. Look, it didn’t surprise me that some of these folks voted against aid to Israel, but I was encouraged to see by a nearly 10-to-1 mark that Republicans supported our allies on the battlefield.

BASH: Wow, ok, I should say that the federal government did look into Matt Gaetz and those allegations and they decided not to prosecute.

As you can see from the final exchange, even Bash was shocked by Gonzales’s remarks.

GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales: “I serve with some real scumbags. Matt Gaetz, he paid minors to have sex with him at drug parties.”
pic.twitter.com/Z50B6lfgKs

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 21, 2024

Despite his moderately conservative voting

, Gonzales is known to view many of his colleagues with disdain. Last November, he was one of 25 Republicans to vote against the Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for the House speakership.

The post RINO Rep. Tony Gonzales Calls His Republican Colleagues ‘Real Scumbags’ on CNN – Compares Them to The KKK appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Credit: Genesee County Sheriff’s Office/@unlimited_ls

A horrifying video has emerged showing the moment an evil Michigan caregiver assaulted a 93-year-old dementia patient, and the victim’s daughter is speaking out.

According to WEYI, the incident occurred at Landings of Genesee Valley in Flint, Michigan on April 4, but the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office obtained and released footage of the assault Thursday during a press conference.

The sick footage shows the perpetrator repeatedly smashing a full diaper over the elderly woman’s head while she sits in her wheelchair and raises her arms.

The sinister caregiver then chokes the woman in the bathroom before violently slapping her in the mouth. The footage concludes with the young monster raising her fists and threatening her victim.

WATCH:

The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office identified Dontia Shawnra Arrington as the person who assaulted the innocent old woman.

Suspect: Dontia Shawnra Arrington Credit: Genesee County Sheriff’s Department

During the press conference, Sheriff Chris Swanson said the patient had no clue what was happening due to her severe dementia.

“She has no idea what’s going on,” he said. “She can’t process what we process on a regular basis.”

“You see the vulnerability of the victim and the fact that she’s getting hit with a two-to-three-pound soiled diaper,” he continued. “But if that isn’t enough when she brought her hand across her throat in a chokehold, that can kill people, especially a 93-year-old.”

The heartbroken victim’s daughter also spoke at the press conference. She was puzzled about how anyone could be capable of such malice.

“I’m watching, and all I kept saying was, ‘Why are you doing this to my mom?’ she told the press. “She’s 93, 5-foot tall, a little 130-pound lady, never been in a fight her whole life.”

“Horrified. Just horrified,” she added.

The daughter then revealed how they caught the assault on tape. She explained that her family planted the nanny cam in the room back in December to discover why her mother had been suffering bruises. It took a few attempts to catch the abuse.

The camera also caught staff stealing from her mom, who was a patient at the facility for around five years.

She noted her mom has since been transferred to another facility where she is receiving proper treatment.

Arrington has been charged with torture with intent to cause cruel or extreme physical or mental pain and suffering. This carries a sentence of up to life in prison.

She is also charged with vulnerable adult abuse, which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and assault with intent to cause great bodily harm less than murder or by strangulation. The latter carries a maximum penalty of 10 years.

The post PURE EVIL: Michigan Caregiver Viciously Beats Helpless 93-Year-Old Dementia Patient Before Choking Her – Victim’s Daughter Reveals How Family Caught the Attack on Tape (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Columbia University’s rabbinical leaders have urged Jewish students to seek refuge at home until the situation around the campus has “dramatically improved.”

According to a text obtained by CNN’s Jake Tapper, the leaders of Columbia’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, Rav Elie and Tamar Buechler, sent a WhatsApp message to students following dramatic anti-Israel demonstrations in which over 100 people were arrested.

They wrote:

What we are witnessing around campus is terrible and tragic. The events of the last few days, especially last night, have made clear that Columbia University’s Public Safety and the NYPD cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme antisemitism and anarchy.

It deeply pains me to say that I recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved.

It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus. No one should have to endure this level of hatred, especially at school.

In response to “horrific” scenes of antisemitic harassment at and around campus, the Orthodox Rabbi at Columbia/Barnard sent a WhatsApp message to more than 290+ Jewish students this morning recommending that they go home until it’s safe again for them on campus: pic.twitter.com/uqAntEICLv

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) April 21, 2024

Among the students involved in this week’s protests was the daughter of the far-left Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Isra Hirsi, who confirmed she had been suspended by the university for “standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”

i’m an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege i have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings

i just received notice that i am 1 of 3 students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.

— isra hirsi (@israhirsi) April 18, 2024

The protests at Columbia are merely one of thousands of similar demonstrations to take place in recent months, as supporters of the Palestinian cause mobilize in response to Israel’s war on Hamas.

The post Columbia’s Rabbinical Leaders Urge Jewish Students to Stay Home Amid ‘Extreme Antisemitism and Anarchy’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The Houston Police Officers’ Union has issued a warning that the Texas city is “not safe” and “many suspected murderers and capital murderers” are walking the streets on bonds.

The department is also currently facing major staffing shortages in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots.

Speaking to Fox News, the union’s executive director Ray Hunt said, “I have never in my lifetime – and I’m a lifelong Houstonian – seen this many suspected murderers and capital murderers who are walking the streets of Houston out on multiple bonds.”

“I would not let my wife or my kids walk down the streets of Houston at midnight under any circumstances,” Hunt continued. “It is not safe in major cities in 2024, and it’s not safe here.”

Union President Douglas Griffith explained the department couldn’t retain officers in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We’re in a perfect storm right now,” Griffith said. “We had the George Floyd effect come down. We can’t hire. We can’t retain our officers. The people are leaving left and right.”

“Who in the heck wants to be a police officer in 2024?” Hunt asked, “when every single thing that they’re doing is going to be second-guessed by their body-worn camera that someone can watch three or four times to determine whether or not that officer made the right split-second decision. I don’t know who would want to do that. I could not encourage any of my family to come be a police officer in 2024 with the situation that’s going on.”

Griffith said the shortage is so bad that the department “will never be able to be able to investigate” every case.

The union president also laid part of the blame on the court system for “not doing their job.”

“Their contention is that we can’t hold somebody. We have to give everybody a bond, yes, the first time. Once they violate that bond, they can be held in jail until they go to court again. And we get people on six, seven, eight, nine bonds at one time. And that’s a problem that we have to fix in the courts. And with the DA’s office, you try to make sure that these public offenders can’t be continued to roam the streets and victimize our citizens.”

WATCH:

Watch the latest video at foxnews.com

The post WATCH: Houston Police Union Issues Warning That the Texas City is ‘Not Safe’ as ‘Many Suspected Murderers’ Are Walking the Streets appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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The post Huge Sale on “Perfect Firmness” Mattress Toppers — Up to 50% Off Plus Money Back Guarantee! appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

The ‘whistleblower’ who sparked Donald Trump’s first impeachment was deeply involved in the political maneuverings behind Biden-family business schemes in Ukraine that Trump wanted probed, newly obtained emails from former Vice President Joe Biden’s office reveal.

In 2019, then-National Intelligence Council analyst Eric Ciaramella touched off a political firestorm when he anonymously accused Trump of linking military aid for Ukraine to a demand for an investigation into alleged Biden corruption in that country.

But four years earlier, while working as a national security analyst attached to then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office, Ciaramella was a close adviser when Biden threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine unless it fired its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings. At the time, the corruption-riddled energy giant was paying Biden’s son Hunter millions of dollars.

Those payments – along with other evidence tying Joe Biden to his family’s business dealings – received little attention in 2019 as Ciaramella accused Trump of a corrupt quid pro quo. Neither did subsequent evidence indicating that Hunter Biden’s associates had identified Shokin as a “key target.” These matters are now part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

“It now seems there was material evidence that would have been used at the impeachment trial [to exonerate Trump],” said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, who has testified as an expert witness in the ongoing Biden impeachment inquiry. “Trump was alleging there was a conflict of interest with the Bidens, and the evidence could have challenged Biden’s account and established his son’s interest in the Shokin firing.”

Ciaramella’s role – including high-level discussions with top Biden aides and Ukrainian prosecutors – is only now coming to light thanks to the recent release of White House emails and photos from the National Archives.

The emails show Ciaramella expressed shock – “Yikes” is what he wrote – at Biden’s move to withhold the $1 billion in aid from Kyiv, which represented a sudden shift in U.S. policy. They also show he was drawn into White House communications over how to control adverse publicity from Hunter taking a lucrative seat on Burisma’s board.

Yet there is no evidence Ciaramella raised alarms about the questionable Biden business activities he witnessed firsthand, which is in sharp contrast to 2019. In that instance, he was galvanized into action after being told by White House colleague Alexander Vindman of an “improper” phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. During the call, Trump solicited Zelensky’s help in investigating Burisma and Hunter Biden’s role in the company.

Some former congressional investigators say Ciaramella effectively helped cover up a scandal far worse than what Trump was impeached over. What’s more, he failed to disclose that he had a potential conflict of interest stemming from his connection to the matter Trump asked Zelensky to probe when he lodged his complaint against Trump. RealClearInvestigations was the first to identify the then-33-year-old Ciaramella as the anonymous impeachment “whistleblower,” something major media continue to keep under tight wraps.

Ciaramella worked under CIA Director John Brennan when President Obama made Biden his point man on Ukraine in 2014, the same year Burisma hired Hunter. The next year, the CIA detailed Ciaramella, a longtime advocate for aid to Ukraine, to the White House, where he worked closely with Biden and his staff as a top adviser on key Ukrainian policies. After Biden left office, he stayed on at the GOP White House until mid-2017 even though he’s a Democrat, working as a Ukrainian and Russian analyst on Trump’s National Security Council. Co-workers there accused him of trying to sabotage Trump, including allegedly leaking sensitive information to the press.

RealClearInvestigations has reviewed more than 2,000 pages of newly disclosed archived emails from the former vice president’s office related to Ukraine, of which more than 160 contained references to Ciaramella. They reveal that his role advising Biden’s office potentially intersects with the current impeachment inquiry in several areas. Chiefly, Ciaramella focused on aid to Ukraine and anti-corruption reforms in the country. In that capacity, he:

Hosted, cleared into the White House, and met face-to-face there with senior Ukrainian prosecutors.
Gave a “readout” of the meeting to his superiors, who in turn pushed for Shokin’s firing.
Traveled with Biden to Kyiv during the 2015 trip during which Biden demanded Shokin’s firing.
Wrote media “talking points” for Ukrainian officials.
Huddled with the top Biden officials involved in discussions concerning the $1 billion aid package and Shokin, including: Amos Hochstein; Victoria Nuland; Geoffrey Pyatt; Bridget Brink; and Michael Carpenter.
Corresponded with Biden officials coordinating responses to negative media reports about Hunter’s cushy and controversial Burisma job.

Former Obama-Biden administration officials have confirmed in recent closed-door congressional testimony that Ciaramella was a key part of Biden’s process for making policy in Ukraine. In 2016, for instance, a White House photo shows him taking notes at a White House meeting Biden held with then-Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to discuss Ukraine’s anti-corruption reforms and other issues.

Ciaramella also worked directly with top Obama and Biden administration diplomats on Ukraine, including senior State Department official Victoria Nuland. “Eric was regularly the clearing authority to get me into the White House for interagency meetings on Ukraine,” Nuland revealed in a 2020 Senate deposition. Asked if she ever discussed Ukraine policy and Shokin with Ciaramella, Nuland testified: “Of course, I did. He was part of the interagency process. He was also on my negotiating team for the six, seven rounds of negotiations I did with the Russians on [the disputed Ukraine region] Donbas.”

Ciaramella was directly involved in talks concerning the massive U.S. aid package to Ukraine that Biden conditioned on the removal of Shokin, who at the time had seized the assets of the corrupt Burisma oligarch employing Hunter Biden. He also arranged and participated in White House talks with Ukrainian prosecutors visiting from Shokin’s office.

White House visitor logs confirm Ciaramella escorted Shokin’s deputy prosecutor, David Sakvarelidze, into the White House for a January 2016 meeting. A White House agenda for the meeting lists Ciaramella as “point of contact” for the Ukrainian delegation. He also checked in Andriy Telizhenko, the Ukrainian Embassy official who says they discussed Burisma and Hunter Biden during the meeting and struggled to understand why his U.S. counterparts were suddenly hostile to Shokin after praising him in earlier talks.

Emails from the time show Ciaramella appeared surprised to hear about the linkage between the $1 billion loan to Ukraine and the dismissal of Shokin. Though Biden maintains he insisted Kyiv oust Shokin because he was too soft on weeding out fraud in entities that included Burisma, Ciaramella suggested he didn’t share the view that Shokin was corrupt. “We were super impressed with the group,” Ciaramella added, “and we had a two-hour discussion of their priorities and the obstacles they face.”

On Jan. 21, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt emailed Ciaramella and other White House aides an article from the Ukrainian press – “U.S. loan guarantee conditional on Shokin’s dismissal.”

“Yikes. I don’t recall this coming up in our meeting with them,” Ciaramella replied, referring to the White House meeting he hosted with top Ukrainian prosecutors.

But in a closed-door 2020 deposition before the Senate, Pyatt sounded skeptical that Ciaramella was in the dark about the decision. “I think you have to ask Eric what he meant by ‘Yikes,’” Pyatt told Senate investigators. He said that he believed conditioning the loan guarantee on Shokin’s removal “obviously came up in those meetings” hosted by Ciaramella, suggesting that Biden’s aide knew of the quid pro quo before Pyatt circulated the article about it from the Ukrainian press.

The day before he hosted the Ukraine prosecutors, Ciaramella received an agenda from a State Department official that asked him to “note the importance of appointing a new PG [Prosecutor General], reiterating that Shokin is an obstacle to reform,” according to emails. The agenda also called on Ciaramella to “ask the del [Ukrainian delegation] what high-level cases are on the docket for prosecution,” which raises suspicions in some quarters that Biden’s advisers were fishing for information about Shokin’s plans for prosecuting Burisma oligarchs, something Hunter Biden had been asked to find out.

In a Jan. 21 email, Pyatt told Ciaramella to “buckle in” because, as he later explained to Senate investigators, the deal was a “difficult issue” and “there was going to be political controversy around this [news].”

The former ambassador demurred when asked if conditioning the $1 billion on Shokin’s firing was Biden’s idea or came from his office. “It was the – our interagency policy,” he testified, adding, “I don’t remember when the vice president would have weighed in on this.”

However, Pyatt allowed that it was a sudden change in policy. “At the beginning,” he said, “it was not our expectation that Shokin’s removal would be necessary.” Indeed, an Oct. 1, 2015, memo summarizing the recommendation of the Interagency Policy Committee on Ukraine stated, “Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its [anti-corruption] reform agenda to justify a third [loan] guarantee.” Ciaramella was a member of the IPC task force, which monitored Shokin’s office. The next month, moreover, the task force drafted a loan guarantee agreement that did not call for Shokin’s removal. Then, in December, Joe Biden flew to Kyiv to demand his ouster.

If what Ciaramella expressed in his email (which he knew would be part of archived White House records) was a genuine reaction, it appears that Vice President Biden went against the recommendation of one of his top NSC advisers on Ukraine. If Ciaramella were genuinely alarmed, he might have blown the whistle on his boss like he did on Trump, but he stayed mum. If, on the other hand, Ciaramella were a party to the quid-pro-quo discussions, as Pyatt suggests, then he had “a direct conflict,” noted Derek Harvey, the former congressional investigator involved in the first impeachment. Either way, Ciaramella clearly found himself in the middle of a major controversy.

Just weeks prior, White House photos indicate that Ciaramella traveled with Biden on the same December 2015 Air Force Two flight the vice president took to Kyiv to threaten Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ax Shokin. Republicans have accused Biden of pushing Shokin’s ouster to block scrutiny of his son’s actions.

“Biden called an audible and changed U.S. policy toward Ukraine to benefit his son on the plane ride to Ukraine,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said, and “later bragged about withholding a U.S. loan guarantee if Ukraine did not fire the prosecutor [Shokin].”
Biden and his supporters have repeatedly claimed Shokin had to go because he wasn’t cracking down on corruption and that everyone else in the administration, as well as Europe, agreed Shokin should be fired. This remains the prevailing narrative in major U.S. media. But around that time, Shokin had conducted a raid of Burisma oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky’s home, seizing his house, cars, and other assets.

IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler, who examined Hunter’s emails as part of his investigation of Hunter for tax evasion, said Shokin was identified as a “key target” in emails exchanged between Hunter and Burisma officials in November 2015 – the month before Biden traveled to Ukraine to demand Shokin’s removal. Just days before Biden arrived in Kyiv in early December 2015 to demand Shokin’s ouster, Hunter allegedly called his father from Dubai following a meeting there with Burisma official Vadym Pozharskyi, who asked him to pressure his father to shut down Shokin’s investigation. Vice President Biden was familiar with Pozharskyi, having met with him in April 2015 during a dinner at the Cafe Milano in D.C. arranged by Hunter.

“The unstated goal was to have the Ukrainian prosecutor removed in an effort to close the criminal case against [Burisma founder] Zlochevsky,” Ziegler said in recent testimony before the House impeachment inquiry. After Shokin was pushed out of office, the Burisma investigation dried up.

Ciaramella tried to marshal a defense for Biden in the whistleblower complaint he sent to Rep. Adam Schiff in August 2019. He listed among Trump’s concerns at the time of the fateful July phone call “that former Vice President Biden had pressured Poroshenko in 2016 to fire Shokin in order to quash a purported criminal probe into Burisma Holdings.” But Ciaramella attempted to pour cold water on the notion by referencing a Bloomberg News article that quoted a “former senior Ukrainian prosecutor” who falsely claimed “that Mr. Shokin in fact was not investigating Burisma at the time of his removal in 2016.”

White House emails reveal that Ciaramella was looped into messages sent by Biden’s communications team, who were concerned that Hunter Biden taking a position on corrupt Burisma’s board created unseemly optics and undercut their boss’ mission to clean up corruption in Ukraine.

In a Dec. 8, 2015, email, for example, Biden’s communications director Kate Bedingfield copied Ciaramella on a link to a New York Times article headlined, “The Knotty Ties Between Joe Biden, His Son and Ukraine.” Bedingfield is quoted in the story, authored by James Risen, denying Hunter had traveled with his father to Ukraine in an attempt to downplay his influence. She also said Ukrainian officials never raised his position on the Burisma board with Biden as an issue of concern. Risen got spun, however, on the issue of compensation for Hunter, reporting that it was “not out of the ordinary.”

At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter, who had no energy sector experience, $1 million a year just for lending his name to its board. It turns out that Hunter never traveled to Ukraine for a single meeting in the five years he sat on Burisma’s board. Republicans suspect Biden got the prosecutor ousted to keep the money flowing from Burisma to the Biden family.

Career State Department officials led by George Kent, who was stationed in Ukraine at the time, tried to get Biden’s aides to raise the issue of potential family conflicts with the vice president. Despite their concerns, Biden never asked his son to step down from the Burisma board, which would have made all questions go away. And despite Kent and other officials identifying Burisma founder Zlochevsky by name as a corrupt actor in Ukraine, Biden himself never publicly called Zlochevsky out as corrupt while Hunter served on his board and pocketed millions in payments from him. For all his talk of fighting corruption in Ukraine, Biden failed to distance himself from one of the most corrupt oligarchs in the country.

Harvey, who served as the staff investigator for the Republican side of the House Intelligence Committee during the 2019 Trump impeachment hearings, said: “The [Biden] impeachment inquiry should compel Ciaramella to testify since we now know he was involved in communications about Biden using the $1 billion in aid to extort Ukraine into firing Shokin.”

Harvey said Ciaramella would make a valuable material witness against Biden in the probe, which centers on whether Biden used his White House clout or political influence on behalf of his son’s foreign paymasters. White House photos indicate Ciaramella took notes during his meetings with Biden, his staff, and Ukrainian officials – materials that lawmakers could subpoena along with his testimony.

Another former staff investigator noted that Ciaramella is no longer protected by federal whistleblower laws. He has left the government and now works as a senior fellow focusing on Ukraine and Russia for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, where he is consulting with White House officials and pushing for billions more in U.S. aid for Ukraine – including “a Marshall Plan for the Ukrainian military.” Through a spokesperson, Ciaramella declined to comment.

“None of the whistleblower protections apply to this particular situation,” said Jason Foster, former chief investigative counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee and a whistleblower expert. He also noted that the Whistleblower Protection Act doesn’t shield whistleblowers from any other conduct they might have been involved in, including their own conduct. Nor does it give them a legal right to anonymity.

A spokeswoman for the House Oversight Committee, which is leading the Biden impeachment inquiry, declined to say whether Ciaramella is on the witness list. “I don’t have anything for you on this at this time,” said House Oversight Communications Director Jessica Collins. However, Comer has publicly described the “whistleblower” impeachment of Trump as a “cover-up” operation for the alleged Biden blackmail scheme in Ukraine involving U.S. aid and the Burisma corruption probe.

What Ciaramella witnessed and what he documented in notes he took during high-level Biden-Ukraine meetings could now be relevant to the active impeachment inquiry of President Biden. The House may have little choice but to hold the kind of hearings the Democrats blocked during the earlier impeachment by keeping Ciaramella’s identity – and his own potential conflict – secret.

As the catalyst for Trump’s impeachment, Ciaramella could now be a reluctant witness for Biden’s.

BREAKING: VP Biden Emails Reveal Eric Ciaramella Had Serious Conflict of Interest Blowing Whistle on Trumphttps://t.co/g02aj0UmcY

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) April 19, 2024

This RealClearInvestigations article was republished by The Gateway Pundit with permission.

Paul Sperry is the former D.C. bureau chief for Investor’s Business Daily, Hoover Institution media fellow, author of several books, including bestseller INFILTRATION

The post SPERRY: Impeachment ‘Whistleblower’ Was in the Loop of Biden-Ukraine Affairs That Trump Wanted Probed appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

A grandmother has been arrested for allegedly helping her granddaughter beat up another student in her elementary school bathroom.

The incident occurred on April 18 at the McMonagle Elementary School in Mt. Morris Township.

The woman’s name has not yet been released because she is still pending arraignment.

Mt. Morris Township Police Chief Michael Veach told local station WNEM that the grandmother and child had been called into the school for a behavioral meeting.

The report explains:

Veach said the grandmother saw another girl her granddaughter was having trouble with, so she and her granddaughter followed her into a bathroom.

The grandmother then held down the girl while her granddaughter punched her, Veach said.

The grandmother is currently detained at the Genesee County Jail.

Westwood Heights Schools Public Relations and Marketing Coordinator Jamal Bransford released the following statement about the incident:

“On Thursday, April 18 an unfortunate incident transpired at McMonagle Elementary School involving a grandparent of a student who managed to circumvent security protocols and gain unauthorized access to the school premises. The Mt. Morris Township Police Department immediately investigated this incident. It is crucial to emphasize that no other children in the school were involved or harmed during this incident.

The safety and security of our students is our topmost concern. Our school administration is diligently implementing all necessary measures to prevent such breaches of security in the future. We are actively collaborating with the Mt. Morris Township Police Department to implement safeguards that will safeguard the well-being of our students and prevent similar incidents from occurring.”

The post Michigan Grandmother Arrested for Helping Granddaughter Beat Up Student in Her Elementary School Bathroom appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Nottingham is a weird old town, radical and reactionary at the same time. It was the place where King Charles I raised his standard against the Parliament, starting the English Civil War. It is overgrown with Robin Hood statues all over the city center. It is a Labour party stronghold, although it is surrounded by working-class deep Englanders who voted for Brexit in nearby Mansfield and Chesterfield. Almost next door, in Lincolnshire, Margaret Thatcher was born—and is reviled to this day. It is where I completed my PhD, at the University of Nottingham, a Russell Group University. It is near where Lord Byron lived in Newstead Abbey. 

George Gordon, the sixth Baron Byron, died 200 years ago this day in Greece, fighting for Greek independence against the Ottoman Empire, back when hereditary elites had the conviction to go to war personally for causes they believed in, instead of tweeting and sending their hapless fellow working-class citizens to die in lands far away for no reasons at all. 

Byron hated conservative-realists. He was fascinated by Bonapartism. He despised Castlereagh and Metternich for what we would now call their illiberalism. In his maiden speech at the House of Lords, he did, however, defend the Luddites against the onslaught of science and the technological revolution that ultimately changed the globe. 

In the museum at Newstead Abbey, alongside Byron’s books and harp are incredible little items, such as his betrothal ring with the inscription Crede Byron, a coin damaged by a shot, duelling pistols, cutlasses and sabres, and a cuirassier helmet that he used in Greece during a cavalry charge. 

Byron was infamously handsome, and even more notoriously a womanizer, once termed “mad, bad, and dangerous to know” by one of his many mistresses. 

He remains the greatest Romantic of the era that birthed the term, and perhaps the greatest poetic virtuoso of the English language. 

My most favorite work of his, however, is his dedication in the epitaph to his dog, words that were written with no other emotions than true grief and loneliness. 

Oh man! thou feeble tenant of an hour,
Debas’d by slavery, or corrupt by power,
Who knows thee well, must quit thee with disgust,
Degraded mass of animated dust!
Thy love is lust, thy friendship all a cheat,
Thy tongue hypocrisy, thy heart deceit!
By nature vile, ennobled but by name,
Each kindred brute might bid thee blush for shame.
Ye! who behold perchance this simple urn,
Pass on, it honors none you wish to mourn.
To mark a friend’s remains these stones arise;
I never knew but one—and here he lies.

The post ‘It Honours None You Wish to Mourn’: The Bicentenary of Byron’s Demise appeared first on The American Conservative.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) has confirmed that he will protect Speaker Mike Johnson’s position after he agreed a foreign aid package that will send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

In an interview on NBC’s ‘This Week,’ Khanna was full of praise for the Republican speaker and said he would oppose any attempts to remove him.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna tells @JonKarl that he would vote to support Speaker Mike Johnson if Republicans tried to remove him for securing Ukraine aid.

“He did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of this term.” https://t.co/xaDuxyoG51 pic.twitter.com/znG8X4S0KR

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 21, 2024

Here is a transcript of the exchange:

HOST: Congressman Khanna, does Speaker Johnson deserve credit for how this played out?

KHANNA: He does. Look, we came into Congress together and he always cared about civility. He actually led the civility pledge. And he – we had one issue, which was give individual votes. Don’t lump things together. And I give him credit for doing this. I would actually vote to table any motion to vacate him. You know, Congressman McCaul quoted Churchill. One of the things Churchill said is that America always exhausted every wrong option until doing the right thing. And this shows that American democracy still is very strong.

KARL:  You just said something significant. You said you would oppose the tabled – the motion to vacate. In other words, you will protect Speaker Johnson’s job if Marjorie Taylor Greene and the others go through with their threat to try to remove him?”

KHANNA: I would, through the end of the term. I expect Speaker Jeffries will be there in 2025.

KARL: Right – not – speaker, yes. Yes.

KHANNA: But look, I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him. But he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term.

Khanna’s comments come as various Republicans, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar and Thomas Massie, have indicated they no longer have confidence in his leadership, amid rising anger at his commitment to funding foreign conflicts while the southern border remains wide open.

The post Leftist Rep. Ro Khanna Confirms He Will ‘Protect’ Speaker Johnson After Ukraine Vote: ‘He Deserves to Keep His Job’ (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.