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House Cancels Thursday Session After March 4 ‘True Inauguration Day’ Capitol Threat Warning
BY TOM OZIMEK March 4, 2021 Updated: March 4, 2021
The House of Representatives has canceled its Thursday session after law enforcement officials warned that a militia group could be plotting to breach the Capitol building on March 4, a day some online rumors have claimed would see former President Donald Trump restored to power.
The Capitol Police, the agency tasked with protecting the Capitol complex, said in a statement that it had obtained intelligence that “shows a possible plot to breach the Capitol by an identified militia group” on Thursday. The agency added that it is “aware of and prepared for any potential threats towards members of Congress or towards the Capitol complex,” with security upgrades in place to provide extra protection.
While police did not provide additional details about the intelligence, they said they’re working with local and federal law enforcement agencies to “stop any threats.” The agency was caught flat-footed and left embarrassed after protesters and rioters breached security lines on Jan. 6 and overran the Capitol. Several Capitol Police officials resigned following the breach.
(capitol capitol Protesters clash with police at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Julio Cortez/AP Photo))
A joint intelligence bulletin issued on March 2 by the Justice Department, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security, obtained by Axios (pdf), warned that some domestic violent extremists (DVE) may seek to target the Capitol complex on March 4.
“Some DVEs motivated by the QAnon conspiracy theory believe that the previous president will be inaugurated on March 4 or will return to power on May 20 with the help of the U.S. military,” the agencies said in the bulletin.
Also an unidentified group of militia violent extremists (MVE), which the agencies define as “individuals who seek, wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence, to further their belief that the U.S. government is purposely exceeding its Constitutional authority and is attempting to establish a totalitarian regime,” discussed plans to take control of the Capitol on or around March 4, according to the bulletin.
“MVEs also have allegedly threatened an attack against the U.S. Capitol using explosives to kill as many members of Congress as possible during the upcoming State of the Union address,” the agencies warned. So far, no date has been set for President Joe Biden to deliver the customary State of the Union speech to Congress, a fact that has fed into online rumors questioning the legitimacy of his presidency.
On Tuesday, Acting House Sergeant at Arms Timothy Blodgett notified Congress members of a possible security threat spanning Thursday through Saturday, referring to “potential protests and demonstration activity surrounding what some have described as the ‘true Inauguration Day.'”
For nearly a century, U.S. presidents have been inaugurated on Jan. 20, including Biden, who took the oath of office on the grounds of the Capitol. Previously, March 4 had been the swearing-in date.
Following reports of the heightened threat levels, the office of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that all votes set for later this week would be wrapped up by Wednesday evening, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Senate will convene as planned to begin debating Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19-relief bill on Thursday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
"There is NO moral obligation to obey the law . . . Some laws invite breach." -- Lord Sumption, former UK supreme court justice, on lockdowns and other Covid regulations https://mobile.twitter.com/unherd/status/1367429935984500737
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South Carolina Senate Passes Bill Adding Firing Squad to Execution Methods BY ISABEL VAN BRUGEN March 3, 2021 Updated: March 3, 2021
The South Carolina Senate on March 2 passed a bill that added a firing squad as an alternative execution method for inmates on death row.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers voted in favor of the bill in a 32-11 vote. The measure, which would allow the state to restart executions after nearly a decade, states that the firing squad method may be used if South Carolina can’t execute condemned inmates by way of lethal injection.
According to The State, the South Carolina Senate voted to give the measure a second reading before it passes to the chamber. Court records show that a second reading has been completed.
Currently, South Carolina isn’t able to place inmates on death row as its lethal injection drugs supply has expired, and it hasn’t been able to purchase more due to a shortage nationwide. South Carolina’s last execution was in May 2011.
At present, condemned inmates are able to choose between the electric chair and lethal injection, and since the drugs are not available, many have chosen the lethal injection method as the state is then unable to force inmates to be executed by means of electrocution.
The Senate bill keeps lethal injection if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair if it does not. An inmate could choose a firing squad if they prefer.
The state has been unable to purchase lethal injection drugs for about five years, as drug manufactures seek to limit how their products are used. As a result, two scheduled executions so far have been pushed back in South Carolina.
“For several years, as most of you know, South Carolina has not been able to carry out executions,” state Sen. Greg Hembree, a co-sponsor of the bill, told the Senate floor, The State reported. “Families are waiting. Victims are waiting. … The state is waiting.”
The House is considering a similar bill without the firing squad option, but it could also consider the Senate version after a procedural vote finalizes the bill later this week.
To date, there are 37 inmates on death row in the state.
Late last year, the Department of Justice (DOJ) amended its protocols to allow executions to be carried out by alternatives including by electrocution, firing squad, and poison gas.
Effective Dec. 24, 2020, the latest rule allows authorities to allow death sentences to be carried out by lethal injection or use “any other manner prescribed by the law of the state in which the sentence was imposed,” with some states permitting methods like inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.
Former President Donald Trump repeatedly expressed support for capital punishment, and restarted the practice at the federal level last year after a 17-year hiatus. Trump argued that executions serve as an effective deterrent and an appropriate punishment for some crimes, including mass shootings and the killings of police officers.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, is the first sitting U.S. president to openly oppose the death penalty, and has discussed potentially instructing the DOJ to stop scheduling new executions, according to The Associated Press.
Tom Ozimek and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Supreme Court Appears Favorable to Arizona Election Integrity Lawsuits BY MATTHEW VADUM March 2, 2021 Updated: March 2, 2021
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich urged the Supreme Court on March 2 to affirm that his state’s electoral integrity laws were consistent with the federal Voting Rights Act and should be upheld.
The case Arizona’s top prosecutor argued is actually two consolidated cases: Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Arizona Republican Party v. DNC.
Although the justices peppered counsel for Arizona and the state’s Republican Party with at-times hostile-sounding questions, members of the Supreme Court seemed receptive to their arguments. Except for the more liberal members, the justices did not seem convinced that Arizona’s election laws violated the Voting Rights Act.
The Supreme Court threw out a series of Republican-initiated legal challenges on Feb. 22 to voting processes and results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin that were left over from the 2020 election cycle. And on March 1, the court dismissed an election challenge from Arizona, In Re Tyler Bowyer, and one from Wisconsin, In Re William Feehan, that were brought on Dec. 15, 2020, by pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell.
The oral arguments in Brnovich’s case before the Supreme Court came days after an Arizona judge ruled in a separate case that state lawmakers have the right to access 2.1 million ballots cast in the state’s most populous county, Maricopa County, and related electronic materials in order to carry out an audit of the Nov. 3, 2020, election results, as The Epoch Times previously reported.
The Supreme Court agreed on Oct. 2, 2020, to hear the case at hand, which concerns efforts that Republicans say would undermine electoral integrity measures and throw the Grand Canyon State open to ballot-harvesting and out-of-precinct voting.
Understanding What Framers Intended
“I think we all should agree at this point that we want to have confidence in our election system,” Brnovich, the state’s Republican attorney general, said in an exclusive interview with The Epoch Times days before his Supreme Court appearance, in which he shared his views about the upcoming oral argument at the high court and electoral integrity measures in general.
“We want orderly elections,” he said, adding that he was optimistic that the court appearance would help to generate momentum for electoral integrity measures nationwide.
More Americans need to become active in defending the nation’s founding and the institutions that came out of it, he said.
There is a certain amount of establishment thinking out there “that just wants to go along to get along … [but] the stakes are so high right now in this country that we need champions that understand what the framers of our Constitution established here in this country.”
There is a “need to understand traditional notions of federalism and to understand that the Constitution is all about protecting rights, and that the government is supposed to be limited and its powers defined.”
Forbidding unlimited third-party ballot harvesting is a “commonsense” way to protect the secret ballot, and to prevent undue influence, voter fraud, ballot tampering, and voter intimidation, Brnovich said.
“We have seen in the past where people have used ballot harvesting to undermine the integrity of elections. We also know that no less than Jimmy Carter in 2005 had recommended that there be commonsense measures in place when it came to ballot harvesting because absentee ballots were one of the largest sources of potential fraud,” he said.
The bipartisan Commission on Federal Election Reform, chaired by former President Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, found “absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud” and “vote-buying schemes are far more difficult to detect when citizens vote by mail.”
“There was a time when this was a bipartisan issue, when all sides could agree that we want to make sure that we have safe and secure elections, and now, for whatever reason, it’s become a partisan issue,” Brnovich said. “It’s unfortunate because everyone should have confidence in our elections.
“I think as a public official there is no higher priority among public officials than maintaining the public integrity of our elections, so we want to make sure that people are prevented from voting multiple times, we want to protect against voter intimidation, we want to preserve the secrecy of the ballot, and I think that’s what our laws were designed to do.”
‘Discriminatory Intent’
Arizona, like other states, has adopted rules to promote the order and integrity of its elections.
One is an “out-of-precinct policy,” which excludes provisional ballots cast in person on Election Day outside of the voter’s designated precinct. Another is a “ballot-collection law,” known as H.B. 2023, that allows only specific persons such as family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers, and election officials to handle another person’s completed early ballot. Most states require voters to vote in their own precincts, and around 20 states limit ballot collection by third parties.
A U.S. district court upheld Arizona’s rules, which were challenged under the Voting Rights Act (VRA). A fortnight ago, the Biden administration sent a letter to the court in which it appeared to acknowledge the challenged Arizona laws were consistent with the VRA.
Section 2 of the VRA prevents states and localities from imposing any “qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure … in a manner which results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”
A panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court but then reversed at the en banc stage, going against the recommendations of the Trump administration.
“Arizona’s policy of wholly discarding, rather than counting or partially counting, out-of-precinct ballots, and H.B. 2023’s criminalization of the collection of another person’s ballot, have a discriminatory impact on American Indian, Hispanic, and African American voters in Arizona, in violation of the ‘results test’ of Section 2 of the VRA,” Judge William A. Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, wrote for the court.
H.B. 2023’s ban on collecting another person’s ballot “was enacted with discriminatory intent, in violation of the ‘intent test’ of Section 2 of the VRA and of the Fifteenth Amendment.”
The Arizona laws in question are unfair because American Indian voters, other minorities, renters, and poor people are disadvantaged because they have difficulty receiving and sending mail, Fletcher wrote.
“Minority voters rely on third-party ballot collection for many reasons,” he added, citing the testimony of a community organizer. That court stayed enforcement pending appeal, allowing Arizona’s laws to remain in place for the 2020 election.
Brnovich said in the interview that he rejects those court findings, which were consistent with legal arguments made by Democrats.
“The state of Arizona endorses without qualifications the goals of the Voting Rights Act in racial discrimination and voting,” he said.
“Our laws do not violate section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.”
But Republicans, Brnovich added, have been falsely accused of racism for a long time.
“Accusing someone of racism is the last resort of an exhausted mind,” he said. “Unfortunately, nowadays there are too many people that are intellectually lazy on the left and that’s what they fall back on.”
Oral Arguments
The Supreme Court allotted 60 minutes to oral arguments but used 114 on March 2.
“Arizona has not denied anyone any voting opportunity of any kind,” said Michael Carvin, attorney for the Arizona Republican Party.
No literacy test denies the right to vote and there is no “vote dilution where white bloc voting denies minorities an equal opportunity to elect. Everyone here is eligible and registered to vote. All they have to do is utilize the myriad opportunities that Arizona has offered them over 27 days to vote by mail for free or in person. And since there’s no denial of opportunity, this is a disparate impact claim that would not even be cognizable in other contexts.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggested to Carvin that being poor is itself a violation of a person’s voting rights.
“If you can’t vote because you are a Native American or a non-Hispanic in areas where car ownership rates are very small, where you don’t have mail pickup or mail delivery, where your post office is at the edge of town and so that you require either a relative to pick up your vote, or you happen to vote in a wrong precinct because your particular area has a confusion of precinct assignments, if you just can’t vote for those reasons and you’re not—your vote is not being counted, you’ve been denied the right to vote, haven’t you?”
Later, replying to Justice Neil Gorsuch, Carvin said, “if socioeconomic factors lead to underutilization by minorities, that’s not a cognizable factor under Section 2 because it’s got to be the voting practice that causes the diminished opportunity.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested to Jessica Amunson, counsel for Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, that a clear legal standard was needed.
“All election rules are going to make it easier for some to vote than others,” the justice said.
Barrett asked Carvin, “What’s the interest of the Arizona RNC here in keeping, say, the out-of-precinct voter ballot disqualification rules on the books?”
He responded: “Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats. Politics is a zero-sum game, and every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretations of Section 2 hurts us. It’s the difference between winning an election 50 to 49 and losing.”
Brnovich told the court that Arizona’s laws are consistent with the VRA.
“Requiring in-person voters to cast their ballots at assigned precincts ensures that they can vote in local races and helps officials monitor for fraud. Restricting early ballot collections by third parties, including political operatives, protects against voter coercion and preserves ballot secrecy. Arizona urges this Court to adopt a clear and workable test for voter denial claims that allows states to properly regulate their elections.”
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Biden’s Presidency Seems Ready to End Michael Walsh Michael Walsh March 1, 2021 Updated: March 1, 2021
Commentary
We’re now six weeks or so into the sham presidency of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and already the end of the Biden Era seems near.
A bumbling shell of a man, constantly attended by his wife, Jill, and with the lengthening shadow of his vice president, Kamala Harris, looming in the background, Biden seems incapable of doing anything except signing the slew of executive orders his handlers shove under his nose until at last, exhausted, his team “calls a lid” on his workday and packs him back off upstairs at the White House for a nice lie-down before noontime.
It would be funny if it weren’t so tragic—or perhaps it would tragic if it weren’t so funny. No one has ever mistaken Biden for an intellectual; indeed he has long acted like the bully at the end of an Irish bar, full of bluster and braggadocio, without being able in the slightest to back up his boasts.
Harris in the Wings
The good news is, he’s not likely to be there very long. The bad news is who might replace him: in Harris—the daughter of two foreign-born parents who was raised by them in Canada, and who garnered no support from the Democrat primary electorate during her short, disastrous campaign for the top spot on the 2020 ticket—we have one of the most dangerous prospective presidents ever. As I wrote in April 2018:
“Imagine a combination of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and you’ve got Kamala Harris, the current seat-warming senator from California who, like Obama, is using the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body as a resume-puncher before swiftly moving on to bigger things: the 2020 Democrat presidential nomination.
“She combines Obama’s race with Hillary’s sex, and as identity politics goes these days, that’s going to be tough to beat. The other bruited candidates—Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden—are superannuated white men who won’t stand a chance once the usual suspects on the Left begin massing, chanting, and rioting.”
Well, as predicted, we got the massing, chanting, and rioting, but Harris couldn’t keep up her end of the bargain. So once it became clear she wasn’t going to get to the Oval Office under her own steam, the Democrat/Obama brain trust one year ago persuaded other competing candidates (Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar) to drop out just before Super Tuesday to clear the way for Biden, with the proviso that Harris be his choice for veep. Et voila…
And yet, already the knives out for the hapless figurehead, who mangled his way through a short speech in Texas the other day, fracturing some names and mush-mouthing others. “What am I doing here?” he exclaimed in frustration. “I’m going to lose track here.”
Good question—and Biden’s not alone in wondering. A month before the election last year, Nancy Pelosi mysteriously brought up the subject of the 25th amendment, which allows for the replacement of an incapable president by means of a cabinet-level coup or via a commission of doctors, shrinks, and has-been politicians. Lest you think the House speaker was thinking of Trump, think again. “This is not about President Trump,” she said, flatly.
And just last week, a group of Democrats, led by two House members, called for Biden to be stripped of his sole authority to launch a nuclear strike, calling for the vice president and the House speaker to concur in any such decision. (Do they know something we, officially, don’t?) The fact that Harris is the vice president and Pelosi is the speaker is entirely coincidental. Expect similar motions to diminish Biden’s waning authority to increase as his mental capacity decreases.
Trump’s Return
Meanwhile, at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28, Donald Trump returned to the political scene with a fiery speech asserting his control over the Republican Party—immediately characterized by CNN as a “new threat to American democracy”—and hinting that he might run again in 2024. He called for voting reform and even dangled his own list of proscriptions a la ancient Rome, anathematizing Rep. Liz Cheney and senators Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney and Ben Sasse, among others. “Get rid of them all,” he said.
The comparison to Rome—as it has been throughout the Trump presidency—is apt. During the campaign, Trump crossed his own Rubicon, engaged in battle with both enemies and erstwhile allies, and met at least his temporary political demise on the floor of the Senate when the votes were certified and accepted on Jan. 6 and the crowd marched on the Capitol.
Yet even after his term has ended, echoes of antiquity remain. After the Emperor Nero’s death by suicide in 68 A.D. Rome witnessed the Year of the Four Emperors, a period of turmoil and civil war that was finally ended by Vespasian in 69, after Galba, Otho, Vitellius each had fallen in turn. Only then did the political situation stabilize for a few years with the establishment of the Flavian dynasty.
Here in the United States, we’re on the verge of The Year of the Three Presidents. After all, 2021 began with Trump in the White House, followed by Biden on Jan. 20, with Harris now the odds-on favorite to supplant Sundown Joe once his deterioration becomes impossible even for the lickspittle robinettes in the media to ignore. Imagine, no more hard-hitting stories about Biden’s favorite ice cream, or how he beat his granddaughter in a video game at Camp David:
“President Biden has joined the scores of people who turned to Mario Kart to stay entertained during the pandemic—at least for one game with his granddaughter. Naomi Biden posted on Snapchat this weekend that she and her grandfather played an arcade-style game round of Mario Kart at Camp David over the weekend—and that he won.”
Momentous news, indeed. Still, it could be worse, and probably will be as Biden fades and the Democrats ponder when to strike. But it won’t take much more for the Democrats to depose him—and get their first choice for president behind the Resolute Desk. And then we’re really in trouble.
Michael Walsh is the editor of The-Pipeline.org and the author of “The Devil’s Pleasure Palace” and “The Fiery Angel,” both published by Encounter Books. His latest book, “Last Stands,” a cultural study of military history from the Greeks to the Korean War, was recently published.
Who is right, you or TGP: "Why Is Biden First President Since 1981 To Not Give First SOTU Speech By End Of February?…Will Kamala Have To Step In?" - https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/biden-first-president-since-1981-not-give-first-sotu-speech-end-februarywill-kamala-step/ .
Every elected president since 1981 gave their first SOTU speech by the end of February.
President Ronald Reagan (first term): February 18, 1981 President Ronald Reagan (second term): February 06, 1985 President George H.W. Bush: February 09, 1989 President Bill Clinton (first term): February 17, 1993 President Bill Clinton (second term): February 04, 1997 President George W. Bush (first term): February 27, 2001 President George W. Bush (second term): February 02, 2005 President Barack Obama (first term): February 24, 2009 President Barack Obama (second term): February 12, 2013 President Donald Trump (first term): February 28, 2017
And He is coming soon, Brothers and Sisters: (Revelation 19:11 - 16) And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
You KNOW there is a God! (Psalms 14:1) The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.; and: (Romans 1:19 - 22) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
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Rep. Scalise Releases Timeline of Cuomo’s Nursing Home Death Toll ‘Cover-Up’
House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on Thursday ramped up his criticism of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the nursing home COVID-19 deaths, alleging Cuomo “lied about the death toll” and releasing a timeline of the alleged cover-up.
“The facts are simple: Governor Cuomo issued an order sending thousands of contagious COVID-19 positive patients into nursing homes and then he lied about the death toll,” Scalise said in a statement.
The COVID-related nursing home deaths have been a flashpoint for criticism against Cuomo, who faced public outcry over a controversial March 25, 2020, directive—subsequently reversed in May, 2020—essentially prohibiting nursing home operators from refusing to accept residents even if they tested positive for COVID-19.
“No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to a nursing home solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19,” the order stated.
Under the order, if hospital staff determined residents were medically stable, nursing homes were prohibited from requiring that the patient be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission. Experts warned at the time that the order would lead to a surge in COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
Scalise said in the timeline that, on May 10, 2020, “Cuomo quietly rescinds the March 25th directive and removes it from New York’s public website.”
(steve scalise steve scalise House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), speaks during a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 23, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/POOL/AFP via Getty Images))
Cuomo’s new order, issued in May, required hospitals to keep elderly COVID-19 patients until a negative test was confirmed or move them to another state-run facility that wasn’t a nursing home.
Scalise, who is also a ranking member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said that Cuomo’s March 25, 2020, order endangered the lives of the “most vulnerable” New Yorkers, “which resulted in the deaths of thousands of nursing home patients and caused unimaginable grief for their families and loved ones.”
New York’s COVID-19 nursing home death toll numbers soared by thousands following a disclosure released on Feb. 10 that was prompted by a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) application by the Empire Center think tank.
“Those revelations increased the known death toll from about 9,000 to almost 15,000—making clear that the pandemic’s toll on long-term care residents was much worse than the Cuomo administration previously portrayed it to be,” the Empire Center said in a statement.
The Republican congressman’s timeline also highlights a number of occasions on which Cuomo’s administration ignored requests for data around COVID-19 deaths in New York’s nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The most recent is on Feb. 19, according to Scalise, when Select Subcommittee Republicans sent a letter to Cuomo, “again requesting communications and data about his lethal order, after his top aide admitted to hiding the true nursing home data from the U.S. Congress, the New York State Legislature, and possibly the Department of Justice for the purposes of avoiding accountability and prosecution.”
“Governor Cuomo ignored this request,” Scalise wrote.
(New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference before the opening of a mass COVID-19 vaccination site in the Queens borough of New York, on Feb. 24, 2021. (Seth Wenig/POOL/AFP via Getty Images))
Scalise’s reference to a top aide admitting to “hiding the true nursing home data” presumably pertains to Cuomo’s secretary Melissa DeRosa suggesting on a recent conference call with state legislators that the Cuomo administration withheld how many nursing home residents died from COVID-19 because they feared the numbers would “be used against us” by prosecutors. At the time, the Justice Department was probing nursing home deaths in four states, including New York.
Another notable milestone in the timeline is July 6, 2020, when the New York State Department of Health issued what Scalise described as “a sham report that was reviewed and edited by staff of Governor Cuomo absolving him of all blame and instead blaming the front-line health workers for bringing COVID-19 into nursing homes.”
The report (pdf) Scalise referred to in his timeline corroborated Cuomo’s insistence that it was not his March 25, 2020, directive that exacerbated the spread of COVID-19 in New York’s long-term care facilities, but rather infected nursing home staff. Cuomo has repeatedly rejected links between the since-repealed March 2020 policy and the thousands of nursing home deaths in the state.
New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said at a press conference following the release of the report that admission policies were not a significant factor in virus-related nursing home deaths, and called attempts to blame the fatalities on the March 2020 executive order a “false narrative.”
Scalise’s timeline concludes with a Feb. 24 entry indicating a bipartisan effort to issue subpoenas that would compel Cuomo’s testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding his controversial order.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Cuomo’s office for comment.
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Australian Senator Seeks Clarity From US Embassy on Biden’s Stance on CCP’s Uyghur Genocide BY CADEN PEARSON February 23, 2021 Updated: February 23, 2021
Australian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz has written to the U.S. embassy in Canberra to seek clarification about U.S. President Joe Biden’s recent remarks at a CNN town hall that purportedly described the Uyghur genocide in China as a matter of different cultural norms.
On Feb. 16, while participating in a CNN town hall, Biden described a two-hour phone call with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping. When asked about the Uyghurs, Biden said, “We must speak up for human rights. It’s who we are.”
But he then appeared to make justifications for the regime’s actions by repeating the arguments made by the Chinese leader that China has been victimised by outside forces when it hasn’t been “unified” or “tightly controlled” from within.
“If you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been—the time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven’t been unified at home,” Biden said.
“The central 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 added.
(U.S. President Joe Biden U.S. President Joe Biden U.S. President Joe Biden participates in a CNN town hall at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, Wis., Feb. 16, 2021. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images))
Biden went on to explain that he told Xi that an American president must reflect the values of the United States to be “sustained” as president.
“And so the idea I’m not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China, and Taiwan, trying to end the One China policy by making it forceful—I said—and by the—he said he—he gets it.
“Culturally, there are different norms that each country and they—their leaders—are expected to follow,” Biden said.
However, the comments’ ambiguous nature has caused confusion, as some interpreted it to mean that Biden appeared not to take issue with genocide as it might be part of communist China’s “different norms.”
It is also possible that Biden may have been referring to the fact that he, as the U.S. president, must speak up about human rights, with Xi acknowledging that he “gets it” is a cultural norm to do so.
This lack of clarity has led the Tasmanian senator to write a letter—obtained by The Epoch Times—to the U.S. embassy, asking for clarity on Biden’s remarks and how they should be interpreted.
In a letter sent to the Chargé d’Affaires Michael Goldman at the U.S. Embassy on Feb. 22, Abetz, who is a steadfast supporter of human rights in China, took exception to Biden’s comment about “different norms.”
Abetz wrote: “Universal human rights are not subject to different cultural norms and what is occurring in Xinjiang can only be described as genocide. Thankfully, governments and legislators increasingly recognise it as such, including a Canadian House of Commons Subcommittee last year.”
Biden’s comments come after the former Trump administration officially declared that the CCP has engaged in genocide and crimes against humanity in its treatment of Uyghurs since at least 2017.
The crimes included “the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians, forced sterilization, torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained, forced labor, and the imposition of draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement.”
Abetz noted that the CCP uses terms such as “cultural norms” and “internal affairs” as “euphemisms” to parrot its propaganda, and every effort must be made to call out the regime’s human rights abuses.
“Posterity will look back on the human rights violations against the Uyghurs, and we will be judged on what we did and did not do, what we said and what we did not say,” Abetz wrote. “We must stand together against tyranny and never be afraid to call it out wherever it may be, whatever the consequences may be.”
Abetz ended his letter saying the Uyghurs need loud Australian and American voices to call out the CCP for its genocide.
Biden’s remarks follow those of a number of his appointees, who during confirmation hearings displayed a more lax stance on China than that of the Trump administration.
The U.S. Embassy in Canberra did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this article.
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Trump Tops Epoch Times Reader Poll Asking for 5 Favorite Presidents BY ZACHARY STIEBER February 23, 2021 Updated: February 23, 2021
Former President Donald Trump topped a new survey among Epoch Times readers.
A poll asked readers to choose their five favorite president of all-time. Ninety-five percent chose Trump, who left office in January, as one of their top five.
The late Ronald Reagan came in second. The 40th president, who was in office from 1981 to 1989, was picked by over eight out of 10 respondents.
Two other presidents were popular choices. They were George Washington, the first president of the country, and Abraham Lincoln, who ended slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation. Both were chosen by over seven out of 10 readers.
The top four choices were strong nationalists who championed individual rights and limited government. All were Republicans except for Washington, who saw two parties emerge during his presidency.
Former President Thomas Jefferson rounded out the top five, but was picked by only 36 percent of respondents. He slightly edged former President John F. Kennedy, who was picked by 32.7 percent. Former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower were picked by about 18 percent of respondents.
(Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan speaks at a rally on Feb. 8, 1982. (Michael Evans/The White House/Getty Images))
Readers also chose their five least favorite presidents. The most chosen were all Democrats, though several Republicans were in the next five.
Former President Barack Obama topped the list, with 95 percent putting him among their least favorite. President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump, was a close second, with 89 percent.
Former President Bill Clinton, who served for eight years beginning in 1993, was chosen by 73 percent of respondents.
Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon B. Johnson rounded out the top five, followed by George W. Bush, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, and Woodrow Wilson.
Over 128,000 readers filled out the survey, including over 72,000 subscribers. The online poll ran from Feb. 9 through Feb. 21.
The Epoch Times noted that Siena College’s 2018 ranking of all U.S. presidents had Trump in its bottom five, along with former Presidents Franklin Pierce, Warren Harding, James Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson.
On the other hand, Trump tied with Obama in 2019 as the most admired man in a Gallup poll, and overtook Obama the following year.
“Maybe it’s because Siena College’s rankings were compiled by academics. Maybe it’s because Gallup has a larger sample size. But we think this discrepancy is worth taking another look at. So we’ve decided to set up a ranking of our own—based on feedback from Americans like you,” readers were told.
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Updates on CCP Virus: Chinese Loans to Latin America Plunge as Virus Strains Ties BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF February 22, 2021 Updated: February 23, 2021
It seemed like a match made in finance heaven.
In 2010, China, its economy roaring and state companies looking to expand globally, set its eyes on Latin America, a region starved of capital but rich in natural resources the Asian giant lacked. The result: a record $35 billion in state-to-state loans that year.
Fast forward a decade and the once-torrid relationship is starting to mature in ways that suggest China may be growing wary of its once do-no-wrong partner.
Dozens Rally Against Arrest of Pastor Who Defied COVID-19 Lockdown Orders
Hundreds of protesters rallied outside the Edmonton Remand Centre on Feb. 20 to show their support for pastor James Coates, who remained in custody after being charged with breaking Alberta’s COVID-19 rules and refusing to comply with his conditions of release.
In December 2020, GraceLife church is Edmonton was fined $1,200 when it hosted more people than the 15 percent limit mandated by the Alberta public health measures for faith-based services. The church was then issued a closure order in January, but Coates, the church’s pastor, continued holding services and was charged with one count of breaking the Public Health Act earlier this month and was later released on bail. He later broke the conditions of his release and was again charged. Coates turned himself into the Parkland RCMP on Feb. 16 and remains in custody.
US Crosses 500,000 Virus Deaths
The United States on Monday crossed the 500,000 milestone for CCP virus deaths just over a year since the pandemic claimed its first known victim in Santa Clara County, California.
The country had recorded more than 28 million CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus cases and 500,054 lives lost as of Monday afternoon, according to a Reuters tally of public health data, although daily cases and hospitalizations have fallen to the lowest level since before the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
English Schools to Reopen on March 8 as UK Eases Lockdown
Schools in England will reopen on March 8 as part of the government’s four-step roadmap to lift the CCP virus lockdown, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday.
Addressing the House of Commons, Johnson laid his “roadmap” out of the lockdown, which includes four stages with five weeks in between.
As part of the first stage, Johnson said, “I can tell the House that two weeks from today pupils and students in all schools and further education settings can safely return to face-to-face teaching, supported by twice-weekly testing of secondary school and college pupils.”
UK Shopper Numbers Rise for Fifth Straight Week Despite Lockdown
The number of people heading out to shops across Britain increased by 6.8 percent last week versus the previous week, a fifth straight week of uplift despite the national lockdown, market researcher Springboard said on Monday.
It said shopper numbers, or footfall, in the week to Feb. 20 was up 10.5 percent in high streets, 4.5 percent in shopping centers, and 1.2 percent in retail parks.
California Death Toll Tops 9,000
California’s death toll during the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic has topped 49,000, even as the rates of new infections and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the state.
California reported another 408 deaths Sunday, bringing the total since the outbreak began to 49,105—the highest in the nation.
CDC Was Unwilling to Partner With Industry for Rapid Sequencing: Former Trump Adviser
The deputy national security adviser during the Trump Administration, Matthew Pottinger, said Sunday that during the onset of the CCP virus pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was “unwilling” to partner with industrial labs that could provide rapid COVID-19 sequencing.
He suggested that one of the reasons for the lack of collaboration is that over the years, the CDC has developed an “academic kind of mindset,” and prefers to run tests internally.
Hong Kong Leader Gets China’s Sinovac Vaccine in Bid to Bolster Confidence
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam received China’s Sinovac vaccine on Monday together with top officials at a live televised event in a bid to bolster public confidence ahead of the vaccine’s rollout in the global financial hub this week.
Sinovac is the first COVID-19 vaccine to be introduced in Hong Kong, ahead of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine set to arrive in the Chinese special administrative region before the end of February.
The vaccine was found to be 50.4 percent effective, according to the results of a late-stage trial in Brazil.
Stricter Public Health Measures Now in Effect at Canadian Borders, Airports
A mandatory three-day hotel quarantine for most travelers landing at Canadian airports comes into effect today, along with a suite of measures meant to prevent contagious COVID-19 variants from entering the country.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the tighter border controls are meant to keep everyone safe, not punish travelers. Anyone flying into the country will be required to foot the bill for their hotel stays. Travelers will also have to complete multiple COVID-19 tests in the days after they arrive in Canada.
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Graham: Trump ‘Very Focused,’ Working to ‘Get the Best Team in the Field’ for 2022 BY IVAN PENTCHOUKOV February 22, 2021 Updated: February 22, 2021
After meeting with former President Donald Trump this weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters the president is focused on the 2022 election and working to get “the best team in the field.”
“He’s very focused, working the phones, talking to folks,” Graham said. “He’s very involved in helping the team win. He made a bunch of phone calls and trying to get the best team on the field. I was very pleased.”
News of the huddle with Graham comes days after Trump’s team announced that the president will deliver his first public speech since leaving the White House at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 28. Trump’s speech will chart the course for the Republican party and cover issues such as standing up to China, dismantling the big tech monopoly, and defending free speech, according to former senior White House advisor Stephen Miller.
Earlier this month, Trump excoriated Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in a lengthy statement, paving the way toward a battle over the leadership of the Republican party.
McConnell fired the first shot by publicly laying some of the blame for the Capitol breach on Jan. 6 on Trump. How the conflict will play out in the 2022 races remains to be seen, although it’s clear that both men want Republicans to retake the majority in the House and Senate in 2022.
Before meeting Trump, Graham told reporters on Friday, “I want us to come together as much as possible. I think we need to be united around getting the majority back. … The worst possible outcome for the Republican Party is to continue to argue amongst itself.”
The aftermath of the 2020 election featured a small number of Republicans in the House and Senate voting to impeach and convict Trump over a charge brought forward by the Democrats.
Those who opposed the president are already facing backlash from local Republican parties. Some, like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), are already being targeted for a primary challenge by Trump allies.
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Updates on CCP Virus: WHO Won’t Release Interim Report on Virus Origins BY EPOCH TIMES STAFF March 4, 2021 Updated: March 4, 2021
The World Health Organization team that announced in February it was “extremely unlikely” that COVID-19 could have accidentally leaked from a Wuhan lab has scrapped previously announced plans to release an interim report on its findings.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said on Feb. 10 that the report would be released “in coming days.” But the team’s lead researcher, Dr. Peter Ben Embarek, told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that it will not release an interim report and will instead publish a comprehensive report that “in coming weeks and will include key findings.”
“By definition, a summary report does not have all the details,” Embarek said.