Tag: Marsha Blackburn

GOP Senator Objects To FBI Mobilization Against Violent Extremism

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday criticized the FBI for requesting the public’s help in combating violent extremism.

Blackburn appeared on the conservative Newsmax TV network’s National Report program and was asked by host Emma Rechenberg for her reaction to what she called “a quite controversial tweet” posted on the official FBI Twitter account that read, “Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism.”

The agency is currently in the middle of a massive investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Over 500 people have been arrested so far. Continue reading.

GOP Sen. Blackburn offers an odd excuse after she’s caught spreading lies about Biden’s plans

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During his Wednesday night speech before members of Congress, President Joe Biden outlined some proposals of his American Families Plan. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, appearing on Fox Business earlier in the day, wrongly claimed that part of Biden’s proposal included making community college and pre-K mandatory. But her office walked back that claim after being fact-checked by CNN’s Daniel Dale.

Blackburn told Fox Business host Stuart Varney, “Three-year-old pre-K — they’re going to mandate this. Two years of college whether you like it or not. These are the things that take away choices from the American people. They give them a great big fat tax bill that they’re going to pay.”

Varney didn’t challenge Blackburn’s community college and pre-K claims, but he did say that “in an evenly divided Senate,” Biden “is not going to get all of the proposals.” Continue reading.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Taking care of our elders is a waste of taxpayer dollars

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She’s also voted to strip health care from Americans with preexisting conditions and deny parental leave to federal employees.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Wednesday criticized President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal, the American Jobs Plan — specifically because it includes funding for caretaking of the elderly.

“President Biden’s proposal is about anything but infrastructure,” she tweeted, alongside an image superimposed with large text reading, “400 BILLION TOWARDS ELDER CARE.”

Biden’s plan proposes to allot approximately $400 billion, disbursed over an eight-year time period, toward care for the elderly and those with disabilities. The funding is specifically intended to bolster “home- or community- based care” for these groups, and would extend Money Follows the Person, a Medicaid program which aims to move elderly nursing home residents back into home-based care. Continue reading.

GOP senator flashes congressional pin after car was pulled over by Capitol Police, sources say

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It was Thursday afternoon before a Senate recess was about to begin, and senators were in a hurry — especially Marsha Blackburn. 

As senators bolted from the chamber after the week’s final vote to catch their afternoon flights, the Tennessee Republican hopped in a waiting car along with an aide and made her way down Constitution Avenue. But the car was pulled over by US Capitol Police.

Blackburn then jumped out of the car, identified herself as a senator and showed the officer her congressional pin, according to a text message and a source familiar with the matter. The officer then let the car go. Continue reading.

Republicans Falsely Claim To Have Heard Witnesses In Trump Trial

The Senate Republican majority is all but set to vote to acquit Donald Trump in his impeachment trial, without hearing any witness testimony whatsoever.

Despite this, many senators have been misleadingly suggesting that witness testimony was in fact part of the trial.

The Senate Republican Communications Center, part of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s office, posted a list of “Senate Trial Facts” Friday afternoon, intended to demonstrate why the GOP believed it was “time to move on.” Continue reading.

A GOP senator trafficked in flimsy allegations to impugn Alexander Vindman. And then Trump retweeted it.

Washington Post logoRepublicans have repeatedly argued that the impeachment evidence against President Trump is thin. They’ve said it is based upon “hearsay” that wasn’t corroborated by people more intimately involved with the Ukraine effort (whose testimony the White House has blocked). They’ve suggested, despite numerous witnesses testifying to similar things, that the witnesses weren’t credible and that they might have axes to grind.

But on Thursday, with House Democrats playing video of those witnesses’ testimonies during Trump’s impeachment trial, a Republican senator launched her own thinly sourced attack on one of those witnesses.

And then Trump retweeted it.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who along with every other senator serves as a juror in the impeachment trial, took to Twitter and impugned the patriotism of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson and Devin Nunes: Vindman Should Just ‘Go Work in Ukraine’

“Why not just say, ‘Mr. Vindman and your lawyer brother, take a hike,’” Carlson fumed. “They are not in control of the government. It’s not their government.”

Hours after Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) questioned Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s patriotism, Fox News host Tucker Carlson and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) called on the National Security Council official and Purple Heart recipient to be booted from his position and “go work in Ukraine.”

During a broadcast that largely ignored the live impeachment proceedings taking place, Carlson devoted an “investigative” segment to the Iraq War veteran after House impeachment managers referenced Vindman’s testimony throughout Thursday’s Senate trial. Why, Carlson asked, was Vindman still serving on the White House National Security Council as a Ukraine and Russia expert?

Before bringing Nunes on his primetime show Thursday night, the Fox News star complained that Vindman testified against his boss and acknowledged that “a foreign power keeps trying to recruit him,” wondering “how could someone like that keep his job.” Continue reading.

GOP Sens. Ron Johnson and Marsha Blackburn are tied to Russian money and Trump conspiracy theories. They’re not alone

AlterNet logoNancy Pelosi has announced that the House will finally hold a formal vote dictating the rules for the impeachment inquiry, six weeks after it was launched by a whistleblower’s complaint mysteriously withheld from Congress. And on Tuesday, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman backed up both the initial whistleblower and U.S. diplomat Bill Taylor by testifying that he too was concerned about the Trump administration’s push to use congressionally-allocated military aid to Ukraine to coerce an investigation into Joe Biden.

Congressional Republicans have long since stopped defending Trump on the merits since shortly after the White House released a transcript of a July call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Instead, they’ve sought refuge in increasingly meaningless process arguments. So of course Pelosi agreeing to a formal vote on the rules of impeachment hasn’t stopped Republican complaints about the process. The goalposts will shift once again. No matter what the Democrats agree to, Republicans will complain about procedural unfairness and also refuse to concede the inquiry is legitimate. But how much of Republicans’ unwillingness to hold Trump accountable for his self-dealing is because they’re in on it?

On Monday the Washington Post published an interview with a Ukrainian diplomat who claimed to have met with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., this summer to discuss the baseless conspiracy theory promoted by President Trump that Ukrainian officials had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

View the complete October 30 article by Sophia Tesfaye from Salon on the AlterNet website here.

Why Marsha Blackburn fell on a grenade for Donald Trump

At least a dozen Republican congressional campaigns used materials stolen from Democrats by Russian hackers during the 2016 election. Several other Republican campaigns received millions in contributions from an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2018, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called on the National Republican Congressional Committee to make a bipartisan pledge not to utilize stolen or hacked information in House elections. After months of negotiations, in September of 2018, House Republicans backed out and refused to sign the pledge. These are just some of the often-overlooked reasons why Republicans have been so reluctant to criticize President Trump’s willingness to accept “dirt” on an opposing candidate from a foreign government.

One day after Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he wouldn’t necessarily go to the FBI in the event his re-election campaign is contacted by foreign groups, Senate Republicans killed legislation to safeguard American democracy from foreign interference.

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., failed in his attempt to unanimously pass a bill that would require candidates to report election assistance offered by foreign governments to federal officials. Under Warner’s Foreign Influence Reporting in Elections (FIRE) Act, campaigns would have to report contacts with foreign nationals who are trying to make campaign donations or coordinate with the campaign to the Federal Election Commission, which would then notify the FBI. It’s already illegal for electoral campaigns to knowingly accept help from a foreign entity or power.

View the complete June 14 article by Sophia Tesfaye from Salon on the AlterNet website here.