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Harris team at White House to implode further – media
Team might not be the correct word here
3 Dec, 2021 06:36
© Reuters / Leah Millis
The exodus from Kamala Harris’ administration is poised to continue with two more senior advisers, who reportedly told their colleagues they are on their way out. The news comes a day after the VP’s spokesperson quit.
Peter Velz, the director of Harris’ press operations, and Vince Evans, the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, are reportedly set to resign in the near future, the Washington Post reported, citing administration officials.
While Both Velz and Evans are expected to quit as Harris’ aides, they might not stay unemployed for long, with the Post reporting that they are likely to land jobs “in or close to the administration.”
The report comes on the heels of the departure of Harris’ adviser and chief spokesperson, Symone Sanders. Commenting on Sanders’ exit on Thursday, Harris said she “can’t wait to see” what her former spokesperson will do next, while dodging questions about whether it was part of an impending large-scale reshuffle in her communications team.
“Well, I’ve told you how I feel about Symone. Next question,” Harris said.
Sanders’ departure came shortly after Harris’ communication director, Ashley Etienne, announced she would be leaving before the end of the year to “pursue other opportunities.”
The exodus comes amid reports of dysfunction in Harris’ team, and internal strife between her staff and Biden’s at the White House. There have reportedly been growing concerns that Harris is not well positioned to become Biden’s successor should he not run for a second term.
Seriously! We should all be praying for Biden's health through the rest of this term. As dreadful as he is as President, Harris could make him look good.
Parents of suspected school shooter caught after manhunt
4 Dec, 2021 15:00
on December 4, 2021. © Reuters / Seth Herald
The parents of the 15-year-old suspect in the Oxford High School shooting have been apprehended, following the extensive search enacted after they failed to show up for a court arraignment on involuntary manslaughter charges.
James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, were taken into custody early on Saturday after a tip-off led to the search of a commercial building on Detroit’s east side. The couple were detained without incident, yet appeared to be “very distressed” as they were brought out of the building, Police Chief James White said.
“They were aided, and we’re looking into that portion of the investigation. That part is very active now,” White told reporters, adding that additional charges were likely to be filed.
In what is a rare occurrence in the case of a school shooter, the parents were each charged on Friday with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Michigan law, unlike that of some other states, does not oblige gun owners to keep their armaments locked away from children, however.
The prosecution is arguing that the parents’ actions nonetheless went “far beyond negligence,” because, it alleges, they failed to secure the gun, which belonged to the father, and did nothing after the school warned them their son was searching online for information about ammunition in the days before the shooting.
The couple failed to show up for a court arraignment, prompting a manhunt only a matter of hours after the charges were announced. The law firm representing the couple, Smith Lehman, claimed the two had not been evading the law, but had instead been the victims of miscommunication.
“The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety. They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement, despite recent comments in media reports,” the firm said, criticizing Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald for announcing the charges in a press conference rather than briefing the Crumbleys’ lawyers direct.
The attorneys’ claims have been corroborated by local police, who said they had also first learnt of the charges from the press.
“We didn’t even know they had been charged with anything until we were informed this morning by the media,” Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe told the Detroit News on Friday.
McDonald has disputed those claims, telling CNN she was told the police were aware of the Crumbleys’ whereabouts and defending her decision to announce the charges publicly. “The prosecutor’s office doesn’t arrest people,” she stated, implying the police were to blame for the manhunt having needed to be conducted.
Ethan Crumbley was arraigned on Wednesday, and faces multiple charges, including first-degree murder and terrorism. The shooting took place on Tuesday, and left four students dead, and a further six students and a teacher injured.
The parents plead 'not guilty' to the charges.
This story will become very political when certain 2nd Amendment activists realize the effects these charges will have on parents of gun-owning children.
Former National Guard official calls out Army’s Jan. 6 ‘lies’
6 Dec, 2021 16:36
In a 36-page memo obtained by Politico, former National Guard official Col. Earl Matthews accused two Army generals of being “absolute and unmitigated liars,” based on their testimonies before Congress about the January 6 riot.
Matthews’ memo was sent to the congressional committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021 earlier this month. In it, he accuses Gen. Charles Flynn (brother of Trump ally Michael and deputy chief of staff for operations on Jan. 6), and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt (director of the Army staff), of lying in their congressional testimonies when they said they pushed for a quick deployment of the National Guard following the Capitol being breached.
One of Matthews’ more specific claims is that Piatt testified he had asked then-National Guard commander Gen. William Walker, under whom Matthews was working at the time, on a conference call to get a QRF (Quick Ready Force) deployed not long after the attack.
However, according to Matthews, National Guard presence was requested some 90 minutes after the riot, but Flynn and Piatt said at the time they did not feel military intervention was needed.
He went on to call the Army’s report on the riot “a revisionist tract worthy of the best Stalinist or North Korea propagandist.”
An Army spokesperson pointed to the Pentagon inspector general’s report in a public defense of Flynn and Piatt, saying it concluded that the actions taken on the day “were appropriate, supported by requirements, consistent with the DOD’s roles and responsibilities for DSCA, and compliant with laws, regulations, and other applicable guidance.”
This is what is called 'whitewashing'!
“Our Army has never failed us and did not do so on January 6, 2021. However, occasionally some of our Army leaders have failed us and they did so on January 6,” Matthews told Politico. “Then they lied about it and tried to cover it up. They tried to smear a good man and to erase history.”
For days before Jan 6th, it was well known that there would be some sort of action around the Capitol Building, yet, there was so little security that it literally invited an invasion. This was not by accident, nor by incompetence; it had to have been well planned and the 90 minute delay in calling in the National Guard had to have been part of that plan.
Kamala Harris is a ‘bully,’ ex-staffers say
“constant soul-destroying criticism”
6 Dec, 2021 13:42
US Vice President Kamala Harris’s leadership style has been criticized by her former staffers, with some saying they had to deal with “constant soul-destroying criticism” from her.
In recent weeks the reports about tensions in Harris’s team were boosted by the departure of several key members, including the VP’s spokesperson Symone Sanders.
“Such tales of chaos have a familiar ring to long-time Harris watchers in California. As a former Harris staffer who quit after five months in 2013, I'm not surprised. Still, it's sad to see her repeat the same old destructive patterns under the harsh gaze of the Washington press corps," wrote a former Democratic strategist Gil Duran.
Conducting its own research of the atmosphere in Harris' entourage, The Washington Post talked to 18 people, including former and current members of her team, and White House officials, with some preferring to speak anonymously and others raising concerns over the VP's attitude to her staff more openly.
“Critics scattered over two decades point to an inconsistent and at times degrading principal who burns through seasoned staff members who have succeeded in other demanding, high-profile positions,” the outlet said.
According to one of the ex-staffers quoted by The Washington Post, people working with Harris have to deal with “a constant amount of soul-destroying criticism and also her own lack of confidence.”
“So you’re constantly sort of propping up a bully and it’s not really clear why,” a former aide told the outlet.
Harris’ supporters, however, claim that all the criticism pointed at her is grounded in a racism and a sexism that have followed Harris throughout her career and have only strengthened after her appointment as a VP. According to Sean Clegg, a partner at a consultancy that has worked with Harris in the past, she is a tough boss who can make people feel uncomfortable but if she were a man with the same management style “she would have a TV show called “The Apprentice.”
Of course, Symone Sanders is a black woman!
However, as The Washington Post notes, for both critics and supporters of the VP’s management style “the question is not simply where Harris falls on the line between demanding and demeaning,” but is much broader with many worrying that “her inability to keep and retain staff will hobble her future ambitions.”
According to an early November USA Today/Suffolk poll, Harris’ approval rating stood at just 28% with 51% of 1,000 registered voters disapproving of what she is doing.
Is there any procedure for removing a VP in the middle of a term?
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Key leader quits Venezuela’s US-backed ‘interim government’
6 Dec, 2021 01:04
Julio Borges is quitting his post as foreign minister of Venezuela’s US-backed “interim government”, saying it has turned into a “caste” and is failing to serve its purpose of removing Nicolas Maduro from power.
Borges told reporters on Sunday that he would submit his resignation in a legislative session on Tuesday. He added that the interim government should “disappear” when its legal mandate expires in January, unless it adopts his proposed changes to its founding 2019 decree.
“It has been deformed,” Borges said of the US-backed interim government led by Juan Guaido. “Instead of being an instrument to fight the dictatorship, the interim government has become a kind of ... caste.”
Borges made his comments from Colombia, where he is currently living in exile after being accused of being part of a plot to assassinate Maduro. His exit marks another major blow to the opposition, which was routed in regional elections last month. Maduro’s ruling party won 20 out of 23 governorships.
Guaido declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela in January 2019. The US and dozens of other countries recognize him and his opposition group as Venezuela’s legitimate government, but the EU withdrew its support last January. The UN acknowledges Maduro as Venezuela’s duly elected president.
Borges said the interim government should cease to operate, except for managing state-owned assets that are frozen overseas, such as refiner Citgo Petroleum in the US. The opposition has reportedly been plagued by infighting.
