Kennedy distanced himself from Farrakhan as part of a clean-up effort after the Democrat asserted that the coronavirus may have been "ethnically targeted" to harm black and white people, while Ashkenazi Jews appeared to have greater immunity to the virus. Kennedy, who was denounced by some Jewish groups and Democratic Party leaders, claimed his statements were taken out of context and that he is not anti-Semitic.

Kennedy’s remarks brought his relationship with Farrakhan back into the spotlight. Farrakhan has railed against "satanic Jews" and in 2013 claimed that "the Jewish media" promoted "sexual degeneracy, profanity, and all kinds of sin." Farrakhan said in 2018 that "powerful Jews are my enemy."

Asked this week about his relationship with Farrakhan, Kennedy claimed he is an "opponent" of Farrakhan and has "never endorsed anything that Louis Farrakhan has said."

But Kennedy’s previous actions appear to contradict that claim.

In 2015, Kennedy visited Farrakhan and introduced him to the unfounded theory that measles vaccines are linked to higher rates of autism, the Washington Free Beacon reported. A Nation of Islam official who attended the meeting said that Kennedy informed the group that the measles "vaccine is genetically modified to give black boys autism," a claim without evidence.

Kennedy called Farrakhan a "truly great partner" at a protest outside Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in October 2015. Kennedy continued over the next few years to work with the Nation of Islam on the vaccine issue. In 2020, Farrakhan urged his supporters to "follow Robert Kennedy," and claimed that scientists administered the coronavirus vaccine in order to "depopulate the Earth."

Kennedy claimed in his recent interview that he was not aware of Farrakhan’s history of anti-Semitism when they began working together in 2015. But Kennedy’s writings in his private diary appear to contradict that. According to a 2013 report, Kennedy wrote that he was disenchanted with civil rights leader Jesse Jackson because of his "love affair with Louis Farrakhan and his Jewish xenophobia."

Kennedy claimed he cut ties with the Nation of Islam after a colleague informed him of Farrakhan’s comments about Jews. Kennedy said he asked his friend, Nation of Islam official Tony Muhammad, to publicly disavow Farrakhan. When Muhammad declined, according to Kennedy, "that was the end of our friendship."

Kennedy did not say when that conversation occurred, but he worked with Muhammad as recently as 2021. Kennedy hosted Muhammad to discuss his documentary Medical Racism: The New Apartheid. Kennedy pushed the unfounded claim that scientists are "conducting an experiment on black Americans" by vaccinating black children against measles.

In his interview, Kennedy said the "worst two accusations that anybody can make about you are that you’re an antisemite or a pedophile."

Kennedy recently interviewed Scott Ritter, a convicted child sex offender, on his podcast. The pair criticized United States support for Ukraine in its defensive war against Russia.

Kennedy’s campaign and Tony Muhammad did not respond to requests for comment.

The post RFK Jr. Disavows Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, Whom He Once Called a ‘Truly Great Partner’ appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

What happened next: Nothing. Kennedy, the youngest brother of former president John F. Kennedy, fled the scene of the accident, which likely occurred sometime after midnight. He did not report it to police until 10 a.m. the following day.

• The Democratic scion faced no meaningful consequences for his actions and would go on to serve four more decades in the U.S. Senate until his death in 2009.

• Even in the post-#MeToo era, Democrats generally regard him as a legendary figure worthy of reverence and respect. The Kennedy family featured prominently at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, as did notorious sex pest Bill Clinton.

Waitress sandwich: In reality, Kennedy was a disgusting human being. GQ magazine recounted one (of presumably many) incidents in which the senator behaved disgracefully.

• One evening in 1985, Kennedy and Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) were very drunk and wrapping up dinner with their dates—"two very young blondes"—who had just gone to the bathroom.

• The senators called for their waitress, Carla Gaviglio, who entered the private dining area and was immediately ambushed, GQ reported.

• Kennedy grabbed the diminutive waitress and threw her on the table, shattering plates and glasses. He then threw Gaviglio on top of Dodd's lap and began "rubbing his genital area against hers."

What they're saying: "I would not get in a car driven by a member of [the Kennedy] family, let alone let them run the government," writes journalist Josh Barro.

Bottom line: The Kennedys are terrible and always have been. They have no place in American politics.

The post On This Day in History: Democrat Ted Kennedy Killed an Innocent Woman and Got Away With It appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

O'Rourke has kept $100,000 that Bankman-Fried donated to O'Rourke's failed gubernatorial campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures released this week. A spokesman for O'Rourke said in November that the campaign had returned an "unsolicited" $1 million donation from Bankman-Fried just before the Nov. 8 election. O'Rourke received positive media attention for announcing the refund, with one political scientist saying it "looks good" for O'Rourke to return Bankman-Fried's donation.

The Washington Free Beacon reported in January that O'Rourke's campaign refunded just $900,000 to Bankman-Fried and that it was placing the additional $100,000 into a fund for "victims of FTX's collapse." Campaign filings released this week do not show any refunds or payments related to the remaining $100,000.

O'Rourke clings to the cash even amid a series of damning developments in Bankman-Fried's case. Bankman-Fried was indicted in December on fraud and campaign finance charges, then slapped with additional charges in February. Prosecutors accused him of making tens of millions of dollars in political donations to "improve his personal standing" in Washington, D.C., and "curry favor" with candidates who could pass legislation favorable to his crypto trading company FTX. Former FTX executive Nishad Singh pleaded guilty in February to fraud and campaign finance charges. He contributed $100,000 to the O'Rourke campaign.

In February, the Justice Department issued letters to campaigns and political committees demanding that they forward donations from Bankman-Fried to the U.S. Marshals Service. Many recipients of Bankman-Fried's ill-gotten gains have complied. Rep. Rubén Gallego (D., Ariz.), for example, in March "disgorged" a $2,900 donation from Bankman-Fried by cutting a check to the U.S. Marshals Service, his campaign disclosures show.

O'Rourke, whose campaign has $166,758 in the bank, has not said whether he plans to run for political office in the future. Should he decide to run for office, he will likely be allowed to fund it with contributions from his gubernatorial campaign war chest. But the former congressman has faced a series of political losses in recent years. He lost in 2022 against Texas Republican governor Greg Abbott and in 2018 against Republican senator Ted Cruz. He dropped out of the 2020 Democratic field two months before the first primary.

Bankman-Fried contributed more than $40 million to Democratic candidates and political action committees, including $5 million to a political action committee that supported Joe Biden's 2020 campaign. He gave $300,000 to Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee, which oversees the cryptocurrency industry.

The donations opened doors for Bankman-Fried in Washington. He visited the White House at least four times in 2022, meeting with Biden's top adviser, Steve Ricchetti, and other aides. He also attended a Philadelphia retreat last year for House Democrats, where he rubbed shoulders with Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), who at the time was chairwoman of the House Financial Services panel.

O'Rourke could not be reached for comment.

The post Dirty Money: Beto Clings to $100K from Sam Bankman-Fried After Pledge To Return Tainted Crypto Cash appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Then came the walk-back in the face of criticism from the dwindling number of her Democratic colleagues who are not anti-Israel. It's Groundhog Day in America.

Don't let that sideshow distract from the Democrats in the White House, whose decision to intrude into a matter of Israeli domestic politics is doing more harm to the U.S.-Israel relationship than the casual bigotry that has become a permanent feature of the American Left.

President Joe Biden and his ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, don't approve of a series of judicial reforms that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports. That sounds to us like something for Israelis to debate among themselves, but Biden has decided to throw spitballs from the sidelines, advising Bibi that Israel "cannot continue down this road"—and then icing him out, announcing in March that he had no plans to invite the prime minister to the White House.

Until Monday, it had been months since they spoke. Biden, at last, has grudgingly extended Bibi an invitation to meet in the United States—but not necessarily at the White House. His invitation to Herzog, who is a critic of the judicial reforms and whose position is purely symbolic, adds insult to injury.

The U.S. president's petulance, meanwhile, has forestalled conversations on important issues. News reports indicate Hezbollah has been crossing into Israeli territory, illegal weapons are proliferating in the West Bank, and the White House is trying to engineer another ill-conceived deal with Iran.

Jayapal's racism is not news, and the decision of a group of Democrats to boycott Herzog's speech makes clear their objection is not to any set of Israeli policies but to the existence of the Jewish state. Biden, on the other hand, has described himself as a "lifelong friend and supporter of the State of Israel." As on so much else, he has surrendered whatever principles he once held to his party's ascendant progressive orthodoxy.

The post On Israel, Biden Surrenders to the Left appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

• The couple does not plan to get a divorce and will date other people while continuing to live together in their Park Slope townhouse.

• De Blasio and McCray discussed their unusual relationship status in a three-hour interview with the New York Times.

What they're saying: "For the guy who took the chance on a woman who was an out lesbian and wrote an article called 'I Am a Lesbian,'" de Blasio said in the interview, "there was a part of me that would at times say, 'Hmmm, is this like a time bomb ticking? Is this something that you're going to regret later on?' So I always lived with that stuff."

What we found: An extensive Washington Free Beacon investigation has uncovered what appear to be several online dating profiles belonging to the single-and-ready-to-mingle former mayor, whose résumé also includes failed campaigns for president and the U.S. Congress.

The post EXCLUSIVE: We Found Bill de Blasio's Dating Profile appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Manchin in a Thursday video said he was "proud to announce" his work to secure "many West Virginia priorities," including one measure he advanced to "prohibit" the Biden administration from "banning gas stoves." Just two years ago, however, Manchin opposed an amendment from Wyoming Republican senator John Barrasso that would have prohibited federal funds from being used to ban "the direct use of natural gas in residential and commercial buildings for space heating, water heating, cooking, or other purposes." For Manchin, the measure was not necessary.

"I would be as concerned as Senator Barrasso if I thought that would happen," Manchin said during a July 2021 Senate Energy Committee meeting. "I don't see that happening." Other Democrats disagreed. New Mexico Democratic senator Martin Heinrich, for example, opposed Barrasso's measure not because he thought natural gas bans were unrealistic, but rather because a move away from natural gas and toward "electrification" would bring "energy savings."

This is not the first time Manchin has changed his tune on energy policy as he approaches a reelection year in a state former president Donald Trump carried easily in both 2016 and 2020. Manchin in May attacked the Biden administration for failing to spur offshore oil and gas development—roughly one year after he shot down a measure from Louisiana GOP senator John N. Kennedy that would have required the administration to conduct more offshore oil and gas lease sales.

Manchin, whose office did not return a request for comment, is yet to announce his political future. The West Virginian has flirted with a third-party presidential bid, an endeavor that his Senate Democratic colleagues are scrambling to stop. Those colleagues would prefer Manchin run for reelection next year, but that campaign is expected to be a difficult one for Manchin, who could face off against popular Republican governor Jim Justice should he seek a third Senate term. Forty-three percent of likely general election voters back Justice, compared with just 29 percent who back Manchin, according to a National Journal poll released last month.

Those numbers could explain why Manchin is signaling he may pursue a third-party "unity ticket" run despite objections from Senate Democrats. Manchin teased that run during a Monday event with self-described centrist group No Labels. "I'm here trying to basically save the nation," Manchin said. "I'm more concerned now than I've ever been concerned in my lifetime."

Regardless of whether Manchin chooses to run for Senate, president, or another office, the Democrat has worked in recent months to position himself as a critic of President Joe Biden's spending. That criticism, however, is centered on Biden's trillion-dollar Inflation Reduction Act, which Manchin himself named and orchestrated.

During an April Fox News appearance, for example, Manchin attacked Biden for working to "liberalize" the massive climate spending bill, which includes rebates to change from a gas stove to an electric one. Just two months prior, Manchin—who is considered the Inflation Reduction Act's "chief architect"—heaped praise on the bill and said he did not regret voting for it "at all."

"The Inflation Reduction Act will be the most transformative bill that we've ever had in the United States, in Congress, as far as I've been here," Manchin said in February.

In addition to the bill's incentives to ditch gas stoves for their electric counterparts, the Biden administration has moved forward with plans to restrict gas stove sales following Manchin's 2021 comments. Biden's Energy Department has defended its rule to "confront the global climate crisis" by imposing energy conservation standards on cooking appliances. Those standards would effectively ban the sale of half of all gas stoves on the U.S. market, according to an Energy Department analysis. Some industry leaders, however, think that figure is much larger, given that the Energy Department in December found 96 percent of gas stove models it tested failed to meet the rule's proposed efficiency standards.

Manchin has taken liberal positions in the past, only to swear off those positions as Election Day approaches. In July 2017, the Democrat said he was "not for" building a wall on the Mexican border "at all." One year later, when Republicans ran ads highlighting those comments, Manchin called it a "flat-out lie" that he opposed the wall.

The post Joe Manchin Dismissed Concerns About Natural Gas Bans. Now He Wants Credit for Stopping Them. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

At least four members of the Democratic Party’s progressive "Squad" announced they would boycott Herzog’s address to Congress this Wednesday. The group includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.), Cori Bush (D., Mo.), and Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.). Omar and fellow progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) drew widespread scrutiny over the weekend for criticizing Israel, which Jayapal slammed as a "racist state."

Herzog’s visit comes days after President Joe Biden denounced Israel’s governing coalition as "extremist." Until Monday, when Biden spoke to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone and made plans to meet with him in person, the two had not talked in months, and Biden's invitation to Herzog, who has been a critic of Israeli judicial reforms backed by Netanyahu, was viewed as a rebuke. It was also a move that some Jewish community leaders say has emboldened Israel-bashing within the Democratic Party.

"The Biden administration has created an atmosphere that is literally anti-Israel, that doesn’t respect democracy," former Democratic New York assemblyman Dov Hikind told the Washington Free Beacon. "When the prime minister is not invited to the White House, which is a tradition going back decades and decades and decades, what message does that send? That gave a green light to these [anti-Israel] radicals."

Speaking at the left-wing Netroots Nation conference Saturday, Omar called for voters to elect to Congress "Palestinian people who have now experienced occupation and displacement for 75 years." At the same event, Jayapal, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said she was "fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state."

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was also accused of anti-Semitism over the weekend after he said there was "an argument that [COVID-19] is ethnically targeted" to have a greater impact on white and black people and a lower impact on Chinese and Jewish people.

The American Jewish Committee said Kennedy’s claim "reflects some of the most abhorrent antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout history and contributes to today’s dangerous rise of antisemitism."

After facing backlash from Jewish community leaders—who noted that her remarks fall under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism—Jayapal tried to dial back her comments slightly. In a statement, she said she was referring to the "outright racist policies" of the Israeli government and does not believe that "the idea of Israel as a nation is racist."

But in her apology, Jayapal reiterated her opposition to conservative Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu, writing: "I do, however, believe that Netanyahu’s extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies and that there are extreme racists driving that policy within the leadership of the current government."

The apology did not go nearly far enough for mainstream Jewish Democrats, who are circulating a letter calling for the expulsion of "anti-Zionist voices" from the party, according to a copy of the missive obtained Sunday evening by Axios.

"Israel is the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people and efforts to delegitimize and demonize it are not only dangerous and antisemitic, but they also undermine America’s national security," the signatories wrote. The letter stopped short of calling Jayapal’s statements anti-Semitic.

Biden has been increasingly vocal with his criticism of Israel as well. In a July 9 interview with CNN, he labeled Netanyahu’s government "one of the most extremist" of all time, and called on the Israeli leader to "move toward moderation." The White House also appeared to support anti-Netanyahu protests in Israel last week, saying it "urge[s] authorities in Israel to protect and respect the right of peaceful assembly"—a comment that the administration has not made about protests in other countries, such as France, and which carries the implication that Netanyahu’s government is undemocratic.

Biden reiterated these concerns in his Monday call to Netanyahu, during which he also "expressed concern" about Israeli settlements, according to the White House.

Republicans have seized on Democrats’ internecine conflict in advance of Herzog’s trip, set to mark 75 years of Israeli independence. Republican presidential hopefuls Mike Pence and Nikki Haley both condemned the boycott. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), who has repeatedly clashed with anti-Israel Democrats, told reporters on Friday that "anti-Semitism shouldn’t be anywhere, and especially shouldn’t be inside Congress."

Hikind, a longtime Democratic politician in New York, said the increasing animosity against Israel from Biden and top Democratic leaders has crossed the line—and pushed him to register as a Republican for the first time.

"That’s not because things are perfect in the Republican Party, they’re not," said Hikind. "But the Democratic Party, forget it, they’ve gone off a cliff."

Update July 18, 11:00 a.m.: This post has been updated to correct Dov Hikind’s position. He was a New York state assemblyman, not a New York City councilman.

The post ‘Gone Off a Cliff’: Dems Grapple with Anti-Semitism Ahead of Israeli President’s Visit appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Sixteen lobbyists contributed $9,635 to Gallego in the most recent fundraising quarter, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Two lobbyists from Ogilvy Government Relations contributed $3,500 to Gallego. Lobbyists from Cornerstone Government Affairs, Thorn Run Partners, and the telecom industry also contributed to Gallego's campaign, which reported receipts of $3.1 million over the past three months. Gallego's lobbyist donors represent corporations with significant business before the federal government, including AT&T, Pfizer, Meta, and Wells Fargo.

Gallego accepted the lobbyist cash while fighting to make Sinema's apparent coziness with lobbyists a centerpiece of his campaign. Gallego accused the incumbent earlier this year of choosing "to side with the lobbyists and special interests" over Arizonans. He also took aim at the "deep-pocketed lobbyists funding [Sinema's] campaign."

It's not the only example of Gallego being in bed with lobbyists. Gallego is married to the director of government relations at the National Association of Realtors, one of largest lobbying organizations in the country, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Gallego and his wife, Sydney Barron, attended an all-expenses-paid event hosted by the National Association of Realtors held at a resort in West Virginia.

Gallego in April 2021 took an all-expenses-paid trip to Qatar funded by the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, a trade group that supports stronger ties between the United States and the oil-rich Gulf nation, known for sponsoring Islamic terrorist organizations. The trade group paid $22,000 for Gallego and his wife's flights, meals, and lodging. The junket gained national attention after Gallego was photographed riding shirtless on a camel in the Qatari desert with fellow congressman Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.).

Gallego's latest campaign filing shows he paid $7,500 to Solidarity Strategies, the consulting firm led by his campaign adviser, Chuck Rocha. Rocha was convicted of felony charges a decade ago for embezzling money from the United Steelworkers union, where he served as political director.

Two of the union's sister organizations, the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers and International Association of Sheet Metal Workers, contributed $12,500 to Gallego's campaign this quarter.

Gallego's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Rubén Gallego Rakes in Lobbyist Cash as He Blasts Sinema Over Ties to 'Deep-Pocketed Lobbyists' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Whitmer in April sent $3,300 to boost her sister Liz Whitmer Gereghty's contentious primary fight against former liberal congressman Mondaire Jones in New York's 17th Congressional District. Two months later, in June, Whitmer sent Gereghty another $3,300 to fund her sister's potential general election campaign, according to federal disclosures. Whitmer's father also sent Gereghty $6,600, the maximum amount an individual is allowed to give a candidate in a single election cycle, while Whitmer's ex-husband gave Gereghty $1,000.

The contributions come as Gereghty faces accusations of outsourcing her campaign to her sister's Michigan as she runs to represent New York in Congress. Gereghty, who has lived in New York for two decades, has nonetheless courted support from Michigan's congressional delegation and hired a campaign manager who most recently worked in the Great Lakes State. Jones ally and "Squad" member Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) has subsequently questioned Gereghty's New York bonafides.

"I didn't even know [Whitmer's] sister lived in the district," Bowman told Politico in April. "And I don't know many people who know her."

Neither Gereghty nor Whitmer returned requests for comment. Whitmer's contributions helped Gereghty raise more than $400,000 within her campaign's first 10 weeks, and Gereghty has also received endorsements from liberal groups such as EMILY's List.

This is likely not the first time Gereghty has leaned on her sister to fuel her own political prospects. As a school board member in the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, which sits roughly 50 miles northeast of Manhattan, Gereghty became a top opponent of plans to play high school sports in the fall of 2020, arguing that sports were not an "equitable use of the school's resources." Hundreds of miles away, in Michigan, Whitmer vehemently opposed plans to hold fall football seasons at the high school and college levels, as football "is a very intimate sport where you are up in one another's faces."

Following Gereghty's input, district officials opted to only allow for varsity athletics, a move that prompted criticism from parents of freshman and junior varsity athletes. Whitmer similarly praised the Big Ten Conference for canceling fall sports, saying the decision would "keep their student-athletes safe and their families safe." Whitmer later flip-flopped on the issue when the Big Ten decided to hold a football season.

As part of her campaign, Gereghty has attacked "extremist Republicans" for "banning books" and "fearmongering about crime." Next year, she will square off against Jones in a primary fight that Democrats expect to get messy. Jones represented New York's 17th Congressional District from 2021 to 2023 but opted to run for a nearby Brooklyn seat last year, a race he lost. Gereghty has already criticized Jones for moving districts to "chase a congressional seat."

The primary's winner will face off against Republican incumbent Mike Lawler next November. Lawler in 2022 defeated then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney by less than 1 point. Lawler has so far focused his ire on Jones, calling the former congressman a "radical leftist" who is "trying to distance himself from his previously stated positions." Jones, who is known for his progressive politics, has supported the movement to defund police, called to "abolish cash bail," and expressed support for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.

Charles Hilu contributed to this report.

The post Sister, Sister: Gretchen Whitmer Gives Max Contribution to Sister's New York Congressional Campaign appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The House Appropriations Committee approved the 2024 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Bill on Wednesday, a $52.5 billion appropriations measure that includes provisions prohibiting funding of any lab controlled by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela. The bill would also ban taxpayer funding of risky gain-of-function research meant to enhance deadly viruses and prohibit funding of the Wuhan Institute of Virology and EcoHealth Alliance, the two groups implicated in the widely accepted theory that the COVID-19 pandemic originated from a Chinese laboratory.

To Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.), these measures unravel "the hard-fought credibility and influence the United States has earned as a global leader," the lawmakers said in a press release Wednesday. "The bill threatens our national security and puts the American people and global health at risk," the Democrats added.

DeLauro accused Republicans during a markup hearing Wednesday of catering to the most "extreme" members of their caucus "at the expense of America’s historic position on the world stage."

"This bill makes us less safe, fails to address the climate crisis, and opens the door for China and Russia to fill the gaps we would leave behind should this bill be enacted," DeLauro said.

The Democratic attacks come the same week the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released emails showing that former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci was aware as early as February 1, 2020, that Chinese scientists in Wuhan were engaged in risky gain-of-function experiments on bat viruses prior to the pandemic. Fauci would later vehemently deny during several congressional hearings that his agency, which provided $600,000 in subgrants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, financed gain-of-function research in Wuhan before the pandemic.

The subcommittee also released a trove of emails showing that many of the scientists that published an influential paper in March 2020 casting the lab leak theory as a baseless conspiracy privately believed at the time that the theory was credible.

This is not the first time House Democrats have attacked Republicans for seeking to cut funding for labs run by adversarial nations. House Appropriations Committee Democrats lobbed an identical attack when Republicans introduced the funding bill in June.

The bill "funds global health but curtails partnerships with the rest of the world by … prohibiting funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the EcoHealth Alliance, gain of function research, and any lab controlled by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela," the Democrats said in the June 22 press release.

National Republican Congressional Committee press secretary Will Reinert railed against the "shameful" attempt by House Democrats to secure funding for Chinese research labs.

"It’s shameful extreme House Democrats betray their country by demanding we send China more taxpayer money to help them kill the American dream," Reinert told the Washington Free Beacon.

DeLauro’s office did not return a request for comment.

The post House Dems Slam GOP Plan To Cut Funding to North Korean, Chinese, and Iranian Research Labs appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

As a member of the Katonah-Lewisboro school board in New York, Liz Whitmer Gereghty in September 2020 emerged as the top opponent of plans to play high school sports in the fall, meeting records reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon show. While Gereghty acknowledged that athletics make students healthier—both physically and mentally—she argued that moving forward with fall athletics was not an "equitable use of the school's resources" and was therefore "the exact wrong thing to do." Following Gereghty's input, district officials opted to only allow for varsity athletics, meaning freshman and junior varsity teams could not compete.

Years after the ordeal, Gereghty is running for Congress in New York's 17th Congressional District, where she will face a difficult primary against former congressman Mondaire Jones. Her crusade against high school sports suggests that her campaign will seek inspiration from her gubernatorial sister, who in 2020 imposed draconian stay-at-home orders that shuttered small businesses.

Just weeks before Gereghty railed against holding high school sports in her district, Whitmer vehemently opposed plans to hold fall football seasons at the high school and college levels, arguing that because "football is a very intimate sport where you are up in one another's faces," it would not be safe to play. Whitmer went on to praise the Big Ten Conference for canceling fall sports, saying the move would "keep their student-athletes safe and their families safe."

Both sisters' policy positions prompted criticism. Some parents in Gereghty's district, for example, lamented that the decision to snub junior varsity sports would harm the development of younger athletes and urged Gereghty to "reconsider." Small businesses in Michigan, meanwhile, mourned the hundreds of thousands of customers they said they'd lose without a football season. Those concerns could explain why Whitmer flip-flopped on the issue when the Big Ten later decided to hold a football season—the Democrat in September 2020 said she supported the move just days after arguing that a season would be unsafe.

Studies went on to show that large outdoor gatherings for sporting events did not cause large spikes in COVID cases, meaning Whitmer and Gereghty's concerns did not come to pass. In a 2021 study, University of Florida epidemiologist Cindy Prins said that while the sight of full stadiums might make "people feel nervous," outdoor gatherings "really are not the super spreader events that people have worried they're going to be."

Whitmer did not return a request for comment on whether her sister came to her for advice on the sports issue. Gereghty's campaign said the congressional hopeful "believes in the value of sports."

"Her top priority as a school board member was to get students back in the classroom full time while keeping the school community safe," the campaign told the Free Beacon.

Gereghty in May launched her bid to unseat freshman GOP lawmaker Mike Lawler, who in 2022 upset then-Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney. Jones complicated that effort last week when he announced his campaign for the same district, pitting the two Democrats against each other in a primary that is expected to get messy. Jones ally and "Squad" member Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) in April told Politico he "didn't even know [Whitmer's] sister lived in the district" and doesn't "know many people who know her." Gereghty countered by accusing Jones of moving districts "to chase a congressional seat," a reference to Jones's decision to run in the nearby 10th district in 2022. Jones failed to emerge from that race's primary.

Gereghty, who is largely considered an unknown quantity in New York, has courted support from Michigan's congressional delegation and hired a campaign manager who most recently worked in the Great Lakes State. Gereghty raised more than $400,000 in her campaign's first 10 weeks and has already received endorsements from liberal groups such as EMILY's List. Her campaign site attacks "extremist Republicans" for "banning books" and "fearmongering about crime."

The post Sister Telepathy? As Gretchen Whitmer Endorsed COVID Sports Shutdown, So Did Her Sibling appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Just 22 percent of Whitehouse’s office identifies as a race other than white. Only 2 individuals on Whitehouse’s nearly-30 person staff identify as black. One of the two is Whitehouse’s chief of staff, whom the senator hired in 2021 following a Washington Free Beacon report that Whitehouse had no minorities on his senior staff.

The demographic information comes from the Senate Democratic Diversity Initiative's sixth-annual staff survey, released just weeks after the Supreme Court's decision overturning affirmative action in college admissions. The initiative, started in 2007 by then-Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.), is meant to "develop a Senate staff who reflect the diversity of our Nation and are demographically representative of the constituents they serve."

Whitehouse has for years faced scrutiny for his membership at an exclusive all-white beach club in Newport, Rhode Island. The senator, who claims to have "worked relentlessly toward bringing greater equality of opportunity and outcome to all Americans," pledged to terminate his membership at Bailey’s Beach Club in 2006. But Whitehouse merely transferred the membership to his wife, Sandra Thornton.

Whitehouse has since defended his relationship with the club, which was once described by the New York Times as a retreat where "the ruling class keeps its guard up." When asked by a local paper in 2017 about Bailey Beach Club’s racial composition, Whitehouse said, "It would be nice if [Bailey’s] changed a little bit" and that he would take up the issue "privately."

There is little evidence that Bailey’s has changed. Two years ago, a local Rhode Island paper prodded its members and staff about its pallidity.

"We have Asians, we have [sic] Indian. We have a lot of different ethnic groups here," a Bailey's Beach club employee said.

Just four other Democratic senators employ fewer minorities than Whitehouse: Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Tammy Baldwin (Wisc.), Angus King (Maine)—an independent who caucuses with Democrats—and Joe Manchin (W. Va.), who has the whitest Senate office.

The great-great-grandson of a railroad magnate, Whitehouse’s assets are well north of eight figures, according to his latest financial disclosure report. He was educated at the exclusive St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, and attended Yale University before earning a law degree from the University of Virginia.

A spokesman for Whitehouse did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Whitehouse's White Office: Rhode Island Senator Has One of the Least Diverse Dem Staffs appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan unsealed charges this week against Luft, who claims to have given the FBI information in 2019 about the Biden family's Chinese business dealings. Assistant U.S. attorneys Catherine Ghosh and Daniel Richenthal, who conducted the interview with Luft in 2019, are the two lead prosecutors on his case, court records show. Both have contributed exclusively to Democrats. Ghosh made 35 contributions in the 2020 election cycle to Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to campaign finance records. Richenthal contributed to the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign when he served in private practice, the records show.

The revelations come as IRS whistleblowers and Republicans question whether federal prosecutors, for political reasons, stymied investigations into Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. IRS whistleblowers have alleged that Biden-appointed federal prosecutors in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., blocked requests to file tax charges against Hunter Biden in their jurisdictions. The whistleblowers also claim that investigators were prohibited from fully investigating the Biden family's foreign business ventures, including with CEFC China Energy.

The charges against Luft have already sparked allegations of a double standard in how the administration investigates the first family.

"The amazing thing is we don't prosecute foreign corruption and failure to register as a foreign agent when it's Hunter Biden. We do when it's somebody who specifically is accusing and says they have information about the wrongdoing of the Biden family," Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said this week after Luft's indictment was unsealed.

Prosecutors charged Luft, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act through his work for CEFC China Energy. He is accused of recruiting former CIA director James Woolsey on behalf of CEFC China Energy to write articles touting pro-Beijing policies. According to the indictment, Luft failed to register with the Justice Department for his work for a "Chinese foreign principal."

Hunter Biden has avoided similar charges, even though CEFC China Energy paid him nearly $6 million for business and legal consulting in 2017 and 2018. Joe Biden was also allegedly involved in his son's work for CEFC China Energy. Longtime Biden family friend Rob Walker told the FBI in December 2020 that Joe Biden and his son took part in a meeting with CEFC China Energy executives at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C. That contradicts Joe Biden's claims to have no involvement in his son's business ventures.

Richenthal and Ghosh have investigated CEFC China Energy since at least 2017 when they handled the prosecution of Patrick Ho, a CEFC China Energy executive with ties to both Hunter Biden and Luft. Ho was indicted in November 2017 for attempting to bribe two African officials on behalf of CEFC China Energy. CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden $1 million to represent Ho in the case.

Richenthal asked the judge presiding over the Ho case to redact Biden’s name from emails introduced as evidence at trial, according to court transcripts.

"Our view is that the name of that individual is not relevant and could introduce a political dimension to this case that we don't think is worth dealing with," Richenthal said at Ho’s trial, referring to a December 2015 email in which Hunter Biden was invited to a dinner with CEFC China Energy chairman Ye Jianming.

Luft met with Richenthal, Ghosh, and four FBI agents in Brussels in March 2019, shortly after Ho was convicted at his bribery trial. Luft has said he told the prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to use the Biden family’s connections to the FBI in order to find out whether CEFC China Energy and its chairman, Ye Jianming, were under investigation. Luft also said he told prosecutors that CEFC China Energy paid Hunter Biden to promote the Belt and Road Initiative, the Chinese government’s infrastructure investment initiative.

Prosecutors charged Luft with lying during the interviews in Brussels, which occurred on March 28 and 29, 2019, regarding his attempts to broker weapons sales on behalf of CEFC China Energy.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan did not respond to a request for comment.

The post Prosecutors of Biden Family Corruption Witness Gal Luft Donated to Joe Biden, Other Dems appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Liberal state lawmaker Catherine Sofikitis on Sunday responded to a tweet that asked users to give their thoughts on Moms for Liberty, a political organization led by former school board members that aims to advance "parental rights at all levels of government." Sofikitis compared the group to terrorists. "Assholes with casseroles, taliban in minivan," Sofikitis said.

Sofikitis’s outburst comes as New Hampshire Democrats reject parental rights measures in the state legislature. State Democrats in May, for example, narrowly defeated a bill that would have prevented public schools from withholding information from parents, including when a student exhibits a change in his or her gender identity. The vice president of New Hampshire's American Federation of Teachers chapter threatened to pull support for any state Democrat who supported the legislation.

Moms for Liberty cofounder Tina Descovich on Monday condemned Sofikitis's tweet, saying in a statement that the Democrat should "work with parents to ensure a brighter future for all children instead of demonizing parents." Sofikitis, who did not return a request for comment, nonetheless defended her remark. At 1:09 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Democrat took to Twitter to respond to a self-described "progressive activist" who commended Sofikitis for "telling the truth about hate group Moms for Liberty." "You are my hero, thank you," Sofikitis said in response. She also shared a video that called Moms for Liberty members "Momzis" and promoted a liberal candidate for state legislature who called the group "extremist."

Sofikitis is far from the only New Hampshire Democrat to disparage parental rights advocates in recent months. Her liberal colleague in the New Hampshire House, Tom Hoyt, in May lashed out at a parent who urged him to pass a parental rights measure. "Do you know why children's results tanked during covid? Their parents were incompetent teachers," Hoyt told the parent. "Do your children a favor, let the teachers teach, and shut up. You're clearly no professional."

In addition to New Hampshire, Democrats in other northeastern states have spent the summer challenging parents who seek more involvement in public schools. New Jersey attorney general Matt Platkin has, in the last two months, sued four school districts over policies that require teachers to inform parents if their child publicly changes his or her gender identity. Platkin in June also issued a guidance warning public school officials that they could face legal action if they issue blanket bans on flags, posters, and other symbols in an attempt to keep classrooms politically neutral, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Moms for Liberty is no stranger to controversy. The Southern Poverty Law Center last month placed the group on its "hate map," which includes the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations.

The post New Hampshire Democrat Likens Parental Rights Group to Taliban appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

The dark money behemoth, an arm of Arabella Advisors’ sprawling nonprofit network, was looking to challenge red-state voting laws that curtailed mail-in voting, but staffers were keenly aware of the hurdles they would face making inroads with Republican lawmakers.

They embarked on a project to take control of a 501(c)4 nonprofit, Secure Democracy, and lobby Republican lawmakers—and run ads against them—on voting rights issues from behind the veil of an ostensibly nonpartisan group.

For a time, they gained traction. In 2020 and 2021, Secure Democracy pushed lawmakers in over 20 states to expand mail-in balloting and other liberal voting initiatives. Those lawmakers were seemingly unaware that they were being influenced by political operatives working at the highest levels of the Democratic Party. New Venture Fund, after all, is the largest branch of the multibillion-dollar Democratic dark money clearinghouse controlled by Arabella Advisors.

"Every lawmaker at the state level was misled," a former New Venture Fund employee involved in Secure Democracy’s lobbying operations, who requested anonymity due to fear of professional retaliation, told the Washington Free Beacon.

That tactic, lawyers say, may have put the charity on the wrong side of nonprofit tax laws. In October 2021, the New Venture Fund dismissed a senior executive who blew the whistle internally, arguing that the group was illegally using charitable resources to direct Secure Democracy’s 501(c)4 political activities. New Venture Fund abruptly shut down Secure Democracy a month later.

This story is based on a trove of internal New Venture Fund records obtained by the Free Beacon that suggest the group ran roughshod over tax laws in an effort to influence Republicans to change voting laws before and after the 2020 elections. Legal experts and watchdog groups said the New Venture Fund’s apparent use of charitable resources to direct Secure Democracy’s partisan political activity provides grounds for the IRS to investigate New Venture Fund and potentially strip it of its charity status.

The New Venture Fund operates hundreds of liberal projects that present themselves to the public as grassroots initiatives. The charity pays a hefty fee to Arabella Advisors, a for-profit business, to manage and provide legal compliance for its projects, according to a New Venture Fund employee handbook obtained by the Free Beacon.

But interviews with five former New Venture Fund employees involved in the Secure Democracy arrangement raise questions about Arabella’s commitment to the law.

The group of New Venture Fund employees pulling the strings at Secure Democracy came from a team within the New Venture Fund that worked on one of the organization’s legitimate projects, the Voting Rights Lab. Led by former Everytown for Gun Safety executive vice president Megan Lewis, Voting Rights Lab billed itself as a nonpartisan organization that tracks election-related legislation in states across the country. But behind the scenes, former employees told the Free Beacon, they were working away at Secure Democracy.

And the New Venture Fund’s control of Secure Democracy was absolute. Lewis approved "everything" the 501(c)4 group did both internally and externally for "organizational consistency," according to a document outlining internal processes dated Feb. 4, 2020.

Under New Venture Fund’s direction, Secure Democracy embarked on "under-the-radar battleground state campaigns" in the leadup to the 2020 elections to "prevent interference" from Republican lawmakers concerned about widespread mail-in ballots, records obtained by the Free Beacon show. Secure Democracy lobbied in North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, and other critical battleground states, the records show. Among the GOP officials the group lobbied: the now famous Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffenspberger, who did not respond to a request for comment.

But Secure Democracy never publicly disclosed its ties to New Venture Fund because it would have hurt their ability to engage with GOP lawmakers and voters on both sides of the aisle, four former staffers told the Free Beacon.

"There were so many discussions about how Secure Democracy had to remain pristine and separate, and there could not be any illusion of a link between the two," said a former employee. "One of the reasons was because they obviously wanted to appear unbiased and influence voters."

Emails reviewed by the Free Beacon also reflect New Venture Fund’s efforts to conceal its ties to Secure Democracy. Former Secure Democracy communications director Jay Riestenberg told the head of another left-wing organization in July of 2021 that New Venture Fund’s control of the group "is not publicly advertised for strategic reasons."

New Venture Fund also controlled Secure Democracy’s hiring decisions. Secure Democracy launched in 2018 and operated with a small pool of no more than eight part-time employees on its payroll, all of whom were simultaneously employed by New Venture Fund.

"I applied for a position that was listed as Voting Rights Lab. It was only later in the interview process I was told you’re going to be on the Secure Democracy side," a former staffer said.

Lewis and other senior New Venture Fund employees who ran Secure Democracy were compensated solely by the charity rather than by Secure Democracy.

It’s not uncommon for charities to partner with other 501(c)4 nonprofit groups. But Secure Democracy financial records reviewed by the Free Beacon and accounts from three former New Venture Fund employees indicate that the charity had no formal cost-sharing agreement with Secure Democracy in 2020 and 2021. The lack of such an agreement, which is typical in partnerships between 501(c)3 charities and 501(c)4 groups, meant no legal guardrails were in place to prevent New Venture Fund’s charitable resources from subsidizing Secure Democracy’s political activities.

"I think they’re sort of skating on thin ice," said nonprofit attorney Alan Dye. "The IRS could take the position that the 501(c)4 is acting as the agent of the charity. And since that includes activity the charity could not itself engage in, that’s a problem."

Several legal experts said New Venture Fund may have crossed a legal red line as it directed Secure Democracy’s partisan political activities, given that charities are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activism.

In one instance, Secure Democracy had to seek Lewis’s approval before running nearly $90,000 in political ads against five Republican senators in September 2020, emails reviewed by the Free Beacon show. But that campaign, according to Secure Democracy’s attorney David Mitrani, needed to be logged as political spending.

Despite Mitrani's advice, Lewis approved the ad purchase from her New Venture Fund email account. That exchange, according to former IRS Tax Law Specialist Patrick Sternal, may be evidence of unlawful activity.

"Theoretically, the prohibition on charity intervention in political campaigns is absolute, meaning that any amount of political activity could lead to revocation," Sternal said.

Nonprofit tax attorneys Jason Torchinsky and Paul Kamenar urged the IRS to investigate New Venture Fund’s use of charitable resources to advance Secure Democracy’s political activity.

"Since NVF appears to be directing the political expenditures of Secured Democracy, as a c3 they are doing indirectly what they cannot do directly. NVF is at risk of losing their tax-exempt status," said Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center watchdog group.

"It’s something the IRS should take a serious look at since charities are expressly prohibited from engaging in partisan campaign activity," added Torchinsky.

The extent of New Venture Fund’s control over Secure Democracy was of particular concern to former Secure Democracy executive director Sarah Walker, who emailed New Venture Fund general counsel Andrew Schultz on Oct. 28, 2021, expressing her fears that the arrangement was "fraught with compliance and potential legal ramifications," and put her, Secure Democracy, and New Venture Fund in "legal jeopardy."

Walker now alleges she lost her job for blowing the whistle on the group’s mismanagement. She retained a high-powered legal team that included former independent counsel Ken Starr and filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in federal court in November 2022. Her legal team informed New Venture Fund of their belief that the charity had illegally subsidized Secure Democracy to the tune of more than $10 million.

"New Venture Fund, and any project they manage, are expressly prohibited from engaging in any political activity," said Americans for Public Trust executive director Caitlin Sutherland. "Not only do these records show careless and sloppy bookkeeping, but also seem to indicate a pattern of flagrant violations of the rules governing nonprofits."

By that time, however, New Venture Fund and Arabella Advisors had already started their attempt to shield the charity from IRS scrutiny.

On Nov. 5, 2021, Schultz, the New Venture Fund general counsel, sent a letter informing Secure Democracy he had instructed the charity’s staff to refrain from interacting with Secure Democracy employees. Also around that time, Walker alleges New Venture Fund booted her from her Secure Democracy email, according to her wrongful termination lawsuit.

This left Secure Democracy’s small pool of part-time employees in a lurch.

"Suddenly Sarah disappeared. And then who we worked for became very unclear," a former Secure Democracy lobbyist told the Free Beacon. "We started receiving conflicting information about who we worked for and who of our colleagues we were allowed to work with."

New Venture Fund then moved to shut down Secure Democracy and replace it with a new group, Secure Democracy USA, formed in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 17, 2021.

Smith, the Secure Democracy board chair, and Schultz, the New Venture Fund general counsel, signed a contract on Dec. 1, 2021, agreeing to disburse Secure Democracy’s assets to New Venture Fund and Secure Democracy USA. New Venture Fund also agreed to pick up the tab for Secure Democracy’s outstanding bills.

"The most damning thing in this sordid story is the way the Arabella empire shuttered Secure Democracy within weeks of the whistleblower’s warning," said Capital Research Center president Scott Walter. "The powers-that-be must have feared possible damage to the billion-dollar-a-year New Venture Fund, Arabella’s crown jewel."

A former New Venture Fund employee involved in the transaction said Secure Democracy's abrupt shutdown was directly related to the legal implications of New Venture Fund’s control of the organization’s political activity.

"It was determined that there were compliance issues," the former staffer said.

New Venture Fund went on to alter employee timesheets to make it appear that another Arabella Advisors offshoot, the North Fund—a 501(c)4 nonprofit that can legally engage in political activity—had subsidized Secure Democracy’s work in 2021, two former staffers said.

The staffers said they received orders from Eva Keller, an Arabella Advisors employee, around March 2022 to modify timesheets for their colleagues that worked with Secure Democracy the prior year.

"It was all just kind of haphazard," one of the former staffers said.

Sometime later in 2022, the two former employees said, the North Fund billed Secure Democracy USA hundreds of thousands of dollars for the work it supposedly provided to Secure Democracy the previous year. The figure was based on the modified New Venture Fund timesheets.

"The number I saw on a budget sheet was between $630,000 and $700,000," one of the former employees told the Free Beacon.

The modification of time sheets so long after the fact is highly unusual and warrants an IRS investigation, legal experts told the Free Beacon.

"The attempt to retroactively involve a c4 in the spending is an indication that someone realized how risky the political activity is for the charity," said Torchinsky, the nonprofit attorney. "While nonprofits regularly file amendments, going back and changing time sheets after the books are closed and nearly 18 months prior is unusual to say the least."

Secure Democracy’s IRS tax returns for its 2020 and 2021 tax years also contain curious discrepancies. The group’s attorney regularly instructed employees during those years to categorize work as partisan political activity, emails reviewed by the Free Beacon show. But Secure Democracy told the IRS that it engaged in no political activity whatsoever.

"It is certainly odd that they had internally flagged activity as political, and then reported nothing on the 990," said Sternal, the former IRS Tax Law Specialist.

New Venture Fund cut ties with the Voting Rights Lab project in June 2022 because of the compliance issues surrounding its control of Secure Democracy, two former staffers said.

"It was because of the Sarah matter," one source said. "It didn’t make any sense to keep them under their umbrella."

Voting Rights Lab is now a project of SD Foundation, a charity Lewis launched in August 2022. SD Foundation got its start thanks to a $4.8 million cash injection from New Venture Fund, according to an IRS tax exempt application obtained by the Free Beacon.

A New Venture Fund spokesperson told the Free Beacon that the charity complies with the law.

"New Venture Fund supports a wide range of nonpartisan projects from across the ideological spectrum, appropriately uses funds, and complies with the law," the spokesperson said. "Allegations to the contrary are false, and we are litigating them with the former NVF employee making these false claims."

Secure Democracy USA did not return a request for comment.

The post Top Democratic Operatives Were Quietly Pulling the Strings at a Voting Rights Group. Lawyers Say They May Have Broken the Law. appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Oregon Democratic governor Tina Kotek on June 27 appointed Charlene Williams to become the state's next education director, lauding Williams in a press release as "exactly the leader our state education system needs at this moment." Williams, a former deputy superintendent who is described in a 2019 bio as a "social justice advocate," has long pushed controversial "equity" policies inspired by prominent critical race theorists.

One district under Williams's purview, for example, in 2018 implemented its first ever "equity" policy, which required teachers to "own" their "privilege" and commit to dismantling "practices and policies that perpetuate oppression." Williams led teacher trainings to advance the policy, one of which entailed a semester-long discussion on Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility, which argues that white people are "conditioned into a white supremacist worldview because it is the bedrock of our society." One third-grade teacher who went through Williams's training said the district was "trying to get kids to take stock of whiteness and what that means."

Williams's appointment comes as Oregon students struggle to meet academic benchmarks. Its student achievement levels in basic knowledge and skills are "significantly" below national averages, according to the state. Williams will now work to improve those achievement levels by overseeing the Oregon public school system and managing its funding. Oregon Democrats in June funneled a record $10.2 billion into the state's school fund, which is expected to reach $15.3 billion when local tax revenue is included.

"I recognize the significance of my appointment to this role and the immense amount of work we have ahead of us," Williams said following her appointment, adding that she is particularly excited to build "partnerships with students, educators, and families across Oregon that advance equity."

As assistant superintendent of the Portland-area Camas School District between 2016 and 2022, Williams helped usher in the district’s first ever "equity policy," which many district parents went on to blast as overly "woke" during a May 2021 school board meeting. One parent slammed the policy as an effort to push a "hidden agenda" on students, asking if Williams was working to implement "the 1619 Project in disguise," a reference to a piece of work from New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones that "directly challenges the narrative of American exceptionalism."

Williams's equity policy promoted the use of race and sex-based affinity groups and called for an "emphasis on correcting historical mis- and dis-information," according to parents. Kotek specifically praised Williams for establishing the so-called affinity groups, which effectively act to segregate individuals based on immutable characteristics, such as race. In one case, a Massachusetts school district settled a lawsuit over its affinity groups, pledging to ensure that the groups are open to all students, not just those of a certain race or sex.

As deputy superintendent at Washington-based Evergreen Public Schools, Williams similarly helped facilitate a new strategic plan, "every aspect" of which had "equity threaded through it," according to the district's superintendent. District leaders reportedly said the plan, along with Williams's work to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, helped the district see things through a new "equity lens."

During her time at Camas School District, meanwhile, Williams gave a TEDxYouth talk that encouraged listeners to inject race into public schools and slammed the idea of a "colorblind" curriculum, arguing it makes white people "blind to injustice." Educators, Williams said, have an "obligation" to "disrupt and repair" the current school system through antiracist efforts, arguing that "all things being equal does not mean equitable outcomes." "You are part of the problem, and you are part of the solution," Williams said.

Kotek's office did not return a request for comment on Williams's social justice emphasis and how it may impact her performance as education director. Williams will take over as the state's interim director on July 10, a title she will hold until September, when Oregon's senate will take up her confirmation vote.

The post Meet Oregon's Next Education Director: A 'Social Justice Advocate' Who Wants Teachers to 'Own' Their 'Privilege' appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Soros and former president Bill Clinton met with Albanian prime minister Edi Rama in Tirana, according to Soros’s social media posts. Soros touted Rama, the head of Albania’s socialist party, as his "brother" and one of the world’s great leaders. But Rama’s reputation has taken a major hit in the wake of the indictment of former FBI counterintelligence official Charles McGonigal.

What a treat to be with President Clinton in Albania. One of the most pro-American countries in the world & a stalwart ally thanks in part to its prime minister @ediramaal, who is coincidently born on July 4th. Great to spend today with an hero and one of the US’s best friends pic.twitter.com/JuNqBvFfuI

— Alex Soros (@AlexanderSoros) July 5, 2023

According to federal prosecutors, McGonigal sold access to Rama and other Albanian officials for hundreds of thousands of dollars while still on the FBI payroll. After meetings with Rama, the Albanian leader allegedly fed McGonigal information about an American lobbyist who worked for Rama’s political rival. McGonigal then allegedly coaxed FBI colleagues to open an investigation into the lobbyist.

McGonigal is charged with concealing his ties to foreign nationals and making false statements. Rama has denied wrongdoing, but it is not the first time he has been accused of using Americans to help him politically. In 2019, an Albanian-American businessman admitted he made $80,000 in illegal campaign contributions to Barack Obama on Rama’s behalf in 2012. Rama allegedly wanted a photo-op with the American president in order to help his campaign for prime minister.

Soros’s meetings with the embattled Albanian leader could raise questions about Open Society’s claim to support "open" and "democratic" governments in Albania and across the world. Open Society has spent tens of millions of dollars in the Balkan nation since 1992, funding organizations to "strengthen local democracy" and fight organized crime. The philanthropy spent $2 million in Albania in 2020, largely on judicial reform and to enhance "democratic practice." Open Society spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on groups in the United States that back the movement to defund police, expand the Supreme Court, and enact radical climate change initiatives.

Alex Soros, who his father tapped to lead Open Society earlier this year, has used his connections to the Biden White House to advocate for foreign leaders supported by Open Society. Soros has met at least five times with Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer, the Washington Free Beacon reported. One of those meetings occurred the same day the Brazilian leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the White House. Soros was accompanied in the meeting by Pedro Abramovay, the director of Open Society’s Rio De Janeiro office who served in Lula’s previous administration. It is unclear whether Soros has discussed Rama during his White House visits.

The younger Soros’s tenure is off to a rocky start. Open Society announced last week it will slash its workforce by at least 40 percent in order to create a "nimbler" organization. The charity is offering "well–being" workshops to its employees in the wake of the layoffs.

Soros’s and Clinton’s visit to Tirana could provide Rama a much-needed reputational boost at home and abroad as he faces questions about his relationship with McGonigal. Albania’s opposition party called for Rama to appear before Parliament to answer questions about his relationship with the disgraced FBI official, who led the counterintelligence division at the FBI’s New York City field office. Rama has refused to appear before Parliament, and said the allegations were "to politically exploit a legal process in the USA that has no links at all to Albania, the government or me personally."

Clinton appeared with Rama at an event in Tirana to accept the Great Star of Gratitude for Public Achievements, the highest honor bestowed by Albania’s prime minister on foreigners. Soros hailed Albania as a "great ally" of the United States, and credited the "leadership of Edi Rama."

"And what a coincidence that Edi Rama was born on the Fourth of July!!! Ringing in Independence Day and my brother Edi’s bday with these two great men was a highlight I will forever cherish!" Soros wrote in social media posts adorned with photos of him, Clinton, and Rama.

Rama met with McGonigal at least four times before McGonigal retired from the FBI in 2018. According to prosecutors, McGonigal lobbied Rama on behalf of an Albanian-American businessman, Agra Neza, who sought contracts with the Albanian government. Neza allegedly paid McGonigal $225,000 to arrange meetings with Rama and his adviser, Dorian Duka.

After a meeting with Rama in November 2017, McGonigal asked a federal prosecutor to investigate an American lobbyist for Rama’s chief party rival, the Democratic Party of Albania. The party was led by Lulzim Basha, a conservative who supported Donald Trump. Prosecutors allege that McGonigal obtained information from Rama’s office about the American lobbyist, Nicholas Muzin, and fed it to his colleagues at the FBI. The bureau officially opened an investigation into Muzin in February 2018. Neza and Duka served as sources for the FBI as part of the investigation, according to prosecutors.

Rama acknowledged in March that he met with McGonigal and Neza but denied paying bribes to the FBI official.

Open Society Foundations did not respond to a request for comment.

The post George Soros’s Son Spent July 4th with European Leader Linked to FBI Bribery Case appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Cooper's veto nullifies the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which the state's GOP-controlled legislature passed last month with support from two Democrats. Cooper disagreed with those party-mates, arguing in a statement that the bill would inflame political "culture wars" by "making broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children."

Should the North Carolina legislature overturn the veto, the state would join at least 22 others that have barred transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex. Proponents of the policy argue that biological men could cause physical harm when competing in women's sports, an issue that has already played out in North Carolina. Last year, a biological male seriously injured a female opponent during a state high school volleyball game. The girl, Payton McNabb, said she battled a concussion and neck injury after taking a spike to the face.

Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who competed against national transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and appeared alongside McNabb in April to support the North Carolina bill, slammed Cooper for vetoing the measure.

"Hey Gov, reminder that this happened to a girl in your state. She is partially paralyzed on her right side and her vision is still impaired," Gaines said Wednesday of McNabb. "It's not me who has to go to sleep tonight knowing I'm enabling this." McNabb similarly criticized the veto, saying she felt her injury had been "discounted."

"Today Gov Cooper discarded the safety and opportunities of female athletes for the feelings of males," McNabb tweeted.

In addition to his argument that the policy hurts "vulnerable children," Cooper said the transgender sports bill is "neither fair nor needed" and appeared to be "for campaign purposes only." In at least one case, however, a Democrat that Cooper endorsed in 2022 supported the measure. That lawmaker, state senator Val Applewhite, said that after her vote she received "frightening" messages from supporters of transgender athletes, including one who called her a "transphobic cisgender whore."

"I'm telling you, people are afraid to speak publicly," Applewhite told the Carolina Journal. "Like to say, 'Val, I agree with you,' because you become labeled as transphobic or you're met with backlash. Even the coaches and parents that I spoke to, they don't want to say it publicly."

The post North Carolina Governor, a Democrat, Vetoes Bill That Would Protect Women's Sports From Biological Men appeared first on Washington Free Beacon.

Markey on June 26 introduced a bill that would provide $125 million to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to "research barriers to gender-affirming care and the impact of those barriers on health." That research, Markey said, would address "escalating attacks by lawmakers around the country" who have passed "laws or policies … banning gender-affirming care for youth." For Markey, such "care" is a "human right."

"Trans health is health, and health care is a human right," Markey said in a statement announcing the bill. "We will not have true health equity for all until we have eliminated the health disparities trans and nonbinary people face."

Markey, a staunch liberal, has for years endorsed Medicare for All, a government-run health care program that would replace almost all other plans and cost trillions of dollars annually. His June statement suggests that he would include in the program taxpayer-funded coverage for child sex change treatments, given that the Democrat last year argued that his Medicare for All bill would "guarantee health care in the United States as a fundamental human right to all."

Many medical experts, however, say puberty blockers and hormone therapy treatments for children can cause long-term health problems, including infertility and low bone metabolism. The American Academy of Pediatrics has also acknowledged that the treatments can "be stressful and can lead to lower self-esteem and increased risk-taking," and pediatricians in Canada and the United Kingdom believe the treatments may solidify feelings of gender dysphoria by halting the natural hormonal changes that occur during the teenage years.

Those concerns did not stop Markey, who did not return a request for comment, from barreling forward with a bill that he says would "protect, defend, and expand the fundamental right" for transgender youth to "get the care they need." Left-wing senators such as Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) cosponsored the legislation, which also received endorsements from a number of pro-transgenderism groups.

Trevor Project vice president of advocacy and government affairs Kasey Suffredini, for example, said the bill "sends a powerful message of affirmation and acceptance to trans young people across the nation." The Trevor Project has issued transgender language guides, which colleges such as the University of Colorado have echoed in materials that say ignoring someone's pronouns is "an act of violence." The group has also published research that supports the use of child sex change treatments without disclosing that it accepts tens of thousands of dollars in funding from companies that make drugs and medical products used in the gender transition process, the Washington Free Beacon reported in April.

Markey is far from the only prominent Democrat who has in recent weeks defended puberty blockers and hormone therapy treatments for children. During a June 22 press conference, for example, Kentucky Democratic governor Andy Beshear said those treatments are "basic medical decisions."

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Manchin was in some cases years late on tax payments for real estate and personal property items, including cars and boats, NBC News reported Thursday. In 2020, for example, Manchin "made nearly $630 in back tax payments … for taxes he owed on cars, boats, and trailers from 2016, 2017, and 2018," according to the report. Less than two years later, Manchin emerged as the "chief architect" of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided $80 billion in new IRS funding, more than half of which went to enforcement. Republicans denounced the funding as "part of the broad Biden administration strategy to tax [and] audit exponentially more Americans," particularly those who—unlike the deep-pocketed Manchin—earn less than $25,000 a year.

The revelation comes as Manchin ponders his political future ahead of a potentially difficult reelection year. Manchin, a Democrat who represents a state that former president Donald Trump won twice by an average of 41 points, is facing a challenge from West Virginia's popular Republican governor, Jim Justice. But Manchin hasn't committed to running against Justice and is flirting with a third-party presidential bid against President Joe Biden, a prospect that Senate Democrats are urging him to abandon.

A Manchin spokesperson dismissed criticism over the late payments, telling NBC News that the Democrat "has always paid every tax bill he's received in full and any lapse in payment has been quickly rectified as soon as he has been made aware." That explanation was not enough for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, whose spokesman, Tate Mitchell, called Manchin "a complete hypocrite."

"Joe Manchin voted to raise West Virginians' taxes with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act but refuses to pay his own," Mitchell said.

As Manchin weighs a Senate reelection run in 2024, the Democrat has attempted to position himself as a staunch critic of President Joe Biden's spending. But Manchin has trashed the Inflation Reduction Act to do so—even though he negotiated the bill's terms himself. In April, for example, Manchin attacked Biden for working to "liberalize" the legislation and said he would even "vote to repeal [his] own bill." Just months earlier, however, Manchin had heaped praise on the legislation and said he did not regret voting for it "at all."

"The Inflation Reduction Act will be the most transformative bill that we've ever had in the United States, in Congress, as far as I've been here," he said in February.

Since then, Republicans have watered down the bill's IRS provisions. The May debt ceiling deal between Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) rescinded $21 billion of the agency's roughly $80 billion in new funding. Still, Republicans are trying to cut more, with Texas senator John Cornyn calling the deal a "good down payment."

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