CNN Reveals Who Qualified for Iowa Debate Ahead of Caucus Day

RNC Debate

Former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley are the only candidates who qualified for CNN’s Republican primary debate in Des Moines, Iowa, on Jan. 10, the outlet announced Tuesday.

The three exceeded the debate criteria, garnering more than 10% support in at least three separate national or Iowa polls that met the outlet’s standards, according to CNN. Trump opted instead for a counter-programming event on Fox News, while conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson did not meet the outlet’s requirements.

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Youngkin Defends Gender Identity Policies: ‘Children Don’t Belong to the State’

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin defended his policy regarding gender identity rules for the public school system, saying children don’t belong to the state.

Under the rules, student bathrooms and sports teams should be based on sex assigned at birth, not gender identity. Parental approval would be required if a student wants to change their name, according to the new policy.

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Ohio Gov. DeWine Won’t Reintroduce COVID-19 Mandates

Joining a growing and bipartisan list of governors, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) said Sunday that he will not bring back lockdowns and mask mandates as cases of COVID-19 once again rise.

“We are seeing the virus go up,” DeWine told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “We think the delta variant is certainly the dominant one in Ohio yet, but the whole game today is vaccinations, and we have room to grow. We think that we can get more people vaccinated.” 

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Minneapolis Police Scrambling for Staff After Riots, ‘Defund Police’ Campaign

Minneapolis Police Department

The Minneapolis Police Department is in dire straights as it prepares for possible violence during the trial of one of its former officers.

“Minneapolis has about 200 fewer police officers available to work as the city tries to rebound from a violent year and prepare for more potential unrest,” The Star-Tribune reported. “In the short term, the city is seeking aid from other law enforcement agencies as it plans for the March trial for former Officer Derek Chauvin, who is charged with killing George Floyd.”

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Jake Tapper on White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany: She ‘Lies the Way that Most People Breathe’

CNN anchor Jake Tapper said Sunday that he wouldn’t put White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on air because she “lies the way that most people breathe.”

Tapper told CNN’s Brian Stelter that throughout President Donald Trump’s term, “you had to steel yourself for interviews with people that might misrepresent the facts.” The CNN anchor said that “once somebody proved themselves to be a liar, I just stopped booking them.”

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Senators Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar: Trump Shouldn’t Pick the New SCOTUS Justice

Senators Tina Smith (DFL-MN) and Amy Klobuchar (DFL-MN) stated that President Trump shouldn’t pick the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) nominee. Instead, Smith and Klobuchar say that the newly-elected president should, and the Senate should wait to vote until then.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday from cancer complications. The SCOTUS vacancy is now the epicenter of political leaders’ attention.

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Calls Minneapolis Police ‘Rotten,’ Can’t Explain Who Will Respond to Violent Crimes Without Them

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) was unable to provide details on who will respond to violent crimes in her city without a police force, but said the Minneapolis Police Department is “rotten to the root” during a Sunday interview.

“What takes its place?” CNN host Jake Tapper asked the congresswoman. “Who investigates crimes? Who arrests criminals? What happens?”

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Jake Tapper’s Attempt to Blame ‘Far Right Groups’ for Protest Violence Fizzles with Trump’s National Security Advisor

On CNN Sunday morning, after several nights of antifa and Black Lives Matter-fueled violence in multiple American cities, anchor Jake Tapper asked President Trump’s national security advisor if white supremacists were using the unrest to start a race war.

“What can you tell us about any of the far-right groups that might be trying to use this as a predicate to prompt a race war as Vice News reported?” Tapper asked NSC advisor Robert O’Brien.

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Commentary: The Military-Intelligence Complex

Much has been written about the so-called Resistance of disgruntled Clinton, Obama, and progressive activists who have pledged to stop Donald Trump’s agenda. The choice of the noun “Resistance,” of course, conjures up not mere “opposition,” but is meant to evoke the French “resistance” of World War II – in the melodramatic sense of current loyal progressive patriots doing their best to thwart by almost any means necessary the Nazi-like Trump.

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Third-Ranking Democrat Says House Will ‘Eventually Impeach’ Trump

by Chuck Ross   South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, said Sunday he believes President Donald Trump will eventually be impeached. “But it sounds like you’re — you think that the president will be impeached, or at least proceedings will begin in the House at some point, but just not right now?” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Clyburn during an interview. “Yes, exactly what I feel,” replied Clyburn, the Democratic whip. Clyburn’s remarks are likely to raise expectations for Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump. Rank-and-file Democrats, as well as most of the Democrats running for president, have called for impeachment of Trump. So far, Speaker Nancy Pelosi has pushed back against the idea, largely out of concerns that impeachment proceedings would end up helping Trump politically. “I think the president wants us to impeach him,” Pelosi told ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday. “He knows it’s not a good idea to be impeached, but the silver lining for him is then, he believes, that he would be exonerated by the United States Senate.” .@JakeTapper: “It sounds like you think that the President will be impeached, or at least proceedings will begin in the House at some point, but…

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Dean Phillips Agrees With Jake Tapper That Trump Is ‘Daring’ Dems to Impeach

  During an appearance on CNN last week, Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN-03) said President Trump’s impromptu Rose Garden speech showed a “woeful lack of leadership.” Trump apparently left a meeting with Democratic leadership after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said he was engaging in a “cover-up,” and instead went to the Rose Garden to speak with reporters. He said he would refuse work with Democrats on legislation until they “get these phony investigations over with.” “There’s no question whatsoever that the president is making it awfully difficult for us to do our jobs, which is to provide oversight over the executive branch,” Phillips said in response. “Whatever prompted his change of heart today in the Rose Garden, I’m not sure, but if that’s all it took, that’s a woeful lack of leadership.” “Do you think President Trump is daring House Democrats to impeach him?” host Jake Tapper then asked. “I got to tell you, Jake, it’s appearing increasingly evident that he may be doing just that,” Phillips replied. “It is our job to provide oversight. I think we’ve been methodical, we’ve been principled, and we’ve been awfully patient, but that patience has its limits. We surely are reaching that limit. If…

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Jake Tapper: CNN Didn’t Get ‘Anything’ Wrong in Russiagate Reporting

by Chuck Ross   Jake Tapper said Sunday that CNN has not gotten “anything” wrong during the course of reporting on Russiagate, even though his network has bungled numerous stories over the past two years. “I’m not sure what you’re saying the media got wrong. The media reported the investigation was going on. Other than the people in the media on the left, not on this network, I don’t know anybody that got anything wrong,” Tapper said during an exchange with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. “We didn’t say there was a conspiracy. We said Mueller was investigating a conspiracy.” “That’s fine, if that’s your recollection of history, that’s great,” Mulvaney responded to Tapper’s defense. “Face it, the media got this wrong. It’s okay. People get stuff wrong all the time, just not at this level.” “We need to figure out what went wrong with the Mueller report, why — in all fairness to your network — why the media got it so wrong for so long,” said Mulvaney. .@MickMulvaneyOMB tells @jaketapper that ethics are not the issue when it comes to the Russia probe on #CNNSotu https://t.co/geGGK4lD1N — State of the Union (@CNNSotu) March 31, 2019…

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Emails: Jake Tapper Tore Into ‘Irresponsible’ BuzzFeed Editor for Publishing the ‘Steele Dossier’

by Chuck Ross   After BuzzFeed published the infamous Steele dossier, CNN anchor Jake Tapper lit into BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith for the decision, calling it “irresponsible” and “uncollegial,” according to emails released Friday. “I think your move makes the story less serious and credible[.] I think you damaged its impact,” Tapper wrote to Smith on Jan. 10, 2017, just after BuzzFeed published the dossier in full on its website. The emails were released in response to a federal judge’s order to unseal documents from a lawsuit against BuzzFeed, which was sued in February 2017 by a Russian businessman who was accused in the dossier of being a Russian agent. Lawyers for the Russian, Aleksej Gubarev, picked out the Tapper-Smith exchange in hopes of showing BuzzFeed failed to do its due diligence before publishing the dossier, which was funded by Democrats and compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele. BuzzFeed noted in its initial report that the dossier remained unverified. Smith defended the decision to publish the document on the grounds that numerous policymakers, government officials and journalists were aware of its salacious rumors, which included that the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the 2016 election. Tapper was seemingly upset…

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Schiff Will Subpoena Mueller Report if White House Tries to Block its Release

by Chuck Ross   California Rep. Adam Schiff said Sunday that he is prepared to subpoena a report from the special counsel’s Russia investigation should the White House try to block its release. “At the end of the day, this is just — this case is just too important to keep from the American people what it’s really about,” Schiff said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” CNN host Jake Tapper had asked Schiff, a Democrat, whether he would use his subpoena power when he takes over next month as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to obtain the report, should the Trump administration attempt to block its release. “I’m prepared to make sure we do everything possible so that the public has the advantage of as much of the information as it can,” Schiff said. “That sounds like a yes,” said Tapper. “Well, that pretty much is a yes, from my point of view,” Schiff replied, adding that “we ought to make sure this report is public.” Special counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly planning to send his report to the Justice Department as early as mid-February, NBC News reported Friday. The Justice Department, which is currently…

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