What the Bronx voters who've flipped to Trump are saying

 By Monica Showalter

Some 25,000 people attended President Trump's rally in the Bronx this week, a figure no one could have imagined a few years ago, given the deep blue orientation of the borough.

But things can change, and apparently they have.

Newsweek has a fascinating interview with a Bronx local who switched from voting Democrat all his life to throwing his support to President Trump.

Jerry Evans, a registered Democrat in New York City, had never attended a political rally before Thursday.

But speaking with Newsweek at Donald Trump's campaign event in the South Bronx, Evans said that he turned out to show support for the former president because he feels "very strongly about how the border's going." He also accused President Joe Biden of giving the "red carpet treatment" to migrants.

"You know, I said, why is Biden giving them the red carpet treatment?" Evans said. "He's giving them everything—giving them housing, giving them shelter, giving them money, cash—and people who live here can't get that."

He also observed this:

"He opened up the border and then he just said, 'everybody get in,'" Evans told Newsweek. "And then you go to New York and it's like, dumping ground, USA."

"Red carpet treatment"? "Can't get that"? "Dumping ground"?

These are very vivid turns of phrase. They are immediate, they are grittily real, and they refer solely to where the man lives right now. There is no pie-in-the-sky in his thinking, he is solely focused on the reality of his own community, and right now, mass illegal immigration is harming his community, bringing crime and taxpayer costs all of which he has to bear even as he gets no discernable benefit from that same immigration. His taxes go up, he gets nothing while others get everything, Democrats don't care as they 'dump' and Biden is foisting those costs onto him, which he rightly objects to.

There is no arguing with someone like this; he has clearly made his mind up, plugging 'a' to 'b' and ending his long practice of voting Democrat.

Voters like this will be hard to regain for the Democrats. A major sea change in thinking has taken place from all those illegal border crossers being placed on this voter's doorstep. Democrat actually believed it wouldn't be noticed, but New Yorkers are way too plugged in to the realities of urban life to not notice, curiously parallel to the country voters who are plugged in to the realities of country life. Now both have moved on from Democrats at this point.

How many thousands of them in that 25,000 crowd are thinking the same thing?

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/what_the_bronx_voters_who_ve_flipped_to_trump_are_saying.html

Biden’s abuse of the Antiquities Act is a classic case of executive overreach

 This month, President Biden used his executive power to expand two national monuments in California: Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument and San Gabriel National Monument. Altogether, the president set aside an additional 120,000 acres of federal land for special protection under the Antiquities Act — an area slightly larger than the city of San Jose, Calif. 

The Antiquities Act allows the president to unilaterally protect nationally significant objects by designating them as national monuments. It requires designations to be limited to the “smallest area compatible” with their protection. This power has been abused. New research from Pacific Legal Foundation shows how this undemocratic process lacks checks and balances and harms real people’s livelihoods. 

Because the federal government owns 28 percent of U.S. land, it’s essential (and required by law) that public lands be used for productive purposes like mining, logging or grazing and recreation. Federal lands produced 25 percent of U.S. crude oil, 10 percent of natural gas, and 45 percent of coal in 2021. Federal lands also comprise 64 percent of our geothermal energy capacity and significant solar and wind production. 

But presidential proclamations typically restrict the use of natural resources on federal land. While they respect existing grazing or mining rights, they usually prevent future resource development. That’s an existential threat for Americans whose livelihood depends on federal lands.

The Heaton family has ranched on the Utah-Arizona border for six generations. But when President Biden designated the Ancestral Footprints National Monument in Northern Arizona, he created real uncertainty about the future of that legacy. The Heatons are suing the federal government, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation at no charge, to ensure their grazing rights are honored and that they won’t be subjected to criminal penalties when their cattle graze. 

Because of the massive power concentrated in the hands of the president, Americans like Chris Heaton live in constant uncertainty about the future. 

This concentrated power allows special interest groups to lobby the president for new monuments, for which they spend millions. Like in 2016, when President Obama designated Bears Ears National Monument after groups including the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, the Wyss Foundation, and the Grand Canyon Trust spent over $20 million lobbying for its creation. 

Monument boundaries are often drawn around areas with high resource potential. For example, in 2023, President Biden designated nearly 1 million acres as the Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument. The monument boundaries were drawn around an area rich with uranium deposits, a necessary material for carbon-free nuclear energy. Instead, the U.S. must rely on Russia and former Soviet-bloc countries like Kazakhstan for its uranium supply. 

National monuments have also been designated to shut down commercial fishing, an essential livelihood for fisherman in the Northeast. In 2017, President Obama established 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean as a national monument — an area nearly the size of Connecticut. In doing so, he shut down commercial fishing for people who had relied on this trade for generations. The Antiquities Act was meant to protect discrete objects on dry land, not to lock up entire oceans. 

Instead of serving its intended purpose, the Antiquities Act has become a political tool used by the executive branch that removes entire ecosystems and landscapes from productive use. Since the act was passed, presidents have designated over 844 million acres of land and water as national monuments. Over 90 percent of those acres were designated since the year 2000. 
 
The Antiquities Act must be reformed. Congress must restore the proper checks and balances. Withdrawing millions of acres of public land from productive use should require more than one person’s signature. 

Megan Jenkins is strategic research director, and Keelyn Gallagher is a strategic research analyst, at Pacific Legal Foundation, a public interest law firm that defends Americans’ liberty against government overreach and abuse. 

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/4684323-antiquities-act-federal-lands-abuse-bidens-executive-overreach/

'GOP gets scalps in COVID probe, but origin of virus still a mystery'

 The GOP-controlled subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic appears to be swaying the Biden administration with its exhaustive examinations targeting groups and individuals with links to the unproven COVID-19 lab leak theory. 

In the past month, the subcommittee has heard testimony from EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak and Lawrence Tabak, principal deputy director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It also called in David Morens, a top deputy to former COVID czar Anthony Fauci, who was grilled over damning revelations about his conduct. 

The purpose of these hearings has been to nail down a timeline of what went on between federal officials and EcoHealth before and after the COVID-19 outbreak, and whether any of it may have contributed to the global health crisis. 

Seemingly coinciding with these hearings, the White House has moved to debar EcoHealth and Daszak from receiving federal funds. And members of the committee believe they’ve had a hand in these decisions. 

“I think that the subcommittee had influence over EcoHealth by exposing what happened,” Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.) told The Hill. 

“But I don’t think that the subcommittee has used its influence for good in the way that it could. So that was a small positive thing that the committee has done,” Ross added. “But there have been so many missed opportunities for bipartisan work with this committee, that it almost breaks my heart.” 

Despite a series of reports and hearings, neither the committee nor federal agencies seem to be any closer to nailing down the origins of the virus that had killed nearly 1.2 million Americans and counting. 

EcoHealth is an infectious disease nonprofit that received federal grants to study emerging viruses. The organization in turn sub-awarded grants to labs including the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that researched coronaviruses. Critics, including GOP members of the subcommittee, have questioned whether the WIV’s research resulted in a lab leak that caused the COVID-19 pandemic.

While this theory hasn’t been proven, federal health officials have repeatedly accused EcoHealth of failing to conduct proper oversight of the WIV and other sub-grant recipients, as well as failing to send in timely progress reports. 

The administration is maintaining the decision to move forward with barring EcoHealth from federal funds was an “independent action.” 

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) did not address the timing of the moves to cut funding when asked by The Hill. They pointed to prior statements which said the move came after a “thorough investigation” that found EcoHealth “has not been compliant with federal regulations and grant terms and conditions.” 

Subcommittee Chair Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) has made it clear he believes the timing is no coincidence. 

“Only two weeks after the Select Subcommittee released an extensive report detailing EcoHealth’s wrongdoing and recommending the formal debarment of EcoHealth and its president, HHS has begun efforts to cut off all U.S. funding to this corrupt organization,” he said in a statement shortly after the announcement was made. 

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have shared bipartisan rebuke of EcoHealth and its apparent failures to abide by federal requirements, a rare occurrence for the panel that has been sharply divided by partisan fights since its inception in 2020. 

While Democrats have joined in condemning misconduct, several members have been quick to point out what these testimonies have not achieved: ascertaining the origins of COVID-19, one of the panel’s key stated objectives after Republicans took control. 

These hearings have instead largely had the effect of embarrassing federal health agencies like NIH as well as current and former officials, including Fauci. 

This dynamic was perfectly on display during the subcommittee’s most recent hearing involving Morens, the senior adviser to the director at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who worked closely with Fauci during his tenure as the agency’s director. 

Morens’s publicized emails showed apparent efforts to conduct official business outside the scope of Freedom of Information Act requests, deleting federal records, misogynistic comments about fellow federal health officials and poorly worded jokes that hinted at a quid pro quo relationship with Daszak of EcoHealth. 

Subcommittee ranking member Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) lambasted Morens, accusing him of betraying public trust and misusing federal resources. But he reiterated the hearing seemed to deviate from the panel’s purpose. 

“Dr. Morens’s testimony today is not a breakthrough moment in actually understanding the actual origins of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Ruiz added. “Because the fact of the matter is that as of today, the origins of the novel coronavirus remain inconclusive.” 

Over nearly two hours of questioning, Morens said he used his personal email account for the sake of “avoiding more embarrassment and danger to” Daszak, who has been a main target of COVID lab leak theorists. 

The hearing saw the NIAID adviser publicly apologize for numerous missteps documented in his emails. Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) directly requested an apology from Morens for how his actions have tarnished the rest of the federal workforce. 

“Can you say that you will, in fact, apologize for betraying your shared obligation of serving the American taxpayers with the utmost respect for transparency and accountability, that you let Americans down? Will you apologize for that?” Tokuda requested. 

Morens disputed the use of the word “betray” but said he was not proud of his behavior. 

In one email to Daszak, Morens implied Fauci was trying to “protect” EcoHealth as a grant recipient. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) asked Morens if he ever discussed EcoHealth with Fauci. 

“He referred or alluded to some stuff that was in the press. I don’t even think he said what it was, but it was about … I assumed it was about Peter’s grants and press reports about it and the ending of the grant,” said Morens.

“I said to him, ‘Tony, I know you would have never been involved in getting rid of that grant.’ And he didn’t respond. He just sort of looked at me,” he added. 

Another email to Daszak, on which other federal COVID advisers were copied, seemed to suggest Fauci was aware of improper conduct but sought to shield himself from it. 

“I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble,” Morens wrote to the EcoHealth president. 

Fauci himself is scheduled to testify before the subcommittee on June 3, marking the first time he’s taken part in a congressional hearing since stepping down from government work. 

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4685130-covid-probe-origin-ecohealth-daszak-morens/

Ga., Ariz. secretaries of state clash over noncitizen voting

 Secretaries of State Brad Raffensperger (R-Ga.) and Adrian Fontes (D-Ariz.) disagreed over noncitizen voting during a panel discussion on “Meet the Press” set to air Sunday.

MSNBC’s Kristen Welker hosted Raffensperger, Fontes, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) and Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt (R) for a wide-ranging interview about threats they’ve received, misinformation, artificial intelligence and more.

Welker asked Raffensperger why the issue of noncitizens voting in the election is such an urgent matter if its quite rare and illegal.

“Because I believe only American citizens should be voting in our elections. And I ran back in 2018 saying the same thing. I’m the first secretary of state in Georgia to ever do 100 percent citizenship verification,” Raffensperger responded.

He said the state found about 1,600 people that attempted to register to vote but they could not find citizenship verification.

“So, my fellow Georgians asked me, ‘Are noncitizens voting in Georgia?’ I can say, ‘No, they aren’t’ because we’ve checked it,” Raffensperger said.

Fontes addressed Raffensperger saying he proved his own point with that example.

“You did an audit, and you found that there were attempts. But none of those folks were actually registered, and none of those folks actually voted. And that means that elections have been safe and secure from noncitizen voting in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and across the country,” Fontes said. “So, I think this is a red herring.”

Fontes noted that Arizona has a noncitizen voting law and the state’s standards are “higher than everybody else’s” but there are people making allegations that they are not.

“We really have to look at the facts,” Fontes said.

Benson said it’s “good news” that everyone can at least agree that they don’t want noncitizens voting.

“So, we’re all committed to that, and I think it’s really important for folks to know that regardless of our party affiliation, we’re doing all that we can and more to ensure, as the facts show in all of our states, that only U.S. citizens are voting,” she said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/4686137-raffensperger-arizona-secretary-of-state-at-odds-over-noncitizen-voting/

Special Counsel Requests (Another) Gag Order For Trump In Classified Docs Case

 by Caden Pearson via The Epoch Times,

Special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutors asked the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s classified documents case in Florida on Friday to issue a gag order following remarks he made about the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate.

In a filing on Friday, prosecutors asked Judge Aileen Cannon to modify the conditions of President Trump’s release from jail before trial to prevent him from making statements that may pose a “significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger” to the FBI agents involved in the planning and execution of the search and seizure of presidential documents stored at his Florida estate.

“Those statements create a grossly misleading impression about the intentions and conduct of federal law enforcement agents—falsely suggesting that they were complicit in a plot to assassinate him—and expose those agents, some of whom will be witnesses at trial, to the risk of threats, violence, and harassment,” the filing states.

Earlier this month, an operations plan for the Mar-a-Lago raid was produced through discovery. The plan stated that FBI agents would be prepared to “engage with” President Trump and his Secret Service agents should he arrive at the estate during the raid.

The use of deadly force was included in a statement on the document, which quoted standard government policy that noted deadly force may be used “only when necessary” in such cases when the subject of the force “poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.”

President Trump’s lawyers stated that there was no justification for the FBI to bring guns into Mar-a-Lago.

Prosecutors say President Trump “distorted the standard inclusion of the policy” when he made statements that the FBI “WAS AUTHORIZED to SHOOT ME.”

Additionally, the former president’s 2024 presidential campaign issued an alert stating that the Department of Justice (DOJ) was “locked and loaded” and “ready to take me out” because the FBI was authorized to “use deadly force” during the raid.

Prosecutors say in their Friday filing that the law enforcement agents participating in the raid acted in an “appropriate and professional manner, subject to the Department of Justice’s standard use-of-force policy.”

“Trump‘s repeated mischaracterization as an attempt to kill him, his family, and Secret Service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings,” the filing states. ”Those deceptive and inflammatory assertions irresponsibly put a target on the backs of the FBI agents involved in this case, as Trump well knows.”

Prosecutors noted that “an armed attack on an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, was carried out by one of his supporters in the wake of Trump’s Truth Social statements inflaming his supporters regarding the search of Mar-a-Lago.”

The Epoch Times contacted President Trump’s attorneys for comment.

President Trump’s lawyers objected to the prosecution’s motion and timing of their request on the Memorial holiday weekend, according to prosecutors.

“They do not believe that there is any imminent danger, and asked to meet and confer next Monday,” the filing states.

However, prosecutors pointed to President Trump’s Truth Social account evidence not to wait until Monday, highlighting a statement by a third party that he shared. Prosecutors say, “Trump has continued to issue false statements, smearing and endangering the agents who executed the search.”

The reshared post included the statement “claiming that the FBI was authorized to use ‘Lethal Force’ on Trump or anyone at MAL– WHILE the FBI/DOJ plants evidence to frame Trump!!!”, according to the filing.

The request for a gag order is the first in President Trump’s classified documents case.

An aerial view of former U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home after FBI agents raided it, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Aug. 15, 2022. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

On Thursday, Attorney General Merrick Garland responded to claims about FBI agents being authorized to use deadly force.

Mr. Garland disputed the former president’s claims, saying that the document President Trump referred to “is the Justice Department’s standard policy.”

“And in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President [Joe] Biden’s home,” he added.

Earlier this week, the FBI told The Epoch Times that its agents had “followed standard protocol” in the Mar-a-Lago search “as we do for all search warrants.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/special-counsel-requests-another-gag-order-trump-classified-docs-case

GOP Winning The Voter Registration Battle In Battleground States

 by Austin Alonzo via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Republicans are closing the gap on voter registrations in key swing states. Political observers say it could be a sign the party will perform well in November.

The gap between registered voters in the Democratic Party and Republican Party shrank significantly in Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina, according to voter registration statistics collected in April. 

Taking the combined voter totals in the three states, Republicans have eroded the Democratic registration advantage by more than 54 percent between 2019 and 2024.

In Arizona, a fourth critical state, Republicans extended their lead in registered voters by more than 71 percent during the same period.

The four states are among the most prized possessions in presidential politics. Collectively, they represent 52 electoral votes. In 2020, Joe Biden carried all except North Carolina. In 2016, Donald Trump took everything but Nevada.

The registration trends don’t necessarily mean Republicans will sweep the states, but they’re a sign that the GOP will be able to more easily target and turn out its voters in those states than it did in 2020.

“On balance, you'd certainly rather have more registrations in your direction than the other direction,” Daniel Hopkins, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Ronald O. Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, told The Epoch Times.

The largest numerical shift occurred in the Keystone State where the Democrat lead has shrunk by some 400,000 votes since May 2019.

In May 2019, more than 4 million were registered as Democrats, and about 3.2 million were registered Republicans, according to voter registration data collected by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

By the end of April, almost 3.9 million Pennsylvanians were registered as Democrats, while nearly 3.5 million were registered as Republicans. 

During the same period, the total number of registered voters increased to more than 8.7 million from nearly 8.5 million. The electorate registered with the Libertarian Party or “other parties,” as the state identifies them, remained relatively stable at 1.2 million during the same period.

Along with the rematch between President Biden and former President Trump, Pennsylvania voters will consider a Senate race crucial to the balance of power in Washington. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) will square off against Republican businessman Dave McCormick.

Election volunteers prepare mail-in ballots for scanning at the Lancaster County Government Center in Lancaster, Pa., on April 23, 2024. (Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times)

Mr. Hopkins said the seismic change in voter registration could be linked to a growing number of what he called “ancestral Democrats” in rural Pennsylvania either falling off the rolls or registering with another party. These moderate voters are just as likely to vote Democratic as Republican, he predicts.

Nevertheless, Mr. Hopkins said the statistics indicate the state’s voters are moving toward the right and there is more parity in the electorate than in previous cycles. This aligns with the Republican Party’s growing appeal with white, high-school-educated voters, he said.

Pennsylvania GOP chairman Lawrence Tabas said erasing the voter registration deficit is a “top priority” in the state.

Mr. Tabas said volunteers are knocking on doors and making phone calls in efforts to register more Republican voters.

“So far this year, all 67 counties have registered more Republican voters than any other party,” Mr. Tabas said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times. 

“These numbers, coupled with our mail-in ballot increases, are sure to help set up Republican victories in all regions of the Commonwealth this November.”

Representatives of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party didn’t respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

North Carolina

The biggest percentage change occurred in the Tarheel State and the most significant statistic is that unaffiliated voters now exceed those of either major party.

The unaffiliated electorate grew to about 2.7 million members from about 2.2 million between April 2019 and April 2024, while the overall registered voter tally increased to 7.4 million from 6.8 million.

In the same time period, the number of registered Republicans rose to about 2.2 million from about 2 million and the number of registered Democrats fell from about 2.5 million to 2.4 million, according to statistics collected by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

Overall, the gap between party registrations diminished 62 percent between that five-year period.

“Growth in ... unaffiliated registration could be seen as dissatisfaction with the major parties or a preference against that identification,” said Jon Green, an assistant professor of political science at Duke University’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

“That certainly reflects a low enthusiasm, but may or may not reflect a change in behavior.”

Ultimately, the unaffiliated vote will decide the statewide races, he told The Epoch Times.

North Carolinians will pick a new governor in the fall. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who was first elected in 2016, isn’t seeking a third term in office. Lieutenant Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican, is running against North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/republicans-are-winning-voter-registration-battle-battleground-states

Charter schools want NYC to share its ‘Do-Not Hire’ list of pervy teachers

 A charter-school advocate wants to close a loophole that allows predatory teachers fired by the city Department of Education to land classroom jobs in charter and private schools.

James Merriman, CEO of the nonprofit New York City Charter School Center, said his organization has reached out to the DOE to talk about “this critical issue” following The Post’s coverage of a fired French teacher who found work at a Bronx charter school.

Dulaina Almonte, 33, was fired for texting a student 28,000 times at Truman HS in the Bronx, but landed a teaching gig at the privately-run AECI 2: NYC Charter High School for Engineering and Innovation.

AECI 2 relies on fingerprinting to determine if someone is hirable.J.C. Rice

She was let go by the charter school last week after The Post published a front-page story exposing her prior alleged misconduct and her defiant reaction, “You really can’t f–king touch me.”

The CEO for the charter school suggested administrators weren’t privy to the teacher’s past at the point when they hired her.

This is a “matter of student safety — charter schools at the very least deserve access to knowledge about teachers on the ‘do not hire’ list,” Merriman said. “We’ve contacted the DOE and they have indicated a willingness to restart discussions about this critical issue. They fully understand the stakes and the need to put student safety first, and I’m confident that we can quickly get to yes.”

But DOE spokesman Nathaniel Styer insisted the DOE does not maintain “a do-not hire” list and does not share information with charter schools voluntarily. But, he said, the agency does “place a problem code on employees that are terminated for various reasons.”  

The agency does respond to “all requests from other schools when they do a background check.” But without a signed waiver from the fired teacher, he added, “legally we can only provide title, date of employment and general responsibilities.”

Dulaina Almonte was canned by a DOE school and then got a job at a charter school.tiktok @mijea121

Teacher misconduct won’t show up in a fingerprint analysis unless the behavior resulted in an arrest. And that was the excuse AECI 2 CEO Derick Spaulding used when asked how the school could have hired Almonte.

“All employees have to get fingerprinted,” he said. “If there was something in a person’s background that was worthy” of not hiring them, “that would show up” there. That’s the state’s way of stating this person’s allowed to work” with children.

The Charter School Center has previously sought more information-sharing from the DOE, without success.

“We approached the DOE about precisely this issue during the de Blasio administration, but were unable to resolve legal and privacy concerns,” Merriman said.

Styer said he could not address what happened during a prior administration.

https://nypost.com/2024/05/25/us-news/charter-schools-want-nyc-to-share-its-do-not-hire-list-of-pervy-teachers/