Free Republic

Dean Trantalis, the Fort Lauderdale mayor who has faced swift criticism for calling a deadly car crash at a Pride parade a "terrorist attack against the LGBT community," said he regretted the comments. "I regret the fact that I said it was a terrorist attack because we found out that it was not," he told a crowd at a vigil Sunday night. "But I don’t regret my feelings. I don’t regret that I felt terrorized by someone who plowed through the crowd." Police said the driver lost control of his truck and plowed through the crowd at the beginning of...

With tensions high between Orthodox Jews and New York officials, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed regret Tuesday for how he handled a large Hasidic funeral in the pandemic’s early days. Back in April, after a large funeral for a local rabbi in Brooklyn drew thousands of Orthodox Jews into the streets of Williamsburg, de Blasio visited the scene himself and called out “the Jewish community.” His tweet was widely criticized and damaged what had been a relatively close relationship between the mayor and the city’s Orthodox community. Now, with Orthodox neighborhoods again among the city’s virus hotspots...

CNN anchor Don Lemon on Tuesday night addressed a segment from the weekend that drew criticism from President Trump in which the host laughed after a guest mocked supporters of the president. "Ask anyone who knows me," Lemon said at the end of his show Tuesday while addressing the segment. "They'll tell you: I don't believe in belittling people ... for who they are, for what they believe or where they're from." Lemon said that while he found the "joke" from the guest to be funny at the time, he "didn't catch everything that was said." "I was laughing at...

Update AppendedFirst, my apology.I want to apologize to evangelicals for the way I have expressed my opinion about your support of the President.Throughout my walk with the Lord, I have had a sinful tendency to say things in too harsh of a manner and paint with too dark of a brush. To put it differently, sometimes I’m all stick and no sugar. Unfortunately, my op-eds in the Christian Post (here and here) reflected that. We’ve all heard the expression, “It’s not what you said but how you said it.” In how I expressed my personal opinion about your support of...

Basketball star LeBron James has apologised after sharing a lyric about "Jewish money" on social media - saying he thought it was a compliment. James was called out over the lyric - which comes from a song by US rapper 21 Savage - after he shared it with his 45.8m followers on Instagram. But James said it was not his intent "to hurt anyone" with Saturday's post. "Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone," he told sports channel ESPN on Sunday. "That's not why I chose to share that lyric. I always [post lyrics]. That's what I do. I ride...

I owe an apology. On the eve of Independence Day, I have a renewed sense of what this country stands for, and how I personally could help achieve it. The promise of equality and freedom is one that all of us have to work for, at all times. I know this as a survivor of the Japanese American internment, which each day drives me only to strive harder to help fulfill that promise for future generations. I recently was asked by a reporter about Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissent in the marriage equality cases, in which he wrote words that really...

We would like to take this opportunity to separate fact from fiction: There was never a Muslim prayer – or a prayer of any specific religion at the Stock Show this year. Because the Stock Show is an annual community event that attracts many visitors from around the world, country and state each year, last spring, we established a faith-based committee consisting of a wide range of local clergy. We based our decision on and selected our participants from the Mayor’s Faith Cabinet Directory. We invited each participant to provide a one-minute prayer to include the safety of the contestants,...

A state representative from Hartford is taking some heat for parking in a handicapped space. An iWitness snapped a photo of the personal car driven by Rep. Brandon McGee with his state-issued license plate parked in the spot at a Dunkin' Donuts on Capitol Avenue, across the street from the State Capitol. The picture was taken Friday. McGee said he issued an apology on his Facebook page. "Thank you for holding me accountable. The other day (Friday to be exact) I made my usual run to D&D and was in a hurry... parked in a handicap parking space... Major no-no....

Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe will "express remorse" for World War II, the Associated Press reports. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday that his government would express remorse for World War II on the 70th anniversary of its end in August. [Snip] He said the government would draft a new statement "that includes Japan's remorse for the war," though he stopped short of saying it would apologize. The Japan Times has more on the move:

Beyoncé has been labeled "insensitive" by some current and former NASA astronauts and their families for sampling audio from the space shuttle Challenger disaster for a love song off her newly released album. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center Jan. 28, 1986. All seven crewmembers aboard were killed. "Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction," now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched wreckage fall toward the ocean on live television. Twenty-seven years later, Nesbitt's voice is heard at the beginning of the video for...

The context for this little chestnut of racial nastiness was a heated floor debate in the Illinois legislature over a proposed education reform bill. The fireworks started when Democratic Representative Linda Chapa LaVia, who is Hispanic, delivered a speech criticizing charter schools. Ms. Chapa LaVia was no doubt casting aspersions on behalf of teachers unions — who’ve contributed heavily to her campaigns, are bankrupting the state, and don’t much care for competition. In defense of the status quo — which traps far too many children, especially children of color, in failing public schools — Chapa LaVia appealed to her fellow...

Phil Griffin, head of the MSNBC cable television channel, told Marisa Guthrie of the Hollywood Reporter that he accepts responsibility for recent embarrassments that led Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir to leave the network and Melissa Harris-Perry to offer a tearful on-air apology. "These were judgment calls made by some of our people. We handled them. We were transparent. That is our philosophy: Be factual, and step up when you make a mistake,” Griffin asserted. “We took responsibility for them and took action. They were unfortunate,” but “I don't think it hurt us in any way.” While known as a...

On MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry show Saturday, a few minutes after the host's emotional apology for a racially-charged segment on last week's show, panelist Katrina Vanden Heuvel renews the charge that Republicans are racists. [video goes here] The panelists are discussing populist sentiment in America as part of a discussion about the election of Bill de Blasio in NYC. The discussion spans a commercial break, and in the second half, Katrina Vanden Heuvel is addressing the idea that Republican populism has been successful in stirring up emotion and movement based on a message of lower taxes and limited government. Vanden Heuvel...

Speaker John Boehner’s office ripped John Podesta, the incoming counselor to President Barack Obama, for comments he made to POLITICO, comparing House Republicans to followers of Jim Jones, who murdered five people, including then-Rep. Leo Ryan, before committing mass suicide in Guyana in 1978. “For those who’ve forgotten, a Democratic member of Congress was murdered in Jonestown and a current one, Rep. Jackie Speier, was shot five times during the same incident,” Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said in a statement to reporters. “If this is the attitude of the new White House, it’s hard to see how the president gets...

Each Friday, Politico Magazine picks the political scandal of the week, and our colleague Mike Allen asks Playbook readers to weigh in with their crisis-management expertise, both professional and otherwise. This week’s scandal: the spectacular implosion of Martin Bashir, the MSNBC daytime host who resigned Wednesday as controversy mounted over his remarks about former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Here’s what got him in trouble: On his Nov. 15 broadcast, Bashir called Palin "a world class idiot" because she made a comparison to slavery while discussing U.S. debt to China. The host then read an excerpt from the diary of a...

Just over two weeks ago, MSNBC host Martin Bashir delivered a harsh piece of commentary that culminated in the suggestion that someone should “s-h-i-t” in former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin‘s (R-AK) mouth. Bashir offered an abject apology on his next broadcast, but a chorus of critics continued to demand action against the host. After a reported “vacation” for the host earlier this week, Bashir announced, Wednesday afternoon, that MSNBC and Martin Bashir are parting ways.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said that Obama’s apology to people whose health insurance was dropped “wasn’t an apology”—it was like apologizing for someone’s dog dying “and you refuse to acknowledge the fact that you just ran over that dog with your car.” “It certainly wasn’t an apology. When I heard it, really the analogy I was thinking of was, you tell somebody, ‘Boy, I’m really sorry your dog died,’ and you refuse to acknowledge the fact that you just ran over that dog with your car. Those are your tire tracks on that dog,” Johnson said speaking with Charlie Sykes...

Under pressure from lawmakers to hold President Obama accountable for the horrific Obamacare roll out today on Capitol Hill, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius responded to questions about Obama's responsibility with, "Whatever."

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) removed a Facebook post Monday that alleged a House GOP leader told President Obama “I cannot even stand to look at you” at a private meeting. Durbin said he did not immediately take down the post after it was proven false last week because he wanted to leave it in the proper context. "If I'd have raced to take it off, [the media] would have done that story too: `Durbin races to take this off.' I wanted to put into context how I got into this situation," he told the Associated Press. After Durbin...

Mecklenburg County commissioner Kim Ratliff apologized Tuesday night to the public and her colleagues for saying she preferred that the next county manager not be a white man. Ratliff, the board’s vice chair who is a Democrat and black, said in a brief statement at the board’s regular meeting that she regrets making the statement. “My comments were meant to encourage all candidates to apply for the position and not meant to exclude anyone,” she said. “I realize now my comments may not have been appropriate, and I regret making them.”