Free Republic

A New York commission that will recommend whether to give reparations for slavery and discrimination to black residents hasn’t even met yet - but it’s already sparked a rift among black New Yorkers over who should be eligible for payouts. **SNIP** Bertha Lewis, head of the Brooklyn-based Black Institute, told The Post that reparations must be considered for all black residents, because they have suffered from decades of systemic racism resulting from slavery - even if they are not direct descendants of slaves. “That’s a false narrative,” Lewis said. “I don’t give a f**k what California did.” “You can’t just...

The United Nations hosted a panel discussion on Tuesday in which panelists accused the state of Israel of genocide – and implicated America for its support of the country – in its ongoing war against the jihadist terrorist organization Hamas. The panel, taking place on the sidelines of expected United Nations General Assembly discussions, was titled, “War on Gaza: the Responsibility to Prevent Genocide” and was organized by the “Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.” It convened panelists arguing that statements against Hamas by Israeli government officials and operations in urban areas in Gaza...

Former White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci will appear before the House select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic in January to provide a two-day interview regarding his role in the public health response during the COVID-19 outbreak. The transcribed interview will take place Jan. 8-9, and will involve seven hours of testimony per day and attendance by two personal and two government counsel. Along with his interview, the subcommittee announced Fauci also agreed to testify later in 2024.

US House members probing the COVID pandemic fired off a letter Friday to disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo demanding he testify about why he sent coronavirus patients to nursing homes during the height of outbreak. House members previously sent five similar letters to the ex-New York governor, to which he did not respond. “Your testimony is important to uncover the circumstances and policies which led to the death of more than 15,000 New York nursing home residents during your tenure,” wrote Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the GOP-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, in the panel’s latest...

California’s Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans has recommended a massive program to address past housing discrimination, including the review of local real estate ordinances. Chapter 22 of the reparations panel’s draft recommendations, which were approved earlier this month, includes the following set of recommendations (from the draft report): Prioritize Responsible Development in Communities and Housing Development Enact Policies Overhauling the Housing Industrial Complex Collect Data on Housing Discrimination Provide Anti-Racism Training to Workers in the Housing Field Expand Grant Funding to Community-Based Organizations to Increase Home Ownership Provide Property Tax Relief to African Americans,...

President Biden on Monday vowed to veto a congressional resolution that would undo his freeze on solar panel component tariffs should it reach his desk. In a statement Monday, the White House called the moratorium essential to allowing the U.S. to transition to renewable energy while it builds its domestic manufacturing capacity. “This rule is necessary to satisfy the demand for reliable and clean energy while ensuring Commerce is able to rigorously enforce U.S. trade laws, hold trading partners accountable, and defend U.S. industries and workers from unfair trade actions,” the White House said in a statement. “Passage of this...

The Seattle Police Department should offer a “sincere, public apology” for its response to protesters who took to the streets in 2020 after the death of George Floyd, a community panel urged in a report made public Tuesday. An apology from the police department would be a significant step in building trust between police and Seattle communities, the report outlined. In all 22 recommendations were delivered by Seattle’s Office of Inspector General, most of which address Seattle Police policies, tactics, and training. “Acknowledge the harm to BIPOC community caused by Seattle Police actions over time and issue a public apology...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says he will move a resolution this week to temporarily replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on the Judiciary Committee to keep President Biden’s judicial nominees moving to the floor. Schumer said he hopes Republicans will support the resolution to fill Feinstein’s seat on the committee while the 89-year-old California senator recovers from a bout of shingles.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) appointed two of his conservative critics to the House Rules Committee on Monday following this month’s protracted Speaker’s race, when the GOP leader agreed to increase the number of hard-line Republicans on the panel. McCarthy appointed GOP Reps. Ralph Norman (S.C.) and Chip Roy (Texas) to the powerful panel, giving them a seat on the committee that controls how bills are debated on the House floor after the pair voted against McCarthy’s Speakership bid on the first 11 ballots earlier this month.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol is increasingly turning to the Department of Justice as a potential partner for carrying out its mission once the panel sunsets. The two investigative teams have at times been at odds over the last year and a half, with the panel rebuffing a request from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to share transcripts of its interviews in May. But as it stares down an end-of-the-year deadline, the committee’s tune is changing toward something reminiscent of a high school yearbook: Let’s keep in touch. “If they would want to...

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis released its final report on Friday before Republicans take control of the House in the next upcoming Congress, providing new findings on how the Trump administration’s actions negatively impacted the U.S. response. The report from the Democratic-led subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Jim Clyburn (S.C.), highlighted the Trump White House’s “failed stewardship over the pandemic response and persistent pattern of political interference.”

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has come to a “general agreement” to forward some criminal referrals to the Justice Department, its chair told reporters Tuesday. It was a confusing morning at the Capitol, with Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) walking back statements he made earlier in the day when he told reporters “we will” be making criminal referrals. “We’re not there yet,” Thompson said later, adding that the earlier “gaggle [with reporters] was wrong.” The panel will meet later on Tuesday to discuss the issue, following a Friday presentation from a subcommittee of the...

Former White House aide Hope Hicks is scheduled to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to a source familiar with the situation. Hicks, who served as a counselor to former President Trump during her second stint in the White House, left the administration shortly after Jan. 6. Hicks, who worked for the Trump organization and the Trump campaign before working at the White House, has been considered one of the former president’s closest advisers. Her appearance shows that the committee continues to interview those close to Trump in the days surrounding...

Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, gave a voluntary interview with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The interview with Thomas caps a months-long effort by the committee to speak with the conservative activist, who reportedly exchanged emails with John Eastman, the lawyer who drafted memos for the Trump campaign outlining how then-Vice President Mike Pence could keep then-President Trump in power, as well as with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is eyeing a laundry list of tasks as it seeks to pull together a legislative package to prevent future insurrections. The committee for months has touted the legislative purpose to its investigation — a key detail as various subpoena recipients have sought to skirt compliance with the panel.

Share Tweet ... More The House panel investigating last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to revive the public portion of its probe this month, eyeing at least two more hearings in the coming weeks to highlight former President Trump’s role in the deadly rampage. Publicly, the inquiry into the Jan. 6 attack has been overshadowed in recent weeks by the FBI’s extraordinary seizure of thousands of government documents, including those alleged to be highly sensitive, from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida last month — part of a separate Justice Department investigation into Trump’s potential mishandling of federal...

Tensions between the Justice Department and the House Jan. 6 select committee have slipped into public view amid the panel’s first public hearings for its investigation. A standoff between the parallel probes over the committee’s refusal to share its interview transcripts led federal prosecutors this week to agree to postpone the trial date for a group of Proud Boys leaders charged with seditious conspiracy.

The House committee investigating the attack on Jan. 6 has released footage tied to a tour Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) gave the day before, showing a man taking photos of hallways in the Capitol complex before ultimately attended the rally itself. Loudermilk has acknowledged showing a small group of constituents around House office buildings the day before the attack, but claimed those participants “immediately turned back” once they saw the “chaos” developing at the rally.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on Monday said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has found evidence on former President Trump that supports “a lot more than incitement.” The comment from Raskin, a member of the Jan. 6 panel, referenced Trump’s second impeachment in January 2021, when the House voted to impeach the then-president for incitement to insurrection.

The retired judge who advised former Vice President Mike Pence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to be among those who will testify as hearings begin next week, according to Axios. J. Michael Luttig, a former Fourth Circuit appeals court judge appointed by George H. W. Bush, wrote ahead of the attack that the vice president’s role in certifying the election is only “to faithfully count the electoral college votes as they have been cast.”