BREAKING: Georgia's former Republican Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan enrages MAGA world by switching parties to become a Democrat in a stunning rebuke of Trump's party.
This is true political courage...
"There’s no date on a calendar or line in the sand that points to the exact moment in time my political heart changed, but it has,” Duncan wrote in a new op-ed for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “My decision was centered around my daily struggle to love my neighbor, as a Republican.”
He stated that his journey to become a Democrat stated even before Trump attempted to "steal" the election in 2020 and undermine the democratic will of the people.
Duncan reeled off a murder's row of issues he has with the modern Republican Party, citing their inexcusable dismantling of our healthcare system and Medicaid, their lack of support for their poor, and their increasingly deranged stances on gun control, and their "heartless" and "pointless" immigration policies.
He pointed to the fact that going to the hospital as an uninsured person can lead to financial ruin and said that the Republican solution to "get a job" doesn't solve the problem for a lot of people. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, roughly 85% of uninsured living in working households but are still unable to obtain insurance due to cost or eligibility.
He also discussed the "brutal reality" imposed by the Republicans cutting $200 billion to SNAP, harming "the program’s effectiveness to continue to help feed hungry kids at school through free and reduced cost meals."
"We should all be looking for ways to love these kids better than continuing to send them to school hungry under the guise of an income tax break, even if the solution has to be financed out of our state’s abundantly funded $17 billion rainy-day fund," he wrote.
Perhaps the most telling part of Duncan's editorial was his simple statement that he's discovered that the best way to love thy neighbor is through compassionate public policy. Anyone who believes in that idea can't help but become a Democrat.
"Sometimes loving your neighbor doesn't cost money, it just requires us to make better decision," he wrote.
"The list of reasons why I'm now a Democrat continues to grow. Most importantly, my decision puts me in the best possible position each day to love my neighbor," Duncan concluded.
Please retweet and ❤️ to welcome Geoff Duncan to the Democratic Party!
If Donald Trump is going to get Stephen Colbert canceled, Stephen Colbert should talk about Donald Trump & Jeffrey Epstein every night on his show until it’s off the air.
🚨MAJOR BREAKING: A 2015 clip is going VIRAL showing Trump calling Ben Carson “an enigma.”
Why does it matter? Fox News and Trump allies swore his Epstein note was fake because “Trump has NEVER said enigma.”
They LIED. He said it. Share it EVERYWHERE!
We all know what this is about. Everything good is Trump‘s doing. Everything bad, Biden’s. Anyone who is taken in should be ashamed. Anyone who buys in and follows the leader, knowing he’s lying, has no shame.
BREAKING: Senator Chris Van Hollen reveals exactly what Kilmar Abrego Garcia said to him at their meeting and humiliates El Salvador's fascist President Nayib Bukele by exposing his truly pathetic propaganda stunt.
The innocent Maryland father is finally able to speak out...
"If you deny the constitutional rights of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America," Van Hollen said at a press conference with Abrego Garcia's wife.
"My principal mission was to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia," he continued. "I told his wife Jennifer and his family that I would do everything in my power to make that happen and last night at about 6:40 PM El Salvador time, 8:45 PM here on the East Coast, I called Jennifer to tell her that I had met with Kilmar."
"And I told her what he said to me which was first and foremost that he missed her and his family and as he said that you could see a tear go down his cheek," said the senator.
"When I told him that his wife and family sent their love and were fighting for Kilmar to return home every day, he said that he was worried about all of you," Van Hollen said. "That was his response: How are you dealing with this horrible ordeal and nightmare for the family?"
"He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him the strength to persevere, to keep going day to day even under these awful circumstances," he went on.
"He spoke several times about your 5-year-old son who has autism, 5-year-old son who was in the car in Maryland when Kilmar was pulled over by U.S. government agents and handcuffed," said Van Hollen.
The senator then revealed the previously undisclosed details of the government-backed kidnapping and deportation of Abrego Garcia—
"He told me that he was taken to Baltimore first," the senator revealed. "I assume that was the Baltimore Detention center. He asked to make a phone call from there to let people know what had happened to him but he was denied that opportunity."
"He said he was later taken with some others from Baltimore to a detention center in Texas and some point thereafter — I don't know whether it was a period of hours or days — he was handcuffed, shackled, and put on a plane along with some others where they couldn't see out of the windows," said Van Hollen. "There was no way to see where they were going in the plane."
"They didn't know for sure where they were going. They landed in El Salvador and he was taken to CECOT prison," he continued. "He was placed in a cell with — if I recall correctly and don't hold me to it — with about twenty-five other prisoners at CECOT."
"He said he was not afraid of the other prisoners in his immediate cell but that he was traumatized by being at CECOT," said Van Hollen. "And fearful of many of the prisoners in other cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him in various ways."
"He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes," the senator went on. "When I asked him what was the one thing he would ask for in addition to his freedom, he said he wanted to talk to his wife, Jennifer. I told him I would work very hard to make that happen."
"I told him that in addition to his family that all of you who are here today were fighting to bring him home," Van Hollen added.
The senator than discussed the flagrant illegality of the Trump's actions and the fact that the administration is now openly defying the courts by failing to return Abrego Garcia to the Unite dStates—
"This is a quote from [the judge's] opinion: 'Defendants (and in this case this is the Trump administration she's referring to) have offered no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity and vague allegations of gang association alone do not supersede the express protections under the INA,'" said Van Hollen.
"She emphasized this point and I'm quoting: 'No evidence before the court connects Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization," he continued. "In other words: Put up in court or shut up."
The Trump administration has already admitted in court that Abrego Garcia was improperly deported and blamed it on an "administrative error." Van Hollen tore into this fact—
"An administrative error that has resulted in him being abducted off the streets of Maryland and put into prison in El Salvador that has deprived him of his personal freedom and liberty," said the senator.
"But rather than fix this grievous error that they agreed had been made in court, what did the Trump administration do?" he continued. "They upbraided and fired the lawyer who told the truth to the court. That's what they did. They didn't fix the error, they fired the lawyer who told the truth."
Senator Van Hollen then exposed President Bukele, who has been trying to whitewash the illegal deportation and brutal imprisonment. Bukele posted pictures of the senator meeting with Abrego Garcia with the caption:
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the'“death camps' & 'torture', now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹"
Not surprisingly, this was a complete misrepresentation of what actually happened.
"What I would call Margaritagate," said Van Hollen. "I don't know if you guys have been following this but President Bukele, you know after I met with Kilmar, did this tweet showing us at a table with these two glasses."
"So here's what happened. When I first sat down with Kilmar we just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee," he continued. "And as we were talking one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice and I don't know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but they looked liked margaritas."
"And if you look at the one they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in front of me, to try to make it look, I assume, like he drank out of it," he continued. "Let me just be very clear, neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us and if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I'll tell you how you can know that..."
"So if you look at the video or the picture I sent out from the beginning of our meeting you'll see there are no glasses on the table," he went on. "So you'll see in later videos they are on the table. But they made a little mistake for some people who are very careful, right?"
"If you sip out of one of those glasses some of whatever it was, salt or sugar, would disappear. You would see a gap. There's no gap," said Van Hollen. "Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is."
"But this is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what's going on and it also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go to because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride," said Van Hollen.
"So, the White House and the president have been lying about this case from the beginning," he went on. "They've been trying to change the subject from the beginning."
"As I said, and the courts have said, from the Supreme Court to the 4th Circuit to the District Court, what this is about is adhering to the Constitution, to the right of due process and that's why we say: Bring Kilmar home so he can be afforded his rights under the Constitution. That's what this is about!" said Van Hollen.
The senator then opened the floor to questions.
"Senator, what did Abrego Garcia say that the officials in El Salvador told him about why he was sent to that prison and how long he would be there?" asked a reporter.
"They haven't told him anything about why he was sent," said Van Hollen.
"Or how long he would be there?" asked the reporter.
"They didn't tell him anything about that. In fact, I asked the vice president exactly that question," said Van Hollen." You know, why is he here? Is he violating any laws in El Salvador? Do you have any proof that he's committed a crime? No. Why is he here? 'Because the Trump administration is paying us to keep him here.'"
When the topic returned to Margaritagate, Van Hollen revealed that El Salvadoran officials actually wanted to stage his meeting with Abrego Garcia "by the side of the pool in the hotel."
"This is a guy who's been in CECOT. This is a guy who's been detained," he added. "They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar. Which of course is a big, fat lie."
Van Hollen also vowed further action—
"You can be sure that I won't the support the use of one penny of taxpayer dollars to keep Abrego Garcia illegally detained in El Salvador," he said. "And so as part of that process, yes. Democrats at least in the senate have some sway."
He warned the government of El Salvador that they are going to pay a hefty price for their involvement in this horrifying crime—
"They are making a huge mistake. You know, they want to brand themselves as a country for technology. The president said Bitcoin is legal tender," said Van Hollen. "But now what they're branding themselves as, as the place for these huge prisons, where people who are illegally abducted are warehoused. That is not a good look."
"There are also other things Americans can do with respect to economic pressure on El Salvador," he went on. "People can stop traveling there. Actually, tourism has been going up, they can stop traveling there."
"There maybe states that decide they don't want any of their pension funds invested in companies that invest in a place like El Salvador," he continued. "So there are many things that can be done. I just urge the president of El Salvador, the vice president of El Salvador to rethink whether they want to become the place that just gets paid off for being complicit in this illegal scheme."
"I told the vice president of El Salvador that I may be the first senator or member of Congress to be in El Salvador, to come down to El Salvador, but I won't be the last," he warned.
"And there are others coming. I've got to give them a call after this meeting to brief them on my trip," he added. "But this goes back to the fact that, you know, El Salvaddr is making a big mistake, the President of El Salvador is making a big mistake by being complicit in this illegal scheme."
Please retweet and ❤️ if you fully support putting pressure on El Salvador to get Abrego Garcia freed — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a new pro-democracy social network that is exploding in popularity because Twitter and Facebook are trying to stop its growth — which is only making Tribel grow even faster. Please follow us on Tribel to get all of our breaking news alerts sent straight to your phone or computer by clicking the following link: https://t.co/HnJzSKjCwX
BREAKING: Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez enrages the corrupt MAGA members of Congress by calling on them to reveal any recent stock trades made during Donald Trump's tariff disaster.
This could expose a mountain of insider trading...
"Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now," AOC wrote on X.
"I’ve been hearing some interesting chatter on the floor. Disclosure deadline is May 15th. We’re about to learn a few things," she added. "It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress."
Her post quote-tweeted a report that NASDAQ call volume "spiked" just minutes before Trump announced a 90 day pause for his destructive tariffs. It certainly looks like some well-informed investors made a killing.
Anyone in the White House or broader Republican Party who was informed of Trump's announcement in advance could have raked in untold wealth.
AOC's demand for transparency comes at the same time that Democratic senators Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego are demanding that the Office of Government Ethics open an investigation into possible insider trading tied to the tariffs.
They have requested information on whether Trump, his family, or members of his administration "engaged in insider trading or other illegal financial transactions informed by advanced knowledge of non-public information regarding his changes to tariff policy."
Given that the Trump administration is the most corrupt in American history by far, insider trading rooted in tariff market manipulation would be perfectly on brand.
Please retweet and ❤️ if you demand full transparency on recent trades — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a new pro-democracy social network that is exploding in popularity because Twitter and Facebook are trying to stop its growth — which is only making Tribel grow even faster. Please follow us on Tribel to get all of our breaking news alerts sent straight to your phone or computer by clicking the following link: https://t.co/HnJzSKjCwX
People of Ukraine… know that we have your back.
The people of the world respect and support you.
We are angered and embarrassed by the weak, petulant, thin skinned, vindictive, ignorant, cowardly man-child Trump.
Please accept our apology and know that we #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦
BREAKING: Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor sounds the alarm about Donald Trump — says our nation's founders were "hellbent on ensuring that we don't have a monarchy" and we could "lose our democracy."
She really didn't hold back this time...
Sotomayor said that the "first way" the founders devised to avoid the ascent of a monarch was "to give Congress the power of the purse."
She made the remarks at Miami Dade College in Florida.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have been working around the clock to undermine our system of checks and balances by unilaterally gutting agencies and systems that Congress voted to fund. It's a blatantly illegal power grab.
Sotomayor said that she maintains hope "that other actors in the system, whether it’s Congress or others, will follow the law, because it’s what we all take an oath of office to do."
However, she's understandably concerned that court orders will be ignored in the short term. By ramming through illegal executive orders, Trump can cripple and gut federal organizations while the legality is battled out — or he could try to outright ignore the decisions of the courts.
"Court decisions stand whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not," said Sotomayor. "It doesn’t change the foundation that it’s still a court order that someone will respect at some point."
She said that the court has faced challenges in the past and the system has been "tested" but thankfully the country "by and large" has "understood that the rule of law has helped us maintain our democracy."
She also warned against the Supreme Court overturning well-established precedents — something that the right-wing justices have become more willing to do, with the very notable example of overturning Roe v. Wade.
"We must be cognizant that every time we upset precedent, we upset people’s expectations and the stability of law," said Sotomayor. "It rocks the boat in a way that makes people uneasy about whether they’re protected or not protected by the law."
"We’re going to lose our democracy," said Sotomayor, unless Americans and "particularly" young people take steps to inform themselves well and combat the misinformation chaos created by the rise of the internet.
Please retweet and ❤️ if you believe that the rule of law is more important than partisan politics — and consider joining the growing exodus to Tribel, a new pro-democracy social network that is exploding in popularity because Twitter and Facebook are trying to stop its growth — which is only making Tribel grow even faster. Please follow us on Tribel to get all of our breaking news alerts sent straight to your phone or computer by clicking the following link: https://t.co/HnJzSKj4Hp