TV News LIES

In a recent fundraising email, the Republican candidate for Michigan’s open US Senate seat, former congressman Mike Rogers, appeared to mislead supporters about his past by suggesting that he had played an active role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida who was shot and killed in an American military raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011.

“When I served as a US army officer and an FBI special agent, I swore a sacred oath to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Rogers wrote, according to a screenshot of the email shared online by Azi Paybarah, a former Washington Post reporter now with Straight Arrow News. “I dedicated my life to keeping our families safe – working in the shadows, hunting down terrorists, and standing on the frontlines of our national security.”

He then added, in a section of the email highlighted in bold type: “I saw the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes, knowing that together, we had delivered justice for America.”

Rogers, however, was not in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 1 May 2011, when Bin Laden was shot and killed – nor was he in the White House Situation Room, where then president Barack Obama and senior administration officials at the time, including Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, followed the raid in real time.

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South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham has won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate, according to a race call by the Associated Press.

Her win came after an endorsement from President Trump, backing her for a full term in the seat formerly held by her brother, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

She beat Rep. Ralph Norman for the nomination in Tuesday's special election primary runoff after no candidate won the GOP special election primary outright earlier this month. She now faces Democratic nominee Annie Andrews, a pediatrician, in November in the heavily Republican state.

Trump had backed Graham, a political newcomer, as the interim replacement for her brother, who died from a heart condition on July 11 and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to serve out the remainder of her brother's term.

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Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday said the Department of Justice believes Congress has already granted President Trump the authority to construct the White House ballroom under existing presidential authority.

“We don’t believe we have to go to Congress. We believe Congress has already given us the authority to do what we’re doing,” Blanche said during a Sunday appearance on Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday.”

“Many presidents have done a tremendous amount of work to the White House, as they should, and Congress has authorized them to do so,” he added in discussion with anchor Shannon Bream, a lawyer criticized by Trump after the interview aired.

An appeals court has ordered the administration to stop all work on the project by Aug. 21 unless the Supreme Court steps in to approve the overhaul. 

“We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court recognizes that so we can get the ballroom finished as soon as possible. Remember, yes, it is a ballroom, but it’s also a meaningful upgrade ae..nd necessary part of the security of this city and the security of the president and his family,” Blanche said Sunday.

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Authorities arrested the operator of a boat that capsized in New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty on Aug. 8, killing a mother and a 5-month-old baby, authorities said.

Manuel Hernandez, 46, was arrested on Aug. 9 and charged with 13 counts of reckless endangerment, according to the New York City Police Department. The U.S. Coast Guard also said it's determining whether the vessel was part of an illegal charter operation potentially lacking credentials, safety equipment and inspection requirements.

It was unclear whether Hernandez had obtained legal representation. Immediate attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Crews rescued 12 people from the water, according to the Coast Guard. They were transported to nearby hospitals with minor injuries and were later reported in stable condition.

A woman, 27, and a baby found in the water were taken to NYU Langone Health Brooklyn in critical condition, according to the NYPD and the Coast Guard. They were pronounced dead at the hospital.

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The US Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution declaring its opposition to any presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes.

Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat of Nevada, the resolution states that Maxwell “should not be granted a Presidential pardon or any form of clemency for her crimes with Jeffrey Epstein relating to the sexual exploitation and abuse of minors”.

Although Senate resolutions like these are non-binding and symbolic, Rosen’s office noted in a news release in February when she introduced the measure that the resolution was “designed to put the Senate on record opposing the prospect” of Donald Trump of granting a pardon or clemency to Maxwell.

“It’s frankly horrifying that Trump would entertain the idea of clemency for even a second for a convicted sex trafficker,” Rosen said in a floor speech on Wednesday.

The resolution was brought on Wednesday, as the Senate weighed Trump’s nomination of Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, to stay in the role permanently. Rosen said its unanimous passage sent a clear message to the White House and Blanche that “there should be NO special treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell”.

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The Senate judiciary committee has postponed a vote, scheduled for Thursday, on the nomination of Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer, to be attorney general.

Blanche, who holds the role on an acting basis, apparently lacks the votes of two Republican senators who want him to confirm in writing that the Department of Justice will not proceed with a $1.776bn fund to compensate Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, or a pledge to forever bar the IRS from investigating the tax returns of the president and his family.

The two senators, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and John Cornyn of Texas, both lost their re-election bids this year in Republican primaries in which Trump backed their opponents.

A spokesperson for the committee, which is chaired by Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley said in a statement:

“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure."

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