Secret Service Director Resigns After Being Destroyed by AOC & Republicans Alike, CNN Says Being Jewish Disqualifies Governor, Another Eastern European Nation Edges Towards War (The Five for 07/23/24)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter, but don’t always make the front page.
Let’s get into the news.
[one]
Well, CNN went and said the quiet part out loud. Now that Kamala Harris has stepped in for the ailing Biden on the Democratic ticket, her pick of VP is a hot topic.
Critics slammed CNN after anchor John King said there were “risks” in putting forward Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as the Democratic vice presidential nominee because “he’s Jewish.”
“He’s certainly under consideration,” King said on CNN Sunday night, referencing discussions with allies of Vice President Kamala Harris.
“He’s a first-term governor, he’s Jewish, there could be some risks in putting him on the ticket, but certainly some of our voters here in Pennsylvania said, ‘Hey, we like Gov. Shapiro, give him a look,'” he added.
King, who announced plans to convert to Judaism back in 2008, was briefly married to CNN anchor Dana Bash, who is Jewish. While it is not entirely clear what prompted King’s remarks, Democrats have been mired by infighting over the Israel-Hamas war.
The craziest thing about the liberal backlash to American Jews over the Israel-Hamas war is that the vast majority of them have never lived in modern-day Israel. Case in point, my wife’s Jewish ancestors fled antisemitism in Russia for Poland, then the U.S. Blaming them for war in Israel in 2024 is like pinning the blame for WWII on me, as the descendent of ethnic Austrians who fled Europe before Germany even existed.
If you need me, I’ll be down at Cabelas later picking up more .556 and 9mm. If violence against American Jews follows this insane rhetoric, I don’t plan on relying on pacifism and pleas to protect our Jewish daughters if a mob tries to kick down my door.
[two]
Color me impressed. I’ve been highly critical of Congressional Rep AOC in the very recent past (like thinking she would be able to impeach two Supreme Court Justices—when only one Justice has ever been impeached—and he was drunk on the job daily), but give her a standing applause for the New York native rightfully picking the Secret Service director apart in front of Congress and the whole world. (The video above is well worth 60 seconds of your time).
From the LA Times:
In a stunning admission, the embattled director of the U.S. Secret Service said Monday that local authorities observed and photographed the man who shot at former President Trump 18 minutes before he took the stage at a rally in Pennsylvania.
It was one of several security lapses revealed at a congressional hearing into what Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle described as the “most significant operational failure” of the agency in decades.
The new information sparked outrage from lawmakers and a rare moment of agreement between committee Chair James R. Comer Jr. (R-Ky.) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who called on her to resign.
“I also didn’t see any daylight between the members of the two parties today at the hearing in terms of our bafflement and outrage about the shocking operational failures that led to this disaster,” Raskin said.
At a campaign event in Pennsylvania on July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired eight shots at Trump from a rooftop, injuring Trump’s ear and wounding three spectators, one of them fatally. Within 10 seconds of the first shot, he was killed by a Secret Service sniper.
But questions from members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability about how a man with a rifle was able to get within firing range of the former president — on a rooftop uncovered by the Secret Service, no less — went mostly unanswered.
The director repeatedly provided vague or nonresponsive answers when pressed for specifics on the number and types of agents assigned to protect Trump at the rally and how the agency has handled earlier requests for additional security staff from the campaign.
A few hours ago, Director Cheattle resigned, despite planning to stay in the job. She apparently couldn’t overcome such a disastrous testimony.
For the good of the nation, let us hope and pray for a more competent leader to step into the senior position at the Secret Service, as a successful political assassination could be devastating to the nation on many levels.
[three]
The View has solved political assassination attempts, apparently.
During Monday’s airing of ABC’s The View, host Joy Behar suggested a “20 year-old white guy” buying 50 rounds of ammunition “should be reported.”
SkyNews.com.au noted Behar and the other hosts were discussing the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump, which had occurred two days prior, and Behar said, “According to a CNN report, a senior law enforcement official said that [the would-be assassin] bought 50 rounds of ammunition from a local gun store hours before the rally.”
Behar then looked up at her fellow hosts and said, “Shouldn’t that have been reported? Somebody buys 50, a 20-year-old white guy, I mean we’ve seen that many times now. Young white men with guns and nobody reported that he bought 50 rounds of ammunition.”
Of course, the only problem is that most ammo comes in boxes of 50 rounds. Surveilling every person who walks into Cabelas during deer season…is probably a less effective way to prevent political assassinations than just preventing a would-be assassin to occupy a rooftop within spitting distance of a former POTUS.
[four]
Less than two weeks after the attempted Trump assassination, a supporter of the former POTUS is in critical condition after being attacked over putting up a sign.
An elderly man in Hancock, Michigan, is in critical condition after what police are calling a “politically motivated” attack on Sunday.
The man, who has not been identified, was putting up a yard sign supporting President Donald Trump around 5:45 p.m., when a suspect driving a Honda ATV drove onto the man’s yard and ran him over with the vehicle, the Hancock Police Department said in a press release. The driver reportedly began to pull out the yard signs, and when the victim tried to put them back in the ground, the driver ran him over.
The victim was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, including a brain bleed, and is reportedly still in critical condition.
The 22-year-old suspect, whose name has not been released to the media, was found dead Tuesday in a home in Quincy Township with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Police received a message on Monday from an individual at the home who said they wanted to confess to a crime involving an ATV driver within the last 24 hours, and asked for authorities to “send someone to pick me up.”
I hope I’m wrong, but I’d say the Vegas odds are that we’re at the very beginning of a political season that could bring about abhorrent violence over differencing views.
Pray for peace.
[five]
Finally, another nation in the Eastern European block inches closer to armed conflict by hastily restricting journalism and whistleblowing on corruption.
Eka Gigauri is used to harsh words from officials about the anti-corruption work she does in Georgia. But seeing her face on posters, accusing her of being an agent of foreign influence, a traitor and a spy, rattled her.
Gigauri, who leads one of Georgia’s main anti-corruption campaign groups, says she and many others have been targeted in connection with a new law, pushed through parliament by the government.
The “foreign influence” law requires media, civil society groups and nonprofit organizations to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. It also subjects them to intense state scrutiny and imposes steep fines for noncompliance.
The government argues the law is needed to curb harmful foreign actors trying to destabilize the South Caucasus nation of 3.7 million. Many journalists and activists say its true goal is to stigmatize them and restrict debate before an election scheduled for October. It could also threaten Georgia’s bid to join the European Union.
Georgia borders Russia (currently at war), as well as Armenia and Azerbaijan, two nations that live on the edge of open war as proxy states as Turkey and Russia vie for power in the region.
In other words, the entire caucus region is a powder keg. Russia invaded Georgia from 2007-2008, and could use the instability to move in once again…but they seem to be pretty short on both troops and war resources these days.
Until the next one,
-sth