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Texas House speaker wants Dems back from DC, charters flight for them
Texas’ Republican House speaker said Thursday he plans to charter a plane that will be on “standby” in Washington, D.C., waiting to bring home Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to avoid voting on an election integrity bill.
“I am demanding all of our colleagues in D.C. to contact my staff immediately in order to secure their seat on the plane and return to Austin in order to do the state’s business,” Speaker Dade Phelan said in a statement. “The State of Texas is waiting.”
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Earlier this week, a group of Democratic lawmakers fled Austin and flew to the nation’s capital instead of participating in a quorum vote on a bill proposed by Republicans that would strengthen voter ID requirements for mail-in ballots and ban drive-thru and overnight early voting.
Without the chamber quorum, Republicans have been unable to act on the legislation and voted Tuesday to order state law enforcement officials to track down the fugitive members. CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON OUR TOP STORY.
In other developments:
– Lt. Gov. Patrick blasts Texas Democrat ‘liars club,’ says they’ll be arrested upon return
– The irony in Texas Democrats’ ‘cut and run’ tactics
– Texas Democrat’s photo of drying clothes leads to new accusations of phony ‘sacrifice’
– Concha: Democrats’ stunt with Texas election bill will ‘blow up in their faces’ in 2022
– Texas Dems fled the state in dramatic move to stall GOP election bills, but why to Washington, DC?
Critics slam White House after Psaki reveals Facebook consulted to ‘flag misinformation’
Critics roundly condemned the White House after press secretary Jen Psaki revealed the Biden administration is working with Facebook to flag “problematic” posts that “spread disinformation” on COVID-19.
On Thursday, Psaki was asked about the Biden administration’s request for tech companies to be more “aggressive” when policing what they referred to as “misinformation.” Psaki revealed the White House was “in regular touch with social media platforms” to handle it.
She also revealed the White House was “flagging” posts on Facebook as part of the efforts.
“Within the Surgeon General’s Office, we’re flagging posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” Psaki said. “We’re working with doctors and medical professionals to connect medical experts with people, who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content. So, we’re helping get trusted content out there. We also created the COVID Community Corps to get factual information into the hands of local messengers.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
– Greenwald: WH and Big Tech ‘ironically’ creating textbook ‘definition of fascism’ they claim to be against
– Hawley hammers White House as ‘really scary’ for pushing Facebook to ‘censor’ COVID posts
– Marsha Blackburn renews criticism of media, Big Tech, Fauci for suppressing coronavirus lab-leak theory
AOC blames Cubans’ suffering on US ‘contributions,’ parroting Black Lives Matter
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., broke her silence Thursday on anti-communism, pro-freedom protests that have broken out in Cuba by partially blaming the suffering of “everyday people” on the historical legacy of the U.S.’ 60-year-old embargo against the island nation.
“We are seeing Cubans rise up and protest for their rights like never before. We stand in solidarity with them, and condemn the anti-democratic actions led by President Díaz-Canel,” the self-proclaimed Democratic socialist said in a statement.
She called the communist government’s suppression of media, speech and protest “gross violations of civil rights.”
But she then evoked the United States’ “contribution” to what is turning out to be Cuba’s worst crisis in decades.
“We also must name the U.S. contribution to Cuban suffering: our sixty-year-old embargo,” she said.
Her comments came after Black Lives Matter issued a statement also blaming the U.S. embargo for the country’s instability and credited the Cuban government for historically granting “Black revolutionaries” asylum.
BLM called for the U.S. to lift the sanctions that are “cruel and inhumane policy, instituted with the explicit intention of destabilizing the country and undermining Cubans’ right to choose their own government, is at the heart of Cuba’s current crisis.” CLICK HERE FOR MORE.
In other developments:
– REP. BRYON DONALDS: BLM’s Cuba statement exposes group as Marxist racket
– Biden calls Cuba a ‘failed’ state, considers US tech option to send internet services
– Marco Rubio offers to help Black Lives Matter activists move to Cuba
– Levin blasts BLM’s endorsement of Cuban dictatorship, media’s history of ‘friendliness’ to autocrats
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TODAY’S MUST-READS:
– Texas SWAT commander killed, 3 other officers wounded in standoff; suspect arrested
– CNN’s Bob Costas goes on anti-GOP tirade, calls CPAC ‘a Mardi Gras of lunacy and ignorance’
– Hollywood Walk of Fame suspect dead after shot by police: report
– Florida man accused of trying to throw alligator on roof to teach it a lesson: report
– Yankees-Red Sox postponed after New York positive COVID tests
THE LATEST FROM FOX BUSINESS:
– Intel is in talks to buy GlobalFoundries for about $30 billion
– California approves nation’s first state-funded guaranteed income program
– US requires more tests for safety switches on Boeing 737s
– Netflix fires marketing execs after critical comments made on Slack
– Biden adviser Susan Rice ordered to divest Enbridge pipeline company stake worth $2.7M
SOME PARTING WORDS
Laura Ingraham on Thursday said President Biden “fooled” suburban voters, accusing him of changing his policies from what he promised during the presidential primaries – and instead pushing a socialist agenda.
“Well, now we see suburban, more moderate Democrats, those people were all duped,” said the host of Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle.”
“It didn’t matter which man (Biden or Bernie Sanders) won, the policies and the direction we would take would be the same,” she continued. “Now, we tried to warn you Biden as a moderate, that whole brand, was a charade, that he would always cave to the hard Left.”
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Fox News First was compiled by Fox News’ Jack Durschlag. Thank you for making us your first choice in the morning! Have a great weekend, stay safe and we’ll see you in your inbox first thing Monday.
