Latest news with #BranchDavidians
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Clinton: As country grows more polarized, America needs unity, the ‘Oklahoma Standard'
Former President Bill Clinton offers a message of unity and praises the "Oklahoma Standard" at a remembrance ceremony Saturday on the 30th anniversary of the Murrah Building bombing in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Emma Murphy/Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — On the 30th anniversary of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, former President Bill Clinton said Americans must unite despite their differences, and that Oklahomans can help lead the way by serving as that role model for the rest of the nation. Clinton, who was president at the time of the attack, returned to the site of the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing Saturday to deliver the keynote address to a crowd of over 1,600 that attended to remember and honor those who died and were injured in the attack. While the event is typically held outdoors at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum, the site of the bombing, it was moved indoors due to inclement weather. The crowd that arrived to commemorate the anniversary was so large that once the pews were packed, people stood along the walls and filled an overflow room. 'The domestic terrorists who did this awful thing believed that it would spark a nationwide upheaval against the American government, and would eventually destroy our government, our democracy and our life,' Clinton said. 'Instead, you gave them, as the mayor said so eloquently, the Oklahoma Standard. You gave them service, honor and kindness.' Clinton, a Democrat, came to Oklahoma City days after the 1995 attack to address a devastated crowd assembled at the Oklahoma State Fair Arena. He said he's returned to Oklahoma City in subsequent years to commemorate the event. Three decades later, Clinton said that the country has again grown more polarized. When Oklahoma City was the 'center of polarization' 30 years ago, it chose to move forward together, he said. 'America needs you, and America needs the Oklahoma Standard,' Clinton said. 'And if we all live by it, we would get a fairer economy, a more stable society. We would understand one another, and we wouldn't feel weak if we admitted we were wrong about something.' Thirty years ago, a fertilizer and fuel oil bomb placed inside a Ryder truck outside the Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City exploded at 9:02 a.m., killing 168 people, including 19 children, and injuring around 850. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested for their roles. Both were found guilty. McVeigh was executed June 11, 2001, by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison. Michael Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison for failing to report his knowledge of the bombing plot. Investigators said McVeigh held extremist views and planned the bombing on the anniversary of the end of the Waco siege between law enforcement and the Branch Davidians. Other speakers at Saturday's remembrance event included prominent Republican officials such as Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, former Gov. Frank Keating, and U.S. Sen. James Lankford. Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt also spoke. Most of Oklahoma's Congressional delegation was present, as were a few other former governors, current state lawmakers and other officials. There have been nearly '11,000 tomorrows' since the bombing and Oklahoma City, Holt said, and the city has grown in that time. He said 30 years since the bombing signifies a 'generation.' While younger Oklahomans may not remember the bombing, Stitt said, they live in a state shaped by it and the 'commitment to service, honor and kindness' that followed. Lankford said Oklahomans need to ensure the lessons learned from the bombing and its aftermath are passed to future generations to ensure there is 'no generation that rises up that does not remember.' The Federal Building housed federal agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Secret Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, the agency that initially launched the Waco raid. But the building also held a day care, military recruitment offices and other various federal agencies. Family members of victims read the 168 names to the crowd Saturday in an effort to 'humanize' the people, said Kari Watkins, president and CEO of the memorial museum. The building was imploded after the rescue operations and evidence collections were completed. A new federal building was built nearby. The memorial was built where the old federal building once stood. The 168 chairs erected at the site each represent an empty seat at the dinner table. The smaller chairs represent the children who died. A reflecting pool represents the time between 9:01 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. April 19, 1995. Officials were able to preserve an American elm tree that survived the blast. It is known as the 'Survivor Tree.' In the aftermath of the attack, the state became known for the 'Oklahoma Standard,' a term used to describe the 'selfless actions' of thousands who offered help. Reporter Barbara Hoberock contributed to this story. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump blinks on tariffs in face of GOP resistance — but he hasn't given up on his cult leader dreams
History's most famous cults are known primarily for their final suicidal acts: the mass poisoning at Jonestown, the self-immolation of the Branch Davidians, the self-asphyxiations of Heaven's Gate. We know these things happen, but it's still a mystery to most of us how cult members get to this point. Why didn't they hit the eject button sooner, as their leader descended further into his incoherent megalomania? Why did they stick by him, even as it became increasingly clear he was putting the whole community on a pathway to self-destruction? Why didn't more people voice doubts or even confront the cult leader before things got this bad? We're getting a compelling illustration on the national stage of how a cult leader can induce his followers to stick by him, even as he loses his mind and his behavior becomes too erratic and dangerous to defend. Almost every Republican on Capitol Hill knows that Donald Trump's tariff plan is political suicide, but few are willing to admit that Dear Leader fully intends to see this idiocy to the very end. Instead, most resemble the residents of Jonestown, many who hoped Jim Jones was testing their faith with all this poison-Kool-Aid talk, which allowed them to play along until it was too late to save themselves. But while the Republican party acts very much like Trump's cult, there are still some obstacles between Trump and his Jim Jones fantasies. He doesn't have congressional Republicans geographically isolated, which is key to maintaining control over the flock. Their connections to the outside world, especially to constituents frantic about rising prices and lost savings, are pulling them away. Many Republican politicians aren't true believers, either, but cynical operators whose "loyalty" to Trump only lasts as far as their perceived self-interest. As a result, a small but growing number of Republicans in both the House and the Senate started to back bills to roll back Trump's tariff powers. For now, the pressure is working. On Wednesday, Trump agreed to a 90-day "pause" on most tariffs, while escalating the trade war with this victory is small and short-lived. At the risk of sounding like a grubby leftist that Republicans want to ignore, but the GOP has what you might call a collective action problem. Trump has a messiah complex, which has only grown since that missed assassin's bullet from July was hyped by his followers into "proof" that he's the Chosen One. Even as he blinks momentarily on his tariff mania, his behavior is getting even more erratic in a way that's got "last days of Waco" vibes from a president who has already unsubtly compared himself to David Koresh. His Truth Social meltdown when announcing the "pause" indicates a decline in Trump's already-fragile mental state. There have been various failed efforts, both from the White House spinsters and pundits, to sane-wash Trump's choice to torch the U.S. economy as some kind of "strategy." In a Tuesday speech before the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Trump made it clear that he's just a malignant narcissist whose only goals are self-worship and imposing increasingly baroque loyalty tests on his cult followers, i.e. the entire Republican party. "I see some rebel Republican, some guy who wants to grandstand, say, 'I think that Congress should take over negotiations.' Let me tell you, you don't negotiate like I negotiate," he groused as the crowd nervously laughed to please Dear Leader. He pretended foreign leaders are "calling us up, kissing my a—." 'They are dying to make a deal. 'Please, please sir, make a deal. I'll do anything sir,'' he claimed, in a moment quite reminiscent of how late-stage cult leaders experience a total collapse between reality and their grandiose fantasies. "BE COOL!" he barked on Truth Social Wednesday, promising, "Everything is going to work out well. The USA will be bigger and better than ever before!" Then there's this confusing and chaotic "pause." It all feels like the final stage of a cult, when the leader's frantic efforts to retain control result in escalating dictates and prophecies that become increasingly hard for followers to make sense of. "There is no grand plan or strategic vision, no matter what his advisers claim — only the impulsive actions of a mad king," explained Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times on Wednesday. "Trump's tariffs are not a policy as we traditionally understand it," he continued, but an expression of Trump's inability to "conceive of any relationship between individuals, peoples or states as anything other than a status game, a competition for dominance." Republican behavior helps illustrate the in-group dynamics of a cult that make it so hard for members to buck the leader when he puts them on the path to suicide, either literal or metaphorical (which is so far all that Republicans are contemplating). Few are willing to be the one seen questioning the infinite wisdom of Dear Leader, lest they draw his ire and be singled out for punishment. Instead, they resort to passive language, in hopes they can convey their concerns without daring to question whether the MAGA prophet is not the wisest man who ever lived. "What's happening is not good. Now will it continue?" Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said in a typical comment. "I think it is a mistake to assume that we will have high tariffs in perpetuity," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex. One would think they're talking about the weather, rather than a deliberate choice by Trump. Billionaire Elon Musk is trying a slightly different tactic of blaming Trump advisor Peter Navarro, rather than Trump himself. What ties all this together is a fear of criticizing Trump directly, and instead hoping that all this gentle hand-holding and blame-shifting will give their leader the space he needs to stop the madness. Republicans would be foolish to treat this 90-day pause as a victory big enough to justify scurrying back to their holes, to hide from the wrath of Dear Leader. He is spiraling and sees these tariffs as the final proving ground of his total conquest of the GOP. He will keep going back to that well — which means economic tumult, more stock market crashes, and more panicked constituents — unless this tariff nonsense is put to bed entirely. Republicans need to realize, not to return to the commie talk, that this is a "hang together or hang separately" moment. If enough of them join with Democrats to pass a veto-proof bill stripping Trump of his power to pass tariffs, there isn't anything he can do but stand down. The irony is that they'd be saving Trump from himself. But that might be a price worth paying to save the rest of us — including their own party — in the process.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Yahoo
Waco's beloved minister, after nearly 20 years, still claims he isn't guilty of murdering his wife
Baptist minister Matt Baker was once a beloved pastor just outside Waco, Texas. Unbeknownst to his congregation, he was leading a double life that led him to commit the ultimate sin. Baker is now serving a 65-year sentence after being found guilty in January 2010 of murdering his wife Kari Baker, in 2006. Fifteen years after his conviction, Baker still maintains his innocence, saying that his wife died of an apparent suicide. "Kari Baker didn't kill herself. She was murdered. He was a predator," Texas Ranger Matt Cawthon -- who was involved in the case -- said in a new interview with "20/20." In a 2010 interview with "20/20," Baker admitted to having an affair with Vanessa Bulls, a divorcée who testified at his murder trial that Baker was openly plotting his wife's death. "I'm coming clean on the lying about Vanessa," Baker told "20/20." "I made a mistake. I'm human. I made a mistake there. I should not have ever got involved in that. I was having a tough spot in my marriage and I took the chicken way out. But I would never have hurt my wife. I never did. I never laid a hand on her, ever." MORE: Montana woman reflects on her miraculous survival after getting shot several times On Apr. 7, 2006, 31-year-old Kari was found dead seemingly due to an overdose of sleeping pills. There was a typed, unsigned suicide note, but her family suspected foul play. "She wouldn't have done this, she would not have left her girls," Nancy Lanham, Kari's aunt, told "20/20." The couple had two young daughters at the time. Baker told ABC News in 2008 that his wife's alleged downward spiral began with the tragic loss of another daughter years earlier. She was only one year old when she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and died four months later, leaving Kari devastated. "She had been taking sleeping pills to go to sleep since Kassidy passed away," Baker said. "And started taking more and more of them. And we had discussions that 'you've got to stop doing this, this is too many, this can be dangerous.'" The police investigation initially concluded that Kari's death was a suicide. However, her family began investigating on their own and urged police to further question her husband. Baker passed a polygraph test arranged by his attorney. Frustrated that the police had ruled Kari's death a suicide, her mother Linda Dulin sought out an investigative team of her own. Dulin reached out to Bill Johnston, a former federal prosecutor who was part of the team that prosecuted the 11 surviving Branch Davidians in 1993. Dulin explained to Johnston that she didn't believe her daughter took her own life. She said she had been working on Kari's case with what she called her "Angels" -- her sisters and niece who were determined to find out the truth about what happened to Kari. "What Charlie's Angels were bringing to us was invaluable," Johnston said. "They were this group of strong women who were not going to just let this go. They brought a series of stories about Matt's conduct at different points in his life." Kari's family believed that Baker's affair with Vanessa Bulls was the motive behind what they believed was Kari's murder. In September 2006, Cawthon -- in collaboration with police -- was able to get Kari's body exhumed, and an autopsy was conducted. There was still no clear cause of death, but the generic form of Ambien was discovered in her muscle tissue. The team working with Dulin discovered that Baker searched for the drug online. MORE: Cold cases that once baffled investigators are getting solved with help of cutting-edge DNA technology The findings made it crucial to keep investigating. "During this investigation, we got a clue from a woman who worked in a jewelry store," Cawthon said. "And said within a couple of weeks after Kari's death, Matt Baker comes into the jewelry store with a woman, and they're looking at engagement rings." Baker denied this in his interview with "20/20," saying they had gone to the store to look at earrings for one of his daughters. However, during the trial, Bulls testified that Baker stated that his daughters wanted to look at wedding rings for her. Although she had been previously interviewed, she had never admitted to having an affair with Baker or that she knew anything about Kari's death. Prosecutors then decided to subpoena her to testify in front a grand jury and give her testimonial immunity, hoping she would cooperate. To the surprise of everyone in the room, she admitted on the stand that Baker had told her he had killed Kari. It was enough for prosecutors to indict Baker for his wife's murder that same day. At trial, Bulls said she felt controlled by Baker: "He was a complete and still is a manipulative liar who took me at my vulnerable state." Bulls also testified that she felt intimidated by Baker to keep quiet: "Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret" The prosecutors' theory was that Baker had drugged Kari and then suffocated her. The testimony from Bulls corroborated that theory. MORE: How a Colorado man pushing his wife off a cliff exposed decades of lies "She did explain that after he thought that he had killed her, that she'd been suffocated, that when he removed the pillow, she gave one huge gasp," prosecutor Susan Shafer said. "She was still alive, and that he immediately put the pillow back on her face and held it until he was sure that she was dead." In January 2010, Baker went on trial for his wife's murder. After several days of testimony, it took the jury only seven hours to decide Baker's fate: guilty. It was a verdict that seemed to stun him. The next day, Baker was sentenced to 65 years in prison. "I believe the jury made a mistake in this," Baker said in court after he was sentenced. While Kari's family finds some relief in knowing Baker is incarcerated, they say that the guilty verdict didn't alleviate the sadness and pain he has caused them. "She was an amazing mother and cousin," Lindsey Pick, Kari's cousin, told 20/20. "And she would fight for any of us. And, I just wanted everyone to know the truth." Waco's beloved minister, after nearly 20 years, still claims he isn't guilty of murdering his wife originally appeared on
