Latest news with #politicalintimidation
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Walz: Democrats need to be a ‘little meaner'
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said his fellow party members need to be a bit more harsh in upcoming elections to put an end to political intimidation. After an unsuccessful bid for the vice presidency in November, Walz has shared staunch criticism of Elon Musk and other officials within the Trump administration. 'I'm getting called out on this because I called Donald Trump a wannabe dictator — it's because he is. It's because he is,' Walz said Saturday during his keynote address for the South Carolina Democratic Party Convention. He said people alleged that his comments were 'mean.' 'Well, maybe it's time for us to be a little meaner. Maybe it's time for us to be a little more fierce, because we have to ferociously push back on this,' Walz said, urging critics to rebuke the Trump administration's policies. Walz's words were echoed by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) during his remarks at the annual South Carolina Democrats' Blue Palmetto Dinner Friday night. 'I want to be clear: We can and we must condemn Donald Trump's reckless actions. But we would also be foolish not to learn from his impatience,' Moore, a first-term governor, said during his roughly 30-minute speech to the state party's officials and activists. 'Donald Trump doesn't need a study to dismantle democracy or use the Constitution like a suggestion box. Donald Trump doesn't need a white paper to start arbitrary trade wars that raise the cost of virtually everything in our lives,' he added. Walz and Moore also made an appearance at Rep. Jim Clyburn's (D-S.C.) annual fish fry Friday night, an event known to be dazzled by presidential hopefuls. The Maryland governor said he would not run for the Oval Office next election cycle but party members have floated him as a viable leader for 2028. On Saturday, Walz said that any work geared towards ensuring a Democratic win in the next presidential campaign would need to start soon. 'It starts this Saturday as us starting to organize. Donald Trump ran for president for four years after he got beat in 2020. The Republican Party ran for four years. Their school board members ran for four years. All of those things were happening,' the Minnesota governor said. 'And what I know about our party is we know how to work. We're people with grit and resilience. We know how to get things done,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Tulsi Gabbard claims new evidence proves Biden officials tried to silence her with little-known secret watch list
Tulsi Gabbard claims she was placed on a little-known air travel watchlist and subjected to grueling searches in a 'politically motivated' effort to intimidate her. The Director of National Intelligence shed light on the Quiet Skies watchlist on Tuesday, just hours after the House Governmental Affairs Committee uncovered new details about the incident. Speaking to Fox host Laura Ingraham, Gabbard revealed she was first placed on the watchlist in late July, 2024 - just one day after she publicly criticized the newly appointed Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. 'It was absolutely politically motivated,' she said. 'I think they were trying to intimidate me but they were really trying to create this chilling affect... and send a message out to people that if you go and criticize Kamala Harris... you too would face the consequences.' During her stint on this highly secretive watch list, Gabbard's appearance, the amount of electronic devices she was using, and the identity of any person she met on her travels was documented and reported back to the government. 'They had to to report back, these federal air marshals who were surrveiling me, about my appearance, what kind of electronic devices I had in my possession, did I have any interactions with unknown individuals while traveling. The list goes on and on,' she said. The program assigns federal air marshals to follow US citizens who pose an 'elevated risk to aviation security' through airports and on flights. As a result, there's at least five agents would be following her and keeping a close eye on every flight she takes. Gabbard noted that the Quiet Skies program has never once caught a terrorist. She said: 'This program has been going on for nearly two decades... not a single terrorist has been caught. For as long as this program has existed. 'Every single day, 40 to 50 federal air marshals are tasked with surrveiling everyday Americans for no purpose, these arbitrary reasons put forward.' In her case, she said once Republicans began asking questions about the reasons she was placed under surveillance, 'the TSA started changing their story and making things up about why they were justified putting me on this list.' Despite any of the excuses which have been offered, Gabbard said it was abundantly clear to her that it was linked to her criticism of Harris. She had spoken from Rome to Fox about how 'Harris would be dangerous for our country's security, the safety, security and freedom of the American people if she were to become Commander-in-Chief.' The next day, she and her husband arrived at the airport to return home to the United States. They were immediately put through rigorous security testing and from that moment onwards, every single time she arrived at the airport she was taken for further questioning, which would take upwards of 40 minutes every time. On some occasions, she would be required to go through the process multiple times for a single flight, all while being assured she had been 'randomly selected.' Gabbard had been in the Vatican conducting meetings, including with other Americans who were never put on any such lists or treated with the same hostility. Three sources told CNN at the time that Gabbard's overseas travel patterns as well as her connections to certain foreign entities had triggered the government algorithm which tries to identify security risks. At least two of the sources denied her theory that she was targeted because of her criticism of Harris. Instead, they argued that while in the Vatican, she attended an event in the Vatican hosted by a person on an FBI watchlist. 'The only difference was they were not on your show the day before traveling back to the United States, or any show for that matter, publicly criticizing then-Vice President Kamala Harris,' Gabbard told Ingraham. Republican Senator Rand Paul had earlier on Tuesday confirmed Gabbard's presence on the watch list. 'Just last night, I received the first set of records from the department regarding Tulsi Gabbard's placement on the TSA Quiet Skies watch list,' Paul said. 'These documents confirm our suspicions. Federal air marshals surveilled the now-director of national intelligence during domestic flights in 2024, reporting back information related to her appearance and even how many electronics she was observed using. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.' Gabbard went on to criticize 'the Biden administration's weaponization and politicization of the government against everyday Americans, violating our most fundamental constitutional rights and civil liberties.' A spokesperson for the TSA previously said: 'TSA uses multi-layered security processes to protect the nation's transportation systems and ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce. 'TSA's Quiet Skies program is a risk-based, automated approach to transportation security, to include identifying potential risks and applying enhanced security measures.'
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
U.S. Says Lawmaker Assaulted 2 Agents, as Democrats Object to Charges
A criminal complaint made public on Tuesday laid out the U.S. government's claims against Representative LaMonica McIver, depicting her as a ringleader who assaulted two federal agents as she tried to block the arrest of Newark's mayor, Ras J. Baraka, outside a federal migrant detention facility. Ms. McIver, a New Jersey Democrat, was charged with two counts of 'assaulting, resisting and impeding certain officers or employees.' She has flatly rejected the government's depiction of the events of May 9, when she and two other members of Congress went to the new detention center in Newark for an oversight visit, which they have the right to conduct under federal law. Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, suggested in a statement announcing the charges late Monday that Ms. McIver had refused an offer to settle the criminal case, but offered no details. Ms. McIver told CNN Monday night that the Justice Department 'wanted me to admit to doing something that I did not do.' 'I came there to do my job and conduct an oversight visit. And they wanted me to say something differently,' said Ms. McIver, 38, who represents New Jersey's 10th Congressional District, which includes most of Newark. Tuesday morning, near her congressional office in Washington, she described the charges as 'political intimidation' and likened them to the indictment of a Wisconsin judge who was accused of helping an undocumented immigrant elude federal agents. The Newark detention center, known as Delaney Hall, is run by GEO Group, one of the country's largest private prison companies. It can house as many as 1,000 detainees at a time and is expected to play a key role in President Trump's mass deportation efforts. It began housing migrants this month and has since become a focal point of protest. It is rare for the Department of Justice to pursue federal criminal charges against a sitting member of Congress for matters other than corruption or campaign finance violations. Democrats cast the charges as a significant escalation of the Trump administration's efforts to tamp down opposition of its immigration agenda, while some Republicans called for the censure of the lawmakers and the expulsion of Ms. McIver. The saga is likely to force a broader political showdown in Congress over the separation of powers as Mr. Trump strives to greatly expand his executive authority and Democrats struggle to push back. The May 9 clash occurred after Mr. Baraka, a Democrat running for governor of New Jersey, had tried to accompany Ms. McIver and the two other lawmakers during their oversight tour of the facility. Mr. Baraka was allowed within the center's gated perimeter by a security guard who 'was under the impression that the mayor was part of the congressional delegation,' according to the criminal complaint. But he was barred from joining them inside the building. Mr. Baraka has said that he and several aides stood within the gate for more than an hour, waiting for the lawmakers to leave the facility, before being asked to leave. In the complaint, Robert Tansey, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, said that 'after numerous warnings to leave,' Mr. Baraka had been told that he was about to be placed under arrest. Ms. McIver interjected, Mr. Tansey said, 'yelling, 'Hell no! Hell no! Hell no!'' According to video footage, a guard opened the locked front gate and Mr. Baraka walked out. Video footage and witness accounts depict a large scrum of people being jostled together as masked agents in camouflage uniforms, some carrying guns in holsters, come out from behind a gate to take Mr. Baraka into custody in a public area swarming with protesters. Ms. McIver and the two other members of Congress — Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman and Rob Menendez — can be seen surrounding the mayor as the agents move in. Ms. McIver, in an effort to use her body to prevent the mayor's arrest, 'slammed her forearm' into an agent and 'tried to restrain' him by 'forcibly grabbing him,' Mr. Tansey attested. After Mr. Baraka was handcuffed, Ms. McIver pushed an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent and 'used each of her forearms to forcibly strike' the officer, he wrote. Ms. Habba, in the statement announcing the charges against Ms. McIver, also said that the Justice Department had dropped the trespassing charges against the mayor. Susan Vercheak, 74, a lawyer from Maplewood, N.J., said she believed that prosecutors had recognized that they 'had no case whatsoever' against Mr. Baraka. 'There was no basis for federal jurisdiction, so they chickened out,' said Ms. Vercheak, who was one of about 30 protesters who gathered early Tuesday outside Ms. Habba's office in Newark as Democratic lawmakers continued to forcefully question the government's decision to charge Ms. McIver. Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, said the decision to charge Ms. McIver had 'nothing to do with enforcing the law, and everything to do with this administration's attempt to intimidate those who dare speak against them or expose the truth.' The fallout has already led the Homeland Security Department, which houses the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, to draft changes to strengthen its rules on congressional visits to detention centers, according to an internal document obtained by The New York Times. ICE is working to update its guidance to clarify that visitors, including members of Congress and their staff members, 'may be subject to arrest or other legal action' if they fail to comply with the agency's security rules, the document said. The agency is considering language that would allow it to deny or terminate a congressional visit for a number of reasons, and to expressly bar visitors from coercing or intimidating agents or detainees. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department, did not address the changes being considered, but said that ICE 'respects Congress's oversight authority.' 'However, they are not above the law,' she said. 'All members and staff need to comply with facility rules, procedures and instructions from ICE personnel on site for their own safety, the safety of the detainees and the safety of ICE employees.' The charges against Ms. McIver call into question a constitutional protection known as the speech or debate clause, which offers lawmakers a broad degree of protection from criminal penalties that stem from actions taken while performing legislative duties. Last week, after a spokeswoman for the Trump administration said that charges against Ms. McIver, Ms. Watson Coleman and Mr. Menendez were possible, the Democratic House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, said that any criminal charges represented a 'red line.' 'There are clear lines that they just dare not cross,' he warned. On Monday, Mr. Jeffries said in a joint statement with other top House Democrats that the charges were 'a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate Congress and interfere with our ability to serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch.' Homeland Security officials welcomed the charges after days of arguing that the clash was emblematic of the broader threat its ICE agents faced as they ramped up immigration arrests and deportations. 'No one is above the law,' Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland secretary, said in a statement. 'If any person, regardless of political party, influence or status, assaults a law enforcement officer as we witnessed Congresswoman McIver do, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'
Free Malaysia Today
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Samsuri sends memo to Suhakam over ‘excessive monitoring'
Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar's aide Soud Said (in white) handing over the memorandum to Suhakam chairman Hishamudin Yunus. (Facebook pic) PETALING JAYA : Terengganu menteri besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar has submitted a memorandum to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) over alleged 'excessive monitoring' by the authorities. The memorandum was handed over by Samsuri's political secretary Soud Said to Suhakam chairman Hishamudin Yunus. 'The submission of this memorandum is to protest the excessive monitoring I have been placed under, which can be construed as political intimidation and a violation of my rights. 'Through this, I hope that any form of abuse of power involved would be immediately stopped,' the PAS vice-president said. Samsuri previously claimed he had been marked as a person of risk in the nation's border control system and even had his phone tapped. The Terengganu menteri besar also said he was held back by authorities at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport during a recent personal trip to Sabah. He claimed this process required clearance by the police's Special Branch. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim downplayed the issue and said it was not unusual for VIPs to be flagged, adding that he himself was subject to such monitoring. Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also dismissed Samsuri's complaints, saying there was no need to spy on the menteri besar as he had a security detail assigned to him. Inspector-General of Police Razarudin Husain also said there was no basis to include Samsuri in the special surveillance list as he was not a criminal.
