Latest news with #RudyGiuliani
Wall Street Journal
9 hours ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
New York's Choice: Cuomo or Socialism?
Andrew Cuomo resigned as New York Governor under threat of impeachment, amid accusations that the state covered up Covid deaths in nursing homes and that he'd serially sexually harassed women, including a female state trooper on his security detail. 'Killing grannies and pinching fannies,' as one New York Post writer put it. So why are many Democrats now rallying around Mr. Cuomo to be New York City's next mayor? Well, one reason is his main competitor in Tuesday's Democratic primary: Polling at No. 2 is a literal socialist, 33-year-old Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. He promises to freeze rent for two million residents. He wants to open city-run grocery stores. He pledges free buses and free childcare beginning at six weeks of life. He'd jack up taxes on businesses, while raising the top income tax in New York City, state plus local, to 16.78% from 14.78%. The risk is New York could spiral into the kind of disorder from which Mayor Rudy Giuliani saved it starting in 1994. Manhattanites are warning that Mr. Mamdani's ruinous utopianism could prompt a flight of talent and capital, since many won't stick around to be punished. Has Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis considered donations to the Mamdani campaign? Plenty of ex-New Yorkers already are soaking up the sun there, where the income tax is 0%. Rather than hire more police, Mr. Mamdani says he'd create a Department of Community Safety to 'prevent violence before it happens.' What about after it happens? It's hard to know how far Mr. Mamdani would really go. He has been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose platform calls to 'disarm law enforcement,' and 'abolish the carceral forces of the state.' Another thing: He accused Israel of apartheid and recently refused to condemn the slogan 'globalize the intifada.'
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Abcarian: Did the MyPillow guy, clinging to the Big Lie, defame a Dominion exec?
There's a line in Eric Coomer's defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy, that strikes me as the perfect description of what happens when influential partisans belch lies about innocent people in these insanely charged political times: 'The real world consequences for the subjects of those lies,' says the lawsuit, 'have been devastating.' Indeed. Think of Georgia poll workers Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, whose lives were destroyed when Rudy Giuliani, once President Trump's top campaign lawyer, claimed the pair had rigged the 2020 election outcome in their state. Giuliani even invented a blatantly racist story about the women passing drugs to each other at their Fulton County polling place. Trump amplified the claims. The two women received death threats, were loath to leave home even for groceries and had to go into hiding. I will never forget how sad and broken they seemed during their testimony before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Happily, Freeman and Moss won a $148-million settlement from Giuliani, leading the former New York mayor to unsuccessfully sue for bankruptcy in an effort to dodge his obligation. Now stripped of his license to practice law in New York, Giuliani has fallen so far he's not even a punchline on late night TV anymore. Just like Freeman and Moss, Coomer, the former director of product strategy and security for Dominion Voting Systems, was subjected to a torrent of false claims about election rigging by Lindell and other right-wing conspiracy theorists and media outlets. Like Freeman and Moss, he was terrorized and driven into hiding. He left his job, moved to a new location, placed guns around the house he borrowed from a friend, experienced depression and panic attacks, and believes he will not be able to return to his profession. 'People were essentially taking bets on how my brother's corpse would be found and which nefarious shadow group would be behind his death,' Coomer's brother told the New York Times in 2021. 'He would be executed by the state or he would be found with a falsified suicide note and two gunshots in the back of his head.' Coomer, like others, became collateral damage in the misbegotten MAGA campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs, completely lost their minds, and the company allowed its highest-profile stars to spew lie after lie about the election in general and Dominion Voting Systems in particular, knowing full well (as News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted under oath) that Dominion was blameless and that Joe Biden had won fair and square. That unsavory chapter ended up costing Fox $787.5 million in a settlement to Dominion, which allowed the right-wing network to avert a trial. Coomer, who has filed lawsuits against Giuliani and several others who spread lies about him, now gets his day in court against Lindell. The defamation trial, which began Monday, is expected to last through the end of this week. (Coomer settled suits against conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell; Newsmax; One America News Network, or OAN; and an OAN correspondent. His suit against Guiliani is pending.) The false claims against Coomer were dreamed up by a conservative Colorado podcaster, Joseph Oltmann, who told listeners that he had infiltrated an 'Antifa conference call' in which 'Eric, the Dominion guy' claimed to have rigged the election against Trump. (Coomer's defamation suit against Oltmann is also pending.) 'Oltmann,' says Coomer's lawsuit, 'claimed this supposed call happened on some unspecified date months before the election, but that he did not think to take action until after the election was called for President Biden …. Oltmann's story is inherently implausible.' Not to mention, outlandish and preposterous. In his campaign against Coomer, Oltmann posted a photo of the Dominion executive's home on his social media and urged his followers to 'blow this sh— up. Share, put his name everywhere. No rest for this sh—bag … Eric we are watching you.' Lindell, who seems never to have come across a right-wing conspiracy theory he couldn't embrace, picked up on Oltmann's fantasies about Coomer and began spreading them far and wide — in interviews, on his website, in social media, etc. On his FrankSpeech media platform, Lindell addressed Coomer directly: 'You are disgusting and you are treasonous. You are a traitor to the United States of America.' (Classic case of projection, imho.) Lindell could have settled as so many others have done. Instead, he has chosen to fight on, hawking pillows, sheets and slippers to pay his legal bills as he goes. His attorney said that because he believed what he was saying was true, it's not defamation. 'It's just words. All Mike Lindell did was talk,' Lindell's attorney told the jury. 'Mike believed that he was telling the truth.' Before the trial, Lindell stood on the federal courthouse steps in Denver and proclaimed that his only goal in all this was to ban electronic voting machines and replace them with paper ballots. 'If we can get there,' he said, 'I would sacrifice everything.' If Coomer wins his defamation case against Lindell — and I really hope he does — Lindell will have lost a lot and gained very little. First, the case has nothing to do with the validity of voting machines. Second, an estimated 98% of American voters already cast ballots that leave a paper trail because that's one way voting machines record votes. But Lindell, like so many of his MAGA compatriots, still won't let reality stand in the way of Trump's Big Lie. @ Threads: @rabcarian If it's in the news right now, the L.A. Times' Opinion section covers it. Sign up for our weekly opinion newsletter. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
CBS News
06-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Bernard Kerik, NYPD commissioner during 9/11, dies at 69
Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City's police commissioner on 9/11 and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. FBI Director Kash Patel said that Kerik's death Thursday came after an unspecified "private battle with illness." Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his show Thursday. "We've been together since the beginning. He's like my brother," Giuliani said through tears. "I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man." Kerik, who joined the NYPD in 1986, served as the department's 40th commissioner from 2000 to 2001 under Giuliani. "For nearly two decades, Kerik served and protected New Yorkers in the NYPD, including helping rebuild the city in the aftermath of 9/11. We offer our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones," the NYPD wrote on social media. "Don't think there are very few people in my life that I relied on more," Giuliani added. "Nor are there too many people in my life, actually, there was no one in my life that was braver than he was." Bernard Kerik, former New York Police Commissioner, speaks during a news conference outside Manhattan criminal court in New York on May 20, 2024. Alex Kent/Bloomberg via Getty Images In 2003, Kerik served in President George W. Bush's administration as the head of a provisional police force in Iraq. "It was just this afternoon that I stopped by the hospital to see Bernie Kerik, my friend of nearly 30 years, before his passing. He was with his loved ones who are in my prayers tonight. He was a great New Yorker and American. Rest in peace, my friend," New York City Mayor Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement. "He epitomizes what I always say: Generals lead from the front. Bernie led from the front. He was willing to lead his troops into battle protecting his city," Adams added Friday. Kerik, an Army veteran, rose to the pinnacle of law enforcement before a fall so steep that even a city jail named after him was renamed. In 2009, he pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud and false statement charges, partially stemming from over $250,000 in apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say counted on Kerik to convince New York officials it had no organized crime links. He served three years in prison before his release in 2013. President Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was among the guests feting Mr. Trump after his first appearance in federal court in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents, attending the former president's remarks at his Bedminster, New Jersey, club. "I think that the legacy that he really leaves is that he was a cop, he saved a lot of lives, and he never stopped," Timothy Parlatore, Kerik's close friend, told CBS News New York. Attorney General Pam Bondi called Kerik a "dear friend" in a post to social media sending prayers to his family and friends. Kerik caught the Bush administration off guard when he abruptly withdrew his nomination to run the Department of Homeland Security in 2004. At the time he said he had uncovered information that led him to question the immigration status of a person he employed as a housekeeper and nanny. The sprawling homeland security bureaucracy, created by Bush in the aftermath of 9/11, oversees the federal agencies responsible for enforcement of the nation's immigration laws, among many others. In 2005, Kerik founded the Kerik Group, a crisis and risk management consulting firm. He later worked for the former mayor of New York City surrounding the efforts to overturn Mr. Trump's 2020 loss. Patel described Kerik in a post on social media as "a warrior, a patriot, and one of the most courageous public servants this country has ever known." "He was decorated more than 100 times for bravery, valor, and service, having rescued victims from burning buildings, survived assassination attempts, and brought some of the world's most dangerous criminals to justice," he said. "His legacy is not just in the medals or the titles, but in the lives he saved, the city he helped rebuild, and the country he served with honor." contributed to this report.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teaching Trump's 2020 election lies turns civics into propaganda
This fall, if you're a high school student in Oklahoma, you will be taught in history class that the Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump. Though disproven by numerous recounts and over 60 court cases in multiple states, the Republican-led Oklahoma Department of Education is requiring that this debunked conspiracy theory be taught as fact. Yes, boys and girls, we have now reached that point in fascist dogma where we start rewriting history to serve the agenda of Dear Leader. Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. For four-and-a-half years now, Trump and his disciples have been claiming the 2020 election was rigged and that he won. And yet, in all that time, no one − not Trump, not Tucker Carlson, not Sean Hannity, not Steve Bannon, not even the MyPillow Guy (Mike Lindell) − has ever been able to explain, step-by-step, how it was done. As former New York City Mayor and disbarred lawyer Rudy Giuliani admitted to the judge in one of the 60-odd court filings lost by the Trump campaign: "We have no evidence, but we have lots of theories... ." Very well. Let's examine some of those theories. On the face of it, this seems very believable. Every day, we read about cyber-crooks hacking into and commandeering computers. But voting machines are not the same as personal computers. They are simple tabulating machines. They have no modems and are not connected to the internet, so it's impossible to hack them. It would be like trying to call someone who doesn't have a phone. (This includes people voting multiple times, dead people or illegal immigrants voting, or suitcases full of fraudulent ballots being slipped into the counting centers.) Fifty years ago, before government records were computerized, it might have been possible to slip a few dead or fake names onto voting lists. But now, cross-referencing of death certificates, property transfers and other government documents allows for voter rolls to be cleaned up daily. And it should be obvious to anyone who has ever voted just how ridiculous Trump's claims are when he says, "People are changing their hats and coats and voting over and over again." Elections aren't raffles. You can't just walk into any precinct on Election Day and fill out a ballot. You have to register first, and give your name and address and birth certificate or other identification information (all of which is cross-referenced with tax records, death records, etc.), after which you are assigned a specific precinct where you have to vote. (Your mail-in ballot also goes to that specific precinct.) So if a precinct with 2,000 registered voters has 3,000 votes cast (or even 2001), it would be immediately obvious that something was amiss, and an investigation would be launched. In 2020, not a single precinct in the entire country reported more votes tallied than there were registered voters in that precinct. This is one of the sillier theories, for it's the software (the program with the ballot on it), not the machine itself, that would have to be rigged, and the ballots are created by the various states. The very notion that any multi-billion-dollar company would risk utter ruin by taking part in a conspiracy that could be discovered by any computer expert, is so ridiculous that FOX News hosts mocked the allegations in their private texts as "insane lies" and "mind blowingly nuts," yet nonetheless promoted the lie on air (as did Newsmax and OAN). All three networks have subsequently paid out massive defamation settlements to both Dominion and Smartmatic Corporations, manufacturers of the voting machines. In short, none of the 2020 election fraud conspiracies stand up to even the most cursory examination. They are just lies spewed out for Trump's loyal supporters who want to believe them. George Orwell warned of the consequences when a society values ideology over truth, and no matter how much Oklahoma Republicans want to believe Trump's "Big Lie," altering history is never a good idea. Just ask Winston Smith. Keith Thompson lives in Fort Thomas, Ky., and is a historian and author of '2024,' a political thriller set against the background of the 2024 election. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Trump's Big Lie is now part of Oklahoma schools curriculum | Opinion
The Guardian
30-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Bernard Kerik, who led NYPD on 9/11 before prison and pardon, dies aged 69
Bernard Kerik, who served as New York City's police commissioner on during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and later pleaded guilty to tax fraud before being pardoned, has died. He was 69. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Kash Patel said that Kerik's death Thursday came after an unspecified 'private battle with illness'. Rudy Giuliani, the Republican former city mayor, who tapped Kerik as a bodyguard for his 1993 mayoral campaign and later appointed him to lead the NYPD, reflected on their long history on his podcast on Thursday. 'We've been together since the beginning. He's like my brother,' Giuliani, also the troubled former lawyer for Donald Trump, said through tears. 'I was a better man for having known Bernie. I certainly was a braver and stronger man.' The current New York City mayor, Eric Adams, a Democrat and also a former NYPD officer, said he'd visited Kerik, his 'friend of nearly 30 years', at a hospital earlier in the day. Kerik, an Army veteran, was hailed as a hero after the 9/11 attack and eventually nominated to head the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), before a dramatic fall from grace that ended with him behind bars. He served nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty in 2009 to tax fraud, making false statements and other charges. The charges stemmed partially from apartment renovations he received from a construction firm that authorities say wanted Kerik to convince New York officials it had no links to organized crime. During Kerik's sentencing, the judge noted that he committed some of the crimes while serving as 'the chief law enforcement officer for the biggest and grandest city this nation has'. Trump pardoned Kerik during a 2020 clemency blitz. Kerik was one of the guests feting Trump after his first federal court appearance in Florida in a case related to his handling of classified documents. Kerik grew up in Paterson, New Jersey, where he dropped out of the troubled Eastside high school later depicted in the 1989 film Lean on Me. He joined the Army, where he became a military policeman stationed in South Korea. He joined the NYPD in the late 1980s and was appointed in the 1990s to run New York's long-troubled jail system, including the city's notorious Riker's Island complex. Kerik was appointed by Giuliani to serve as police commissioner in 2000..
