Latest news with #politicians
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Marjorie Taylor Greene posted rifle photo after news of Minnesota lawmaker shootings. Here's context
Claim: U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted a photo showing her aiming a rifle soon after news broke of the shootings involving Minnesota Democratic Party lawmakers in June 2025. Rating: Context: Greene, or a member of her staff, posted the picture on her official House representative social media pages, along with three other photos showing her participating in the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary event in Washington on the morning of June 14 — several hours after the shootings occurred. News had broken locally in Minnesota about the shootings at that hour, but many prominent national news outlets had not yet reported on them. A spokesman for Greene did not say whether she was aware of the shootings at the time. She later shared a post calling the shootings "horrific" and saying she was praying for victims' families and friends, adding, "Political violence must end in America." A rumor that circulated online in June 2025 claimed U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted a photo on her official social media accounts showing her aiming a rifle soon after news broke of shootings involving Minnesota Democratic Party lawmakers. Snopes received reader mail asking, for example, "It's being shared on Facebook that Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a picture of herself firing an assault rifle in response to the news of the political assassinations in MN. Can you verify or debunk? Thanks." Another reader emailed, "Did MTG really post this right after the Minnesota assassinations?" For example, on June 14 — the day of the shootings — a manager of the Feminist News Facebook page posted (archived) in part, "Minutes after news broke that two Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota were targeted for assassination in separate attacks, Marjorie Taylor Greene posted this." Users shared this rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). (Feminist News/Facebook) It is true that Greene shared that photograph in the hours after the Minnesota shootings, but the timeline of her posts and the news about the shootings requires context. Greene posted the picture, as well as three others, in support of the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary event, the commemoration featuring a military parade attended by President Donald Trump, held in Washington on June 14 — the same day as the shootings. She, or a member of her staff, shared the photos on social media after some news outlets, particularly those based in Minnesota, reported the early details of multiple targeted shootings. At the same time, her posts appeared before some prominent national outlets, including The Associated Press, Fox News, Reuters and others, broke the news of the victims' high-profile status as Democratic Party politicians and their spouses. Later on June 14, Greene posted a statement about the shootings on her social media accounts. The statement (archived) read in part, "The politically motivated assassinations of Minnesota lawmakers is horrific. I'm praying for their families and friends. Political violence must end in America." Snopes emailed a representative for Greene asking if they wished to comment about this claim, including inquiring about whether or not the congresswoman was aware of the shootings at the time the photos were published. Spokesman Alec Ernst said it was "DISGUSTING" to suggest that the photos were posted in connection with the Minnesota shootings and reiterated that Greene was taking part in the Army anniversary event that day, "joining members of the Army on the National Mall for demonstrations of their equipment and workout routines." He did not say whether Greene knew about the shootings when the posts were made. We also contacted a manager of the Feminist News Facebook page to ask about their post, in light of the timeline of when news broke nationally about the shootings. We will update this story if we receive more information. On June 16, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Vance Luther Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minnesota, with stalking and murdering Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, in addition to stalking and shooting Minnesota State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office in Minnesota announced Boelter also faces state charges on two counts of second-degree intentional murder and two counts of second-degree attempted intentional murder. The state said it intended to seek first-degree murder charges, and that the reason authorities filed second-degree charges was "to secure a warrant as quickly as possible." The New York Times reported the shootings, occurring on June 14, began at around 2:00 a.m. CDT at the Hoffman residence in Champlin, then ended with a suspect running from law enforcement officers at the Hortmans' Brooklyn Park home about 3:30 a.m. At 2:43 a.m., a manager of the MN Crime X account (@MN_CRIME), which posts about crimes around the state's capital and other areas, began a thread (archived) sharing early news of the Hoffmans' shooting. Then, at 4:33 a.m., another post in the same thread reported victims' statuses as state politicians. The post (archived) read, "Per radio dispatches, there have been shootings at a State Senator's house in Champlin and a State Representative's home in Brooklyn Park. We don't have any information on the second shooting incident, nor confirmed updates on the victims' condition." Just before 5:30 a.m., Minnesota officials broadcast an "emergency alert" message (archived) with the status of "extreme," stating that the Brooklyn Park Police Department issued a "shelter in place order" to some residents for an "emergent event" involving "multiple targeted shootings." The message did not mention any details about the victims' status in state politics. Local news media outlets began (archived) reporting (archived) these early details about the developing story around the same time. At 8:36 a.m. — 9:36 a.m. in Washington — Greene posted (archived) four photos on her official House representative X account — including the rifle picture — showing her enjoying festivities at the Army's 250th anniversary event, including giving attendees an up-close look at military vehicles and weapons. The post featured American flag emojis and read, "Happy 250th Anniversary to the @USArmy !! The National Mall is hosting the coolest and most patriotic celebration today and I can't wait for the parade this evening!! Today, let's celebrate AMERICA!! God bless the USA!!" A short time later, at 9:02 a.m. CDT, Juliette Kayyem, CNN's senior national security analyst, reported on the cable news TV channel that someone had targeted two Democratic legislators, and their spouses, in their homes. At 9:20 a.m., Greene posted the same photos and message on her House representative Facebook (archived) and Instagram (archived) accounts. Then, at 9:24, she appeared live (archived) on the Real America's Voice channel for an interview from the same grounds in Washington that offered attendees a chance to see and experience the military equipment. MSNBC then reported the news, including specifically mentioning the Democratic lawmakers, on air at 9:30 a.m., followed by Fox News' TV channel at 9:32 a.m. The Associated Press published the news on X (archived) at 9:40 a.m., followed by an article (archived) on the Fox News website at 9:44 a.m. Reuters reported (archived) the news on X at 9:45 a.m. At 9:46 a.m., Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced the names of the victims at a news conference. For further reading, a previous fact check confirmed the claim that Greene bought shares of Palantir Technologies days before the Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced a $30 million contract with the company. "After Two-Day Manhunt, Suspect Charged with Shooting Two Minnesota Lawmakers and Their Spouses." United States Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, 16 June 2025, @AP. X, Beno, Leah. "#Breaking: A Shelter in Place Order Has Been Put into Effect in Part of Brooklyn Park. We Are Actively Working to Confirm Various Details, Calls Coming into Our Newsroom." X, @LeahBenoFox9, 14 June 2025, "Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene." Facebook, Dominguez, Leo, and Ashley Cai. "How the Minnesota Shootings, Manhunt and Suspect's Arrest Unfolded." The New York Times, 15 June 2025, Dorgan, Michael. "Minnesota Lawmaker, Spouse, Shot Dead in 'Politically Motivated Assassination': Gov. Walz." Fox News, 14 June 2025, Haworth, Jon, et al. "Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman Killed, State Sen. John Hoffman Wounded in 'Targeted Political Violence.'" ABC News, 14 June 2025, "Hennepin County Attorney's Office Confirms Multiple Charges against Vance Luther Boelter, Will Seek First-Degree Murder Charges." Hennepin County, Minnesota, 16 June 2025, "LIVE | Minnesota Lawmaker Shootings News Conference." YouTube, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, 14 June 2025, @MN_CRIME. X, @Reuters. X, "TV News Archive." Internet Archive, Yamat, Rio, and Hallie Golden. "Many Lawmakers Named in Writings of Suspected Minnesota Shooter Vow Not to Bow Down." The Associated Press, 17 June 2025, June 19, 2025: This story was updated to correct a mention of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's party affiliation.
Forbes
13 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
Whatever They Do, Don't Let Them Reform An ‘Insolvent' Social Security
Let's start with the obvious, now and in the future Social Security payments aren't remotely imperiled. It's said here over and over again, but rates saying once again, that the surest sign that present and future Social Security payments (including COLA increases) are safe and sound is the certain lack of a 'lockbox' or 'trust fund.' In the past, Social Security collections that weren't sent out to retirees were predictably spent by politicians who exist to spend. In the future, shortfalls in Social Security collections relative to outgoings will be paid for by general revenues flowing into Treasury. Which is why reform of Social Security, reduced benefits, or delayed retirement age promoted by the various Social Security alarmists and scolds would be such a bad idea. Yes, you read that right. Reform of Social Security would be an awful idea precisely because it would lead to bigger government. Outlandish? Not really. Stop and think about it. In thinking about it, let's be clear that Social Security, like Medicare, was itself a bad idea. Really bad. The very notion that we need or needed government to provide for retirement in a world and nation dense with all manner of financial services firms eager to put our savings to work in pursuit of retirement nest eggs insults foolish. Just think how much bigger all of our retirements would be if the U.S. Treasury hadn't been the recipient of so much of our earnings each paycheck, not to mention the equal amount contributed by our employers. Still, if there's a positive to Social Security it's that what's a bad idea has the potential to account for a growing share of federal dollars flowing out of Washington. The latter worries the Washington Post's Catherine Rampell, along with libertarians like the Cato Institute's Romina Boccia, but this situation should cheer those who prefer erecting roadblocks to government growth wherever we can find them. Rampell and Boccia worry about the federal government not having enough money to spend as Social Security accounts for a growing share of federal outlays, but perhaps at least Boccia could be convinced that this is a feature of Social Security's allegedly looming 'insolvency.' As is argued in my upcoming book The Deficit Delusion, the bigger the take of Social Security from general revenues, the fewer opportunities for politicians on either side to dream up new ways of spending our money. The simple, economy-sapping truth is that most government programs start out small, only to grow big. The growth is an effect of every program having at least one constituent on both sides of the aisle in Congress. Once sponsors can be found on both sides, it's hard to kill what shouldn't have been given life to begin with. So, while Social Security remains a bad idea, it's a bad idea that we all know, and that most of us have worked around. See the earlier comment about the density of financial service firms. Rather than give the political class new dollars to dream up new programs, it's better to simply allow Social Security to 'crowd them out.' So-called 'insolvency' can't come soon enough.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
How could politics shape the Scotland of 2050?
Scotland's politicians are all pretty focused on 2026 right now, with a Holyrood election less than a year should they be concentrating on longer-term objectives - and what Scotland could look like in 2050?A conference in Edinburgh invited leaders to think beyond the short-termism of the five-year electoral in an era where many voters feel politicians are all the same, perhaps we can learn more about their policies via their ultimate vision for the country. Scotland and the world are likely to be largely unrecognisable by back at the last 25 years and think about how the way we work, communicate, socialise and navigate our way through our lives has advances are a massive part of this. At the turn of the millennium you had to ask your mum to get off the landline phone so you could use the dial-up the WiFi hub connected to every other item in the house is probably the only thing plugged into that phone that change is not slowing down - it is accelerating exponentially. Algorithms already help decide what we watch on TV, who we date, and what content scrolls through our social media it so hard to imagine that in a few years' time they'll be driving our cars, diagnosing our illnesses and managing our financial markets?Politicians are always very keen to talk about new technology; nobody wants to be left Scottish government is going to set up its own AI agency to make sure innovations are shared across the public is Scotland well placed to forge into a new digital future?At Scotland 2050, Michael McLaughlin from legal firm Shoosmiths talked about a "massive skills gap" in recently represented a company looking to hire 70 developers for a big tech project; they ended up finding 85% of them argues that politicians and the private sector need to "get round the table and decide what we want to be good at in 25 years' time" - to prioritise four or five sectors and encourage and train people to work in Spowage from the Fraser of Allander Institute also urged leaders to focus on the economic strengths we already have - like financial services and world-class universities - rather than chasing fads. If there was one theme which came from the business leaders involved in the event, it was the need for consistency and policy certainty. Firms simply will not invest in jobs, infrastructure or training without that investment and growing the economy is a priority shared by all political parties. But it is striking how different their approaches are to achieving SNP has long had big government at its heart, proudly championing universal allowances, interventions in the lives of citizens and in the market and higher taxes to pay for contrast the Conservatives are more keen to slim down the size of the state while cutting taxes and "red tape".Meanwhile Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar popped up at the conference to argue for something in the middle - cutting taxes, but replacing that with income from economic growth which would maintain public intelligence is a key example of a buzzword field which politicians love to talk about, but which will need a concerted effort to use in a joined-up point about skills and focus is an important one, given finite resources - but the conference also heard that there are opportunities which could be Airey from German energy giant EnBW pointed out that Scotland produces more energy than it uses, but that the current state of the national grid makes it hard to transfer it down that infrastructure is a UK government priority, but Mr Airey suggested that Scotland could also look to house power-hungry AI data centres, which are best located in cold could put us at the heart of an industry set for exponential growth - and the excess heat from the servers could even be funnelled to nearby homes and businesses. Using Scotland's potential for renewable energy production as a cornerstone of the economy of 2050 was also highlighted by John Swinney, with the first minister suggesting it could lead to cheaper food production as well as products being made closer to offered a vision of "energy rich Scotland meaning energy rich Scots".Energy and climate more generally is certainly an area where the Scottish government has set ambitious goals - although it has also routinely fallen short of insist they are still on track to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2045 - five years ahead of the UK government goal of on from fossil fuels will represent a seismic change - the oil industry still provides tens of thousands of jobs and billions of pounds of economic activity; household energy prices are set based on the price of will have plenty of knock-on effects too, like the move to electric cars. The sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles is to be phased out by 2035, so by 2050 there will be next to none left on the is well-placed to tap into alternative forms of energy, with a wealth of renewable potential from wind and wave this is still an area where there are stark differences in the vision of the Swinney's SNP is not quite the same party that declared a climate emergency and brought the Greens into government, but it is still clear that it is prioritising renewable detail beyond that is difficult to pin down, because the government has still not published its long-promised energy also has a clear goal of phasing out oil and gas, but is pushing for a bigger move towards nuclear energy - something the SNP Conservatives meanwhile have gone in the opposite direction, pushing opposition to the difficult trade-offs involved in the transition to net zero. Something we can't ignore in all of this is that Scotland's population is going to look very different by 2050 the National Records of Scotland has projected forward to 2047, and thinks we are on track for modest population the average age of Scots is projected to increase, with the number of people over 75 set to grow by 341,300, up against falls in the numbers under 15 (down by 79,900) and aged 16 to 29 (down by 57,300).That puts increasing strain on the state, given current commitments to things like free personal care and the "triple lock" on are issues which are inextricably knitted into questions about our future economy and workforce - and which politicians are notoriously shy of grappling with, given older people reliably turn up to with Holyrood's social security bill set to be £2bn higher than the block grant coming from Westminster by 2030, questions about how sustainable this is are Freeman was the social security secretary who set up Scotland's devolved welfare agency, and even she says that governments - including the one she served in - "dodge the decision" about what the care system should look like and how it should be paid said governments of all stripes need to have "proper conversations" with voters about big issues - including things like the triple lock, which she said was "well worth a debate".Ms Freeman also noted that the danger of short-term political promises is that increasingly, "people just don't believe them". Anything is possible That feels particularly true for younger conference reflected that many young people are finding it harder to make their way in the world than their parents' generation - from the job market to the housing emergency, to the constant scrutiny of social Barnes, from the John Smith Centre, warned that some young people have so little optimism for the future that they are losing faith in democratic politics group recently ran a poll asking young people whether they would prefer dictatorship to democracy, and 27% of respondents chose an extreme example, but it rings true after a decade where the defining political force in almost every corner of the world has been is inherently linked to an era of exponential change - it is unsettling, and it leaves people grasping for they feel the government of the day isn't delivering stability or certainty, it isn't surprising that dissatisfaction with institutions is growing - or that some are willing to throw votes behind those who promise to listen to them, and to shake things Swinney has certainly detected this mood; he talked about "listening to the public and addressing the strain they feel on the cost of living".Over the longer term his answer, unsurprisingly enough, is we didn't learn anything new about the parties' positions during this conference - Swinney didn't offer any new insight on how the SNP might force the matter if its calls for a referendum continue to be blanked, for when we think again about how much things have changed over the last few decades - devolution, Brexit, five prime ministers in five years - and how much our unpredictable world is likely to change again by 2050, it's fair to conclude that just about anything is possible.
CBS News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Colorado suspends access to state election site to remove some information after Minnesota shootings
Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold closed off access to the state's online election database, known as "TRACER," over the weekend, amid concerns about publicly available private information about politicians in the aftermath of the politically-motivated shootings and killings in Minnesota. "Addresses and other personal information is on TRACER," Griswold said. "The reason it's on there is for public transparency. There is the ability for elected officials and candidates to request that their addresses are redacted, and so we wanted to give folks enough time to do that, and temporarily took TRACER down." The site is where political candidates post their information to comply with election finance requirements, among other information. The site Monday carried the message, "Down for maintenance," which Griswold pointed out, does happen from time to time. After a few seconds on the error message, the website redirects you to another elections landing page on the Colorado Secretary of State's Office's website. TRACER, Colorado's online elections database, was taken down by the Colorado Secretary of State's Office as election officials and elected officials review private information on the site after the politically-motivated killing of a state representative and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife in Minnesota. CBS She said she had talked with legislative leadership and other statewide elected leaders about the existence of the information on the public database. "Out of abundance of caution, we wanted to make sure that officials had the ability to think about whether they wanted their addresses redacted," Griswold said. There are many places where people's private information can be potentially obtained online, but Griswold said the killing of a state representative and her husband and the shooting of a state senator and his wife in Minnesota made the review timely. Griswold herself has been the subject of repeated threats, particularly following the 2020 elections. Four people have been convicted of charges related to making threats directed at her. "It's coming from the real facts that elected officials are under increased threats. I myself received, just in 2024, over 1,800 death threats or physical threats. It is scary, and I think we have to take that as a fact of where this country is right now," she said. "And for me, weighing the choices of the safety of elected officials, Republicans and Democrats, and a brief outage of Tracer, that the choice was very clear." Griswold said she had asked lawmakers if they wanted information like home addresses, which is not required, to be removed. The process of redacting information was taking time, and she said the site would likely remain down, but for a period of days, not weeks.
CTV News
3 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
John Rustad accuses former Conservative MLAs of ‘blackmail'
The leader of B.C.'s Opposition is calling out former party members, accusing them of threatening to release secret recordings and private messages.
