It looks like conservatives have found their latest Hollywood spokesperson in the star of Dawson’s Creek. (Or so they think.)
On Tuesday, actor James Van Der Beek took to Instagram to call out the Democratic National Committee for their unified backing of President Joe Biden, who’s preparing to announce his bid for re-election in 2024. Currently, the DNC has no primary debates scheduled for Biden and his handful of Democratic opponents, which has led to some outcry from the party members, like former Ohio Senator Nina Turner, and Biden’s presidential challengers, Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy.
“I cannot get over the fact that the Democratic National Committee is saying there will not be a debate to decide the nominee for president,” the 46-year-old actor said, while pushing his child in a stroller. “Are you fucking kidding me? There’s no debate?”
“There’s no debate over an 80-year-old man who, if he lives, will be the oldest sitting president in the history of the country?” he continued. “And if he doesn’t live, has a vice president whose approval rating is worse than his?”
Ostensibly, Van Der Beek is not a huge fan of the current administration, which is not a particularly unique sentiment based on Biden’s ever-decreasing approval rating. Concerns over Biden’s age have also been a popular subject of debate within and outside of party lines.
‘This guy has obviously declining mental faculties,” the actor said in the video. “You’re putting him up in front of a podium with flashcards telling him who to call on and what the questions are going to be. And you’re telling us there’s no debate? What about the will of the people?”
It didn’t take long for right-wing pundits to lift Van Der Beek up as their new celebrity hero.
This morning, conservative commentators like Fox & Friends’ Steve Doocy applauded the Varsity Blues star for “ripping into” the DNC and interpreting his words as an alignment with the Republican Party. The host did not mention the fact that two-time presidential hopeful Donald Trump has also weighed skipping out on the Republican National Committee’s primary debates.
“I never would’ve believed that Dawson Leery from Dawson’s Creek back in the day would make more sense analyzing the Democrat state of the presidential nomination fight than anyone on MSNBC or CNN combined,” right-wing pundit Clay Travis gleefully told Doocy in one Fox & Friends segment.
“I watched this video,” he continued. “And I was like, this guy deserves to be sitting on a panel analyzing everything that’s going on right now.”
In another Fox segment later in the day, anchor Bill Hemmer played Van Der Beek’s comments for RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, before reminding viewers that the Pose star recently moved from Los Angeles to Texas. (Nothing gets Fox News more excited apparently than a “Hollywood liberal” moving to the Bible Belt.)
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham’s recent comments during his Friday meeting with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in the war-torn country caused outrage and fury in Moscow, with the head of RT Margarita Simonyan calling for his assassination.
In a video clip of the meeting, Graham’s comments were spliced in a way that made it seem that the Senator stated that the fact that Russians “are dying” in the invasion is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” In fact, Graham said that the U.S. aid to Ukraine—and not specifically the deaths of the Russians—was a valuable investment in global security for the United States.
Watch the meeting below:
“Senator [Lindsey] Graham has something to compare with. One of their [US] investments led to World War II and the Holocaust,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed in a statement on Telegram.
State TV host Vladimir Solovyov followed Zakharova’s lead on his program, Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, as he angrily exclaimed: “Your dirty American money also fully supported the Nazi regime in Germany! You are a Nazi beast and you’re following in the footsteps of your predecessors. I’ll repeat it once again: you will croak, but the Russian people will live forever!”
On his Telegram account, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev called Graham, “an old fool” and resorted to thinly-veiled threats:
“In his beloved America, not only ordinary people are regularly killed, but dirty money is also being spent on killing senators. He should recall the sad fate of Robert Kennedy, Huey Long, Clementa Carlos Pinckney, John Milton Elliott, Wayne Owens and other American politicians.”
Alleviating any doubt about the meaning of Medvedev’s comments, Simonyan went even further during her appearance on Solovyov’s Sunday show.
After first acknowledging that Graham’s statements may have been portrayed in a video out of context, Simonyan said that she ordered her staff “to look into it.”
She invoked the name of a Soviet Lieutenant General Pavel Sudoplatov, who was involved in several major intelligence operations, including the assassination of Leon Trotsky.
Simonyan ominously pointed out: “If Lady Graham really said that the money for the killing of Russians is the best money the US ever spent… I hope that in our country, the sons or grandchildren of Sudoplatov are alive, his pupils, or the descendants of his pupils. It’s not even hard. We have his address.”
The head of RT explained her bloodlust by the need for retribution: “I have no ill will towards anyone and our religion tells us to forgive, but no one tells us to reward these types of things.
When we don’t act in response to these things, it is the same as encouraging them. It causes them to become increasingly more brazen.”
Simonyan, who was one of the most proactive cheerleaders of the invasion, frequently complains about living in the crosshairs of vengeful Ukrainians, which she describes as an “unpleasant” feeling.
In turn, she wants an American Senator to fear the arrival of a Russian assassination squad.
Graham’s complete remarks, released by the Ukrainian president’s office, did not link the US aid to Ukraine with the comment that Russians are dying in their failing war.
Graham praised the spirit of Ukrainians in successfully resisting a Russian invasion, with aid of the United States.
The U.S. Senator told Zelensky that the Ukrainian resistance reminded him of “our better selves in America. There was a time in America that we were this way, fighting to the last person, we were going to be free or die.” Zelensky replied:
“Now you are free—and we will be.” Graham added: “And the Russians are dying.” The Ukrainian president responded: “Yes, but they came to our territory. We are not fighting on their territory.”
Graham later told Reuters, “It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals… Mr. Medvedev, if you want Russians to stop dying in Ukraine, withdraw. Stop the invasion. Stop the war crimes. The truth is that you and (President Vladimir) Putin could care less about Russian soldiers.”
On Friday, Donald Trump Jr. shared a deepfake video of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis edited into a scene from The Office in which Michael Scott, played by Steve Carrell, is humiliated by his coworkers for accidentally wearing a woman’s pantsuit.
“DeSantis does seem to spend a lot of time in high heels 🤣🤣🤣,” Trump Jr. added in his tweet.
Both former president Donald Trump and Trump Jr. have consistently torn into DeSantis as the governor plans to contend with Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination.
On his online show “Triggered With Don Jr.” earlier this week, Trump’s son had a slip of the tongue during an extensive takedown of DeSantis, who he also referred to as a “failure to launch” with “the policies of a DC swamp rat” and a “nasal and effeminate voice.”
“Trump has the charisma of a mortician, and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look an Olympian,” Trump Jr. said in the gaffe.
The sheriff’s office and the State Attorney’s Office both say Deputy David Crawford fired a Taser by a gas pump, leading to a fire that injured both himself and a man he was attempting to arrest.
Deputies were after Jean Barreto Baerga, accused of driving recklessly in February of 2022. Sheriff Marco Lopez said Baerga was running red lights, riding on the sidewalk and grass, and even headed toward oncoming traffic. Body camera footage shows deputies following him to a Wawa gas station and tackling him to the ground. They pull out a Taser and acknowledge the risk.
“Kill the pump! Kill the pump! There’s gas!” a deputy can be heard shouting over the body camera.
Deputies were injured while attempting to arrest a motorcyclist. During the incident at a gas station, the motorcycle burst into flames.
The state attorney representing Orange and Osceola counties said Deputy David Crawford fired the Taser anyway.
“Deputy Crawford recklessly deployed a taser at the victim who had become soaked in gasoline, and as a result, caused the explosion that injured the victim,” State Attorney Monique Worrell said.
Surveillance video from the Wawa shows Baerga pulling up to the pump to fuel up as the deputies quickly arrive to make an arrest. Then, flames erupt before one person is seen scrambling away to extinguish the flames.
Baerga wound up with burn injuries over about 75% of his body, according to his lawyer, Mark NeJame. The only parts of his body that weren’t burned were his face, because he was wearing a mask; his hands, because he had gloves; and his feet, because he had shoes. The rest is covered in second and third-degree burns that have racked up $7 million in medical expenses.
That’s just the bill so far. Burn injuries make people very sensitive to the sun and susceptible to infection.
Credit: Family of John Beretta via NeJame Law.
Baerga’s lawyers are coming after the Sheriff’s Office for that money.
“They’re going to cost the taxpayers in Osceola County millions,” said NeJame. “There should be consequences, because how else do we stop this type of activity for happening again?”
Deputy Crawford is now charged with culpable negligence, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
“I don’t think it speaks to the severity of the negligence and the severity of the injuries, but I think that it addresses the crime under the current statute,” said NeJame. “I think that the legislature should be cognizant of this and make the appropriate changes so that when this type of behavior occurs, that it does allow for a felony.”
NeJame says the state attorney’s office was considering a felony charge of attempted manslaughter. But manslaughter means basically that things happened by accident. NeJame explained, because of that, it’s hard to prove a person “attempted” an accident. He said that’s how the deputy wound up with just a misdemeanor.
The culpable negligence charge is the same thing Sheriff Marco Lopez recommended to the state attorney’s office a year ago. At that time, the sheriff pointed out that the deputies acknowledged the gas pumps and the risk of fire.
“After that statement, he picked up the discarded taser that was in the gas and says, ‘You’re about to get tased, dude.’”
When FOX 35 News asked the sheriff’s office for comment on charges being filed today, it said, “We feel it’s appropriate to let the criminal justice system determine if Deputy Crawford did a criminal act that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
NeJame’s team said Crawford was never fired from the sheriff’s office, despite the criminal investigation. Instead, he’s been on paid administrative leave.
Amid a culture-war storm that has hit several American companies in recent weeks, including Bud Light and Target, LGBTQ+ rights advocates and anti-trans activists are now focusing on Walmart’s approach to the debate and putting the company’s marketing strategy under increased scrutiny.
After calls to boycott Target over its trans-friendly products—part of its Pride season’s collection—the American retailer announced on Tuesday that it was removing some items in its Pride collection.
The decision was seen as a small victory by anti-trans activists, which have appeared galvanized by the retailer’s move and eager to put another company that sells Pride-related merchandise—Walmart—under the same amount of scrutiny.
“We’ve backed #Target into a corner for selling #Pride merch in the children’s section. Now we go for #Walmart. These woke companies need to know that enough is enough. Not ONE MORE F****** DAY. They’re NOT GETTING our kids,” tweeted one user on Wednesday.
We've backed #Target into a corner for selling #Pride merch in the children's section. Now we go for #Walmart. These woke companies need to know that enough is enough. Not ONE MORE FUCKING DAY. They're NOT GETTING our kids. pic.twitter.com/i43BDwj6fQ
— ThePatrioticBlonde🇺🇸 (@ImBreckWorsham) May 24, 2023
“TARGET and WALMART are selling this PRIDE book. I cancelled my Walmart+ membership and removed the Target App. Book targets 4-8 year olds. Walmart, the top U.S. retailer and the third largest in the world,” wrote another.
TARGET 🎯 and WALMART are selling this PRIDE book. I cancelled my Walmart+ membership and removed the Target App. Book targets 4-8 year olds. pic.twitter.com/ldF9WXGTFT
“It is EVERYWHERE. Walmart,” tweeted another user sharing a picture of a Pride-friendly product for pets.
But Walmart is also now being looked at by trans rights and LGBTQ+ activists as one of the companies worthy of being supported for not having yet caved to the pressure exerted by the culture wars.
“@Walmart hasn’t stopped selling #Pride merchandise. Go to Walmart. If you give in to magats, you don’t get my business. We need to defend ourselves and others. We need to defend democracy. Silence is complicity. #AllyToAll,” tweeted one user calling for a boycott of Target.
“I can’t believe Target is out here making Walmart look woke. Do better, @Target!” tweeted another user.
Target has not removed all of its Pride-themed merchandise but has not yet said which specific items it will stop selling on its website and in its stores as they are still under review. The satanic-themed products were immediately removed, according to Reuters.
In recent months, several major brands—including Adidas and Nike—have been hit by backlash after featuring trans models and influencers in their promotional campaigns.
Bud Light, which offered a paid sponsorship deal to trans activist and social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April, was the subject of a major boycott last month called by conservative customers who felt the company had betrayed its core values.
Similar threats were made to Target, whose trans-friendly swimsuits—part of its Pride month’s clothing collection—became the object of massive controversy online. The anger of anti-trans activists—including conservatives, feminists and some gay rights groups—focused on a few items in the collection, including genderfluid and “tuck-friendly” swimsuits and a satanic-themed queer-friendly T-shirt. “Tuck-friendly” items allow for trans women who have not had gender-affirming surgery to conceal their private parts.
Despite the backlash, some customers were supportive of Target’s initiative, praising the retailer’s Pride collection for getting “better every year,” as one wrote on Twitter.
Celebrities including Kathy Griffin, Rosie O’Donnell and Chelsea Handler have spoken out in recent months to deny claims that they spent time on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s private Caribbean island, Little St. James.
Following Epstein’s death by apparent suicide in jail in 2019, lists have been shared on social media purporting to show the high-profile people who had visited the island, which is east of Puerto Rico in the United States Virgin Islands. Epstein purchased the island in 1998 and owned it until his death.
Additionally, there are allegations that a host of stars flew on Epstein’s private jet, which was used to transport guests to the island and derisively called the “Lolita Express” following allegations that it was used to fly underage girls to some of his properties.
Several celebrities’ names have been baselessly added to the mix of Epstein’s guests by a faction of social media users who have targeted public figures as part of an apparent campaign to link them to the disgraced financier’s crimes.
A Daily Mail article published in February claimed that soon-to-be-unsealed court documents from Epstein’s case are “expected to include information pertaining to at least one ‘public figure.'”
According to the outlet, court documents refer to “alleged perpetrators” or individuals accused of “serious wrongdoing.” The people are not named in the filing.
The report added fuel to conspiracy theories about a number of celebrities accused of flying to Epstein’s island aboard his jet. Then-Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is now a New York Jet, suggested in February that there was an Epstein “client list.”
There is no evidence that those who visited Epstein’s island or flew on his private jet were engaged in any illegal activity.
The Claim
In addition to certain celebrities, Disney Cruise Line was recently hit with allegations that it offers an itinerary that includes visits to Epstein’s island.
Musician and conservative commentator Dom Lucre, who is also known as Dominick Andrew McGee, made the claim in a Twitter post shared on May 18.
“Did you know that Disney […] Was Sending Kids To Epstein’s Island For Snorkeling Trips?” Lucre wrote. “The Disney cruise ship stopped at Little Saint James Island for day trips for years despite Epstein’s history of pedophilia.”
Did you know that Disney sent Was Sending Kids To Epstein’s Island For Snorkeling Trips? The Disney cruise ship stopped at Little Saint James Island for day trips for years despite Epstein's history of pedophilia. pic.twitter.com/KaZYub2vCJ
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) May 18, 2023
Attached to the post, which has been viewed more than 800,000 times, is a screenshot of an itinerary that describes a “snorkel stop [at] Little St. James Island—where curious fish dark back and forth in the clear blue water, and colorful coral formations nestle next to amazing underwater formations.”
“See for yourself,” Lucre added in a follow-up tweet as he shared a link to a website called “Magical Kingdoms,” which describes the 3.5-hour excursion.
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) May 18, 2023
The outing is listed as recommended for visitors aged 8 and above, with children’s prices set at $60 apiece. The adult price, for visitors age 10 and over, is listed as $75.
“Captain Nautica’s Snorkeling Expedition,” as it is titled, is also listed as including a stop at nearby Turtle Cove, Buck Island.
The itinerary is one of several listed on the website, though the only one that names Little St. James among its island stops.
The Facts
There are no credible sources saying that Disney Cruise Line’s vessels make stops, or have ever stopped, at Little St. James.
In April 2022, the Associated Press reported that Disney denied claims its cruises made stops at Epstein’s private island, or had any affiliation with it.
“The island, as well as another location, were included in the description of a third-party tour so that participants could identify the areas where snorkeling would be available,” a statement from Disney read. “The tour had no connection to the island itself and Disney has never had plans involving the island.”
NPR reported this month that Little St. James and the neighboring Great St. James—also previously owned by Epstein—were purchased by financier Stephen Deckoff for $60 million through his SD Investments firm. According to the outlet, plans are afoot to turn the islands into a resort destination.
The erroneous claims regarding Disney and Epstein were part of a number of false claims attempting to link both parties and incorrectly paint the entertainment conglomerate as sympathetic to pedophiles and predatory to young children.
When the false allegations arose last year, Disney had made headlines for criticizing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education bill. The bill, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, says that “a school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
It also says that parents “may bring an action against a school district to obtain a declaratory judgment that a school district procedure or practice violates this paragraph and seek injunctive relief. A court may award damages and shall award reasonable attorney fees and court costs to a parent who receives declaratory or injunctive relief.”
After DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill into law in March 2022, Disney said in a statement: “Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.”
Disney, which continues to be at loggerheads with DeSantis, has since faced criticism from a faction of conservatives angered by the company’s stance.
While Disney’s parent company is headquartered in Burbank, California, its massive theme park in Florida employs roughly 80,000 people in the state’s central region.
The Ruling
False. Disney has said that the excursion in question, which was listed by a third-party tour operator, did not include a stop at Little St. James, nor was the company affiliated with the island.
There are no credible sources that dispute Disney’s assertion, and no evidence that its cruise ships have ever made stops at Little St. James.
The allegations arose as part of a smear campaign against Disney in which detractors attempted to link Epstein to the company after it opposed DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education bill, which was signed into law in 2022.
King Charles has failed to defuse a bitter colonialism row after refusing a request to repatriate the remains of an Ethiopian prince transported to England at the age of 7 who was befriended by Queen Victoria, died at 18, and is buried at Windsor Castle.
Prince Alemayehu was taken to Britain by British soldiers with his mother, Empress Tiruwork Wube, in the late nineteenth century after his father, Emperor Tewodros, committed suicide when his forces were defeated by the British army. British-authored accounts claim that Tewodros ordered Alemayehu and Tiruwork to go to Britain to seek safety before killing himself, but many historians today characterize his transit to Britain as an abduction, and say that Alemayehu was essentially seized as a prize along with countless Abyssinian treasures in an orgy of looting.
The British expedition, which included a representative of the British Museum, seized an astonishing number of artifacts including gold crowns, manuscripts, necklaces and dresses, with elephants used to transport the treasures.
The British also took Prince Alemayehu and his mother, Empress Tiruwork Wube.
The Empress died on the voyage to England and Alemayehu was taken under the care of a naval captain, who, upon their return to England, presented the boy to Queen Victoria. She wrote about his plight sentimentally in her diaries—in one entry she describes him as “a pretty, polite, graceful boy”—but without ever seeming to acknowledge her and her military’s role in his misery.
He became a ward of Victoria when he was 11. She intervened frequently to try and help him, and ensured he received education at Cheltenham School and Rugby College and was enrolled at the officer training camp at Sandhurst. He would visit Balmoral and go out with the gamekeepers and said the countryside reminded him of his childhood home. He was paraded at court and in public and made frequent public appearances that drew enormous crowds. He was described as “public property” in some accounts.
However, his misery intensified as he grew older and he suffered with regular ill-health, possibly from tuberculosis. At the age of 18 he died of pleurisy and was interred, at the queen’s request, in the catacombs of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.
A plaque, reading, “When I was a stranger, ye took me in,” marks his vault.
Victoria wrote in her diaries that his death was “too sad,” lamenting the fact that he had died “in a strange country without seeing a person or relative belonging to him, so young, and so good.”
However, the Palace has once again rejected the calls, telling the BBC that removing his remains could affect royals buried in the same chapel, such as the bodies of Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VIII and George V.
In a statement, a Palace spokesperson said: “It is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity.”
They said they had “the responsibility to preserve the dignity of the departed.”
The statement added that in the past requests had been accommodated by the Royal Household for Ethiopian delegates to visit the chapel where Prince Alemayehu is buried.
However, the failure to exhume the prince will send an unwelcome signal to campaigners trying to get the royal family to acknowledge and atone for its imperial past.
Hopes had been raised that Charles would push this reckoning forward as king after he addressed the issue of slavery at a reception in Rwanda last year, saying: “I cannot describe the depths of my personal sorrow at the suffering of so many, as I continue to deepen my own understanding of slavery’s enduring impact.”
Alemayehu’s descendent Abebech Kasa told the BBC: “We want him back. We don’t want him to remain in a foreign country. He had a sad life. When I think of him I cry. If they agree to return his remains I would think of it as if he came home alive.”
Representative Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, suggested he could launch an investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following the release of the Durham report.
Special counsel John Durham released his report last Monday into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) probe into whether or not former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia. He ultimately concluded the FBI should not have investigated the Trump campaign, as the agency had no evidence of collusion prior to launching the Crossfire Hurricane probe. The report has set off a wave of celebrations from Republicans, who claim it exonerated the former president.
During an appearance on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Jordan discussed the ramifications of the report with host Maria Bartiromo who asked him whether or not the committee would investigate the Clintons over the report.
Jordan took control of the House Judiciary Committee after Republicans retook a slim majority control of the House of Representatives last November during the midterm elections. Since then, Jordan has focused his efforts into investigating members of the Biden administration, accusing them of corruption. But he said he would consider expanding these probes into Clinton, who served as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of state and was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016.
“Do you want to see another investigation of Hillary and Bill Clinton?” Bartiromo asked. “Because in the Durham Report, John Durham wrote that while they were pursuing Trump, they made no effort to investigate the claim that Hillary Clinton was taking money from foreigners for her Clinton global initiative and the Clinton Foundation?”
Jordan hinted that his committee could launch an investigation into the Clintons, adding that “nothing is off the table” because “it is critical the American people understand how their government, their agencies, have turned on them.”
“They not only didn’t investigate her like they did President Trump. They gave her campaign a defensive briefing,” he added. “They should have done the same for President Trump because they had no evidence. We’re going to talk with our lawyers. We’re going to talk with Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy with where we proceed from here.”
What Does the Durham Report Say About Hillary Clinton?
The Durham report accused the FBI of treating Clinton’s presidential campaign differently than Trump’s campaign.
While allegations that Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia received a “full investigation,” the agency only launched a “preliminary investigation” into allegations that foreign governments were funding the Clinton Foundation in exchange for access to the then-presidential candidate, according to the Associated Press.
The discrepancy was despite both investigations being “similarly predicated on unvetted hearsay information,” Durham wrote.
Meanwhile, the report prompted some Republican calls for a new investigation into Clinton. Representative Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, told The Daily Mail that he supports such an investigation.
“The Clintons had a team of people at the FBI running interference for them to avoid criminal culpability,” he said. “These matters absolutely warrant additional exposure and review.”
Source – Roseanne Barr is still mad at ABC and Sara Gilbert.
Of course, we knew that already; the comedian returned to stand-up earlier this year with a Fox Nation special subtly titled Cancel This!and seized her comeback tour as an opportunity to drop some fresh soundbites calling out her former home network for firing her over a tweet about Valerie Jarrett back in 2018. Now, it appears that Barr has returned to prodding her former Roseanneco-star as well.
During a appearance this week on Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM show, the comedian said, “It wasn’t enough that [Gilbert] stabbed me in the back and did what she did to me there, but then she would go on her talk show every day and talk about how shocked she was at my racism on top of it.”
“It was every day,” Barr added, referring to Gilbert’s alleged comments about her on The Talk. “I had done that show when she needed a guest in sweeps; I went on there every time she asked me in sweeps.”
At one point, Barr recalled calling Gilbert; she adopted a lower, gravelly tone as she re-enacted her warning, “You better shut your f—ing mouth about me. I’m telling you, you better shut your f—ing mouth.”
“And she did,” Barr concluded, adding later, “My voice can be very scary.”
ABC fired Barr in 2018 after she posted a tweet mocking Barack Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett with the taunt “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” Gilbert, who created and formerly co-hosted The Talk, called Barr’s tweet “abhorrent” at the time. The network fired Barr hours after she posted her tweet.
But Barr doesn’t seem to believe her tweet was the one to blame at all. Speaking with Kelly about Gilbert, the comedian said, “It was her tweet that canceled the show.”
At another point during her interview, Barr told Kelly that she believes ABC “wanted me to kill myself.” The comedian also claimed that “all” of her friends shared that belief. (She name-checked Norm MacDonald and Bob Einstein, both of whom are now deceased, as examples.) “They said, ‘They’re trying to push you to suicide,’” Barr recounted.
This is far from the first time Barr has spoken out about her firing or Gilbert; perhaps her most colorful quote came in 2019, when she said that her former co-star “will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti.” (A representative for Gilbert did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment at the time.) She has also aired her grievances against ABC and other players in the debacle on multiple occasions.
This February, during an appearance on Fox News, Barr blasted ABC for allegedly refusing to “allow me to go on any of their other shows and apologize” for her tweet—which, at the time, she blamed on Ambien. (In addition to Gilbert, Barr has also claimed that Michelle Obama is responsible for her dismissal.)
Barr believes ABC should have invited her onto its shows whose hosts have faced “more egregious” firestorms of their own. Her main example? Jimmy Kimmel, who apologized in 2020 for past sketches in which he wore blackface.
“Jimmy Kimmel and his [former] girlfriend, Sarah Silverman, they did blackface, and [ABC] never even said ‘It is wrong that you did that,’” Barr said on Fox News in February. “And they just let that go.”
She, on the other hand, does not appear ready to let anything go anytime soon.
“Unfortunately, we can’t track down the informant,” GOP Rep. James Comer told Fox News on Sunday. “We’re hopeful that the informant is still there.”
Don’t let the GOP’s lack of evidence fool you, Joe Biden is guilty of something!
We’re all very hopeful! And we certainly have no reason to doubt Republican claims of vast criminal wrongdoing by Biden. Just last week, the oversight committee released a preliminary report on its four-month-long investigation that showed, definitively, what Fox News’ Steve Doocy described as “no evidence that Joe Biden did anything illegally.”
GOTCHA, SLEEPY JOE! We all know what criminal masterminds like Biden are best at: Not leaving evidence that shows they did anything illegally. Checkmate.
While the committee members try to locate their informant, who is definitely a real human person who exists, and assemble what I’m sure will be mountains of evidence detailing Biden’s crime-doing, let’s consider past Republican promises that have worked out great.
Republicans have never over-promised and under-delivered on putting Democrats in prison
On Monday, special counsel John Durham released a report detailing his four-year investigation into the investigators who investigated former President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump himself had promised Durham’s work would reveal “the crime of the century.”
In February of last year, Trump told Fox News: “Durham is also coming up with things far bigger than anybody thought possible. Nobody ever thought a thing like this would be even discussed, let alone an act like this committed.”
The things nobody ever thought would be discussed were apparently so much bigger than anyone thought possible that Durham’s four-year investigation yielded a whopping two acquittals and one guilty plea resulting in a former FBI lawyer getting sentenced to one-year of probation. Undoubtedly the libs will think twice before again committing the crime of the century.
Durham’s ‘crime of the century’ investigation results in … nothing?
Durham’s report also SLAMMED the FBI and the Justice Department, saying: “This report does not recommend any wholesale changes in the guidelines and policies that the Department and FBI now have in place to ensure proper conduct and accountability in how counterintelligence activities are carried out.” KA-BOOM!
By comparison, what did the two-year investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller yield? A measly 34 people indicted, leading to seven guilty pleas and five prison sentences. And the people sentenced included total no-names like Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, longtime Trump attorney Michael Cohen and longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser (is “national security adviser” even that big a deal???), pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, but was pardoned by Trump prior to sentencing.
Joe Biden will soon join Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in prison!
So Biden had better be shaking in his loafers right now, because he’s about to join the likes of Hillary Clinton behind bars. (I realize the “her” in “Lock her up!” remains decidedly not locked up, but I’m sure it will happen any day now. Those chants couldn’t have all been for nothing.)
And let’s not forget the impeachment, criminal prosecution and locking up of former President Barack Obama, whose many crimes were vaguely detailed over and over by Republicans on Fox News. I’m confident the justice they claimed would surely come for Obama will be coming any minute now, unless it’s out there hiding alongside the House Oversight Committee’s Biden informant. (Has anyone checked to see if they’re in Hunter Biden’s laptop? Definitely the first place I’d look.)
Anyway, we know Republicans under Trump promised to do away with Obamacare, and that is a thing that for sure happened. Also, Trump built the border wall and Mexico paid for it – just ask him.
Proof of a rigged election, a completed border wall – I’m sure it’s all coming soon
Indisputable evidence the 2020 election was rigged will be coming out any day now, presumably alongside the Obamacare-replacement health-care plan Trump promised to deliver “in two weeks” sometime in 2020 and many times thereafter.
Clearly, Republicans are on a winning streak, as evidenced by Trump winning the last presidential election and the GOP “Red Wave” sweeping America in the 2022 midterm elections. So President Biden has ample reason to be concerned about this VERY SERIOUS Republican investigation into nefarious things they want to believe he did.
In other words: Republicans have Biden right where they want him! You never specify the crimes a person is guilty of – you just allege they are guilty of those crimes and let people’s imagination do the rest.
Who needs evidence when the crimes are imagined?
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson explained as much on Fox News: “You have to infer these things, you’re not gonna get necessarily get hard proof.”
Enjoy your final days in office, President Biden, for you will soon be presumed convicted of a multitude of criminal presumptions based on conceptualized evidence wished into existence.
All courtesy of today’s Republican Party, which never lets facts get in the way of imagined victory.
