– Axios Interior Department to invest $1.6 billion for public land upkeep The Department of the Interior announced Friday it will invest $1.6 billion to improve transportation and recreation infrastructure in national parks, wildlife refuges and recreation areas as part of the Great American Outdoors Act passed last year.Why it matters: The department said the investment, which includes improvements for Bureau of Indian Education schools, will support an estimated 18,800 jobs and contribute $2 billion to the nation’s annual gross domestic product.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets.Subscribe for free.What they’re saying: “Through the Great American Outdoors Act, we are investing in the American people, and in the future of our public lands and sacred spaces,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.”We must address the long-delayed maintenance needs of the nation’s aging buildings and infrastructure.Importantly, this funding also honors our commitment to Tribal communities by investing in Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools for current and future generations,” Haaland added.The big picture: The first major expense, $3 million to the National Park Service, will complete the restoration of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.The act grants as much as $1.6 billion for the National Park System yearly to address its multi-billion-dollar deferred maintenance backlog at national parks, on other public lands and at tribal schools, according to the department.Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.- Business Insider Trump advised to turn his back on his right-wing protégé Matt Gaetz who faces a sex trafficking investigation Former President Trump agreed to stay quiet on the sexual assault allegations against Matt Gaetz, a source told The Daily Beast.- USA TODAY Opinion Trump might have ‘found’ the votes he needed to win Georgia under state’s new election law Republican legislators now have more oversight and power over elections and the county officials who count the votes.The secretary of state has less.- Business Insider Trump is calling for a MLB boycott after the league said it would move its All-Star game out of Georgia.
Conservative lawmakers discussed removing the league’s antitrust exemption.Former President Trump on Friday called for a boycott of Major League Baseball, after the league said its All-Star game wouldn’t be held in Atlanta.- LA Times Marc Gasol: Lakers signing Andre Drummond a ‘hard pill to swallow’ In his first public comments since the Lakers signed Andre Drummond, Marc Gasol expresses disappointment in being demoted.
Could he leave the team? – The Daily Beast Capitol Attack Suspect Ranted About the ‘End Times’ Before Allegedly Ramming Officers Getty/Facebook Two weeks before he allegedly rammed his car into two police officers guarding the U.S.Capitol, killing one of them, Noah Green posted an article on his Facebook page titled, “Lull Before the Storm.”“An Intro to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his divine warning to us all during these last days of our world as we know it.Satan’s rule over us is up,” the 25-year-old’s apocalyptic post said, linking to an article from Final Call, the official newspaper of the Nation of Islam.Green’s social media posts suggest he was spiraling in the lead up to the attack on Friday.On the eve of his alleged assault, his brother, Brendan Green, told The Washington Post, he sent a worrying text after leaving the apartment where they lived together.“I’m sorry but I’m just going to go and live and be homeless.
Thank you for everything that you’ve done.I looked up to you when I was a kid.
You inspired me a lot,” the text reportedly read.That message—and the deadly attack that occurred less than 24 hours later—capped off a period that was riddled with red flags.Green’s social media posts described searching for “a spiritual journey” within the Nation of Islam, a religious Muslim sect that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a hate group for its “bizarre theology of innate black superiority over whites” and “deeply racist, antisemitic and anti-gay rhetoric.”Nothing indicated a clear motive for targeting the police, nor the U.S.Capitol building located hours from the stretch of Virginia he had recently called home.But as congressional staff grabbed lunch on Friday, Green allegedly rammed his dark blue sedan into two officers guarding a barricade on a road outside the Capitol.He then jumped out of the car and lunged at officers with a knife, U.S.
Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said, prompting them to fatally shoot him.A senior law enforcement official confirmed to The Daily Beast that Green was the suspect, though he has not yet been officially identified by police.One Capitol Police officer, William “Billy” Evans, died, and a second officer was left hospitalized.He was said to be in stable condition late Friday.Pittman said the suspect was not known to Capitol Police before the attack and there was no indication of “any nexus” to members of Congress.She also said there was no ongoing threat and the suspect didn’t yell anything before being shot.She said that, while an investigation into motive was ongoing, it did not appear to be “terrorism-related.”With the motive still a mystery, further insight into what led to such an attack was found in a series of social media posts the 25-year-old made in the weeks leading up to the incident.
In two lengthy March 17 posts on Green’s Facebook profile, which was taken down shortly after the incident, Green wrote about his recent struggles, and said it was a “major goal” to meet Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.There was no immediate indication that Friday’s attack was religiously motivated, and the Nation of Islam’s Virginia branch and D.C.headquarters did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Green also acknowledged suffering unspecified setbacks in his life recently.“To be honest these past few years have been tough, and these past few months have been tougher,” Green wrote in the March 17 post.“I have been tried with some of the biggest, unimaginable tests in my life.I am currently now unemployed after I left my job partly due to afflictions, but ultimately, in search of a spiritual journey.”Despite the lack of a job, he posted an image of a certificate that said he’d donated $1,085 to the Nation of Islam as a “Saviours’ Day 2021” gift.Green’s brother, Brendan, told the Post that Noah had become paranoid in 2019 and accused football teammates of drugging him with Xanax.He moved out to his own apartment and then abruptly moved to Indianapolis, where he believed there were intruders getting into his apartment.
It was around that time that Brendan said he flew out to see his brother and realized his “mind didn’t seem right.”More recently, his brother said, Green up and moved to Botswana and suggested he had tried to take his own life by jumping in front of a car.After he returned home, Noah Green appeared to view the Nation of Islam as a way to keep himself anchored.In his most recent social media posts, Green wrote that he had been faced with “fear, hunger, loss of wealth, and diminution of fruit” in recent months, and was being sustained by faith “centered on the belief of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as Jesus, the Messiah.”He also alluded to more mainstream trappings of young adulthood.He posted that he had graduated with distinction, landed a good job out of college, and pursued a graduate degree “despite not growing up in the best of circumstances.”Green played football in high school, and a bio from Christopher Newport University said he was born in Fairlea, West Virginia, and has seven brothers and two sisters.Calls to his siblings and parents went unanswered on Friday.Public records show he enrolled in a graduate course at Florida State University this year, after majoring in marketing at Glenville State College.In the Christopher Newport bio, he said his dream vacation spot was Jamaica and the person he’d most like to meet was Malcolm X.“He was always super sweet to me and all of his friends loved him, we were all sad to see him leave Glenville,” Alaina Funk, a friend of the suspect, told The Daily Beast.At one point, Green wrote, perhaps alluding to the alleged incident in 2019, he experienced an “array of concerning symptoms” that he believed were “side effects of drugs I was intaking unknowingly.”He also said he was on track to go into business, but his path was “thwarted.”It was unclear from his Facebook page how recently he became involved with Nation of Islam.
Older posts centered around football and college rather than religion.
His grandmother, who died in 2019 from a long illness, was Baptist, her obituary said.But, by March, Green’s posts appeared to be consumed by religious warnings about the end days.“I encourage everyone to study Revelations, study the signs of the end times, study who the beast is, study who the anti-Christ is, study who the false prophet is, and study the created images during those times.The Minister is here to save me and the rest of humanity, even if it means facing death,” he wrote on March 17, before ominously ending the post with, “We have a little time.”Court records in Indiana, where he was once listed as living at an Indianapolis address, show that he sought to change his name recently.In December 2020, he filed a petition to legally change his name to Noah Zaeem Muhammad.But after he failed to show up for a hearing earlier this week and the court apparently did not hear from him, the matter was dismissed and the case declared “closed.”—with reporting by Pilar MelendezRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day.
Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you.Learn more.- Reuters Taiwan prosecutors seek arrest warrant for suspect in deadly train crash HUALIEN, Taiwan (Reuters) -Taiwanese prosecutors have sought an arrest warrant for a construction site manager whose truck is believed to have caused a train accident that killed at least 50 people, as authorities warned on Saturday more bodies could be found in the wreckage.Friday’s crash, Taiwan’s worst rail accident in seven decades, occurred after an express train hit a truck that had slid down a bank next to the track from a construction site.
The manager of the construction site is suspected of having failed to engage the brake properly.- Raleigh News and Observer Super Mario Bros.game left in a desk drawer for 35 years sells for a record price “Who doesn’t love Mario?” – FOX News Videos Biden flies to Camp David for Easter; Illegal immigration surge continues Correspondent Peter Doocy has the latest White House news on ‘Special Report’ from the North Lawn – Axios Police identify officer slain in vehicle attack on Capitol as 18-year veteran Willam Evans Capitol Police Officer William “Billy” Evans, who served for 18 years, is dead and another officer is injured after a male suspect rammed them with a car at a north entrance to the U.S.Capitol on Friday.
The state of play: Acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman said Friday that the suspect brandished a knife as he lunged at officers.The officers fired at the suspect, who has since been pronounced dead.Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets.
Subscribe for free.The other officer who was struck by the car is stable, according to U.S.Capitol Police.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has ordered Capitol flags to half-staff in honor of Evans.President Biden also ordered the White House flags to be flown at half-staff.A lockdown at the Capitol has been lifted, but the area surrounding the incident will continue to be restricted.Biden on Friday said in a statement: “[Dr.Biden] and I were heartbroken to learn of the violent attack at a security checkpoint on the U.S.Capitol grounds, which killed Officer William Evans of the U.S.
Capitol Police, and left a fellow officer fighting for his life…” “I have been receiving ongoing briefings from my Homeland Security Advisor, and will be getting further updates as the investigation proceeds,” the president added.The big picture: Some security fencing was removed a week ago after heightened security following the Jan 6.attack.National Guard members remain at the U.S.
Capitol but in smaller numbers.Members of the Guard were seen on Friday deploying toward the Capitol barrier following the incident.As law enforcement responded to the attack, Capitol staff received a text alert from Capitol Police warning them stay away from exterior doors and windows in the Capitol and to “seek cover” if outdoors.Of note: Biden is away from D.C.and visiting Camp David.The House and Senate are out of session.Large police presence and two stretchers being brought out pic.twitter.com/EmidoLP0PT— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) April 2, 2021 🚨🚨A helicopter just landed on the east front of the Capitol.I’ve never seen anything like this before.
ever.pic.twitter.com/LxV0mywRSe— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) April 2, 2021 Go deeper: In photos: Capitol car ramming attack leaves 2 dead, including police officerWhat they’re saying: Members of Congress “horrified” by Capitol car ramming attackLike this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free.- INSIDER Deleted ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ scene finally shows how Joker would have delivered that ‘We live in a society’ line Zack Snyder released a deleted scene from his film featuring Jared Leto and Batman to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.- Yahoo News Gaetz’s communications director resigns as sex scandal grows A senior member of Rep.Matt Gaetz’s staff resigned Friday amid a widening scandal relating to allegations of sex trafficking and an inappropriate relationship with a minor.- Yahoo News Video Homicide lieutenant calls use of force against George Floyd ‘totally unnecessary’ During the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin on Friday, Police Lt.
Richard Zimmerman testified that the use of force applied against George Floyd was “totally unnecessary” and “uncalled for.” – The Daily Beast 13-Year-Old Boy Who ‘Wanted to Become a Cop’ Is Killed by Chicago Police GoFundMeThe death of a 13-year-old boy, who dreamed of joining the police but was gunned down by a cop in an “armed confrontation” this week, has horrified the crime-weary city of Chicago, prompting demands for answers from the mayor on down.The Cook County Medical Examiner confirmed to The Daily Beast that Adam Toledo died of a gunshot wound to the chest on Monday.His death, which occurred after a confrontation with Chicago police in Little Village, has been classified as a homicide.The boy’s family, community leaders, and even Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot are demanding police release the body-camera videos of the incident.The officer involved in the shooting has been put on desk duty for at least 30 days pending an investigation.“Adam was a seventh-grade student at [Gary Elementary] School, enjoyed sports, and was a good kid.He did not deserve to die the way he did,” the Toledo family said in a Friday statement.Cops Now Say UVA Grad Slain by Police Was ‘Brandishing a Handgun’The family said Adam was killed “due to the unreasonable conduct of a Chicago Police Officer” and they would “seek justice for this reprehensible crime.” They added that they were only notified of Adam’s death two days after he was killed.“We are confident that the Chicago Police Department and the Civilian Office of Police Accountability will conduct a thorough investigation, that there will be transparency, and that Toledo Family will find out the truth of what happened to Adam.”Police said the incident began at around 2:35 a.m.on Monday when officers responded to a call of “multiple shots fired in the 200 block of S.Sawyer.” When they arrived, they found two males—later identified as Toledo and 21-year-old Ruben Roman Jr.—“in a nearby alley” and at least one was armed.Police said the armed person ran from the scene, prompting officers to start a foot pursuit that ended in an “armed confrontation.”“The officer fired his weapon striking the offender in the chest,” a Chicago Police Department spokesperson said in a statement.“A weapon was recovered and the offender was pronounced deceased on scene.”Officers observed two subjects in a nearby alley, one subject fled on foot which resulted in an armed confrontation.
One subject shot and killed.2nd subject in custody.Gun recovered on scene.COPA investigating.#ChicagoPolice pic.twitter.com/bn7o2deAGS— Tom Ahern (@TomAhernCPD) March 29, 2021 Police said Roman was taken into custody and charged with misdemeanor resisting or obstructing a peace officer.According to court records, Roman pleaded guilty in 2019 to possessing an illegal gun and was sentenced to probation.In a Thursday interview with the Chicago Sun-Times, the teenager’s mother, Elizabeth Toledo, said she last saw her son the day before the shooting when they attended a memorial service for a relative.She said she didn’t know what prompted the incident and she “just wants answers about what really happened.”“I haven’t heard from cops since yesterday when they knocked on my door,” she said on Thursday.The mother-of-four said her son was “always happy,” loved animals, and had a dream of joining the police.“He wanted to be a cop when he grew up,” Toledo said.“And next thing you know, a cop took his life.”Monday’s tragic shooting comes as Chicago battles a siege of homicides and shootings.
According to the Chicago Tribune, 134 people have been killed this year alone, which is higher than the same period in 2020.Last year had already been the worst year for gun-related homicides on record, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.Amid outrage over Toledo’s death, Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown released a statement on Thursday, calling it a “tragedy” and insisting he adamantly wanted to release body-cam footage.“My greatest fear as the Superintendent of the Chicago Police Department has been a deadly encounter between one of our own and a juvenile, especially given the recent rise in violent crimes involving juveniles throughout our city,” Brown said.“Unfortunately, this fear became a reality earlier this week.Any loss of life is tragic, especially when it involves youth.On behalf of the entire Chicago Police Department, I extend my condolences to the family of the juvenile.”The shooting is being investigated by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability.While the COPA initially said the bodycam footage could not be released without a court order because of the Juvenile Court Act, which prohibits them from sharing videos of minor victims, the agency said Friday the footage will be made public.“COPA has determined that certain provisions of state law intended to protect the confidentiality of juvenile records do not prohibit the agency’s release of material related to its investigation,” the agency said in a statement.It added that the act “does not bar publication of the body-worn and third-party video camera footage the agency has obtained to date.”Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot took to Twitter on Thursday to urge the release of the footage, adding that she “can only imagine the incredible pain this boy’s parents are experiencing at this moment.”“Because his family and the public will undoubtedly have many questions, we must release any relevant videos as soon as possible,” Lightfoot said, noting that it is among “the most complex cases that COPA investigates” and “transparency and speed are crucial.”“We must ask ourselves how our social safety net failed this boy leading to the tragic events in the early hours of Monday morning,” she said.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day.
Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you.Learn more.- Miami Herald Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest argument to be released on bail? Being held in jail is sexist Ghislaine Maxwell has so far unsuccessfully argued that her detention in a Brooklyn jail is harsh, harmful to her health and hinders her ability to adequately prepare for her trial scheduled for July.In her latest bid to be released on bail, the former girlfriend and alleged accomplice of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein says that her confinement is also sexist.
– Business Insider How American guns help Mexican cartels overwhelm Mexico’s police and military “It is getting to a point where we are not equipped enough to fight back,” a Mexican state police officer told Insider.- Reuters Myanmar protesters defy crackdown, five killed; junta hunts critics Despite the killing of more than 550 people by the security forces since the Feb.1 coup, protesters are coming out every day, often in smaller groups in smaller towns, to voice opposition to the reimposition of military rule.Security forces in the central town of Monywa, which has seen big protests day after days for weeks, fired on a crowd killing at least four people and wounding several, two media organisations said.
“They started firing non-stop with both stun grenade and live rounds,” the protester in Monywa, who declined to be identified, told Reuters via a messaging app.- The Daily Beast The Strange Friendship That May Bring Down Matt Gaetz Alex Wong/GettyRep.Matt Gaetz is in the midst of one of the ugliest falls from political grace in decades.But, on a smaller and less public scale, Gaetz’s plummet largely mirrors one of his closest allies—the man who may have kickstarted his downfall: Joel Greenberg.Gaetz, the Florida Republican, and Greenberg are friends.
Until recently, both were wealthy players in the new Trumpist wave washing over the Florida GOP.Both were sons of successful fathers who made their names known across the state.Both hung out in the same circles, championed the same libertarian causes, and latched themselves onto the same Florida GOP icons, like Gov.Ron DeSantis and political operative Roger Stone.And now, both have been ensnared in a federal probe looking into accusations that they recruited young women and paid them for sex, according to The New York Times.These Text Messages Pointed the Feds to Matt GaetzAs The Daily Beast reported on Friday, it was text messages about Gaetz and Greenberg’s off-hours trips to a government office that alerted investigators to the congressman’s involvement in alleged crimes—and eventually led them to what they determined to be a criminal sex ring.But before Joel Greenberg was indicted for sex trafficking and directing attention to Gaetz, Greenberg was an eccentric tax collector with a political future and all the right connections.Like Gaetz, Greenberg is the son of a wealthy local businessman.Dr.Andrew Greenberg co-founded a dental company with 92 offices across the state.
Joel, who holds a stake in that company, went on to establish his own advertising agency, DG3.For a time, he also hosted “The Joel Greenberg Show,” a sports-themed talk radio show on WRSO 810 AM.He sold the ad company in 2015 and ran the next year for Seminole County tax collector, defeating the 78-year-old who had held the office since 1988.Once in office, Greenberg immediately took outlandish steps for what should have been a low-profile and boring job.He moved the agency out of its rent-free government offices.He hired his friends.He handed out questionable contracts to longtime associates.
He used his tax collector “badge” to pose as law enforcement and pull over a speeder.He even tried to get some tax employees to carry guns.But it was another type of alleged abuse of power that would eventually rope in his friend, Matt Gaetz.Greenberg, whose government agency was tasked with shredding expired drivers licenses, was illegally creating fake IDs, according to investigators.And Gaetz was with him when the pair was caught on surveillance footage visiting the Lake Mary branch of the tax collector’s office on a weekend in April 2018, according to several people with knowledge of the incident.handout When asked by an employee if he had visited the office over the weekend, Greenberg responded via text: “Yes I was showing congressman Gaetz what our operation looked like.Did I leave something on?”Images of text messages obtained by The Daily Beast show that Greenberg involved the congressman even further with a personal favor in September that year.That’s when he went outside of official protocol and directed an employee—on a Sunday afternoon—to quickly produce Gaetz a duplicate ID.“Amy- is there anyway to assist one of our Congressmen in getting an emergency replacement ID or DL by Tuesday 2pm? His was lost yesterday and he’s got a flight Tuesday.
Doesn’t have any other form of ID currently on him.Sorry to bother you on Sunday,” Greenberg wrote.The favor was for his friend: “Matthew Louis Gaetz II,” born on May 7, 1982.Those text messages made their way in early 2020 to the U.S.
Secret Service, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and most recently, another federal agency, according to a source with knowledge of agents’ requests.In the years before these incidents, Gaetz and Greenberg had publicly displayed a bond that referenced their similar thinking, interests, and friendship.Gaetz, the son of a former president of the Florida State Senate, climbed to the upper tier of Florida state politics at a young age.But he gained an unsavory reputation, even among fellow Republicans, for allegedly creating what one legislator called a sex game where “members of the FL House got ‘points’ for sleeping with aides, interns, lobbyists and married legislators.” Sources in Tallahassee told reporters that Gaetz frequented a restaurant popular with local college kids, part of his attempts to pick up undergrads.Republicans Have Been Waiting for a Matt Gaetz Scandal to BreakGreenberg’s personal history during that period is much more obscure.It’s unclear when his friendship with Gaetz began, but by July 8, 2017, the two each shared a picture of their dinner with Roger Stone.Gaetz repeatedly called Greenberg his friend, whether it was to support the tax collector’s idea to accept bitcoin, share his op-eds, or make inside jokes about their mutual lobbyist friend, Chris Dorworth.By 2018, Greenberg was telling BuzzFeed News that Gaetz was his political mentor, an article Gaetz reposted in full on his official congressional website.
Both of them visited the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that year, where they snapped a selfie with a 21-year-old woman who worked on Ron DeSantis’s campaign for Florida governor.In 2019, they shared photos of themselves at the White House with Dorworth, whom Gaetz considers his own “legislative mentor.”Great catching up with @mattgaetz and @karis_lockhart during #AIPAC2018.pic.twitter.com/TNdMpDu3Ln— Joel Greenberg (@JoelGreenbergTC) March 7, 2018 They’ve both pushed for marijuana legalization as well.In January 2019, Gaetz shared a video on Twitter with Greenberg and John Morgan, an Orlando attorney who refers to himself as “Pot Daddy.” Greenberg was an avid cannabis user who frequently carried around a marijuana vape pen, said three people who saw him use it either in the tax office, at work parties, or with friends.And he became Gaetz’s go-to person for cannabis vapes, according to one of those sources.They were close enough to mingle with family.
A video posted to YouTube features a photo of Gaetz cradling Greenberg’s newborn daughter.Greenberg’s wife, Abby, shared a Facebook photo of another instance in which Gaetz held her child in front of the White House, flanked by a smiling President Donald Trump.This week, a Florida state legislator, Rep.Anna V.Eskamani, a Democrat, told The Daily Beast about her own odd interactions with Greenberg and Gaetz, who would personally approach her—sometimes together.“There was all this weird engagement and being friendly with me,” she said.
“Matt Gaetz too.I don’t have his number.I don’t have any engagement with him.He’s tried to engage with me on Twitter.
I’m very careful about any response back to him.”She said that Greenberg would frequently text her photos reminiscing about his party-boy past, and that in 2019 he and Gaetz teamed up on what she called a “weird” voicemail, which The Daily Beast published on Friday.The Creepy, Disturbing Case That Ensnared Matt Gaetz“We were just chatting about you, and talking about your lovely qualities,” Greenberg said in the message, followed by Gaetz’s comment: “We think you’re the future of the Democratic Party in Florida!”On May 4, 2018, Gaetz took to Twitter to plug a new Greenberg policy innovation.“Pay your taxes in crypto currency? @MrJoelGreenberg says yes,” wrote Gaetz, now a member of the House Blockchain Caucus.He tagged a Greenberg parody account in the tweet, possibly by mistake.A Seminole County audit last year showed that Greenberg had funneled about $66,000 in taxpayer funds to his own company, Government Blockchain Systems LLC.
When auditors asked him about the company, Greenberg told them that he had been developing a new way to accept “cryptocurrency as payments” for taxes.That innovation resurfaced this week in the form of new federal charges.Prosecutors allege that Greenberg stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from Seminole County taxpayers and sunk it into cryptocurrency.A millionaire, Greenberg also used about $240,000 in bitcoin to jump-start his doomed 2020 re-election bid.Although Greenberg has never financially backed Gaetz’s federal campaign efforts, Greenberg’s parents have supported Gaetz, maxing out for him in the 2018 GOP primary.A year later, on June 9, 2020, Gaetz returned the favor, maxing out to Greenberg’s re-election.Two weeks later, Greenberg was hit with his first indictment, on charges of stalking his Republican political opponent.Prosecutors have vastly expanded those charges to a diverse list of crimes, ranging from wire fraud to sex trafficking, alleging that Greenberg had recruited at least one teenager between 14 and 17 years old to engage in a “commercial sex act” in 2017, in Central Florida and elsewhere.That’s where Gaetz comes back in.The New York Times revealed on Tuesday that federal investigators were also looking into whether Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws in his relations with an unnamed 17-year-old girl.The teen is allegedly the same victim at the center of the charges against Greenberg.Follow-up reports from various outlets allege that Gaetz shared naked photos of his sexual partners on the House floor, induced underage women to have sex with his friends, and tapped ATMs, Apple Pay and Cash App to pay for sex, leaving a trail of receipts.
Some of the men and women involved reportedly took ecstasy for the encounters.Gaetz’s reputation in Congress hasn’t helped him refute these allegations.It’s well-known that Gaetz tended to date younger women, often in their early twenties, and had a prolonged relationship with a congressional intern just over the age of 21.CNN reported on Thursday that he was known to share nude photos of his sexual partners with other lawmakers on the House floor, and talked about having sex with them.Trump Isn’t Coming to Matt Gaetz’s Rescue—for NowLawmakers have gossiped about his drinking and drug use for years, complaining that his office often smelled like weed and speculating that his weight loss while in Congress was due to cocaine.
And his adversarial relationship with his colleagues—particularly fellow Republicans that he deemed insufficiently supportive of Trump—has cost him in his search for allies willing to stick up for him and rebut a constant stream of negative stories, even as Gaetz’s claims about an extortion plot have a ring of truth to them.Gaetz’s initial response—that he was the victim of an “organized, criminal extortion” scheme with geopolitical implications—has added a bizarre new dimension to the whole story.The convoluted production roped in a former DOJ prosecutor, a serial fraudster, and his own father, who Gaetz said wore a wire at the FBI’s direction in order to bust the crime.Gaetz produced a document from his alleged extorters, containing the absurd inveiglement that the DOJ would drop its sex crimes investigation if Gaetz loaned them $25 million to help spring a Jewish-American held hostage in Iran.The hostage, Bob Levinson, was declared dead last year by the U.S.government.Great catching up with @mattgaetz and @RogerJStoneJr pic.twitter.com/46SjAsiL42— Joel Greenberg (@JoelGreenbergTC) July 9, 2017 The exposure of the pressure campaign has done little to convince Republicans in Washington to rally to Gaetz’s defense.
His spokesperson quit on Friday.His political idol, Trump, has stayed mum, as have the vast majority of his fellow Republican congressmen.“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, I was 17,” Gaetz told The Daily Beast earlier in the week, one of his oddly-specific denials of the charges against him.
“As for the Hill, I know I have many enemies and few friends.My support generally lies outside of Washington, D.C., and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day.Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you.
Learn more.- The Daily Beast Joe Biden Just Might be the Democrats’ Ronald Reagan Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/GettyMaybe it’s time we conservatives start taking Joe Biden seriously.After steamrolling Republicans and passing a $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package on a party-line basis, Biden is now pushing for $2.3 trillion in infrastructure spending along with a proposed corporate tax hike to pay for it.If we ignore that much of this so-called infrastructure spending is for things like “human infrastructure,” not roads and bridges, we are still talking about a HUGE amount of money—and it’s only the first half of a two-part plan.
But it’s not just the massive scale of spending that is remarkable.What’s remarkable is the way that Biden, once assumed to be a centrist compromiser, wants to jam through the plan.
“Let’s work together and see if there’s a way for us to deliver this,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told Politico’s Ryan Lizza on Thursday, before hastening to add: “In the end, let me be clear, the president was elected to do a job.”Where have I heard that before? Oh yeah.It was back in early February when 10 Republicans met with Biden in the Oval Office to talk about the COVID-relief package.They were barely out the door before White House press secretary Jen Psaki put out a statement very similar to Klain’s.In fact, I interpreted her words as follows: “…Biden wants bipartisan support, but not bipartisan compromise (at least, not much) because, after all, his plan ‘was carefully designed to meet the stakes of this moment.’”Biden’s Revolution Is Doing What Obama and Clinton Did Not My read of the moment turned out to be accurate, and I think it was indicative of the Biden administration’s strategy.The National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar has described that strategy as: “Go for broke in the next two years because it’s the last best chance to get things done before the inevitable backlash.
It’s not the unity that was promised, but rather the power politics that a no-holds-barred operator like [Rahm] Emanuel or even Mitch McConnell would appreciate.”Biden doesn’t come across as ruthless as Rahm or as amoral and calculating as Mitch, which actually makes him more effective.In baseball, a pitcher whose slow delivery belies his velocity is thought of as “sneaky fast.” The political version may be Joe Biden—who is both “sneaky fast” and, it turns out, “sneaky partisan.” In fact, Biden’s ability to tell people to go to hell (in a way that has them looking forward to the trip) might be his secret power.During his short tenure as president, however, he is governing like a man on a mission, with grand aspirations of being a transformational president.If the backlash comes, it is possible that he will come to regret not having wooed Republican politicians.Or he could succeed beyond his wildest imagination, and his legacy could very well be having dramatically changed the size and scope of government in a manner that we haven’t seen since the likes of FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society.The latter is an especially interesting comparison, since the “Master of the Senate” inherited his liberal agenda from a younger, more charismatic, Democratic president.But what about those of us who don’t actually want to fundamentally transform the nation? Who’s looking out for us?Republicans aren’t doing a very good job of that.
At least, I haven’t heard a lot of persuasive warnings about the danger of a debt crisis, inflation, or the possibility that tax hikes would be passed along to consumers, or even trickle down to employees.Where’s the concern about Democrats buying votes with free money? And—most importantly—why are Republicans so blasé about the death of limited government? If Biden is running up the score, part of the story is that Republicans are so focused on tilting at windmills, “owning the libs,” and battling the chimera, that they barely noticed sleepy Joe rewriting the social contract.While campaigning for president in 2008, Barack Obama said, “I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that, you know, Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not.” The point is that you can be considered a successful two-term president (as, I think, Clinton and Obama generally were), and not come close to making lasting change.From a progressive point of view, Clinton’s mistake was triangulation, which involved co-opting Republican language, such as declaring, “The era of big government is over.” Biden, it seems, has gone a different direction.Ronald Reagan took office with the goal of winning the Cold War and restoring optimism in America, and on both counts, he succeeded.But the Reagan Revolution also fundamentally reshaped the public consensus regarding the size and scope of government.“The long cycle of growth in the role and activism of the national Government in domestic affairs that began with F.D.R.’s New Deal ended with Reagan’s New Federalism,” wrote Richard P.
Nathan of Princeton University.”The Reagan Presidency has produced a fundamental redirection in the domestic policies of the U.S.Government, both in the spending of the Federal Government and in the substance and purposes of its domestic programs.”What if Biden turns out to be the liberal answer to Reagan? But he’s the deviously cunning Reagan who only pretended to be old and doddering as a ruse, as portrayed by Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live.Oh yeah, and unlike Reagan, his party controls both houses of Congress.What if Biden, who was often seen as a “transitional” caretaker who was tolerable to get rid of Donald Trump, turns out to be a truly transformational president who brings about a new political consensus? Imagine the irony if Obama turns out to have been the John the Baptist to Joe Biden’s Jesus Christ.What if Biden’s the one they’ve been waiting for? As one pol might put it: this presidency could be a big f—ing deal!Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day.Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you.Learn more.
– Miami Herald These croquetas in Cuba are explosive.Maker warns about ‘violence’ if not cooked right Croquetas in Cuba are blowing up in people’s faces.