On Monday evening, FBI agents raided former President Donald Trump’s household-name Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking at least 15 boxes of missing records from Trump’s administration that the National Archives seeks to recover.
Mainstream media received the inside scoop, many making retroactive edits and falling in line with a euphemistic switch from “raid” to “search” preferred by former and current Biden administration officials. Establishment media knowledge of the raid outpaced what Republican elected officials told the public they knew.
Please folks stop calling it a “raid.”
— Symone D. Sanders-Townsend (@SymoneDSanders) August 9, 2022
🦀🦀🦀🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 > FBI says they don't like the term "raid" > MSNBC and New York Times seen CHANGING their headlines, ERASING their usage of that word
A number of unnamed insiders supplied details of the raid to the following outlets: Axios, Reuters, CNNreported that the raid concerned potentially classified documents taken by Trump, NBCreported that the search warrant was connected to the National Archives, the Washington Postreported that the potentially classified documents in question may have been taken to Trump’s residence instead of sent to the National Archives, and Politicoreported that paper records were seized.
The Arizona Republican Party said that the Biden administration crossed an “unprecedented line” in American history. The organization called on Senators Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) to seek an explanation for the raid, which they claimed was a historical level of political targeting.
“[Biden’s] administration has weaponized the Judicial System — the raid at President Trump’s home was an act of political warfare,” stated the organization.
This abuse of power must stop, and the only way to do that is to elect Republicans in November. pic.twitter.com/ExnYWGkpnm
Neither Kelly or Sinema have commented on the Trump raid, as of press time. When Tuesday came, they focused their messaging on President Joe Biden’s passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: a $280 billion package with $52 billion in subsidies to increase domestic production of semiconductor chips, also called “integrated circuits” (ICs) or “microchips.” Both Democratic senators issued support in the hopes that Arizona would attract manufacturing plants from Intel and other companies.
Huge news, Arizona – our bipartisan Chips and Science Act was just signed into law! We worked hard to secure this historic investment in semiconductor manufacturing in Arizona and across the country, strengthening our supply chains and lowering costs for everyday families.
The Arizona Democratic Party issued their response to the Trump raid in the context of the statement released by Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake. Their party didn’t comment on the legitimacy or significance of the raid.
“Be wary of someone seeking government office who doesn’t understand the law, and pours fuel on the fire when issues arise,” said the organization.
Some very concerning language here.
Be wary of someone seeking government office who doesn’t understand the law, and pours fuel on the fire when issues arise. https://t.co/U7Q3ZwtMUX
Governor Doug Ducey didn’t remark on the raid. His silence wouldn’t be uncharacteristic. The Republican Governors Association (RGA) convened last November at the Biltmore resort in Scottsdale to plan the defeat of Trump-endorsed candidates.
Trump’s endorsed candidates swept the primaries last week. Lake, Blake Masters (U.S. Senate), Paul Gosar (incumbent, U.S. House), Mark Finchem (secretary of state), Abraham Hamadeh (attorney general), David Farnsworth (Arizona House), Anthony Kern (Arizona Senate), Wendy Rogers (Arizona Senate), Robert Scantlebury (Arizona Senate), and Janae Shamp (Arizona Senate) secured their spots as the Republican candidates for November.
Arizona’s Republican congressional leaders spoke out against the Trump raid.
Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) pointed out that the FBI was fixated on Trump but ignoring claims of corruption linked to the Biden family, via the evidence of Hunter Biden’s laptop, and Hillary Clinton via her mass email deletion.
“This seems to be yet another example of the Department of Justice’s hypocrisy and political bias,” stated Lesko.
(1/2) President Trump said his Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI, the same FBI that has ignored evidence on Hunter Biden’s laptop and has not gone after Hillary Clinton for deleting over 30,000 emails.
— Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) August 9, 2022
Lesko pledged to investigate DOJ abuses if Republicans secure the majority come November. Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04) went one step further. He pledged support to get rid of the FBI.
Congressman Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) said that he’s attempted to gather insight on why the FBI raided Trump’s home.
“The only thing missing from the unprecedented FBI raid at President Trump’s home is Muammar Gaddafi’s sunglasses and cap on Joe Biden,” tweeted Biggs. “I stand by President Donald J. Trump.”
The FBI and DOJ have weaponized their powers against Americans who disagree with them politically.
The House Oversight Committee requested that FBI Director Christopher Wray provide it with a briefing.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declared Tuesday that neither Biden or anyone in the White House had knowledge of the raid. Insiders that informed Politico of the raid confirmed the White House’s denial.
On Tuesday, Trump posted a campaign-style video that concluded with the statement, “the best is yet to come.” The post and its rhetoric led to speculations that Trump would launch a third presidential candidacy.
“We are a nation that’s become a joke. But soon we will have greatness again,” said Trump. “As long as we are confident and united, the tyrants we are fighting do not even stand even a little chance, because we are Americans and Americans kneel to God and God alone. It’s time to start talking about greatness yet again,” said Trump.
Monday, the National Border Patrol Union (NBPC) advised New York Mayor Eric Adams to blame President Joe Biden of the bused-in migrants in his city. The NBPC also said that Adams’ problems were paltry compared to those facing the southern border states.
“[W]hat’s ‘horrific’ is dead bodies piling up in border states, truckloads of people suffocating in heat, the lawlessness and trashing of our border areas, courtesy of Biden,” tweeted the NBPC. “A few people getting off a bus in NYC instead of Long Island or upstate NY is not ‘horrific.’”
No, @NYCMayor, what's "horrific" is dead bodies piling up in border states, truckloads of people suffocating in heat, the lawlessness & trashing of our border areas, courtesy of Biden.
A few people getting off a bus in NYC instead of Long Island or upstate NY is not "horrific". pic.twitter.com/t4Etk2sur2
The NBPC’s criticism intones a similar message to that of Governor Doug Ducey. Last month, Ducey issued similar responses to Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Adams. The two mayors have complained about Ducey and Texas Governor Greg Abbott busing migrants to their cities.
Ducey clarified to Adams that Arizona didn’t send any migrants to New York. He told Bowser that she should take her complaints up with the leader of the nation and her party, Biden.
A U.S. citizen smuggler faces criminal charges after Brian A. Terry Station agents stopped a U-Haul with 13 migrants, to include small children, padlocked inside.
Migrant smuggling in vans is common, but one case captured national interest in June when two smugglers abandoned a tractor-trailer filled with illegal immigrants. 53 of the illegal immigrants inside died from heat stroke.
Also common along illegal immigrant routes: trash. Illegal immigrants discard trash as well as money, clothing, and any personal items that could identify them.
In April, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned the Biden administration that it should improve its data collection, reporting, and evaluation of migrant deaths. Data on migrant rescues and deaths, available through the Border Safety Initiative Tracking System (BSITS), hasn’t been sufficient for several years now, according to the GAO.
Migrants face many dangers while crossing the border illegally. This includes being abandoned by the smuggler if they suffer an #injury.
Douglas Station agents encountered a Mexican citizen with a leg injury. He was taken into custody and transported to a local #hospital. pic.twitter.com/pkFfrlm0cW
The Pima County Medical Examiner’s Office partnered with a Tucson nonprofit, Humane Borders, to create a public tracker of illegal immigrant deaths in Arizona: the “Arizona OpenGIS Initiative for Deceased Migrants.” Since January, their tracker reported 126 illegal immigrant deaths. Total deaths for 2021 were 225, and 223 in 2020; prior to that, deaths last reached over 200 in 2010.
Officials share repeatedly that the surge in illegal immigration from the ongoing border crisis imposes an unprecedented burden on local resources, like first responders.
#ExtremeHeat causes heat-related illness. The resulting 911 calls divert Tucson Sector assets every day.
Last week, Tucson Sector agents apprehended smugglers fleeing law enforcement: a dangerous chase that ended in a crash.
Two U.S. citizens face criminal charges after fleeing from Tucson Sector agents and #TohonoOodhamPD.
The tandem vehicles fled when agents attempted a #VehicleStop on SR-86. Driving erratically with no regard for safety, they were later arrested along with four migrants. pic.twitter.com/JH5IUavKcP
Over the weekend, Arizona’s two Democratic senators, Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema, fell in line with their party and backed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The IRA passed the Senate on Sunday along party lines, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.
The IRA, a repackaged version of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better (BBB) Act, projected well over $700 billion in revenue. However, some analysts have warned that the IRA will have the opposite desired effect on job creation, inflation and deficit reduction, incomes, tax rates, and drug prices.
The two senators opposed amendments to the IRA that would fund $500 million to finish the border wall, approve coal leases, increase domestic oil production in order to lower gas prices, protect those making under $400,000 from additional tax audits, limit price controls for treatments for conditions like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, require oil and gas lease sales in the outer Continental Shelf, provide discounted insulin for low and middle-income Americans, remove $45 million in climate-related expenditures, retain Title 42, strike a tax increase resulting in higher energy prices for those earning under $400,000, hire more Border Patrol agents, reduce drug prices, invest in violent crime prevention, and prohibit tax credits for electric vehicles built with slave labor.
The IRA will also expand the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by up to 87,000 more employees through an $80 billion investment. That will make the IRS bigger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined, as noted by Washington Free Beacon. IRS data reveals that over half of all IRS audits in 2021 focused on taxpayers making less than $75,000 a year.
All Democrats, including Kelly and Sinema, rejected an amendment to remove provisions expanding the IRS.
Over 75% of IRS audits targeted Americans making under $200,000 per year.
Democrats want to hire 87,000 new IRS enforcers to target the middle class even more. pic.twitter.com/cxmCqE4eBN
Arizonans gathered on Saturday in Phoenix to protest Sinema and Kelly’s support of the bill. FreedomWorks Grassroots Director and Co-founder of EZAZ.org Merissa Hamilton, who helped organize the protest, criticized Sinema and Kelly for supporting the IRS increase, which she called an “inquisition” comparable to the treatment of ideological opponents under the Obama administration.
“Clearly, your IRS inquisitions are to target us like you did the Obama-Biden administration, and we have had enough,” said Hamilton. “We’re already in the middle of a recession — I know it’s tough for you to say the “r” word, but it’s time for you to take responsibility, represent Arizona, and stop betraying us.”
We are tired of the swamp printing money sending future generations into further debt while at the same time spending it on fake IRS inquisitions to target vulnerable families and small businesses
— Merissa Hamilton 🗳 ⛽🗽 (@merissahamilton) August 7, 2022
An amendment to prevent oil sales to China was ruled out of order by Senate chair after Kelly and Sinema joined the majority of Democrats to waive it.
Sinema insisted that the IRA would “help Arizonans build better lives” through lowered prices on goods and services, accessible health care, and water and energy security. Sinema promised that the IRA would cause Arizona’s economy to improve.
As AZ Free News reported last week, Sinema’s original holdout on the IRA concerned its carried tax provision. Democratic leadership agreed to drop that provision in order to earn her vote.
Kelly elaborated further on the rationale for the Arizona senators’ votes. He said that the IRA will lower prescription drug costs, implement funding to effectively combat drought and “climate change,” and reduce the deficit. Kelly promised that the IRA wouldn’t result in increased taxes for small businesses and middle-class Arizonans.
“When I meet with Arizonans and small businesses across our state, the top concern I hear about is rising costs,” said Kelly. “This is going to lower costs for health care, prescription drugs, and energy while creating great-paying jobs in Arizona.”
This afternoon, after voting through the night, we have finally passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s what this will mean for Arizonans:
Notable opposition to the IRA came from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The senator criticized the IRA for not doing enough to help the working class, and proposed amendments to modify the bill that were roundly rejected, 99-1. However, Sanders ultimately fell in line with the Democratic Party and voted for the bill.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Last Tuesday, the University of Arizona (UArizona) defended claims by one of its department heads that COVID-19 jumped from infected animals to humans at a Chinese wet market. UArizona’s news followed the publication of its department head’s research in Science magazine, picked up by mainstream media outlets like the New York Timesand CBS Newsas proof of the wet market theory.
UArizona asserted that Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Department Head Michael Worobey’s research pinpointing the COVID-19 outbreak to the Huanen Seafood Market “virtually eliminate[d]” all other possibilities for COVID-19’s origins — though not ruling out the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the U.S. funded research on coronaviruses.
Worobey’s research acknowledged that a significant percentage of the first individuals infected by COVID-19 neither worked or shopped at the market. Additionally, the research never tested market animals supposedly linked to the initial outbreak. As AZ Free News reported, Chinese police shut down and disinfected the market almost immediately. Chinese scientists’ research of the market only included samples of the market interiors and stray animals in January 2020. It wasn’t until one day before Worobey’s initial version of his research earlier this year that the Chinese scientists released their research — which ultimately conflicted with Worobey’s findings.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology is less than nine miles from the Huanan Seafood Market; about 30 minutes by car.
Twice now I've seen people tweet the following sentence from the introduction of our recent paper out of context:
"However, the observation that the preponderance of early cases were linked to the Huanan market does not establish that the pandemic originated there."
One of the principal researchers in the wet market studies, Kristian Anderson, claimed to CBS News that he was “convinced” of the lab leak himself prior to investigation. However, as AZ Free News reported in April, Andersen attacked evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom for publishing a paper noting that several Chinese papers detailing SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences predating the pandemic had disappeared. In response to the paper, Andersen accused Bloom of unethical behavior for investigating what Chinese scientists deleted, and told the public that genomic sequences from the Wuhan Institute of Virology weren’t relevant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who received Bloom’s research, sided with Andersen’s take on the subject and defended the Chinese scientists. Fauci and National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins had a vested interest in supporting natural transmission theories rather than lab leaks due to their relationship with EcoHealth Alliance: the nonprofit research organization that funded the coronavirus bat research at Wuhan Institute of Virology.
As reported previously, emails obtained through public records requests revealed that EcoHealth Alliance CEO Peter Daszak thanked Fauci for using his platform to dismiss the lab leak theory as the origins of COVID-19 pandemic; Fauci responded in kind.
Other researchers in the papers defending the wet market theory appear to have reigning conflicts of interest as well. Virologist Robert Garry was hand-selected by Collins to dispute whistleblower research from summer 2021 that COVID-19 was engineered at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Netherlands molecular expert Marion Koopmans served on the World Health Organization (WHO) mission to China in early 2021 to analyze COVID-19’s origins, which resulted in an error-riddled report blaming wet market animals that WHO leadership rejected, later connected to plausible Chinese government interference and walked back on by several mission members.
This latest publication in Science magazine was the peer-reviewed and revised version of papers Worobey and his colleagues published in February proposing the wet market theory. At that time, too, the New York Times covered Worobey and his colleagues’ research in a feature story.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Following Tuesday’s primary election win, Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters appears to have shifted his campaign tone to appeal to independent voters. That base of “other” voters is the second largest, a close second to registered Republicans.
In a campaign video released Wednesday, Masters’ descriptors now read “independent.” Past videos displayed prominently former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, as well as his features on right-leaning networks like Fox News and conservative pundits’ shows, such as those hosted by Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon.
In the video, Masters’ wife asserts that America’s heading down a bad path, narrating a smiling Masters playing with his children.
“He’s in it because he loves his country so much, and he loves his state so much. He would make Arizona so proud,” said Catherine.
Masters’ tone shift likely has to do with the increase in Arizona’s independent voters. There are more independent than Democratic voters, and their base comes in a close second to Republican voters.
The secretary of state’s latest voter registration data reported well over 1.4 million Republicans (34 percent), slightly over 1.4 million “other” voters (33 percent, which includes independents, those without a party preference, and those without a major party), and under 1.3 million Democrats (31 percent).
Masters won Tuesday’s primary with slightly over 39 percent of the vote (over 250,800 votes). Candidate Jim Lamon came in second with nearly 29 percent of the vote (under 185,000 votes), and Attorney General Mark Brnovich came in third with over 18 percent of the voter (over 117,300 votes).
Candidate Mick McGuire earned under 9 percent of the vote (under 56,600 votes), and Justin Olson earned over 5 percent (over 32,800 votes).
Altogether, voters who participated in the Republican primary totaled about 642,500. That’s just over 1 percent of all registered voters, and over 22 percent of Republican and “other” (includes independents) combined.
Masters will face off against the incumbent, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who was uncontested in his election. Kelly pulled just under 495,500 votes.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
