The 7 Things You Should Be Talking About Today
7. As Congress comes together in Washington D.C., two Alabama Congressmen make moves
— No one is officially challenging Nancy Pelosi for speaker of the House. She is “100 percent confident” she will win, but Rep. Terri Sewell has remained silent on whether she will support Pelosi. Sewell is also running for a leadership position herself.
— Congressman Gary Palmer has been elected as Republican Policy Committee Chairman, fifth highest ranking leadership role amongst Republicans, which is a good position for him as he previously led the Alabama Policy Institute.
6. Illegal immigrants from a nonexistent caravan are climbing the border fence
— When banned CNN journalist Jim Acosta was haranguing the president over the caravan, he said, “They are not going to be doing that,” when the president referenced them climbing gates at the Mexican border, but they are doing just that.
— The Border Patrol released a statement about migrants from Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. It read, “If they attempt to enter illegally, they will have violated U.S. criminal law and in accordance with the President’s proclamation and the Interim Final Rule they would be ineligible for asylum.”
5. Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker had his appointment cleared by the Department of Justice as President Donald Trump slams the Mueller investigation again
— Much to the chagrin of Maryland, the media and members of Congress who at one point wanted former Attorney General Jeff Session fired before they were mad about him being fired, the hiring of the acting attorney general is legal.
— The president tweeted this morning about the special counsel investigation, saying, “They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts,” adding that it is “A TOTAL WITCH HUNT LIKE NO OTHER IN AMERICAN HISTORY!”
4. President Donald Trump says Jim Acosta is a “grandstander” and “bad for the country”
— Trump ramped up his attacks on Acosta as reporters asked about the lawsuit CNN filed as Fox News and other outlets sided with CNN. Trump said, “Jim Acosta is just somebody who gets up and grandstands, he doesn’t even know what he’s asking you half of the time.”
— The Trump/CNN lawsuit will see some conclusion today as the judge said he will decide whether to return Acosta’s press pass, but the judge Timothy Kelly appeared to question the legitimacy of CNN’s argument saying, “We’ve all seen the clip.” He added Acosta “continued speaking after his time expired” and “wouldn’t give up his microphone.”
3. Voter suppression apparently didn’t happen anywhere — not in Georgia and not in Alabama
— The media and Democrats claimed there was voter suppression all over the country, specifically Alabama, Georgia and North Dakota. But post-election, there doesn’t appear to be much to it and now Georgia Democrats are running TV ads trying to find it.
— In Alabama, Election Day came and went and there were zero legitimate cases of voter suppression in the state of Alabama. In fact, four students who claimed suppression had their court cases dismissed in court by a Barack Obama-appointed judge.
2. Declaring things to be voter fraud without evidence is fine if you are a Democrat
— Two powerful Democrats, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), have declared that the reason Democrat candidate for Congress Stacy Abrams lost is because of voter fraud.
— When President Donald Trump made similar claims, also baseless, the media hammered him for it by saying the claims were “without evidence.” But these media darlings did not get that treatment.
1. Birmingham has a massive pension problem, as does the state
— Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin took to social media to announce that the city has a $378 million dollar pension problem over the next 30 years. he also said he will have a solution in a few weeks.
— Alabama’s pension problem is in a similar state. The state has up to $15 billion in unfunded liabilities face the state up to 2050 and we don’t seem ready to face that issue at all.
