Dear Commons Community,

Donald Trump used the deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans to bolster his fearmongering about “criminals” crossing into the U.S. from abroad and did not correct that assertion after the suspect was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Texas-born US citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan.   The 42-year-old Jabber who police say drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killed at least 15 people and injureddozens more.  Trump, however, lied that Jabbar was an immigrant.  As reported by The Huffington Post.

“When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,” the president-elect posted on Truth Social on Wednesday morning.

“The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department.”

He said his incoming administration would “fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

Fox News had reported minutes prior to Trump’s Truth Social post that the vehicle used by the suspect had crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, from Mexico two days before the attack.

Just over an hour later, the conservative network retracted that reporting, saying its sources had advised that the truck crossed the border on Nov. 16 apparently driven by someone else. Later in the afternoon, it reported that the truck never crossed over from Mexico.

The suspect was identified in the early afternoon by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. Army veteran from Texas. It said he drove a rented truck. Jabbar said in a 2020 YouTube video about himself that he was born in Beaumont, Texas, according to CNN.

The suspect drove the vehicle into a crowded Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. He died after exchanging gunfire with police.

Trump has not offered any correction to his statement, and has since made an additional post attacking “OPEN BORDERS” and accusing U.S. law enforcement of spending “all of their waking hours unlawfully attacking their political opponent, ME, rather than focusing on protecting Americans from the outside and inside violent SCUM that has infiltrated all aspects of our government, and our Nation itself.”

He posted overnight, “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING!”

Trump’s transition team did not immediately return HuffPost’s request for comment.

Trump:  the liar in chief.

Tony

Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson.  Courtesy of The Hill – Greg Nash.

Dear Commons Community,

President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson — the lawmakers who led the congressional investigation into the violent Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot by Donald Trump’s supporters, and who Trump has said should be jailed.

Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal to 20 people in a ceremony today at the White House, including Americans who fought for marriage equality, a pioneer in treating wounded soldiers, and two of the president’s longtime friends, former Sens. Ted Kaufman, D-Del., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn.

“President Biden believes these Americans are bonded by their common decency and commitment to serving others,” the White House said in a statement. “The country is better because of their dedication and sacrifice.”

Biden last year honored people who were involved in defending the Capitol from the rioters, or who helped safeguard the will of American voters during the 2020 presidential election, when Trump tried and failed to overturn the results.

Cheney, who was a Republican representative from Wyoming, and Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, led the House committee that probed the insurrection. Cheney later said she would vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race even campaigned with her, raising Trump’s ire. Biden has been considering whether to offer preemptive pardons to Cheney and others Trump has targeted.

Trump, who won the 2024 election and will take office Jan. 20, still refuses to back away from his lies about the 2020 presidential race and has said he would pardon the rioters once he takes office.

During an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said, “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” claiming without evidence they “deleted and destroyed” testimony they collected.

“Honestly, they should go to jail,” he said.

Biden is also giving the award to attorney Mary Bonauto, who fought to legalize same-sex marriage, and Evan Wolfson, a leader of the marriage equality movement.

Other honorees include Frank Butler, who set new standards for using tourniquets on war injuries; Diane Carlson Evans, an Army nurse during the Vietnam War who founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation; and Eleanor Smeal, an activist who led women’s rights protests in the 1970s and fought for equal pay.

He’s also giving the award to photographer Bobby Sager, academics Thomas Vallely and Paula Wallace, and Frances Visco, the president of the National Breast Cancer Coalition.

Other former lawmakers being honored include former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J.; former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, the first woman to represent Kansas; and former Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., who championed gun safety measures after her son and husband were shot to death.

Biden will honor four people posthumously: Joseph Galloway, a former war correspondent who wrote about the first major battle in Vietnam in the book “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young”; civil rights advocate and attorney Louis Lorenzo Redding; former Delaware state judge Collins Seitz; and Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, who was held with other Japanese Americans during World War II and challenged the detention.

The Presidential Citizens Medal, created by President Richard Nixon in 1969, is the country’s second highest civilian honor after the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is awarded to those who “performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

Cheney and Thompson are most deserving of this honor!

Tony

Chip Roy.  Courtesy of NBC News.

Dear Commons Community,

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could lose his bid to keep the gavel when the chamber votes later this week.

“Right now, I don’t believe that he has the votes on Friday and I think we need to have the conference get together so that we can get united,” Roy told Fox Business host Ashley Webster on Tuesday.

Johnson’s hopes of retaining his leadership post rest on near unanimity among his party, with The Hill noting that just two GOP defections could be enough to sink his bid.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has already said he will vote against Johnson, and several others haven’t committed to him, including Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.).

Roy indicated that he’s also not in Johnson’s corner ― at least not yet.

“Victoria’s a good friend and Thomas is a good friend and they raise reasonable concerns,” Roy told Webster. “I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president’s agenda.”

President-elect Donald Trump endorsed Johnson, but that may not be enough to convince the holdouts, including Roy. Asked who might step up should Johnson get voted out, Roy suggested Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) or Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“But what we need to do is unite around a plan to deliver for the president,” Roy said. “Right now, I do not believe the conference has that.”

The House cannot conduct business until a speaker is selected, something that’s been a struggle for the GOP since it took control of the chamber after the 2022 midterm elections.

In January 2023, it took four days for Republicans to coalesce around Kevin McCarthy, who lost the gavel later that year when several members of his own conference turned against him.

It took three weeks for Republicans to settle on Johnson as McCarthy’s replacement.

Trouble in GOP land?

Tony

Dear Commons Community,

I wish everybody a Happy, Healthy, and Peaceful New Year in 2025!

Tony