Month: September 2024

The Biden-Harris State Department’s top DEI officials pull in nearly $200,000 annually in taxpayer-funded salaries, according to financial disclosures, putting them among the highest-paid American diplomats.

Constance Mayer, who served as the acting chief Diversity and Inclusion officer until April of this year, raked in $194,510 annually, according to financial disclosures published by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The State Department’s Special Representative for Racial Justice and Equity, Desiree Cormier Smith, makes $191,900 each year, the disclosures show.

The officials draw far more than the average State Department employee, who makes around $100,000 or less, depending on post and tenure. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the country’s top diplomat, only makes slightly more, pulling in around $221,000 annually, though he is reportedly sitting on a “$10 million fortune” driven by his past work as a corporate consultant.

The financial disclosures provide a window into the Biden-Harris administration’s push to emphasize what critics label “woke” priorities in the federal government. The State Department is leading these efforts internationally, reportedly pumping more than $80 million into a litany of programs meant to advance “racial equity” and prevent “gender and sexuality discrimination” abroad. Blinken formed the department’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion in February 2021, shortly after a White House order instructed the entire federal government to ramp up DEI initiatives.

He also created the racial equity envoy position, which maintains a staff and office. Cormier Smith was appointed to the role in 2022 after working as a senior policy advisor for liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. Financial disclosures indicate her spouse pulls in more than $230,000 annually at Freddie Mac, the federal mortgage company.

Mayer, meanwhile, served as the State Department’s top DEI official until April and helped establish the new equity office. She was replaced by Zakiya Carr Johnson, who entered the job as “a social inclusion, diversity, and equity expert and strategist with over 20 years of experience.” OPM does not yet list Johnson’s salary information publicly, but a source familiar with the department’s pay structure estimated that she earns “close to $200k” per year.

Before taking the job, Johnson decried traditional American systems, saying in an online discussion that they are “deeply rooted in patriarchy, in colonialism, in atheism.” A “culture of misogyny,” she said, “has allowed men to act without consequence.”

The State Department’s internal diversity push, primarily crafted by its DEI office, has drawn scrutiny for requiring that employees “pass a loyalty test in diversity, equity, and inclusion” if they are to be “considered for promotions and higher pay,” Fox News reported in May. American diplomats must now “demonstrate through documentation that they are actively involved in DEI practices.”

Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley, the State Department’s inaugural DEI officer who served in the job until June 2023, confirmed the new practices during a speech last year.

“We made the change that if you wanted to be considered for promotion at the Department of State, you must be able to document what you are doing to support diversity, equity, and inclusion, and accessibility,” Abercrombie-Winstanley said. “This is how you are judged for promotion.”

Blinken has also taken a lead role in pushing DEI policies, telling staffers in an internal memo earlier this year that they should be wary about “misgendering” their colleagues and avoid using terms like “mother/father,” “son/daughter,” and “husband/wife.” The goal, Blinken said, is to “increase understanding of gender identity and provide guidance on gender identity language and best practices that support an inclusive work environment.”

The memo also urged employees to include their pronouns in official communications, a policy that backfired last year when the State Department’s internal email system assigned staffers random, and often incorrect, pronouns.

The “pronoun glitch,” as the State Department described it in emails viewed by the Washington Free Beacon, “unfortunately” assigned many employees the incorrect gender pronouns. The State Department subsequently offered free therapy to any employee who felt “hurt or upset” over the situation.

Conservative critics say the State Department’s DEI push has negatively impacted recruitment, efficiency, and morale. The Heritage Foundation concluded in a May report that the diversity requirements “undermine U.S. diplomacy and betray American values,” chiefly by placing an emphasis on race and ideology over foreign policy expertise.

“Ideologically driven bureaucrats at the State Department are severely undermining U.S. diplomacy by artificially engineering equal outcomes in hiring and personnel decisions, through overriding objective criteria,” according to former foreign service officer Hank Simonson, the report’s author. “The world is on fire right now—as seen by the conflicts in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Yet, the State Department is wasting limited resources on an agenda that does not advance American interests and is not supported by data.”

Externally, the State Department’s diversity push has brought a host of “woke” programs to countries across the globe. This has included taxpayer-funded drag shows in Ecuador, a host of “LGBT” initiatives, and as well as “diversity and inclusion” exchange programs.

The State Department has also poured taxpayer funds into an “LGBT activist group supporting prostitution in Colombia,” as well as “a film festival featuring incest and pedophilia in Portugal,” according to a Senate investigation.

The post Top DEI Officials at Biden-Harris State Department Rake In Nearly $200k a Year, Records Show appeared first on .

Columbia University is distancing itself from a new faculty group that hosted an anti-Israel doctor who has praised terrorists, including a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) cofounder who helped plan an Israeli airplane hijacking and a Hamas leader suspected of masterminding a rabbi’s murder.

The doctor, British-Palestinian surgeon and University of Glasgow rector Ghassan Abu-Sittah, spoke Tuesday evening at Columbia University Health Sciences for Palestine’s (CUHSP) inaugural event “Gaza: Public Health in Crisis.” The group is composed of Columbia University Irving Medical Center faculty and staff working to “bring attention to health justice in Palestine.”

CUHSP’s advertisement for the online panel included Columbia’s logo and noted that it was cosponsored by “SPIRIT Initiative and the Certificate Program in Global Health, Mailman School of Public Health, [and] Columbia University Medical Center.”

 

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A Columbia spokeswoman, however, denied that the anti-Israel group was affiliated with the university.

“Columbia University Health Sciences for Palestine is not a recognized Columbia group and is not authorized to hold an event using University resources,” she told the Washington Free Beacon. “The group has been reminded of this and told to remove any Columbia logos from their materials.”

She added that the certificate program has since removed its affiliation and that the flyer has been updated. But CUHSP’s original advertisement was still active on social media as of Wednesday evening.

The spokeswoman didn’t respond when asked if CUHSP’s members or the initial cosponsors would face consequences.

Regardless, CUHSP proceeded with its event.

During the online panel, which more than 200 people attended, Abu-Sittah accused Israel of intentionally creating a famine in Gaza. He called the Jewish state the “tip of the genocidal iceberg” and said the United States, Britain, and Germany were part of the “genocidal project” for supplying Israel with arms, intelligence, and “boots on the ground.” None of those nations have deployed troops to Gaza.

Abu-Sittah, who volunteered in Gaza hospitals, said “Israel was unable to provide a shred of evidence” that Hamas leaders operated in tunnels underneath hospitals. But U.S. and Israeli intelligence dispute that claim. Intelligence also shows that the terror group used Al-Shifa Hospital for cover, weapons storage, and hostage detention and destroyed electronics and documents while evacuating.

Abu-Sittah has long sided with anti-Israel terrorists. He attended the 2019 funeral of Maher Al-Yamani, a PFLP cofounder who helped plan the 1968 hijacking of an El Al plane, which resulted in a dozen Israeli passengers being taken hostage for 40 days. Al-Yamani was sentenced to 31 years for his role, though he was released early as part of a separate hostage exchange. Abu-Sittah’s lawyers described the doctor and Al-Yamani as friends, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

At the funeral, Abu-Sittah was pictured sitting next to Leila Khaled, a PFLP member who was involved in two other plane hijackings. A year later, he spoke at a ceremony in Beirut commemorating the first anniversary of Al-Yamani’s death. Abu-Sittah wept alongside mourners and hailed Al-Yamani’s legacy, video shows.

“He still scares the enemy. All of Maher’s efforts, since he opened his eyes to the world and he became a young man, didn’t go to waste,” Abu-Sittah said at the ceremony. “And this is our only comfort: that even when Maher leaves, the Israelis will still be afraid of Maher.”

In 2018, Abu-Sittah praised Ahmad Jarrar, a Hamas leader accused of plotting the drive-by murder of Raziel Shevack, an Israeli rabbi and father of six. Israel Defense Forces killed Jarrar in a shootout nearly a month later following a manhunt for his capture.

“The martyrdom of the resistance member Ahmed Nasr Jarrar … represents a pivotal moment,” Abu-Sittah wrote, according to the Jewish Chronicle. “The Palestinian people stand watching one of their dearest and best sons drenched in their pure blood.”

He also called Jarrar a “hero” and described the partnership between Israeli and Palestinian security services as a “satanic alliance.”

His comments echoed Hamas’s statement eulogizing Jarrar.

“Our hero and martyr has carried out the duty of resistance and defending the land of Palestine,” the statement said. “The West Bank will produce 1,000 Jarrars.”

Abu-Sittah defended using “emotive language,” though his attorneys told the Jewish Chronicle that the doctor was unaware Jarrar had been involved in Shevack’s killing.

More recently, Abu-Sittah claimed Israel has “intensionally [sic] targeted children in its genocidal war” following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack.

He was also barred from entering Germany earlier this year. In April, the doctor was scheduled to attend an anti-Israel conference in Berlin, but airport police in Germany denied him entry into the country for “the safety of the people at the conference and public order,” Abu-Sittah told the Associated Press. The conference was canceled later that day after its livestream showed someone barred from political activity in Germany, though Berlin police wouldn’t say who.

The surgeon was originally banned from the country for only a few days. But when he landed in France on the way to London, French authorities told him Germany had put a year-long ban on his visa. That meant he was barred from entering any of Europe’s nearly 30 Schengen Area nations.

Abu-Sittah did not respond to a request for comment.

Three other panelists joined Abu-Sittah on Tuesday: Sarah Aly, Jess Ghannam, and Jeffrey Sachs. Salman S. Khan and Noga Shalev, both assistant professors of medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, moderated the event. Columbia’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) advertised the event on social media.

CUAD was among the groups that contributed to the chaotic start of Columbia’s fall semester. On September 3, the first day of classes, CUAD and the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter prevented students from entering campus. CUAD in a Telegram post also praised Hamas leaders and promised that protests would continue.

The next day, CUAD promoted Columbia School of International and Public Affairs Palestine Working Group’s protest of a course taught by former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Agitators dubbed it a “sham class,” accused Clinton of “war crimes,” and called on students to walk out. A flyer advertising the event showed a bloody image of the former secretary of state with her eyes crossed out.

Columbia’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, meanwhile, has long supported anti-Israel activism on campus, including amnesty for anti-Semitic students and divestment from Israel. After student protesters were arrested in April for storming a campus building, the faculty group went on strike, demanding the removal of police from the campus.

The post Columbia Distances Itself From New Faculty Group That Hosted Pro-Terrorist Surgeon appeared first on .

A consultant whose companies were paid almost $10 million by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign and associated political action committee appeared to be part of the mob that moved into restricted areas of the U.S. Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.

The consultancy firm, operated by Trent Pool and his brother, worked to get Kennedy on the ballot in several states.

In photos and videos from January 6, a man resembling Pool can be repeatedly seen wearing a knit beanie from Pool’s alma mater, Southern Methodist University. In one video, he responds to the name “Trent.”

The man in the SMU hat spent hours on what the FBI later called restricted ground during the melee and was involved in carrying a barricade away from a police line after others had seized it. The man can be seen asking another demonstrator to take a photo of him, telling an associate to join him near a standoff with police, and waving a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag.

The man spent hours on what the FBI later called restricted ground and was involved in carrying a barricade away from a police line after others had seized it.

“My client was in Washington, D.C., with a documentary film crew to record portions of the rally that day,” said Pool’s lawyer, Jacques Catafago, in response to an inquiry from The Intercept.

“My client condemns the actions of the January 6 rioters, and any insinuation that he participated in that violence would be false and defamatory,” Catafago said. “In fact, while rioters were storming the Capitol, my client was outside helping a disabled friend get to safety and helping protect a police officer who was being attacked.”

Catafago did not respond to specific questions about the photos and videos of the man waving a flag and holding a police barricade aloft, but made a general statement that Pool disputed the accuracy of the materials reviewed by The Intercept. There is no evidence Pool entered the Capitol building, and he has not been charged with any crimes related to the January 6 riots.

When Kennedy was still actively campaigning for the presidency — a 10-month effort to get on all 50 ballots — Kennedy’s campaign and an affiliated super PAC paid companies associated with Pool’s firm $9,367,343, according to federal filings.

Though Kennedy suspended his campaign, Pool’s effort may still be felt in the presidential race. Kennedy has sued to be removed from ballots in order to benefit Donald Trump, including critical Midwestern swing states.

The man wearing the SMU beanie in the January 6 photos and videos reviewed by The Intercept can be seen in restricted areas right outside the Capitol building, around the southwest staircase and the western terrace.

One photograph of the man in the SMU beanie was posted on a far-right blog in January 2021. A former Kennedy campaign staffer and two of Pool’s former political associates, all of whom requested anonymity to for employment reasons, said the man in the beanie was Pool.

In the videos and photographs, the man with the SMU beanie can also be seen observing as rioters scaled scaffolds and fought their way into entrance tunnels to the Capitol.

Pool is among a group of Kennedy campaign consultants and staffers who have ties to right-wing figures. Zach Henry, a social media influencer hired in March by Kennedy, appeared to be on restricted Capitol grounds on January 6, according to NBC News.

With sometime Trump supporters in his orbit, Kennedy struck a deal to drop out of the race and throw his weight to the former Republican president. In exchange, Kennedy would, as the Trump campaign put it, be part of a transition team “to help pick the people who will be running the government.”

“We Got Trent”

In a video viewed by The Intercept, the man with the SMU beanie who resembled Pool can be seen on the southwest staircase heading to the upper west terrace of the Capitol waving a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag.

A person holding the camera calls to him: “We got Trent.” The man in the SMU beanie then waves back. A third man, who is also in the frame and whose relationship to Pool, if any, is unknown, says, “We are taking the Capitol back!”

Like other photos and videos, the flag-waving takes place on what authorities have said in court was restricted ground. Much of the Capitol grounds were closed on January 6 in preparation for the upcoming inauguration, with officers, barriers, and signage around the perimeter. The initial police cordon was quickly broken when Trump supporters arrived.

In a series of photographs taken just before 3 p.m., the man in the SMU beanie is visible at the back of a crowd. At the front of the group, rioters were attempting to break through the police lines guarding the Capitol’s upper terrace.

The rioters seized a bike rack barricade being used by Metropolitan Police Department officers. After others passed the barricade back, the man in the SMU hat, along with another man, is seen in the photographs carrying a bike rack toward the staircase wall. In a subsequent photo, the barrier is gone and the men are seen peering over the edge of the staircase wall.

A live-feed video posted online shows the man in the SMU beanie standing at the back of the crowd that removed and passed a barricade back; the video ends approximately two minutes before a barricade is handed to the area where the man in the SMU beanie is standing.

In the photo posted on the far-right blog, the man in the SMU beanie is leaning against a concrete wall. A separate video shows him standing at the same spot, against a wall adjacent to one of the Capitol entrance tunnels that saw some of the day’s worst violence.

The man in the SMU hat can be seen in other publicly available archived videos of that day. In security footage, around a 4:45 p.m. timestamp, more than two hours after first being captured on the Capitol grounds, he passes a group of police in riot gear and appears to interact with the officers.

Kennedy January 6 Skepticism

Several Kennedy staffers have expressed skepticism that the attack on the Capitol on January 6 was violent or an attempt to overturn the election.

Kennedy himself has equivocated on the riots, questioning whether the January 6 prosecutions were politically motivated.

In a fundraising email, the Kennedy campaign referred to January 6 rioters as “activists” who were “stripped of their constitutional liberties,” but later said the email came from a contractor who the campaign cut ties with.

Last week, in an interview on the Tucker Carlson Live Show Tour, Kennedy downplayed the January 6 riot. “If you broke the law you should be punished, but was the republic threatened on January 6?” he said. “Even if a building was burned down, it’s not the end of the republic.” (Kennedy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.)

Pool’s two ballot access companies earned a combined $9,367,343 from Kennedy’s campaign and affiliated super PAC American Values 2024 between November 2023 and July 2024. He runs those two ballot access firms, Accelevate 2020 and Public Appeal LLC, with his brother Trey Pool.

Trent Pool, who was recently arrested for violating a restraining order in connection with an alleged April assault of a woman in New York City, is the grandson of former Democratic Texas Rep. Joe Richard Pool. His father is a Texas district judge who raised eyebrows by running as a Democrat in 2022 after years of being a Libertarian-leaning Republican.

Pool has said he started doing work for third parties and candidates in 2010, going on to do petition collecting and ballot work for Rand Paul, Tulsi Gabbard, and Brock Pierce, among others. Pool’s company Accelevate 2020 was also paid $212,098 by Nikki Haley’s campaign in 2024, among other clients.

Kennedy is seeking to remove his name from ballots in 10 swing states to help Trump but will remain on the ballot in several states, including Wisconsin, where the deadline for removing his name has passed, and Michigan, where a judge recently ruled Kennedy should stay on the ballot.

The post RFK Campaign Paid $10 Million to Consultant Who Appears to Have Been on Capitol Grounds During Jan. 6 Attack appeared first on The Intercept.

(NewsNation) — Social Security reform has long been seen as a political minefield, but a new poll shows Americans on both sides of the aisle agree on several potential fixes.

Congress has roughly a decade to shore up the program, which is facing a financial shortfall. Otherwise, millions of people will see their Social Security benefits slashed.

A new survey by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation (PPC) shows that most Americans agree on some proposals to increase revenues and cut costs.

Across six swing states, 86% to 89% of respondents support subjecting all wages over $400,000 to the payroll tax, the poll found. That change would eliminate 60% of the shortfall, the report said.

Nationally, 87% were in favor of the idea, including 86% of Republicans and 89% of Democrats. Today, the payroll tax only applies to wages up to $168,600.

A majority of Republicans (87%) and Democrats (87%) surveyed also supported gradually raising the payroll tax rate from the current level of 6.2% to 6.5% by 2030.

The payroll tax is Social Security’s primary source of income, but due to an aging workforce, higher life expectancy and low birth rates, current collections won’t be enough to pay out full benefits in the future.

The findings imply most voters support congressional Democrats’ recent efforts to impose payroll taxes on higher incomes.

Meanwhile, Republicans have been less forthright about their Social Security plan, but the survey suggests two benefit reductions may be politically palatable.

Nationally, most Republicans (92%) and Democrats (93%) supported reducing benefits for the top 20% of income earners.

Respondents were also given the option of gradually raising the retirement age, which is currently 67. The poll found that 89% of respondents supported raising the retirement age to 68 by 2033.

Steven Kull, who heads the PPC at the University of Maryland, said the poll shows Americans on both sides of the aisle are measured and thoughtful when given the full Social Security picture.

“There’s a kind of convergence around spreading the pain in different ways,” he said.

It also suggests Social Security reform is less politically fraught than many politicians and members of the media have made it out to be.

“What this tells us is that political leaders have the option of pursuing this,” Kull said. “If they explain this to the public, the public will get on board.”

Unlike a traditional poll, respondents went through an interactive “policymaking simulation” where they were presented with the pros and cons of each potential reform. Each choice included gradations that allowed respondents to show their level of support.

You can go through the same interactive simulation here.

The survey was fielded Aug. 2-17, 2024 with 4,677 adults and included approximately 600 people each in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as, 1,224 nationally.