Republican senators continued to downplay the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh Wednesday, even as a third woman came forward, saying she was gang or “train” raped at a party where Kavanaugh was present. In a sworn declaration shared by her lawyer Michael Avenatti on Wednesday, the woman, Julie Swetnick, said she […]
A group of anti-LGBTQ organizations, including several that have been labeled as hate groups, has launched a new campaign in favor of allowing adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples. The “Keep Kids First” campaign falsely claims that these faith-based agencies are being targeted to the detriment of the kids they purport to serve. Not […]
On Wednesday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) appeared in court to argue that the government has the right to stop detained undocumented teens from getting an abortion. In March, a federal court temporarily blocked the Trump administration from interfering with any detained immigrant’s right to get an abortion. Since then, 12 young, immigrant women in federal custody have received […]
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) will call for the House to open an ethics investigation into allegations that he abused his ex-girlfriend, Karen Monahan, more than a month after Monahan first went public with her claims. In a statement to BuzzFeed News Wednesday, the progressive Democrat, who serves as the deputy chairman of the Democratic National […]
For the better part of two months now, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has tried to position herself as a voice of careful consideration on the matter of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. First she insisted she would be extremely diligent in sussing out whether he would be the decisive vote in striking down […]
After years of investigation, the Department of Justice issued an indictment this week against the mastermind behind one of the most controversial congressional trips of the past decade, during which dozens of representatives and staffers were wined and dined in Azerbaijan in 2013. Houston-based businessman Kemal Oksuz was recently arrested in Armenia and faces five separate […]
A third woman, Julie Swetnick, came forward this week to accuse Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh of sexually predatory behavior in the early 1980s, according to a sworn affidavit released by her attorney, Michael Avenatti. The development puts increased pressure on Kavanaugh’s friend, Mark Judge, who has become entangled in the allegations over the […]
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez have both publicly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. A third woman, Julie Swetnick, has now accused Kavanaugh of a pattern of sexual misconduct, including involvement in gang rapes. The Republican majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee only plans to allow a hearing about Ford’s allegation. […]
At its present pace, the Trump administration would double the backlog of immigration cases facing Department of Justice administrators by the end of his first term in office. The backlog rose again in August, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Syracuse University-based researchers who track and centralize official data on a variety of federal […]
A third woman came forward this week to accuse Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually predatory behavior. The events detailed in her signed affidavit appear to line up with events shown on Kavanaugh’s personal calendars from the time. In a sworn declaration shared by her lawyer Michael Avenatti on Wednesday, the woman, Julie Swetnick, […]
Acting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler isn’t going to end Trump’s war on children’s health. But the former coal lobbyist does have sneakier tactics than his much-investigated predecessor Scott Pruitt. Wheeler has put the Director of the Office of Children’s Health Protection (OCHP), Dr. Ruth Etzel, on administrative leave without explanation. Etzel, as the EPA’s website notes, is […]
Climate change affects different regions in different ways — from extreme heat and drought in the southern states and inland flooding along the coast to wildfires out west — and yet the issue has been glaringly absent from the midterm debates this election season. Analyzing the most competitive Senate and gubernatorial races, Media Matters for […]
In an affidavit released Wednesday morning, a Washington, D.C. woman accused Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of a pattern of sexual misconduct, including “abusive and physically aggressive behavior to girls,” targeting girls with drugs and alcohol for the purpose of sexual assault, and involvement in gang rapes. Below is my correspondence to Mr. […]
On Monday, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh wrote a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee in which he attributed the two sexual assault allegations against him to a “coordinated effort to destroy my good name” — in short, some sort of left-wing conspiracy. Kavanaugh offered no evidence for his conspiratorial claim, but other leading Republicans, […]
Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans announced Tuesday evening that the panel should be prepared to vote on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court on Friday, just one day after he and his accuser Dr. Christine Blasey Ford will testify before the committee regarding allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her in high school. Republicans […]
Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade got riled up Wednesday morning discussing the multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct levied against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh over the past two weeks. “We’re focusing not on Brett Kavanaugh’s career, we’re focusing on his high school years,” Kilmeade said. “I was actually at back-to-school night last […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was lit Tuesday night in bright purple and a simple message: “Brett Kavanaugh is a sexual predator.” Kavanaugh currently sits on that appeals court. The action, organized by the anti-sexism group UltraViolet, targeted the Supreme Court nominee as he prepares to testify Thursday about […]
A sex crimes prosecutor, Rachel Mitchell, is questioning Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused U.S. Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault, on Thursday. She has worked in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Arizona for almost 30 years. But during a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called her a […]
Fourteen years of her life, for three to ten of his. Bill Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted Andrea Constand in 2004. In 2018, he was sentenced to three to ten years in a state prison. After so much time spent silencing her, he was hauled out of the courtroom in handcuffs, and he didn’t say […]
A day after world leaders literally laughed at Donald Trump’s false boasts during his speech to the United Nations, his loyal Ambassador to the United Nation took to Fox & Friends to do damage control. But with few easy ways to spin the president enduring what the Washington Post called “the fate he’d always feared,” Nikki […]
Across the country, Republican midterm candidates are contending with a voting public that largely does not agree with their policy ideas. Rather than attempt to defend their efforts to take away people’s healthcare and extend tax cuts that mostly benefited wealthy corporations — deeply unpopular ideas — many candidates are simply trying to smear their Democratic […]
AUSTIN, TEXAS — To look out over the capital of Texas is to see a growth spurt in its most fervent phase. The rapidly-growing city of Austin extends in every direction, bleeding into its also-booming suburbs, while modern apartment complexes are replacing once sleepy, green spaces. That growth explosion is at the center of a […]
A group of Mormon women are pushing the Judiciary Committee — which includes four Mormon senators — to delay the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in the wake of sexual assault allegations against him. “Given the seriousness of the allegations levied against Judge Kavanaugh, we call upon the members of the Senate Judiciary […]
For the past month, George Papadopoulos’ lawyer has made repeated appearances on television to discuss facets of the ongoing investigations into Russia’s interference efforts — but the networks on which she appeared never disclosed her ties to one of the Russia investigation’s key players. Caroline Polisi began working as counsel for Papadopoulos, a former Trump […]
Minutes after Bill Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in a state prison for sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, his publicist read a statement to reporters linking Cosby with Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault by two women. Ignoring the difference between consensual sex and sexual assault, publicist Andrew […]