Former State Department Bureaucrats Show Why Trump Fired Them
Plus, Iranian military rolls out the red carpet for NPR's favorite liberal activist
Proving the point: Nearly a half dozen disgruntled former bureaucrats gathered before a crowd (if you can call it that) outside Foggy Bottom on Friday. They attempted to rally support for themselves and other "recently fired State Department employees." They failed.
Organizer Michael Duffin, who was fired from State despite holding three graduate degrees, promoted the rally by asking for former U.S. ambassadors and other "senior officials" to attend and speak. Apparently nobody was interested—a Free Beacon reporter was one of the only people in attendance. Speakers instead included Steven Ramsey, a former USAID contractor and Fulbright alumnus who read a version of the Nazi-era “First They Came” poem that he "adapted for the context we're in right now."
"First they came for the immigrants, and I did not speak out because I was not an immigrant," he said after noting that the original poem came "from 1930s Germany." Several individuals eventually applauded.
Duffin did not read a poem, but he did post a screenshot of his farewell email to colleagues in the buildup to the rally. It too made a Nazi comparison: "In the musical 'Sound of Music,' the Von Trapp family escaped the Nazis while performing 'So long, farewell,'" wrote Duffin. "As the curtain descends on my State Department career I feel like it's strangely appropriate to share with you some lyrics to that song." Bravo.
That aged poorly: In 2021, NPR aired a segment with then-17-year-old "activist" Calla Walsh, whom the network highlighted as a "good citizen" who could provide advice on "being involved in civic life at a young age" thanks to her experience as a left-wing organizer for Ed Markey. She identified the "existential threat" that is the "climate crisis" as "the driving factor that pushed me to get involved in politics." Now, as a budding young adult, Walsh is continuing her activist streak by… touring IRGC weapons facilities at the invitation of the Iranian government.
Walsh "traveled to Tehran as part of a delegation hosted by World Service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, part of a propaganda junket to portray Iran as resilient in the aftermath of the U.S. military bombings of Iran’s nuclear facilities and IRGC outposts last month," our Chuck Ross reports. "Clad in a hijab, Walsh said it was 'the greatest honor of my life' to visit Iran, which she said was 'under genocidal siege' by the United States and the 'Zionist entity.'" At one point, she touted the Islamic Republic's "indigenously produced drones and missiles."
"Walsh's propaganda tour caps off a meteoric rise in radical activism," writes Ross, "a path spurred on by news organizations like NPR, the New York Times, and the Boston Globe, all of which have portrayed Walsh as an enthusiastic activist paving the way for young Democrats."
Into the fryer: Remember when Donald Trump, propelled by a Free Beacon investigation, declared that Kamala Harris never worked at McDonald's? A new book examines the claim and asserts, without evidence, that Harris did toil under the Golden Arches for… two weeks.
That's seemingly less time than the "weeks" Harris's campaign spent "agonizing" over whether and how to respond to the "attacks," according to 2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America by journalists Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, and Isaac Arnsdorf, who omit any mention of the Free Beacon while rehashing the ordeal. Harris's allegedly short stint on the job meant "most advisers didn't want to lean into her time at McDonald's," the book states, but Harris did so anyway. When questions emerged, the campaign considered deploying Harris's sister, who is said to have worked alongside Harris, "for a feature story with a lifestyle magazine, but others viewed the story as too risky."
When the New York Times covered the brouhaha in October, they compared the Free Beacon report, which found no evidence of Harris's employment, to Trump’s questioning of Barack Obama’s place of birth. CNN's Brian Stelter, meanwhile, characterized the fracas this way: “Harris shared this and then a pro-Trump website started to talk about, ‘Hey, is there evidence, is there proof she worked at McDonald’s, there’s no records, there’s no receipts.' I find that bewildering." So did Team Harris, it seems.
READ MORE: Kamala Harris Worked at McDonald’s For… Two Weeks, New Book Asserts Without Evidence
In other news:
Sorry, Pocahontas: Shortly after Liz Warren rage tweeted over the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's show, suggesting the move was "political," Puck reported that the show "costs more than $100M a year to produce and is losing more than $40M a year."
In a piece on "Trump's assault on colleges," the Washington Post provided this description of the "pro-Palestinian protests" that "erupted on many college campuses" in the wake of Oct. 7: "Some Jewish students said certain actions and rhetoric amounted to antisemitism." Big if true.
Former White House deputy chief of staff Annie Tomasini became the third Biden aide to refuse to testify in the House GOP's probe into the former president's mental acuity.
Our full lineup is below.
Kamala Harris Worked at McDonald’s For… Two Weeks, New Book Asserts Without Evidence
Dan Osborn’s Campaign Paid His Wife Nearly $20K in 'Salary' Payments, Records Show
Trump DOJ Urges Maryland Supreme Court To Toss Lawsuits Seeking Climate Damages From Oil Companies
'F– You': Jimmy Kimmel Blasts CBS After Network Cancels Stephen Colbert's 'Late Show'
It's not the climate that's the existential threat, it's minds of certain people, who know right from wrong, have critical thinking available to them, have the history of the world before them, have untampered non-political education to use, the ability to know better, BUT ,,,,,they have CHOSEN to completely deny & ignore all this, simply because they can! CONSCIENCE OF THOUGHT & NATURE ARE TOILETED for political deviation, at the expense of knowing RIGHT FROM WRONG! A COMPLETE WASTE OF HUMANITY.
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