Tag: republicans

Josh Hawley Proposes AI Regulations, Section 230 Repeal, and Digital ID Checks for Chatbots

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is pushing for broad new regulations on artificial intelligence, including age verification for chatbot access, data ownership rights, and the full repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

While the proposals are framed as efforts to curb corporate overreach in the tech industry, they will ignite concern among digital rights advocates who warn that such measures could undermine online privacy and freedom of expression.

At the National Conservatism Conference, Hawley accused AI developers of building their systems by collecting and using copyrighted material without permission. “The AI large language models [LLMs] have already trained on enough copyrighted works to fill the Library of Congress 22 times over,” he said.

“Let me just put a finer point on that — AI’s LLMs have ingested every published work in every language known to man already.” He claimed that creators were neither consulted nor compensated.

In July, Hawley introduced the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act, which would allow individuals to sue companies that use personal data without consent and would establish property rights over certain categories of digital information.

However, two key components of Hawley’s platform are raising some alarm. His call to repeal Section 230 has been criticized for potentially damaging the open internet.

Section 230 currently shields online platforms from legal liability for content created by users. Without it, many sites could be forced to preemptively remove user content out of legal risk, resulting in widespread over-moderation and silencing of lawful speech.

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O’Keefe: FBI Official Escorted Out of Building After Release of Undercover Video of DOJ Official Admitting Government will “Redact Every Republican” While Leaving All “Democrat People” on Epstein Client List

James O’Keefe on Friday said an FBI official was escorted out of the building after he released undercover video of a DOJ official admitting the government will redact every Republican while leaving all Democrat people on the Epstein client list.

“Our DOJ investigation is just the beginning. Another tape is about to drop. We are currently verifying the footage and confirming our sources. We’ve just been told an FBI official was escorted out of the building after what we exposed,” O’Keefe said.

We have formally requested an interview with top officials at the DOJ, who, along with the FBI, are actively working with us to arrange one.

As previously reported, the O’Keefe Media Group on Thursday released an undercover video of a DOJ official admitting the government will redact every single Republican while leaving all the liberal Democrats on the Epstein client list.

“They’ll [DOJ] redact every Republican or conservative person in those files, leave all the liberal, Democratic people in those files, and have a very slanted version of it come out… without really seeing any of their bad behavior,” admitted Joseph Schnitt, DOJ Acting Deputy Chief at the Office of Enforcement Operations.

“There’s thousands and thousands of page-open files,” Schnitt said. “If they’re released in any way, it’s going to be very redacted.”

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released more than 33,000 pages of Epstein-related documents.

The tranche of documents released didn’t really reveal anything new.

The DOJ official told an OMG journalist that the government will redact Republican names and release the Democrat names on the Epstein client list.

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Rep. Thomas Massie Name-Drops GOP Megadonor John Paulson — Allegedly Listed in Epstein’s “Black Book” — Accuses Billionaire of Bankrolling Campaign to Destroy Him

During a Wednesday interview on Newsmax, Rep. Massie directly called out GOP megadonor John Paulson, the billionaire hedge fund manager who has poured millions into Republican politics and who, according to Massie, also appears in Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious “Black Book.”

“Well, let me give you the name of one of the billionaires who’s running $2 million of ads in my district since I started this effort,” Massie said.

“His name is John Paulson. He’s a hedge fund manager and a major donor to the Republican Party, a major donor to the Speaker of the House, a major donor to the President’s campaign, and he’s in Epstein’s Black Book. Now, that’s public, but that’s indicative of the types of people who may be implicated or just embarrassed by a release of these files.”

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House Republicans create new panel to reinvestigate Jan. 6

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted on party lines on Aug. 3 to create a special panel to reinvestigate the events of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection.

Steered by Republicans, the new subcommittee’s creation is an escalation of the party’s rewriting of the history of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. The historic attacks by some of President Donald Trump‘s supporters disrupted the peaceful transfer of power after former President Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

In 2022, after 18 months of investigating the events leading up to the insurrection, the original House Jan. 6 committee found that Trump was the “central cause” of the riots. The panel of lawmakers decided unanimously to issue four criminal referrals against Trump to the Justice Department, accusing him of conspiracy to defraud the United States and inciting an insurrection.

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SHOCK: Here Are the Republicans Who Helped Democrats Kill Motion to Censure Rep. LaMonica McIver After She Was Charged For Assaulting Federal Agents

Five House Republicans helped Democrats kill a motion to censure Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver (NJ) on Wednesday.

GOP Congressman Clay Higgins forced a censure vote on LaMonica McIver after she was charged with assaulting federal agents at an ICE facility in May.

Every Democrat, with the help of five insufferable Republicans, killed the motion.

The five Republican lawmakers included: Don Bacon, Mike Flood, Dave Joyce, Mike Turner and David Valadao.

Politico reported:

Some House Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to sink an effort to censure Rep. LaMonica McIver over her involvement in a chaotic May scuffle outside an immigration detention center.

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) forced the vote to formally reprimand McIver and remove her from her position on the House Homeland Security Committee, a handful of his GOP colleagues had little appetite for moving forward with the punishment.

Five Republicans — Reps. Don Bacon and Mike Flood of Nebraska, Dave Joyce and Mike Turner of Ohio and David Valadao of California — joined every Democrat in voting to table the measure, while two Republicans — Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York and Nathaniel Moran of Texas — voted present.

LaMonica McIver verbally abused and physically assaulted federal agents at a detention facility in Newark in May.

ICE bodycam footage revealed Rep. LaMonica McIver was verbally abusing federal agents and threatening to destroy their careers.

“I touch whoever I want motherf*cker!” McIver shouted.

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Thomas Massie Introduces Repeal of Gun-Free School Zones Act

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is pushing a repeal of the Gun-Free School Zones Act (1990) in order to make it easier for law-abiding teachers, faculty, and others, to be armed to fend off would-be attackers on school campuses.

The Gun-Free School Zones Act was put in place by President George H.W. Bush (R), barring the possession of a firearm in a “school zone” and thereby creating myriad gun-free soft targets in places filled with defenseless children, teachers, and school staff.

Massie wants to see the Gun-Free School Zones Act repealed as a way of removing the soft target moniker from schools around the country.

Gun Owners of America praised Massie’s push, saying, “Congress needs to abandon the failed federal gun-free schools policy & arm willing teachers instead!”

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Georgia Judge Orders Fulton Commissioners to Pay $10,000 Per Day Over Rogue Democrats Refusing to Seat GOP Election Board Nominees

Earlier today, The Gateway Pundit reported on at least three democrats on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners who refused to seat the lawfully nominated Republican Party nominees Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.

Commissioners Ivory and Barrett took to Instagram to express their disgust that “election deniers” would be appointed to the board and vowed to hold out no matter the costs.  Fellow commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr posted on Instagram that he’d be willing to go jail over this.

This morning, Superior Court Judge David Emerson found “beyond a reasonable doubt that the Board of Commissioners has failed to comply with the court’s order” and has held the Board in civil contempt.  Beginning on Friday, August 29th at 12pm, the Board will be fined $10,000 for every day that they fail to appoint the Republican Party’s members to the Board of Elections.

He further noted that the fine “is to be paid daily” but stopped short of holding the respondents in criminal contempt.

Judge Emerson also awarded attorney’s fees “incurred in both the bringing of this case to compel compliance with the relevant local legislation and for the intentional failure to comply with the court’s order enforcing the law.”  Emerson further wrote:

The court does find that the respondent Board of Commissioners has been stubbornly litigious and acted in bad faith in its conduct prior to this litigation by its failure to comply with clear local legislation which forced the plaintiff to file this action.  The court further finds that it has caused the plaintiff unnecessary difficult in the conduct of this litigation by its failure to comply with the court’s order. (emphasis added)

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Fulton County Board of Commissioners Defy Court Order – Refuse to Appoint Republican Election Board Nominees – Contempt Hearing Today

Last week, a judge ordered the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to seat two Republican Party nominees: Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.  The two were nominated in May but have yet to be seated.

Two of the Democrat members, Dana Barrett and Mo Ivory, were able to thwart Commissioner Bridget Thorne’s motion to confirm the two Republican appointees.  Because of the absence of three other members on the seven-member board, the motion was blocked in a 2-2 vote.

On August 4th, Judge David Emerson ordered the two nominees be confirmed as per Georgia law, which states that the the board’s members “shall be appointed” by the “chairperson of the county executive committee of the political party” of whichever party has the “largest number of votes in this state for members of the General Assembly”.

In that order, Judge Emerson stated, “The respondent Board of Commissioners (BOC) contends the “shall” is not mandatory, but rather “directory”, and that the county commissioners can exercise discretion to reject any nominee for any reason.”

The commissioners filed a request to reconsider, which was denied.  So they filed an emergency motion with the Georgia Supreme Court, who moved the docket to the Georgia Court of Appeals.  The appeals court denied the motion as well.

Today, at 9am, a hearing will take place regarding the two members who voted against the appointments, and a third who was not present but is also refusing to appoint the two despite the Court’s orders.

Commissioners Dana Barrett, Mo Ivory, and Marvin Harrington still refuse to vote for the appointments.

Barrett, who has served on the board since November 2022, took to Instagram to post a video calling Frazier and Adams, the Republican nominees, “election deniers” and acknowledging that the Court has ruled against her and her colleagues.  “Our elections are under attack,” she said, before invoking Texas and President Trump’s movement to eliminate universal mail-in balloting and untrustworthy black-box voting machines.

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Judge rules Utah’s redistricting violated rights; orders new maps by 2026

The Utah Legislature violated voters’ rights by approving congressional boundaries that split Salt Lake County, Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson ruled.

She said lawmakers bypassed the independent redistricting commission established by voters and drew maps that unlawfully favored Republicans. The ruling means new congressional maps must be drawn ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Gibson said when Legislators enacted the new Congressional Map in 2021 using HB 2004, it violated the law already established and “cannot lawfully govern future elections in Utah.”

The Legislature has until Sept. 24 to redraw districting lines so they align with the ballot initiative called Proposition 4. The plaintiffs and third parties will also have the opportunity to submit maps, which could be used if the legislature’s maps do not meet the requirements.

Gibson’s ruling is the latest in a saga of court hearings regarding Utah’s congressional districts.

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Texas Senate Passes Redistricting Map Favoring Republicans

The Texas Senate on Aug. 23 passed a bill that will redraw Texas’s congressional maps and increase Republicans’ hold on the state’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats.

Its passage in the early hours of Saturday morning came after a daylong session.

After passing the Republican-dominated upper chamber in an 18 to 11 party-line vote, the bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

In line with a request from President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice, the bill would redraw the state’s congressional boundaries to favor Republicans.

Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Aug. 21 signed a legislative package to authorize a Nov. 4 referendum to redraw California’s congressional maps in favor of Democrats. The changes are expected to be approved in the Democratic stronghold.

The map could increase Democrats’ hold on California’s U.S. House delegation by as many as five seats, endangering several previously safe Republicans.

On Thursday evening, the state Senate’s Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting met to discuss the bill, voting 5–3 in favor of reporting the bill to the Senate with a favorable recommendation.

The Texas House of Representatives passed the legislation on Aug. 20, after the more than 50 Democrats who had left the state earlier returned after it became clear that California would approve a legislative response to Texas’s passage of the bill.

Those Democrats returned to the state after a two-week standoff, during which the state Legislature was unable to achieve a quorum and was therefore gridlocked.

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