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Jumped the gun? News outlets slammed over ‘atrocious’ decision to call Arizona for Biden as new results show Trump could still win

Fox’s decision in particular has triggered anger from Trump supporters.

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President of the United States Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a "Make America Great Again" campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in Goodyear, Arizona. | Image Credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr

Penned by RT

Several news outlets made an early call that Joe Biden was set to turn Arizona blue, but the projection has since been heavily criticized, as the latest results reveal it is still possible for Donald Trump to win the state.

Two batches of results released by Maricopa County have narrowed the Democratic nominee’s lead in the state to around 69,000 votes. With approximately 275,000 ballots left to be tabulated in the county, Trump could pass Biden if he maintains his current advantage. More results will be announced on Thursday night. 

The Associated Press projected in the early hours of Wednesday that Biden would win Arizona, after concluding that there were not enough outstanding ballots to allow for a Trump comeback. AP declared Biden the winner after an estimated 80 percent of the vote was counted, leaving Trump with a roughly 130,000-vote deficit. Fox News also gave the Grand Canyon State to the Democratic nominee. 

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey responded by saying it was too early to declare a victor and urged for every ballot to be counted before “making declarations.”

Fox’s decision in particular has triggered anger from Trump supporters, with protesters who gathered outside Maricopa’s ballot-counting office chanting anti-Fox slogans. 

There was similar outrage on social media. Actor and conservative commentator James Woods argued that calling Arizona for Biden was “as atrocious as Dan Rather calling Florida in 2000 while the panhandle (solid Republican) was still voting.” 

Rather, who at the time was an anchor for CBS news, controversially called Florida for Democrat Al Gore in 2000, only to retract the projection. He then retracted his retraction, as the margin between Gore and Republican George W. Bush narrowed, ultimately leading to a Supreme Court battle that decided the outcome of the election. 

Even CNN admitted that Trump was “on track” to flip Arizona if he maintains his lead over Biden among newly counted ballots. Rightwing pundit Mark Dice joked that, for the first time ever, he hoped the news network was correct. 

But frustration over projecting Arizona early was not limited to conservatives. Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson berated the move, predicting that if Trump ultimately wins, the fact Arizona was first called for Biden would cause “serious trouble.”

If Biden wins Arizona, he will only need to secure Nevada to obtain the 270 electoral votes required to declare victory. The Trump campaign, however, has already requested a recount in Wisconsin and filed legal challenges in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania, making it increasingly unlikely that there will be a clear victor by Thursday. Biden has said he is on pace to secure victory but has stopped short of declaring the contest over. Trump, on the other hand, said that he had won the election after results showed him leading in battleground states. He claims that Biden’s comeback in several states, purportedly fueled by mail-in and absentee votes, is fraudulent. 

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Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person

The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.

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Image Credit: Phil Murphy/Flickr

The Biden administration is mulling a plan to offer immigrant families separated during the Trump administration $450,000 per person in compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.

The payments – part of an inter-agency solution to several lawsuits filed on behalf of separated parents and children claiming lasting psychological trauma could amount to nearly $1 million per family, though ‘the final numbers could shift,’ according to the report.

According to sources, most of the families crossing into the US from Mexico included one parent and one child. Depending on circumstances, many families could get smaller payouts.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said. -WSJ

In total, the potential payout could reach $1 billion or more.

Throughout the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents (and coyotes paid to bring them into the country) after they had crossed illegally into the country from Mexico. The lawsuits allege some of the children suffered various ailments – including malnutrition, heat exhaustion, and were kept in freezing cold rooms with little medical attention. Some claim lasting mental health problems due to the trauma of being without their parents for several months.

The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.

“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said ACLU deputy director, Lee Gelernt. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”

Senate Republicans slammed the plan on Thursday afternoon following the WSJ‘s report.

“The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).

The discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who had violated the law by crossing the border, the people said. One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said. -WSJ

“It is a complicated, complex piece of litigation” – trying to resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits at the same time, and “sometimes even more complex to try the cases” said Margo Schlanger, who ran the civil-rights office during the Obama administration at the Department of Homeland Security and now teaches at the University of Michigan law school.

What will the reparations crowd think of this?

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White House To America: ‘We’re Coming Door To Door…With Shots!’

Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?

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White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said at the daily press conference yesterday that President Biden’s strategy to get everyone a Covid shot – whether they want it or not – is to start going “door-to-door” to those not yet jabbed. So…they have a list? Also today: bomb-maker Raytheon goes “woke.” Capitol Hill Cops set up shop in California. Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?

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Half A Million Illegals Crossed Since Harris Named Border ‘Czar’

By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.

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According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, around 500,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Kamala Harris was named border ‘czar’.

The Washington Free Beacon reported the findings, noting that only three months has passed since Harris took on the responsibility, and that the half a million figure is just those that have been apprehended.

The CBP says around 180,000 immigrants are being caught per month. In April agents arrested 178,854 illegal immigrants, the highest monthly figure for 21 years. That figure was then surpassed in May as agents apprehended 180,034 illegals.

By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.

Harris only bothered to visit the border when President Trump announced he was making a trip. Even then Harris visited El Paso, some 1000 miles away from where the crisis is taking place.

Previous to this, Harris lied and claimed she had been to the border, telling NBC’s Lester Holt “This whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”

When Holt pushed back and said she had not, Harris snapped “I—and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t—I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” then again laughed maniacally:

On Tuesday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson argued that Harris’ trip to El Paso was designed to distract the media and keep them away from the real crisis hit areas of the border.

“They took her to a point in the border where she wouldn’t see the crisis and so the press wouldn’t report on the crisis,” Johnson said.

The Senator added, “You just simply can’t understand what this administration is doing. We literally are apprehending now about 6,000 people per day. That’s I mean, that’s a large caravan every day being processed, some of them being returned, others are being dispersed. But this crisis is not going away. It’s just under everybody’s radar because the press isn’t covering it.”

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