Woman attacked by Marjorie Taylor Greene as 'not a mother' speaks out
American Federation of Teachers' president Randi Weingarten says U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's very personal attack on her as she testified before Congress this week was "homophobic," and she is urging people to call out "cruelty" whenever they see it.
Weingarten denounced "the vile, homophobic nature" of Greene's attack, saying, "it was pathetic, and the undermining of families was pathetic."
On Wednesday, for five minutes, the Republican Congresswoman from Georgia berated, demeaned, and bullied Weingarten -- and not just Weingarten but the LGBTQ community, and anyone who is adopted, anyone who has adopted a child, anyone who is a parent to a child but not by birth –not "biologically," the term Greene used – and anyone who is a child of a parent but not biologically.
Congresswoman Greene told Weingarten she is "not a mother" because she not the "biological" parent of her children.
It was a shocking claim that stunned many, but as NCRM reported, it was not the first time Greene has said that only biological parents are real parents.
“Miss Weingarten,” Rep. Greene asked Weingarten during the congressional hearing, “Are you a mother?”
“I am a mother by marriage,” Weingarten replied. “And my wife is here with me. So I’m really glad that she’s here.”
“By marriage,” Greene noted. “I see.”
The ensuing five-minute Q&A consisted almost entirely of Greene berating Weingarten, as she did here:
Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1651327118369001472Weingarten is not a government official and was not testifying under subpoena, so she conceivably could have walked out. But she stayed, and as she told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Friday, "I felt like I was taking one for the team."
Greene attacked her for doing her job by sending the CDC recommendations on how to protect children (and by extension their families), teachers, and staff as the coronavirus pandemic took over the country and the world.
The extremist Georgia lawmaker concluded her remarks by telling Weingarten, “you have no business advising the CDC what the medical guidelines were for school closures, because now we have a nation of schoolchildren who suffered because of it. The problem is people like you need to admit that you’re just a political activist. Not a teacher, not a mother and not a medical doctor.”
Note Greene's "people like you" and the "not a mother" remarks. To be clear, Marjorie Taylor Greene said Randi Weingarten is not a mother because she is merely married to her children's mother.
(Religion News Service's Jack Jenkins noted that Weingarten's wife is "Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, head of a prominent NYC synagogue long known for its support of LGBTQ rights.")
On Friday, Weingarten told Wallace and her MSNBC panel, "This can't just be political. It just can't be about what we do in November. I think that when we see people being treated so cruelly, and indecently people of different political factions have to come together, and it will have a lot of strength if we do. We can debate about issues. That's what school teachers do every day. You don't wait to say to a kid, 'Are you a Democrat? Are you a Republican? Are you an independent?'"
"Kids come to your classroom, you try to teach the whole child, you tried to help them thrive," she continued. "We need to call out the cruelty and call out the deprivation and the dehumanization."
Earlier in the segment Wallace blistered the right and the far-right, explaining that when they move to quickly dehumanize people, everyone needs to stop it in its tracks.
"I do this without hyperbole but I want to say this clearly today," Wallace told her panel. "If we don't jump on and rapidly respond to dehumanization campaigns when they happen, they're achieving what the right needs them to achieve."
"Alex Jones couldn't have the dead babies at Sandy Hook exist, because then we might do something different about guns. Republicans can't have the moms of trans kids and dads just trying to figure out the best way to love and support their kids. They can't exist. Because if that mom is as compassionate and committed to her child or his child as they are, then they can't square their own hateful hearts and their intolerance."
Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1652050592964001805Whistleblower raises alarm over John Roberts' wife making $10.3 million in legal commissions: 'I knew immediately that it was wrong'
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ wife earned $10.3 million in commissions for her work for elite law firms, one of which argued a case before her husband, Business Insider reports.
Jane Sullivan Roberts stepped away from her career as a prominent lawyer two years after her husband’s confirmation to the Supreme Court to become a legal recruiter, matching job-seeking lawyers with employers in what turned out to be a lucrative career change.
She made $10.3 million in commissions from 2007 to 2014, according to a whistleblower complaint, which cites internal records that were obtained from her employer by a disgruntled former colleague of Jane Roberts.
Kendal B. Price, the whistleblower who worked with Roberts at the firm Major, Lindsey & Africa, said as the chief justice’s wife, income Jane Roberts earns from law firms who try cases before the court should be subject to scrutiny.
"When I found out that the spouse of the chief justice was soliciting business from law firms, I knew immediately that it was wrong,” Price told Business Insider.
"During the time I was there, I was discouraged from ever raising the issue. And I realized that even the law firms who were Jane's clients had nowhere to go. They were being asked by the spouse of the chief justice for business worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there was no one to complain to. Most of these firms were likely appearing or seeking to appear before the Supreme Court. It's natural that they'd do anything they felt was necessary to be competitive."
Price in an affidavit that accompanied the complaint alleged that Jane Roberts benefited from her proximity to the chief justice.
"She restructured her career to benefit from his [John Roberts'] position," Price wrote.
"I believe that at least some of her remarkable success as a recruiter has come because of her spouse's position."
Read More Here: https://www.businessinsider.com/jane-roberts-chief-justice-wife-10-million-commissions-2023-4'His people skills are very, very bad': Another billionaire GOP donor says he won’t give to Ron DeSantis
A billionaire Republican donor says he won’t give to Ron DeSantis because of the Florida governor’s people skills, or lack thereof.
John Catsimatidis, a self-described centrist who has contributed to candidates in both parties, became the latest prominent big donor to express doubts about giving to DeSantis, who has not yet announced his candidacy but is expected to do so soon.
Billionaire hedge fund executive Ken Griffin earlier this week said he’s having second thoughts about contributing to DeSantis, who he’s contributed to in the past.
Catsimatidis said he’s not the only big donor who believes DeSantis has a people skills problem.
“I have a lot of Florida friends that helped him get elected (governor) and he hasn’t returned any of their calls,” Catsimatidis said Friday during an appearance on Erin Burnett's OutFront.
“He is who he is. He’s a good American, but his people skills are very, very bad. And what I find out is the one that people hang out with. One friend of mine said he was sitting next to him and he never said one word."
“So his people skills are not good. And I think that's one of his major problems.”
Watch:
