MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asks
Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023
FILE PHOTO: Business magnate George Soros arrives to speak at the Open Russia Club in London, Britain June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo
The "friend" of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been paying for the Thomas couple to go on lavish trips around the world on his pal's private jet and personal yacht, is also known for collecting Nazi memorabilia. While Republicans have excused it away as ensuring the horrors of history are remembered, the reality is a little more disturbing.
GOP donor Harlan Crow has a yard full of statues of dictators on display. He has a signed portrait of Adolf Hitler and an autographed copy of Hitler's book Mein Kampf. One houseguest found some of Hitler's linens and place settings hidden away in an upstairs cabinet, hidden away from the public.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that for the past few weeks, Fox hosts and conservative pundits have collected around the false conspiracy theory that Jewish funder George Soros was behind the prosecution.
"The longstanding smear against him, one of the big attack lines from the right, is to suggest Soros was a Nazi sympathizer and collaborated during the war," Hasan said. "It's nonsense. It's been repeatedly debunked. Soros, who is Jewish, was two years old when Hitler came to power and was a teenager during World War II. But here is where things get interesting, ironic, bizarre in fact. The Republican Party has its own billionaire donor, who was accused of meddling in the judicial system. Conservative real estate mogul Harlan Crow, who, this week, we learned, thanks to ProPublica, has been taking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on undeclared, luxury trips for years, for free, on his yacht, to an all-male retreat."
The total cost of the trips could be as much as $500,000. Crow also gave $500,000 to a lobbying group run by Thomas' wife, Ginni.
It made Hasan wonder if it's time to start calling Thomas a Crow-backed Justice the way the right calls Bragg a Soros-backed DA.
"No museum curator I know would glorify such artifacts that way. Hitler's painting was signed and just hanging on the wall as art," said Danah Boyd, who is known as a tech and social media scholar, who revealed what she saw at Crows' home.
"His defenders on the right say that this is all unfair, absurd! That Crow is just commemorating the horrors of the 20th century," said Hasan. "I mean, Crow himself says that he's just preserving history. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying Harlan Crow is or is not a Nazi sympathizer. What I am saying is that, when you have Nazi linens in your house and a copy of Mein Kampf autographed by the Führer himself, I don't think you can chalk that down to preserving history. And, for those saying this isn't a story, this isn't fair to Harlan Crow, again, remember (that) the double standard is in play. If George Soros had a home full of Hitler memorabilia and a garden full of dictator statues, would Fox and the GOP give him a pass? Or would they be losing their minds and screaming 'Nazi!' at him?."
He closed by repeating something he's echoed for many years: every accusation from a Republican or a conservative is actually a confession.
See the full commentary below or at the link here.
April 09, 2023
FILE PHOTO: Business magnate George Soros arrives to speak at the Open Russia Club in London, Britain June 20, 2016. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/File Photo
The "friend" of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who has been paying for the Thomas couple to go on lavish trips around the world on his pal's private jet and personal yacht, is also known for collecting Nazi memorabilia. While Republicans have excused it away as ensuring the horrors of history are remembered, the reality is a little more disturbing.
GOP donor Harlan Crow has a yard full of statues of dictators on display. He has a signed portrait of Adolf Hitler and an autographed copy of Hitler's book Mein Kampf. One houseguest found some of Hitler's linens and place settings hidden away in an upstairs cabinet, hidden away from the public.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan noted that for the past few weeks, Fox hosts and conservative pundits have collected around the false conspiracy theory that Jewish funder George Soros was behind the prosecution.
"The longstanding smear against him, one of the big attack lines from the right, is to suggest Soros was a Nazi sympathizer and collaborated during the war," Hasan said. "It's nonsense. It's been repeatedly debunked. Soros, who is Jewish, was two years old when Hitler came to power and was a teenager during World War II. But here is where things get interesting, ironic, bizarre in fact. The Republican Party has its own billionaire donor, who was accused of meddling in the judicial system. Conservative real estate mogul Harlan Crow, who, this week, we learned, thanks to ProPublica, has been taking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on undeclared, luxury trips for years, for free, on his yacht, to an all-male retreat."
The total cost of the trips could be as much as $500,000. Crow also gave $500,000 to a lobbying group run by Thomas' wife, Ginni.
It made Hasan wonder if it's time to start calling Thomas a Crow-backed Justice the way the right calls Bragg a Soros-backed DA.
"No museum curator I know would glorify such artifacts that way. Hitler's painting was signed and just hanging on the wall as art," said Danah Boyd, who is known as a tech and social media scholar, who revealed what she saw at Crows' home.
"His defenders on the right say that this is all unfair, absurd! That Crow is just commemorating the horrors of the 20th century," said Hasan. "I mean, Crow himself says that he's just preserving history. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying Harlan Crow is or is not a Nazi sympathizer. What I am saying is that, when you have Nazi linens in your house and a copy of Mein Kampf autographed by the Führer himself, I don't think you can chalk that down to preserving history. And, for those saying this isn't a story, this isn't fair to Harlan Crow, again, remember (that) the double standard is in play. If George Soros had a home full of Hitler memorabilia and a garden full of dictator statues, would Fox and the GOP give him a pass? Or would they be losing their minds and screaming 'Nazi!' at him?."
He closed by repeating something he's echoed for many years: every accusation from a Republican or a conservative is actually a confession.
See the full commentary below or at the link here.
Former Republican congressman slams 'slimy and unethical' Clarence and Ginni Thomas business enterprise
Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA) cautioned critics of Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump, noting that it's still not really known what all Bragg has because the specifics weren't included in the indictment or the statement of facts.
CNN's Jim Acosta began the segment with the recent ABC News poll saying that 64 percent of Americans agree that Trump acted illegally. Just 36 percent think he didn't act illegally.
"When you're doing something as we did on the J6 case, that evidence builds and builds and builds and builds," said Riggleman. "And even today, I think if we looked at all the data from J6, which we haven't been able to do yet, really, I think we would even see more of the key players. So when I hear an attorney talking about a client that you know all, it's a rancid ham sandwich. You know, for me, I'm, like, you don't know the data he has to message for his client. He's getting paid. So for me, you know, it's just somebody else sort of screaming into a popcorn box."
Acosta noted that the poll numbers are growing worse, noting that they're far worse than they were in 2020.
Trump has spent the last week telling his supporters that this isn't an attack on him but an attack on his MAGA followers. His advisers even equated Trump with Jesus Christ, taking the legal hit for his supporters. But Riggleman doesn't think that's how it works in this case because normal people don't have to pay off porn stars.
"You know, even if you don't get charged, I don't know if paying off porn stars is that sort of resume builder that you want as a POTUS," explained Riggleman. "So, I think that's what you get to is, you have a lot of individuals out there saying, hey, you know, was the indictment politically motivated, right? Some of you say it is, but it still should have happened. But again, when you're paying off porn stars, and you're using your sort of almost like a legal type of way of funneling that money, I think normal people, you know, they go to work every day around businesses like me, and you look at that and say, okay, you know what? I haven't even paid off any porn stars lately myself."
He said that it was pathetic.
When the two began talking about the recent report that Clarence Thomas' was getting free trips from a wealthy GOP donor that has cases before the court. Riggleman recalled working on the Jan. 6 committee, the text messages that they found from Mark Meadows' computer came from Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice that worked for far-right fringe groups and was pressing a number of efforts to take over the 2020 election.
"But when you see something like Harlan Crow, you wonder how much money he's given to GOP causes," said Riggleman. "I think there's a Dallas report — Dallas news — $13 million to the GOP. The fact that she funnels a lot of money through her lobbying efforts. You know, she's probably a member of seven, eight, or nine significant lobbying groups for the GOP since 2009. For me it looks like it's Clarence and Ginni have their own business models, like the Thomas Business Enterprise, right? That they're able to leverage her access based on the fact that she's married to the most probably the most powerful Republican in the country, right? A guy that's forever."
He went on to say that he's read her deposition many times from the Jan. 6 committee and that she's being incredibly vague in her statements around her participation of Jan. 6.
"We know that she was involved. And now we have an individual, you know, like Harlan Crow, who's a billionaire, right?" Riggleman continued. "Who's probably funneled millions of dollars right through vacations for the Thomases but also in constant contact with other people who are very high up in the GOP. Even if it's not illegal, it feels pretty slimy and unethical. But again, when you're talking about making money, what better way than to influence peddle, right? With the last name of Thomas, right?"
See the full segment below or at the link here.
Sarah K. Burris
April 09, 2023
Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Former Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman (VA) cautioned critics of Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's case against former President Donald Trump, noting that it's still not really known what all Bragg has because the specifics weren't included in the indictment or the statement of facts.
CNN's Jim Acosta began the segment with the recent ABC News poll saying that 64 percent of Americans agree that Trump acted illegally. Just 36 percent think he didn't act illegally.
"When you're doing something as we did on the J6 case, that evidence builds and builds and builds and builds," said Riggleman. "And even today, I think if we looked at all the data from J6, which we haven't been able to do yet, really, I think we would even see more of the key players. So when I hear an attorney talking about a client that you know all, it's a rancid ham sandwich. You know, for me, I'm, like, you don't know the data he has to message for his client. He's getting paid. So for me, you know, it's just somebody else sort of screaming into a popcorn box."
Acosta noted that the poll numbers are growing worse, noting that they're far worse than they were in 2020.
Trump has spent the last week telling his supporters that this isn't an attack on him but an attack on his MAGA followers. His advisers even equated Trump with Jesus Christ, taking the legal hit for his supporters. But Riggleman doesn't think that's how it works in this case because normal people don't have to pay off porn stars.
"You know, even if you don't get charged, I don't know if paying off porn stars is that sort of resume builder that you want as a POTUS," explained Riggleman. "So, I think that's what you get to is, you have a lot of individuals out there saying, hey, you know, was the indictment politically motivated, right? Some of you say it is, but it still should have happened. But again, when you're paying off porn stars, and you're using your sort of almost like a legal type of way of funneling that money, I think normal people, you know, they go to work every day around businesses like me, and you look at that and say, okay, you know what? I haven't even paid off any porn stars lately myself."
He said that it was pathetic.
When the two began talking about the recent report that Clarence Thomas' was getting free trips from a wealthy GOP donor that has cases before the court. Riggleman recalled working on the Jan. 6 committee, the text messages that they found from Mark Meadows' computer came from Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice that worked for far-right fringe groups and was pressing a number of efforts to take over the 2020 election.
"But when you see something like Harlan Crow, you wonder how much money he's given to GOP causes," said Riggleman. "I think there's a Dallas report — Dallas news — $13 million to the GOP. The fact that she funnels a lot of money through her lobbying efforts. You know, she's probably a member of seven, eight, or nine significant lobbying groups for the GOP since 2009. For me it looks like it's Clarence and Ginni have their own business models, like the Thomas Business Enterprise, right? That they're able to leverage her access based on the fact that she's married to the most probably the most powerful Republican in the country, right? A guy that's forever."
He went on to say that he's read her deposition many times from the Jan. 6 committee and that she's being incredibly vague in her statements around her participation of Jan. 6.
"We know that she was involved. And now we have an individual, you know, like Harlan Crow, who's a billionaire, right?" Riggleman continued. "Who's probably funneled millions of dollars right through vacations for the Thomases but also in constant contact with other people who are very high up in the GOP. Even if it's not illegal, it feels pretty slimy and unethical. But again, when you're talking about making money, what better way than to influence peddle, right? With the last name of Thomas, right?"
See the full segment below or at the link here.
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