Aug. 16, 2021 - Epoch Times
19:09
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| Good evening. | |
| According to this newly released government document right here, earlier this year, George Soros directed over a million dollars to be given to an organization which is seeking to defund and dismantle police departments across the entire country. | |
| Meanwhile, over in Wisconsin, the State Assembly has just assigned a special counsel to officially investigate the 2020 election. | |
| Meanwhile, over in Massachusetts, a new study published by the CDC found that during a recent COVID outbreak, 74% of those who got infected were already vaccinated. | |
| And lastly, we got a chance to sit down with the founder of a group which is combating critical race theory in government, in schools, and in corporations across this entire country. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| Let's go through it all together. | |
| Now let's begin today's discussion with President Trump's taxes. | |
| But actually, just before we do, as a super quick aside, right there at the very top of the description box is a link to Epoch TV, which is our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epoch Times video programs. | |
| Like the Larry Elder Show, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Crossroads, or Joshua Phillip, Life and Times, and of course our show Facts Matter. | |
| And on there we'll publish exclusive episodes that, due to the censorship here on YouTube, we just don't feel comfortable publishing on this platform. | |
| So again, that link will be right there at the top of the description box. | |
| And now let's really move on over and talk about President Trump's taxes. | |
| After about five or six years of trying, it looks like Congress has finally succeeded in getting President Trump's tax returns. | |
| That's because just three days ago, the Department of Justice announced their decision, saying that tax officials must hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns to a congressional panel. | |
| Now, to give you a bit of background on this, the House Ways and Means Committee has been seeking to get their hands on these returns for many years now. | |
| In fact, Congressman Richard Neal, who is a Democrat from Massachusetts, and he's also the chairman of this committee, he issued subpoenas for these tax returns all the way back in 2019, in May of 2019. | |
| So that's about two and a half years ago. | |
| However, back then, Steve Mnuchin, who was the Treasury Secretary, he denied the request, saying that the House panel's request, and this is a quote, lacks a legitimate legislative purpose. | |
| And that is something that is necessary under a Supreme Court precedent. | |
| And the Trump administration was able to maintain that stance because they were in control of both the Treasury Department as well as the Department of Justice. | |
| In fact, under the Trump administration, the Department of Justice, it ruled that Steve Mnuchin acted properly when he withheld Trump's tax returns from Congress back in 2019. | |
| However, that brings us back to today. | |
| Because under this new administration, the Biden administration, the Department of Justice has changed course. | |
| And it's now saying that officials must indeed hand over the tax returns to the House. | |
| Here's specifically what the Department of Justice wrote in a memo just three days ago. | |
| When one of the Congressional Tax Committees requests tax information pursuant to that section of the code and has invoked facially valid reasons for its request, the executive branch should conclude that the request lacks a legitimate legislative purpose only in exceptional circumstances. | |
| The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former president's tax information. | |
| Under, once again, this code, the Treasury must furnish the information to the committee. | |
| And you know, just as an aside, it's really amazing, at least to me, that you can have the exact same laws in the books, but depending on who is in charge of the executive branch, you can have totally different outcomes. | |
| Regardless, after this memo was released, Richard Neal, who is again the Democrat who is in charge of this House committee, he said this in response. | |
| However, not everyone was so keen on this new decision. | |
| For instance, Senator Chuck Grassley, he's a Republican from Iowa, he said that this decision appears to be purely politically motivated and it sets a dangerous precedent. | |
| Here's specifically what he said as a part of his statement. | |
| The federal government closely guards private taxpayer information for a reason. | |
| It seems to me that this new opinion from the Biden Justice Department is just politics. | |
| The Office of Legal Counsel is supposed to be a source of thoughtful legal analysis, not a source of political justifications to back up partisan House investigations. | |
| He further added that, in his opinion, there is no real reason that the House needs to have access to President Trump's taxes, and instead, Senator Grassley suspects that it's likely a method that they are using to release the returns to the public. | |
| Here's what he said on that front. | |
| There's no legitimate legislative purpose for targeting an individual's tax information like this, even if it's the former president. | |
| It's always been obvious that House Democrats wanted to get the former president's tax returns just so they can release them to the public. | |
| And the Ways and Means Committee's excuse about doing oversight on the presidential audit program is an obvious pretext that deserves no deference from the Treasury Department. | |
| And so, we'll just have to wait and see whether that actually happens or not, whether all of a sudden, in a few weeks from now, President Trump's taxes appear on the front page of the New York Times. | |
| Only time will tell. | |
| Regardless, we did reach out to President Trump for comment on this matter, but we have yet to hear back. | |
| If you would like to read more about this battle over these tax returns, the link to that will be in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| And now, before we move on over to Wisconsin and discuss how a special counsel was assigned to officially investigate the 2020 election, I would like to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, and I will do so from the sound booth. | |
| I wanted to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which is an awesome company called AMAC, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens. | |
| Now, I do consider myself a mature American citizen, but I'm about 19 years too young to join AMAC. However, if you or someone in your family is 50 years old or over, I would consider joining because they are essentially the conservative alternative to the AARP and they offer three main benefits to their members. | |
| The first is the money saving benefit because they partner with a ton of retailers across the country and offer you discounts on things like vitamins, insurance policies, and so on. | |
| The list is pretty long. | |
| I'll throw a link to it in the description box below. | |
| The second is that members get a subscription to their magazine. | |
| And even though I'm not a member, I have read their magazine and it's filled with thought-provoking articles. | |
| Very good. | |
| I'd highly recommend it. | |
| And then the third benefit, which a lot of people say is their favorite, is that AMAC fights on Capitol Hill against what they're calling the socialist storm that's brewing in America. | |
| So again, I would highly recommend you check them out. | |
| It's not too expensive. | |
| if it's only $16 per year, but it looks like the benefits outweigh the cost by a wide margin. | |
| Again, you can go over to amac.us forward slash facts matter or just click in the link in the description box below. And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring our episode. Now, Roman in the studio, back to you. And now let's move on over to Wisconsin. | |
| Three days ago, the top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly, he said that his office has expanded the probe into the 2020 election and have assigned a special counsel to the case. | |
| So this announcement came from Robin Voss, who is the Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly. | |
| He's a Republican, and he's the one who actually set up the current election probe in Wisconsin that's been ongoing for the last few months now. | |
| And in case you're not aware of what's been happening over in Wisconsin, earlier this year, Robin Voss authorized an investigation into the 2020 election, which has, until now, been carried out by Michael Gableman, who is a former state Supreme Court justice. | |
| And as of three days ago, Mr. | |
| Voss... | |
| He designated this former Supreme Court justice as a special counsel, which now grants him more authority to investigate election fraud allegations. | |
| Here's what Mr. | |
| Voss said in a statement when he announced his decision. | |
| To restore full integrity and trust in elections, we have decided to change direction, giving more authority and independence to Justice Gableman. | |
| I'm declaring him special counsel, and I'm giving him the authority to hire more full-time investigators who will work at his direction. | |
| Now, Mr. | |
| Voss said that this decision to appoint a special counsel came after a discussion with this former Supreme Court Justice when he said that a more thorough effort was needed with both more investigators who could work full-time as well as possibly several hundred thousand dollars as a budget. | |
| And in response, Mr. | |
| Voss said this. | |
| If he thinks he needs one person, great. | |
| If he thinks he needs half a dozen, great. | |
| Which sounds like the Wisconsin Assembly is willing to provide him with whatever resources he needs to conduct this investigation. | |
| Now, while Mr. | |
| Voss did not set up a timetable for when this investigation should be completed, he did say that he hoped that it would be finished by the fall. | |
| And by the way, just for your reference, and this is something that's pretty interesting, in my opinion at least, there is currently another election review in Wisconsin that's being conducted by the Legislative Audit Bureau, and that review was actually commissioned by the Wisconsin State Senate. | |
| And so, in order to give you a visual breakdown of what's actually happening, several months ago, both the Wisconsin State Assembly and the Wisconsin State Senate, they both commissioned election investigations. | |
| The Assembly's investigation is being led by Michael Gabelman, who is the former Supreme Court Justice, and he was recently assigned to be a special counsel, which now gives him more authority. | |
| Now, the other investigation, the one commissioned by the Senate, is currently being conducted by the Legislative Audit Bureau, and frankly, there's not much known about the second investigation, except for the fact that it's slated to be finished around fall. | |
| Here's what the Assembly Speaker said in regards to having two concurrent investigations. | |
| If you have two independent investigations where they are going to go the way the evidence leads them, that should be something we should all get around. | |
| Now, just like in many other states, the Democrats over in Wisconsin, they have been criticizing these investigations into the 2020 election. | |
| For example, Nellie Sires, who is the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, she said this about the audit. | |
| The fact will remain that the 2020 election was free, fair, and conclusive. | |
| It's time for the Speaker to end the charade and start telling the truth. | |
| Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the Assembly Speaker's office in order to get more clarification on what this expanded investigation will actually entail, but we have yet to hear back. | |
| Regardless, if you would like to read more about what we know thus far... | |
| I'll throw those links into the description box below this video for you to check out, which by the way is that same little description box that is right below that like button that I hope you vote with your finger and smash. | |
| Because honestly, it goes without saying that videos that are like this, talking honestly about what is happening in this world right now, are routinely censored or throttled by big tech giants like YouTube. | |
| However, when you smash that like button, you are forcing the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to potentially thousands of more people, letting the truth be known far and wide. | |
| And now let's move on over to Massachusetts. | |
| According to a new study that was published by the CDC just three days ago, one Massachusetts county which had a COVID outbreak last July had a very unique phenomenon show up, which is that primarily the outbreak occurred among people who were already vaccinated. | |
| That's right. | |
| According to this new study, which was published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, it showed that out of the 469 cases that were detected over in Barnstable County, 74% of them occurred among people who were fully vaccinated. | |
| Furthermore, according to this same study, they conducted genome sequencing of about 133 of these patients, and they found that 89% of them were infected with the Delta variant of the virus. | |
| Also in this study, they reported that the vast majority of the people who were infected did not require hospital care, but among the five people who did require hospitalization, four of them were fully vaccinated. | |
| Now, following this report, a group of researchers, some of whom were CDC officials and others who were with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, they released a statement saying that this type of data suggests that everyone should be wearing a mask, regardless of their vaccination status. | |
| Here's what part of that statement said. | |
| Findings from this investigation suggest that even jurisdictions without substantial or high COVID-19 transmission might consider expanding prevention strategies, including masking in indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status. | |
| Given the potential risk of infection during attendance at large public gatherings, that include travelers from many areas with differing levels of transmission. | |
| Now, in that statement, they mentioned the risk of infection at large public gatherings. | |
| And that is likely a reference to how, in this report, it says that the cases at Barnstable County in Massachusetts, they could be attributed to several summer events and large public gatherings that were held in July. | |
| In fact, in this report, they have a graph which showed how the rates of infection coincided with large public gatherings. | |
| And as of four days ago, there were 882 cases of people who were infected with COVID, which were linked to this cluster over in Barnstable County, and 74% of them were breakthrough cases, meaning that 74% of the people who were infected had already been fully vaccinated. | |
| Now, if you'd like to read this study for yourself, and I would highly recommend it, it's pretty short, it's only a few pages, I'll throw a link to it in the description box below this video so you can check it out and go through it yourself. | |
| And now, let's move on over and talk about George Soros. | |
| According to newly released federal records, in fact, I have them right here in front of me, George Soros directed $1 million worth of funding to be given to a left-wing political group which seeks to cut the funding of police departments across the entire country. | |
| Now, according to these records, which came from the Federal Elections Commission, back on May 14th, which is about two and a half months ago, George Soros directed this $1 million contribution to be given to an organization called Color of Change PAC. Now, you might be wondering, what exactly is this organization? | |
| What is Color of Change? | |
| Well, according to their website, they describe themselves as a racial justice group, and they have frequently called for the defunding of police departments across America. | |
| And if you look on their website right now, you will find a petition titled, And when you scroll down, within the body of that petition, it says, We're good to | |
| go. | |
| Here's what he said. | |
| Now, that statement was made last summer. | |
| However, in the months afterwards, in the months after all those BLM riots happened last summer, generally the defund the police movement has lost a lot of steam and it has lost a lot of public support as well. | |
| And that has largely coincided with a significant spike in violent crime that you're seeing across American cities. | |
| In fact, since last summer, violent crime, including homicides, rapes and robberies, they have surged in number in many major cities across the entire country, which led some politicians who previously supported the defund the police movement to actually switch course and publicly try to distance themselves from it. | |
| Public opinion, as a whole, has also nosedived. | |
| In fact, there was a poll released last May which showed that only 18% of people across this entire country supported defunding the police. | |
| However, all of this negative press has not seemed to alter the direction of this organization of Color of Change. | |
| In fact, here's what one of their campaign directors told a Brooklyn newspaper just a few weeks ago. | |
| This movement is demanding a reimagining of public safety. | |
| We are saying no more police and no more mass incarceration. | |
| And with a message like that, they were able to secure over a million dollars worth of funding from George Soros. | |
| Specifically, the Open Society Foundations, which is George Soros' fundraising arm, they provided over a million dollars in funding to Colors of Change through several donations. | |
| And on their website, when you go over to their website, this is how Open Society Foundations justifies one of these donations. | |
| It is designed to support advocacy on the courts and government accountability and the development of narratives relevant to racial justice advocacy. | |
| Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to both the Open Society Foundations as well as Color of Change for comment, specifically on clarification on what exactly this $1 million will be used for, but we have yet to hear back. | |
| Regardless, if you would like to read more about this organization or about this George Soros donation, all those links will be down in the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
| However, since we just talked about Color of Change, let's discuss a different kind of organization called Color Us United. | |
| This organization is actually advocating for an America where people are united by our individuality and our freedoms. | |
| On their website, they describe themselves this way. | |
| We are the voice of those who oppose dividing America by race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic. | |
| We resist those who divide Americans in the name of racial equity. | |
| Now, while I was down in Texas, I had the opportunity to sit down with Kenneth Shu, who is the founder of Color Us United, and we got a chance to discuss what critical race theory is doing to this country. | |
| Take a look. | |
| This has started as soon as Kamala Harris got into power. | |
| Kamala Harris, by the way, was the leader of this back in California when she was still state senator. | |
| In the Proposition 16 campaign last year in California, she tried really hard to get race preferences in admissions and hiring and everything like that. | |
| Now she's expanding that role nationally. | |
| I suspect this is a Kamala Harris project. | |
| Basically, the Biden administration is going to start prioritizing so-called black-owned businesses, so-called Latino-owned businesses over white-owned businesses and, of course, over Asian-owned businesses, too, because we're the inconvenient minority. | |
| You know, we're too privileged. | |
| To be given preferences. | |
| So that's a contradiction. | |
| But one of the things that he specifically says, just because you're black owned, by the way, all that means is that you have a black face as your president or your CEO of your organization. | |
| There's nothing else. | |
| It means nothing else. | |
| You can have 99% white employees, but if your face, if the face of your organization is black, you get... | |
| A whole bunch of preferences in government contracts. | |
| That is wrong. | |
| That is wrong because people have worked so hard and they should be treated on the basis of their hard work, not their race. | |
| Now, if you would like to read his book, which is called An Inconvenient Minority, you can find it over on Amazon. | |
| I'll throw a link to it in the description box below this video so you can find it easily. | |
| And then also, if you would like to watch the full interview between him and I, I'll be uploading that over on Epic TV in the next few days. | |
| And in case you don't know, Epic TV is our brand new no censorship video platform where you can find all of the awesome Epic Times video content, such as the Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, China in Focus, Life and Times. | |
| And of course, on there is our show, Facts Matter. | |
| And we publish exclusive episodes that we don't put here on YouTube, including full length exclusive interviews that you can find over on Epic TV. | |
| The link to Epic TV will be right there at the top of the description box. | |
| I hope you click on it. | |
| I hope you check it out. | |
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| And until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epic Times. |
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