January 1, Report: Giuliani Under Investigation

This Day in History | 1492

Christopher Columbus reaches the new world, coming ashore in the Bahamas.

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Good Saturday Morning Middle America!

Please take a moment and support your fellow Middle Americans by buying one of our “Where’s Hunter?” t-shirts. Even if he did nothing wrong, it’s still a valid question. Click on this link and wear it proudly.  Demand answers and demand the truth!

Storm clouds continue to build around America’s former favorite Mayor Rudy Giuliani. He’s proving to be a YUGE liability to the president.   New Reports indicate he’s now under federal investigation for lobbying violations.  Oops. 

Following the testimony of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch (against the wishes of the State Department) it looks like more whistleblowers feel empowered to come forward.  The White House seriously needs to get its stuff together and wrap their arms around this problem.  

Self-righteous climate actress Jane Fonda has been arrested. She says she’s “uprooting her life” to move to Washington D.C. for four months, so she can protest Congress for its failure to act on climate change.  Here at Middle America, we believe climate change is a serious issue and one that needs to be addressed, but not by pretend protests from Hanoi Jane.  

Pretty much everyone was shocked yesterday to learn that Shepard Smith was quitting Fox News. The Associated Press seems to link the departure to a meeting that took place on Thursday between Attorney General Bill Barr and Fox Boss Rupert Murdoch. 

And California now has the nation’s broadest gun-seizure rules in nation. 

Read all about it. 

– Fraser Dixon 

‘Rudy Giuliani Needs to Stop Talking’: Trump team tires of Giuliani

(Politico) – For weeks, prominent Republican advisers have been privately imploring President Donald Trump to sideline Rudy Giuliani after a barrage of inconsistent, combative and occasionally cringe-inducing media interviews, according to three people familiar with the conversations.

And that was before the arrest of two foreign-born businessmen who reportedly helped Giuliani try to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden, the leading Democrat to take on Trump in next year’s election. Several reports have indicated Giuliani himself may be caught up in the probe.

Read more from Politico here

More Potential Whistleblowers Are Contacting Congress

(The Daily Beast) – New potential whistleblowers are coming forward to the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, two congressional sources tell The Daily Beast. 

They seem to be emboldened by the actions of the whistleblower whose explosive account of President Donald Trump’s phone call to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating Trump’s domestic political rivals ignited the impeachment inquiry. Another whistleblower is known to have come forward. 

Find out more from the Daily Beast here

Jane Fonda Arrested in Climate Change Strike Outside Capitol

(ABC News) – Inspired by youth climate activists like Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, 16, who herself recently came to Washington to testify in front of Congress, Fonda, who, throughout her long career, has engaged in activism, dating as far back as the Vietnam War, recently told ABC News that while she’s in the nation’s capital, every Friday, she’ll attend “Fire Drill Friday,” a weekly event featuring scientists, celebrities and activists addressing the various facets and impacts of climate change.

Click here to see Jane Fonda speak after her arrest

Shepard Smith Out at Fox News

(AP) — Shepard Smith, whose newscast on Fox News Channel seemed increasingly an outlier on a network dominated by supporters of President Donald Trump, abruptly quit after signing off his final newscast on Friday.

Smith, who had signed a contract extension last spring, said that he had asked the network to let him out of his deal and it had agreed.

His departure comes one day after Attorney General William Barr met privately with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, founder of Fox News, although Smith’s representatives cautioned against conflating the two events.

Find out more here

California Enacts Nation’s Broadest Rules for Gun Seizures

(The Hill) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday signed into law a measure that goes further than any other state’s when it comes to seizing firearms.

The new statute, part of a package of 15 bills signed by Newsom, makes California the first state to grant employers, colleagues and teachers the power to seek gun violence restraining orders against other people.

Read more about California’s new gun laws here