IRS Hearing: NOM, Tea Party Get Slammed For Playing Victim (Video)
At yesterday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the IRS, six conservative groups — five Tea Party organizations and NOM, the National Organization For Marriage — played the victim. The Tea Party groups were angry because the IRS actually dared to investigate and make sure they weren’t scamming the system. A tax exemption is not a right, it’s a privilege, and most of the Tea Party groups claiming they are promoting “social welfare” — which the laws says has to be your primary purpose for the tax-exemption — are lying.
Some Democratic Congressmen, not that the mainstream media has bothered to report — actually challenged the “victims” at yesterday’ hearing.
But Congressman Jim McDermott, Democrat of Washington state, wasn’t going to play any games:
“But as I listen to this discussion, I’d like to remind everyone what we are talking about here,†Rep. McDermott told the “victims.” “None of your organizations were kept from organizing or silenced. We are talking about whether or not the American taxpayers would subsidize your work. We are talking about a tax break.â€
“Each of your groups is highly political,†McDermott continued. “From opposing the President’s healthcare reform, to abortion restrictions, to gay marriage, you’re all entrenched in some of the most controversial political issues in this country – and with your applications you are asking the American public to pay for that work. Many of you host and endorse candidates. The line between permitted political activity and non-permitted political activity can be very fine, and it’s important that tax payers know which side you fall on.â€
NOM’s victim-playing did not go unaddressed either.
In an op-ed at the Huffington Post published after he participated in yesterday’s hearing, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon, continued to take John C. Eastman, Chairman of NOM, the National Organization For Marriage, to task:
Let’s get real and stop the charade about what a ‘social welfare’ organization is.
Last year, internal National Organization for Marriage (NOM) strategy documents were leaked, stating that the organization seeks “to drive a wedge between gays and blacks” by promoting “African American spokespeople for marriage,” thus provoking same-sex marriage supporters into “denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots,” and “to interrupt the assimilation” of Latinos into “dominant Anglo culture” by making the stance against same-sex marriage “a key badge of Latino identity.”
Does this sound like social welfare to you?
Social welfare organizations should work in the public interest — not to divide, exploit, and conquer.
When I brought this up at the hearing today, Dr. Eastman, Chairman of the Board of NOM, angrily groused, “To say that defending traditional marriage doesn’t qualify for defense of the public good is beyond preposterous.”
To Dr. Eastman, I say that it is the denial of my constituents, and all Americans, the right to marry the person they love that is preposterous. To exploit racial and religious differences so you can fundraise for and enforce your specific worldview is preposterous.
One last note.
I know I will make no friends among my progressive colleagues by stating this, but my responsibility is to my readers, to reporting the truth, and to moving the progressive agenda forward with facts.
I’m extremely disappointed in some larger left-leaning news organizations and their associated bloggers, and others with major platforms for not covering yesterday’s hearings better. Some didn’t cover it at all, some just pointed to the same two-minute seven second video of Eastman responding with rhetoric to Rep. Earl Blumenaur. Not all of us have the resources that some well-funded groups do. Most of these groups in the past have done an excellent job covering the lies and twisted tales the right weaves daily.
That is no longer the case.
If you don’t think the progressive news media has grown complacent, try this.
Go to YouTube and search for “IRS,” or “IRS hearing,” or anything else related.
You will find hundreds of copies of selectively-edited videos, with titles that clearly show they were uploaded by right wing Tea Party supporters.
There are (almost) none from the left.
(And thanks to The Raw Story for the above video and transcript, and for being one of the few outlets to actually report on the critical parts of the hearing, and not from a right-wing false point of view.)
I watched a good portion of yesterday’s hearing — in fact, I was, to the best of my knowledge, the first blogger to tip off the rest of the liberal media that there was a hearing scheduled for yesterday.
Rep. Charlie Rangel executed a superb, eloquent take-down of NOM’s chairman.
I’d like to see that video — other than in a non-embeddable C-SPAN version.
If someone can find it I’ll add it here.
The New Civil Rights Movement doesn’t get any funding, we don’t have any resources other than a laptop, our smarts, and our occasional wit.
Progressives are getting lazy and complacent, as I noted last week in “To The LGBT And Progressive Communities On Our ‘Loss’ In The Illinois Marriage Fight.”
Time to get back to work.
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Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Graham Platner is under fire after releasing a video declaring that new allegations against him are false, yet he is “taking time to reflect” on a path forward.
Politico on Monday afternoon reported that a woman who dated Platner, Jenny Racicot, “says he forced her to have sex with him nearly five years ago despite her repeated objections, an allegation Platner denies.”
“Racicot said she had an on-and-off relationship with Platner,” Politico reported, “for more than two years before he entered her rural Maine home uninvited one night in late 2021, deeply intoxicated, and forced himself on her while she repeatedly told him to stop. She said she cut off contact with him after telling him the encounter was not consensual.”
In a video posted to social media eleven minutes after the Politico story dropped, Platner says, “I wanted to directly address the troubling, serious, and false allegations against me. Any accusation of nonconsensual behavior is categorically false.”
He said he and his supporters “were united in a love of Maine, a belief that our politics must change, in a focus on defeating Susan Collins.”
“So, regardless of the inaccuracy of the reporting, but mindful the political reality will inflict, we are taking the time to reflect on the best path forward for the state that I love, the people that I love, the movement I belong to, and the goal of defeating Susan Collins.”
“Those were the goals when we launched this campaign. And they remain my goals today.”
“Throughout it all, you never turned your back on me. And I will not turn my back on you now. Every one of you deserves to see that vision come to fruition and see Susan Collins defeated. And we will use every tool at our disposal to do so.”
The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, a political commentator who served as the communications director for the Jeb Bush 2016 presidential campaign, blasted Platner.
“I’m sorry but ‘we are taking time to reflect on the best path forward’ is not an option on the table,” Miller wrote. “Either it’s false and you campaign with vigor or it’s true and you get out / apologize to everyone you let down.”
Journalist Ryan Grim, commenting on Platner’s video, noted that Platner “strongly suggests he is considering dropping out. Already Troy Jackson and Chellie Pingree, both gubernatorial candidates, are being kicked around in Maine circles as potential replacements.”
Several others, including Puck News’ Peter Hamby, predicted Platner will be dropping out.
Platner had postponed several campaign events before the Politico story was published.
— Graham Platner for Senate (@grahamformaine) July 6, 2026
President Donald Trump is facing backlash after posting a video of children — including showing their unblurred faces — graduating from kindergarten, with some of the girls purportedly wearing hijabs.
“President Trump posted a captionless video of graduating kindergarteners on Truth Social on Monday, goading his supporters into verbally attacking little children simply for being Muslim,” The New Republic reported. “The clip is from Gateway STEM Academy, a majority-Black K-8 public charter school in St. Paul, Minnesota. It shows about 21 children in caps and gowns on stage singing a song together. Most of the girls are wearing hijabs.”
The original post of the video which Trump reposted reads: “Public school in St. Paul, Minnesota. Every girl is in a hijab … in kindergarten.”
Trump did not add any comments. TNR called the post “Islamophobic, weird, and creepy,” while noting that the comments section of Trump’s post was filled with calls “by racist, xenophobic MAGA supporters” to “deport the children and ban hijabs.”
TNR also noted that it “should come as no surprise that Trump isn’t above attacking children who just learned how to read, but this post is still particularly discomforting—and will certainly contribute to the already potent level of anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. and in Minnesota.”
Critics blasted Trump.
“There is something deeply unsettling about the president of the United States—the most powerful person in the world—going after kindergarten schoolchildren in Minnesota because they wore hijabs, as Trump has done this morning on his website,” The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote.
One social media commentator wrote, “Trump posted an unblurred video of more than a dozen Muslim kindergartners to Truth Social, exposing the children’s faces while targeting them for their religion.”
Another added, “Trump is a bigot. The president took to Truth Social to attack kindergarteners in hijabs. These are little kids. The president isn’t just a bigot, he’s also a coward.”
The original video was posted to the X social media platform in June.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) at the time commented, “If you are in a public school in America, you should be speaking english.”
Image via Reuters
President Donald Trump’s apparent efforts to delay releasing the $5.8 million civil judgment to E. Jean Carroll are being met with a warning by the journalist’s legal team, who suggest there could be a legal maneuver for Trump to employ to forgo paying the judgment in either of the two cases he lost.
According to The Guardian, on July 4, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Trump to release the $5.8 million judgment, which is in escrow, to Carroll by this coming Tuesday — or explain why he would not do so.
Carroll’s attorneys think Trump may be trying to buy time to mount another legal strategy, telling the judge that Trump’s request for an extension “appears to be little more than yet another play for time.”
“The case is separate from Trump’s appeal of a Manhattan civil jury’s 2024 award of $83.3m to Carroll for defamation,” The Guardian explains. “But her lawyers have suggested a legal scenario in which the president might seek to conjoin the cases and further delay payment of both.”
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan (no relation to the judge) wrote, “We can only assume that defendant is seeking … to buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying plaintiff presumably in connection with his forthcoming petition and motion for a rehearing.”
Trump’s former attorney, Justin Smith, in one of his final acts, wrote to the Supreme Court suggesting that his client would be appealing the $83.3 million civil judgment.
Smith argued that the Supreme Court “may wish to consider the petitions together,” given they involve the same parties.
The larger judgment case involves possible questions of presidential immunity, and that has Carroll’s attorneys concerned.
“A conjoined case, Carroll’s lawyers fear, could result in both judgments being wiped out,” The Guardian reports.
The president has also made clear he is no fan of Judge Kaplan, after the jurist made several rulings that “angered” Trump.
“What else can you expect from a Trump Hating, Clinton appointed judge, who went out of his way to make sure that the result was as negative as it could possible be,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in 2023, “speaking to, and in control of, a jury from an anti-Trump area which is probably the worst place in the US for me to get a fair ‘trial’.”
Image via Reuters
Platner Scorched Over ‘Taking Time’ Video After New Accusation
Trump Sparks Fury Online After Posting Unblurred Video of Muslim Kindergartners in Hijabs
One Legal Maneuver Threatens to Undo Everything E. Jean Carroll Won
Inside the Group Helping MAGA Voters Walk Away — And What Finally Pushed Them
