RINGSIDE POLITICS – MAY 12, 2021

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Welcome to another edition of Ringside Politics with Jeff Crouere

Today’s Hot Topics:

1) Anthony Fauci on Tuesday clashed with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the role of the Wuhan, China, virology lab in the origins of COVID-19.

During a Senate hearing on the pandemic response, Paul alleged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) had been sending funding to the Wuhan lab, which then “juiced up” a virus that was originally found in bats to create a supervirus that can infect human cells.

Paul pressed Fauci on the theory that the novel coronavirus was created in the Wuhan lab, and then somehow escaped, either because of an accident or because it was deliberately released.

2) President Biden left the word “God” out of his proclamation of the annual National Day of Prayer on Thursday.

The president lauded America’s “remarkable religious vitality and diversity,” noted “the power of prayer to provide hope and uplift us for the work ahead,” and even quoted the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. But the proclamation made no mention of or reference to God or any other deity.

By contrast, President Donald Trump’s National Day of Prayer proclamation last year mentioned God eight times, with three more mentions taken from quotations. President Barack Obama found space to mention God twice in his last National Day of Prayer declaration in 2016, while President George W. Bush mentioned God four times in his 2008 proclamation.

3) The Biden administration on Tuesday warned that southeastern states faced a gasoline “supply crunch” following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline, as several states declared emergencies or suspended rules and one major airline altered its flight routes.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that Colonial Pipeline’s chief executive had indicated the company would decide by the close of business on Wednesday whether it could fully restart the pipeline, but that even if it did, “it will take a few days to ramp up operations.”

“Much as there was no cause for, say, hoarding toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic,” Granholm told reporters, “there should be no cause for hoarding gasoline, especially in light of the fact that the pipeline should be substantially operational by the end of this week and over the weekend.”

4) Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, fired back at far-left host Joy Reid’s latest racially charged attack, wondering Wednesday why MSNBC allowed her to get away with it and saying her “condescension” was leading Hispanics to leave the Democrats.

Reid assailed Cruz and compared him to Stephen, the traitorous house slave in the 2012 movie “Django Unchained,” for opposing the Democratic voting overhaul known as the For The People Act. Cruz, mirroring language by President Biden about Georgia’s Republican voting law, angered Democrats after he called it “Jim Crow 2.0.”

“I appreciate MSNBC lecturing me on how people of ‘my race’ are supposed to vote. This arrogant condescension is a big reason Hispanic voters are moving right in large numbers. Also, why is MSNBC ok with their hosts using overt racial slurs (‘Stephen from Django’)?” Cruz tweeted.

Today’s Guests:

1) Tom Carter, Manager of the American Conservative Values

2) LA State Representative Mack Cormier (D-Belle Chasse)

3) Sterling Hill