DML News Morning Briefing, May 19th

Today is May 19. Below are some of the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room.

1. Whistleblower says he’s ‘willing to be homeless at hands of FBI’ to speak out on alleged weaponization:

Fox News – Two of three FBI whistleblowers who testified before Congress joined Rep, Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, to speak out on Fox News following a contentious hearing. Garret O’Boyle and Steve Friend alleged they were the victims of retaliation for expressing concern over alleged politicization and weaponization of the FBI. They testified Thursday before House Subcommittee on Federal Government Weaponization, chaired by Jordan.

“To some degree, yes — it’s a little more complicated than that. But there is a system in the FBI where the executive management does get a cash bonus if they get gold checkmarks in certain criteria,” O’Boyle replied.

O’Boyle also confirmed that top officials’ designation of White supremacy as the top terror threat in the U.S. allowed the bureau to cast an inordinately wide net of surveillance.

The whistleblower moved from the Great Plains to Washington, D.C., area just to be suspended on his first day there. O’Boyle testified during the hearing he was unable to procure his family’s belongings from the FBI following the move and had to rely on charity to clothe and provide for them

Denny’s Insight: O’Boyle is a brave man for standing up to his former employer. The FBI has become weaponized by bad actors, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind anymore. But I pray O’Boyle doesn’t face further retaliation in the future. The FBI has a lot of resources and sneaky tactics; it wouldn’t surprise me if they choose later on to go after him to some level.

2. DeSantis Mocks Disney Over Company’s Latest Political Stunt:

Daily Wire – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office slammed Disney on Thursday after the company announced that it was not going to build a billion dollar office complex because of “changing business conditions,” releasing a statement that Disney had announced the project a long time ago and “nothing ever came of it.”

Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park and consumer products chairman, announced that the company was pulling the plug on the $1.3 billion Lake Nona Town Center, for which the company was going to relocate approximately 2,000 jobs from liberal Southern California to Orlando, Florida.

“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” D’Amaro wrote in an email to employees. “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one.”

The company had become enraged after the 44-year-old governor stripped it of its control over a special tax district that was created in the 1960s that allowed the company to enjoy special benefits that no other company in the state had.

“Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition,” said DeSantis’ press secretary Jeremy Redfern. “Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”

Denny’s Insight: There’s been so much liberal spin to this story. The Lake Nona campus project died when Bob Chapek was replaced as CEO. Disney is trying to equate the scrapped plans with DeSantis’ recent attacks on them. And by the way, while the media is trying to spin that 2,000 jobs were killed, it should be worth noting that many right-leaning voters aren’t impacted by this thought; conservatives don’t like Disney, and they don’t like what Disney is doing to Florida. No Floridian or Republican is going to shed a tear that 2,000 transfers from California didn’t end up making the cut. DeSantis in this situation, in my opinion, did nothing wrong.

3. Dem Rep. Porter: CEOs of Big Banks Should ‘Pressure’ GOP to Cave on Debt Limit:

Breitbart – On Thursday’s broadcast of “CNN This Morning,” Democratic California U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) stated that if she was meeting with JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citi CEO Jane Fraser, and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan — as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen did — she would tell the three bank CEOs “to pressure the Republican officials that they donated to and that they funded to do right by our economy” and pass the clean debt ceiling raise without any spending reforms that Democrats want.

Co-host Poppy Harlow asked, “Okay, so, if you were Janet Yellen and you were meeting with Jamie Dimon, Jane Fraser, and Brian Moynihan today, what would you say?”

Porter responded, “I would tell them to pressure the Republican officials that they donated to and that they funded to do right by our economy. At the end of the day, this is really coming down to are Republicans willing to hijack the economy and harm the American people in order to try to get their political goals across the finish line for our future budget.”

Denny’s Insight: No, Porter, this is not the way to avoid defaulting; maybe stick to rallying Gen Z voters. At the end of the day, this is actually about Democrats realizing they can’t always get what they want. Tell Biden to get his act together and try to work something out with McCarthy.

4. Biden’s State Department Is Putting Brazilian Trans Activists in English Classes:

Free Beacon – The Biden administration plans to teach more than two dozen “trans activists” in Brazil how to speak English as part of its partnership with a radical advocacy group that claims “every cis person is transphobic.”

Denny’s Insight: Nothing else needs to be reported here. This would never, ever happen under a Trump administration. Gosh, we really do waste taxpayer funds on so much pointless garbage.

5. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Confrontation With Jamaal Bowman:

Forbes – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) slammed progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in a press conference Thursday morning, accusing Bowman of calling her a “white supremacist” and comparing the label to “calling a person of color the N-word,” following a tense confrontation Wednesday between the two representatives outside the Capitol Building.