Nation

Pelosi rips into AOC and ‘the Squad’, excerpts from new biography reveal

Published

8 months ago

April 12, 2021

Staff Writer

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) laid into “the Squad” when discussing the group of House progressives to author Susan Page, whose book “Madam Speaker: Nancy Pelosi and the Lessons of Power” hits store shelves next week.

In Monday’s Axios report on some tidbits from the biography, the top House Democrat during one instance adopted a child-like voice when discussing the Squad and its figurehead, self-described democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

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“You’re not a one-person show. This is the Congress of the United States,” Pelosi said in some blunt advice to the progressive clique, in the book.

Page, USA Today‘s Washington D.C. bureau chief, conducted 10 interviews with Pelosi for the biography that’s coming out on Tuesday, April 20, according to a lengthy, adapted excerpt from the book published Friday on the newspaper’s website.

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Pelosi asked friends and family to partake in the process too, with Page having interviewed more than 150 other friends, family members, political allies and adversaries for the biography.

In Page’s second meeting with Pelosi—sometime in July 2019—the author said that Pelosi’s dispute with the Squad had “exploded” and that “her anger at the four new progressive congresswomen was palpable.” This meeting would have occurred a little over six months after all four founding Squad members—Reps. Ilhan Omar (Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), and Ocasio-Cortez—took office for the first time.

Pelosi held a meeting with Ocasio-Cortez later that month in order to reduce tensions, according to The Daily Mail.

In the book, Pelosi also discussed former President Donald Trump, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and others.

You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @DouglasPBraff.

Nation

Boston Celtics Player Legally Changing Name to ‘Enes Kanter Freedom’ to Celebrate U.S. Citizenship

Published

2 days ago

November 29, 2021

Staff Writer

Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images

Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is celebrating becoming a U.S. citizen in an incredible way. The 29-year-old athlete from Turkey is having his citizenship oath ceremony Monday, and will legally change his name to Enes Kanter Freedom.

Kanter is an outspoken human rights advocate who had his Turkish passport revoked in 2017 after he criticized Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mediaite reports “he has also criticized NBA stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James for not doing enough to help the Black community and not speaking out against exploitative labor practices in China respectively.”

Celtics head coach Ime Udoka told the Boston Globe the team is “all for” the player’s name change. Kanter’s manager says the player will complete his legal name change to have Kanter become his middle name and Freedom be his new last name at Monday’s ceremony.

“We congratulated him as a group for getting his American citizenship last week,” Udoka said. “That’s who Enes is, we’re proud of him. Enes is who he is. He’s passionate about his stances and the name change; you look at [Ron] Artest [who changed his name to Metta Sandiford-Artest in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak] and guys that have done it in the past. It’s something he wants to express and we’re all for it.”

Kanter has already changed his official Twitter account to Enes Kanter FREEDOM with his new last name in all caps. Freedom made waves when he tweeted the following on November 18: Money over Morals for the ‘King’. Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss [inserted Chinese flag] says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?”

The tweet included photos of basketball shoes he wore painted with human rights depictions and phrases such as “hey still researching and getting educated?” as well as “I am informed and educated on the situation.”

The statement is with regard to his criticism of LeBron James’ partnership with Nike. “Nike remains one of the NBA’s biggest sponsors as both organizations feed off their partnerships with China” reports Mediaite. Kanter Freedom also made an offer to take Michael Jordan and Nike co-founder Phil Knight to China in order for the men to “visit these slave labor camps and you can see it with your own eyes.”