Salute to Bannon;  J6ers Getting Away with More: Headlines

By Michael Woyton

Here are a few things you may not have seen.

First off, let’s call it what it is: Steven Bannon made a sieg heil salute at CPAC. If it salutes like a duck …

Here's video of Steve Bannon doing a Sieg Heil today at CPAC. It is what it is and it's what Bannon intended. Don't let yourself be gaslit.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-21T03:54:24.669Z

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Even a member of the French far-right, Jordan Bardella, said, “What the heil?” after he saw what Bannon did and canceled his speech at CPAC.

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The Justice Department under the felon-in-chief seems to be giving more “get out of jail” cards to the recently pardoned Jan. 6 riot defendants.

In filings this week, NPR reported, federal prosecutors asked that weapons possession cases against two former Jan. 6-ers be dismissed.

“This week’s legal filings represent a more expansive understanding of Trump’s Jan 6 pardons than was initially clear,” NPR said. “Trump’s order, which he issued on his first day in office, gave clemency for ‘offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol’ on Jan. 6.”

However, in two cases, two men were also accused of illegally having weapons that found when they were arrested, and prosecutors were all set to stand by those charges.

Not now, though. Federal prosecutors have asked to have those charges dismissed as well.

NPR said it is unclear how broadly the adjudicated rapist’s administration will interpret other transgressions by pardoned J6-ers, including one fellow facing child pornography charges.

Read NPR’s story here.

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You’ll never hear it from the felon-in-chief, but maybe things aren’t going as well as he had hoped.

A Gallop poll has the current president with a higher disapproval number than approval for his overall job performance and even worse for how people think the economy is doing so far.

It's just one poll but in a new Gallup poll Trump is 45-51 (-6) approve/disapprove, and -12 on the economy. – 6 recent polls have Trump underwater- 538 average has dropped 6 pts in past month- Highest disapproval of any President at this point in their Presidency #notwinning

— Simon Rosenberg (@simonwdc.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T19:35:16.156Z

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Rep. Rich McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, rationalized firing 1,300 workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by saying at a town hall the work they do is “duplicitous with AI.”

Something tells me he doesn’t know what “duplicitous” really means or he had AI write his response.

But then again, it could all be projection as so much is in this administration.

Watch the clip from CNN.

GOP Rep. Rich McCormick at his town hall last night justified the Trump administration firing CDC workers by saying "a lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-02-21T15:53:20.878Z

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— Mike Luckovich (@mluckovich.bsky.social) 2025-02-19T19:52:03.091Z

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Lead art by Michael Woyton