In our latest edition, we're grateful to have an interview with FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on AI and the First Amendment, along with stories about what happened with Donald Trump’s Arlington National Cemetery visit, the latest Floor schedule, and more.
Brendan Carr, one of two Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners Donald Trump appointed who is still in office, has long been one of the most vocal opponents of President Joe Biden’s initiatives, such as the $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program, which is an “absolute failure,” he told the Washington Reporter. “Not a single person has been connected to the internet through that initiative,” he lamented.
Carr, a longtime telecommunications professional, has been an FCC commissioner since 2017. In that time, he’s gone through policy fights on net neutrality, a potential TikTok ban, quests for more spectrum, and more.
Click HERE to read FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s prescription for fixing the FCC and his concerns about the administration’s attacks on Musk.
How can America ensure that China is not both out-innovating and out-plagiarizing us, especially as it relates to state-supported firms, whether it’s TikTok or Temu or Shein?
Matthew Foldi
Editor-in-Chief of the Washington Reporter
There’s a lot there that we can do. If we can get back to freeing up more spectrum, that really puts the wind at the sails of both Americans and allied countries when you look at the broader technology debate that we’re having. In other words, when we’re freeing up spectrum, when we’re bringing up permitting reforms, and we are moving forward with technology, it’s effectively a competition with China.
Brendan Carr
FCC Commissioner
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Senate:
What we’re hearing from people we trust on and around the Hill – please send us more tips!
House Democrats are asking the federal government to crack down on memes generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Led by Rep. Shontel Brown (D., Ohio), a group of Democrats is requesting that the Federal Election Commission (FEC) “expeditiously consider” a proposal that would punish political campaigns or “their agents” if either use artificial intelligence to “fraudulently misrepresent other candidates or political parties.”
FEC chairman Sean Cooksey told the Washington Reporter such a request will be denied under his tenure.
“Your First Amendment rights don’t disappear because you use an AI image generator to express yourself,” he said. “While the FEC will continue to enforce the campaign finance laws on the books, I oppose any effort to suppress political speech by regulating a technology that few agencies even understand. Our elections should be decided at the ballot box after a free exchange of arguments and ideas.”
Click HERE to read more about FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey’s response. We interviewed Chairman Cooksey HERE.
Vice President Kamala Harris has never spoken with the 13 families whose loved ones were killed by a suicide terrorist during the Biden-Harris administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. That didn’t stop her from trying to attack President Donald Trump for honoring the servicemembers’ sacrifices when he attended a memorial event at Arlington National Cemetery last week.
Trump joined the families of the 13 killed servicemembers last week, to memorialize the third anniversary of a deadly suicide bombing outside of Abbey Gate in Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. Although the former president was invited by the servicemembers’ families, Harris called Trump’s attendance a political ploy that made him unfit to ever “stand behind the seal of the President.”
The Gold Star families’ defenders tell the Washington Reporter that Harris will regret turning Trump’s presence into a media firestorm. “Kamala picked a fight with the wrong families,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.), told the Reporter.
Click HERE to read more about what actually happened in the runup to President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery.
Months before President Donald Trump rolled out his “no tax on tips” policy, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that would impact customers who tip using credit cards; small business owners across the state tell the Washington Reporter that they’re concerned about being “guinea pigs” while bigger businesses will be able to sort through the chaos.
Click HERE to read more about how a little-noticed provision in Illinois is impacting small businesses.
Almost three years ago, in the midst of a shocking foreign policy failure, 13 American servicemembers were killed in action and many were wounded during the Abbey Gate terrorist attack, which occurred in the midst of the chaos of President Joe Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
It was the deadliest attack on Americans in Afghanistan since 2011, and it shouldn’t have happened.
Today, I’m remembering these brave heroes who gave “the last full measure of devotion” to protect our country.
Click HERE to read more from Maj. Derrick Anderson about what America’s surrender in Afghanistan means to him and to countless other veterans of America’s longest war.
Vice President Kamala Harris owes the American people a simple answer: does she still want to prosecute Americans for the “crime” of smoking menthol cigarettes, thereby causing havoc in the black community and imposing a massive new burden on law enforcement? Or, as with some of her other positions, has she conveniently flip-flopped just weeks before the election?
While this issue may have flown under the radar, Americans deserve an answer before early voting starts later this month.
Here’s why this matters: in 2022, the Biden administration’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a plan to criminalize menthol cigarettes, a type of cigarette that makes up about 40 percent of the market and is particularly popular among black Americans. Its original decision was lauded by Michael Bloomberg, a megadonor to both Biden and Harris’s presidential campaigns.
Click HERE to read more from us on why Kamala Harris needs to let voters know if she still supports singling menthol cigarettes out for a ban, and how such a misguided policy could tank her party in November.
