Category: Halting

Lindsey Graham: Halting Ukraine Aid Would Be ‘Worse Than Afghanistan’

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listens during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett (Photo by Susan Walsh-Pool/Getty Images)

OAN Staff Blake Wolf
2:05 PM – Sunday, March 9, 2025

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham warned on Sunday that ending Ukrainian aid would be “worse than Afghanistan.”

“The goal is to end the war honorably and justly. You know, Zelensky blew it in the White House. We’ve been working on this minerals deal for a very long time, but we are where we are. Yes, I am worried about cutting off intelligence and weapons to Ukraine as long as the fighting is going on. If we pull the plug on Ukraine it would be worse than Afghanistan,” Graham stated.

“I don’t think President Trump has any desire to do that, but until we have a ceasefire, I would give Ukraine what they need in terms of intelligence and weapons to defend themselves,” he continued.

Graham’s (R-S.C.) comments follow after President Donald Trump announced a freeze on Ukrainian aid and intelligence sharing in an attempt to pressure Kyiv into a peace deal.

Graham’s reference to Afghanistan was pointing towards the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021, which ended up killing 13 servicemembers and injuring another 45, along with the deaths of 170 Afghan civilians.

“In terms of Russia, I’ll be introducing sanctions on their banking sector and their energy sector next week, urging them to get to the table,” Graham added. “If they don’t engage in ceasefire and peace talks with the administration, we should sanction the hell out of them.”

The call for economic sanctions follows after President Donald Trump warned Russia on Friday that he would place sanctions and tariffs on Russia until a peace deal is agreed upon.

“Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED. For Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you!!!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Peace negotiations have proven difficult following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House on February 28th, which ended in a shouting match between Zelensky and President Trump.

Trump accused Zelensky of “gambling with World War III” while adding his decisions are “very disrespectful to the country, this country that’s backed you far more than a lot of people say they should have."”

The meeting was reportedly supposed to end with a mineral deal secured, where the United States would receive Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, which would give the U.S. more incentive to protect Ukraine’s national interests.

“We’re trying to integrate our economies. We’re trying to make sure that Ukraine is a value to the American economy – a win-win situation,” Graham added.

After a public feud with President Trump, Zelensky revealed that he “regrets” the way the meeting went down.

“It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” Zelensky stated, adding that he is ready to work under President Trump’s “strong leadership” to reach a peace agreement.

Additionally, Zelensky issued a more recent update on Friday, stating: “We continue working with partners who seek peace just as we do, focusing on the necessary steps. Next week, there will be a lot of work here in Europe, with the U.S., and in Saudi Arabia – we are preparing a meeting to accelerate peace and strengthen the foundations of security.”

“Today, intense work with President Trump’s team is ongoing at various levels – numerous calls. The topic is clear – peace as soon as possible, security as reliably as possible. Ukraine is fully committed to a constructive approach,” Zelensky added.

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 7, 2025

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

 

SCOTUS Halts Lower Court Order To Reinstate 1,600 Noncitizen Voters In Virginia

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 29: New Yorkers participate in early voting at a polling site in Brooklyn on October 29, 2024 in New York City. As Election Day approaches on November 5th, millions of Americans are casting their ballots early at polling sites or drop boxes. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

OAN Staff James Meyers
8:34 AM – Wednesday, October 30, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/scotus-halts-lower-court-order-to-reinstate-1600-noncitizen-voters-in-virginia/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to temporarily halt a Virginia court ruling after a federal judge ordered the state to reinstate hundreds of noncitizens from the state’s voter rolls. 

The major decision, favoring the wishes of Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) and other Americans concerned about election fraud, comes just days after the Old Dominion state filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court to halt a lower court decision.

The lower court decision was in relation to ordering the state to restore the names of almost 1,600 suspected fraudulent voters to its voter rolls. 

However, the issue with the case was whether Virginia’s voter removal process violates a so-called quiet period under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), or a federal law requiring states to halt all “systematic” voter roll maintenance for a 90-day period before a federal election. 

The argument prompted the Biden administration’s Department of Justice to sue the state over its removal program earlier this month, coming after Youngkin, who has maintained that the state’s process is “individualized” and conducted in accordance with state and federal law. 

The state’s voter poll maintenance program was implemented in August and it compares the state Department of Motor Vehicles’ list of self-identified noncitizens to its list of registered voters. As a result, individuals without citizenship were flagged and informed that their voter registration would be canceled unless they could prove their citizenship within 14 days. 

However, the DOJ argued that the removals were conducted “too close” to the November 5th election and claimed it violated the NVRA’s quiet period provision, a decision backed by a U.S. judge in Alexandria, who ordered Virginia last week to halt its removals and to reinstate the registrations of all 1,600 removed individuals. 

Additionally, Justice Department officials also noted concerns in the lawsuit regarding “possible” eligible voters who may have been “incorrectly removed” from the rolls without adequate notice or with enough time to correct the mistake. 

Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares objected to the lawsuit on behalf of the state. He argued that the NVRA does not extend to “self-identified noncitizens” in the state. He also argued that even if the NVRA does apply, the state still has an “individualized process” of removing voters that is conducted by the Department of Motor Vehicles and directly by local registration offices. 

Further, on Monday, attorneys general from all 26 Republican-led states joined Virginia in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, backing its assertion that the removal program was conducted on an “individualized” basis, and further, that the Justice Department’s reading of the protections granted under NVRA is overly broad and does not apply to noncitizens. 

Attorneys urged the court to grant Virginia’s emergency motion and “restore the status quo,” noting that doing so “would comply with the law and enable Virginia to ensure that noncitizens do not vote in the upcoming election.”

“This Court should reject Respondents’ effort to change the rules in the middle of the game and restore the status quo ante,” they wrote. “The Constitution leaves decisions about voter qualifications up to the people of Virginia. The people of Virginia have decided that noncitizens are not permitted to vote.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

Trump Remarks on VA Judge Halting Voting Roll Purge

Pennsylvania: Over 2,500 Fraudulent Voter Registration Forms Submitted to Lancaster County Election Office

OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
11:00 AM – Friday, October 25, 2024

SEE: https://www.oann.com/newsroom/pennsylvania-at-least-2500-fraudulent-voter-registration-forms-turned-into-lancaster-county-election-office/; republished below in full, unedited, for informational, educational, & research purposes:

Commissioners Josh Parsons, Ray D’Agostino, and Alice Yoder of Lancaster County stated during a news conference on Friday that during the last days of the registration process, at least 2,500 forged voter registration applications were submitted to the county’s election office.

The group said that its election staffer, led by director Christa Miller, found irregularities, including duplicate handwriting and inaccurate personal information, and notified the District Attorney’s Office of this, along with Lancaster County District Attorney Heather Adams.

According to preliminary data, up to 60% of the applications were fake, with phony addresses and identifications serving as clues, the Politics.UA outlet reported.

Adams shared that many applications “appear to have the same handwriting, filled out on the same day with unknown signatures, and some were previously registered voters, and the signatures on file did not match the signatures on the application,” but she emphasized that her remarks would be limited because this is an ongoing investigation.

Some applications did have accurate personal identifying information, she added. However, when investigators contacted the identities on the forms, they frighteningly discovered that the individuals on the forms had neither requested nor filled them out.

“At this point, it’s believed that the fraudulent voter registrations are connected to a large-scale canvassing operation for voter registrations that date back to June, however, a majority of the applications received are dated August 15,” Adams said.

“The majority of the applications were from residents in the city of Lancaster,” she continued. “However, applications were also received from residents in Columbia, Elizabethtown, Mount Joy, Stevens, Strasburg, as well as other locations across Lancaster County. Canvasses themselves took place at various shopping centers, parking lots of grocery stores and businesses, sidewalks and parks. In those preliminary investigations, detectives were able to some of the applications were indeed legitimate.”

Meanwhile, the Lancaster County commissioners’ chair, Parsons, used the occasion to praise the election board personnel and blast the local media and the Pennsylvania Department of State.

With support from other counties and the local police, the investigation is still underway. There are 46,000 ballot returns, 65,873 mail-in ballot requests and 365,210 registered voters in Lancaster County. The Board underlined how crucial honesty and openness are to the electoral process.

 

 

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts