Brandi Kruse
Politics • Culture • News
[un]Divided Newsletter: January 15, 2023
January 15, 2023
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Take a minute to [un]wind with our Sunday newsletter. Grab a cup of coffee and catch up on what you may have missed from [un]Divided this week.

Be your own best watchdog

With a full week of the legislative session behind us, we have a better idea of what bills are going to be prioritized (and which are not). Here are a few issues I discussed on the podcast this week that I hope you’ll take the time to voice your opinions on.

Whether you really like a bill or really dislike a bill, letting your legislators know about it is important. Before you read the list of issues below, here are a few ways to chime in:

You can call the toll-free legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000 and ask to be transferred to your representatives (if you don’t know who they are, the operator will look it up for you using your address).

You can also find email addresses for your state legislators by plugging in your address here

A fix for the pursuit law?

In a pleasant surprise on Friday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate dropped matching proposals to fix the disastrous police pursuit policy pushed through by Democrats in 2021.

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The law passed in 2021 read as follows:

A peace officer may not engage in a vehicular pursuit, unless there is probable cause to believe that a person in the vehicle has committed or is committing a violent offense or sex offense as defined in RCW 9.94A.030, or an escape under chapter 9A.76 11 RCW; or there is reasonable suspicion a person in the vehicle has committed or is committing a driving under the influence offense 14 under RCW 46.61.502 (AND) The pursuit is necessary for the purpose of identifying or apprehending the person (AND) The person poses an imminent threat to the safety of others.

The new bills propose changing the law to this:

A peace officer may not conduct a vehicular pursuit, unless there is reasonable suspicion to believe that a person in the vehicle has committed or is committing a criminal offense and the safety risks of failing to apprehend or identify the person are considered to be greater than the safety risks of the vehicular pursuit under the circumstances.

If you want to read the full text of the new proposals or see what lawmakers signed onto them, you can read House Bill 1363 here and Senate Bill 5352 here.

While contacting your district legislators is a good start, I would also recommend contacting the chairs of the Senate Law & Justice Committee and House Public Safety Committee. They will ultimately decide whether these bills move. Please keep your emails civil – that’s very important.

Senator Manka Dhingra (D): [email protected]

Representative Roger Goodman (D): [email protected]

 

 

Legislative privilege

On Monday’s episode, we discussed how some lawmakers are claiming “legislative privilege” to withhold documents from the press and the public.

While legislative privilege is a protection provided to lawmakers in the state constitution, that privilege guarantees they don’t get sued for something said while debating over bills. It doesn’t, in my opinion, have any bearing on whether they must release internal documents or emails that are requested via public disclosure.

In 2018, the state legislature passed a law to exempt themselves from the Public Records Act. More than 20,000 Washingtonians called and emailed to share their objections, which resulted in Governor Jay Inslee vetoing the bill. Media organizations ushered the issue to the Washington State Supreme Court, which ruled in 2019 that lawmakers were, indeed, subject to disclosure.

So, let’s just say it’s more than a little annoying that we’re still fighting this fight three years later.

Reach out to the House Speaker and Senate Leader to demand their caucuses commit to stopping this practice.

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A few other bills for your radar

I would also encourage you to share your opinion on these, if you feel so inclined:

Senate Bill 5063 is a bipartisan proposal to add checks and balances to the governor's emergency power. As we discussed on the Friday episode, the bill's sponsors have been told that the bill is dead on arrival. That sucks bigtime. If emergency power reform doesn't happen this session, I doubt it ever will. 

Senate Bill 5082 is a Democrat-backed bill that would end with Advisory votes. Advisory votes allow Washingtonians to share their opinion on new taxes passed by the legislature. While they are nonbinding, why do they bother Democrats so much? 

Senate Bill 5335 is a Democrat-backed bill that would raise the Capital Gains tax rate (despite an ongoing legal fight over it) and lower the threshold for who has to pay it. Remember, this was originally sold as a tax only for the super-rich. That won't be the case is this bill passes. 

If you watch one thing from [un]Divided this week…

…make it my “Fridays with Friends” chat with Kristin Olson, host of the Rational in Portland Podcast. Kristin is a trial attorney (and former Progressive) who found herself frustrated with the state of her city.

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Initially, she began speaking out under a pseudonym for fear of being vilified by the city’s alt-Left (sounds familiar, doesn’t it. Seattle and Portland activists have roughly the same playbook). Now her podcast has gone mainstream, with more and more guests willing to speak out about what is truly behind the homelessness crisis (drugs, not housing).

Kristin is whip smart and a great example of the difference citizens can make when they refuse to be bullied for telling the truth.

Housekeeping

Some of you have asked how you can hear me on KIRO Radio while I fill the 12-3 slot for a few weeks. Each hour is posted as its own podcast here.

Thank you for your commitment to giving common sense a comeback! Have a great week.

 

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I struggled with what to talk to you about tonight. 

Well, that’s not true. I didn't struggle with what to talk to you about – I struggled with whether I was brave enough to say what I wanted to say. 

When I'm invited to speak to groups, I don't want to offend anyone or be too controversial. So, I reached out to a few of your fellow party members to ask whether any topics were off limits or wouldn't go over well with the crowd. 

I got some good advice. 

Then I decided to ignore that good advice entirely.

Too much is at stake to be polite. 

As we sit here tonight, we are in the final battle of a war. 

A war that has pit sanity against insanity. 

Pragmatism against idealism. 

A war that has sacrificed the public good, in favor of a twisted idea of progress.

It's a war that began long before I moved here 15 years ago. It started silently and it was mostly waged in the shadows.

Most of us didn't even realize that a war was being fought. We were too caught up in our own lives and our own problems. ...

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My full remarks to President Donald Trump
Disrupting violent extremism in all forms should be a nonpartisan pursuit.
 

 

 

I was honored this week to join President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and other independent content creators for a roundtable on Antifa.

While a certain joke about TDS is getting a lot of attention, the underlying mission of the meeting was serious – deadly serious.

For years, organized left-wing radicals have sought to influence public policy through coercion: using harassment, threats, vandalism, and violence as their tools. From the Occupy movement, to the May Day riots, to the "Summer of Love" and up to the most recent anti-ICE actions, I've followed these activities closely – and been the target of their tactics far too many times.

Whether you call them Antifa, terrorists, radicals, or just criminals – understanding, investigating, and disrupting violent extremism in all forms should be a nonpartisan pursuit.

Here are my full remarks to President Donald Trump:

Mr. President, you’re going to hear us be very fired up today, as you can tell. It’s because some of us have been covering Antifa for 15 years and have never had anyone in a position of authority even acknowledge their existence.

The single most powerful thing you’ve done to deal with this scourge has been acknowledging that Antifa is a real thing. I genuinely believe there would be people at these tables who would be dead today and would have been killed in Portland had you not called them a terror organization and said you're going to bring the full weight of the federal government to bear.

I talked to Katie Daviscourt in Portland the other day. She’d been assaulted all summer. And she said the same thing. They didn’t seem as quick to violence as soon as you made that designation. They’re worried. There’s been two dozen or so arrested in Portland. They don’t want to go to federal prison.

There’s this video of one of them who was in the face of an ICE agent and then he’s in custody shaking. Once you take the mask off, they’re nothing.

I was told by probably a dozen people not to tell you this. I’m going to tell you anyway because it’s relevant to what we’re talking about. I’m living proof that you can recover from TDS. I had strong Trump Derangement Syndrome for probably eight years. This is one of the reasons I recovered from it.

By the way, it’s much better to not have TDS. I’m happier. I’m healthier. I'm more successful. I even think I got a little more attractive after I got rid of my TDS.

I’m a reporter in Seattle and frankly, I could not care any less what any of you have to say about this meeting (looks to Press Corps). I could not care any less. We’re not here for you. I’m not here to convince any of you that Antifa is a real thing. Because if you have not come to that conclusion by now, you are never going to come to that conclusion because you don’t want to see it. And you’re going to say it’s a bunch of right-wing conservative influencers who are here spinning a tale.

I was one of you. I was a mainstream reporter in Seattle for 10 years. I was a TV reporter, on the streets, doing my job and I was still assaulted by Antifa. So, it’s not about being conservative. It’s about people who go out there and show what they’re doing.

When I saw after all those years that the media wouldn’t be honest about what was happening, that Democratic politicians wouldn’t be honest about what was happening, I thought, well, if they’re not being honest about that, maybe they’re not being honest about President Trump either. It opened my mind to just looking at things for what they were. And now I find you quite funny, actually (looks to President Trump).

Again, I could not care any less the stories that go to print. This is what I care about: We have three and a half years. Nothing is guaranteed. Although, I think if Democrats keep it up, we’ll probably have Republican presidents for the next three decades. But nothing is guaranteed. So, what I want to see over the next three and a half years is a fullcourt press to dismantle Antifa once and for all in a meaningful way. I know Andy Ngo, we talked before this about some ideas. We want the federal government to take as many of these cases as possible and look at the interstate travel between Portland and Seattle when it comes to these people who are committing violent acts.

Hopefully, in three and a half years, they will be a shell of their former selves.

President Trump:

Well I think we're very close, and it’s Antifa and many others. Unfortunately, there are many others, bad ones. Most have been named terrorist organizations. There a couple that we’re going to focus on, but I think we’ve got it pretty well covered, but there are many others. Specifically today is Antifa and it’s really bad and we’re going to get it cleaned up.

Thank you very much. I’m glad you no longer have TDS. I feel very good about that. Thank you.

 

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Hello from the 'war zone': Portland

There will be no live show today, September 29.

Why?

I'm on the ground in Portland, doing my best to sort through competing narratives about what's happening outside the ICE facility here.

President Donald Trump declared the city a "war zone," mobilized the National Guard, and authorized Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to use "full force" to finally bring months of unrest outside the facility to an end.

Democratic leadership, including Portland Mayor Keith Wilson, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek, and U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, have called the city "safe and calm," suggesting there is no need for federal intervention.

As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle. But after just one night on the ground, it is clear that Portland has failed to address the unrest in any meaningful way for more than 100 days. The federal government has a right to protect federal assets and agents, especially considering the abdication of responsibility from local leaders, but what level of intervention is appropriate?

We will be back on air tomorrow, September 30, at our regular time with a special report. In the meantime, the best way to follow breaking updates is on any one of my social media platforms:

X: @BrandiKruse

FB: @BrandiKruseNews

 

 

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