Like the courageous civil rights champion U.S. Rep. John Lewis, I do not consider your presidency to be legitimate. As Rep. Lewis, the great ally of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., stated this week, the overwhelming evidence confirmed by U.S. intelligence agencies of interference by a foreign power hostile to the U.S. in favor of your election last fall has severely flawed that outcome.
Nicholas F. Benton of Fall Church News-Press — File photo
Moreover, the manner of your seeking the presidency and your ongoing behavior since being declared the winner underscore this grievous concern. Still sadly, most of your Republican colleagues in Congress have shamefully embraced this sorry development to already advance legislation that will eliminate health care coverage for 22 million Americans.
Since the election of President Obama, our first African-American president, in 2008, you and your Republican allies, along with the so-called “Alt-Right” radical white supremacist fringe, have worked tirelessly to erode President Obama’s power and influence through brazen and callous appeals to racism, the very lowest and most degraded of dispositions, antithetical to the moral standards required to preserve our precious and tenuous democracy.
You spearheaded a high-profile “birther movement” to discredit the president by the same means that African-Americans have been unfairly disenfranchised throughout history. Your behavior was as shameful then as it is now. But it is about far more than your personal immorality. Indeed, you appear to be advancing a hostile takeover of our core democratic institutions by a foreign power that prefers authoritarian tyranny. As such, you, sir, are a grave danger to this nation.
With the American revolution and miraculous success crafting a Constitutional democracy that has endured stormy times to survive two centuries and two score years later, the abiding animating spirit of America has been an openly-embraced deference to the benefit of all in equal measure. Our founding mothers and fathers, emboldened as they were by the universal aspirations of the Great Enlightenment of their century, were keenly attuned to this sensibility, and written between all the lines of their brave actions and words has been an almost otherworldly optimism that informed their testaments to the shared and equal values of all human beings, most recently extended to my LGBT brothers and sisters. There is no America without such an animating generosity of spirit guiding her.
This spirit is the polar opposite of a disposition seeking advantage over others by exploitation through politics or business as you represent.
The opinions expressed in these letters are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations and this magazine, its staff and contributors.
"Well, darlings... The curtain falls, the spotlight dims, and the rhinestones are packed," wrote former U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on X Thursday evening. "From the halls of Congress to the chaos of cable news, what a ride it's been! Was it messy? Always. Glamorous? Occasionally. Honest? I tried... most days."
Hours later, the openly gay ex-congressman -- ever the drama queen to the end -- reported to federal prison to begin serving a seven-year sentence for fraud and identity theft.
Santos was sentenced in April to 87 months in prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. He was ordered to pay $374,000 in restitution and forfeit more than $205,000 he earned through fraud.
The Desperado LGBTQ+ Film Festival, a 16-year-old annual event hosted at Paradise Valley Community College in Phoenix, has been canceled in "direct response" to President Donald Trump's executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at federally funded schools.
The festival, held each January at the college's Center for the Performing Arts, showcased films reflecting LGBTQ experiences and most recently featured seven feature films and seven shorts.
Trump's order requires colleges to end all DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. Organizers said Paradise Valley Community College could not afford to jeopardize its funding.
The swap was brokered by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, who agreed to free more than 200 Venezuelans from CECOT in exchange for Venezuela releasing 10 American political prisoners.
Most released detainees had been deported from the U.S. after Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify removing hundreds of undocumented immigrants, alleging ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which constituted an "invading force" whose members were committing serious crimes.
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