I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war. TULSI GABBARD
"That phase of the takeover was started in 2008 by President Barack Obama. Throughout his eight years in office, Obama practiced divisiveness and hammered away at the Second Amendment while pouring gallons of fuel on the fire of the "Black Lives Matter" lie. His administration was rampant with corruption, pushing the envelope with every new scandal." RICK HAYES
"Along with Obama, Pelosi and Schumer are responsible for incalculable damage done to this country over the eight years of that administration (JOE BIDEN WAS OFF SUCKING OFF BANKSTERS AND BRIBES)." PATRICIA McCARTHY
IT HAPPENED! Donald Trump accuses Barack Obama of being 'Most CORRUPT President in US history’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wu78BIdyx-o
BIDEN = 50 YEARS OF BRIBES SUCKING WITH IMPUNITY!
There it is. That's the issue. To begin, you have the corrupt family Biden. They've been scamming us and our system well for almost fifty years. The man is supposedly worth over 250 million dollars. How is this possible on his salary? It's not. So where did his wealth come from? Not from being a brilliant businessman. DAVID PRENTICE
Tulsi Gabbard Announces She’s Leaving the Democratic Party
Former Congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard announced Tuesday she is leaving the Democratic Party.
She made the revelation in a video posted on social media, outlining the details of her farewell:
I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is now under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers driven by cowardly wokeness, who divide us by racializing every issue and stoke anti-white racism, actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms, are hostile to people of faith and spirituality, demonize the police and protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans, believe in open borders, weaponize the national security state to go after political opponents, and above all, dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.
Tulsi Gabbard
She continued:
I believe in a government that is of, by, and for the people. Unfortunately, today’s Democratic Party does not. Instead, it stands for a government of, by, and for the powerful elite. I’m calling on my fellow common sense independent-minded Democrats to join me in leaving the Democratic Party. If you can no longer stomach the direction that so-called woke Democratic Party ideologues are taking our country, I invite you to join me.
Her video comes less than a month before the November mid-terms that will determine control of the House of Representatives for the next two years, and possibly the fate of the Biden administration’s agenda.
It also comes about eight months into Ukraine’s war with Russia, in which the U.S. has provided billions of dollars in support to Ukraine, amid a rising threat of nuclear war.
Gabbard has long been a critic of the pro-war foreign policy establishment, as well as wokeism, both currently led by the Democratic Party.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter, Truth Social, or on Facebook.
CAN YOU NAME A SINGLE THING THE BANKSTER REGIME OF BARACK OBAMA, ERIC HOLDER AND JOE BIDEN DID FOR BLACK AMERICA???
“The watchdogs at Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama administration's close coordination with the Mexican government entices Mexicans to hop over the fence and on to the American dole.” Washington Times
Barack Obama: Sometimes You Just Have to Beat Racist, Angry, and Sexist Republicans
President Barack Obama described his political opponents as angry, racist, and sexist during a private conversation with some of Europe’s elites this summer, according to a newly revealed transcript.
THE OBAMA-BIDEN-HOLDER HISPANICAZATION of AMERICA… first ease millions of illegals over our borders and into our voting booths!
How the Democrat party surrendered America to Mexico:
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/07/james-walsh-hispanicazation-of-america.html
“The watchdogs at Judicial Watch discovered documents that reveal how the Obama administration's close coordination with the Mexican government entices Mexicans to hop over the fence and on to the American dole.” Washington Times
Inflation Surges Higher in Importance for Black and Hispanic Americans
Inflation is increasingly important to a broadening super-majority of Americans even as the Federal Reserve’s efforts to slow down price hikes have driven up interest rates at the fastest pace in decades.
Seventy-four percent of American adults rate the inflation issue as “very important,” according to a recent poll from the Economist and YouGov. The poll was taken of 1,500 American adults between October 1st and 3rd.
That’s a big jump from 64 percent in the poll a month earlier.
There were sizeable increases across a variety of demographic and political groupings. The share of men saying inflation is “very important” jumped from 60 percent to 70 percent. The share of women who see inflation as very important rose to 77 percent from 68 percent.
The share of black Americans who see inflation as very important soared from 56 percent to 75 percent. Among Hispanics, the very important share rose from 64 percent to 74 percent.
The share of Biden voters who see inflation as a very important issue rose to 65 percent from 52 percent. The share of Trump voters who take that view jumped from 84 percent to 92 percent.
Young Americans, aged 19-29, saying inflation is very important rose from 47 percent to 61 percent. For 30 to 44-year-olds, the share rose to 69 percent from 63 percent. Among those 45 to 64, the share climbed to 80 percent from 72. Among older Americans, it rose to 82 percent from 71 percen.t
Black Republicans Could Make History in Midterm Elections
(CNS News) -- Republicans have the potential to make history in the 118th Congress with the possible election in November of up to six new Black Republicans (House and Senate), which would give the GOP nine black members, the largest number in congressional history for that party.
In 1875, eight black Republicans were sworn into office as part of the 44th Congress. Since that time there has not been more than eight black Republicans in Congress at one time.
The 2022 midterm elections will fill the 118th Congress along with many incumbent senators who are not up for election this cycle. There are six new black Republicans running for seats in addition to three black GOP members already in Congress.
Those three are Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Ind.), and Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.). (Scott is not up for election again until 2026.)
Among the new black Republicans are John James, who is running for the newly drawn District 10 in Michigan. Polls from October 4show that James is favored to win over his opponent Carl Marlinga (D). James is up by 6.6%.
Another House race in Michigan in District 3 has John Gibbs (R) running against Hillary Scholten (D). Gibbs is behind by 5 points in a poll from Oct. 4. There is a 5% margin of error in the poll.
In Indiana House District 1, Jennifer Ruth-Green (R) is running against Frank Mrvan (D) and is behind by 6.2 points in an Oct. 4 poll.
In Texas House District 38, Wesley Hunt (R) is running against Duncan Klussman (D). Hunt is projected to win with polls showing him up by 29.8 points.
In Connecticut House District 5, George Logan (R) is running against Jahana Hayes (D) and is behind by 4.8 points, according to an Oct. 4poll. The poll has a 5 point margin of error.
In Georgia, Herschel Walker (R) is running against Raphael Warnock (D) for the U.S. Senate. Walker is behind by 3.9 points.
If five out of these six candidates are able to pull out a win, there is an opportunity for the Republican Party to tie history, but if all six of these Republicans are able to win, there is a chance to make history in the 118th Congress.
In the current 117th Congress, Democrats hold a majority, 221 seats in the House, to Republicans, 212 seats – there are two vacancies.
RealClearPolitics currently predicts 180 Democrats to win their seats, 220 Republicans to win their seats, and another 35 seats are toss ups. 218 seats are need for a majority.
In the Senate, RealClearPolitics sees 46 Democrats in solid wins and 47 Republicans in solid wins, with seven toss-up seats. 51 seats are need for a majority.
‘Intolerant, Stuck-In-His-Ways Old Man’ – Major UK Newspaper Slams ‘Useless and Nasty’ Biden
President Joe Biden, whose inauguration was supposed to herald a return to international esteem for the U.S., has been slammed as “useless and nasty” by one of Britain’s leading newspapers.
The Telegraph, close to Britain’s governing Conservative (Tory) party and the country’s best-selling broadsheet, published an article by Associate Editor Camilla Tominey suggesting that “Biden’s qualities for the Oval Office are almost non-existent.”
Leading by recalling Barack Obama’s alleged warning that the Democratic Party should “[not] underestimate Joe’s ability to f**k things up” as he vied to be nominated as its presidential candidate in 2020, Tominey said that Biden’s time in office had demonstrated exactly why his former boss may have had misgivings about giving him the top job.
“From losing his train of thought mid-sentence to forgetting one of his own congresswomen had died in a car crash, the 79-year-old has hardly proved to be the answer to America’s crisis of confidence,” she suggested.
Tominey seemed unwilling to blame all of the American leader’s issues on his age, however, suggesting that his actions in office showed he had “a rather nasty side”, citing his denouncement of MAGA Republicans as “semi-fascists” and his snub to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) with the words “I’m Irish” shortly after the 2020 election.
“These aren’t the sentiments of a ‘progressive’ politician but the rantings of an intolerant, stuck-in-his-ways old man who can’t abide anyone who disagrees with him,” Tominey observed.
Despite its right-leaning credentials, The Telegraph should not be mistaken for a natural foe of the U.S. Democrats — indeed, Tominey’s chief criticism of Biden’s crass “No one f***s with a Biden” remarks at Fort Myers Beach, Florida recently is that they were “Trumpesque”.
The newspaper is also far from socially conservative, repeatedly pushing an article encouraging husbands to let their wives cuckhold them as a Christmas present, for example, and bizarrely praising Netflix’s Cuties as a rebuke to “an age terrified of child sexuality”.
That even such conservative-in-name-only outlets are now turning on a President whose entry to the White House was hailed by the equally conservative-in-name-only former prime minister Boris Johnson as a “breath of fresh air” gives some indication of how far his standing has fallen.
Report: AZ Democrat Katie Hobbs Embroiled in Another Race Controversy
4:13 PHOENIX, AZ –Democrat nominee for governor in Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, finds herself amid another race controversy as she was a “student leader” during her high school days “when pupils took part in a yearly tradition known as ‘Slave Day,'” according to a report Monday.
Breitbart News reached out to multiple members of the “Republicans for Katie Hobbs” coalition, who stumped for Hobbs in Paradise Valley Sunday, to see if they still support Hobbs, but only one responded to a comment request. Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana reaffirmed her support for the Democrat in the wake of the Daily Mail’s shocking report. On Monday, the outlet reported that Hobbs was a member of the student council at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School, where “Slave Day” was an annual tradition:
One example from the 1985 yearbook, which would have been the end of Hobbs’ freshman year, describes “slaves” in her grade “wearing unbecoming hairdoes and unbecoming outfits, sporting embarrassing signs and performing embarrassing acts of servitude for senior masters for a day.”
It’s not clear if Hobbs participated herself in the “auctions,” but her 1987 Student Council page credits her and the other student leaders for having “coordinated the many class events during Spirit Week” – when Slave Day appears to have been celebrated.
A 1986 yearbook shows one photo of a girl seemingly sporting black paint on her face while participating in “Slave Day,” and members of the senior class were subjects of auctions, per the Mail. Hobbs’s team ignored three comment requests from the publication.
Lake, who attended a dueling rally held by former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday in Mesa, pointed out in a statement Monday that Hobbs is a “twice convicted racist” stemming from the Talonya Adams lawsuit. Adams was an employee of Hobbs in the state Senate and successfully sued the legislative body for racial and sexual discrimination that Adams says Hobbs is responsible for.
Lake said:
Katie Hobbs’ record of racism, which already cost Arizona taxpayers $2.75 million after she was twice convicted of racist behavior, goes back to high school. The same Katie Hobbs who paid a woman-of-color $30,000 less than her white male counterparts also thought it appropriate to get involved in a cringe-inducing, racist ‘Slave Day’ and disgustingly celebrated it in her yearbook. And just last week, when Hobbs was asked in a forum to name one positive thing about the Latino community, she could not come up with an answer. This is a clear disappointing and alarming pattern, but this latest bombshell is beyond the pale. Silence and hiding won’t cut it on this one. Katie Hobbs owes it to every Arizonan to come out of hiding and finally take accountability for her troubling record of racism – and if Katie Hobbs won’t come out of hiding to explain herself, then the media owes it to the people of Arizona to find her.
Republican Mesa Mayor John Giles, media consultant Karie Dozer, and former Campana were among the members of the “Republicans for Katie Hobbs” coalition at her event Sunday. Giles and Dozer did not respond to Breitbart News’s inquiry asking if they still support Hobbs in light of the Daily Mail story, but Campana did.
“Yes, I do fully support Sevretary [sic] Hobbs. Although I’ve not seen the story, my two daughters went to probably the same girls college prep school,” wrote Campana in a statement.“It was an unfortunate choice for the school; I’m Catholic and am now immersed in the clergy/Native American issue. We have a sad history as both Catholics and Americans,” she added. “As a registered Republican, I now know better and do better. So does Katie Hobbs. She’ll be a great and sensitive Governor.”“Those of us who support Secretary Hobbs care very deeply about the future of Arizona,” said Giles Sunday, as the Arizona Republic reported. “And that’s why we are putting our state above our party.”
Hobbs refuses to debate Lake and caught heat last week for struggling to name one thing she has learned from Arizona’s Latino community.
PHOENIX, AZ –Democrat nominee for governor in Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, finds herself amid another race controversy as she was a “student leader” during her high school days “when pupils took part in a yearly tradition known as ‘Slave Day,'” according to a report Monday.
Breitbart News reached out to multiple members of the “Republicans for Katie Hobbs” coalition, who stumped for Hobbs in Paradise Valley Sunday, to see if they still support Hobbs, but only one responded to a comment request. Former Scottsdale Mayor Sam Campana reaffirmed her support for the Democrat in the wake of the Daily Mail’s shocking report. On Monday, the outlet reported that Hobbs was a member of the student council at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School, where “Slave Day” was an annual tradition:
One example from the 1985 yearbook, which would have been the end of Hobbs’ freshman year, describes “slaves” in her grade “wearing unbecoming hairdoes and unbecoming outfits, sporting embarrassing signs and performing embarrassing acts of servitude for senior masters for a day.”
It’s not clear if Hobbs participated herself in the “auctions,” but her 1987 Student Council page credits her and the other student leaders for having “coordinated the many class events during Spirit Week” – when Slave Day appears to have been celebrated.
A 1986 yearbook shows one photo of a girl seemingly sporting black paint on her face while participating in “Slave Day,” and members of the senior class were subjects of auctions, per the Mail. Hobbs’s team ignored three comment requests from the publication.
Lake, who attended a dueling rally held by former President Donald J. Trump on Sunday in Mesa, pointed out in a statement Monday that Hobbs is a “twice convicted racist” stemming from the Talonya Adams lawsuit. Adams was an employee of Hobbs in the state Senate and successfully sued the legislative body for racial and sexual discrimination that Adams says Hobbs is responsible for.
Lake said:
Katie Hobbs’ record of racism, which already cost Arizona taxpayers $2.75 million after she was twice convicted of racist behavior, goes back to high school. The same Katie Hobbs who paid a woman-of-color $30,000 less than her white male counterparts also thought it appropriate to get involved in a cringe-inducing, racist ‘Slave Day’ and disgustingly celebrated it in her yearbook. And just last week, when Hobbs was asked in a forum to name one positive thing about the Latino community, she could not come up with an answer. This is a clear disappointing and alarming pattern, but this latest bombshell is beyond the pale. Silence and hiding won’t cut it on this one. Katie Hobbs owes it to every Arizonan to come out of hiding and finally take accountability for her troubling record of racism – and if Katie Hobbs won’t come out of hiding to explain herself, then the media owes it to the people of Arizona to find her.
Republican Mesa Mayor John Giles, media consultant Karie Dozer, and former Campana were among the members of the “Republicans for Katie Hobbs” coalition at her event Sunday. Giles and Dozer did not respond to Breitbart News’s inquiry asking if they still support Hobbs in light of the Daily Mail story, but Campana did.
“Those of us who support Secretary Hobbs care very deeply about the future of Arizona,” said Giles Sunday, as the Arizona Republic reported. “And that’s why we are putting our state above our party.”
Hobbs refuses to debate Lake and caught heat last week for struggling to name one thing she has learned from Arizona’s Latino community.
‘They Treat Me Like a Piece of S—’: Raphael Warnock’s Church Pays for His Home. It’s Also Trying To Evict the Poor From Theirs.
Ebenezer Baptist Church owns an apartment building where residents are being served eviction notices for $28.55 in past-due rent
Andrew Kerr • October 11, 2022 5:00 amATLANTA—"Unemployment benefits have expired, rent is due today, and many Georgia families are at risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic," Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) wrote in a tweet in August 2020, charging that by failing to act, his political opponents were "clearly only concerned with serving their own interests."
It may be good political rhetoric, but Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the senator serves as senior pastor—drawing a salary as well as a generous $7,417 monthly housing allowance—has moved to evict disadvantaged residents from an apartment building it owns, one of whom it tried to push out on account of merely $28.55 in past-due rent.
The church is the 99 percent owner of the Columbia Tower at MLK Village in downtown Atlanta, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, which describe the building as a home for the "chronically homeless" and those with "mental disabilities."
A dozen eviction lawsuits were filed against Columbia Tower residents over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the first one in February 2020 and, most recently, in September 2022. The total sum of past-due rent cited in the lawsuits is just $4,900, a figure that could have been covered by one of Warnock’s monthly housing stipends from the church.
The lawsuits were filed by Ebenezer Baptist Church’s business partner, Columbia Residential, the 1 percent owner of the building, which manages its day-to-day operations. The revelations threaten to undermine Warnock’s efforts to cast himself as an ally of struggling Georgians working to meet rent in the face of pandemic-era challenges.
Ebenezer is not hard-up for cash—audited financial statements obtained by the Free Beacon show that Ebenezer closed out 2021 with cash and "cash equivalents" exceeding $1.2 million—and it is unclear why Columbia Residential moved so aggressively to evict its tenants.
Columbia Tower residents, who told the Free Beacon they were unaware that Ebenezer Baptist Church owns their building, described living under the rule of landlords who don’t hesitate to go to court to evict them and their neighbors, even if they’re just a few days short on rent.
"They treat me like a piece of shit. They're not compassionate at all," said Columbia Tower resident Phillip White, a 69-year-old African American who says he served in Vietnam and received an eviction notice on Sept. 20 for failure to meet a $192 rent payment. It was Columbia Tower’s second attempt to evict White, who received his first eviction notice in September 2021 for $179 in past-due rent. That case was dropped after White paid up, plus an additional $325 in fees, he told the Free Beacon.
The eight Columbia Tower residents who have been served dispossessory notices since early 2020 owed, on average, just $125 a month in rent, and five lawsuits sought rent less than one month late. Two resulted in court-ordered evictions carried out by the Fulton County Marshal’s Department. Six other eviction lawsuits were either voluntarily dismissed by the building administration or closed out by a judge for inactivity. Four others, including White’s, were filed in late September and remain open.
Beyond the building partnership, there are ties between Warnock and Columbia Residential, the property manager of the building. Columbia Residential founder and CEO Noel Khalil, who led the company until his death in October 2021, donated $14,000 to Warnock’s 2020 Senate campaign and runoff, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Months after Columbia Residential filed its first pandemic eviction lawsuit in February 2020, Warnock charged in December of that year that his Senate opponent, Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.), was failing to protect Georgia families because she did not support COVID-19 eviction moratoriums.
It is unclear whether Warnock was aware of the actions of Ebenezer's business partners and the evictions they were overseeing as he was railing against such actions, and he did not respond to a request for comment. But on Aug. 17, 2020, the Fulton County Marshal’s Department executed a court-ordered writ of possession against a Columbia Tower resident who was sued in February 2020 for $28.55 in past-due rent. Court records show the resident had already vacated the apartment when the order was carried out. Had she been present, the authorities would have forcibly ejected her from the building.
Warnock, Columbia Residential, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the attorney who filed the eviction lawsuits, Mario Breedlove, did not respond to requests for comment.
White, the Marine veteran, said he plans to go to court to challenge the latest effort to toss him out, adding that he will have to do so without the help of a lawyer because he can’t afford legal representation. He doesn’t even own a phone.
Columbia Tower depicts itself as a landing spot for those who have fallen on hard times—a mural on the side of the building reads "Safe Haven." The building has benefited from over $15 million in federal and state funding to shelter the chronically homeless since 2005.
In late August, Georgia governor Brian Kemp (R.) awarded Ebenezer $5 million in leftover federal COVID-19 funds to renovate all the apartment units in Columbia Tower.
Because Ebenezer is a charitable operation, almost no property taxes are paid on the building: While the property has a market value of $1.72 million, Ebenezer and Columbia Residential have paid just $77.77 in property tax over the past seven years, according to Fulton County tax records.
The building also received $1.5 million in federal and state low-income housing credits in 2005, as well as a $2 million grant in 2007 from the Atlanta Development Authority to rehabilitate 39 of the 96 units in the building. That’s in addition to $6.6 million in HomeFlex rental assistance since 2015. HomeFlex is an Atlanta program designed to secure affordable housing units for low-income families in the city.
One of the eight Columbia Tower residents who faced eviction during the pandemic said she was unaware that Ebenezer owned the building, or that her home has received more than $15 million in taxpayer-funded assistance since 2005. "It’s disheartening. It’s horrible. It’s actually horrifying," the resident told the Free Beacon. "We need the help. I understand churches take care of their pastors, but the excess, it’s not good. Not when you have people that need help here."
The resident, who asked not to be identified, citing a fear of retaliation, said she was served an eviction lawsuit after submitting her rent just a day late. "I put in the wrong card number. The money was in the bank but it didn’t go through. The next day I rectified the situation, but they still served papers," the resident said, adding that she ultimately paid more than $300 in court fees—a figure equivalent to about two months of rent—to make the situation go away.
"It was devastating and surprising. I know they have the ability to be patient with me and let me pay my rent. And it was paid," the resident said. "I asked for patience, but I was totally ignored."
In public documents, the connection between Ebenezer Baptist Church and Columbia Tower is somewhat difficult to trace. The church owns the building through a network of shell organizations connected to the Ebenezer Building Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity that delegates all management duties to the church and identifies Warnock as its principal officer in its IRS Form 990 filings.
The church identified Ebenezer Building Foundation as the 99 percent owner of Columbia Tower in June 2022 when it requested $5 million from Georgia to renovate the building, according to a copy of the grant application obtained by the Free Beacon.
"The Ebenezer Building Foundation, Inc. an eligible 501 (c)3) corporation is requesting a grant in the amount of $5,000,000 for the rehabilitation of Columbia Tower at MLK Village," Ebenezer wrote in the grant application. "The property includes 96 affordable units that have served the chronically homeless with mental disabilities since 2007. Ebenezer is the 99% owner of the General Partner in this property. The rehabilitation will be performed in collaboration with Columbia Residential, the 1% owner of the General Partner."
Ebenezer Building Foundation owns its 99 percent share of the building through a shell company called MLK Village Corporation. The Ebenezer Building Foundation and the shell company share the same address and the same three officers, business and charity records show.
The Ebenezer Building Foundation, however, has never disclosed its ownership of the MLK Village Corporation in its IRS Form 990s. Tax experts say the charity should be reporting its relationship with the shell company to the IRS because they’re run by the same people.
"The Ebenezer Building Foundation appears to be hiding from the IRS its relationship with the MLK Village Corporation because of the common officers between the two entities as well as with Columbia Residential because of the Foundation's 99 percent interest in the general partnership with Columbia who owns the remaining one percent," said Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group.
MLK Village Corporation is listed as one of the two general partners of MLK Village Tower L.P., which, according to Fulton County real estate records, is the entity that formally owns Columbia Tower. A shell company owned by Columbia Residential, which manages the day-to-day operations at the apartment building and is the entity listed as the plaintiff in its eviction lawsuits, is the church’s 1 percent partner in Columbia Tower.
Ebenezer Baptist Church stated in the grant application that it established the Ebenezer Building Foundation in 1996 in part to facilitate its ownership of Columbia Tower. "Ebenezer Building Foundation was established in 1996 to raise funds for the construction and maintenance of facilities of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta and to support the various programs of Ebenezer Baptist Church including ownership in Columbia Tower at MLK Village a permanent supportive housing development of 96 units serving the homeless, mentally ill population in Atlanta, Ga.," the church wrote.
Warnock is in the midst of one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races, facing off against Republican nominee Herschel Walker. The race could determine control of the Senate in 2023.
Ebenezer Baptist Church owns an apartment building where residents are being served eviction notices for $28.55 in past-due rent
Andrew Kerr • October 11, 2022 5:00 amATLANTA—"Unemployment benefits have expired, rent is due today, and many Georgia families are at risk of eviction in the middle of a pandemic," Sen. Raphael Warnock (D., Ga.) wrote in a tweet in August 2020, charging that by failing to act, his political opponents were "clearly only concerned with serving their own interests."
It may be good political rhetoric, but Warnock’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the senator serves as senior pastor—drawing a salary as well as a generous $7,417 monthly housing allowance—has moved to evict disadvantaged residents from an apartment building it owns, one of whom it tried to push out on account of merely $28.55 in past-due rent.
The church is the 99 percent owner of the Columbia Tower at MLK Village in downtown Atlanta, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, which describe the building as a home for the "chronically homeless" and those with "mental disabilities."
A dozen eviction lawsuits were filed against Columbia Tower residents over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the first one in February 2020 and, most recently, in September 2022. The total sum of past-due rent cited in the lawsuits is just $4,900, a figure that could have been covered by one of Warnock’s monthly housing stipends from the church.
The lawsuits were filed by Ebenezer Baptist Church’s business partner, Columbia Residential, the 1 percent owner of the building, which manages its day-to-day operations. The revelations threaten to undermine Warnock’s efforts to cast himself as an ally of struggling Georgians working to meet rent in the face of pandemic-era challenges.
Ebenezer is not hard-up for cash—audited financial statements obtained by the Free Beacon show that Ebenezer closed out 2021 with cash and "cash equivalents" exceeding $1.2 million—and it is unclear why Columbia Residential moved so aggressively to evict its tenants.
Columbia Tower residents, who told the Free Beacon they were unaware that Ebenezer Baptist Church owns their building, described living under the rule of landlords who don’t hesitate to go to court to evict them and their neighbors, even if they’re just a few days short on rent.
"They treat me like a piece of shit. They're not compassionate at all," said Columbia Tower resident Phillip White, a 69-year-old African American who says he served in Vietnam and received an eviction notice on Sept. 20 for failure to meet a $192 rent payment. It was Columbia Tower’s second attempt to evict White, who received his first eviction notice in September 2021 for $179 in past-due rent. That case was dropped after White paid up, plus an additional $325 in fees, he told the Free Beacon.
The eight Columbia Tower residents who have been served dispossessory notices since early 2020 owed, on average, just $125 a month in rent, and five lawsuits sought rent less than one month late. Two resulted in court-ordered evictions carried out by the Fulton County Marshal’s Department. Six other eviction lawsuits were either voluntarily dismissed by the building administration or closed out by a judge for inactivity. Four others, including White’s, were filed in late September and remain open.
Beyond the building partnership, there are ties between Warnock and Columbia Residential, the property manager of the building. Columbia Residential founder and CEO Noel Khalil, who led the company until his death in October 2021, donated $14,000 to Warnock’s 2020 Senate campaign and runoff, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Months after Columbia Residential filed its first pandemic eviction lawsuit in February 2020, Warnock charged in December of that year that his Senate opponent, Kelly Loeffler (R., Ga.), was failing to protect Georgia families because she did not support COVID-19 eviction moratoriums.
It is unclear whether Warnock was aware of the actions of Ebenezer's business partners and the evictions they were overseeing as he was railing against such actions, and he did not respond to a request for comment. But on Aug. 17, 2020, the Fulton County Marshal’s Department executed a court-ordered writ of possession against a Columbia Tower resident who was sued in February 2020 for $28.55 in past-due rent. Court records show the resident had already vacated the apartment when the order was carried out. Had she been present, the authorities would have forcibly ejected her from the building.
Warnock, Columbia Residential, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the attorney who filed the eviction lawsuits, Mario Breedlove, did not respond to requests for comment.
White, the Marine veteran, said he plans to go to court to challenge the latest effort to toss him out, adding that he will have to do so without the help of a lawyer because he can’t afford legal representation. He doesn’t even own a phone.
Columbia Tower depicts itself as a landing spot for those who have fallen on hard times—a mural on the side of the building reads "Safe Haven." The building has benefited from over $15 million in federal and state funding to shelter the chronically homeless since 2005.
In late August, Georgia governor Brian Kemp (R.) awarded Ebenezer $5 million in leftover federal COVID-19 funds to renovate all the apartment units in Columbia Tower.
Because Ebenezer is a charitable operation, almost no property taxes are paid on the building: While the property has a market value of $1.72 million, Ebenezer and Columbia Residential have paid just $77.77 in property tax over the past seven years, according to Fulton County tax records.
The building also received $1.5 million in federal and state low-income housing credits in 2005, as well as a $2 million grant in 2007 from the Atlanta Development Authority to rehabilitate 39 of the 96 units in the building. That’s in addition to $6.6 million in HomeFlex rental assistance since 2015. HomeFlex is an Atlanta program designed to secure affordable housing units for low-income families in the city.
One of the eight Columbia Tower residents who faced eviction during the pandemic said she was unaware that Ebenezer owned the building, or that her home has received more than $15 million in taxpayer-funded assistance since 2005. "It’s disheartening. It’s horrible. It’s actually horrifying," the resident told the Free Beacon. "We need the help. I understand churches take care of their pastors, but the excess, it’s not good. Not when you have people that need help here."
The resident, who asked not to be identified, citing a fear of retaliation, said she was served an eviction lawsuit after submitting her rent just a day late. "I put in the wrong card number. The money was in the bank but it didn’t go through. The next day I rectified the situation, but they still served papers," the resident said, adding that she ultimately paid more than $300 in court fees—a figure equivalent to about two months of rent—to make the situation go away.
"It was devastating and surprising. I know they have the ability to be patient with me and let me pay my rent. And it was paid," the resident said. "I asked for patience, but I was totally ignored."
In public documents, the connection between Ebenezer Baptist Church and Columbia Tower is somewhat difficult to trace. The church owns the building through a network of shell organizations connected to the Ebenezer Building Foundation, a 501(c)(3) charity that delegates all management duties to the church and identifies Warnock as its principal officer in its IRS Form 990 filings.
The church identified Ebenezer Building Foundation as the 99 percent owner of Columbia Tower in June 2022 when it requested $5 million from Georgia to renovate the building, according to a copy of the grant application obtained by the Free Beacon.
"The Ebenezer Building Foundation, Inc. an eligible 501 (c)3) corporation is requesting a grant in the amount of $5,000,000 for the rehabilitation of Columbia Tower at MLK Village," Ebenezer wrote in the grant application. "The property includes 96 affordable units that have served the chronically homeless with mental disabilities since 2007. Ebenezer is the 99% owner of the General Partner in this property. The rehabilitation will be performed in collaboration with Columbia Residential, the 1% owner of the General Partner."
Ebenezer Building Foundation owns its 99 percent share of the building through a shell company called MLK Village Corporation. The Ebenezer Building Foundation and the shell company share the same address and the same three officers, business and charity records show.
The Ebenezer Building Foundation, however, has never disclosed its ownership of the MLK Village Corporation in its IRS Form 990s. Tax experts say the charity should be reporting its relationship with the shell company to the IRS because they’re run by the same people.
"The Ebenezer Building Foundation appears to be hiding from the IRS its relationship with the MLK Village Corporation because of the common officers between the two entities as well as with Columbia Residential because of the Foundation's 99 percent interest in the general partnership with Columbia who owns the remaining one percent," said Paul Kamenar, an attorney with the National Legal and Policy Center, a watchdog group.
MLK Village Corporation is listed as one of the two general partners of MLK Village Tower L.P., which, according to Fulton County real estate records, is the entity that formally owns Columbia Tower. A shell company owned by Columbia Residential, which manages the day-to-day operations at the apartment building and is the entity listed as the plaintiff in its eviction lawsuits, is the church’s 1 percent partner in Columbia Tower.
Ebenezer Baptist Church stated in the grant application that it established the Ebenezer Building Foundation in 1996 in part to facilitate its ownership of Columbia Tower. "Ebenezer Building Foundation was established in 1996 to raise funds for the construction and maintenance of facilities of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Atlanta and to support the various programs of Ebenezer Baptist Church including ownership in Columbia Tower at MLK Village a permanent supportive housing development of 96 units serving the homeless, mentally ill population in Atlanta, Ga.," the church wrote.
Warnock is in the midst of one of the country’s most closely watched Senate races, facing off against Republican nominee Herschel Walker. The race could determine control of the Senate in 2023.
Survey– 32% Americans Paying Bills Late amid Bidenflation: ‘Life Getting More Expensive by the Day’
2:26 Citizens suffering amid the rising cost of living in Democrat President Joe Biden’s America are finding it difficult to pay their bills on time, LendingTree reported October 3.
LendingTree said 32 percent of citizens paid a bill late over the past six months. It recently surveyed approximately 1,600 consumers regarding their bill-paying habits and one key finding was that “61% of Americans who’ve paid a bill late in the past six months say they didn’t have enough money to cover the cost.”
The survey also found 40 percent revealed they were less able to afford to pay their bills than they were one year ago.
LendingTree chief credit analyst Matt Schulz noted some have fallen short of making ends meet.
“Life is getting more expensive by the day and it’s shrinking Americans’ already tiny financial margin for error down to zero,” Schulz continued.“Unless they’ve been able to increase their income, millions of Americans have had to make sacrifices because of inflation to pay the bills. Perhaps the worst part is that inflation likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. That means that short-term quick fixes won’t cut it,” he added.
Qualtrics was commissioned to conduct the online survey of 1,577 American consumers whose ages ranged from 18 to 76 and was performed August 19-26.
In September, data showed the average American lost the equivalent of $4,200 in annual income due to inflation and rising interest rates, according to the Heritage Foundation.
More recently, 62 percent of voters said Biden’s economy is crumbling as the midterms approach, a Civiqs poll revealed on Monday.
Per Breitbart News:
Because of the downward trajectory of the economy, the overall momentum appears to be in Republicans’ favor to retake the Senate. Democrats must either reclaim North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania or prevent Republicans from winning any of five currently held Democrat seats: Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona, or Washington State.
Most Americans identify inflation and skyrocketing costs as one of the main issues as they look toward the midterm election, a survey from the Economist/YouGov showed last week.
Citizens suffering amid the rising cost of living in Democrat President Joe Biden’s America are finding it difficult to pay their bills on time, LendingTree reported October 3.
LendingTree said 32 percent of citizens paid a bill late over the past six months. It recently surveyed approximately 1,600 consumers regarding their bill-paying habits and one key finding was that “61% of Americans who’ve paid a bill late in the past six months say they didn’t have enough money to cover the cost.”
The survey also found 40 percent revealed they were less able to afford to pay their bills than they were one year ago.
LendingTree chief credit analyst Matt Schulz noted some have fallen short of making ends meet.
“Unless they’ve been able to increase their income, millions of Americans have had to make sacrifices because of inflation to pay the bills. Perhaps the worst part is that inflation likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. That means that short-term quick fixes won’t cut it,” he added.
Qualtrics was commissioned to conduct the online survey of 1,577 American consumers whose ages ranged from 18 to 76 and was performed August 19-26.
In September, data showed the average American lost the equivalent of $4,200 in annual income due to inflation and rising interest rates, according to the Heritage Foundation.
More recently, 62 percent of voters said Biden’s economy is crumbling as the midterms approach, a Civiqs poll revealed on Monday.
Per Breitbart News:
Because of the downward trajectory of the economy, the overall momentum appears to be in Republicans’ favor to retake the Senate. Democrats must either reclaim North Carolina, Ohio, Florida, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania or prevent Republicans from winning any of five currently held Democrat seats: Georgia, New Hampshire, Nevada, Arizona, or Washington State.
Most Americans identify inflation and skyrocketing costs as one of the main issues as they look toward the midterm election, a survey from the Economist/YouGov showed last week.
No comments:
Post a Comment