January 1, Democratic state senator arrested for sexual conduct with a minor

Good morning Americans,

Police arrested Sen. Otoniel Navarrete (D-AZ) on charges of sexual misconduct with a minor. The incident allegedly occurred in 2019, according to the Phoenix Police Department. The filing listed the alleged victim as a juvenile male, but no further details are available. The Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus released a statement on Twitter that said it was “deeply disturbed by what we’ve learned from media reports” and stressed the importance of “due process.” Navarrete is facing three counts of sexual conduct with a minor and molestation of a child.

President Joe Biden further escalated the tension between him and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by pretending not to know the governor. “When I asked the president his reaction to @RonDeSantisFL saying he is ‘getting in the way’ over COVID restrictions. Pres. Biden responded ‘Governor who?,'” said NBC’s White House correspondent Kelly O’Donnell via Twitter. The conflict began earlier this week when the pair verbally sparred over COVID-19 restrictions.

Fifteen states are hiding the data on the number of so-called “breakthrough” COVID-19 cases, according to an analysis by The Hill. Out of the states that do report the data, Utah tops the list with 0.36% of their fully vaccinated residents having contracted COVID. “While vaccinated people can spread the virus if they get a breakthrough infection, the odds of them getting sick in the first place are far lower than those who are unvaccinated,” said Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator.

Democrats hoping to secure midterm re-election may be alarmed by a recent study. Polls on the 2020 election vastly overstated Democratic support “across the board,” according to a recent study by the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). “There was a systematic error that was found in terms of the overstatement for Democratic support across the board,” said Josh Clinton, AAPOR task member. The study found that “the polls overstated Biden’s support more in whiter, more rural, and less densely populated states.”

President Biden said 350 million Americans received their COVID-19 vaccines, even though the US population is only about 331 million. “You know, we have roughly 350 million people vaccinated in the United States and billions around the world. And virtually no one has died because of that vaccinations [sic],” said Biden. The 78-year-old commander-in-chief’s mental capacity is something that his critics continue to scrutinize. “Why is this guy not in a nursing home?” said one Twitter user.

A spokesperson for the National Police Association condemned the politicization by Congress of police suicides in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. “To my knowledge, none of [these four] officers left any kind of detailed accounting of why. That’s why it’s important that we don’t assume, and we don’t politicize” said Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith. “No one is talking about all the other cops who are killing themselves. The politicization of this topic is abhorrent.” Two of the officers’ widows blame the riot for their husbands’ suicides and seek to have them classified as line-of-duty deaths.

Be well,

Fraser Dixon

Sources

• Arizona state senator arrested on charges of sexual conduct with a minor
• Biden gets snarky after DeSantis says he’ll block fed overreach on COVID rules: ‘Governor who?’
• 15 states are keeping COVID-19 breakthrough cases under wraps
• Polls overstated Democratic support ‘across the board’ in 2020 elections, study shows
• Oh, Joe: Biden mistakenly says 350M Americans vaccinated
• National Police Association rep slams left for politicizing cop suicides after Jan. 6 riot