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During last years campaign Joe Biden promised to listen to the scientists. He repeatedly said his coronavirus-response policy would be informed by science and by experts.

On issues from the environment to teaching evolution in public schools to the public health response to the COVID pandemic, liberals often accuse conservatives of putting emotions ahead of facts. While recognizing that the scientific process of acquiring knowledge and putting hypotheses to an empirical test can and often does lead to shifts in consensus, we on the left claim to trust scientists such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease specialist and unlikely media icon.

After Dr. Fauci and other authorities such as the Centers for Disease Control told us to wear masks, Blue America listened. As of late June 2020, 86 percent of Democrats wore a facemask whenever they left home, compared to 48 percent of Republicans.

Now scientific consensus has changed. But lefties are choosing to ignore the new reality not that its new. Beginning nearly a year ago in July 2020 the CDC stated that wearing a mask outdoors was unnecessary unless one is less than six feet away from someone else. Aside from crowded events such as rallies, sports and concerts, risk of outdoor transmission is lower than a rounding error; there has been only one documented case of COVID transmission outdoors, between two Chinese villagers.

Clarifying its long-held stance, the CDC said on May 13 that people need not wear a mask outdoors unless we are in a crowd of strangers, or inside with our pod of friends and family members. Masking outside is optional, Paul Sax, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, told The Washington Post. Optional, as in unnecessary.

Lets pivot toward hope. Nearly half of American adults have been fully vaccinated and Pfizer is vaccinating children ages 12 to 15. We can go outside, have fun and socialize within the new liberalized guidelines yet too many people remain traumatized and grimly coasting on paranoid inertia. Its the return of freedom, said Dr. Mike Saag, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Weeks after the latest CDC guidelines were issued, however, normalcy and freedom are still in short supply in liberal bastions such as my neighborhood in Manhattan, where Biden won 91 percent of the vote. In compliance with the CDC, I walk outside without a mask because its unnecessary. Moreover, Im fully vaccinated. Rules require that I put one on when I go into a store or ride the subway.

Furrowed brows, glares and general stink-eyes still abound. My neighbors are ignoring the CDC as much as right-wingers in West Virginia did last summer.

One would expect attitudes to evolve with the passage of time, but that hasnt been the case so far. When a fellow tenant confronted me recently about my masklessness in the lobby where Id been alone prior to her arrival I informed her that Id been fully vaccinated. Everyone in the building has probably been vaccinated, she said, but here we still wear them. I asked why. Its just the right thing to do, she replied.

At a full-serve gas station in Manhattan the attendant demanded that I put on my mask before giving me a fill-up. Were outside, I pointed out. It was windy to boot. The CDC says you dont need a mask. I dont care what the CDC says, he told me. Im going to keep wearing a mask forever, like in Asia.

Half-empty streets in majority-Democratic areas where people are far more likely to get vaxxed are still, CDC be damned, dotted with people wearing one or two masks on sidewalks where no one can be seen for hundreds of feet. Many of the bemasked will tell you that theyve been fully vaccinated. Youll see people jogging down lonely country roads, riding bikes and driving cars while wearing masks.

You can understand that when people have been following a certain trend for a considerable period of time that it may take time for them to adjust [to the new mask rules], Fauci said on May 21. So I would not say that thats irrational. Id say thats understandable.

Go ahead, wear a mask indoors if you want to despite being vaccinated. Wear one outside if you feel like it. However, you are sorry, Dr. Fauci acting irrationally. Whats the point of the jab if you behave the same way as a year ago when we wiped down our groceries, bleached our counters and wore plastic gloves out of since-debunked worries over surface transmission?

Masks have devolved from medical imperative to virtue signaling. According to a May 5 Ipsos poll, 63 percent of even vaccinated Americans were still wearing masks outdoors, down from 74 percent in April but still a surprisingly high number. That number ticked up to 65 percent the following week on May 11. President Biden has begun appearing in public with his face fully exposed yet his supporters are not following his example.

Whats the harm in a fashion accessory that, as the vaxxed-yet-masked crowd informs you, merely tries to make other people feel more comfortable while also sending a subtle anti-MAGA message? Its about thinking straight. Democrats cant credibly claim the scientific high ground unless they adapt to the latest medical consensus.

You have the right to be anxious and illogical, not the right to be catered to. No one should wear a mask outside. Vaxxed Americans shouldnt wear them at all.

Ted Rall is a political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist. Follow on Twitter @tedrall.

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TED RALL: Liberals bizarre fear of an unmasked nation - Las Vegas Review-Journal

OTTAWA Liberals and Conservatives have stumbled into a thorny debate over fears that criticism of China can bleed into bigotry, as wariness of the global superpower rises alongside incidents of anti-Asian racism in Canada.

Tory MPs asked Justin Trudeau last week to respond to reports that scientists at a Winnipeg infectious-diseases laboratory had been collaborating with Chinese military researchers.

"Communist China cannot be trusted," Conservative deputy leader Candice Bergen said during question period in the House of Commons on May 26. "Will the prime minister commit to ending this research and this co-operation with the regime that actually wants to hurt Canada?"

Trudeau replied by warning Conservative lawmakers against wading into intolerance.

"The rise in anti-Asian racism we have been seeing over the past number of months should be of concern to everyone," he said.

The response prompted blowback from Conservatives, who have hammered the point daily in the House of Commons. MP Michael Barrett demanded the prime minister ditch what he dubbed "woke talking points" and address security concerns. Tory MP Kenny Chiu, who was born in Hong Kong, said: "Expressing dissent is not hatred."

In a Twitter post, Chiu also said Trudeau's rebuttal resembled "the exact tactics (China's) United Front Work uses: criticism of the #CCP is a criticism of ethnic Chinese as a whole." Chiu was referring to an arm of the Chinese Communist Party that gathers intelligence on individuals and groups abroad and co-ordinates influence operations.

Criticism of the Chinese government has ramped up in recent years, spurred by accusations of suffocating democracy in Hong Kong, systematically repressing Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority in Xinjiang, and cracking down on Chinese civil society.

The idea of China as international scapegoat gained renewed strength after former U.S. president Donald Trump used language about COVID-19, including "the Chinese virus" and "Wuhan flu," that many condemned as inciting racist attacks. Last month, President Joe Biden tasked U.S. intelligence officials with boosting their efforts to probe the origins of the pandemic, including whether it could be traced to a laboratory in China.

A report released in March by several advocacy groups found a disturbing spike in racist incidents against Asian Canadians since the onset of the pandemic, largely in connection with false ideas about coronavirus spread.

Cherie Wong, executive director of Alliance Canada Hong Kong, has experienced hateful harassment first-hand.

"There would be people spitting at me to say, dirty racial slur at me. And this has happened to my family and friends as well," she said. "People became emboldened during this pandemic to even further this hatred and this xenophobia against Asian Canadians."

As geopolitical tensions with Beijing heighten, anti-Asian prejudice will grow, she predicted, pointing to past discrimination against people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during the Second World War.

Wong stressed the need to confront concerns over foreign interference and domestic human rights violations by Beijing in language free of racial undertones. She also hopes to see more public awareness around the vast chasm separating China's Central Committee brass from Canadians of East Asian origin, including residents with roots in Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines who also face threats from bigotry that is ignorant of the difference.

While Trudeau has veered away from his "tolerance and diversity" response to questions about the Winnipeg lab, Conservatives have ramped up their line of attack. On Tuesday, seven Tories asked 13 questions related to national security and the Winnipeg lab.

On Wednesday, legislators passed a motion from Conservative MP Michael Chong demanding unredacted documents from the Public Health Agency of Canada in connection with two scientists who were escorted out of the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in July 2019. It was described as a possible policy breach and administrative matter. The two scientists, Xiangguo Qiu and her husband, Keding Cheng, were eventually fired in January.

Qiu had earlier been responsible for a shipment of Ebola and Henipah viruses to China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, but the public health agency has previously said the events were unrelated.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu has said in question period that the Conservatives "are playing a dangerous game," and that the relevant documents have already been provided to the House of Commons special committee on Canada-China relations "with minor redactions for the protection of confidentiality."

Conservative calls for a harder stance on China are nothing new.

Leader Erin O'Toole has said the regime poses long-standing domestic risks, including threats from its foreign agents to Chinese Canadians and spreading anti-western propaganda through post-secondary Confucius Institute partnerships as well as Chinese media outlets.

But Lynette Ong, an associate professor in political science and China specialist at the University of Toronto, cautioned against "exaggerated" tales of shadowy operators.

"Theres nothing illegal about trying to exert influence per se, even though, because its a 'communist' country, people tend to look at influence from China with skeptical eyes," she said.

"Its foreign interference that I think we should be concerned with. But I think evidence so far for foreign interference is rather sketchy."

Questioning Chinas influence in North America does not amount to stoking anti-Asian racism, she added. "But I think people who try to criticize China often do it in such a broad brush that they are inadvertently stoking anti-Asian racism."

Conservative MPs deployed the word "communist" 14 times on May 26, when Trudeau cited tolerance in response to security questions.

"This is a much more interdependent world, and we cannot easily draw a line in the sand trying to divide the world into two halves," Ong said, calling outsized stress on Chinese communism "alarmist."

Weiguo Zhang, associate professor of sociology at the University of Torontos Mississauga campus, offered an explanation for the potential to overlook racially loaded language.

"Politicians have not focused on anti-Asian racism for years. They believe that anti-Asian racism is not a problem," he said. Some non-racialized Canadians view of Chinese Canadians as a "model minority" translates, in their eyes, into a lack of prejudice an attitude that can infiltrate new Canadians mindset as well, he said.

"I hear some people mention that you should use Chinese wisdom not to fight back directly but to use a kind of soft power," Zhang said.

"Its related to a model minority myth: by behaving well you will not be discriminated against. But you know that a model minority myth is a kind of discrimination in itself."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.

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Liberals, Tories clash over criticism of Chinese government and accusations of racism - Kamloops This Week

To the editor:

The recent weekly columns and editorials from the Los Angeles Times and and some of the letters to the editor in The Sun Chronicle have been extremely disappointing.

They all have been extremely biased, at times very nasty, lacking in facts and seem to want to promote racism and division.

The worst was the recent Bill Gouveia column (Its simply un-American, May 31). And what a day to write such garbage. How dare he call me un-American! This man has become nothing but a blowhard, pencil pushing liberal. He has obviously lost all sense of decency and has become nothing but a fool-hearted joke of a columnist. Please have him go away and hire someone with a workable brain.

The articles from The Los Angeles Times have been disgraceful. And all they do is point to the true racism of the liberal Democrats. They are the ones who want to keep division within our country and keep the minorities in a rage with false accusations and false facts that are put out there to enrage them. And the article about the police was so disingenuous it would take a complete page to respond to. (Another victim of the Floyd killing: The right to protest, Opinion, June 1)

The articles from the liberal letter writers are every bit as despicable. If anyone has a difference of opinion they are racist (the favorite word of the liberals), homophobic and just disgraceful people. The writers are even allowed to call others Nazis and lovers of the KKK and such.

Liberals feign unity yet they are the ones who want to see the country remain divided. We should all wonder why that is. And when will this garbage reporting ever end?

Bruce Wessel

North Attleboro

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Liberal slant by Sun Chronicle is disappointing | Letters To Editor | thesunchronicle.com - The Sun Chronicle

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," June 3, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

DAGEN MCDOWELL, FOX NEWS HOST: Hello everybody, I'm Dagen McDowell alongwith Jessica Tarlov, Jesse Watters, Shannon Bream and Greg Gutfeld. It's5:00 in New York City and this is "The Five."

Media darling and America's top doctor, Anthony Fauci is playing someserious defense after a trove of e-mails blew a huge hole in his alreadyshrinking credibility. They revealed his relationship with the Wuhan labthat is facing new scrutiny in the global pandemic that has killedmillions. Senator Rand Paul claims Fauci lied to America about that labpotentially doing research that could make viruses more deadly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Dr. Fauci still denies it to this day, but in hisprivate e-mails he puts in the subject line, urgent, we must discuss thisgain of function research. So, he knows its gain of function and he needsto be pinned down in this. I don't think having trust of Chinese scientistwith gain of function research was very wise. In fact, it was so naA_vethat we shouldn't have Dr. Fauci in a position of advising the U.S., theworld or anybody else because he shown such poor decision making.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL: For some reason, Dr. Fauci refuses to call out China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUSDISEASES: The idea I think is quite farfetched that the Chinesedeliberately engineered something so that they could kill themselves aswell as other people.

I mean, obviously, you want openness and cooperation. One of the ways youcan get it is don't be accusatory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL: And the White House is standing by Fauci despite the e-mailcontroversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PSAKI, WHITE PRESS SECRETARY: We'll let him speak for himself and he'sbeen an undeniable asset in our country's pandemic response, but it'sobviously not that advantageous for me to re-litigate the substance of e-mails from 17 months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCDOWELL: Jesse, don't be accusatory.

JESSE WATTERS, FOX NEWS HOST: He should have had a secret server in hisbasement, then he just could have wiped it like crooked. These e-mails arebad. I mean, he is on the record of supporting gain of function. He fundedgain of function in Wuhan. He knew they were doing gain of function inWuhan.

They had scientists e-mailing him. This thing looks engineered and then nowhe is on e-mail scrambling to see if his fingerprints are on gain offunction. That's not my opinion. Those are the facts. And "Vanity Fair"came out with a big expose blowing the lid off the cover-up.

U.S. government telling investigators don't look into this because U.S.money went into this lab, manpower, know how, money. Went into this labthat ended up killing 3.5 million people. This is bigger than 9-11. This isbigger than January 6th. Dare I say, Greg, this might be worse thanWatergate.

GREG GUTFELD, FOX NEWS HOST: Not Watergate. Not Watergate.

WATTERS: And the media is complicit in the cover-up. They admitted it. Andhere's why. The Democrats needed Fauci so they could brand themselves aspro-science. They needed Fauci to lock everything down so they could loosenthe state election laws and do the mass mail-out of ballots. And they needFauci to point the finger away from China and at Trump so they could dividethe country for the election. You take Fauci out of the picture, it's liketaking a Jenga block out, the whole thing crumbles.

MCDOWELL: Will they get to the bottom of it, though, Biden and co.?Jessica, they've got what they're looking into it.

JESSICA TARLOV, FOX NEWS HOST: I absolutely think that they will. I thinkthe fact that we have moved away from. The WHO already looked into it towe're going to look into ourselves and there is bipartisan support forthat. I see no reason that President Biden would stop that in any way andDr. Fauci is supportive of that as well. To Jesse's point, well first, Ilove that now Hillary isn't even Hillary. She's just crooked. I assumewe've dropped her birth name.

WATTERS: Yes.

TARLOV: Second of all, you said that the whole Jenga tower falls whichincluded the mail-in ballots which I believe means you're alleging that theelection was fraudulent?

WATTERS: No, I'm saying it helped loosen the state election laws becauseeverybody had to stay home during the lockdown. You didn't need to lockeverybody down. You just needed to isolate the elderly. The rest of thecountry could have gone about their business. And Fauci was warned to dothis by scientists. We saw the e-mails and he ignored it.

TARLOV: Well, Dr. Watters has spoken on that.

WATTERS: Yes, he has.

TARLOV: And we'll come back to that. But from looking at the e-mails, Ithink that some of it definitely doesn't look fantastic, but he was on withJohn Berman. We showed a little bit of it, and he talked about that e-mailin February and he clarified that obviously if he had had known what theyhad known in April and May that he would have told Sylvia Matthews Burwellto wear a mask on a flight. And that we were getting new information fromthe scientific community as it went along, but I totally agree --

WATTERS: So science wasn't settled?

TARLOV: No, it wasn't settled.

WATTERS: Oh, so like global warming is not settled?

TARLOV: No, global warming is pretty much settled.

WATTERS: Oh, that settled, but this science isn't settled. I got it.

TARLOV: Stop playing a game with me. But anyway.

MCDOWELL: But Shannon, just on the surface, the most reasonable explanationwas, gee whiz, there is a virology lab right in Wuhan while the horseshoebats lived in caves hundreds of miles away. But instead, the media and TonyFauci bent over backwards to lean on a hypothesis that wasn't as reasonableand logical as, oh, it came out of a lab that had safety problems becauseXi Jin Ping talked about it.

SHANNON BREAM, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Well, that gets back to this "Vanity Fair"article that Jesse was talking about. It makes some explosive allegationsthat people within the State Department were actively telling people shutit down. Don't dig there. Don't go there because you're going to open aPandora's Box.

You heard Dr. Fauci again today saying we have to be careful with Chinabecause we need to be able to cooperate with them. It's been over a year.They haven't exactly been transparent with the WHO or anyone else. I'm --listen, Dagen, I like you grew up in the south and we believe you get moreflies with honey but when the flies are full of committing a human rightsatrocities and not giving you any information, it's time to get rid of thehoney and maybe go with some tabasco or something maybe a little bitstronger.

MCDOWELL: Yes, the communist party, Greg, if they're talking and breathing,they're lying.

GUTFELD: Yes. You know the -- this is the funniest part of the story isthey've mentioned the phrase Pandora's Box. That lab literally is aPandora's Box. They opened it, it got out. So, the idea, like, I alwayswonder how many investigations are stopped when somebody says that's aPandora's Box.

It's like maybe you should open the Pandora's Box and see what's going onin there. Look, we talked about this last week. One of the reasons why theywanted to blame the wet markets it's not just because of the lab, it'sbecause we are involved in the lab. We have money there.

We were thinking, you know, it's the Chinese protecting themselves. No,we're actually trying to protect ourselves because we, if we're -- I mean,these are our experts, these are our scientists. If this was -- consider ifthese were the plot to a movie, right.

Scientists in government engage in highly controversial and risky research.Two, there is an accident. Nobody is saying that this was deliberate.

MCDOWELL: Right.

GUTFELD: Fauci kind of blends that together. So, this research accidentallyhas unleashed into the public a dangerous pathogen, right? The scientistsand the experts and the politicians scramble to protect their vitalresearch and cover-up the plausible cause. If that were -- that's a MichaelCrichton movie, but it's not. It's real. And I think that's why you have tohave an investigation.

Is Fauci the villain in this? I just think he is an overly diplomaticbureaucrat. The real villain to me is the media and the Democrats, A, forpushing impeachment exactly, exactly as the virus was exploding. Countlesslives were lost because they hated Trump.

And number two, labelling anybody a racist who dared to criticize China,that helped -- that steered the debate towards something totally stupidlike a pangolin, which still sounds like a musical instrument I wouldn'twant to play, but it does have scales.

WATTERS: Oh!

GUTFELD: Whoa, brains.

MCDOWELL: I don't -- I would laugh, but I'm in awe of that. But just beforewe go, will Biden -- because it -- to get to the bottom of this, Joe Bidenand company, all the liberals, will have to admit Trump was right.

GUTFELD: Yes, they can't do that. They can't do that. Also, there is a lotof money at stake. If there's going to be lawsuits, you can't sue China ifit's the lab. You got to sue China and the America.

WATTERS: Yes. And the funding started during the Obama-Bidenadministration.

GUTFELD: We need to post-impeach Obama. That is possible, right?

UNKNOWN: Good luck.

GUTFELD: For this.

MCDOWELL: Yes, good luck with that.

GUTFELD: Jessica, we're going to impeach Obama.

TARLOV: Well, we're going to go to break and then we're going to talk aboutthe feasibility of that happening.

MCDOWELL: Before we go to break though, I'm going to add that I think anyMedicare for all, any government-run healthcare is now dead because youlook at Tony Fauci and who would want some, you know, spotlight seeking,power hungry career bureaucrat who's some fame floozy decide who gets tolive and who dies?

TARLOV: People without insurance would still prefer that.

MCDOWELL: No, they wouldn't.

GUTFELD: No, that's the emergency room, Jessica, please.

MCDOWELL: We all have healthcare in this country. Up next, America underattack. Hackers targeting companies and critical infrastructure and expertswarn they are just getting started.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUTFELD: We played that song yesterday. I just want to point that out. I'mpretty sure we did.

WATTERS: Another Beastie Boys song.

GUTFELD: America suffering from major cyberattacks and national securityexperts say hackers are just getting started. A key pipeline and a majormeat supplier were targeted in less than a month. And now a cyber-criminalcould mess with your commute. New York City's transit authority justreported a breach that happened back in April. The White House in some caseseems to be downplaying these cyber threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PSAKI: I would say these are private sector entities who have aresponsibility to put in place measures to protect their own cybersecurity. As it relates to why criminal actors are taking actions againstprivate sector entities, I don't think I'm the right one to speak to that.

UNKNOWN: So, a total coincidence?

PSAKI: I think you could certainly go track down those cyber criminals inRussia and have a good chat with them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: She is so sarcastic about some very serious issues. That remindsme of you, Jessica. So, I have a theory. The reason why the Bidenadministration is downplaying these assaults is because they are busy up-playing, a word that I just invented right now. You're welcome, America.

They are up-playing other issues. For example, the climate crisis shouldtake up 50 percent of your attention and then the remaining 50 percent goesto evil white armies of Caucasian supremacy. So, you cannot worry aboutthis cyber stuff because your brain is filled with evil white men andwindmills. That's my theory. I'm sickened to is, Jessica. You have 10seconds to respond.

TARLOV: Do you remember on "Red Eye" that game where you could just push abutton and a liberal only got to talk for 7 seconds.

GUTFELD: Yes. I invented that.

(CROSSTALK)

WATTERS: I need that button. Can I borrow that?

TARLOV: No. You can't borrow that. So, I disagree --

GUTFELD: Yes.

TARLOV: -- and I'm sticking to my story. We were actually talking in thegreenroom before this, that Leon Panetta was the Defense Secretary in theObama-Biden administration. He was on with Neil Cavuto in the last hour(inaudible) this because he was screaming this from the proverbialrooftops.

He gave a big speech on the intrepid I believe in 2012 where he talkedabout how warfare is now going to be fought on the cyber front.

GUTFELD: Right.

TARLOV: And I believe it was something that Obama and Biden took seriously.Obviously, our election security is something front and center for all ofus. But I don't think that they are downplaying it. I think that they areworking as hard as they can alongside the Pentagon to make sure that westop having these breaches that are affecting, you know, everybody, fromMain Street up to big corporations to government hacks at this point. Andwe know, China and Russia, if they're going to get us, that's how they'regoing to do it.

GUTFELD: But they, you know, she said it's a private sector issue.Basically, she's saying --

TARLOV: So she just respects the private sector, but that doesn't meanthey're not working together. Remember like with Apple and opening up theSan Bernardino killer's phone. The public face of it was it's a privatesector problem, but they were like, excuse me, open this phone. And then wegot in the phone.

GUTFELD: We don't have phones like that anymore, Jessica.

TARLOV: Liberals do.

GUTFELD: Okay. So, evil Shannon Bream, they're targeting our commute. Imean, that's pretty serious because no one wants to get stuck on a subwaywhen it shuts down. Imagine what that's like. Like imagine if you're stuckin a New York City subway train.

WATTERS: You're dead.

GUTFELD: You're dead. Yes, you're dead.

BREAM: You don't want that during summertime which is the last time I gotstuck in there. It's approximately 4,000 degrees Celsius and it smells likedead rats and body stuff. It's not good. I found down a rabbit hole readingabout this stuff.

I was reading about a guy who was one of a handful of people who is aransom-ware negotiator. And he talked about this is a much bigger problemthan you realize. He says it happens to small and midsized companies allthe time. He's called in to talk with them. And you know, the FBI, thegovernment, tells these private companies you can't negotiate.

GUTFELD: Right.

BREAM: It's only going to encourage the behavior. He's like, what do youtell a hospital or a school, like you can't give chemo treatments todaybecause you can't negotiate with these guys. And he said it's actually beenfranchised.

So they have people that have a script now who are franchised out by thesebig crime syndicates who say this is what you say in the first offer. Thisis how much money I want. This is how -- I mean, it is absolutely insanehow much is happening. We only hear about this stuff like the gas pipelinesand the beef. Don't mess with the chicken because if the Chik-fil-A getsinvolved, then we're going to have a problem.

GUTFELD: Yes. But do you know what you are talking about? The only wayAmericans are going to care about this a lot, Jesse, is if their privateinformation is black mailed. If somebody gets all of your e-mails or all ofthose photos up on the cloud, Jesse, that you thought no one could see.

And imagine if it's on to one and one of these free agents goes to you andsays like, 10 grand or 30 grand or we drop this stuff. That's not just theplausibility. That's going to happen. If this is happening, that's going tohappen, right?

WATTERS: Yes, I mean, Hunter's stuff is already out there, and they saidthat was fake news.

GUTFELD: Yes.

See more here:
'The Five' panel reacts to liberal cities rocket by surge in violence - Fox News

Donna Hope who has reverted to her maiden name from her former surname of Bauer will also contest the seat. She was the state member of Carrum and lives in Dunkley. She became a flight attendant after leaving politics.

Party member and executive Peter Bain will also contest the seat, and more candidates may emerge when nominations are announced by the party.

Former Liberal MP Chris Crewther.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

None of the candidates were able to speak to The Age because Liberal Party rules prohibit nominees from discussing the race in the media.

The Victorian Liberal Party is considering whether to disallow about 20 people from staying on as members because their memberships were paid for by the same credit card, which is against party rules. Most of the members reside in Dunkley, but the vast majority would not have been members long enough to vote in the preselection, which is only open to those who have been members for more than two years.

The memberships were paid for by a party activist linked to the faction aligned to party president Robert Clark. The administrative committee recently assessed the memberships and heard from the party member, who argued many of those signed up were direct family members, which is within the rules.

Liberal Donna Hope.Credit:Simon Schluter

Two senior Liberal sources in Dunkley, who spoke anonymously to abide by party rules, said Mr Crewther had a rusted-on support base of about 20 local branch members, while Ms Coombes would attract the support of locals seeking new talent.

The Labor Party will be hoping Chris is chosen again, one source said. They know how to beat him, and he lost the Liberal base.

An electoral redistribution to adjust for population growth will create a safe Labor seat in Victorias north-west and will probably cause the Liberals to drop a seat in Western Australia. Accounting for the defection of NSW MP Craig Kelly, the Coalition will head into the election two seats short of the 76 members required to form government in the House of Representatives.

Peter Bain.Credit:Eddie Jim

The Liberals will spend heavily to campaign in Dunkley because Victoria is a state where few seats tend to swing, meaning efforts can be focused on key targets. The Liberals will also fight to hold onto Chisholm, in Melbournes eastern suburbs, which was won by 564 votes.

The preselection could take place in August owing to a delay caused by the rescheduling of the partys state council meeting. This was scheduled to go ahead last weekend but was delayed until late July because of the lockdown.

Read more from the original source:
A reality TV star and flight attendant take on Liberal stalwarts in preselection - The Age