texts:
<mask> (March 23, 1918 – November 23, 1985) was an American political figure and longtime top aide to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. <mask>' career ended after he was arrested and charged with "disorderly conduct" with another man in a public restroom in Washington, D.C. It happened weeks before the 1964 presidential election, in an era when homosexual behavior was widely condemned. Personal life
<mask> was born in Jolly, Texas, and spent his childhood in Wichita Falls, Texas. There he attended Hardin Junior College and then spent two years at the University of Texas, though he did not earn a degree. In 1945, following his discharge from the Army, he converted to Roman Catholicism and married Helen Marjorie Whitehill. <mask> and his wife had six children, four boys and two girls.They separated in the early 1970s but never divorced. She died in 1987. Government career
<mask> began working for Lyndon B. Johnson in 1939 when Johnson was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives as the member from Texas's 10th congressional district. For most of the next 25 years, <mask> served as Johnson's top administrative assistant, following Johnson as he rose to become a Senator, Vice President under John F. Kennedy, and President. From 1941 until 1945, <mask> served in the United States Army during World War II. In 1951, he returned to Wichita Falls to run for the House of Representatives. <mask> lost to Frank N. Ikard in a race marked by attacks on <mask> because of his Roman Catholic faith.Johnson's former aides credit <mask> for his ability and temperament. In 1975, journalist Bill Moyers, a former Johnson aide and press secretary, wrote in Newsweek: "When they come to canonize political aides, [<mask>] will be the first summoned, for no man ever negotiated the shark-infested waters of the Potomac with more decency or charity or came out on the other side with his integrity less shaken. If Lyndon Johnson owed everything to one human being other than Lady Bird, he owed it to <mask>." Joseph Califano wrote, "<mask> was the nicest White House aide I ever met in any administration. He was never overbearing. It was quite remarkable." By the 1960s, <mask> was more Johnson's friend than employee, close to Lady Bird Johnson and involved in their family finances as well.The Johnsons celebrated Lady Bird's fifty-first birthday at a party at <mask>' home in December 1963. Scandal and resignation

Arrest
A month before the 1964 presidential election, on October 7, District of Columbia Police arrested <mask> in a YMCA restroom. He and another man were booked on a disorderly conduct charge, an incident described as "perhaps the most famous tearoom arrest in America." He paid a $50 fine. Rumors of the incident circulated for several days and Republican Party operatives helped to promote it to the press. Some newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and the Cincinnati Enquirer, refused to run the story. Journalists quickly learned that <mask> had been arrested on a similar charge in 1959, which made it much harder to explain away as the result of overwork or, as one journalist wrote, "combat fatigue."Finally, on October 14, a Washington Star editor called the White House for <mask>' comment on a story it was preparing. <mask> turned to White House lawyers Abe Fortas, the President's personal lawyer, and Clark Clifford, who unofficially was filling the role of White House Counsel. They immediately lobbied the editors of Washington's three newspapers not to run the story, which only confirmed its significance. Within hours Clifford detailed the evidence to the President and press secretary George Reedy, who "openly weeping," confirmed the story to reporters. Probably forewarned, Johnson told Fortas that <mask> needed to resign. Anticipating the charge that <mask> might have been blackmailed, Johnson immediately ordered an FBI investigation. He knew that J. Edgar Hoover would have to clear the administration of any security problem because the FBI itself would otherwise be at fault for failing to investigate <mask> properly years before.Hoover reported on October 22 that security had not been compromised. Johnson later said: "I couldn't have been more shocked about <mask> if I'd heard that Lady Bird had tried to kill the Pope." He also fed conspiracy theories that <mask> had been framed. He claimed that before his arrest <mask> had attended a cocktail party where the waiters came from the Republican National Committee, though the party was hosted by Newsweek to celebrate the opening of its new offices. The Star printed the story and UPI transmitted its version on October 14. <mask> resigned the same day. Johnson immediately ordered a poll to determine the public's reaction to the affair and learned the next day that its effect on the voters was negligible.The President announced that only he would contact the press about the incident, but his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, issued her own statement of support for <mask>. Political reactions
The incident embarrassed the administration but had little impact on the campaign in which Johnson led his opponent by large margins. One columnist wrote on October 15, "<mask> has revived and dramatized all the harsh feelings about morals, and political cliques, and the Texas gang in Washington." Yet the incident disappeared so quickly from the political scene that Theodore H. White, surveying the 1964 election campaign, assessed its impact this way: "Perhaps the most amazing of all events of the campaign of 1964 is that the nation faced the fact fully—and shrugged its shoulders." <mask>' arrest was quickly overshadowed by international affairs: Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was deposed on October 14, the British electorate voted Labour into power on October 15, and China successfully tested a nuclear weapon on October 16. Johnson's Republican opponent in the 1964 presidential election, Barry Goldwater, knew <mask> from the Senate and from serving as commanding officer of his Air Force Reserve unit, but initially denied knowing him. He did not comment on the incident while campaigning, though it fit well with the charges he had been making of a lack of morality in Johnson's administration, though he was referring to Bobby Baker and Billie Sol Estes.Instead, since FBI agents had just questioned him about <mask>, he publicly asked Hoover to explain why <mask> had not undergone a rigorous security check before joining the White House staff. Goldwater's campaign offices distributed bumper stickers and buttons bearing slogans such as, "LBJLIGHT BULB JENKINS: NO WONDER HE TURNED THE LIGHTS OUT" and "ALL THE WAY WITH LBJ, BUT DON'T GO NEAR THE YMCA". During the remainder of the campaign Goldwater occasionally alluded to the scandal. In speeches he referred to Johnson's "curious crew who would run the country" to the knowing amusement of his audience. At the time, observers noted the difference between the way Goldwater alluded to the scandal and the way the Republican National Committee and Goldwater's running mate, William E. Miller, used it to exploit "popular fears." Goldwater later said he chose not to make the incident a campaign issue. "It was a sad time for <mask>' wife and children, and I was not about to add to their private sorrow," he wrote in his autobiography."Winning isn't everything. Some things, like loyalty to friends or lasting principle, are more important." Johnson mentioned the affair in general terms while campaigning. In Pittsburgh on October 27, he told a crowd that in government "unfortunate things" happen and people "disappoint" you. Some "make mistakes" and need to resign and there need to be impartial investigations. Members of Congress called for an FBI investigation of the case, citing concerns that the FBI had been unaware of <mask>' previous offense in the same Washington men's room in January 1959. Supportive reactions
On October 15, James Reston gave some support to Johnson by confirming that "President Eisenhower was embarrassed by a comparable morals charge against one of his first appointees of his first Administration."On October 19, Drew Pearson in his "Washington Merry-go-round" column recounted the 1952 events with greater detail and named Arthur H. Vandenberg, Jr. as the Eisenhower appointee who "had homosexuality problems and could not pass a security test.". Campaigning in San Diego on October 28, Johnson replied to a reporter's question about "sex deviates" in his administration that every administration had its scandals and mentioned that Eisenhower had faced a similar problem with his appointments secretary, thus confirming Pearson's outing of Vandenberg, whose departure from the Eisenhower administration had been blamed on his health. On October 29, 1964, leading clergymen, including Dean Francis B. Sayre, Jr. of Washington National Cathedral, United Presbyterian Church Leader Eugene Carson Blake, Methodist Bishop John Wesley Lord, American Hebrew Congregations President Maurice Eisendrauth, and theologians Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr, issued a letter commenting on the <mask> affair: "We see the <mask> episode as a case of human weakness. If there is a security factor involved, let that be dealt with on its own terms and let it not serve chiefly as an excuse for dwelling on this one episode to cater to the prurient curiosity or to the self-righteousness of part of the public." After the election, the American Mental Health Foundation wrote a letter to President Johnson protesting the "hysteria" surrounding the case:

On November 17, Lady Bird visited <mask> and his wife Marjorie, who were preparing to move home to Texas. She reported in her diary that he had received "a barrage of mail" from acquaintances and the public that "seems so understanding." Washington columnist Joseph Alsop, like <mask> a closeted homosexual, wrote publicly in support of <mask> and sent him a letter of support as well.Effect on the Johnson Administration
Johnson appointed Bill Moyers to succeed <mask>. Johnson's White House Press Secretary George Reedy told an interviewer: "A great deal of the president's difficulties can be traced to the fact that <mask> had to leave. ...  All of history might have been different if it hadn't been for that episode." Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark said that <mask>' resignation "deprived the president of the single most effective and trusted aide that he had. The results would be enormous when the president came into his hard times. <mask>'s counsel on Vietnam might have been extremely helpful." Later years and legacy
<mask> resigned from the Air Force Reserve in February 1965.After leaving Washington, <mask> returned to Texas and lived the rest of his life in Austin, where he worked as a Certified Public Accountant and management consultant and ran a construction company. He died in 1985, at the age of 67, a few months after suffering a stroke. A made-for-television film, Vanished, loosely based on the <mask> resignation, aired in 1971. The Tony-award winning play and HBO docudrama, All the Way, that aired on May 21, 2016, about President Lyndon Johnson's first year in office from the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963, through the 1964 election on November 3, depicts the 1964 scandal involving <mask>. Canadian playwright Steven Elliott Jackson wrote a play that stages an imaginary meeting and one-night-stand between <mask> and civil rights activist Bayard Rustin called The Seat Next to the King. Directed by Tanisha Taitt and starring Conor Ling as <mask> (along with Kwaku Okyere as Rustin), the play won the award for Best New Play at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. References

Further reading
 Michael Beschloss, ed., Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964–1965 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001)
 Robert Dallek, Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961–1973 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998)
 Rowland Evans and Robert Novak, Lyndon B. Johnson: The Exercise of Power (New York: New American Library, 1966)
 Edward P. Levine, "Studying the American Press: The <mask> Case."Journalism Quarterly 43.3 (1966): 493-496. Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (New York: Hill & Wang, 2001)
 Theodore H. White, The Making of the President 1964 (New York: Atheneum, 1965)
 Mark K. Updegrove, Indomitable Will (New York: Random House, 2012)

Additional material
 Lyndon B. Johnson: The Presidential Recordings, 6 vols. (New York: Norton, 2005)

External links
 cnn.com "New tapes show LBJ struggled with aide's sex scandal"

1918 births
1985 deaths
United States Army personnel of World War II
Converts to Roman Catholicism
People from Clay County, Texas
United States presidential advisors
American LGBT military personnel
Military personnel from Texas
Texas Democrats
People from Wichita Falls, Texas
LGBT people from Texas
Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel

masks:
Walter Wilson Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins
Walter
Jenkins
Walter
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Jenkins
Walter Jenkins


type: original

texts:
<mask> (15 July 1898 – 21 April 1968) was an English composer and musicologist, currently remembered largely for his biographies of French composers. Biography

Early life
Demuth was born in Croydon, Surrey. On leaving Repton School in 1915, he volunteered as Rifleman No. 2780 with the 5th London Regiment (London Rifle Brigade) in the City of London on 17 September 1915, falsifying his age by adding one year on enlistment to seek active-service for which he was then under-age. In early March 1916 he was sent to France with a reinforcement draft to the Regiment's 1st Battalion on the Western Front, and was wounded in the leg by shrapnel fragments from the accidental detonation of a Mills Bomb on 28 June 1916 in the frontline village of Hebuterne during the prelude of the Battle of the Somme. He was medically evacuated to England and subsequently discharged from the British Army as medically unfit for further war service in November 1916. In Forgotten Voices of the Great War, Demuth is quoted as saying:
"Almost the last feather I received was on a bus.I was sitting near the door when I became aware of two women on the other side talking at me, and I thought to myself, 'Oh Lord, here we go again'. One lent forward and produced a feather and said, 'Here's a gift for a brave soldier. I took it and said,'Thank you very much- I wanted one of those.' Then I took my pipe out of my pocket and put this feather down the stem and worked it in a way I've never worked a pipe cleaner before. When it was filthy I pulled it out and said, 'You know, we didn't get these in the trenches', and handed it back to her. She instinctively put out her hand and took it, so there she was sitting with this filthy pipe cleaner in her hand and all the other people on the bus began to get indignant. Then she dropped it and got up to get out, but we were nowhere near a stopping place and the bus went on quite a long way while she got well and truly barracked by the rest of the people on the bus.I sat back and laughed like mad." In between the World Wars
Although Demuth studied for a time at the Royal College of Music under Thomas Dunhill and Walter Parratt, also receiving much encouragement from the Bournemouth conductor Dan Godfrey, he was essentially self-taught. He played the organ in London churches and became a choral conductor. His orchestral piece Selsey Rhapsody was one of his first compositions to be noticed. It was first performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult in 1925. Further performances followed, mostly outside of London in the South East of England, where he was active as a conductor or orchestral and choral societies. Between 1929 and 1935 Demuth was conductor of the Chichester Symphony Orchestra.From 1930 he taught at the Royal Academy of Music, and latterly at the University of Durham. Among his pupils was Gordon Langford, whose surname was originally Colman (and who changed the name on Demuth's advice). Other pupils included King Palmer, Hugh Shrapnel and Bob Simans. World War II
Demuth was active in the Home Guard and received a commission with the rank of lieutenant in the British Army on 23 October 1942. He served in the Pioneer Corps, for whom he composed the Regimental March in 1943. During this period he also wrote a series of handbooks on military strategy, including Harrying the Hun: A Handbook of Scouting, Stalking and Camouflage (1941), and A Manual of Street Fighting. Music and writing
Greatly sympathetic to French music, Demuth wrote a number of books on the subject.The first two, on Albert Roussel and Maurice Ravel, both appeared in 1947. Further books on  César Franck, Charles Gounod, Vincent d'Indy, French Piano Music and French Opera were published over the following fifteen years. His Musical Trends in the 20th Century (1952) took a broader focus, though its judgements on German and American music are largely unsympathetic. In a scathing review in Tempo, Hans Keller, noting the hostility towards Teutonic music (especially the British emigré composers), observes that "Mr Demuth's all too transparent personal prejudices come into play" and feels obliged to sign himself off with the words "The present writer is an Austrian-born British Jew". The French preference is evident in his own compositions, of which there were many. Demuth produced nine symphonies between 1930 and 1957, six operas between 1947 and 1959 (including Volpone, 1949, and The Orestia, 1950), and numerous orchestral ballets, concertos and overtures, works for military band, chamber music and songs, as well as much incidental music written for BBC radio plays. His orchestral set of Ravel-inspired Valses graves et gaies were premiered at the Proms in 1942 (postponed from 1940).Mason characterises his melodic style as somewhat austere, "in which definable tunes have little part", and his harmony as ranging from intense late Romantic Franckian chromaticism (the Threnody for strings of 1942) to more brittle Stravinskian neoclassicism (Overture for a Joyful Occasion, 1946). The Viola Concerto (1951) received its first performance in 1956 with Herbert Downes as soloist. Hugh Ottaway said of the work "Designed in two linked sections, one slowish, the other quick, it made an impression through its capable workmanship and sense of purpose but did not offer much of imaginative distinction. A certain monotony of rhythm and texture was acutely felt, especially in the opening section, which is a rather busy meditation whose concertante viola part is inclined to fuss and fidget." Demuth wrote his Processional Fanfare for three trumpets and organ for the enthronement of the Lord Bishop of Chichester in 1958. Death
Demuth married the pianist and teacher Edna Marjorie Hardwick in November 1943. She died in March 1965.He died three years later in Chichester at the age of 69. His pupil Gordon Langford has expressed regret at the complete current neglect of <mask>'s achievements as a composer. Selected compositions

References

External links
Obituary of Vaughan Williams by Demuth in The Musical Times

 Royal Pioneer Corps March, performed by The Band of the Royal Logistic Corps

1898 births
English classical composers
20th-century classical composers
People from Croydon
1968 deaths
English musicologists
British Army personnel of World War I
English male classical composers
20th-century English composers
Musicians from Surrey
English male non-fiction writers
20th-century English writers
20th-century biographers
Male biographers
English biographers
20th-century English male writers
20th-century musicologists
20th-century British male musicians
London Regiment soldiers
British Home Guard soldiers
British Army personnel of World War II
Royal Pioneer Corps officers

masks:
Norman Demuth
Demuth


texts:
<mask> (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman, politician, and former dairy farmer who serves as chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Before resigning from the House and joining TMTG, Nunes served first as the U.S. representative for  and then  from 2003 to 2022. A member of the Republican Party, Nunes was the chair of the House Intelligence Committee from 2015 to 2019. He was also a member of President Donald Trump's transition team. Nunes's former district, numbered as the 21st from 2003 to 2013 and as the 22nd after redistricting, was in the San Joaquin Valley and included most of western Tulare County and much of eastern Fresno County. In March 2017 the U.S. House intelligence committee, which Nunes chaired at the time, launched an investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. In February 2018, Nunes publicly released a four-page memorandum alleging an FBI conspiracy against Donald Trump.Nunes subsequently began an investigation of the FBI and the Justice Department for allegedly abusing their powers in an attempt to hurt Trump. In January 2021, Trump awarded Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Early life, education and early career

<mask> was born on October 1, 1973, the older of two sons of Antonio L. "Anthony<mask> Jr. and Toni Diane <mask> (née Enas). His grandfather founded Nunes & Sons, a prominent dairy operation in Tulare County. His family operated their farm in California until 2006, when they sold the property and purchased a dairy in Sibley, Iowa. Nunes is of three-quarters Portuguese descent, with ancestors emigrating from the Azores to California. He has one younger brother, Anthony III.In 2009, Nunes wrote in The Wall Street Journal that he became an entrepreneur at age 14 when he bought seven head of young cattle, learning quickly how to profit from his investment. After receiving his Associate of Arts degree from the College of the Sequoias in 1993, Nunes graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor's degree in agricultural business in 1995, and a master's degree in agriculture in 1996. After finishing school, Nunes returned to farming. In 1996, at age 23, Nunes was elected to the College of the Sequoias Board, making him one of California's youngest community college trustees in state history. He served on the board until 2002. In 2001 President George W. Bush appointed Nunes to serve as California State Director for the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development section. U.S. Congress

Elections

In 1998, Nunes entered the "top two" primary race for California's 20th congressional district seat held by Democrat Cal Dooley.He finished in third place. In 2002, <mask> ran for the Republican nomination in the 21st congressional district, a new district created by reapportionment after the 2000 United States Census. His principal opponents in the crowded seven-way primary were former Fresno mayor Jim Patterson and state Assemblyman Mike Briggs. <mask> was the only major candidate from Tulare County; Patterson and Briggs were both from Fresno. This was critical, as 58% of the district's population was in Tulare County. Patterson and Briggs split the vote in Fresno County, allowing <mask> to win by a four-point margin over Patterson, his nearest competitor. <mask> won 46.5% of the vote in Tulare County and 28.1% of the vote in Fresno County.<mask> was also helped by a strong showing in the rural part of the district. He was endorsed by the California Farm Bureau and The Fresno Bee. The district was solidly Republican, and <mask> coasted to victory in November 2002. He was 29 years old. <mask> faced token Democratic opposition in 2004, 2006, and 2008. He ran unopposed in the 2010 general election. After the 2010 census, <mask>'s district was renumbered the 22nd.It lost most of eastern Tulare County to the neighboring 23rd District, and now has a small plurality of Hispanic voters. Despite these changes, on paper it was no less Republican than its predecessor. <mask> was reelected with 62% of the vote in 2012, 72% in 2014, and 68% in 2016. During the 2014 election cycle <mask> received approximately $1.4million in political action committee (PAC) contributions. During the 2016 election cycle, he received approximately $1.6million in campaign contributions from PACs. In 2018 Nunes faced Democratic nominee Andrew Janz, a Fresno County prosecutor. <mask> defeated Janz with 53% of the vote to Janz's 47%, the closest race of <mask>'s career.In 2020, <mask> received 56.5% of the vote in the primary. Nunes defeated Phil Arballo in the general election on November 3, 2020. Committees and caucuses

In 2015, <mask> became the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. As co-chair of the U.S.–Mexico Friendship Caucus, he and Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer met with President Felipe Calderón of Mexico in April 2012. Nunes was a member of the House Baltic Caucus and the U.S.-Japan Caucus. 112th Congress

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
Committee on Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Trade
Subcommittee on Health

114th and 115th Congress

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Chair)
Committee on Ways and Means

116th and 117th Congress

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (Ranking Member)
Committee on Ways and Means

Business career
In December 2021, <mask> resigned from the House, effective January 1, 2022, in order to join the Trump Media & Technology Group as chief executive officer. Political positions

Former Trump campaign CEO and chief strategist Steve Bannon has called <mask> Trump's second-strongest ally in Congress.Los Angeles Times described him as "one of Trump's most ardent and outlandish defenders in Congress" who "parroted the president's conspiracy theories" and used his position "to try to undermine [the] investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election." During the presidency of Donald Trump, Nunes voted in line with the president's stated position 96.2% of the time. As of December 2021, Nunes had voted in line with Joe Biden's stated position 11% of the time. Energy

On July 28, 2010, Nunes introduced H.R. 5899, "A Roadmap for America's Energy Future", which would have accelerated the exploration and production of fossil fuel, supported the rapid development of market-based alternative energy supplies, and expanded the number of nuclear reactors from 104 to 300 over the next thirty years. Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal wrote, "It's a bill designed to produce energy, not restrict it" with "no freebies", and "offers a competitive twist to government support of renewable energy." Environment

Nunes wrote in his book Restoring the Republic that environmental lobbyists were "followers of neo-Marxist, socialist, Maoist or Communist ideals."In February 2014, during a drought in California, Nunes rejected any link to global warming, claiming "Global warming is nonsense." He has said it was a "man-made drought" due to water restrictions from the Endangered Species Act of 1973 and other environmental regulations that have seen water allocations decline dramatically even in non-drought years. He criticized the federal government for shutting off portions of California's system of water irrigation and storage and diverting water into a program for freshwater salmon and the delta smelt. Nunes co-sponsored the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act to stop a project designed to restore a dried-up section of the San Joaquin River. He also co-sponsored the California Emergency Drought Relief Act. The bills passed the House of Representatives in February 2014 and December 2014 respectively, but were not voted on by the Senate. Fiscal policy

On January 27, 2010, Nunes co-sponsored H.R.4529, Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010, the Republican Party's budget proposal. On December 2, 2010, Nunes introduced H.R. 6484, the Public Employee Pension Transparency Act, which would "provide for reporting and disclosure by State and local public employee retirement pension plans," but it never received a vote. <mask> has long been a proponent of a consumption tax model and has been influenced by David Bradford. In 2016, he introduced the American Business Competitiveness Act (H.R. 4377), known as the ABC Act, a "cash-flow tax plan" featuring full expensing and a reduction of the highest rate for federal corporate income tax rate to 25%. Nunes's proposal was influential among House Republicans, and had similarities to the House Republican tax plan introduced by Speaker Paul Ryan and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady in June 2016.Conservative economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin said Nunes had "a tremendous impact on the debate" for a non-chairman. In April 2016, Nunes voted for the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act, a bill that would prevent the IRS from accessing the names of donors to nonprofit organizations. Critics of the bill, which was promoted by the Koch brothers, say IRS access to donor information is important for ensuring foreign funds do not impact U.S. elections. Nunes voted in support of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. Health care

In 2009, Nunes co-authored the "Patients' Choice Act" with Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the House, and Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in the Senate. The bill would have established a system of state health insurance exchanges and amended the Internal Revenue Code to allow a refundable tax credit for qualified health care insurance coverage. It also proposed to absorb Medicaid programs into the exchange system.The Patients' Choice Act was incorporated into the "Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010". Nunes opposes the Affordable Care Act and has said it cannot be fixed. In 2017 he voted to repeal it. Immigration and refugees

Nunes supported President Trump's 2017 executive order imposing a temporary ban on entry into the United States by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, claiming it was "a common-sense security measure to prevent terror attacks on the homeland". Intelligence Committee

Nunes opposed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an international agreement that the U.S. and other major world powers negotiated with Iran, under which Iran was granted partial sanctions relief in exchange for limits on and monitoring of its nuclear activities. As House Intelligence Committee chairman, Nunes oversaw the Republican-controlled committee's two-year-long investigation into the U.S. response to the 2012 Benghazi attack. The committee's final report found no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton or any other Obama administration officials, and concluded that the response of CIA and U.S. military to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound was correct.The committee's report debunked "a series of persistent allegations hinting at dark conspiracies" about the attack, determining that "there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria", but found "that the State Department facility where [Christopher] Stevens and [Sean] Smith were killed was not well-protected, and that State Department security agents knew they could not defend it from a well-armed attack". Paul Ryan vacated the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee when he replaced John Boehner as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Ryan asked Nunes to stay on the Intelligence Committee, and Nunes complied. Marijuana policy

Nunes has a "D" rating from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for his voting history on cannabis-related causes. Surveillance

In January 2019, Congress passed a bill <mask> supported, which extends Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) until 2023, and Trump signed it into law that month. FISA Section 702 allows the National Security Agency to conduct searches of foreigners' communications without a warrant. The process incidentally collects information from Americans.Nunes lauded the bill's passing: "The House of Representatives has taken a big step to ensure the continuation of one of the Intelligence Community's most vital tools for tracking foreign terrorists". Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict
Nunes accused Turkey, a NATO member, of inciting the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. On October 1, 2020, he co-signed a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that condemned Azerbaijan's offensive operations against Nagorno-Karabakh, denounced Turkey's role in the conflict and called for an immediate ceasefire. Transportation

California State Route 99 is a highway running north–south that branches from Interstate 5 at the community of Wheeler Ridge in Kern County and continues northward through the Central Valley until it connects with Interstate 5 again at Red Bluff in Tehama County. In 2005 Nunes introduced H.R. 99, which designated State Route 99 as a congressional High Priority Corridor. The bill also provided federal authorization for Highway 99 to become part of the Interstate Highway System.On February 17, 2011, Nunes introduced H.R. 761, the "San Joaquin Valley Transportation Enhancement Act", which would give the State of California the option to redirect federal high-speed rail funds to finance improvements to Highway 99. H.R. 761 was cosponsored by Jeff Denham (R-CA) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). U.S. base in Portugal

In 2015, Nunes clashed with the Pentagon over a U.S. base in the Azores, Portugal. He proposed relocating Africa Command and European Command intelligence centers to the Azores, contrary to plans by Pentagon and NATO to create a larger intelligence "fusion" facility in the United Kingdom, maintaining that this would save money because of the Azores' lower living and construction costs. The Pentagon responded by stating "Moving to Lajes Field is very expensive and living is expensive as well."In sum, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found inaccuracies in the information provided by the DoD to Congress, according to its report. COVID-19 pandemic

On March 15, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Nunes encouraged families who were "healthy" to "go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy." This advice contradicted that of the CDC, and WHO, as well as that of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government's leading expert on infectious diseases, who advised people to stay at home if they could. Later, Nunes walked back his comments and claimed that he had encouraged people to use drive-throughs. On March 31, he described California's decision to close schools to halt the spread of coronavirus as "way overkill". Nunes said he wanted people to return to work in one to two weeks. On March 17, 2020, Nunes told Laura Ingraham on Fox News that the media was exaggerating the threat of COVID-19.He predicted that the crisis would be over by Easter. "There's a good chance we can get through this in the next couple of weeks and for sure by Easter, because we will have a handle on who's getting sick and how to treat them," he said. Legal issues

Comments about other politicians

During the debate over the Affordable Health Care Act in the House of Representatives, Nunes said of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "For most of the 20th century people fled the ghost of communist dictators and now you are bringing the ghosts back into this chamber." He has also had a long-running dispute with another San Francisco Bay-area Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein, over California water policy and other issues, even running a series of advertisements against her in California. Nunes's criticisms have not been limited to liberals or the Obama administration. During the October 2013 budget standoff, Nunes called certain members of his own Republican Conference who favored a government shutdown "lemmings with suicide vests". "It's kind of an insult to lemmings to call them lemmings" because of their tactics, he said.In May 2014 <mask> came under fire when he charged that Michigan Congressman and (then) fellow Republican Justin Amash was "al-Qaeda's best friend in Congress" because of Amash's supposed voting record on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance. At the time, Amash had voted in opposition to a Nunes water bill for California "on constitutional grounds". Role in Trump–Russia investigation

In February 2017, <mask>, who served on the Trump transition team, was the first leading House Republican to deny that the intelligence community had evidence of contact between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives. He rejected repeated calls for an investigation by a select committee, saying the House should not engage in a "witch hunt" and that "at this point, there's nothing there". Nunes also rejected calls that he request President Trump's tax returns. At a White House communications aide's request, Nunes spoke to a reporter for The Wall Street Journal to challenge a story about the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. When Trump's national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed that he had allegedly misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communication with Russian officials, Nunes said he would not seek to investigate Flynn's ties to Russia: "From everything that I can see, his conversations with the Russian ambassador—he was doing this country a favor, and he should be thanked for it."On March 22, 2017, during the House Intelligence Committee's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, <mask> held a press conference to announce that he had received information that the communications of "some members of Trump's transition team, including potentially the president himself" had been "incidentally collected" by the intelligence community and "widely disseminated" throughout the intelligence community. He added that it was legal FISA surveillance, and unrelated to Russia. It was later revealed that it involved Russia and the Trump transition team. The surveillance was of multiple phone conversations between Michael Flynn, a member of the transition team, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which occurred after Flynn sought advice from the Trump transition team at Mar-a-Lago, where they discussed what Flynn should tell Kislyak "about the administration's stance on the sanctions. [Kislyak had contacted Flynn the day before]... members of the team at the president's Florida estate agree that they do not want Russia to escalate the diplomatic crisis.

masks:
Devin Gerald Nunes
Nunes
" Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes


texts:
 After the initial call, Flynn [spoke] with Kislyak multiple times by phone and urge[d] him not to exacerbate the situation. U.S. intelligence officials intercept[ed] the calls as part of their routine surveillance of foreign dignitaries."Nunes had met his source for the information one day earlier at the White House grounds, with a spokesman for Nunes claiming this provided "a secure location" to view the material. Although Nunes had characterized his intelligence sources as whistle-blowers whose identities he had to protect, The New York Times reported that they were actually White House officials Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis, while The Washington Post reported that along with Cohen-Watnick and Ellis, a third man, National Security Council lawyer John Eisenberg, was involved. Nunes was widely criticized for sharing this information with the media and the president before briefing his colleagues on the committee. According to Nunes, the intercepted communications came in November, December and January—after Trump won the election but before he was sworn in as president. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, and House Democratic leadership called on Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation. He also received criticism from Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The latter compared Nunes's actions to those of the comically incompetent fictional character Inspector Clouseau.<mask> was criticized by Democrats and some Republicans for sharing information on an investigation of the Trump campaign with the administration without communicating it to Schiff, his Democratic Intelligence Committee counterpart. In late March 2017, Nunes canceled a public hearing in which former acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former National Security Agency Director James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan were to testify, saying he wanted to hear FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers in a classified setting first. Democrats criticized <mask>'s decision and said he was trying to protect the White House from damaging revelations. On April 6, 2017, <mask> temporarily stepped aside from leading the Russia investigation while the Office of Congressional Ethics investigated whether he had "made unauthorized disclosures of classified information, in violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or other standards of conduct" in his March press conference. He called the charges "entirely false and politically motivated". On April 12, 2017, sources from both the Republican and the Democratic parties said the original documents Nunes cited did not support Trump's claims that the Obama administration acted illegally or unusually. In May 2017, Nunes unilaterally issued three subpoenas seeking documents about former Obama administration officials who requested the unmasking of Trump aides, which led to renewed accusations of colluding with the White House to undercut the Russia probe.According to Politico, in July 2017 an aide to Nunes secretly sent a pair of Republican staffers to London to contact Christopher Steele. The Los Angeles Times editorial board wrote that Nunes's involvement in the investigation was "threatening the credibility of the probe". In December 2017, the United States House Committee on Ethics closed its investigation into improper disclosure of classified information by Nunes; the co-chairs of the Committee stated: "The Committee does not determine whether information is or is not classified. In the course of this investigation, the Committee sought the analysis of Representative <mask>'s statements by classification experts in the intelligence community. Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the Committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed." In January 2018, The Atlantic cited three congressional sources describing that the Ethics Committee was never able to obtain the classified information it was investigating regarding <mask>'s case. In February 2018, Nunes released a four-page memorandum alleging that the FBI's 2016 surveillance of Carter Page, a former member of the Trump campaign, was motivated by bias against Trump.Trump said the Nunes memo vindicated him. In August 2018, Nunes traveled to London in an attempt to meet with the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ for information about Steele, but was rebuffed by the three agencies. Role in Trump impeachment inquiry

As the top Republican ("Ranking Member") on the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes was a key player in the Trump impeachment inquiry. During the November 2019 public hearings, he delivered the opening statement for the GOP minority. Nunes used most of the allotted Republican time for questioning himself instead of deferring to the Minority Counsel. Nunes has tried to identify the whistle-blower whose complaint played a part in launching the impeachment inquiry. Further, during the hearings, Nunes repeatedly claimed that Ukraine had attempted to influence the 2016 United States presidential election, one of the conspiracy theories related to the Trump–Ukraine scandal.In November 2019, Rudy Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas said he had helped Nunes arrange meetings with Ukrainian officials in efforts to procure politically embarrassing "dirt" on former Vice President Joe Biden. Parnas said he would be willing to testify to Congress about his own role as well as Nunes's in the events, which included meeting with disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin. Parnas's attorney Joseph A. Bondy has said that Nunes and his staffer former U.S. Army colonel Derek Harvey met with Parnas several times for updates on claims against Biden and the CrowdStrike/2016 U.S. election conspiracy theory. Parnas's attorney said, "Mr. Parnas learned through Nunes's investigator, Derek Harvey, that the congressman had sequenced this trip to occur after the mid-term elections yet before Congress' return to session, so that Nunes would not have to disclose the trip details to his Democrat colleagues in Congress." When asked by CNN to comment on his trips overseas to solicit dirt on Biden, Nunes responded, "I don't talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime. At any time. On any question."On November 24, 2019, <mask> alleged in an interview with Fox News that CNN and the Daily Beast had committed crimes reporting on his trips to Europe and that he would pursue legal action against the news organizations for reporting the stories. In the interview, he did not answer the host Maria Bartiromo's question about whether he had met with disgraced former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2018, saying he would be detailing all the facts in federal court filings. That same day, CNBC reported that Lev Parnas was willing to testify under oath in Congress that <mask>'s aides called off a 2019 trip to Ukraine to dig up more dirt on Joe Biden when they realized he would have to report the trip to Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. CNBC reported that Parnas's allegations "potentially implicate Nunes and his committee staff in the same events the committee is currently investigating. Specifically, the monthslong effort by Trump, Giuliani and others to get Ukrainian officials to help them dig up dirt on Biden, and to validate far-right conspiracies about Ukraine and the 2016 election." <mask>s sued CNN for alleged defamation in Nunes v. CNN, seeking $435,350,000 in damages for their reporting of Parnas's lawyer's statement.That month, an attorney for Nunes sent a letter to congressman Ted Lieu threatening to sue over Lieu's comments about Nunes's relationship with Parnas. In response, Lieu wrote, "I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it." Federal judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed Nunes's suit against CNN on February 19, 2021. On December 3, 2019, the report from the House Intelligence Committee regarding the impeachment inquiry documented with call records new information about Rudy Giuliani's interactions with the White House, his associates and Nunes. The frequent contact of Giuliani and Lev Parnas, who has been indicted for criminal activity, with Nunes are regarded as "highly unusual and likely to renew calls from Democrats for Mr. Nunes to face an ethics inquiry." The report detailed call records acquired by subpoenas from AT&T that revealed Nunes to be in contact with Giuliani on April 10, and with Giuliani and Parnas on April 12, described in the report as the same days as other significant actions in the scandal, including phone calls between Giuliani and the White House and the Office of Management and Budget as well as a retainer agreement between Trump-affiliated lawyers diGenova & Toensing and former Ukrainian officials Yuriy Lutsenko and Konstiantyn Kulyk, "two of the primary sources" for articles in The Hill that promoted the conspiracy theory of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.Nunes asserted it was "very unlikely" he had spoken with Parnas, adding, "I don't really recall that name." After the report was released, CNN analysts suggested the new evidence raises questions about whether Nunes was an investigator or a participant in the Trump–Ukraine scandal. On January 14, 2020, the House Intelligence Committee released text messages Parnas had provided investigators. Two days later, Nunes acknowledged he had spoken to Parnas, after previously suggesting he had not. The next day, the House Judiciary Committee released text messages between Nunes's top aide Derek Harvey and Parnas in which they discussed arranging meetings for Harvey with Ukrainian officials. Defamation lawsuits filed by <mask>

<mask> has filed multiple lawsuits characterized as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation ("SLAPP"). Experts have described the lawsuits as "unlikely to succeed" and "virtually free of merit".On March 18, 2019, Nunes filed defamation lawsuits against Twitter, Elizabeth "Liz" Mair, Mair Strategies LLC, and the Twitter accounts, "<mask>unes's Mom" (@DevinNunesMom) and "<mask> Nunes's Cow" (@DevinCow), seeking $250million in damages. As the story went viral, the popularity of the defendants' accounts soared, gaining more followers than Nunes's own account. The San Francisco Chronicle cited this as an example of the Streisand Effect. Kathryn Watson of CBS News said the filing was "particularly interesting" because in 2018 Nunes supported the "Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act". A filing to quash a subpoena argued that "no reasonable person would believe that <mask>s's cow actually has a Twitter account" as cows "do not have the intelligence, language, or opposable digits needed to operate a Twitter account". In June 2020, a judge ruled that Twitter was immune from Nunes's suit because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. In August 2021, the same judge dismissed the second of two suits Nunes had filed against Mair.In April 2019, Nunes filed a separate $150million defamation lawsuit against the McClatchy Company and others. In May 2018, The Fresno Bee, a local paper owned by McClatchy, reported that in 2016 a former server of Alpha Omega Winery sued the winery, which is partly owned by Nunes. The server alleged that in 2015 some investors of the company held a yacht party that involved cocaine and prostitution. The report said it was "unclear" whether Nunes "was aware of the lawsuit" or involved in the fund-raising event at the yacht. He did not attend the party, nor was he mentioned in the lawsuit. Nunes said the article was politically motivated and improperly linked him to the fund-raiser. A McClatchy spokesperson defended the report and said Nunes's claim was without merit.Some legal experts have speculated that even though both Nunes and McClatchy are based in California, he filed the lawsuit in Virginia because California has enacted stricter rules against strategic defamation lawsuits than Virginia. Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute said the report did not say or imply that Nunes was at the party. According to her, his intention was to harm the Bee and similar lawsuits are designed to send a chilling effect on journalists. In August 2019, Nunes sued a group of activists who had tried to force Nunes to stop using "farmer" as his occupation on the 2018 ballot. The activists had argued that Nunes's parents had long ago moved the family dairy farm to Iowa and Nunes himself had no apparent farming connection left other than a small investment in a friend's Napa valley winery. In September 2019, Nunes sued political journalist Ryan Lizza and Hearst Magazines, the publisher of Esquire, alleging that a 2018 Esquire story had damaged his reputation. Lizza wrote that Nunes's family had "secretly" moved its dairy operation from California to Iowa in 2007.Nunes did not specifically contest the veracity of Lizza's reporting, but claimed he "fabricated a 'secret' where none existed". By the time Esquire published the piece, The Bee had already covered the move to Iowa. Nunes alleged in the suit that "Lizza stalked Plaintiff's grammar-school aged nieces, behaved like a sex offender or pedophile cruising the local neighborhood for victims, frightened a family member to tears, and exploited a grieving mother." United States District Judge C. J. Williams, a Trump appointee, dismissed this suit in its entirety on August 5, 2020. On September 15, 2021, the Eighth Circuit Court upheld the dismissal of some counts but remanded the case back to the district court. A similar lawsuit filed by Nunes's father and brother against the same defendants remains in litigation. In September 2019, Nunes sued the liberal nonprofit Campaign for Accountability (CfA) and the opposition research firm Fusion GPS.The latter was hired to dig up dirt on Trump at the behest of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. The research was compiled into the Steele dossier. In 2018 CfA filed three ethics complaints against Nunes. In the lawsuit he alleged that CfA and Fusion GPS had conspired to hinder his investigation into the dossier, citing a $138,684 payment from CfA to Fusion GPS. CfA said it did not hire Fusion GPS to investigate Nunes. On December 4, 2019, Nunes sued CNN for alleged defamation, seeking $435,350,000 in damages for their reporting of Parnas's lawyer's statement. The complaint stated, "CNN is the mother of fake news.It is the least trusted name. CNN is eroding the fabric of America, proselytizing, sowing distrust and disharmony. It must be held accountable." He claimed that the network has an "institutional hatred" for the Republican Party. The suit alleges that CNN reported that Nunes traveled to Vienna in December 2018, and met with Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general, about investigating Joe Biden. The suit claims this is untrue and that Nunes was in Benghazi, followed by Malta. Before the filing of the CNN suit, an attorney representing McClatchy in Nunes's suit told The Washington Post's Eric Wemple, "He's filing these lawsuits and threatening these lawsuits purely to try to chill speech about himself and matters of public interest."Federal judge Laura Taylor Swain dismissed the suit on February 19, 2021. On December 31, 2019, <mask>, through his Charlottesville, Virginia, attorney Steven S. Biss, issued a letter that threatened litigation against Representative Ted Lieu based on alleged damage to Nunes's reputation. Lieu responded, "I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it." Conservative Political Action Conference attendance
In late February 2021, Nunes and a dozen other Republican House members skipped votes and enlisted others to vote for them, citing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But he and the other members were actually attending the Conservative Political Action Conference, which was held at the same time as their absences. In response, the Campaign for Accountability, an ethics watchdog group, filed a complaint with the House Committee on Ethics and requested an investigation into Nunes and the other lawmakers.Personal life

The Nunes family is of Portuguese descent, immigrating from the Azores to California in the early 20th century. Nunes wrote a foreword to the 1951 novel Home Is An Island by Portuguese-American author Alfred Lewis for the 2012 edition by Tagus Press, an imprint of the Center for Portuguese Culture and Studies at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Nunes married <mask> (née Tamariz), an elementary school teacher, in 2003. They have three daughters. Nunes is a practicing Catholic, and attends Mass in Tulare. Honors

President Donald Trump awarded Nunes the Presidential Medal of Freedom on January 4, 2021, along with fellow Representative Jim Jordan. No media were allowed to document the ceremony.In a press release from the Trump White House before the ceremony, <mask> was described as having exposed illegal wiretapping by the Obama administration on Trump and the Trump campaign, as part of the unsubstantiated Trump Tower wiretapping allegations. In the same release <mask> is praised as having helped "thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president", in reference to his work to discredit the allegations (which the release calls the "Russia Hoax") leading to Trump's first impeachment. Nunes has received the following foreign honors:
 Grand-Officer of the Order of Prince Henry, Portugal (June 7, 2013)
 Commander of the Order of the Star of Romania, Romania (June 8, 2017)

See also

Fossil fuels lobby
List of conspiracy theories
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Trump–Ukraine scandal

References

External links

Profile at SourceWatch
Smart Voter's election results for 2002, 2004, 2006

|-

|-

|-

1973 births
21st-century American politicians
American conspiracy theorists
American people of Azorean descent
American people of Portuguese descent
American Roman Catholics
California Polytechnic State University alumni
California Republicans
Catholics from California
College of the Sequoias alumni
Commanders of the Order of the Star of Romania
Grand Officers of the Order of Prince Henry
Living people
Members of the United States House of Representatives from California
People from Tulare, California
People from Visalia, California
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives
Trump–Ukraine scandal
United States Department of Agriculture officials
21st-century American

masks:
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunes
Nunesune
Nunes
Nunes
Devin N
Devin
Devin Nune
Nunes
Elizabeth Nunes
Nunes
Nunes


texts:
<mask> (November 15, 1948 – February 20, 2022) was an American political analyst and pundit, and political operative. He was an analyst and commentator on Fox News. He had been a commentator on Fox News where he co-hosted The Five until he was released in 2015 after being absent for several months while recovering from back surgery. After departing Fox News in 2015, Beckel became a commentator for CNN. On January 16, 2017, he returned to Fox News as a co-host of The Five. On May 19, 2017, Fox News announced Beckel was released again after he was accused of making a racist remark against another Fox News employee. Early life
<mask> was born in Greenwich Village, Manhattan and grew up in Lyme, Connecticut.He is the son of Cambridge Graham <mask> Jr. (author of Workshops for the World: The United Nations Family of Agencies) and Ellen Gilliland <mask>. He is the older brother of actor <mask>. <mask> received a BA from Wagner College in Staten Island. While in college, he played football and worked for Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign in 1968. After college, <mask> served in the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1971 to 1972, and later was a graduate school professor of politics at George Washington University. Career

Government
In 1977, <mask> joined the United States Department of State as deputy assistant secretary of state for congressional relations, becoming the youngest deputy assistant secretary of state in the Carter administration. In that role he helped to shepherd the Panama Canal Treaty through Congress to ratification.The following year he was appointed special assistant to the president for legislative affairs, working on ratification of Salt II and Mideast treaties. <mask> was the campaign manager for Walter Mondale's 1984 presidential campaign. During that campaign he became known as the man who effectively wrapped the Wendy's slogan "Where's the beef?" around Gary Hart, Mondale's opponent for the Democratic nomination. In late 1984 he formed the consulting firm Bob Beckel & Associates, or BBA, a lobbying firm that was succeeded in 1985 by <mask>–Cowan. In 2002 <mask> managed the campaign of Alan Blinken, the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Idaho, until he resigned after being targeted for extortion by a prostitute. In 2010, he made a brief appearance as himself on the Season 8 premiere of TV series 24 in a mock debate with fellow Fox News Analyst Monica Crowley.Fox News
In 2011, <mask> joined Fox News as a co-host of The Five and co-hosted some 708 episodes, until June 2015, when Fox announced that Beckel had left the program. A Fox spokesman said: "We couldn't hold The Five hostage to one man's personal issues." <mask>, whose last appearance on the show was in February 2015, had been absent while recovering from back surgery; he had also drawn controversy in the last episode prior to his dismissal, when he described himself as an "Islamophobe" in response to the Charlie Hebdo shooting. The network issued a statement, saying that Beckel had "entered rehab facility for treatment of an addiction to prescription pain medication." On a Fox News panel in 2011, Beckel called for "illegally shoot[ing]" Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks. On January 16, 2017, <mask> rejoined The Five as co-host. However, he was again fired in May of that same year, amid claims that he had made racially insensitive remarks to a Black employee.CNN
In October 2015, <mask> was hired by CNN to offer commentary on the 2016 election. USA Today
From 2005 until the end of 2015, <mask> was a columnist for USA Today, where he wrote articles with friend and political opposite Cal Thomas in the style of "point–counterpoint." Personal life
In 1992 <mask> married Leland Ingham. They had two children and divorced in 2002. Ingham, who was later known as Leland Keyser after remarriage, became embroiled in the Brett Kavanaugh nomination when she was named by Christine Blasey Ford as a friend who could corroborate her story of Kavanaugh sexually assaulting her when they were in high school. Ingham instead testified in Kavanaugh's favor. Beckel was a recovering alcoholic.He spoke openly about his past addictions to drugs and alcohol, admitting in July 2011 on The Five: "I'm a recovering addict and cocaine was my drug of choice." In 2007 <mask> said that he was involved in an altercation in a Bethesda, Maryland, grocery store parking lot with a man who took issue with his anti–George W. Bush bumper stickers. In October 2011, Beckel nearly choked to death on a piece of shrimp at a Fox News reception, but was saved by Fox News chief Roger Ailes and The Five co-host Eric Bolling. In early 2015, <mask> was absent from The Five for a number of weeks, which led to speculation that he had been fired, but Fox later announced that his absence was due to "health-related issues." It was later revealed that he had major back surgery on March 26 at a New York–area hospital. Beckel got saved later in life. In late 2015, Beckel published a memoir, I Should Be Dead: My Life Surviving Politics, TV, and Addiction, co-written with John David Mann.Cal Thomas hosted a book-signing party celebrating publication of <mask>'s book, which aired in November 2015 on C-SPAN. <mask> died at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, on February 20, 2022, at the age of 73. Bibliography

References

External links

Keppler Speakers Bureau: <mask>el
Weekly USA Today Column Common Ground
<mask>el Topics Page – USA Today

1948 births
2022 deaths
21st-century American male writers
21st-century American memoirists
21st-century American non-fiction writers
American broadcast news analysts
American campaign managers
American columnists
American men podcasters
American podcasters
American political commentators
American Protestants
Carter administration personnel
CNN people
Connecticut Democrats
Fox News people
George Washington University faculty
New York (state) Democrats
Peace Corps volunteers
People from Lyme, Connecticut
Politicians from Manhattan
Robert F. Kennedy
United States Department of State officials
USA Today journalists
Wagner College alumni
Wagner Seahawks football players
Writers from Manhattan

masks:
Robert Gilliland Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Graham Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Politics Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Beckel
Death Beckel
Bob Beck
Bob Beck


texts:
<mask> (born 20 March 1950) is an English drummer and percussionist best known as a founding member of the rock supergroups Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Asia. He has toured with his own bands since 2001, including <mask>, the Carl Palmer Band, and currently, <mask>'s ELP Legacy. He previously was a touring drummer for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and a founding member of Atomic Rooster. <mask> was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1989, and was awarded the Prog God Award at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards. Career

Early groups, Arthur Brown, and Atomic Rooster
<mask> began taking drum lessons as a young boy, travelling to Denman Street, Piccadilly. His first band, formed with others from the Midlands area, was originally known as the King Bees, but changed its name to the Craig. In 1966, the band made its first record, "I Must Be Mad", with flip side "Suspense", produced by Larry Page.At this time, <mask> also did his first session work, playing on the song "Love Light" by the Chants, a group from Liverpool. Later in 1966, he was then invited to join Chris Farlowe and the Thunderbirds. Drachen Theaker was the original drummer for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, founded by Arthur Brown, and played on the band's eponymous album, including the song "Fire". Theaker abruptly left the band during a U.S. tour in 1969. <mask> was quickly recruited as a replacement and became a permanent band member. Vincent Crane was the keyboard player with the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and both he and <mask> left that group in the summer of 1969 to strike out musically on their own as Atomic Rooster, a trio formed with vocalist/bassist Nick Graham. <mask> reports that Brown himself had "gone missing on a commune on Long Island" and that this was a deciding factor in forming the new band.There were several personnel changes in the band, and their first album was released in early 1970. Meanwhile, <mask> received a call from Keith Emerson to audition for a new group and left Atomic Rooster in the summer of 1970. Emerson, Lake & Palmer

Palmer met up with two other young English musicians, Greg Lake and Keith Emerson. Emerson had most recently been a member of the Nice, and Lake was in King Crimson, and both wanted to further expand their musical creativity. After discussions with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell about forming a group fell apart, they auditioned several drummers, and felt an "immediate chemistry" with <mask>, and by the summer of 1970 they had formed a band. In naming the new group, the trio chose their last names alphabetically – Emerson, Lake & Palmer, also shortened to ELP. The band has been the most successful of his career, and he remained with ELP until they first disbanded in 1980.The band was nominated at the 14th Annual Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, making them the first progressive rock group to achieve this feat. They developed a sound that merged art rock, jazz, electronica, pop rock and classical music and found fans within their peers and the public alike. <mask> rejoined the newly reformed ELP in 1992 for Black Moon, In the Hot Seat, a box set, as well as several DVDs and the subsequent tours. In 1998, the trio split. A one-off ELP performance at the 2010 High Voltage Festival celebrated the 40th anniversary of forming the band. Following the deaths of Emerson and Lake in 2016, <mask> is the only surviving member of ELP. Asia
Following the first break-up of ELP in 1980, <mask> formed PM with Texas blues rock guitarist John Nitzinger for one album before joining John Wetton and Steve Howe in early 1981, who had been brought together to form a new super-group.They were later joined by Geoff Downes to form Asia. The group was nominated at the 25th Annual Grammy Awards for Best New Artist, making them the second and last progressive rock band to achieve this feat. <mask> became only the second artist to be nominated twice for this award, after David Crosby. <mask> left Asia in 1991 to join the ELP reunion. After several personnel changes the four founding members of Asia including <mask> reunited in 2006. <mask> has been reunited with the original line-up of Asia since 2006. They celebrated their 25th anniversary, and have since released four new studio albums, Phoenix, in 2008, Omega in 2010, XXX (30) in 2012, and Gravitas in 2014.A live album and DVD from the 2006 reunion tour, entitled Fantasia was released by Eagle Rock Records. Production credits
The jazz trio Back Door toured with ELP circa 1974, and <mask> began to collaborate with them, producing their fourth album, Activate (1976). Two of the members of the group, saxophonist Ron Aspery and bassist Colin Hodgkinson, co-wrote the song "Bullfrog" with <mask>, also playing (uncredited) on the song, which appears on Works Volume 2. Other projects

<mask> played drums on "Mount Teidi" on Five Miles Out (1982) by Mike Oldfield. Another Oldfield track he performed on, "Ready Mix", remained unreleased until 2001. <mask> has performed various drum clinics across Europe and the United States. Highlights of <mask>'s live drum solo over the years have included the use of both gongs and tambourines, and also his ability to extract himself from his T-shirt while playing complex double bass drum patterns; the latter leaving him stripped to the waist to play the final part of his show.The removal of his shirt was a major 'attraction' in <mask>'s drum solos during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. On recent tours, however, his shirt has remained on throughout his performances. <mask> is a patron of the British Classic Rock Society, which promotes progressive rock concerts. <mask> worked with John Wetton in the band Qango. <mask> released the album series Working Live Vol. I, II & III. In 2001, <mask> formed his own band, initially known as <mask> and then the <mask> Band, featuring guitarist Shaun Baxter and bassist Dave Marks.They were replaced by Paul Bielatowicz and Stuart Clayton, and later by Simon Fitzpatrick, performing instrumental versions of ELP songs as <mask>'s ELP Legacy. In 2017, following Emerson and Lake's deaths, the trio embarked on the Emerson, Lake & Palmer Lives On! World Tour. In November 2019, <mask> held the <mask>'s Prog Rock Camp at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. In 2019, <mask> performed with Asia and ELP Legacy during The Royal Affair Tour, headlined by Yes. In 2021, <mask> returned to performing following the COVID pandemic to promote the <mask>'s ELP Legacy Tour celebrating ELP's 50th anniversary. In addition to <mask>, the band still features Paul Bielatowicz on guitar and vocals; and Simon Fitzpatrick on bass and Chapman stick.Influences
Having played with a variety of bands, including various anonymous schoolboy bands as a youth, <mask>'s style was developed from a wide range of musical influences. Among <mask>'s early drumming influences were Joe Morello, Philly Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Inspiration from their techniques can be heard in his own drumming style, which was initially influenced more from jazz than any other genre. Known for his technical prowess, another of <mask>'s trademarks included solos in many of his performances. His later work in Asia saw a more basic approach, although he began to play double bass drums more frequently during that period, and was the eleventh drummer to be inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. Personal life
<mask> married his first wife, Maureen, in the 1980s. She gave birth to his only child, Carissa, now a lawyer.His spouse since 2004 has been Katie, with whom <mask> resides in both Cyprus and the UK. He became a vegan in the early 2010s. Equipment

Drums
<mask> owns a Ludwig Vistalite drum kit with blue Vistalite shells. Ludwig signature "Venus" snare drum. In 2011, Ludwig released his "Signature Venus snare drum", made of a green-lacquered brass shell with a 3.7" depth and a 14" diameter. Stainless steel drum kit

In 1973, <mask> commissioned British Steel to design a custom stainless steel drum kit using one-half-inch thick shells; the only off-the-shelf equipment were the hoops manufactured by Gretsch. He also had a jeweller engrave the shells with various animals.The kit, along with other percussion instruments and a rotating platform, had a total weight of approximately 2.5 tons and many of the stages on tour had to be reinforced, with some venues cancelling shows because of it. Also, the kit was electronically designed to be "synthesized" to sound like electronic drums. Paiste Bronze drum kit; <mask> also used a bronze drum kit manufactured by Paiste, which is built from 2002 model cymbal bronze. Korg WaveDrum; <mask> uses a Korg Wavedrum in his drum solo. Cymbals
<mask> has endorsed Paiste since 1971 and currently uses this cymbal setup :
 5" 2002 Cup Chime
 13" Signature Heavy Hi-Hat
 6" 2002 Cup Chime
 18" Signature Power Crash
 20" Signature Heavy Bell Ride
 20" Signature Power Crash
 13" 2002 Sound Edge Hi-Hat
 6" 2002 Bell Chime
 22" 2002 China

Heads
<mask> uses Remo drumheads. Sticks
Pro-Mark produces his signature drumsticks. They are made of American hickory, with a quite short length (15 7/8") and a diameter between a 5A and a 5B (0.579").Other
<mask> also uses timpani, tubular bells and tam-tam as usually used in the symphony orchestra. Other percussion he has used include temple blocks, triangle, church bell, vibraslap, electronic percussion synthesizers and ratchet. Emerson, Lake & Palmer, The Show That Never Ends, A Musical Biography''. (2001) Helter Skelter Publishing . 1950 births
Living people
English rock drummers
ELP members
Asia (band) members
Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands
English session musicians
British percussionists
Timpanists
Tabla players
Carillonneurs
Conga players
Gong players
Vibraphonists
Tubular bells players
Triangle players
Castanets players
Tambourine players
Maracas players
Bongo players
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown members
Atomic Rooster members
People from Handsworth, West Midlands
Progressive rock drummers
Emerson, Lake & Palmer members
Qango (band) members
3 (1980s band) members
British male drummers

masks:
Carl Frederick Kendall Palmer
Palmer
Carl Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Carl Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Carl Palmer
Carl Palmer
Palmer
Carl Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Carl Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Carl
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer
Palmer


texts:
<mask> II (; born June 16, 1968) is an American lawyer who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President <mask>, from the day of Trump's inauguration through October 17, 2018, when McGahn resigned. Previously, <mask> served on the Federal Election Commission for over five years. In November 2019, McGahn received a court order to testify before the U.S House of Representatives. In August 2020, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 7–2 that the House can sue him to comply. Early life and education
<mask> was born on June 16, 1968 and grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the son of Noreen () and <mask>. <mask>. He is a nephew of <mask>, former Democratic New Jersey State Senator and medical director at <mask>'s Resorts International, and Atlantic City attorney <mask>, who had represented Trump's casino interests from 1982 until Trump sued him for alleged overbilling in 1995. <mask> attended Our Lady Star of the Sea School in Atlantic City and Holy Spirit High School in nearby Absecon.He briefly attended the United States Naval Academy before transferring to the University of Notre Dame. At the  University of Notre Dame he received a B.A. degree in history and computer applications. He obtained his J.D. degree from Widener University Commonwealth Law School in 1994 followed by an LL.M. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center in 2002. Career
After graduation from law school, McGahn worked in campaign finance law at the Washington, D.C. office of law firm Patton Boggs.From 1999 to 2008, <mask> was chief counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC). George W. Bush nominated <mask> as a Republican-selected member of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2008. He was confirmed on June 24, 2008 by the United States Senate and was sworn in shortly thereafter. He is credited as having played a crucial role in loosening regulations on campaign spending. According to documentary footage in the 2018 film Dark Money, <mask>'s brief period as incoming chair of the Commission ushered in a newly partisan rigor to the FEC whereby he and his two fellow Republican members, also new, formed an unprecedented lockstep voting bloc preventing any and all enforcement of FEC regulations. <mask> resigned from the FEC in September 2013. After leaving the FEC, <mask> returned to the law firm Patton Boggs.In 2014 he moved to the law firm of Jones Day in Washington, D.C. He also worked for the Koch affiliated Freedom Partners. <mask> brought five Jones Day lawyers with him to the White House, and six more were appointed to senior posts in the Trump Administration. Jones Day has represented Alfa-Bank and done work for businesses belonging to a long list of Russian oligarchs, including Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, and Alexander Mashkevich. Trump 2016 campaign
<mask> served as <mask>'s campaign counsel during his 2016 campaign for president. McGahn managed all litigation involving <mask>'s 2016 Presidential campaign. Early in 2016, he stopped efforts to keep Trump off of the Republican primary ballot in New Hampshire by going to court and winning to ensure ballot access in a key primary state.Several weeks before the election, lawsuits were filed in four battleground states alleging voter intimidation and seeking to enjoin the Trump campaign from having observers at polling locations. <mask> successfully managed and won these litigations. Trump presidency
Shortly after Trump was elected, he named <mask> General Counsel of the Presidential Transition Team. On November 25, 2016, <mask> was named White House Counsel for the President-elect's new administration. Since Jones Day has also represented the Trump campaign in its dealings with Robert Mueller, <mask> secured an ethics waiver that allows him to talk to his old firm when its clients have business before the U.S. government. <mask> personally recommended Trump nominate Neil Gorsuch to replace Antonin Scalia and Brett Kavanaugh to replace Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch's first official interview with Trump staff was on January 5, 2017 when <mask> met with him in Trump Tower.Trump and <mask> met with him on January 14, 2017. <mask> called Gorsuch on January 27, 2017 to tell him that he had been selected as the nominee. Gorsuch was sworn in on Monday April 10, 2017. <mask> also recommended the nomination of Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. Acosta was sworn in on April 28, 2017. <mask> assembled a team of lawyers to oversee filling all judicial vacancies. Guided by <mask>'s team, President Trump had already appointed ten appellate judges by November 11, 2017, the most that early in a presidency since Richard Nixon.According to The New York Times, <mask> conveyed instructions from President Trump to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, requesting Sessions not to recuse himself from overseeing investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. <mask> was unaware that Sessions had already consulted with career attorneys at the Department of Justice. When Sessions informed him he had already decided to recuse himself, <mask> ceased further discussion of the topic. In response to this, Walter Shaub, former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics, said McGahn had "done much to undermine anticorruption mechanisms in this country." Shaub said, "It is a crime for a federal employee to participate in a particular matter in which he has a financial interest." In January 2018 The New York Times reported that in June 2017, the president asked <mask> to instruct top Justice Department officials to dismiss special counsel Robert Mueller, and that <mask> refused, instead threatening to resign. The New York Times reported on August 18, 2018 that <mask> had been cooperating extensively with the Special Counsel investigation for several months and that he and his lawyer had become concerned that Trump "had decided to let Mr. <mask> take the fall for decisions that could be construed as obstruction of justice, like the Comey firing, by telling the special counsel that he was only following shoddy legal advice from Mr.McGahn." On August 29, 2018, President Trump announced "<mask> will be leaving his position in the fall, shortly after the confirmation (hopefully) of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court. I have worked with <mask> for a long time and truly appreciate his service!" <mask> formally departed the Trump administration on October 17, 2018. In November 2018 it was reported that in spring 2018, Trump told <mask> that he wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. <mask> told Trump that he had no authority to order a prosecution and that while he could request an investigation, that too could prompt accusations of abuse of power. <mask> had White House lawyers write a memo to Trump warning that if he asked law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could face possible impeachment.<mask> returned to Jones Day in March 2019 as the head of the firm's Government Regulation Practice. According to Mueller's final report, <mask> complained to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus that Trump was trying to get him to "do crazy shit." The president responded that <mask> was a "lying bastard." On May 7, 2019, the White House instructed <mask> not to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Judiciary Committee, instructing the Committee to redirect its records requests related to Mueller's investigation to the White House; <mask> is the most cited witness in the Mueller Report. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referenced the action as an obstruction of justice, stating during an event  at Cornell University, "Trump is goading us to impeach him[.]" A week later, it was reported that Trump's lawyers believed that <mask> told Mueller he did not believe Trump obstructed the investigation and ordered him not to provide any documents he had to the Judiciary Committee. On May 21, 2019, <mask> defied a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, at the direction of his former client.On August 7, the House filed a lawsuit with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in an effort to challenge this precedent-setting move. Congressional subpoena

On November 25, 2019, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson ruled that <mask>, who the Trump administration ordered not to cooperate with the investigation, must cooperate with the investigation and comply with a House of Representatives subpoena to testify. The Justice Department requested a stay pending an appeal of the ruling, but on December 2, Jackson rejected the request, calling the DOJ's assertion that the House Judiciary Committee would not be harmed by a stay "disingenuous." Jackson wrote, "DOJ's argument here that any further delay will not be harmful to the Judiciary Committee because, in essence, DOJ has already harmed the Committee's interests by successfully delaying its access to other materials strikes this Court as an unacceptable mischaracterization of the injury at issue." On February 28, 2020, a divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed that judgment and ordered the House's lawsuit dismissed. Circuit Judge Thomas B. Griffith, joined by Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, determined that the separation of powers under the United States Constitution does not allow Congress to use the Courts to force Executive officials to testify. Judge Henderson wrote a concurrence in which she argued the House simply did not have standing to sue in this instance.Judge Judith W. Rogers wrote a dissent. On appeal from the House, on March 13, 2020, the full Court agreed to reconsider the case. On August 7, the full Court ruled that the House of Representatives could sue to enforce the subpoena, but then, on August 31, the court ruled that the House had never been legally empowered by Congress to sue to enforce subpoenas. Personal life
<mask> is married to <mask>, a lobbyist and former Counselor to Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. They have two sons. He is a Roman Catholic. <mask> has played guitar for more than 20 years and studied at Berklee College of Music.He plays lead guitar for an act called Scott's New Band. See also
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections

References

Further reading

 Paperback title: The greatest show on Earth : The deals, the downfall, the reinvention

External links

 Trump Needs a Strong Lawyer: White House Counsel <mask> has been conspicuously absent from Bloomberg Businessweek

  Address and Q&A at Oxford Union, April 2019

|-

|-

1968 births
Living people
20th-century American lawyers
21st-century American lawyers
Federalist Society members
Georgetown University Law Center alumni
Holy Spirit High School (New Jersey) alumni
Jones Day alumni
Members of the Federal Election Commission
New Jersey lawyers
New Jersey Republicans
People from Atlantic City, New Jersey
Trump administration personnel
United States Naval Academy alumni
University of Notre Dame alumni
Widener University alumni
White House Counsels
Catholics from New Jersey
Widener University Commonwealth Law School alumni
George W. Bush administration personnel
Obama administration personnel

masks:
Donald Francis McGahn
Donald Trump
McGahn
Don McGahn
Donald F
McGahn
Joseph McGahn
Donald Trump
Patrick McGahn
Don McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
Donald Trump
Donald Trump
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
Don
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
Don McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
McGahn
Shannon McGahn
McGahn
McGahn


texts:
<mask> (born June 10, 1937 in New York City) is an American avant-garde playwright and the founder of the Ontological-Hysteric Theater. Achievements and awards
<mask> has written, directed and designed over fifty of his own plays, both in New York City and abroad. He has received three Obie Awards for Best Play of the Year, and received four other Obies for directing and for sustained achievement. <mask> has received the annual Literature Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a "Lifetime Achievement in the Theater" award from the National Endowment for the Arts, the PEN American Center Master American Dramatist Award, a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 2004 was elected an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters of France. Archive
<mask>'s archives and work materials have been acquired by the Fales Library at New York University (NYU). Early life and education
<mask> was born in New York City, but spent many of his formative years in Scarsdale, New York. At Scarsdale High School (SHS), from which he graduated in 1955, <mask> was heavily involved in the theater department.Two years after Arthur Miller’s original production premiered on Broadway, <mask> produced and directed The Crucible at Scarsdale High School. A 2018 documentary produced by the Lower East Side Biography Project outlined <mask>'s early motivations for pursuing work in the theater. The documentary maintains that <mask> suffered from extreme shyness as a child. The documentary also reveals that <mask> was adopted — a fact he did not discover until he was in his 30s. The name given to him by his birth mother was Edward L. Friedman. <mask> admits that his adoption might have contributed his feelings of being uncomfortable in his body and in the world. He says, "...my parents were very supportive, but nevertheless, I didn't feel that close to them in certain ways."<mask> went on to study at Brown University (B.A. 1959), and received an MFA in Playwriting from Yale School of Drama in 1962. As an undergraduate, he was instrumental in the formation of Production Workshop, Brown University's student theatre group, while taking part in other student theatre, including set-designing Brownbrokers' 1958 production of Down to Earth. In 1993, Brown presented him with an honorary doctorate. At Yale, <mask> studied under John Gassner, the drama critic and former literary manager at The Theatre Guild. Career

Early career and artistic influences
<mask> moved to New York City directly after graduating from Yale School of Drama and worked as a manager of apartment complexes. Before finding his footing as a theater practitioner, <mask> became an avid patron of New York's downtown experimental theater and film scene.<mask> described feeling "overwhelmed" upon seeing The Living Theatre's productions of The Connection and The Brig. Foreman also attended screenings of avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas at The Living Theatre. Mekas' early cinematic work had a profound impact on <mask>. In The Lower East Side Biography Project documentary, <mask> states, "those [films] really got to me. I thought this is the most poetic, beautiful, creative art that I've seen Americans producing." <mask> claims that, for a long time, he was too shy to introduce himself to Judith Malina and Julian Beck (the founders of The Living Theatre) or to Jonas Mekas, but fascinated by Mekas' work, <mask> and his wife, Amy Manheim, began following Mekas as he filmed various projects in New York. <mask> finally inserted himself into the avant-garde scene when police interrupted a screening and seized a copy of the 1963 film, Flaming Creatures, and charged Jonas Mekas, Ken Jacobs, and Florence Karpf for violating New York's obscenity laws.<mask> called Mekas, offering his help, and over the following years, <mask> and Mekas became close friends and collaborators. Through his connection to Jonas Mekas, <mask> became acquainted with architect and artist, George Maciunas. <mask> began working for Mekas and Maciunas, overseeing their movie theater, Film-Maker's Cinematheque at 80 Wooster Street. <mask> also became heavily involved in the development of Maciunas' Fluxhouse Cooperatives, which consisted of converted SoHo lofts designed to be living and working spaces for artists. During the 1960s, <mask> also got to know theater director Robert Wilson, filmmaker and actor Jack Smith, and theater director and scholar <mask>, all of whom encouraged <mask> to start producing his own work. With Schechner, <mask> formed a theater collective in 1968 called "A Bunch of Experimental Theaters of New York Inc," which included seven theater companies: Mabou Mines, The Manhattan Project, Meredith Monk/The House, The Performance Group, The Ridiculous Theatrical Company, Section Ten, and Foreman's company, Ontological-Hysteric Theatre. From this point on, <mask> began producing works under the moniker "Ontological-Hysteric."Influence of Gertrude Stein
A number of scholars have called attention to the parallels between the theories of Gertrude Stein and <mask>'s theatrical aesthetics. <mask> himself has spoken about the significance of her writings to his work. In 1969, <mask> declared, "Gertrude Stein obviously was doing all kinds of things we haven't event caught up to yet." Kate Davy analyzes Stein's influence on <mask> in her article, <mask>'s Ontological-Hysteric Theatre: The Influence of Gertrude Stein. The primary connection between the works of Stein and <mask>, she proposes, is the writers' conception of consciousness in writing. Stein preferred "entity writing" over "identity writing." According to Stein's model, "entity writing" is "the 'thing-in-itself' detached from time and association, while identity is the 'thing-in-relation,' time-bound, clinging in association.""Entity writing" is free from any notion of remembering, relationships, or narratives, and it expresses what Stein called the "continuous present." Stein's method of writing is meditative practice that requires the writer's "deliberate detachment of oneself from the external world while documenting one's own consciousness in the act of writing." Therefore, this type of writing is said to reflect the workings of the writer's mind in its presentation. Stein adopted this theory of the "continuous present" to her work as a playwright. She abandoned the theatrical conventions of narrative structure in favor of a theatrical experience that focuses on the real-time consciousness—one in which "the spectator can move 'out' of the composition, or stop, at any moment without creating syncopated emotional time." <mask>'s theatrical experiences invoke Stein's theories in that they both abandon narrative, focusing on the here-and-now, and they seem to include <mask>'s "process of making the play" in the presentation of the play. In his essay, "How I Write My (Self: Plays)," <mask> explains his process of taking text to performance: "The writing tending towards a more receptive, open, passive receiving of 'what wants to be written' and the staging tending towards more active organization of the 'arrived' elements of the writing -- finding ways to make the writing inhabit a constructed environment."Davy notes that like Stein, <mask> tends to avoid "'emotional traps' or the intentional manipulation of an audiences emotional responses by eliminating the 'lifelike' qualities of drama (clearly developing situation involving imaginary people in imaginary places), thereby creating a world into which the spectator has great difficulty projecting himself." Davy gives the example of <mask>'s characters often referring to themselves in the third person, which creates an alienating effect for the audience member who cannot project themself into the experience of the character. Through <mask>'s alienating characterization, the audience is made to look at <mask>'s actors as "self-enclosed units," or theatrical props, rather than characters. Therefore, <mask>'s aesthetics demand that the spectator not escape into the play, but become conscious of their own process of interpretation. In <mask>'s essay, "14 Things I Tell Myself," he elaborates, "Our art then = a learning how to look at 'A' and 'B' and see not them but a relation that cannot be 'seen.' You can't look at 'it' (that relation) because it IS the looking itself. That's where he looking (you) is, doing the looking."Davy points out that "by eliminating internal punctuation in long complicated sentences," Stein's writing produces a similar effect for her readers who have to actively take part in discerning Stein's words. Ontological-Hysteric Theatre
The Ontological-Hysteric Theater (OHT) was founded by <mask> in 1968. The core of the company's annual programming is <mask>'s theater pieces. <mask> mounted his first production with Ontological-Hysteric Theatre in 1968 at the Film-Maker's Cinematheque on Wooster Street, where he worked under the Fluxus leader George Maciunas. Ontological-Hysteric Theatre balances a primitive and minimal art style with extremely complex and theatrical themes. OHT's first productions, Angelface (1968) and Ida-Eyed (1969), received almost no critical attention. By the mid 1970s, however, OHT gained traction with relatively popular works such as Sophia = (Wisdom) Part 3: The Cliffs (1972).Critical

masks:
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Schechner
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Foreman
Richard Foreman
Foreman