NEW: We found out who secretly bankrolls the National Prayer Breakfast, keeping the purportedly nonpartisan, ecumenical event in the black every year:

Franklin Graham.

tyt.com/stories/2ilAKs…
Every year, a source told me, Graham funnels $100,000 to the Fellowship Foundation, the legal entity of The Family, which stages the breakfast...

...through his two nonprofits, Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Past tax filings reveal traces.
Both the BGEA and Samaritan's Purse are openly anti-LGBTQ.

Last month, an LGBTQ group warned congressional Democrats about participating in prayer breakfasts, which an EU parliamentary report found to be part of a right-wing networking strategy.
The Family's Democratic defend the breakfast as a time for reconciliation...

...but internal docs we obtained show that reconciliation rarely happens with advocates who favor LGBTQ or abortion rights... because they're not invited.

tyt.com/stories/7K5fbf…
Instead, Democrats have told us they didn't know their names were used to invite anti-LGBTQ leaders to the 2016 and 2018 breakfasts...

...and a source close to The Family says virtually no one in Congress who lends their names to the event has a clue who's being invited.
Graham himself has used Democratic participation in the breakfast to make a case that Christian politicians are better for America.

Here he is talking to Fox specifically about the prayer breakfast.
Trump's first year in office, the BGEA cited @RepJuanVargas' participation to make the case that the breakfast is above politics...

...and then went on to praise Trump's breakfast speech for defending religious liberty (aka, allowing anti-LGBTQ discrimination).
While Democrats help boost Graham's claim that the breakfast is above politics, Graham uses the event as a political weapon against Democrats who participate in it.

Obama was too critical.
Biden not religious enough.
You can check out all the stories in our current series on The Family -- based on internal docs we obtained -- here:

tyt.com/stories/franch…
Glad to see Twitter having a sense of humor about all this...

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More from @jtlarsen

6 Sep
In case you missed it, a quick recap of our exclusive story:

The Secret Origin of Mike Lindell: How the secretive group behind the National Prayer Breakfast radicalized TV's pillow pitchman.

tyt.com/stories/5v3O8b…
As Lindell says, he went from apolitical, casual Christian...

...to leading Christian nationalist...

...after a series of otherwise-inexplicable events convinced him God had a plan for him.

Here's what really happened.
Then, in 2014, Mike Lindell met a missionary for Jesus, a man named...

...Stephen Baldwin.
Read 25 tweets
3 Sep
NEW: Earlier this year, @TYTInvestigates obtained unprecedented internal documents from The Family, the secretive religious group behind the National Prayer Breakfast (NPB).

The docs ID scores of people working with and for The Family around the world.

tyt.com/stories/7K5fbf…
We’ve been analyzing the info for months and today are launching a series on what we’re finding.

We’ve been told Congress runs the NPB, a bipartisan, ecumenical event.

None of that is true.

The Family runs it, and uses it for their own ends.
Family allies from other countries get to invite guests.

Those allies use the event to bolster movements and allies – sometimes theocratic/anti-LGBTQ – back home.

(Local media boost these allies by saying Congress or POTUS invited them.)
Read 26 tweets
19 May
NEW: The Supreme Court on Monday decided to consider the constitutionality of a Mississippi ban on abortions after 15 weeks.

Documents show that some of America's biggest corporations helped make it happen.

New story from me:
tyt.com/stories/7r32Ih…
In 2018, @PeteMont reported that the right-wing had a plan to get abortion to SCOTUS: Get states to ban abortions after 15 weeks, baiting lawsuits.

Mississippi soon obliged. There was just one hitch...the state hadn't elected a GOP atty. gen. since 1878.

rightwingwatch.org/post/adf-plans…
In 2019, Republican Lynn Fitch announced her campaign for atty. general.

She specifically promised to defend the state's laws...which included the new 15-week abortion ban.

mississippitoday.org/2019/01/14/lyn…
Read 10 tweets
4 Mar
While Democrats are fighting to raise the minimum wage to $15/hour, @Sen_JoeManchin says he opposes it.

But he won't say whether he has a vested interest in doing so.

Turns out, he has a stake in at least one company that pays less than $15/hour.

tyt.com/stories/4vZLCH…
Legal documents allege Manchin has a financial stake in at least two WV companies that pay less than $15/hour and would have to pay their workers more if Manchin (and @SenatorSynema) signed off.

Neither company appears in Manchin's ethics filing:

beta.documentcloud.org/documents/2049…
One of the companies is a La Quinta, reportedly owned by Emerald Coast Realty... which is partially held by AA Properties, which Manchin DOES disclose owning on his ethics filing.
Read 11 tweets
21 Jan
Pete Buttigieg testifies today on his nomination to run the Dept. of Transportation.

I spent almost a year covering Buttigieg. He refused to speak with me, so I’m going to thread some of the things senators could ask him about today.
In 2011, Jiha’d Vasquez, 16, was found dead, hanged, on a utility tower.

In 2012, Buttigieg became mayor and Jiha’d’s mother asked him for help with the case. Common Council records show Buttigieg was at the meetings where she spoke about her son.
Jones and a local NAACP official wanted help because her son’s death had been ruled a suicide…with no autopsy and no investigation.

Items were missing from his backpack.
Read 37 tweets
20 Jan
For the law and order party, a thread on the Dept. of Justice guidelines for who should be considered for clemency.

Enough time is supposed to elapse between serving sentence and clemency for the recipient to have demonstrated good character.

Five years.
FBI is supposed to do a background check to assess a clemency petitioner's reputation, involvement in the community and charitable activities.
Presidents are supposed to consider how granting clemency to those in power or who breached the public trust may undermine and erode the rule of law and deterrent effect.

They're supposed to consider the impact on law enforcement and the general public.
Read 5 tweets

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