Eleanor Holmes Norton Scammed at Home”

She was scammed in her home by people who said they were part of a cleaning crew. The Suspects charged almost $4,400 to her credit card for work. They did not perform well. That was either a messy house or she's a good tipper. Eleanor Holmes Norton scammed at home by a group claiming to be a cleaning crew delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton. Let me explain what that means. So Washington, D.C. isn't really a state. So they don't get members of Congress. They elect shadow members of Congress and House and Senate. So Eleanor Holmes Norton has been there forever. I remember when I worked on Capitol Hill. This is going back 35 years. She was there. Frankly, she seemed kind of old back then. Well, she's still there. So she's the longtime non voting representative for D.C. they get to attend the meetings, be there, make speeches, but they can't actually vote in a way that counts. But she is there representing Washington, D.C. in the House, so it's still considered a serious position. She's treated in some ways almost like a member of Congress. Well, recently she was scammed in her home by people who said they were part of a cleaning crew. Her office told News 4 the suspects charged almost $4,400 to her credit card for work. They did not perform well. That was either a messy house or she's a good tipper. So the police looked into this, and in the police report, they described Norton, who's 88 years old, as having the early stages of dementia and said Norton as a caretaker with the power of attorney. Norton's office pushed back against that claim, saying the medical diagnosis included in the police report was based on an assumption the reporting officer was unqualified. To make. More about that in a moment. Norton's staff says she believed the workers were arranged by her house manager and gave them her credit card. When the fraud was discovered, her friend and campaign treasurer, Jacqueline Pelt, called police and canceled the card. Police are treating the case as felony fraud. Norton, who's held her seat since 1991, says she's safe and plans to continue serving. Now, some added facts here. Roughly one third of Americans age 88 and older live with Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer's system. What's the real message here? Okay, come on Democrats and come on Republicans at some point get some new blood. It's time to step down. It's time to retire. Eleanor holmes Norton is 88 years old. She's like a year and a half away from being in her 10th decade of hitting 90 it's time to retire. When almost every other person that age has Alzheimer's, it's really rolling the dice, which, if it's just for you, no big deal. But it's all the constituents who have to be worried, too. Look, we saw it with Biden. We're seeing it with Trump now. Maybe it's time as a society, we say, okay, you can't vote until you're 18. You can't serve in office if you're over 70. Let's dig a little bit deeper here. I have no problem with Eleanor Holmes Norton as far as how she votes. It's just a question of, is she all there? Is she being taken advantage of? And this really is a bipartisan problem, because when you're in Congress or you're in a position of high power, if you're a president or a leader or a prime minister, you have so many people around you where they're loyal to you. In many cases, they love you, they care about you. Plus, all of these feelings are intermingled with their own careers, their own self interest. If the person retires or quits, they're unemployed, they're out of a job. I mean, I. Well, remember back in the day in Washington where you had Strom thurmond, who was 100 years old, who did not seem to know what century he lived in. His staff had to whisper to him, hey, pull this lever to vote. And I mean, the stuff he got away with. He was notorious for going into the elevators for senators, going up to other senators, groping them. Senator Boxer from California had to be groped by this guy. He's 100 years old. This was before the MeToo movement, but, wow, he just stayed on too long. Because all the lobbyists want a reliable vote. The campaign funders want continued return on their investments from previous campaigns. All the campaign staff wants to keep their job. And was there a part of this that propped up Biden for too long? Okay, sure. One thing about their staff putting out this message saying, well, the police officer was not qualified to officially diagnose Eleanor Holmes Norton as having dementia. They're true. That's accurate. Police officers are not trained psychologists or psychiatrist or medical doctor, but a lot of police officers have a lot of experience knocking on doors of people who are 80 years old plus 90 years old, and they know it when they see. In the same way, I would argue, any American who watched the political debate last year because between Donald Trump and Joe Biden quickly came to the conclusion this was a bipartisan thing. I'm not saying anything shocking or partisan. Any American, even those who didn't have Ph degrees in psychology or weren't psychiatrists, came to the conclusion Joe Biden ain't all there. And it appears to me that this shadow member of Congress who's 88 years old, is in a similar place. She ain't all there. And I realize I'm not making a clinical diagnosis, I'm not saying she should be institutionalized, but at some point it's time to give other people a chance. If you still have something to say, Congresswoman Norton, as she's sometimes called, do a podcast, do a YouTube channel, do TikTok if you've got so much to say and so many things you want to weigh in on. Because here's the thing, there are sort of natural term limits for commentators. If all of a sudden I can't string together two words and I turn the camera on, I just drool into the microphone. Well, pretty soon I, I will be retired whether I want to or not, because no one will watch anymore. Unfortunately, there's no automatic mechanism to do that for members of Congress, for governors, although so many states have term limits for governors and we do technically have term limits for presidents of the United States. We'll see if that is respected next time. Okay, message to both parties. Be a real party, use some of your influence. If we have to get a bunch of people, I won't just say men, let's, let's get men and women in a smoke filled room, even though maybe it's just aromatherapy to chomp on pretend cigars or rubber or bubblegum cigars and sit around and say, hey, Norton's too, Walker's too old. Let's get another candidate. If that's what it takes, then use some party political leadership and politely tell people, you've got to retire. You got to make room for new blood. You had a good run. 30, 40 years. Case of Joe Biden half a century. It's a good run. It's time to let someone else.