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Recent Examples of whipping boyAs head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci has become a standard whipping boy for conservatives pushing back against anti-pandemic restrictions, but few politicians have placed him at the center of their outreach to their political base like DeSantis.—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2021 Still, having his excoriating assessments collected between hard covers makes for a powerful indictment, the more so because Boehner’s book vividly captures the growing horror of a bartender’s kid who evolved from a reflexive Democrat to a Reagan Republican to a tea party whipping boy.—Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2021 The weaponization subcommittee’s foremost target will be the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which during Trump’s presidency became a whipping boy for the right, contradicting the GOP’s claim to champion law and order.—Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 21 Feb. 2023 Jamie, the lawyer, is the resident whipping boy, the black sheep whose ambitions surpass his mettle.—Lauren Michele Jackson, The New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2023 See All Example Sentences for whipping boy
Since its inception in 2011, the CFPB said its enforcement actions in 42 cases involving harm to service members and veterans have delivered $183 million in redress to victims.
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Melissa Chan,
NBC News,
20 Feb. 2025
Scott spent the money, almost $470,000, at casinos, personal expenses or payments to other victims to keep the scheme afloat, prosecutors said.
The Jacksonville Jaguars sacked Super Bowl-winning coach Doug Pederson on Monday in the NFL’s dark annual ritual of finding fall guys after the regular season came to an end Sunday night.
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David K. Li,
NBC News,
6 Jan. 2025
Watching England as a non-white person can come with the fear that with many of the national team’s historic defeats comes a fall guy.
In our opinion, Chief Crowley is being made a scapegoat, and she is being terminated for telling the truth.
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Mark Joseph,
Newsweek,
22 Feb. 2025
The Old Testament story of the scapegoat—a goat burdened by human sins and exiled into the wilderness in order to purify the community—inspired Hepburn Ferrer’s latest body of work.
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