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Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney (right) talks about her new book, "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," with NPR's Laila Fadel Friday during her interview for Morning Edition.
NPR
Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney (right) talks about her new book, "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," with NPR's Laila Fadel Friday during her interview for Morning Edition.
NPR
Republican Liz Cheney has made no secret of her criticism of former president Donald Trump. It's what made her an outcast in her own party and cost her her job in Congress last year.
The former Wyoming representative was one of just ten Republicans to back his second impeachment in 2021. She became the top Republican on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, for which she explicitly blamed Trump.
Cheney's vocal and sustained criticism of the former president led to her losing her leadership role as the No. 3 House Republican and, eventually, her primary campaign for reelection.
Now, with Trump leading the polls in the 2024 Republican primary, Cheney is ramping up her efforts to keep him out of the Oval Office. She tells NPR's Morning Edition she hasn't ruled out her own presidential run in 2024 for that reason.
"I look at it very much through the lens of stopping Donald Trump," she said. "And so whatever it will take to do that is very much my focus. I think the danger is that great that that needs to be everybody's top priority."
NPR
toggle caption
Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney talks about her new book, "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," with NPR's Laila Fadel Friday during her interview for Morning Edition.
NPR
Former Republican Representative Liz Cheney talks about her new book, "Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning," with NPR's Laila Fadel Friday during her interview for Morning Edition.
NPR
This week Cheney releases Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning, a no-holds-barred accounting from inside the Republican party of the days before and after Jan. 6, Trump's efforts to remain in office after losing the 2020 election and her often-lonely role in trying to thwart them.
Cheney name-checks members of GOP leadership too, including former and current House speakers Kevin McCarthy and Mike Johnson.
Cheney tells Morning Edition's Leila Fadel that the dangers she describes in the book are ongoing, from Trump's defiance of the institutions meant to check him, to the Republican politicians who she says put their own career ambitions ahead of their duty to the Constitution.
"People really, I think, need to understand and recognize the specifics, the details of what he tried to do in terms of overturning the election and seizing power and the details and the specifics of the elected officials who helped him," she said. "I do think it's very important for people to understand how close we came to a far greater constitutional crisis — and how quickly and easily — in a way that is, frankly, terrifying."
Cheney does credit a handful of brave Republicans in state and federal offices from stopping "the worst of what could have happened." But she says many of those people won't be there the next time around. The stakes for the country, she adds, "couldn't be higher."
"All of these things that we know Donald Trump and those who enabled him did before, they will do again," she said. "And people who are willing to abide by that, including Republicans in Congress, can't be trusted with power. And that's something that voters need to have at the forefront of their minds when they go into the voting booth in 2024."
This story will be updated. | US Political Corruption |
The White House issued veto threats Monday for HR 4821 and HR 4820, House Republicans' appropriations bills for the Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and their related agencies.
President Joe Biden's Office of Management and Budget argued that the packages violate the spending agreement brokered by the president and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) over the summer and criticized Republicans for seeking to additionally strip past appropriations for programs included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
OMB said that Biden will strike them down should Congress pass either bill.
"House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead are wasting time with partisan bills that cut domestic spending to levels well below the FRA agreement and endanger critical services for the American people," the White House wrote. "These levels would result in deep cuts to clean energy programs and other programs that work to combat climate change, essential nutrition services, law enforcement, consumer safety, education, and healthcare."
The administration additionally claimed that the cuts to domestic funding will jeopardize reproductive and LGBT rights, endanger marriage equality, block the president's climate and clean energy initiatives, and generally hinder the administration "from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion."
"The Administration stands ready to engage with both chambers of the Congress in a bipartisan appropriations process to enact responsible spending bills that fully fund Federal agencies in a timely manner," the White House closed.
Congress has until Nov. 17 to pass spending legislation, or approve another temporary funding package, in order to avoid a government shutdown.
Biden met with newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in late October at the White House to discuss both the appropriations process and his supplemental funding requests for Israel and Ukraine.
Johnson said Sunday that avoiding a shutdown was his "first priority" and would support another stopgap bill should Republicans fail to agree on top-line appropriations numbers ahead of the Nov. 17 deadline. | US Federal Policies |
The second 2024 Republican primary debate provided political fireworks as candidates not named Donald Trump sought the money and support they need to sustain their campaigns through the fall and winter.
Underneath the harsh lights and decommissioned Air Force One in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, the eight participating candidates — Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), former U.N. Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) — competed for airtime to make their case why they should be the party's alternative to Trump.
Here are the Washington Examiner's winners and losers:
WINNERS
Ron DeSantis
DeSantis took his place behind the podium for the second debate facing the greatest expectations — and pressure. The Florida governor, who earlier in the evening celebrated his 14th wedding anniversary, was largely ignored during his first outing, his campaign contending that was him staying above the fray. But he inserted himself more into the discussion Wednesday, trying to strike a balance between assertiveness and likeability, a dynamic that has caused him issues throughout his bid.
"Where is Joe Biden? He is completely missing in action from leadership. And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action," he said. "He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt."
DeSantis also sought to distinguish himself on foreign policy regarding China and the southern border, perceived as a weakness considering his gubernatorial experience. He additionally had a solid moment talking about Florida's education positions, though he was criticized over Ukraine and energy.
But Trump remains a problem for DeSantis, according to Republican strategist and founding partner of GOP lobbying firm Navigators Global, Cesar Conda.
"Despite shots early on from DeSantis and Christie, no one has laid a glove on Trump," he told the Washington Examiner. "He’ll still be leading in the pools by 40-50 percentage points over the other Republicans. Nikki Haley is by far the best communicator. DeSantis is having a strong performance."
Tim Scott
Scott's happy warrior political persona and slower speaking cadence is an imperfect fit for debates where candidates are incentivized to criticize one another and are up against a clock to do it. The South Carolina senator was asked the first question of the night, one about the economy and the UAW strike, scrutinizing Biden for visiting the picket line and not the border.
Scott later singled out Ramaswamy for saying during the first debate he was "the only person on the stage who isn’t bought and paid for," alleging he was "in business" with the Chinese Community Party and the same people who funded Hunter Biden.
"This is a debate between you and you," the senator said amid cross-talk as other candidates also attacked him.
“Thank you for speaking while I’m interrupting,” Ramaswamy mistakenly responded during the chaos.
Scott additionally had a moment discussing slavery before clashing with Haley, his South Carolina compatriot.
Chris Christie
Christie's campaign is premised on the primary debates, though he would prefer to go head-to-head with Trump. Although the former governor was booed during the first debate, the former New Jersey governor was advantaged by a friendlier audience curated by the Reagan Foundation and Institute. He was the first to urge Trump to debate and criticized the former president's border policies.
“Donald Trump hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us," the governor said. "He put $7 trillion on the debt; he should be in this room to answer those questions.”
"Donald, I know you're watching. You can't help yourself," he added later. "You're afraid of being on this stage and defending your record ... You keep doing that, nobody up here's gonna keep calling you Donald Trump, we're gonna call you Donald Duck."
But Christie also made a questionable comment about Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden: “When you have the president of the United States sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you could take the stranglehold away.”
Nikki Haley
Haley, who donned a red suit dress on Wednesday, surprised many pundits with her good showing during the first debate, and she managed to notch in a similar performance during the second.
"Honestly, every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say," she told Ramaswamy during an exchange about China and TikTok.
Haley also had a moment criticizing DeSantis's energy record in Florida concerning fracking.
LOSERS
Vivek Ramaswamy
Ramaswamy was at the center of the first debate, the target for personal and policy criticism, as he was during the second. But with the shock and awe of the fast-talking, millennial biotechnology entrepreneur dissipating, his positions were more exposed. He used his time to reintroduce himself to the public, saying, "I don't know it all," yet later adding, "transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder."
"The other GOP candidates really don’t like Vivek," Conda, the Republican strategist, said. "They all have taken shots at him — many of them landing — especially Haley. His 15 minutes of fame is over."
Mike Pence
Pence's commanding presence during the first debate was a surprise. The candidate who most identifies with Reagan drew an early contrast with Scott, saying Biden did "not belong on a picket line, "he belongs on the unemployment line." But that line and another criticizing Ramaswamy for divesting from China in 2018, about the time he "decided to start voting in presidential elections," fell flat.
"My wife isn't a member of the teachers union, but I've got to admit I've been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years," he also said after Christie's comment about the Bidens. "Full disclosure."
Doug Burgum
Despite Burgum-aligned Best of America PAC spending $8 million to promote the North Dakota governor's candidacy, he was a non-entity during the first and second debates, though he did qualify, unlike former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd.
Burgum did insist on commenting on the UAW strike, saying Biden was responsible because he had meddled in private markets with electric vehicle subsidies. He also interjected himself in the childcare conversation with that argument.
“We will get you some questions," Fox News host Dana Perino told him. She later threatened to cutoff the sound to his microphone and redirected an energy question to Haley. | US Federal Elections |
It stands to reason that Democratic members of Congress would not hold Kevin McCarthy in high regard. House Republicans didn’t care for Nancy Pelosi, and House Democrats weren’t fond of Paul Ryan or John Boehner. There’s no great mystery here: House speakers from the majority party tend not to have a lot of support from members of the minority party.
As a matter of routine, day-to-day governance, this tends to be inconsequential. The House tends to operate by majority rule, so speakers don’t often need support from their opponents.
There are, however, occasional exceptions.
As McCarthy’s far-right detractors plotted to take him down, there was considerable attention paid to the divisions within the GOP conference, and for good reason. But as a vote to oust McCarthy by way of a motion to vacate the chair neared, scrutinizing Republicans offered only part of a larger picture — because it was the Democratic minority that would help dictate the outcome.
If the California Republican lost a mere handful of his own members — which has long been inevitable — it would fall to Democrats to either keep the gavel in McCarthy’s hands or help take it away.
Or put another way, as McCarthy really needed to understand, he would be dependent on at least some Democratic support. They wouldn’t have to like him, necessarily, but they would have to trust and respect him enough to let him remain in office.
This was evident a couple of days ago, when McCarthy appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” but he nevertheless suggested that the government shutdown that his party nearly created should be blamed on the Democratic minority.
It was a striking moment: With a vote on his speakership poised to happen, Congress’ top Republican, knowing he’d need Democratic backing, thought it’d be a good idea to take a bizarre shot at his Democratic colleagues that was badly at odds with reality.
As today’s drama unfolded, several Democrats referenced this “Face the Nation” interview, explaining that the GOP leader’s dishonesty served as a timely reminder that McCarthy was simply not an honest broker.
This is not to say that McCarthy would’ve been fine had he shown greater restraint on Sunday. On the contrary, McCarthy had 10 months to demonstrate to Democrats that he was a serious and honorable leader, even if they had substantive disagreements over policy.
We now know that he failed to do so.
The list of partisan transgressions is not short:
- McCarthy struck secret deals with his radical members to gain the gavel. He adopted a package of rules for this Congress designed to empower some of the same far-right members who tried to derail his leadership bid.
- McCarthy unfairly stripped several House Democrats of their committee assignments without cause. He made sensitive security footage available to a far-right media personality as part of a campaign to rewrite the story of the Jan. 6 attack.
- McCarthy orchestrated a debt ceiling standoff, threatening to crash the economy unless his party received some kind of reward. He also abandoned key elements of the debt ceiling agreement he struck as soon as it was politically convenient for him to do so.
- McCarthy pushed a historically rare censure resolution against Rep. Adam Schiff of California because the California Democrat told inconvenient truths the GOP didn't want to hear. He launched an evidence-free impeachment inquiry that’s impossible to take seriously, while also opening the door to impeaching members of the White House cabinet after having said that he wouldn’t.
- McCarthy needlessly politicized the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). He endorsed a ludicrous effort to “expunge” Donald Trump’s impeachment.
If McCarthy was going to get any support from Democrats, it was likely to come from members of the New Democrat Coalition, which is made up of more moderate members from competitive districts. And yet, when Rep. Annie Kuster, the chair of the contingent, announced her position ahead of the vote, the New Hampshire Democrat said in a statement, “You are only as good as your word — and time and again, Speaker McCarthy has proven that he is not a man of his word. He is simply not trustworthy.”
McCarthy sealed his fate, not today by failing to make credible offers, and not Sunday with a dishonest interview, but incrementally over the course of the year. There were steps he could’ve taken to prevent this outcome, but he spent months prioritizing the whims of the same members who helped push him aside, burning bridges with the Democrats who could’ve rescued him. | US Congress |
Wall Street is bracing for the likelihood of lengthy government shutdown — with one prominent analyst placing the odds at 90% that Republicans and Democrats won’t reach a deal before Saturday’s deadline.
Goldman Sachs’ chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a Wednesday note obtained by The Post: “A government shutdown this year has looked likely for several months, and we now think the odds have risen to 90%.”
Hatzius, who heads the bank’s global investment research, predicted the shutdown would likely last two to three weeks
“If the government shuts down on Oct. 1, a quick reopening looks unlikely as political positions become more deeply entrenched,” Hatzius warned in his note, “as neither side seems likely to make immediate concessions.”
Congress must pass legislation to keep funding the government that Democratic President Joe Biden can sign into law by midnight Saturday to avoid furloughs of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and a halt to a wide range of services.
A rebel group of House Republicans have rejected spending levels for fiscal year 2024 set in a deal Speaker Kevin McCarthy negotiated with Biden in May.
“Political pressure to reopen the government is likely to gradually build,” Hatzius wrote. “In particular, pay dates for active-duty military (Oct. 13 and Nov. 1) could be potential pressure points, as well as possible deterioration in ‘essential” operations like airport screening and border patrol as workers go unpaid.
A government shutdown, which would be the fourth in the last decade, would keep uniformed members of the military and law enforcement on the job, but their paychecks would be paused.
In addition, Department of Education and Commerce Department workers, as well as other federal staffers deemed nonessential would be furloughed.
Millions of other Americans could also be affected as the shutdown puts federal benefits like Section 8 housing vouchers, veterans benefits and disability compensation at risk.
Federal workers would receive back pay for any missed paychecks once a deal is reached thanks to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was enacted following the last government shutdown from 2018 to 2019, which lasted 34 days.
The looming shutdown and the ongoing strike by auto workers have dimmed the outlook for the rest of 2023.
“With federal government spending at almost 7% of US GDP, a shutdown will slow down GDP growth,” said Philip Marey, senior strategist at Rabobank.
Roughly 70% of small business owners said their company would be negatively affected by a government shutdown, according to a survey of 1,500-plus small business owners published by Goldman Sachs on Monday.
Of those owners, 93% believe their revenue would take a hit in some way while 67% fear they’ll lose consumer demand due to economic uncertainty, according to Goldman Sachs.
Even if a temporary deal is reached, Hatzius hinted that another government shutdown could occur before the year’s end.
“Any agreement to reopen the government after the likely shutdown is likely to expire before year-end, potentially risking another funding lapse,” he said.
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) endorsed a bipartisan temporary spending patch, known in Washington parlance as a continuing resolution or CR, in an effort to prevent a shutdown.
The Senate voted 77-19 to clear a procedural hurdle to advance the measure — which would keep the government’s lights on until Nov. 17 and allow for time to negotiate a longer-term appropriations package.
However, some Republicans objected to allotting a little over $6 billion in both military and economic support for Ukraine, plus $6 billion for domestic disaster relief.
“That thing is dead over here,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told reporters about the Senate deal. “You have $6.2 billion for Ukraine, they do nothing to secure our Southern border — that is just a nonstarter.”
“The Senate wants to send MORE money to Ukraine. We do not. Here’s a compromise: The House will agree to send Ukraine the gold bars and cash foreigners used to bribe Sen. [Bob] Menendez,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) posted on social media Wednesday. | US Federal Policies |
Special counsel Jack Smith, in a motion filed this week, asked a federal judge to order Donald Trump to provide formal notice of whether he intends to employ advice of counsel as a defense ahead of trial in his federal election interference case, signaling it's time for the former president "to put up or shut up," according to University of Michigan law professor Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney. Smith explains in the motion that Trump and his lawyers have “repeatedly and publicly” stated an intent to use that defense and argues that the Dec. 18 exhibit list deadline should also be when Trump's legal team declares their trial plan.
In an analysis for MSNBC, McQuade asserts the importance of Smith's request because Trump's suggested defense would trigger a waiver of attorney-client privilege for him and require him to produce all documents connected to the advice. Using advice of counsel — also known as an affirmative defense — in this case would allow Trump to say he committed the alleged election fraud but assert his innocence on the grounds that he was only acting in good faith on the advice of lawyers. If successful, Smith's motion would force the former president to decide whether he will use that defense at trial or protect every document and communication sent between him and Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Rudy Giuliani and his other attorneys.
"Disclosure of those materials between Trump and his lawyers could be explosive because they may not only debunk the advice of counsel defense, but could contain other admissions that Smith could use at trial," McQuade writes, adding later, "Regardless of whether Smith’s motion succeeds, at some point Trump will have to decide whether asserting what may be a flimsy defense is worth sharing his trove of secrets." | US Federal Elections |
Wisconsin Republicans once more felled by a common foe: The mail
“The message to our voters needs to change,” said a veteran GOP operative.
Republicans lost big in Wisconsin. But their downfall came well before Tuesday.
Liberal Milwaukee County judge Janet Protasiewicz crushed former conservative state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly. The race wasn’t particularly close. Protasiewicz won by 11 points, or over 200,000 votes.
One reason she won: She had a big head start on votes before polls even opened on Tuesday.
At least 435,000 people voted early, either by mail or in-person. Democratic Party officials estimated ahead of the election that Protasiewicz banked at least a 100,000 vote advantage from that bucket of voters.
“Democrats are playing a totally different game than Republicans are,” said Rebecca Kleefisch, a Republican who has served as Scott Walker’s lieutenant governor and lost a gubernatorial primary last year.
Democrats have embraced a big mail and absentee voting strategy in the past few cycles, but Republicans have been skeptical — in part because of loud criticism of the practice from former President Donald Trump. But it comes at a cost. Republicans are increasingly finding themselves in the hole before Election Day even arrives.
“We need to do what is legal, the same way Democrats are doing what is legal,” Kleefisch said. “Republicans sometimes cling to strategies that are not embracing all of the new opportunities that have been afforded.”
The lack of mail strategy creates a huge financial and get-out-the-vote disadvantage for Republicans — and after Tuesday’s blowout, some in the party are renewing calls for that to change.
“You can’t be down several hundred thousand votes and think that you’re going to make it up in 13 hours on Election Day. I mean, that’s just not a math equation that works for our side,” said state Republican Party executive director Mark Jefferson.
Perhaps ironically, Wisconsin is a state where the conservative apparatus has been among the most proactive about trying to get voters to vote early. Jefferson was paraphrasing party chair Brian Schimming, who has been practically begging Republicans to vote early in the run-up to the election.
The more reliable Republicans who vote early, they say, the more it frees the party up to contact lower propensity voters for Election Day.
Jefferson argued that the party made progress this cycle. But, he noted, “I don’t think anyone was under the impression that we were going to change the culture on early voting in one election cycle.”
“We’ve had some struggles on our side in the past because a lot of our folks have a philosophical problem with early voting,” he added.
It isn’t the first time Republicans have grappled with this conundrum: Shortly after Trump’s loss, operatives and media pundits declared that the GOP’s unilateral disarmament with early and mail voting was a mistake.
But, operatives say, that is not something that will simply change over night. It requires a consistent drumbeat from party leaders to get Republican voters to do it.
“I think Chairman Schimming has done a really good job on that, letting people know it’s okay,” said Bill McCoshen, a longtime Republican lobbyist and operative in Wisconsin. “There is a method to the madness: We [need to be] banking as many votes early as we can so that we can focus on those traditional voters who haven’t voted by Election Day, who become the focus over the final weekend.”
But that only goes so far with Trump. The indicted former president has raged against mail voting for years — falsely saying it is a source of significant fraud that benefits Democrats — and has regularly called for most voting to happen in-person on Election Day.
His campaign has tried to sing a different tune lately, but in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity late last month, Trump said “I never changed anything, what I did is say ‘mail-in ballots are automatically corrupt,’” and that he would want “same day voting ideally.” After some gentle coaching from Hannity, Trump eventually allowed that Republicans “will have no choice” but to accept those voting methods.
That puts Trump at odds with Republicans who believe the party needs to speak with one voice on the issue.
“Some groups have pushed [early voting], Trump even says that in some capacity — some days, other days he doesn’t,” said Matt Batzel, the Wisconsin-based national executive director of American Majority Action, a conservative group that had a ballot chase program in Wisconsin for this election. “That just has to change, otherwise we’ll continue to get whooped like last night.”
Batzel noted, however, a general resistance from some voters and party operatives that is tough to overcome. “Culturally, and tactically, we’re stuck in the 90s,” he said.
Democrats crowed about their successful program following Protasiewicz’s win on Tuesday, crediting their robust early vote program as one of their keys to success.
“The Democratic early vote machine really started in the spring Supreme Court race of 2020, when Covid hit,” state Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler said. (Kelly was also a candidate in that contest, losing with a similarly lopsided margin.)
That change in 2020 necessitated a whole new approach for how the party reached out to voters, Wikler said. A major investment for the party then was helping would-be early voters navigate the sometimes-complicated ballot request system for the first time. But that pays dividends for the party now, with a sizable number of those voters now sticking with early voting.
“By the time we get to Election Day, we’re focused on the people that we know haven’t voted yet, which in effect multiplies the size of our volunteer operation,” Wikler said. “Because if you take the same number of volunteers focused on a smaller number of voters, you get more knocks on the doors and more calls to people’s phones.”
Some Republicans also believe that they are missing out on independent, persuadable voters. By the time they are contacted by the conservative apparatus, they may have already made plans to cast an early vote for a Democrat.
“There’s still a large number of independents that are voting absentee,” Batzel said. “And we don’t want to just cede independents to the other side because we’re just not having the conversations about voting soon enough.”
And if Republicans don’t eventually embrace it, it will only hurt the party in the long term.
“The message to our voters needs to change,” said Jesse Hunt, a veteran GOP operative who has served in senior roles at the RGA, NRSC and NRCC.
Madison Fernandez contributed to this report. | US Local Elections |
By Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press Congressional Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved $14.5 billion in military aid Thursday for Israel, a muscular U.S. response to the war with Hamas but also a partisan approach by new Speaker Mike Johnson that poses a direct challenge to Democrats and President Joe Biden.
In a departure from norms, Johnson’s package required that the emergency aid be offset with cuts in government spending elsewhere. That tack established the new House GOP’s conservative leadership, but it also turned what would typically be a bipartisan vote into one dividing Democrats and Republicans. Biden has said he would veto the bill, which was approved on a largely party-line vote.
Johnson, R-La., said the Republican package would provide Israel with the assistance needed to defend itself, free hostages held by Hamas and eradicate the Palestinian terrorist group, accomplishing “all of this while we also work to ensure responsible spending and reduce the size of the federal government.” Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.
Democrats said that approach would only delay help for Israel. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has warned that the “stunningly unserious” bill has no chances in the Senate.
The first substantial legislative effort in Congress to support Israel in the war falls far short of Biden’s request for nearly $106 billion that would also back Ukraine as it fights Russia, along with U.S. efforts to counter China and address security at the border with Mexico.
It is also Johnson’s first big test as House speaker as the Republican majority tries to get back to work after the month of turmoil since ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., as speaker. Johnson has said he will turn next to aid for Ukraine along with U.S. border security, preferring to address Biden’s requests separately as GOP lawmakers increasingly oppose aiding Kyiv.
The White House’s veto warning said Johnson’s approach “fails to meet the urgency of the moment” and would set a dangerous precedent by requiring emergency funds to come from cuts elsewhere.
While the amount for Israel in the House bill is similar to what Biden sought, the White House said the Republican plan’s failure to include humanitarian assistance for Gaza is a “grave mistake” as the crisis deepens.
Biden on Wednesday called for a pause in the war to allow for relief efforts.
“This bill would break with the normal, bipartisan approach to providing emergency national security assistance,” the White House wrote in its statement of administration policy on the legislation. It said the GOP stance “would have devastating implications for our safety and alliances in the years ahead.”
It was unclear before voting Thursday how many Democrats would join with Republicans. The White House had been directly appealing to lawmakers, particularly calling Jewish Democrats, urging them to reject the bill.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and other senior White House staff have been engaging House Democrats, said a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to discuss it.
But the vote was difficult for some lawmakers who want to support Israel and may have trouble explaining the trade-off to constituents, especially as the large AIPAC lobby and other groups encouraged passage.
To pay for the bill, House Republicans have attached provisions that would cut billions from the IRS that Democrats approved last year and Biden signed into law as a way to go after tax cheats. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says doing that would end up costing the federal government a net $12 billion because of lost revenue from tax collections.
Republicans scoffed at that assessment, but the independent budget office is historically seen as a trusted referee.
As the floor debate got underway, Democrats pleaded for Republicans to restore the humanitarian aid Biden requested and decried the politicization of typically widely bipartisan Israel support.
“Republicans are leveraging the excruciating pain of an international crisis to help rich people who cheat on their taxes and big corporations who regularly dodge their taxes,” said Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee.
Rep. Dan Goldman of New York described hiding in a stairwell with his wife and children while visiting Israel as rockets fired in what he called the most horrific attack on Jews since the Holocaust.
Nevertheless, Goldman said he opposed the Republican-led bill as “shameful effort” to turn the situation in Israel and the Jewish people into a political weapon.
“Support for Israel may be a political game for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle,” the Democrat said. “But this is personal for us Jews and it is existential for the one Jewish nation in the world that is a safe haven from the rising tide of antisemitism around the globe.”
The Republicans have been attacking Democrats who raise questions about Israel’s war tactics as antisemitic. The House tried to censure the only Palestinian-American lawmaker in Congress, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., over remarks she made. The censure measure failed.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., said he was “so thankful there is no humanitarian aid,” which he argued could fall into the hands of Hamas.
In the Democratic-controlled Senate, Schumer made clear that the House bill would be rejected.
“The Senate will not take up the House GOP’s deeply flawed proposal, and instead we’ll work on our own bipartisan emergency aid package” that includes money for Israel and Ukraine, as well as humanitarian assistance for Gaza and efforts to confront China.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is balancing the need to support his GOP allies in the House, while also fighting to keep the aid package more in line with Biden’s broader request, believing all the issues are linked and demand U.S. attention.
McConnell said the aid for Ukraine was “not charity” but was necessary to bolster a Western ally against Russia.
In other action Thursday, the House was scheduled to vote on a Republican-led resolution that focused on college campus activism over the Israel-Hamas war. The nonbinding resolution would condemn support of Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education.
Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri, Mary Clare Jalonick and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report. | US Congress |
The Republican nominees for Speaker of the US House have developed the political lifespan of mayflies.
Tom Emmer barely had time to bask in his five-round secret-ballot victory for the speaker's gavel on Tuesday before it all came crashing down.
Setting the charges and pushing the plunger was a familiar Republican demolitionist, Donald Trump.
Just yesterday, the former president had pledged to stay out of the Republican speaker's race. Within minutes of Mr Emmer's coronation as speaker-designate, however, he dropped a scathing post on his social media website.
He called the third-ranking House Republican "out of touch" with voters and a Republican-in-name-only "globalist" whose selection as speaker would be a "tragic mistake".
Mr Trump's endorsement may not have been able to help Jim Jordan win the speakership last week, but his anti-endorsement still packs a punch.
Within the hour, hard-core conservatives - including Marjorie Taylor Greene and the usual cast of right-wing firebrands - were pledging to block Mr Emmer if his nomination reached a vote on the floor of the House.
It's a phenomenon Republicans, both in Washington and across the US, know all too well. And it is one of the main reasons the party continues to tread lightly around the former president, even if behind closed doors (and in secret ballots for House speaker) they have their doubts.
And so the Republican cycle of anger and retribution continues.
Kevin McCarthy was ousted from the speakership after 10 months by a handful of right-wing rebels. The first pick to replace him, Steve Scalise, was blocked by an even larger number of conservative true-believers. Mr Jordan, who followed, was torpedoed by centrists and institutionalists, many frustrated by Mr Scalise's treatment.
Mr Emmer was undone by the same group that sank Mr Scalise. Next man up could be Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who finished second behind Emmer and is the pick of the hard-core right.
Whether the Republicans who blocked Mr Jordan and backed Mr Emmer will return the favour to Mr Johnson remains to be seen. He isn't as well-known or as inflammatory as Mr Jordan, who made plenty of enemies in the House of Representatives, but revenge can be a powerful motivating factor.
And the tradition that leadership elections are definitive, that the majority pick of Republicans is then supported by the entire party, has been so shredded that it could be fired from a confetti cannon.
All it takes is a handful of Republican dissenters, along with all the House Democrats, to prevent the next speaker-designate from winning the gavel and keeping the House of Representatives in this legislative purgatory.
For the moment, the American public seems blissfully uninterested in this very inside-Washington drama, giving Republicans more time to figure a way off the merry-go-round of political futility. But without a resolution, a government shutdown in mid-November is all but guaranteed.
And that is when voters might take note - and start assigning blame. | US Congress |
MARION, Kansas -- Even without the computers, cellphones and other office equipment taken in a police raid, the new edition of the Marion County Record made it to newsstands Wednesday after a frenzied scramble by the Kansas weekly newspaper's small staff.
“SEIZED … but not silenced,” read the front-page headline in 2-inch-tall typeface.
Police raids on Friday of the newspaper's offices, and the home of editor and publisher Eric Meyer put the paper and the local police at the center of a national debate about press freedom, with watchdog groups condemning the police actions. The attention continued Wednesday — with TV and print reporters joining the conversation in what is normally a quiet community of about 1,900 residents.
The raids — which the publisher believes were carried out because the newspaper was investigating the police chief’s background — put Meyer and his staff in a difficult position. Because they're computers were seized, they were forced to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials. Meyer also blamed stress from the raid at his home on the death Saturday of his 98-year-old mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.
As the newspaper staff worked late into Tuesday night on the new edition, the office was so hectic that Kansas Press Association Executive Director Emily Bradbury was at once answering phones and ordering in meals for staffers.
Bradbury said the journalists and those involved in the business of the newspaper used a couple of old computers that police didn’t confiscate, taking turns to get stories to the printer, to assemble ads and to check email. With electronics scarce, staffers made do with what they had.
“There were literally index cards going back and forth,” said Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper’s attorney, who was also in the office. “They had all the classified ads, all the legal notices that they had to recreate. All of those were on the computers.”
At one point, a couple visiting from Arizona stopped at the front desk to buy a subscription, just to show their support, Bradbury said. Many others from around the country have purchased subscriptions since the raids; An office manager told Bradbury that she’s having a hard time keeping up with demand.
The raids exposed a divide over local politics and how the Record covers Marion, which sits about 150 miles (241 kilometers) southwest of Kansas City.
A warrant signed by a magistrate Friday about two hours before the raid said that local police sought to gather evidence of potential identity theft and other computer crimes stemming from a conflict between the newspaper and a local restaurant owner, Kari Newell.
Newell accused the newspaper of violating her privacy and illegally obtaining personal information about her as it checked her state driving record online. Meyer said the newspaper was looking into a tip — and ultimately decided not to write a story about Newell.
Still, Meyer said police seized a computer tower and cellphone belonging to a reporter who wasn’t part of the effort to check on the business owner’s background.
Rhodes said the newspaper was investigating the circumstances around Police Chief Gideon Cody’s departure from his previous job as an officer in Kansas City, Missouri. Cody left the Kansas City department earlier this year and began the job in Marion in June. He has not responded to interview requests.
Asked if the newspaper’s investigation of Cody may have had anything to do with the decision to raid it, Rhodes responded: “I think it is a remarkable coincidence if it didn’t."
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri.
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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna | US Police Misconduct |
The 10-day cyberattack that crippled MGM Resorts’ operations is reportedly set to cost the hospitality behemoth more than $100 million, according to a regulatory filing Thursday.
Despite the hefty financial losses that resulted from the breach — where MGM’s 12 casino floors along the Las Vegas strip went dark, hotel reservations were interrupted and workers dished out hundreds worth of free food and beverage vouchers — MGM refused to pay hackers’ ransom demands, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
The hackers were able to obtain names, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth and driver’s license numbers of customers who did business with MGM before March 2019, according to a letter sent to customers by CEO Bill Hornbuckle on Thursday that was obtained by The Journal.
Hornbuckle added that some guests’ social security and passport numbers were also compromised.
He also assured MGM customers that the hackers did not steal any bank account or credit card numbers because of how quickly the company reacted to the breach, though it’s unclear when MGM first moved to protect its systems, or how the hackers invaded its systems.
“We regret this outcome and sincerely apologize to those impacted. Your trust is paramount to us,” Hornbuckle said, per The Journal.
MGM’s decision not to pay ransom to end the cyberattack was guided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which doesn’t support coughing up requested payments from hackers, insiders told The Journal.
The FBI’s website warns that agreeing to pay ransom still doesn’t guarantee that a company will recover all of its data, and even encourages hackers to target other deep-pocketed companies.
Still, Caesars Entertainment reportedly paid roughly $15 million in an attempt to placate hackers responsible for its own systems breach last month when they threatened to leak sensitive customer data.
The Las Vegas casino giant’s payout was approximately half of the $30 million that the hackers had demanded, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Caesars did not identify the culprits behind the cyberattack, and has said that its operations weren’t impacted.
However, digital security watchdogs have since identified hackers known in the industry as Scattered Spider, Muddled Libra and UNC3944 as the culprits behind the Caesars and MGM cyberattacks.
MGM, meanwhile, experienced a tidal wave of service interruptions that are set to have a nine-figure financial impact on adjusted property earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and rent for its resorts across the nation — 12 of which are on the Las Vegas Strip alone.
Aside from slot machines going dark, MGM-operated hotels were also reportedly experiencing elevator outages, some guests’ hotel room keys stopped working, hotel phones were out of order and MGM’s company website crashed.
The cost of remedial technology consulting, legal and advisory services was less than $10 million, according to The Journal.
Aside from financial losses, occupancy rates took a hit at MGM in September, down 88% last month as the hospitality behemoth reeled from the cyberattack, and down 93% from last September, per the news site.
MGM reportedly has enough cybersecurity insurance to cover the financial losses, and told The Journal that the overall impact of the snafu wouldn’t hurt MGM’s full-year performance too much.
Representatives for MGM did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Donald Trump’s chances of being convicted in the federal 2020 election subversion case may have increased after his top election lawyer took a plea deal in the 2020 election case in Fulton county and admitted to a felony that the effort to create fake slates of electors was fraudulent.
The immediate consequence of Kenneth Chesebro’s plea deal is that he could incriminate the former president in Georgia, given one of his plea conditions involved testifying truthfully against other defendants.
But Chesebro could also separately incriminate Trump in the federal criminal case in Washington, should the special counsel Jack Smith use his new admission as evidence that Trump conspired to defraud the United States in trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell also took a plea deal last week, underscoring the remarkable run of victories for the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, who has separately defeated repeated efforts from multiple Trump allies to transfer their criminal cases to federal court.
But while Powell’s plea agreement was particularly notable, in large part due to her personal notoriety and her infamous pitch to Trump at an explosive White House meeting to have the military seize voting machines, the development with Chesebro could be more legally significant.
The fake electors scheme ultimately became the central part of the strategy pursued by Trump and his allies to stop or delay the January 6 congressional certification of the election results.
Trump’s eventual plan involved trying to use the existence of the fake electors to pressure his vice-president, Mike Pence, to declare at the certification that the election results in battleground states that Trump actually lost remained in doubt, and could therefore not be counted.
At issue for Trump is that Chesebro’s plea deal in Fulton county required him to admit guilt to count 15 in the indictment – that Trump and Chesebro and others violated the law in filing the fake electors certificate – and thereby affirm that the fake electors were indeed fraudulent.
The plea deal also required Chesebro to tape a statement for Fulton county prosecutors, evidence that appears to have been sufficiently helpful in proving their cases against the other co-defendants that he was granted an arrangement where he faced no jail term.
The fact that Chesebro gave a statement means that if it were to be shared with the special counsel, federal prosecutors in Washington could use that to bolster their conspiracy to defraud case against Trump now, regardless of if and when Chesebro takes the stand in Georgia.
In the 45-page federal 2020 election indictment, the conspiracy to defraud the United States was described as the use of dishonesty, fraud and deceit to impair the counting and certification of the election results.
The admission from Chesebro that the slates, which are being alleged as the vehicle used to commit the conspiracy, were fraudulent could bolster the charge that Trump and his allies fundamentally did use deceit to stop Congress from certifying the election results.
After Chesebro took the plea deal, Trump’s lead lawyer told reporters that his “truthful testimony” would help the former president. “It appears to me that the guilty plea to count 15 of the Fulton county indictment was the result of pressure by Fani Willis and her team and the prosecution’s looming threat of prison time,” Steve Sadow said.
The lawyer for Chesebro also downplayed his admission. “While Mr Chesebro did take responsibility for conspiracy to commit filing false documents, I want to make something clear: he did not implicate anyone else. He implicated himself in that particular charge,” Scott Grubman said in an interview on MSNBC.
But the reality for Chesebro is that he might have little option but to become a cooperating witness against Trump in the federal case. Chesebro was identified as unindicted co-conspirator five in the federal indictment, and prosecutors could pressure him with charges because of his guilty plea.
It remains unclear how Chesebro’s plea is being viewed by the special counsel, and even if he were subpoenaed to testify in Washington, Chesebro could assert his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.
But the statement Chesebro gave to Fulton county as part of his plea agreement, as well as any testimony he delivered in forthcoming trials against the other remaining defendants in Georgia, would be fair game for special counsel prosecutors. | US Political Corruption |
WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump will give his first broadcast network interview since leaving office, sitting down this week with Kristen Welker as she debuts as host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
The network said in a release that the interview will be pre-taped at Trump’s Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club Thursday and that the same invitation had been extended to President Joe Biden. Trump last appeared on the show in 2019.
The former president has largely steered clear of mainstream media interviews during his third campaign for the White House. Instead, he frequently calls in to conservative podcasts, radio shows and far-right cable outlets, and shares his thoughts in posts and videos on his Truth Social site.
The interview comes as Trump remains the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination, even after being indicted four times on a slew of charges, including many connected to his efforts to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump will also be appearing Thursday on former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s SiriusXM show. The interview, taped Wednesday in New Jersey, will be her first with him since the 2016 campaign. Trump and Kelly memorably clashed during a 2015 Republican primary debate, when Kelly pressed him on his history of derogatory comments about women.
Welker is set to debut as host of “Meet the Press” this Sunday, taking over from Chuck Todd.
Trump has previously praised Welker’s performance moderating the second presidential debate between him and Biden in 2020. | US Federal Elections |
A man was in custody after gunfire burst out at a protest of a controversial statue in Española, New Mexico, on Thursday, according to video of the shooting.
The shooting happened after an altercation outside the Rio Arriba County Clerk’s Office, where a statue of Juan de Oñate was supposed to have been rededicated, NBC affiliate KOB of Albuquerque reported. A suspect was arrested, state police said.
A Rio Arriba County sheriff’s representative identified the suspect as Ryan Martinez, 23.
One person was taken to the hospital and was stable, the sheriff's office said. The extent of the person's injuries was not clear.
The rededication was postponed indefinitely in the interest of public safety, the sheriff said, but some people gathered outside Thursday morning anyway.
A motive has not been identified, and no charges have been filed.
Witnesses told KOB that the conflict before the shooting involved a counterprotester's charging at some of the people who had gathered to celebrate the postponement of the rededication of Oñate’s statue.
The shooter was described as a young man in his 20s wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat and a teal shirt, according to KOB. The sheriff's office was not able to confirm whether Martinez wore such a hat at the time of the shooting.
The Rio Arriba statue was removed in 2020 from another location in the county, according to The Albuquerque Journal. One person was shot at a protest over an Oñate statue in Albuquerque's Old Town in 2020 as protesters and counterprotesters clashed over whether it should be removed, the Journal reported.
Oñate was the first European conquistador to colonize New Mexico, and many in the state have called for his statues to be taken down over the violent history of colonialism, NPR reported three years ago. | Civil Rights Activism |
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote Tuesday on a plan to avert a partial government shutdown on Saturday but at the same time push off contentious debates over spending priorities until early 2024.
Current funding for all government agencies expires at midnight on Friday, forcing Congress and the White House to reach a short-term deal to keep the government running.
The House is voting on a proposal by new Speaker Mike Johnson, leader of the narrow Republican majority in the chamber, that extends funding for some government agencies through mid-January and others until early February.
By those two dates, Congress will have to debate and decide on spending levels throughout the government through next September, or again approve another short-term deal.
If the House passes Johnson’s proposal, the Senate is likely to also approve it and send it to President Joe Biden for his signature.
Johnson has drawn the ire of a right-wing faction of his Republican colleagues because his budget plan does not include the spending cuts or policy changes they seek. Several of the archconservatives have said they will vote against Johnson’s plan, forcing him to look for opposition Democratic votes to assure its passage.
It was just such a scenario in late September when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy angered the right-wing bloc by winning Democratic votes to push through a seven-week spending plan that expires Friday at midnight. Days after that political fight, eight right-wing Republicans joined the unanimous Democratic caucus in ousting McCarthy from his speakership, a first in U.S. history.
There is no sign that Johnson faces a similar fate, since he is a stalwart conservative himself, and his like-minded colleagues appear, for the moment, to be giving him leeway in reaching a deal to keep the government open.
Johnson said his “laddered” funding expiration dates in early 2024 are intended to avoid a Washington tradition: passage of a massive spending measure just before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, appropriations bills that are so lengthy that few lawmakers have had time to read and digest them as Congress rushes to adjourn for its end-of-year recess.
In the latest dispute, the hard-right Republican faction in the House has demanded spending cuts that more moderate Republican lawmakers and the virtually unanimous caucus of House Democrats, along with the Democratic-controlled Senate and Biden, have rejected.
Instead, Johnson’s plan would keep spending levels at the same level as in the fiscal year that ended September 30. Johnson also rejected attempts to include divisive cultural issues favored by some hard-right conservatives but also did not include billions of dollars in new financial assistance Biden sought for Ukraine and Israel as they fight their respective wars against Russia and Hamas militants.
Congress is expected to consider more funding for Ukraine and Israel in separate legislation in the coming weeks.
Without broad new funding for government agencies by midnight Friday, governmental operations that are deemed nonessential, such as camping at national parks, advice to taxpayers and some scientific research, would be halted.
In recent days, credit rating agencies have downgraded the government’s rating because of the continuing budget uncertainty, a move that could lead to higher borrowing costs for the United States, where the national debt is now approaching $34 trillion. | US Congress |
Former President Donald Trump’s lead is too big, barring “an act of God,” for any of the remaining GOP presidential candidates to have a shot at the Republican Party’s nomination, according to the Washington Examiner’s Sarah Bedford.
While appearing on Cavuto: Coast to Coast, Bedford was asked whether an endorsement, such as Bob Vander Plaats’s of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) on Wednesday, would “move the needle” away from Trump in polling.
“In a typical race where you have candidates at this stage in the primary separated by 4, 5, 6 points, yes, this would be a consequential endorsement. Bob Vander Plaats is sort of a legend in Iowa Republican politics. But when you have someone, like Donald Trump, who is 30 points ahead in the Iowa caucus, I don’t think an endorsement moves the needle that much,” Bedford said. “It’s meant to help voters who may be on the fence undecided differentiate between the candidates, but it seems the voters have already done that.”
Bedford was then asked what path candidates, aside from Trump, have to win the GOP nomination.
“An act of God, Trump getting run over — God forbid — Trump being sent to jail somehow with the indictments,” she said. “I don’t think at this point there is much to do to change the dynamics of the race.”
Bedford suggested the GOP primary race will see candidates dropping once the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are held early in 2024. | US Federal Elections |
EXCLUSIVE: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., is warning that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., may have to "reassert some authority" in Congress after his plan to avoid a government shutdown got a rocky reception from GOP lawmakers.
"You have one opportunity to make a first impression. And while our colleagues in the Senate…want to continue the unbridled spending and the policies that are destroying my constituents’ lives, this is the one opportunity the speaker has to make an impact on that and say, ‘We're just not going to do that,’" Perry told Fox News Digital in an interview on Tuesday morning.
"He could have sent, I think…something that's reasonable that the Senate would not be able to resist, but that's not going to be the case here. And so, I think in that circumstance going forward, he's going to have to somehow reassert some authority that hasn't been asserted now."
Perry is part of the growing Republican opposition to Johnson’s plan, a simple extension of last year’s funding priorities known as a continuing resolution (CR). His "laddered" approach would set two different funding deadlines for Congress’ 12 individual appropriations bills – a Jan. 19 date for four of the less traditionally controversial bills, and Feb. 2 for the others.
The "ladder" was initially championed by members of the Freedom Caucus, but Perry explained, "We were for the ladder approach, but don’t confuse the ladder with the fact that this changes no policy and no spending."
Johnson’s plan is expected to get a vote late on Tuesday afternoon. House leaders are planning to skirt normal procedures to pass the bill under suspension of the rules, meaning it will not need to go through a preliminary procedural vote but, in exchange, will need two-thirds of the House to pass.
"Unfortunately, what that might result in is more Democrat votes than Republican votes," Perry said.
He did not say if such a result would lessen his confidence in Johnson’s leadership, but he suggested the new leader would have ground to make up.
"What I hope it will do is inform the speaker, the rest of the conference, that the approach that we initially offered, that I thought was being considered, that I hoped would be considered, was actually the way to go," Perry said.
"So moving forward, instead of surrendering on first down, we can actually run a couple of plays."
Multiple sources told Fox News Digital that one of the measures in a recent conservative CR proposal was to separate funding for the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security to put added pressure on lawmakers to reckon with those spending priorities specifically.
Current government funding runs until this Friday. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., narrowly avoided a government shutdown on Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2023, by passing a "clean" 45-day CR – a move that ultimately cost him the gavel.
Perry said he did not believe Johnson’s plan would cause him to be ousted like McCarthy was, and that the ex-leader was voted out of the job because of "an accumulation of infractions."
"It's unfortunate that he has been placed in this position at this point in history," Perry said. "Unfortunately, a lot of this is out of his hands and not of his doing, and I think that there's going to be some grace provided because of the circumstances." | US Congress |
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House Democrats are scheduled to hold a press conference after the House of Representatives voted late Tuesday to censure Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — the only Palestinian American in Congress — in an extraordinary rebuke of her rhetoric about the Israel-Hamas war.
The event is expected to start at 10:45 a.m. Watch it live at the player above.
The 234-188 tally came after enough Democrats joined with Republicans to censure Tlaib, a punishment one step below expulsion from the House. The three-term congresswoman has long been a target of criticism for her views on the decades-long conflict in the Middle East.
Republican Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia pushed the measure in response to what he called Tlaib’s promotion of antisemitic rhetoric. He said she has “levied unbelievable falsehoods about our greatest ally, Israel, and the attack on October 7.”
With other Democrats standing by her side, Tlaib defended her stance, saying she “will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words.” She added that her criticism of Israel has always been directed toward its government and its leadership under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It is important to separate people and government,” she said. “The idea that criticizing the government of Israel is antisemitic sets a very dangerous precedent. And it’s been used to silence diverse voices speaking up for human rights across our nation.”
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Nov 07 | US Congress |
Good morning.Donald Trump has formally announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, likely sparking another period of tumult in US politics and especially his own political party.“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump said from ballroom of his private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last night, where he stood on a stage crowded with US flags and make America great again banners.Vowing to defeat Joe Biden in 2024, he declared: “America’s golden age is just ahead.”The long-expected announcement by a twice-impeached president who incited a deadly attack on Congress seems guaranteed to deepen a stark partisan divide that has fueled fears of increased political violence. But it also comes as Trump’s standing in the Republican party has suddenly been put into question. Will Trump’s legal battles stand in the way? Federal and state authorities are investigating his personal, political and financial conduct, and that of his business empire. How any indictment would affect Trump’s run remains unclear – he is experienced in using delaying actions in the courts and in using political or investigatory moves against him as fuel to fire up his base. Just a few months ago it was received wisdom that the Republican nomination was his for the taking. What happened? The star of the former president was already waning among the party faithful before the midterms, as Cas Mudde explores. Poland missile ‘unlikely’ to have been fired from Russia, Biden saysJoe Biden: ‘We agreed to support Poland’s investigation … and they’re going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened.’ Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesJoe Biden has said the missile that landed in Poland, killing two people, was unlikely to have been fired from Russia because of its trajectory.The US president was speaking at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, after convening an emergency meeting of western leaders to discuss the explosion on Nato territory that has the potential to take the war in Ukraine into a even more dangerous dimension.Asked whether the missile was fired from Russia, Biden said: “There is preliminary information that contests that. I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate. But it is unlikely in the minds [sic] of its trajectory that it was fired from Russia.” He added: “But we will see, we will see.”The Polish foreign ministry described the rocket as “Russian-made” missile, a phrase that could include one from S-300 surface-to-air systems in the possession of Ukraine. What might have happened? Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he took Russian denials of involvement in the attack seriously, adding it was likely to be a technical error. Gay Qataris physically abused then recruited as agents, campaigner saysA sign in Qatar on Tuesday advertising the World Cup, which starts on Sunday. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PAGay Qataris have been promised safety from physical torture in exchange for helping the authorities to track down other LGBTQ+ people in the country, a prominent Qatari gay rights campaigner has told the Guardian.Dr Nasser Mohamed, who lives in the US but retains contact with hundreds of gay Qataris, said some secret networks had been compromised after arrests by the Gulf state’s preventive security department.“A lot [of gay Qataris] don’t know about each other,” Mohamed said. “And it’s safer that way because when the law enforcement finds one person, they actively try to find their entire network. But some of the people who were captured and physically abused were then recruited as agents.“Now there are agents in the gay community that were promised safety from physical torture in exchange for working for the preventive security department and helping them find groups of LGBTQ+ people.”Mohamed said foreign gay football fans would not be persecuted while at the World Cup finals in Qatar. However, he warned that local LGBTQ+ supporters faced a very different reality. What has Fifa said in response? The world football governing body said it was committed to inclusivity and that it was “confident that all necessary measures” would be in place for LGBTIQ+ fans “and allies to enjoy the tournament in a welcoming and safe environment, just as for everyone else”. What about Qatar? In a statement, the country’s supreme committee for delivery and legacy promised the World Cup would be free of any discrimination. “The SC is committed to delivering an inclusive and discrimination-free Fifa World Cup experience that is welcoming, safe and accessible to all participants, attendees and communities in Qatar and around the world,” it said. In other news …Guests at the Banana Creek viewing site watch the launch of Nasa’s Artemis I from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photograph: Nasa/Getty Images Two hurricanes, two months and a number of technical fixes since previous launch attempts were thwarted, Nasa’s Artemis 1, the most powerful space rocket in history, is finally on course for the moon after lifting off from Florida early today. More than 1 billion teenagers and young adults may be at risk of hearing loss because of their use of earphones and attendance at loud music venues, a study suggests. An international team of researchers estimate 24% of 12- to 34-year-olds are listening to music at an “unsafe level”. Rishi Sunak has played down the prospect of any US trade deal in the near future, just days after suggesting he was in no rush to complete a deal with India before he had re-examined the package. The prime minister also denied Brexit was playing a role in the UK’s economic downturn. People struggling to grasp why a former University of Virginia football player allegedly shot dead three team members on a bus last Sunday have found few answers, though the suspect’s father has said his son had become “paranoid” as he faced potential school discipline. Harvey Weinstein’s most prominent accuser faced a grueling cross-examination on Tuesday, as Weinstein’s defense attorney hammered her on details, casting doubt on her memory and demanding clarification on the most graphic details of the alleged rape. Stat of the day: Taylor Swift tour tickets listed for as much as $22,000 as Ticketmaster crashesSwift released her latest album, Midnights, in October. She has promised hits from albums spanning her career on the Eras tour. Photograph: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty ImagesMillions of Taylor Swift fans swarmed Live Nation’s Ticketmaster website yesterday to try to score seats for her first tour in five years, causing periodic outages as some tickets were quickly posted for resale for thousands of dollars. The ticket-selling site said in a statement that “historically unprecedented demand” had seen millions of people attempt to buy presale tickets. While presale tickets were initially only open to people selected as “verified fans” – a system set up to deter bots and scalpers – some tickets were already being listed on resale sites such as StubHub for as much as $22,700 each.Don’t miss this: What does $5,000 a month get you? The viral star barging into New York apartments‘Seeing the inside of someone’s home is one of the most intimate things you can ever do.’ Photograph: TikTokCome inside a shoebox studio apartment with a stripper pole in downtown Manhattan that rents for $2,095 (£1,764) a month. Or an $800 housing project unit with hand-painted kitchen walls. What about a luxury $5,000 rental with marble countertops? Curious voyeurs can see them all on Caleb Simpson’s TikTok, and they won’t be alone, writes Alaina Demopoulos. Nearly 6 million people follow his short-form house tours, romps that he bills as “this generation’s MTV Cribs”.… or this: Pakistani trans actor tells of deep sadness over film banAlina Khan, who plays a trans dancer in the Urdu film Joyland. Photograph: Julie Sebadelha/AFP/Getty ImagesThe transgender star of an award-winning Pakistan film that depicts a love affair between a man and a trans women has said she is very sad at the government’s decision to ban the movie and hopes it will be reversed. Alina Khan, who stars in Joyland, the first major Pakistani motion picture to feature a trans actor in a lead role, said: “I’ve been very sad. There’s nothing against Islam and I don’t understand how Islam can get endangered by mere films.” Joyland, which is Pakistan’s contender at the Oscars, was to go on national release on Friday, but was banned after pressure from hardline Islamic groups who called the film “repugnant”.Climate check: Fear of backsliding on Glasgow pledges dominates Cop27Climate protesters in Egypt remind delegates of the 1.5C target but China and India want to emphasise the Paris agreement that had an upper limit of a 2C rise. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty ImagesFear of countries backsliding on their commitments to tackle the climate crisis dominated the Cop27 UN climate talks in Egypt yesterday. Governments are supposed to be building on pledges made last year at Cop26 in Glasgow. These include limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and doubling the amount of financial assistance for poor countries to adapt to the impacts of extreme weather. However, documents and proposals seen by the Guardian, and accounts from negotiating teams, showed some countries attempting to unpick agreements and water down commitments. What else is happening at Cop27? Follow our live coverage here. Last Thing: Virginia McLaurin, who danced with Obamas as centenarian, dies at 113Virginia McLaurin visited White House in 2016 aged 106, and danced with president and first lady in clip that went viral. Photograph: The White House/PAVirginia McLaurin, a woman from Washington DC who was 106 when in 2016 she visited and danced with Barack and Michelle Obama in the White House, has died. She was 113 years old. A family statement said she had died after receiving hospice care for a few days, adding: “She lived an incredibly full life and appreciated all the love she received from people.” When McLaurin visited the Obamas, footage of the joyous encounter quickly went viral. On the White House Facebook page, the video has now been viewed 70m times. When McLaurin started dancing, the then president said: “She’s dancing! Come on! What’s the secret to dancing at 106?”Sign upSign up for the US morning briefingFirst Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.Get in touchIf you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email [email protected] | US Federal Elections |
Last week, as House Republicans struggled mightily to approve spending bills that would prevent a government shutdown, Donald Trump sided with GOP radicals against the party leadership. The radicals noticed: Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida declared online that he and his cohorts must “hold the line” because the former president was on their side.
This week, ahead of Saturday’s shutdown deadline, it’s happening again. NBC News reported:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempts to avoid a government shutdown just became more complicated after former President Donald Trump stepped in to endorse the tactics of far-right House Republicans, who prefer to see a funding lapse than compromise with the Democratic-led Senate and White House.
In a rambling missive published to his social media platform on Sunday night, Trump wrote that the party “lost big” during the debt ceiling fight but can redeem itself by rejecting compromises now. “UNLESS YOU GET EVERYTHING, SHUT IT DOWN!” the former president wrote.
In the same harangue, he added that he’s confident that President Joe Biden “will be blamed” for the shutdown, even if it’s GOP lawmakers who are responsible. (Given his track record on the subject, I'm hard pressed to imagine why anyone would take his strategic advice on the matter seriously.)
As was the case last week, the party’s pro-shutdown contingent is delighted to have the support. Punchbowl News reported, “Several House conservatives are rallying around former President Donald Trump’s repeated calls to oppose a short-term stopgap funding bill as Congress faces a government shutdown deadline in just five days.”
Stepping back, it’s important to emphasize that the partisan lines can get a little blurry, and it’s best not to think of the GOP factions in terms of “good guys” and “bad guys.” McCarthy, for example, would prefer not to see a government shutdown this week — he’s told his conference more than once it would cause new problems for the party — but if he were serious about preventing such a crisis, the House speaker could simply cut a deal with Democrats, keep the government’s lights on, and accept the consequences.
The fact that McCarthy has refused to take such a step, at least so far, makes clear that the California Republican isn’t exactly the hero of this messy tale, valiantly trying to do the right thing while combatting the extremists in his midst.
That said, it’s also fair to say that the House speaker and the former president are pushing in opposite directions: McCarthy doesn’t want a shutdown and has asked his members to accept concessions; Trump is telling those same members to only accept “everything” without regard for the shutdown deadline.
The result is an emboldened group of GOP radicals, who believe the former president — and the frontrunner for the party’s 2024 nomination — is giving them all the cover they need to keep thumbing their noses at the House Republican leadership team.
It’s against this backdrop that the House is expected to begin work today on several individual appropriations bills, each of which have been designed to gain conservative support. If the House GOP majority fails to pass them, it will move the country closer to a government shutdown in four days.
If, however, Republican members succeed in advancing the spending bill, that will also move the country closer to a government shutdown in four days, because the measures will never receive support from the Democratic-led Senate or the White House.
The deadline is Saturday night at midnight. Watch this space. | US Congress |
A convicted rapist on trial for child pornography charges is believed to have fatally shot six people, five of them teenagers, before taking his own life at the rural Oklahoma property where the kids were having a sleepover last weekend, authorities said Wednesday.
All of the victims were shot in the head, said Joe Prentice, chief of the Okmulgee Police Department and spokesman of a violent crime task force overseeing the investigation into the killings outside the small town of Henryetta.
The suspected shooter, Jesse McFadden, 39, also died of a gunshot wound to the head, Prentice said.
Prentice identified the victims as Ivy Webster, 14; Brittany Brewer, 15; Michael Mayo, 15; Tiffany Guess, 13; Rylee Allen, 17; and Holly McFadden, 35.
Holly McFadden’s mother, Janette Mayo, identified her daughter on Tuesday as Holly Guess. She married Jesse McFadden last year, Okmulgee County records show.
Their bodies were found in two groups on the large property where the McFaddens rented a home, Prentice said.
One group that included Ivy, Brittany and Riley was found roughly a quarter mile from the home, he said. The bodies were roughly 100 to 150 yards apart in a scene that Prentice described as "staged." He declined to elaborate.
The other four were found in a heavily wooded part of the land, Prentice said.
A possible motive remained unclear, he said.
"Part of the problem when the community suffers with something like this is everybody wants to understand why," Prentice said. "Normal people can’t understand why. People that perpetrate crimes like this are evil."
Jesse McFadden served nearly 17 years in prison for first-degree rape. In 2017, while behind bars, he was accused of sending sexually explicit photos to a 16-year-old girl and acting in a manner that prosecutors described in court documents as “manipulative and controlling of the victim.”
Jesse McFadden was charged with child pornography and soliciting sexual conduct/communication with a minor. A jury trial in the case was scheduled for Monday, the same day the bodies were found after the parents of Ivy and Brittany reported them missing.
McFadden's lawyer has not responded to requests for comment. Court documents show that McFadden planned to argue that he was in touch not with the 16-year-old, but her friend, who was 21.
The teens' parents have said they didn't know about McFadden's criminal history or that he was a registered sex offender. In interviews, they described the sleepover last weekend as routine and said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
One of the parents, Nathan Brewer, said Jesse McFadden seemed like a "nice, normal person."
Holly McFadden's mother has also said that her daughter didn't know "the truth about Jesse McFadden" and that he "fooled her with his charm."
"Now she and my grand babies are dead," Janette Mayo wrote Wednesday on Facebook. "Stop bashing her." | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
The first Republican presidential debate is fast approaching on August 23rd, where candidates will hope to close the gap on former president Donald Trump and separate from the rest of the pack. In this series, Up For Debate, the Washington Examiner will look at a key issue or policy every day up until debate day, and where key candidates stand. Today's story will examine foreign policy.
Republican presidential hopefuls will assemble for the first presidential primary debate of the 2024 election season just days before the second anniversary of the chaotic and tragic United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, to face a GOP electorate that continues to evolve away from the legacy of the Iraq War but still values Uncle Sam’s status as a global superpower.
Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have demonstrated their belief that geopolitical power is up for grabs. The so-called “new world order” that George H.W. Bush inaugurated after the Cold War — in which peerless American power would ensure “the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle” — has given way to Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s threats toward Taiwan and assertion of sovereignty over vast swathes of international shipping lanes, and simmering risk of nuclear proliferation among rogue states.
Republican presidential candidates must navigate the paradoxes of a GOP voter base convinced that the U.S. needs to project more strength, take on fewer commitments, but uphold traditional alliances and friendships, especially with Israel. Former President Donald Trump threaded that political needle in 2016, but his iconoclastic approach has left room for rivals to appeal to more traditional GOP voters.
“The ‘peace through strength’ crowd ... the shining city on a hill [crowd], that is up for grabs,” a GOP campaign data strategist said. “It won't get you the nomination, but it might get you ten to 12%, which is a substantial number.”
Donald Trump
Trump returns to the presidential debate stage after four White House years marked by intense trade disputes with China and also U.S. allies in Europe, the U.S. withdrawal from Barack Obama's Paris climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and a pair of Gulf Arab states, and an impeachment arising from Rudy Giuliani’s attempt to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accuse Biden of corruption in 2019.
His current campaign reprises those themes. He has proposed to revoke China’s “most favored nation” trade status and impose “universal baseline tariffs” on most imports, even though he also pledges to “build on” the NAFTA free trade update his administration negotiated with Mexico and Canada. He promises to end the war in Ukraine in “one day” by threatening both Zelensky and Putin, and declared Biden a “Manchurian candidate” in light of Hunter Biden’s lucrative foreign business dealings.
“He's a dove, except for he doesn't want America screwed with, and in the case of China, he's been a hawk,” the GOP data strategist said. “He really used his China hawkishness to keep people at bay on his right on the issue of strong national defense — [China] and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis
DeSantis, a second-term governor, brings to the contest a three-term congressional record as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a Bronze Star dating back to his deployment to Iraq in 2007 as a Navy lawyer.
He reflected the nationwide suspicion of China even from Tallahassee, where he signed multiple bills to “counteract the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the state of Florida.” That legislation included a ban on donations or investments in higher and secondary education from based in or “controlled by a foreign country of concern” (a measure galvanized by China’s establishment of Confucius Institutes at schools around the country), a restriction on Chinese government-affiliated farmland purchases, a move to block state and local government use of applications that “present a cybersecurity and data privacy risk.”
DeSantis also urges a revocation of China’s privileged trade status but led a state trade delegation to Israel, Japan, South Korea, and the United Kingdom in April.
DeSantis has struggled to navigate Ukraine-related political pressures. He faulted Obama’s “policy of weakness” for tempting Putin to seize Crimea in 2014 and favored the provision of “defensive and offensive” equipment to Ukraine. He renewed his denunciation of Putin’s aggression in March, days after questioning the geopolitical significance of the “territorial dispute,” and he opposes “escalating with more weapons” to Ukraine.
“People have conflicting, conflicting priorities: Republican voters love killing Russians,” a Republican strategist who works on behalf of a rival candidate told the Washington Examiner. “They hate paying for it. They do not want it to escalate into a broader conflict . . . or any risk to American lives.”
Sen. Tim Scott
He sees a “vital national interest” in Ukraine’s resistance to Russia and argues that Biden has undermined the effectiveness of U.S. aid by "waiting too long to provide too little.” He describes China as “the biggest threat to America's security” and deems the fentanyl crisis an especially pernicious form of that hostility. His proposal to sanction the drug’s Chinese supply chain will pass in this year’s national defense authorization package, along with legislation to require the U.S. universities to disclose “gifts and grants … from entities in the Chinese military-industrial complex,” and he thinks China should not enjoy the privileges of “developing nation” status at the United Nations.
Yet Scott remains skeptical of tariffs — he faulted Trump’s administration in 2018 for restoring tariffs that they’d acknowledged had a “harmful economic impact on these importers and our economy” — and he has a reputation for using his authority as the top Republican on the Banking Committee to weaken legislation that would curtail the U.S.-China economic relationship.
That’s an unfair criticism, his supporters would argue, but Scott, in any case, cautions that “policymakers must think beyond the Washington bubble and ensure that when the government uses its economic security tools, it evaluates the economic impact on communities and small businesses across our country.”
Nikki Haley
Haley, the former South Carolina governor who appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012, herself accepted Trump’s nomination to lead the U.S. mission to the United Nations at the outset of his presidency.
Declaring herself “a new sheriff in town,” she spent two years policing what she deemed “ridiculous” bias against Israel at the UN, adding diplomatic pressure on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal (which Trump exited in 2018). She also campaigned for tighter sanctions on rogue actors — including one flap in which the White House abandoned an internal push to blacklist the Russian backers of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons program after Haley had already announced the punishments.
She argues that “a Russian defeat would be an enormous loss for China – and a true victory for peace.” Her campaign intends to undermine Trump’s credibility as a China hawk by arguing that he had a myopic focus on trade issues.
“Trump did too little about the rest of the Chinese threat,” she said in June. “He did not stop the flow of American technology and investment into the Chinese military. He did not effectively rally our allies against the Chinese threat. Even the trade deal he signed came up short when China predictably failed to live up to its commitments.”
Vivek Ramaswamy
His bid to become the youngest president ever has necessitated a foray into foreign policy. Ramaswamy maintains that the war in Ukraine jeopardizes necessary efforts to prioritize China. The fast-talking businessman offers a simple solution to the war, which he thinks could be achieved by cutting off aid to Ukraine and forcing Zelensky to make "major concessions" to the Kremlin. He believes that in exchange, Putin would give the United States his promise to betray Xi, who joined hands with Putin to demand a “transformation of the global governance architecture and world order” just weeks before the Kremlin chief launched his bid to overthrow Zelensky.
Others
Former Vice President Mike Pence and former Gov. Chris Christie, former Trump allies both, also have criticized his foreign policy. Pence traveled to Kyiv in June, the first GOP candidate to make the trek, and Christie followed in early August. Pence maintains that Trump and DeSantis “just don’t understand Americans’ national interest in supporting the Ukrainian military” and says that a Russian defeat would discourage Chinese Communist aggression. "I don't think we have to choose between solving problems here at home and being the leader of the free world," Pence said in July. Christie has excoriated Trump for the many compliments he has paid Putin and Xi.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, an entrepreneur-turned-politician little known outside his state, visited the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, just days after Scott made a border tour. The trips allow Republican aspirants to attack Biden while implicitly underscoring that "the wall's not done," despite Trump's promises, as the first GOP strategist put it.
"I don't think anybody has cemented themselves as the alternative to Trump on foreign policy just yet,” the data strategist said. | US Federal Elections |
Who Chose The New House Speaker: Republicans Or Trump?
The House GOP is only an embarrassment if you are under the mistaken impression that it’s there to serve the national interest. Emphatically, it is not.
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The chaos of October has brought the House GOP back to where it began: Some guy is once again Speaker of the House. His name is, for now, Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, not that it matters. If Donald Trump tells him to change it, as when Trump ordered Republican Party chairman Ronna Romney McDaniel to drop the “Romney” from her moniker, Mike Johnson will become Speaker Sammy Skeever or Mike Maloney.
Unlike previous Speaker candidates in recent weeks, such as Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, Johnson has gone to the trouble of acquiring some actual policies to inform his cultural reaction. Not that the policies matter, either. No one, least of all Republicans, thinks that the GOP is capable of legislating. If all goes well, the party that has organized itself around Trump’s voluble lies and seething rage will keep the government open and fund whatever the White House and Senate work out. If all doesn’t go well, the House GOP, having recommitted itself to lawlessness and deceit, will precipitate another existential crisis for American democracy.
More than anything, the great GOP Speaker fiasco of 2023 has been a lengthy tribute to the godlike supremacy of the MAGA king. “ MAGA is ascendant,” far right radical Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida told podcaster Steve Bannon. In that, it mirrors the degrading GOP presidential primary, in which candidates run, sort of, for an office that has already been assigned. Trump, after all, has already picked the party’s presidential nominee. He more or less picked the Speaker, too.
When Representative Tom Emmer of Minnesota made a dash for the Speaker’s chalice three weeks into the jungle trek, Trump took a few seconds from a busy day trying to stay out of jail to destroy Emmer’s political life. It was quick, vicious work, like watching a hound seize a gopher and instantly snap its neck. Emmer meekly withdrew.
What ultimately matters is that Trump has an obedient Speaker who supported Trump’s attempted coup after he lost the 2020 election by seven million votes. Johnson, or his replacement if Johnson doesn’t last, must be poised to perform a similar duty if Trump fails again in 2024. Anyone unwilling to overthrow the republic and keep Trump out of jail is a MAGA enemy. They must be purged.
Representative Jim Jordan, the demagogue from Ohio, showed the way even in defeat. With the support of MAGA thugs who threatened holdouts on Jordan’s behalf, Jordan reached 200 votes – more than a dozen shy of what he needed - in the GOP conference before faltering in his own quest for the Speakership. Some claimed the threats backfired. It’s an encouraging story, suggesting the ever-shrinking minority of small “r” republicans in the GOP conference had found a backbone. For some, it was no doubt true. But in a secret vote, with no death threats to focus their minds, GOP House members abandoned Jordan en masse. It seems the threats worked pretty well after all. “ Hang Mike Pence” isn’t just a MAGA slogan; it’s the template for intraparty politicking.
Every Republican action now is shaped by Trumpism and the political desperation and cultural panic that birther-ed it. The entire GOP presidential field flits in and out of Trump’s giant shadow. The new Speaker will have to pledge fealty to the full panoply of Trumpist depravity. As Trump’s legal peril comes increasingly into focus – crimes, already well documented, are now being admitted by various Trump thugs – the job of servicing the MAGA king will grow more complex and demanding.
Under Republican leadership, the House of Representatives has been a reactionary backwater that periodically shuts down in fits of rage. The Speaker’s contest has been another giant step into political degeneracy. Still, the party is not technically dysfunctional. The GOP House is only an embarrassment if you are under the mistaken impression that House Republicans are there to serve the national interest. Emphatically, they are not. They are there to serve the MAGA lord, whose personal goals are dependent on the success of his authoritarian goals. And, truly, by that measure, House Republicans are not doing such a bad job.
More From Bloomberg Opinion:
- At Least Jim Jordan Won't Be House Speaker: Jonathan Bernstein
- The House, Not the Constitution, Made Speaker Mess: Noah Feldman
- House Speaker Chaos Is a Warning Sign for US Politics: Editorial
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | US Congress |
FBI, local authorities offer $80,000 reward for arrest of Texas mass shooting suspect
The FBI Houston office and local authorities in Texas are offering a combined $80,000 reward for the arrest of a mass shooting suspect who allegedly shot and killed five people in a town north of Houston on Friday.
“Like the sheriff has said, we have over 200 law enforcement personnel from federal, state and local agencies trying to bring this subject into custody so we can bring justice to those five victims and to ensure this community is safe,” FBI Houston Special Agent James Smith said at a press conference Sunday.
Smith announced Sunday that the FBI will be offering an additional $25,000 reward for the arrest of Francisco Oropesa, who is the suspect for allegedly killing five people, including an 8 year old, after shooting into his neighbor’s home Friday night. This will bring the total reward to $80,000, as local and state authorities are also offering a reward of $55,000.
“We cannot continue down this path until we get him apprehended and arrested. So again, we’re asking everyone for your help till we can bring this suspect – or this monster I will call him – to justice,” he added.
Authorities have launched a search looking for the suspect with 250 law enforcement officers surveying the area, but Smith said that so far, they still do not know where Oropesa could be. He said that they believe that Oropesa has talked to his friends, and hopes that the reward will bring law enforcement agencies new tips and information.
“I get pretty much can guarantee he’s contacted some of his friends. We just don’t know who friends, what friends they are,” Smith said. “And that’s what we need from the public is any type of information because right now, we’re just running into dead ends.”
The FBI Houston office redacted a previous photo that they said was Oropesa on Sunday, saying in a tweet that a previous image of the suspect was incorrect. The office disseminated new images of Oropesa later on Sunday, including an image of a tattoo on his left forearm.
San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers said at the press conference that officers are going door to door in search of Oropesa to look for tips and ask people in the area questions. He said that they have been in contact with Oropesa’s wife, who he says has been “available” to the police.
“We’re sending them people door to door looking for any kind of a lead, a camera, a ring camera, security camera, anything that they might be able to tell us,” Capers said. “They knew him. They knew he went here, they knew he did this.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Quick Response codes can be very convenient for traveling to websites, downloading apps, and viewing menus at restaurants, which is why they’ve become a vehicle for bad actors to steal credentials, infect mobile devices, and invade corporate systems.
“We are seeing an exponential uptick in targeted attacks against mobile devices, many of them phishing attacks,” observed Kern Smith, VP for Americas pre-sales at Zimperium, a mobile security company headquartered in Dallas.
“A large majority of phishing sites are targeted at mobile devices,” he told TechNewsWorld. “The reason attackers are doing that is they know mobile devices are most susceptible to phishing attacks.”
“QR phishing, or quishing, is a great attack vector for attackers because they can distribute a QR code widely, and a lot of corporate anti-phishing systems aren’t geared to scan QR codes, he said.
Reliaquest, a security automation, cloud security, and risk management company headquartered in Tampa, Fla., noted in a recent report that it saw a 51% rise in quishing attacks in September over the cumulative figure for the previous eight months.
“This spike is at least partially attributable to the increasing prevalence of smartphones having built-in QR code scanners or free scanning apps; users are often scanning codes without even a thought about their legitimacy,” it wrote.
Part of the Phishing Epidemic
Shyava Tripathi, a researcher in the Advanced Research Center of Trellix, maker of an extended detection and response platform in Milpitas, Calif., noted that phishing is responsible for over a third of all attacks and breaches.
“QR-code-based attacks aren’t new, but they’ve become increasingly prevalent in sophisticated campaigns targeting businesses and consumers, with Trellix detecting over 60,000 malicious QR code samples in Q3 alone,” she told TechNewsWorld.
Quishing is currently high on the agenda for many organizations, asserted Steve Jeffrey, lead solutions engineer at Fortra, a global cybersecurity and automation company. “It represents a risk that can bypass existing security controls. Therefore, the protection relies on the recipient fully understanding the threat and not taking the bait,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Clicking on malicious URLs is still one of the top risks for account takeovers, he continued. He cited data from Fortra’s PhishLabs that showed in Q2 2023 that more than three-quarters of credential theft email attacks contained a link pointing victims to malicious websites.
“Quishing is merely an extension of these phishing attacks,” he said. “Instead of a hyperlink to a fraudulent or malicious website, the attacker uses a QR code to deliver the URL. Since most email security systems are not reading the contents of the QR codes, it is difficult to prevent the ingress of these messages, hence the rise in the prevalence of this type of attack.”
Quishing for Credentials
Mike Britton, CISO of Abnormal Security, a global provider of email security services, agreed that quishing is a growing problem. He cited Abnormal data that found that 17% of all attacks that bypass spam and junk filters use QR codes.
He added that his company’s data also shows that credential phishing accounts for about 80% of all QR code-based attacks, with invoice fraud and extortion rounding out the top three attack types.
“Leveraging QR codes is an attractive attack tactic for malicious actors because the resulting destination that the QR code sends the recipient to can be difficult to detect,” Britton told TechNewsWorld.
“Unlike traditional email attacks,” he continued, “there is minimal text content and no obvious malicious URL. This significantly reduces the amount of signals available for traditional security tools to detect and analyze in order to catch an attack.”
“Because they can easily evade both human detection and detection by traditional security tools, QR code attacks tend to work better than more traditional attack types,” he said.
Embedded QR Threats
Randy Pargman, director for threat detection at Proofpoint, an enterprise security company in Sunnyvale, Calif., maintained that the number one reason malicious actors prefer QR codes over regular phishing URLs or attachments is because people who scan QR codes usually do so on their personal phone, which probably isn’t monitored by a security team.
“That makes it challenging for companies to know which employees interacted with phishing messages,” he told TechNewsWorld.
He explained that QR code phishing scams are challenging to detect because the phishing URL isn’t easy to extract and scan from the QR code. Adding to the problem, he continued, is that most benign email signatures contain logos, links to social media outlets embedded within images, and even QR codes pointing to legitimate websites.
“So the presence of a QR code itself isn’t a sure sign of phishing,” he said. “Many legitimate marketing campaigns use QR codes, which can allow malicious QR codes to blend into the background noise.”
Nicole Carignan, vice president for strategic cyber AI at Darktrace, a global cybersecurity AI company, added that the increased use of QR codes in phishing attacks is the latest example of how attackers are pivoting to embracing techniques that can thwart traditional defenses with greater agility and efficiency.
“Traditional solutions scan for malicious links in easy-to-find places,” she told TechNewsWorld. “In contrast, finding QR codes within emails and determining their appropriate destination requires rigorous image recognition techniques to mitigate risks.”
Best Practices for QR Code Safety
Carignan noted that Darktrace research has found that quishing attacks are often accompanied by highly personalized targeting and newly created sender domains, further decreasing the likelihood of the emails being detected by traditional email security solutions that rely on signatures and known-bad lists to detect malicious activity.
“The most common social engineering technique that accompanies malicious QR codes is the impersonation of internal IT teams, specifically emails claiming users need to update two-factor authentication configurations,” she said. “When setting up two-factor authentication, most instructions require users to scan a QR code. Thus, attackers are now mimicking this process to evade traditional secure email solutions.”
While there are many technology solutions aimed at addressing potential QR-code-based attacks, a simple rule may suffice for many individuals.
“When we talk to people about best practices around QR codes, one of the simplest rules you can follow is to ask yourself, is this QR code in a place where a bad person could post it?” advised Christopher Budd, leader of the X-Ops team at Sophos, a global network security and threat management company.
“If I’m walking through the food court in a mall, and there’s a sign that says, ‘Save 20% on all stores today. Scan this code.’ If I see that, I’m not going to use that QR code. I have no idea who put that sign there,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“When you’re talking about QR codes,” he added, “you have to know and trust its source.” | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
A Republican congressman and member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus admitted last week he "was praying" the GOP would win just a "small" majority in the House of Representatives ahead of the 2022 midterm elections in order to shift the party further to the right, according to video obtained Monday by Fox News Digital.
"When a lot of people, unfortunately, were voting, to have a 270, 280 Republican House, I was praying each evening for a small majority, because I recognize that that small majority was the only way that we were going to advance a conservative agenda," Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said during a closed briefing, which The Messenger first reported was "a virtual briefing for around 50 top conservative donors."
"If it was the right majority, that if we had six or seven very strong individuals, we would drag the conference over to the right," he added.
Rosendale went on to praise Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a frequent critic of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, for being there "from the very beginning helping accomplish that." Gaetz, who was seated next to Rosendale in the video, along with former Trump administration official Steve Bannon, introduced a motion to vacate against McCarthy to remove him from the speakership on Monday.
"It always goes back to leadership though, which is what the first battle was about in January, and we have to change that leadership," he added, appearing to express support for Gaetz's bid to remove McCarthy.
Fox has reached out to Rosendale's office for comment.
The congressman's admission came as different factions of the Republican Party clashed over a deal that would avoid a shutdown of the U.S. government, the main factor in Gaetz's effort to remove McCarthy. A deal was ultimately reached, but at the dismay of a number of the more right-leaning Republicans in the House, including Rosendale.
Rosendale is considering a run against Montana Democrat Sen. Jon Tester, who is up for re-election next year. He ran unsuccessfully against Tester in 2018, coming just under 18,000 votes short.
Should he enter the race for the Republican nomination, he would join former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy and businessman Jeremy Mygland. | US Congress |
Telling Americans to cut back has not been properly tested since Jimmy Carter’s failed re-election The 405 Freeway during rush hour in Los Angeles, California. The US consumes about a fifth of the world’s oil output © Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images In Germany, lights are being dimmed, showers shortened and swimming pools shut. French drivers have been urged to lay off the accelerator.As Russia weaponises its energy exports — sending prices soaring and raising the prospect of shortages this winter — Europeans are being asked to do their bit to dial back consumption. In energy-guzzling America, the notion remains politically radioactive.In a nation described by former president George W Bush as “addicted to oil”, to preach frugality is to sign your own political death warrant.“In Europe, they’ve said turn down the thermostats and you’ll find your way to freedom,” said Kevin Book, managing director at consultancy ClearView Energy Partners. “President Jimmy Carter put on a cardigan and said the same thing — and he lost his re-election.”Carter’s Democratic party took only six states in a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan after the 1970s oil crises derailed his presidency. Memories of him taking to the airwaves in a sweater to ask Americans to “live thriftily” loom large in modern political discourse.“America is a place where we expect to be able to drive when we want, where we want,” said Book. “Being told that we can’t isn’t a very successful political strategy.”As the world’s biggest oil and natural gas producer and a net energy exporter, the US is not in the same tight spot as it was in the 1970s. And, unlike Europe, it is not at the mercy of Kremlin supply cuts this winter. But there is a compelling case made by academics and policy gurus for Americans to cut back on energy consumption.In addition to reducing CO₂ emissions, consuming less petrol would help to bring down the price at the pump — a good thing both for hard pressed US motorists and their counterparts across the Atlantic. Using less natural gas for heating and electricity would free up more supplies to be shipped to Europe (although in the short term liquefaction capacity is almost maxed out) and make it cheaper to do so.It is the “most efficient and effective” way to tackle a host of issues all at once, said Meghan O’Sullivan, politics professor at Harvard University. “This is something that clearly needs to be part of the policymaker toolkit — particularly at a time when, faced with this panoply of challenges, there are relatively few tools.”Yet with more miles of paved road than anywhere else in the industrialised world and poor public transport infrastructure, driving is fundamental to getting around in the US. The country accounts for a little over 4 per cent of the global population but consumes around a fifth of the world’s oil output.Jason Bordoff, founding director of Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said energy conservation was a “critically necessary tool to deal with real energy shortages”. But he was concerned that calls to cut back can be “perceived as weakness” and “tarnishing American energy dominance”.US president Joe Biden, knowing that voters would lay the blame on him for high petrol prices, has pulled an array of levers to try and reduce the cost of oil, but none of them have involved asking Americans to cut back.Asked recently whether a call for demand curbs might soon be on the cards, Biden demurred, insisting that high prices meant Americans were already doing “everything in their power to figure out how not to have to show up at the gas pump”.US petrol prices broke $5 a gallon for the first time ever last month. At $4.37 this weekend, they have dropped slightly but remain at near-record levels. This is beginning to force some Americans off the roads, data suggest.“We have rationing in the US — we just do it through pricing,” said Amy Myers Jaffe, research professor at Tufts University. “Prices reach exorbitant levels and the poorest members of society stop driving because they can’t afford to.”Get alerts on US politics & policy when a new story is published | US Federal Policies |
Biden’s next student loan headache: A cash crunch at the Education Department
Administration officials prepare for “unprecedented” restart of student loan payments amid customer service rollbacks.
A funding shortfall is forcing Education Department officials to cut customer service to student loan borrowers just as the agency prepares to send millions of Americans their first bills in more than three years.
Congress last year rejected the White House’s request for more money to administer the federal student loan program after Republicans balked at adding extra funds that could be used to implement President Joe Biden’s student debt cancellation plan.
At the same time, the agency’s costs exploded as it implemented a range of new policies, such as expanding the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and creating a new application process for canceling up to $20,000 of student debt. Education Department officials, congressional Democrats and consumer advocacy groups are now worried that the Biden administration may not have enough money to smoothly transition borrowers back into repaying their debt when payments are set to resume later this year.
The funding woes threaten to exacerbate the political pain of what was always going to be a tricky endeavor for Biden: Sending millions of Americans student loan bills for the first time since their payments were suspended at the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Borrowers are set to face longer hold times to speak with their loan servicing company, potentially slower paperwork processing and reduced call center hours.
“It is a slow-moving car crash,” said Jared Bass, senior director for higher education at the Center for American Progress and a former Democratic appropriations staffer. Bass urged lawmakers to find a way to add money for administering student aid programs even before Congress debates government-wide funding this fall. “We see what’s about to unfold, so let’s just prevent it now and just step in and take preventative measures,” he said.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told House appropriators during a hearing last week that restarting payments will be an “unprecedented” undertaking that requires an “all hands on deck” approach.
“Never has this ever been done where — depending on the decision of the Supreme Court — up to 43 million borrowers are going to start repaying,” Cardona said. “It’s a huge lift for our team.”
The Biden administration has said publicly that the moratorium on payments will end this summer, with payments resuming 60 days after either the Supreme Court rules on student debt cancellation or June 30, whichever comes first.
But the Education Department is also contemplating a transition period that would push repayment well into the fall.
Department officials have told loan servicers to prepare to resume charging interest on federal loans in September, according to documents obtained by POLITICO under public records requests. Officials are eyeing October as the first month in which any borrower will be required to make a payment, the documents show, noting the requirement that borrowers receive a billing statement at least 21 days in advance of their due date.
In addition, Education Department officials are planning a “safety net” period in which borrowers aren’t penalized for missing payments once repayment begins, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Officials had previously settled on a grace period for the first 90 days after payments are due. But they are now considering extending that flexibility to borrowers for as long as a year after repayment starts, according to two people familiar with internal discussions, who also cautioned that the plans are in flux and could change.
The administration is looking at a range of other policies designed to make the student loan system more borrower-friendly amid the looming restart of payments. For example, the Education Department last month directed loan servicers to stop collecting on borrower balances that total $100 or less and to write off those debts, according to one of the documents. That is an increase from the previous policy of writing off small balances under $25.
But the cash-strapped budget for restarting payments remains a major obstacle for the administration.
In a budget document released last month, the Education Department warned that the current level of funding for its student aid operations “poses significant risks” for implementing a “smooth return to repayment.”
Already the department has been forced to slash funding to federal loan servicing companies by nearly 10 percent. As part of the cutbacks, Biden administration officials last month allowed the loan companies to curtail their call center operations by 10 hours each week, including eliminating all Saturday hours. Officials also informed the companies they would not be penalized for failing to meet a performance standard in their contract related to long call wait times that caused borrowers to hang up before reaching a customer service representative.
“The Department is deeply concerned about the lack of adequate annual funding made available to Federal Student Aid this year,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. “As the Department has repeatedly made clear, restarting repayment requires significant resources to avoid unnecessary harm to borrowers, such as cuts to servicing.”
“We continue to urge Congress to fully fund President Biden’s FY24 budget request, which would provide critical resources to FSA,” the statement continued. “At the same time, we will continue to work closely with servicers to prioritize providing services to borrowers as quickly and effectively as possible.”
The administration is deliberating over how to restart student loan payments as conservatives and businesses are ratcheting up pressure to get Biden to end the payment pause, which costs the government roughly $5 billion each month in foregone revenue.
SoFi, a private student loan company, and the Mackinac Center, a conservative group, have each filed lawsuits to stop the payment pause, arguing that it’s illegal and no longer properly linked to the pandemic emergency.
On Capitol Hill, Republicans are pushing for a vote in the coming weeks on legislation to overturn Biden’s student debt relief policies, including the pause on payments. Speaker Kevin McCarthy also last week included a repeal of Biden’s student loan policies as part of his opening package of policy concessions that House Republicans want in exchange for raising the debt limit.
Progressives, meanwhile, are focused on making sure the White House feels the pressure to deliver on student debt cancellation before restarting payments.
“President Biden has persuasively argued that the only way to responsibly restart loan payments without unleashing an economic catastrophe is to broadly cancel student debt,” said Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center advocacy group. “The president cannot be baited into becoming America’s ‘debt collector-in-chief’ by his opponents. At the end of the day, his name goes on 40 million student loan bills.”
Beyond the customer service the department has already been forced to reduce, other efforts to ease borrowers back into repayment remain in limbo. That includes extra outreach to populations of borrowers who are particularly at risk of falling behind on payments. And it’s also not clear whether the Education Department will be able to fully implement Biden’s new, more generous repayment program before the payment pause ends.
The budget challenge stems from Congress’ decision last year to keep funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid flat at about $2 billion, rejecting the administration’s request for a roughly 30 percent increase. Republican appropriators offered to increase Education Department’s administrative funding for student loans, but only if it came with a prohibition on using the money for debt cancellation, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.
In recent weeks, Education Department officials briefed congressional staff on the funding situation for the remainder of this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The agency expects its available funds will be “fully utilized” to support a return to repayment, and the department plans to re-program and shift around some money to boost its loan servicing operations, according to a copy of the plan obtained by POLITICO.
Democrats plan to press for more funding for the Office of Federal Student Aid in the coming months as Congress hammers out government funding for next year, according to House and Senate aides. The administration said it needs a $620 million increase, about 30 percent, from the current level of funding, though that figure assumes debt cancellation will happen and there will be tens of millions of fewer accounts to manage.
A group of Senate Democrats, led by Elizabeth Warren, earlier this month warned of “catastrophic consequences for millions of working and middle-class Americans” if the Education Department doesn’t get that funding to help borrowers navigate the restart of payments.
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, “will continue to fight for additional resources to FSA to help Pell Grant recipients and student borrowers,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan group that advocates for deficit reduction, said that while he’s sympathetic to the Education Department’s need for funding to properly restart payments the administration has a “credibility gap” on the issue.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me seven times, shame on me,” he said, referring to the Education Department’s many extensions of the payment pause. “There’s no question that they need resources to be able to restart payments and collect the money. The question is: If you give them resources, are they going to use it for that? Or are they going to use it for their various debt cancellation schemes?”
Goldwein said he supports efforts by the administration to minimize the massive disruption of payments restarting for millions of borrowers, such as pulling borrowers out of default and suspending typical penalties for missed payments.
“It’s much better to do this well and with a little bit more grace than to do it poorly and save a few dollars,” he said. | US Federal Policies |
In the aftermath of an underwhelming performance by Republicans in the 2022 election, demands have echoed across the internet for conservative leaders to develop a ballot-harvesting and voter-mobilization infrastructure comparable to the Left’s. Fed up and increasingly cynical, many conservatives, including heavyweights such as Blake Masters, Lee Zeldin, and Newt Gingrich, have decided that in our brave new world of mail-in elections and early voting, conservatives need to improvise, adapt, and overhaul their electioneering strategies or face certain doom. The cynics are correct, but even the most cynical among them don’t realize just how correct they are. ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING, REPUBLICANS ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN DEMOCRATS Fixing disadvantages in voting by mail is only part of the equation. Conservatives have been hopelessly outclassed by the Left’s vote-getting infrastructure for over a decade. For those who take the time to look, it’s not hard to see why. In a word: nonprofits. Nonprofit organizations are a huge part of the political landscape for both sides. They can develop policies, shape agendas, and mobilize and engage citizens on the issues that affect them. While conservative nonprofit organizations excel at these first parts (quibbling over tax reform bills and researching wonky policies), virtually none engage in the “community organizing” and “civic engagement” work favored by liberal counterparts. To understand the scale of the advantage this gives the Left during election season, consider the jaw-dropping numbers generated during the 2020 cycle by the four most notable get-out-the-vote nonprofit organziations of the Left: State Voices, the Voter Participation Center, the Center for Voter Information, and America Votes. In 2020, the State Voices's national network, spanning 25 states, contacted 124 million voters, added 100 million phone numbers to Democratic-affiliated databases, and registered 2.1 million people. The dynamic duo of the Voter Participation Center and the Center for Voter Information registered another 935,000 voters and generated 4.6 million mail-in ballot applications, which they estimate produced an additional 385,000 actual votes. In Arizona and Georgia specifically, their estimated vote impact was over 200% of the total presidential margin of victory. Then there was America Votes, with its 80 national partners and 400 state partners, which reported attempting 350 million voter contacts, knocking on 7 million doors, making 175 million phone calls, and sending 100 million texts. If just these four organizations were combined during 2019-20, the resulting group would have raised $332 million, registered 3 million voters, and attempted 450 million voter contacts. That’s roughly two contacts per eligible voter in America. More accurately, it comes to five for every Biden voter because these “nonpartisan” groups use every tactic at their disposal to make sure they target only likely Democrats with their work. They’re so effective at targeting Democrats, in fact, that a leaked memo from Democratic super PAC Mind the Gap (lately of Sam Bankman-Fried fame — his mother was a co-founder) advised its donors to send their money to the nonprofit organizations instead of PACs because they were “4 to 10 times” more cost-effective at “netting additional Democratic votes” because of the same tax-exempt status that supposedly bars them from partisan activities. How’s that for working the system? Meanwhile, there has been no real conservative equivalent since the Tea Party, and what infrastructure does exist today is usually run by taxable PACs and campaigns more interested in spamming “urgent” donation requests than they are in organizing or registering voters. Scott Pressler, known as “#ThePersistence” on Twitter, is probably the closest thing conservatives have to the Left’s nonprofit get-out-the-vote empire, and Scott is just one guy, working on his own, with an old car and no significant funding. Now, Scott deserves all the credit he receives and more, but the enormous left-wing groups mentioned above probably register more Republicans by accident than Scott registers on purpose. That’s not even to mention the work those nonprofit organizations do on the census, redistricting processes, and general policy advocacy. It’s well past time for Scott, and activist conservative organizers like him, to be armed with the tools they need to succeed at scale. Conservatives need to stop approaching 21st century elections with 20th century tactics, and whether that means embracing vote by mail or not, it’s obviously time to update the playbook. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER Parker Thayer is an investigative researcher at Capital Research Center in Washington, D.C. | US Federal Elections |
Marianne Williamson keeps bleeding staff. Six more depart in internal feud.
The staffers left through a round of firings and resignations.
Hours after Marianne Williamson announced the hiring of her third campaign manager in five months, six staffers left her team through a round of firings and resignations.
The departures came primarily over a fight about Williamson’s ballot access operations, or lack thereof.
The campaign’s entire three-person South Carolina operation, which had been led by Marcurius Byrd, resigned, according to four people with knowledge of the campaign’s operations and team discussions, granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics. In addition, Carlos Cardona, who was recently promoted to head the campaign after serving as New Hampshire state director, fired two national field directors and a member of Williamson’s New Hampshire team, according to those same people.
One of the four, who is a current staffer, attributed the changes to Cardona “stepping in as a new campaign manager and just his approach to reorganizing and restructuring the campaign to be cash efficient but also incredibly nimble on the ground in key primary states.” But three other people said the staff departures were connected to a previous staff meeting where Williamson was confronted by aides about her campaign priorities.
The staffers said they were concerned that too much attention was being placed on social media and not enough on getting Williamson’s name on the ballot beyond New Hampshire and South Carolina. Each state has their own laws and requirements, and typically expert consultants are hired to handle the specifics to get a candidate on the ballot.
“During that meeting, there was just a vibe that she felt attacked, and an insinuation at the end of that call that some staff were not going to make it to the end of the week,” said one person with knowledge of the campaign’s deliberations.
After the staff meeting, Williamson told staffers that she felt “ambushed” by her own team, two of the four people (including another current staffer) told POLITICO, adding that she hasn’t acted on their concerns about ballot access.
“She didn’t listen to anything that was said,” one of those people said. “Clearly, because the people who expressed frustration were fired.”
Williamson’s campaign faces a number of hurdles beyond ballot access. The Democratic National Committee has decided not to host debates with President Joe Biden’s primary challengers. In addition, there has been consistent staff turnover, including several campaign managers, coupled with money worries as the campaign lags behind her fellow Democratic primary opponents. Two of the four people told POLITICO that Williamson is likely to report less than $1 million in donations on her next quarterly financial report.
Cardona did not respond to a request for comment, and the campaign declined to speak on the record to questions about the most recent departures and the staff meeting on ballot access. A spokesperson, on condition of anonymity, questioned the relevance of them.
“You would think the journalistic focus of the Marianne Williamson campaign would be about her gains in polling, landing key political endorsements and attracting new supporters, but no, we’re once again responding to internal staffing decisions being made to strengthen our position in this presidential primary race,” the spokesperson said. “Every campaign or company will adjust on strategy, and face tough staffing decisions to become more efficient with resources.”
Williamson registered significant early support, polling at about 10 percent in surveys. But there haven’t been many gains since her launch. The team is now operating with a skeletal staff of about 12 people as Williamson increases her campaign events.
Despite the firings, there has been at least one new hire: an events coordinator, who formerly worked on marketing for Williamson’s business office, according to two of the four people. Williamson, incidentally, has a new book coming out at the end of the summer.
“If you’re just thinking about New Hampshire and South Carolina, then this is a grift,” one of the people said. | US Federal Elections |
House Republicans are calling for Matt Gaetz to face some form of consequences for kicking Kevin McCarthy out of the speakership and plunging the chamber into chaos.
Gaetz is bearing the brunt of his colleagues’ ire, after he introduced a motion to vacate the speaker last week and then led seven other Republicans to break ranks and vote to oust McCarthy. The House is now scrambling to find a new speaker, a situation made all the more urgent by the war between Israel and Palestine. Without a speaker, the House can’t pass aid packages or approve resolutions condemning the militants’ actions.
“Matt Gaetz is frankly a vile person,” Representative Mike Lawler told CNN’s Manu Raju late Monday. “He’s not somebody who’s willing to work as a team. He stands up there, he grandstands, he lies directly to folks.”
Lawler has been particularly outspoken about how much he dislikes Gaetz. He has previously called Gaetz “disgraceful” and called for him to be expelled from the Republican conference.
Representative Derrick Van Orden told Raju that he won’t support either of the new candidates for speaker “until we deal with the fact that we have people in our conference who could shut this House down on a whim again.”
Representative Don Bacon accused the eight anti-McCarthy voters of having “kicked us in the shins really bad.”
“They don’t support our party, and it’s all about media clicks,” he told CNN.
Representative Tom Cole, who chairs the House Rules Committee, suggested raising the threshold for the motion to vacate. “I think it’s time to take the sharp knives away from the children,” he told Axios.
One of the concessions McCarthy made to become speaker in January was to restore the motion to vacate, which would allow any single member of the House to call for a vote to remove him. Gaetz had repeatedly threatened to use that power against McCarthy, but finally made good on his promise last week.
Gaetz may be headed for some form of consequences for his actions. Some members of the GOP were already weighing whether to expel Gaetz from Congress should the Ethics Committee find him guilty of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use, and other wrongdoings. | US Congress |
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Report: Michigan’s youth turnout in the 2022 election was best in the nation
April 17, 2023
LANSING, Mich. — Young people in Michigan turned out to vote last November at a higher rate than anywhere else in the country, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University.
Voters ages 18-29 turned out at a rate of 37% in Michigan, higher than any other state CIRCLE analyzed, and far higher than the national average youth turnout rate of 23%. Additionally, Michigan was one of only four states where youth turnout was higher in 2022 than in 2018.
“We continue working with Michigan’s colleges and universities and their local clerks to ensure young citizens can conveniently cast their ballot and know how to do so, and I’m thrilled to see data recognizing the impact of our work,” said Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. “A strong democracy requires informed and engaged citizens - and Michigan is leading the way in ensuring our youngest voters are active participants in determining our future."
Benson’s administration worked on voter access and education for students and leaders at colleges and universities across the state, and with high schools, large employers and other organizations that interact with young people. She also implemented same-day and automatic voter registration and no-excuse absentee voting after Michigan’s voters overwhelmingly approved a 2018 constitutional amendment that mandated they be provided to all eligible citizens. In 2019 she also enabled online voter registration.
"As members of the College Student Advisory Task Force (CSATF), we know firsthand the impact of youth voter turnout initiatives, sharing our experiences with each other, and building institutional support for voting in our college communities,” said Rose Reilly, CSATF member, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. “The work we did last year to gather voting information specific to students and share tips to engage our peers supports a rise in youth voting in our state. We hope that the knowledge we gained and shared in our policy change recommendations contribute to a continuing trend of future youth voter turnout increases."
# # # | US Local Elections |
The House of Representatives voted to pause a resolution to impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas after an effort led by far-right Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The chamber voted to halt the bid to remove Mr Mayorkas on Monday following claims from Ms Greene that he had failed in his duty to protect the US border with Mexico by not restricting the numbers of migrants crossing into the US.
This comes as the main issue the House has to deal with this week is finding a resolution to fund the government ahead of Friday that can pass the chamber.
The impeachment was paused after eight Republicans voted with 201 Democrats in the House to send the articles of impeachment back to the Homeland Security Committee, which is conducting its own probe of the secretary – 201 Republicans voted against sending the articles back to the panel.
Ms Greene said she was “outraged” at the vote, according to Reuters.
“We have an invasion at the southern border,” she said. “But all we hear about is send money to Ukraine, send money to this. People want Mayorkas impeached, they want accountability.”
DHS spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg said the GOP was “wasting time”.
“Secretary Mayorkas continues to be laser-focused on the safety and security of our nation,” she said in a statement, according to the news agency. “This baseless attack is completely without merit and a harmful distraction from our critical national security priorities.”
Congress has never before removed a member of the cabinet and even if Mr Mayorkas is impeached by the House at a later stage, there’s the overwhelming likelihood that he would be acquitted by the Democratic Senate.
Last week, Ms Greene also attempted to push for a vote on Mr Mayorkas’s impeachment. The resolution claimed that the secretary is guilty of “willful admittance of border crossers” and it argues that he has a duty to guard against an “invasion”.
Ms Greene also claims that the secretary hasn’t adhered to the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which states that the border can only be regarded as operationally secure if no people or contraband crosses illegally.
Ms Greene’s attempt to impeach the secretary brought back the issue of the Act, which moved into the background after the House GOP remained divided on their power to impeach.
In a July hearing, Mr Mayorkas criticised the notion that he violated the Secure Fence Act, with even some members of the GOP saying that such a standard would be impossible to follow.
“The Secure Fence Act, specifically the statute, defines operational control as not having one individual cross the border illegally. Under that statutory definition, no administration has achieved operational control,” Mr Mayorkas said this summer.
The George W Bush White House said in October 2006 that the act was simply “one part of our effort to reform our immigration system, and we have more work to do”.
But substantial immigration reform has remained elusive.
Former GOP California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on The View last month, calling the current system “stupid”.
He argued that foreign workers should have an easier path to visas to allow them to work legally.
“It’s a stupid system. The system is set up to commit a crime,” he said on ABC. “The system is set up to do something illegally. Why? Why can we not come together, Democrats and Republicans and instead of using this issue always as a fundraising issue for the party to go and sit down together and really to do the service that they’re supposed to do?” | US Congress |
A man who prosecutors say ordered the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur was arrested and charged with murder Friday in a long-awaited breakthrough in one of hip-hop's most enduring mysteries.
Duane "Keffe D" Davis has long been known to investigators as one of four suspects identified early in the investigation. He isn't the accused gunman but was described as the group's ringleader by authorities Friday at a news conference and in court.
"Duane Davis was the shot caller for this group of individuals that committed this crime," said police homicide Lt. Jason Johansson, "and he orchestrated the plan that was carried out."
Davis himself has admitted in interviews and in his 2019 tell-all memoir, Compton Street Legend, that he provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting.
Authorities said Friday that Davis' own public comments revived the investigation.
Davis, now 60, was arrested early Friday while on a walk near his home on the outskirts of Las Vegas, hours before prosecutors announced in court that a Nevada grand jury had indicted the self-described gangster on one count of murder with a deadly weapon. He is due in court next week.
The grand jury also voted to add a sentencing enhancement to the murder charge for gang activity that could add up to 20 additional years if he's convicted.
The first-ever arrest in the case came after Las Vegas police raided Davis' home in mid-July in the nearby city of Henderson for items they described at the time as "concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur."
It wasn't immediately clear if Davis has an attorney who can comment on his behalf. Prosecutors said they did not know if he had a lawyer and several local attorneys said they did not know who from Las Vegas would represent him. Phone and text messages to Davis and his wife on Friday and in the months since the July 17 search weren't returned.
"For 27 years, the family of Tupac Shakur has been waiting for justice," Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference Friday. "While I know there's been many people who did not believe that the murder of Tupac Shakur was important to this police department, I'm here to tell you that is simply not the case."
Prosecutors said they have been in contact with the rapper's family, who are "pleased with this news."
On the night of Sept. 7, 1996, Shakur was in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight. They were waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip when a white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted.
Shakur was shot multiple times and died a week later at the age of 25.
Davis, in his memoir, said he was in the front passenger seat of the Cadillac and had slipped a gun into the back seat, from where he said the shots were fired.
He implicated his nephew, Orlando "Baby Lane" Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the backseat. Anderson, a known rival of Shakur, had been involved in a casino brawl with the rapper shortly before the shooting.
Anderson died two years later. He denied any involvement in Shakur's death.
Emails seeking comment from two lawyers who have previously represented Knight were not immediately returned. Knight was grazed by a bullet fragment in the shooting but had only minor injuries. He is serving a 28-year prison sentence in California for an unrelated voluntary manslaughter charge. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Minutes after opening a Snapchat account pretending to be a 15-year-old girl, I'm amazed at what I see.
Drugs seem to be readily available - just a couple of clicks away. I thought this world was hidden and hard to access, but it is so easy to find.
I've gone undercover online to investigate how drug gangs use social media to groom children.
The fake account is for a 15-year-old girl called Mia.
Setting up Mia's account, I've not gone looking for drugs - or followed any accounts that seem criminal.
I've only followed accounts a teenager might, like musicians or funny videos.
On one account, which posts videos of people messing around with cars and motorbikes, I click on a story and up pops another app called Telegram.
On it is a page trying to sell drugs including cocaine and ketamine.
I am shocked that this content is so readily available, even though I set up this account posing as a child.
Snapchat said using its platform to buy or sell drugs was illegal and it proactively moderates content to detect and prevent any dealing.
'I thought he was my boyfriend'
I know these gangs do not just use social media to sell their drugs - they also recruit children.
Anna, not her real name, who is in her 20s, was exploited and controlled by an Eastern European drugs gang in south Wales as a teenager.
She got sucked into that dark world after a friend request on Snapchat from a young man she met on a night out.
"He would be quite romantic, quite flirty and just shown a massive interest in me," Anna told me. "We'd message 24/7."
Anna thought she was getting into a relationship. She saw a man, not much older than herself, taking an interest in her.
But he had other ideas and saw Anna as young, vulnerable and ripe for exploitation.
"The more I would be around, the more I would help with the drug dealing," she said.
"It was a bit scary at first, but I kind of realised that I didn't look like your typical drug dealer so I could get away with it a bit easier."
Anna felt like she was doing a favour for someone who cared about her, but she soon realised she was being used.
"I thought that this person was my boyfriend," she added.
"Then I would see messages from other girls or him messaging other girls.
"It was heart-breaking because he was the only person I had to turn to."
The gang used fear to control and manipulate Anna and they plied her with drugs - but it came at a cost.
'Trapped and lonely'
"We would just drive around and they would be drug dealing and we'd just be listening to loud music," she said.
"They had a boot full of drugs. They would just say just put your hand in the bag and take whatever you want out."
It's the question almost every parent worries about the most. Just how safe is your child online and on social media?
BBC Wales Investigates explores your children's safety in Snaptrap: Is your child safe? on 24 July on BBC One Wales and on BBC iPlayer
Anna believed she was being given the drugs for free - but that was not the case.
"They gave me an ultimatum which was 'you now owe us a debt for all these free drugs that you've used'," Anna said.
"They said 'now you have two choices - you can either help us drug deal and earn the money back for us or you can do sexual favours'."
Anna felt trapped by a debt that she'd never be able to pay off.
"I chose the option that I thought was going to land me in the least trouble with the police - the sexual favours," she said.
It was social media that pulled Anna into the gang's orbit. I wanted to see if the same might happen on my fake account.
Soon after setting up Mia's account, Snapchat started to suggest "quick adds" who I might want to make friends with.
I started adding them at random, and Snapchat suggested more and more.
Some of those suggested friends appeared to be drug dealers - constantly posting pictures of the drugs they claim to be selling.
What does this say about Snapchat's algorithm? It thinks I am 15, but it is connecting me to potential criminals.
One of my suggested friends even seemed to claim he was part of a gang transporting drugs from London to Swansea.
He started to message me - saying he was on the lookout for a "loyal girl".
When I said I lived in Wales, he seemed particularly interested.
But gangs are on the lookout for fake accounts like mine.
He asked to see a picture of me - which is impossible without blowing my cover.
This happened again and again during my investigation. Is this how gangs check kids out and make sure they were as young and vulnerable as they said?
Snapchat said buying or selling drugs on its platform was illegal.
"We work in multiple ways to detect and prevent this content to help keep our community safe, including proactive detection technology and in-app reporting tools," it said.
"We have a dedicated team that supports police investigations and meet regularly with experts to understand drug-related trends, terminology and behaviours used by gangs."
Snapchat said it had "extra protections for younger users to make it harder for them to be contacted by people they don't know".
Tom, not his real name, used to work for gangs in Cardiff and was faced with the impact of grooming when he was forced to pick up the teenagers they'd targeted.
"At the start they were like 21, 20 then that got down to 17 or 16," Tom said.
"I was in fear of my life the whole time. I couldn't see a way out."
Tom entered the world of organised crime by helping gangs from bigger cities like London and Birmingham to establish themselves on his home turf of Cardiff - in return for free drugs - as part of a system called County Lines.
He took me to a popular residential area of Cardiff near the city centre where he used to operate.
"This area is full of drugs," he told me as we drove around Roath showing me where the traphouses - places where people buy and sell drugs - were.
"Areas around the city centre are full of gangs, not from this city, operating and selling drugs from cars, from flats to gorgeous five-bedroom houses. It's everywhere."
I'm curious about the area Tom showed me round - Roath - and so I decide to test out the app that I was redirected to when I first set up my Snapchat account - Telegram.
Telegram's "people nearby" feature said people all around me were selling drugs. There was someone selling MDMA, ketamine, meth and even heroin only 400m away.
Telegram said it "actively moderates harmful content' and added: "Moderators proactively monitor public groups and channels and accept user reports in order to remove content that breaches our terms of service."
Dealers are not even trying to hide their accounts. They are so easy to find I think children could come across them accidentally.
'A problem for the whole UK'
There are estimated to be more than 500 of these County Lines gangs operating across the UK.
The Metropolitan Police has a specialist team dedicated to tackling these drug gangs and claims to have shut down almost 1,500 of these networks since 2019, working with 26 police forces across the UK.
Detectives say they have shut down 122 drug lines and prosecuted more than 700 people in the past year.
"It's a problem that traverses the whole of the UK really," said Det Ch Insp Dan Mitchel.
"The average age of the individuals prosecuted is 25 and two-thirds of the time they've been previously convicted of drug supply so they're often embedded in criminality.
"What they tend to do is use children to run their drugs lines for them and we see children taking up a role at the very forefront where they're transporting the drugs from London."
South Wales Police said it arrested 29 people in recent operations in Swansea, Neath and London to tackle County Lines gangs - seizing "significant quantities" of crack cocaine, heroin and cash.
Anna eventually escaped the gang's clutches after going underground on social media but admitted she would "never stop looking over her shoulder."
Tom feels "sorry, guilty and ashamed" for his part in ruining children's lives for being part of a gang.
But he said: "I was just a pawn and I was used from day one."
His own gang nightmare changed one day by a knock at the door that ended with him in prison.
"When I seen [sic] the police, it was just relief, I just knew that was my way out."
- If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story, the BBC Action Line has links to organisations that can offer support and advice | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
NEW YORK -- An intense police search of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann is now complete, authorities said Tuesday as they ended a 12-day hunt for evidence that involved ripping up the yard and the discovery of a basement vault containing hundreds of weapons kept by the man accused of killing at least three women more than a decade ago.
At a press conference outside the Massapequa Park home where Heuermann lived with his wife and two kids, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said police had found a “tremendous amount of information” during their search.
He declined to describe the bulk of the material, but said there was not a “singular piece of evidence” that jumped out to him.
The search turned up at least 279 weapons kept inside a thick basement vault large enough for a person to walk into, Tierney said. Police took boxes of additional evidence from the house, which he described as a “very cluttered environment.”
An effort in recent days to dig up the backyard in search of possible clues about where the murders were committed did not yield any “large items of evidence,” he added.
A coalition of law enforcement agencies have been pouring over the property since July 14th, when Heuermann was arrested and charged with killing three women – Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman – and dumping their bodies along a remote stretch of coastal highway near Long Island's Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago. Prosecutors identified him as the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann, who worked as an architect in Manhattan, has denied the charges through his lawyer.
The killings, all of which involved women engaged in sex work, happened while Heuermann’s family members were out of town, according to court papers. There is no indication his wife or children had knowledge of the crimes, Tierney said.
During the search, police used a scanning technology to identify “disturbances” in the ground outside Heuermann’s property, Tierney said. An excavator dug up the yard, and investigators with shovels could be seen scraping through freshly upturned earth.
“There was nothing of note taken from the back yard,” he said. “As far as remains, there is a whole entire trace analysis we have to go through with the house with regard to hair fibers, DNA, blood, which we’ll have to await the results of.”
Police were also seen pulling a large doll encased in glass and a portrait of a woman with a bruise on her face from the house. Tierney said it would be “quite some time” before all of the evidence could be tested for forensics.
The end of the search comes as police in Las Vegas and South Carolina are beginning their own investigations into whether the suspect may have been connected to any unresolved cases. Heuermann owns a timeshare in Las Vegas and planned to retire in a remote area of South Carolina, where his brother currently lives.
Tierney declined to discuss specifics in the other cases on Tuesday, but noted the investigation “is not limited to New York state.”
Heuermann is due back in court on August 1st. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
House Republicans are looking to force President Biden to approve their border security legislation by tying it to one of 12 government spending bills lawmakers have pledged to pass for the next fiscal year.
In a last-minute weekend meeting, the GOP-run House Rules Committee added a provision to the appropriations bill funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that if passed would prevent it from being considered by the Senate until Republicans’ border security bill, H.R. 2, was signed into law.
It’s a long-shot bid to use the government funding fight to score a key conservative policy victory. But to get to Biden’s desk, it would need to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate – where it’s almost certain to be blocked by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
But conservative Rules Committee members told Fox News Digital on Monday that Republicans would not fund Biden’s DHS if the Democrats in power did not use their plan to crack down on the border crisis.
"From the beginning of this process, I’ve vowed to defend the 750,000 Texans I represent by refusing to fund a DHS that is not doing its job to secure the border. Why would we sign another check to DHS to continue to not do its job?" said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
"If the Senate and the president continue open border policies, then the House will not move a DHS appropriations bill. Texans are done. We are over it. No matter what happens before this is all over, border security needs to get done, period, full stop – no security, no funding."
Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., said, "If the measures in H.R. 2 were to pass during the appropriations process, they would immediately reverse the Biden administration’s worst immigration policy decisions and begin to lighten the burden crushing upstate New Yorkers."
"The inclusion of H.R. 2 is absolutely necessary. What’s happening at our southern border right now is worse than a crisis – it’s a complete catastrophe being ignored by the entire Biden administration," said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. "All that I can do is support and pass the most conservative border legislation possible. Now, the ball is in Joe Biden’s court."
Congress must pass some form of spending bill by the Sept. 30 funding deadline or risk a partial government shutdown.
During the Saturday Rules Committee meeting, Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., accused Republicans of "extortion" over the move.
"It's extorting the Senate into agreeing with you, [as] well as the president, every line of a bill that you have adopted on a party-line basis. I don't understand how that's regular order," Neguse said.
But Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., argued that Democrats had used the same tactic when they held the majority in the last Congress.
"I would remind my friend that’s precisely what the Democrats did when they passed the bipartisan infrastructure bill; they said they would not send it over from the Senate in this body until the reconciliation bill was passed," Cole said.
The border security package would resume construction of the border wall and reinstate the Trump administration's "Remain In Mexico" policy, among other measures.
Republicans had been trying to wedge H.R. 2 into a possible short-term funding bill known as a continuing resolution (CR), which lawmakers on both sides have acknowledged would be needed to give them more time to pass all 12 individual appropriations bills.
But party infighting has seemingly derailed attempts at a stopgap, even proposals that floated deep spending cuts for a 30-day duration and commitments to slash future spending.
Lawmakers are back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters on Monday that the House will have a procedural vote to advance four spending bills, including DHS, for full chamber votes in the coming days.
When reached for comment on Republicans' DHS appropriations bill, the White House did not directly comment on the legislation but accused the House GOP of using the border crisis for political rhetoric.
"President Biden has called on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform since his first day in office and House Republicans continue to block it," a White House spokesperson said. "Now, House Republicans who claim to care about border security are threatening it by proposing a continuing resolution that would eliminate 800 CBP agents and officers, and by marching toward a shutdown that would halt pay to tens of thousands of DHS law enforcement personnel." | US Congress |
A voting rights group is suing Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R-FL) administration for its “byzantine” voter registration process, which has led to the arrests of dozens of formerly incarcerated people who accidentally voted illegally.
The League of Women Voters of Florida filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd (R) for allegedly failing to comply with federal requirements for voter registration. Their complaint cites the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), a 1993 statute that outlines minimum standards for the process to increase registration and enable state governments to promote, rather than impede, eligible citizens’ rights.
“The State of Florida has chosen to defy that law,” the complaint said. “Florida enacted a byzantine statutory scheme for the restoration of voting rights following felony convictions that made it ‘sometimes hard, sometimes impossible’ for returning citizens (Floridians with past felony convictions) to determine their eligibility to vote.”
“But the Application does not provide any explanation as to when an individual’s ‘right to vote has been restored,’ or any guidance for a voter seeking to make that determination,” the complaint said.
In many ways, the group argued, Florida’s applications do a poor job of informing potential voters of eligibility requirements, which could violate the NVRA.
“It doesn’t say, for example, if you have a felony conviction for murder, this process you cannot use,” Cecile Scoon, the group’s president, told TPM. “It should let people know that. It’s pretty straightforward.”
She also pointed out that there is a substantial usage of legal jargon and excerpts from the Constitution on the application, rendering its rules difficult to read for some. “Even educated people don’t know those references,” she said.
“Due to the State’s NVRA violation and maze of voter-eligibility rules, returning citizens struggle to accurately complete the Application and voter-registration organizations struggle to assist returning citizens in answering the Application,” the complaint said.
“It just needs to be more specific about what it is exactly you have to do to be able to register to vote,” Scoon said, “instead of just saying if you meet the requirements of Article four, section two…I mean, most people don’t have a specific understanding of what that is.”
The League of Women Voters had been helping formerly incarcerated citizens in the state regain their right to vote since 2015. In 2018, voters elected to reinstate suffrage for former felons through a historic ballot initiative known as Amendment 4. Once the constitutional amendment was passed, about 1.4 million residents regained their right to vote.
But state Republicans weren’t too happy with the development and introduced legislation to add new restrictions on when a previously incarcerated person is eligible to vote in the state. “We’ve had a lot of setbacks—legislators putting on limits and requirements that were not specifically mentioned in the amendment—and it’s created a big mess,” she told TPM.
In 2019, the Florida GOP tweaked the amendment so that it required returning citizens to pay their court-ordered fines and fees before their rights were reinstated, while barring formerly incarcerated applicants who were convicted of murder or sex crimes from voting entirely. This triggered a lengthy legal battle that complicated the process so much that some people who accidentally voted when they weren’t allowed to ended up in jail.
“When those rules were challenged in federal court, Florida election officials swore up and down that they would assume the responsibility (which is theirs under federal law) for ensuring that new voter registrants […] were actually eligible under the new rules,” Blair Bowie, who runs the Campaign Legal Center’s project to end felony disenfranchisement, told TPM.
State law does require state election officials to notify counties of ineligible applicants. But Maria Matthews, the director of Florida’s Division of Elections, testified in 2020 that her department had a backlog of 85,000 applications to sift through in order to verify voter eligibility. (A spokesman for Byrd’s office has since told TPM that that figure is out-of-date, but has not provided us with the updated number.)
As a result, 20 Floridians were arrested last August for voting illegally, even though they’d acquired registration cards and thought they were allowed to vote.
“Florida laid a trap for its citizens,” Bowie said.
Read the full complaint below: | US Federal Elections |
Washington — The House ison a two-step proposal from Speaker Mike Johnson to fund federal agencies into the new year and avert a government shutdown, which poses the first test for the newly elected speaker, who will not be able to get the measure passed without the votes of Democrats.
Johnson's measure, which heSaturday, extends federal funding at current levels for one group of agencies and programs through Jan. 19, and a second batch through Feb. 2. The stopgap funding plan, known as a continuing resolution, will be taken up by the House under a suspension of the rules and must win support from two-thirds of the chamber, or 290 lawmakers, to pass the lower chamber.
For this reason, Johnson, who was elected to lead the House just three weeks ago, will need to rely on votes from dozens of Democratic lawmakers to clear the House, since conservatives are pushing back against his plan.
What are the odds of passage? Who opposes the bill and who supports it?
On Tuesday morning, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of far-right Republican lawmakers, announced its opposition to the stopgap measure because it doesn't include spending cuts or provisions to strengthen border security.
"Republicans must stop negotiating against ourselves over fears of what the Senate may do with the promise 'roll over today and we'll fight tomorrow,'" the group said in a statement.
But the lack of additional policy changes, especially those favored by conservative lawmakers, could ensure greater support from House Democrats, who have said they want to avoid a government shutdown and favor a "clean" continuing resolution.
"From the very beginning of this Congress, Democrats have made clear that we are going to find common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue in good faith whenever and wherever possible, but that we will also push back against their extremism whenever necessary," Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters Tuesday. "That's been the framework approach that we've taken from the beginning. That'll be the lens through which we evaluate the continuing resolution today."
Jeffries said Democrats have some concerns about the bifurcated deadlines in Johnson's plan, but said it's "extremely important" to avoid a funding lapse.
The short-term funding package is the first major piece of legislation that the House is taking up since Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, claimed the gavel last month. His ascension to the speakership capped a chaotic October for House Republicans, which began with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy'sfrom the post as a result of a deal he made with Democrats in late September to for 45 days — through Nov. 17.
All House Democrats backed McCarthy's stopgap measure, and though his agreement avoided a lapse in government funding, it triggered backlash from far-right Republicans that ultimately cost him the gavel. As a result of McCarthy's removal, the House was left without a speaker for three weeks and found itself effectively paralyzed.
Though Johnson is following a similar path as McCarthy in pursuing a funding bill that maintains spending levels and does not include conservative priorities, there appears to be less of an appetite among conservative lawmakers to take action against the speaker.
The Freedom Caucus said in its statement announcing opposition to the two-step continuing resolution that it remains "committed" to working with Johnson, but called for "bold change."
Johnson, meanwhile, has defended his approach and said his so-called laddered continuing resolution will avoid Congress being forced to accept a massive omnibus spending package right before the holidays.
"That is a gift to the American people, because that is no way to legislate. It is not good stewardship. It's the reason we're in so much debt," he said.
Johnson said the Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 deadlines will allow lawmakers to work through the appropriations process "in good faith."
"What we need to do is avoid the government shutdown," he said. "Why? Because that would unduly harm the American people. Troops wouldn't be paid. We know all the effects of that, and so we have to avoid that and we have a responsibility to do it."
No emergency funding for Israel or Ukraine in stopgap measure
Left out of Johnson's funding proposal is emergency assistance for Israel and Ukraine, which President Biden hadafter the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. It's unclear when Congress could act to approve the additional funding, but the speaker said approving the short-term funding measure will allow Republicans to pursue discussions on necessary oversight for Ukraine aid and provide assistance to Israel.
for more features. | US Federal Policies |
Remember Ron DeSantis’s ridiculous war against Disney? It’s been a minute, so here’s a quick refresher: After Disney spoke out against the Florida governor’s bigoted “Don’t Say Gay” law last year, DeSantis lost his mind and dissolved the company’s self-governing status, forcing it to, among other things, pay more taxes. Shortly thereafter, he installed five handpicked individuals to Disney’s new oversight board, including a guy who had reportedly taught a fake history class in which he claimed Irish immigrants were enslaved in America. Later, he threatened to further punish the company through any array of absurd measures, including building a prison complex next to the Florida theme park.
Ultimately, Disney decided it had had enough of this petty tyrant, and sued DeSantis and members of his administration, alleging a “targeted campaign of government retaliation” for “expressing a political viewpoint unpopular with certain state officials.” That lawsuit is currently pending, yet such details didn’t stop the Florida governor and 2024 presidential hopeful from claiming in a recent interview that not only had he “won” the battle against the company, but—wait for it—his campaign of retribution had basically saved America.
That’s right: Speaking with Family Leader president and CEO Bob Vander Plaats, DeSantis declared, “A lot of these old guard Republicans were telling me that somehow Disney, when they call the shots, you just got to bend the knee…. We fought back against Disney, we had a big battle with them, and we won the battle against Disney.” He added: “I’ll tell you, the fact that we were willing to stand up to [Disney], that had reverberations across this country. Because I think you do have some CEOs that they’re not necessarily bought into this agenda, but it’s the path of least resistance…. Now they can say, Well, gee, I don’t want to end up like Disney. People may fight back from the right now. So I think we helped kind of refocus business and America in a better way. I think it was going off the rails.”
It’s not clear what DeSantis thinks his embarrassing feud with one of the largest employers in central Florida has done to help the country, but it’s not surprising that he’d prefer to focus on his fight with Mouse Town instead of, say, his poll numbers, which are very much in the toilet. | US Local Policies |
Former President Donald Trump rallied voters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, during a "Commit to Caucus" campaign event Saturday, focusing on his agenda and calling out "the worst, most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America."
"We don't like corrupt politicians like Joe Biden. Without question, this is the worst president, most corrupt president in the history of the United States of America without question," Trump exclaimed, in anticipation of next month's Iowa GOP presidential caucuses. "And I promise you this, if you put me back in the White House there, rain will be over and America will be a free nation once again."
When speaking about keeping America safe, Trump said he would immediately implement travel restrictions on terror-plagued countries.
"I will immediately restore and expand the Trump travel ban on entry from terror-plagued countries and I will implement strong ideological screening on all immigrants as we have no choice," he said. "If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you sympathize with jihad[ists], then we don't want you in our country, and you're not going to come into our country."
Adding to his remarks on a travel ban and current unrest in the Middle East, Trump pointed to the historic Abraham Accords, and described how he would make sure there was worldwide peace once again if elected.
"So for four straight years, I kept America safe. I kept Ukraine safe. None of this stuff would have happened. And I kept the entire world safe," Trump said.
Trump added he would do everything in his power to keep the United States out of a war.
"I will prevent World War III. I will prevent it. On my first day back in the White House, I will terminate every open-border policy of the Biden administration, stop the invasion on our southern border, and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history," Trump said.
"We are a nation that has lost its way, but we are not going to allow this horror to continue. Three years ago, we were a great nation, and we will soon be a great nation again," he said. | US Federal Elections |
EXCLUSIVE: One of the nine House Republicans running for speaker is out with a list of five commitments he is calling on his fellow contenders for the gavel to commit to.
Republican Policy Committee Chair Gary Palmer, R-Ala., released the policy outline less than an hour before House GOP lawmakers are retreating behind closed doors to hear from the speaker candidates.
That includes a commitment to fund the government with 12 individual spending bills by June 30; forcing "real spending cuts" and not "budget gimmicks;" refusing to pass any more short-term stopgap funding bills; giving members 72 hours to read a bill before it hits the House floor; and, perhaps most critically – making sure the GOP conference is on the same page before holding a House-wide vote.
"Congress has been kicking the can down the road since before I was elected. We don’t need a person or a personality, we need a plan," Palmer said.
"The American people deserve a Republican Conference that is unified, transparent, and committed to the job. Before we vote tomorrow, every candidate should commit to these principles."
On spending, Palmer is calling for specific deadlines he believes will help keep government open and funded without leaning on continuing resolutions or omnibus spending bills – both of which have wide opposition in the GOP.
Under Palmer’s plan, the House could not bring any legislation sent from the Senate after July 30 if all 12 appropriations bills have not been passed by then. It would also stop the House from recessing after July 31 if the 12 individual spending bills have not been passed – with a possible override for national security reasons via a two-thirds vote of the House.
It comes after ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted from his role soon after passing a 45-day continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown. The fiscal year ended on Sept. 30 with just four of 12 bills passed.
He also called to "decentralize the legislative process and prioritize individual members’ policy priorities" in uniting the conference before a House-wide vote.
That point holds particular importance now as House Republican candidate for speaker struggle to get enough support to win a House-wide vote with no Democratic support.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, failed three House votes for speaker after becoming Republicans’ speaker-designate, not reaching the 217 votes necessary in any of the rounds. He was booted out of the race on Friday. | US Congress |
Why Mitt Romney decided to hang it up — and why he thinks Biden should too
The retiring Utahn and leading GOP anti-Trumpist simply “can’t vote for Donald Trump,” he told POLITICO. But that doesn’t mean he supports the current president, either.
As Mitt Romney‘s cell phone started ringing incessantly in the minutes following his Wednesday retirement announcement, he silenced it and lamented during an interview that President Joe Biden shouldn’t run for reelection.
Just five minutes after Romney said that, he got a phone call that he couldn’t ignore: It was Biden.
“There are certain calls you do have to take,” Romney said after speaking with the president for what sounded like a friendly and upbeat conversation. (It took place off the record.)
The moment encapsulated Romney’s short but productive Senate career, one in which he fought Trumpism within the GOP and found a way to work with Biden despite vast ideological differences. Biden spent a year drilling Romney as “out of touch” and uncompromising during the 2012 presidential campaign, yet the now-president was among the first in line to wish the Utahn well.
Though Romney was undecided until recently on 2024, he said he concluded that a rematch between Biden and former President Donald Trump would be too much to bear. Biden sells himself as a deal-cutter, but Romney said either a second Biden or Trump term would do little to advance big legislation on the debt, climate change and challenging foreign adversaries.
Romney made clear that he broadly prefers Biden to Trump. While he’s “not a Biden supporter,” Romney said he simply “can’t vote for Donald Trump.” But that’s as far as he would go on the topic — if Democrats are hoping for a Biden endorsement from him, they won’t get any.
“I don’t see the leadership coming from either person. Now, I may kick myself if we end up nominating someone in my party besides Trump,” Romney said in a 30-minute interview.
He added a hope that “the White House will listen to David Ignatius,” referring to the most recent columnist who called for Biden to not pursue a second term.
Trump, of course, has mutual disdain for Romney and almost certainly would have tried to stop him from winning a second term. Romney’s approval ratings are up within his own party, but he would have faced a primary challenge.
He’s confident he could have won again, as most retiring senators claim to be, but clearly had no interest in following the path of Sen. Lisa Murkowski‘s (R-Alaska) laborious but successful reelection bid last year against a Trump-inspired challenger.
Why not do it to prove Republicans can beat back Trumpism? “You don’t spend six years of your life just to prove a point,” he answered.
That connects to Romney’s other reason to count his legislative wins on his way out: age. He may not look 76, but he’s keenly aware of where he stacks up on actuarial charts and Senate history.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) might be able to serve until he’s 120, Romney quipped, but he wants to pass the torch because he sees his generation as “pulling the wool over the generation of the younger people” by piling up the national debt.
He also sees serving in the Senate as an octogenarian as risky; Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is 90 and in clear decline, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell suffered a damaging concussion earlier this year. Three senators close in age to Romney — Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) — all decided to call it quits this Congress, too.
“I look at Biden, and I look at McConnell and I say, ‘OK, these are guys in their early 80s,” Romney said. “I’d be in my mid-80s. It’s not like I have to have this job for my ego and my self-esteem.”
It’s hard to imagine a first-term senator having more impact than Romney, whose long political career started nearly 30 years ago in a failed Senate bid with a lineage that goes back to his father, a former governor of Michigan and presidential candidate. Romney played both of those roles as well, governing Massachusetts and winning his party’s presidential nod in 2012.
If politicians are remembered for what they did most recently, however, Romney’s lone term stacks up with just about anyone’s first six years in the Senate. Yet, he’s skeptical that he’ll be remembered much at all.
“There won’t be 1 percent of Americans who ever heard of Mitt Romney, other than my many descendants,” he said, referring to his 25 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild. “I see myself as a footnote in history. And, you know, life goes on.”
That said, it’s tough to tabulate his ups and downs in the Senate. He quickly became a go-to senator for both colleagues and reporters, weighing in on crises within his own party that others wouldn’t touch.
Just this year, at the State of the Union address, he personally and publicly chastised Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) for fabrications. He’s got a quirky, self-deprecating sense of humor that never came through in his presidential runs but is on vivid display in the Senate.
Then there’s his legislative cupboard, which is stocked. He cast the lone GOP vote to convict Trump in the former president’s first impeachment trial, joined multiple bipartisan gangs during the pandemic and voted to convict in a second Trump trial. Romney followed that with central roles in historic deals on infrastructure, gun safety, same-sex marriage protection and election reform designed to prevent another Jan. 6-style insurrection.
His biggest missed opportunity, he said, is not passing his so-called Trust Act, which would establish rescue committees for federal trust funds. Romney is often characterized as a GOP moderate, but he’s still fiscally conservative and remains miffed that neither Trump nor Biden talk about shoring up entitlement programs.
When it comes to post-Congress life, he has three books (“not political,” he hastens to add) that he’d like to finish writing. He might speak to college campuses or perhaps even teach.
But in the end, he’s confident that he’s already experienced his high-water mark as a senator.
“My last four-and-a-half years, I was kind of spoiled,” Romney said. “And if I can’t get stuff done, I’m not the kind of guy that wants to be around here voting no on everything.” | US Congress |
The US House of Representatives has rejected a move to expel New York congressman George Santos, who was last month indicted on fraud charges.
The vote was 179-213, far short of the two-thirds majority needed to oust a House member.
Twenty-four of Mr Santos' fellow Republicans voted to expel him, but more than 30 Democrats voted against removing Mr Santos.
The first-term lawmaker, 35, denies 23 corruption charges and refuses to quit.
Only five lawmakers have been expelled in US history, including three during the nation's civil war.
Mr Santos has been dogged by allegations of falsehoods throughout his brief career on Capitol Hill, and members of both parties had heavily criticised him even before he was indicted in May on a variety of fraud, theft and money-laundering charges.
In recent weeks, after prosecutors added more charges, at least five of his fellow New York Republicans pushed for him to be removed. He is also under an ethics investigation in the House.
Those pushing for his ouster argued that Mr Santos had cheated voters by misrepresenting himself.
But some Republicans said he should only be expelled if he is found guilty in court.
According to political outlet Axios, some Democrats voted to save Mr Santos as they were concerned about the precedent of expelling a lawmaker before either a conviction or an ethics committee report, though other Democrats felt that supporting the embattled Republican was "unreal" and "really weird".
In a speech on the House floor ahead of the vote, Mr Santos said: "The loss of the presumption of innocence establishes a dangerous precedent that threatens the very foundation of our legal system."
Also on Wednesday evening, the chamber rejected a resolution to censure Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat, over her criticism of Israel.
Twenty-three Republicans sided with Democrats to kill the motion by 222 votes to 186.
The censure was put forward by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican.
A Democrat has put forward a tit-for-tat measure to censure Ms Greene for a long list of past comments, but House aides said they would not consider that measure on Wednesday night.
Beyond these internal disputes, the House must confront pressing issues that have become more urgent over the last month.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to get a deal passed to keep the government open.
That cost him his job, though, and he was removed by the right wing of his party in early October.
The House was then at a standstill as Republicans considered candidate after candidate for Speaker before finally agreeing on Mike Johnson.
With another possible government shutdown now looming in a matter of weeks, Republicans must quickly come together to pass legislation that can also win approval in the Democratic-led Senate.
Political fault lines could also rupture over foreign aid, with President Joe Biden recently asking Congress for $105bn (£87bn) to help Ukraine, Israel and other countries in the face of two major wars.
While Republicans have been united in their support of Israel against Hamas, they have been divided on helping Ukraine, with many conservatives opposed to sending more aid to the country. | US Congress |
Welcome to Fox News’ Politics newsletter with the latest political news from Washington D.C. and updates from the 2024 campaign trail.
What's happening:
- The House readies vote on a spending package to fund the government through the holiday season…
- Biden admin staffers revolt over president's calls for a ceasefire…
- RFK receives endorsements from three all-star athletes…
UFC in Committee
Congress has plenty of political battles, but Tuesday saw several incidents that nearly resulted in literal fights.
Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin almost got in a physical altercation with Teamster President Sean O'Brien in a health, education and labor committee hearing.
"Sir this is a time, this is a place, you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults, and we can finish it here," Mullin told O'Brien after reading a tweet where O'Brien said he could take the senator "any time" or "any place."
"I would love to do it right now," O'Brien said, prompting Mullin to say, "Well, stand your butt up then."
"You stand your butt up, big guy," O'Brien said. Then Mullin, a former MMA fighter, rose from his chair and appeared ready to take on the union boss before committee Chairman Bernie Sanders told the pair to knock it off.
'CHEAP SHOT': On the other side of Capitol Hill, ex-Speaker McCarthy was accused of throwing an elbow into a Republican who helped oust him …Read more
Chaos on Capitol Hill
SHUTDOWN LOOMING: Republicans talking with Democrats to gauge where votes may lie to pass spending bill, avoid shutdown …Read more
BLOCKED: Bid to impeach Mayorkas halted as eight Republicans join Democrats in opposition …Read more
JOHNSON'S FIRST TEST: House readies vote on new speaker's plan to avoid government shutdown …Read more
'WE NEED BOLD CHANGE': House Freedom Caucus comes out swinging against Johnson plan to avert shutdown …Read more
'MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE': These 8 Republicans joined with Dems to kill Mayorkas impeachment …Read more
'SIGNIFICANT QUESTIONS': Turner, Stefanik call for DOJ probe into Michael Cohen after recent testimony …Read more
'REASSERT AUTHORITY': Freedom Caucus chair shares warning for Johnson as Republicans rebel on CR …Read more
White House
'WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?': Distraught mother of American wrongfully on death row in China calls on Biden to confront Xi …Read more
'NOT GOING TO COMMENT': White House refuses to say it will support subpoena cooperation in Biden classified docs investigation …Read more
CLEAN UP FOR A DICTATOR: WH dismisses question about blue city's sudden makeover …Read more
DISSENT LETTER: Biden officials rebel against president on Israel-Hamas war …Read more
TROUBLE BREWING: Biden supports 'decent paying job' for 'average citizen in China'; won't surrender US trade secrets …Read more
UNSOLVED MYSTERY: Photo of the mysterious White House cocaine emerges …Read more
Tales from the Campaign Trail
TIME'S ALMOST UP: GOP Presidential field keeps shrinking but Trump still leads the pack …Read more
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN': Vulnerable Dem attended Hollywood fundraiser with donors linked to corruption, discrimination scandals …Read more
TRIPLE THREAT: NFL Hall-of-Famer, mountain biking champion, NBA legend endorse RFK Jr for president …Read more
What else?
TICKING CLOCK: Kansas senator calls on Senate Dems to pass Israel funding bill …Read more
PAYBACK: Georgia man threatens to kill Marjorie Taylor Greene and her staff, now faces federal charges …Read more
ANOTHER RECORD: Migrant encounters broke prior October highs …Read more
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more on FoxNews.com. | US Federal Elections |
Democrats outperformed history and expectations with a surprisingly strong midterm elections performance Tuesday, with the promised red wave nowhere to be found.
The best news for the GOP is that they appear to be the favorites to narrowly retake the House of Representatives, though the outcomes of key races have not yet been called. Apart from that, the results so far are a litany of disappointments for Republicans.
In the Senate, the contests that will determine control — Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin — have not yet been called. But Democrats have a path to hold on, helped by John Fetterman’s victory in a GOP-held open seat contest in Pennsylvania. If Democratic incumbents Catherine Cortez Masto and Mark Kelly triumph in Nevada and Arizona, the party would keep its majority (Cortez Masto is currently trailing, but the outstanding mail vote will likely benefit her, while Kelly is ahead in Arizona). If one of them loses, and Democrat Raphael Warnock (currently leading in Georgia) falls short of 50 percent, his race will head to a runoff next month that will determine the majority.
Democratic candidates also performed strongly in contested governor’s races, holding on to governorships in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Maine, New Mexico, and New York. Though it’s still too early to make definitive conclusions about why the promised red wave didn’t appear, there are a couple of emerging trends that could help explain what happened last night. One broader story is that incumbents of both parties proved to be quite resilient — making this the first midterm election cycle since 2002 in which there was no “wave” washing out the president’s party. Instead, where there was turnover in House or state legislature contests, it was often because of redistricting, with new maps helping Republicans in US House races in New York and Florida and positioning Democrats for gains in Michigan’s state legislative contests.
Another broader story is that the country remains quite polarized, with statewide results tracking 2020’s outcomes pretty closely rather than swinging in the out-party’s favor (as in typical midterm years). And there seem to be two likely culprits for Republicans’ relatively weak performance: the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision ending federal abortion rights protections — and Donald Trump.
What happened? Dobbs and Trump.
One year ago, when Republicans picked up Virginia’s governorship and came surprisingly close to winning in New Jersey as well, it appeared history was repeating itself — that voters were turning against the incumbent president’s party. Overwhelmingly, this is the most common outcome in midterms. It’s what happened in the past four midterm cycles — 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 — all of which were “wave years” featuring the out-party making dramatic gains in Congress, winning key statewide contests, and pulling off surprising upsets. Only very dramatic developments in US politics, such as the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the 2002 midterms, seemed to be able to shake up this pattern.
Why does this so often happen? Midterms may be inherently demobilizing to many of the incumbent president’s supporters precisely because he’s not on the ballot — they feel less threatened because they know he’ll still be in office no matter how the midterms turn out and are therefore less motivated to vote. Political scientists have also put forward the “thermostatic” public opinion model, suggesting that swing voters tend to swing against the incumbent party, thinking that the country has been moved too far to either the left or right.
Through the first half of 2022, polls and special election results indicated Democrats were on track for one of these midterm bruisings. Then the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision happened. The conservative Supreme Court justices’ elimination of federal abortion rights protections wiped out a legal status quo that had existed for half a century and is a rare example of a dramatic policy shift clearly opposed by the incumbent president. Millions more Americans confronted the possibility that if they or someone in their family should need an abortion, they could be blocked from getting it by the government. A shift in national political sentiment was quickly evident in special election results. The decision — and Democratic messaging and advertising heavily focused on it — appears to have mobilized Democratic base voters who’d otherwise tune out for the midterms and convinced swing voters that Republicans have moved the country too far to the right.
There was another dramatic difference between these midterms and past ones — the role of Donald Trump.
Typically, the midterms are a referendum on the party in power. Turning the page from their previous presidential election defeat, the out-party blames the incumbents for all the nation’s problems, urges the electorate to vote for “not these guys,” and wins a sweeping victory. Republicans tried to follow that playbook this year, with ads overwhelmingly focused on inflation and crime.
But instead, the 2022 midterms appear to have been viewed as a choice between Biden and Trump, not a referendum on Democrats alone — and voters in many states seem to have made the same choice they did in 2020, with state outcomes closely matching that year’s results. Trump exerted his influence in getting flawed candidates like Mehmet Oz and Herschel Walker nominated in key contests this year. He also returned to the headlines in the second half of 2022 as he faced legal problems, continued to disparage the legitimacy of Biden’s victory over him, and geared up for a repeat presidential run. The GOP also made unmistakably clear that it remained the party of Trump — in contrast to, say, Virginia’s governor’s contest, where Glenn Youngkin tried to appeal to moderate voters by presenting a new face of the party.
A polarized nation
Yet while Democrats outperformed expectations and historical norms, the election was not a landslide win for their party. Republicans still appear favored to win the House, and some swing states still appear to be quite closely divided. Red-leaning states Trump won in 2020 like Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina still went red. And many of Trump’s preferred candidates were not overwhelmingly rejected by voters, instead losing by only a small margin.
In other words, the country remains divided between a large bloc of consistent Democratic voters and a large bloc of consistent Republican voters, with only a relatively small group of swing voters who have uncertain loyalties, as Lee Drutman and Charlotte Hill recently wrote.
What these midterms made clear is that these divisions will likely persist so long as Trump remains a major force in politics. When Trump recedes to the background of the news — as he did in the fall of 2021, when Virginians voted — and Republicans modulate their presentation, they seem to be able to win over wavering Democrats. But now he’s back. Trump is highly effective at motivating infrequent GOP voters and winning the intense loyalty of his base. Then again, Trump has also alienated an even larger group of voters, including many swing voters, and the GOP suffered for that on Tuesday as the red wave they dreamed of failed to materialize. | US Federal Elections |
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik are accusing former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen of committing perjury and "knowingly" making false statements while testifying before Congress in 2019, Fox News Digital has learned.
Turner, R-Ohio, and Stefanik, R-N.Y., who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, penned a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday calling for an investigation into the matter.
Turner and Stefanik pointed to Cohen’s testimony last month in New York City as part of the non-jury civil trial stemming from New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against former President Trump, his family, and the Trump Organization. The lawsuit accuses Trump of defrauding banks and inflating the value of his assets.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued. Trump has repeatedly said his financial statements had disclaimers, requesting that the numbers be evaluated by the banks.
"We write to refer compelling evidence that Michael D. Cohen appears to have committed perjury and knowingly made false statements while testifying under oath during his deposition before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on February 28, 2019," they wrote.
"Specifically on October 25, 2023, while testifying in the trial People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump et al.,….Mr. Cohen admitted that the testimony he gave before the Committee in 2019 was knowingly and intentionally false," they wrote.
Turner and Stefanik referenced Cohen’s February 2019 testimony, in which he was asked whether Trump directed him or former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weiselberg to "inflate the numbers for his personal statement."
"I’m sorry. Did he ask me to inflate the numbers? Not that I recall, no," Cohen testified to the House Intelligence Committee in February 2019.
While on the stand in New York City last month, Cohen was presented with the transcript of his February 2019 testimony.
When asked if he was being "honest" in front of the House Intelligence Committee in February 2019, Cohen testified: "No."
"So you lied under oath in February of 2019? Is that your testimony?" Trump attorney Alina Habba asked him.
"Yes," Cohen replied.
Turner and Stefanik said Cohen’s statement "raises significant questions about his testimony before the committee," and said his testimony in New York is "inconsistent with his testimony before the committee."
"That Mr. Cohen was willing to openly and brazenly state at trial that he lied to Congress on this specific issue is startling," they wrote to Garland. "His willingness to make such a statement alone should necessitate an investigation."
"In sum, Mr. Cohen’s testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on February 28, 2019 is contradicted by his reported recent testimony on October 25, 2023," they continued. "Mr. Cohen’s prior conviction for lying to Congress merits a heightened suspicion that he has yet again testified falsely before Congress."
Turner and Stefanik requested the Justice Department investigate whether any of Cohen’s testimony "warrants another charge" of making a false statement before Congress.
Cohen, in 2018, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, making false statements to Congress and tax evasion. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Neither the Justice Department nor Mr. Cohen immediately responded to Fox News Digital's request for comment. | US Political Corruption |
Cincinnati congressman postpones town hall after 'threats against Jews'
A congressman from Greater Cincinnati said he was forced to postpone a town hall planned for Saturday as a result of "security concerns."
In a thread on X, formerly Twitter, Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman said Friday he had been warned about potential danger ahead of the town hall planned for Lebanon, in suburban Warren County.
"We've been advised by the House Sergeant at Arms and local law enforcement that due to problematic online discourse and very serious national threats against Jews, it’s imperative we take necessary steps to keep people safe," said Landsman, who is Jewish.
"This is a scary and difficult time, and we want to be sure we stay fully engaged while keeping everyone safe," wrote the freshman from Cincinnati's Mount Washington neighborhood.
The town hall had been set for noon Saturday at the Lebanon Public Library. Landsman said the meeting would be rescheduled.
The postponement comes as war in the Middle East has inflamed passions by those who support Israel's right to strike back after a horrific terror attack, and those who are angry over civilians being killed in Gaza as Israel responds.
"Our Jewish and Muslim friends are in enormous pain right now," he said in an email to constituents. "The pain and trauma from the loss of life is real and disorienting. We are scared not just for those in Israel and Gaza, but for our own safety with the staggering rise of antisemitism, islamophobia, and violence against Jews and Muslims."
. | US Political Corruption |
Latino economy advocates ‘on high alert’ over potential budget cuts
Hispanic economic activity could take a steep dive if key programs are reduced as part of across-the-board federal spending cuts, according to a network of nonprofit organizations dedicated to growing wealth among Hispanics.
The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) is hosting representatives from 20 of its affiliates in a broad advocacy push in Congress Wednesday, seeking to raise awareness of the link between federal programs and Latino economic activity.
“I would say we’re on high alert. Our advocacy prior to this was really seeking additional funding for the programs that support the work that our members do in communities,” NALCAB CEO Marla Bilonick told The Hill.
“I don’t think I’m saying anything that’s rocket science, but cuts really are going in the opposite direction of where we need to go. The need is still really, really high. And those of our members who are operating on the ground need more support, certainly not less.”
The group’s asks come as Republicans and Democrats dial up a spending fight hoping to avert a government shutdown and 1 percent mandatory spending cuts per the recently passed Fiscal Responsibility Act.
That bill was signed into law by President Biden earlier this month, marking the end to a protracted fight over raising the debt ceiling. It includes mandatory discretionary spending cuts if all 12 appropriations bills are not passed by Jan. 1.
That 1 percent haircut could grind the Latino economy to a halt, said Bilonick.
“Basically what it means is, entrepreneurs that are looking to start businesses or grow businesses wouldn’t be able to access funding to be able to do that. Aspiring homeowners will not get the support that they need or the programs that they need to access affordable housing,” she said.
“[Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs)] that are working in communities will not have sufficient funding to fund consumers and small businesses in their communities to move upward on the economic spectrum. So there are real consequences to this that should not be overlooked.”
NALCAB’s targets include programs run by the Small Business Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of the Treasury that broadly help provide liquidity to communities underserved by the financial system.
They include relatively small federal budget line items such as Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which provide targeted assistance for economic activities ranging from infrastructure projects to business development.
NALCAB’s target budget for CDBG is $4.2 billion for fiscal 2024, up from the $3.3 billion budget HUD reported for the program in fiscal 2023.
The 2022 State of Latino Entrepreneurship report, an annual analysis published by the Stanford Graduate School of Business, found that Latino-owned businesses grew in number, revenue and payroll at a faster clip than white-owned businesses from 2007 to 2019.
And between 2019 and 2022, Latino-owned businesses grew their revenue on average 25 percent, while white-owned businesses grew 9 percent.
Yet Latino-owned businesses had greater liquidity needs and lower approval rates for loans over $50,000.
“At the time of application for business loans from national banks, [Latino-owned businesses] have similar, if not better, qualifying indicators than [white-owned businesses] on average,” wrote the Stanford researchers.
“Nevertheless, [Latino-owned businesses] have substantially lower approval rates than [white-owned businesses] when applying for larger loans ($50,000 or more), and higher rates of approval for small loans (less than $50,000),” they added.
That lack of access to capital is not new to Latino entrepreneurs, but Bilonick said federal cuts to programs like CDFIs could accentuate the problem.
“One huge lever to entrepreneurship is access to capital, and the traditional financial system has not been very friendly to Latino entrepreneurs,” she said.
And Bilonick added the cuts could be most painful for the kinds of entrepreneurs who drive economic mobility.
“I’m talking sole proprietors, street vendors who are looking to convert to a storefront, folks who are kind of in this transition point, whether that be going from an idea to a business or a business to two locations,” she said.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | US Federal Policies |
CNN anchor Abby Phillip asked Ms Ocasio-Cortez: “Jim Jordan looks to be the person who Republicans will put up for a vote. You joined in [with] all Democrats in voting to get rid of Kevin McCarthy. Any regrets if Jim Jordan is the man who replaces him?”
“No. It has never been truly within the integrity and history of this institution for one party to elect another party’s member speaker,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez said on Monday night.
“We will see if Jim Jordan has the votes. We will see if individuals like Mike Lawler or Marc Molinaro, who represent New Yorkers in Hudson Valley, the Catskills, Westchester County, will actually vote to install a man who voted to overturn the United States’ election and who supports a national abortion ban to be speaker of the House, second in line to the presidency,” she added.
“I have my doubts that the people of New York would really stand for that. But in terms of the integrity of the institution, I think it’s important that we support Hakeem Jeffries as speaker of the House,” she said of the minority leader and Brooklyn congressman.
Asked if Mr Jordan is a better or worse option than Mr McCarthy, the ousted speaker, Ms Ocasio-Cortez said, “It’s difficult to say. Kevin McCarthy clearly eroded the institution. He held the entire US economy hostage with the debt limit”.
“He then went back on his word and his deal with the president in doing that. It was Kevin McCarthy that installed this and ultimately made the call for a one-person motion to vacate that led us into this mess to begin with. So, it’s difficult to say,” she added.
“But, I do believe that the entire Republican Party has an institution problem and that they have driven the entire country to the brink in this incredibly sensitive moment,” she concluded.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez later added to her call for action closer to midnight on Monday, sharing footage of her CNN appearance on X and writing: “If you do not want your GOP Representative to support Jim Jordan for Speaker, you should call them within the next 24 hours.”
Nebraska Republican Congressman Don Bacon announced his persistent opposition to Mr Jordan on Monday night, writing on X: “I’m not budging. I’m a five-time commander and deployed to Middle East four times. I’ll do what is best for country.”
According to CNN, Republicans considered to be a firm no on Mr Jordan as speaker include Mr Bacon, Mr Lawler, as well as Reps Mike Kelly, Carlos Gimenez, and Mario Diaz Balart.
Reps Ken Buck, Victoria Spartz, Steve Womack, and Marianette Miller-Meeks were leaning towards a no vote, the network noted. | US Congress |
Even after the GOP’s abortion rollback cost Republicans dearly in the 2022 elections, the new GOP majority in the House moved forward with policies curtailing abortion access.
But after wipeouts in Tuesday night’s elections in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia—each of which hinged on abortion—Republicans are going to have to tread even more delicately on the issue in Washington, both in policy and politics.
And they may have finally realized it.
On Wednesday, Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) told reporters that House Republicans need to “take stock that post-Dobbs the American people want every level of government to more appropriately respect the difficult choices women have to make.”
“We have to recognize that these are difficult choices and politicizing them is not helping,” said Molinaro, who represents a district President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Any internal GOP soul-searching on abortion, however, will take place under the leadership of newly minted Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a staunch religious conservative who has made the fight to ban abortion an essential component of his legal and political career.
Before Tuesday’s elections, Democrats were already prepared to pounce on even a whiff of fresh anti-abortion force in Johnson’s policy moves. The speaker has distanced himself from the idea of any new national abortion restrictions, calling it a states’ issue and suggesting Republicans have other priorities.
But under Johnson, House Republicans have launched new efforts to advance anti-abortion policy through a subtler and more piecemeal approach: by attaching restrictions on government funding bills.
Under the Hyde Amendment, an unofficial but bipartisan rule, federal money is barred from being directed to fund abortions and related services.
In two separate appropriations bills—which Johnson is desperate to move ahead of a Nov. 17 shutdown cliff—there are provisions to block abortion access. One of them has language to block the District of Columbia from enforcing a law prohibiting discrimination against women who have had an abortion or use contraception. It sparked backlash from GOP moderates on Wednesday, according to Semafor.
If Johnson’s ascent has demonstrated anything, it’s that right-wing lawmakers—and not purple district representatives like Molinaro—hold the keys to the conference. There will continue to be significant pressure on GOP leadership from the right to pursue anti-abortion policy, no matter the political consequences.
“We can’t give in to the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this, because if it doesn’t, then the pro-life movement is basically not going to exist,” Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) told reporters on Wednesday.
Some Republicans also flatly doubted the idea that Tuesday night’s elections should cause them to reconsider their plans on abortion policy in the Capitol.
“Everybody's got their own posture on that,” said Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX), “and I doubt most people are going to change their individual stances on that based on anything that happened in an off-year election.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), an influential conservative, said he was “not favorably disposed” to any new federal abortion restrictions and said that voters should determine abortion rules in their localities.
But when asked whether he was worried about the durability of abortion as an electoral issue, Roy said he was worried about the durability of “you know, the life that's in question.”
“I'd like to actually preserve and protect that,” he said.
The tension between positions like Molinaro’s and those like Vance’s distills the GOP’s current crossroads now that the party has achieved its decades-long mission of dismantling Roe.
Having reached that goal, Republicans have struggled with their newfound role of being the proverbial dog that caught the car. They are freer than ever to push national abortion restrictions from Congress at least constitutionally.
But politically, the backlash to the Dobbs decision has demonstrated the clear political cost of them attempting to bring the anti-abortion movement to its logical conclusion.
In 2022, Democrats grew their narrow Senate majority and nearly held the House against enormous odds by putting promises to protect abortion access at the core of their message.
On Tuesday, Democrats won control of the Virginia state legislature by hammering suburban GOP candidates on the issue. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) won re-election by defining his opponent, Daniel Cameron, as an anti-abortion extremist. And in Ohio, a clear majority voted to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution.
Despite pushing anti-abortion bills heavily when they were in the House minority, Republicans under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) did little to act on the issue, even in a post-Dobbs landscape.
Now, most Republicans are in a place of distancing themselves from doing anything at a federal level by touting the party’s conventional states-rights position—or by saying Republicans are too focused on other issues.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) claimed it was a “myth created by Democrats” that House Republicans are working to undo abortion rights.
“There’s no agenda,” he said. “There’s nothing on our schedule like, ‘Abortion Week,’ like ‘Let’s Outlaw Abortion Week.’ Like that’s just not on our schedule. So what the hell are people talking about?”
While Republicans did not necessarily call it that, in the first week of their majority under McCarthy, they passed two new anti-abortion measures, though modest.
Republicans have also inserted abortion-restricting policy riders into must-pass, sprawling government spending bills. In another effort, House Republicans attempted to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s decision allowing pharmacies to dispense abortion pill mifepristone.
“Many of us are very stringently pro-life,” Crenshaw continued. “We’ve also been saying for years that it’s a state issue. Now there’s internal debate up here at the federal level on how far you would ever push it on the federal level, but what legislation are we even considering?”
While the current speaker introduced legislation earlier this year as a rank-and-file member to make it a federal crime to transport a minor across state lines without a parent’s knowledge—and co-sponsored legislation declaring the right to life at conception—he has not floated any legislation remotely in the vein since taking the gavel.
“We argued my entire career, for 25 years, that the states should have the right to do this,” Johnson told Fox’s Sean Hannity. “There’s no national consensus among the people on what to do with that issue on a federal level, for certain.”
Any broad abortion restrictions would go nowhere in the Senate and would only serve to fire up the conservative base—and hang a politically toxic vote around the necks of vulnerable Republicans.
But the piecemeal approach offered by the Hyde Amendment seems to be emerging as the GOP’s safety valve. In July, Republicans passed a defense budget bill that included an amendment to prohibit the Pentagon from paying for any abortion-related travel expenses from service members and employees.
Under Johnson, the approach has continued. Shortly after he assumed the speakership, Republicans added language to legislation funding the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services that would prevent federal funds from going to medical institutions with physician training programs that include instructions related to referring or performing abortions.
Members across the ideological spectrum—and in competitive districts—are comfortable messaging around the Hyde Amendment, helping explain its appeal.
“The Hyde Amendment has historically had bipartisan support, and it’s not a ruling on the issue of abortion itself, it’s whether or not taxpayer money can be used for abortions,” said Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA), a Biden district Republican.
“I don’t think in the end that’s what’s going to matter,” he said.
In states where abortion rights have been codified, like New York and California, Republicans have had better success insulating themselves from abortion politics and focusing on other conservative priorities like addressing crime and high costs.
“I come from New York, we have the most late-term radical laws in the country, so we actually ended up picking up seats all across New York state because it wasn't as much of an issue there,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) told the Daily Beast. “I think where it was an issue was in the states where they’re trying to have bans.”
Democrats are certain to make abortion a core element in their case to take back the House, no matter what Johnson’s majority does or does not do on the issue. As soon as he took the gavel, campaign organizations began emphasizing his hardcore anti-abortion record as a lawmaker and evangelical lawyer.
But Democratic lawmakers are hardly confident that Republicans will back away from anti-abortion pushes, be they larger or more incremental.
“The American people want to know that reproductive freedom, whether they choose to avail themselves of it or not… they want to know it is legal, safe, and available, and not restricted, not dictated, not impeded by somebody else,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), who helped campaign for down ballot Democrats who captured the legislature in Richmond on Tuesday.
“That, as we have seen, is where people are in Virginia, and arguably in Ohio, and in Michigan, and in Kansas, that’s where people are,” she said. The lesson for Republicans, Spanberger added, is “maybe we have overstepped in the ways we think our constituents, or the American people, want us to dictate what other people can do in their own lives.”
Speaking to The Daily Beast, Crenshaw—a conservative who has nevertheless called out the far right of his party—outlined some of the GOP thinking on the issue.
While making clear he believes any abortion at all is morally wrong, he said, “I also live in political reality.”
“We haven’t won over the culture yet. And if you push too hard here, you're gonna lose people here,” Crenshaw said, referencing people with different perspectives on abortion. “And so those are reasonable political discussions to have.” | US Federal Policies |
Penzone won’t seek 3rd term as Maricopa County Sheriff, will step down in January
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone says he will not seek a 3rd term and will be stepping down as Sheriff in January 2024.
“I have decided that I will not pursue a third term,” said Penzone during an emotional news conference Monday afternoon. “Not because I leave this office in any way, shape, or form disappointed; it has all been incredible. It is the greatest privilege and blessing that anyone could’ve asked for, especially in a profession like this.” Penzone said.
Penzone also announced he would be stepping down before his current term is up, "I think it’s appropriate for me to depart of the office in January and clear the way so during the last year of my term going into elections, there aren’t distractions. It gives me a chance to pursue some opportunities to serve the public in several ways and to do some things that present themselves as incredible options and opportunities."
Penzone became Sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county in 2017 when he defeated then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Prior to his role as Sheriff of Arizona’s most populated county, Penzone was an officer with the Phoenix Police Department for 21 years.
Penzone: Federal oversight has ‘overstayed’
Sheriff Paul Penzone also spoke publicly about the federal oversight of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office led by Monitor Robert Warshaw. Arizona’s Family Investigates reported recently how the monitor has not had an in-person visit to Maricopa County in nearly four years, making his last visit in January 2020.
The oversight of the sheriff’s office comes from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres against then-sheriff Joe Arpaio with the court finding that the sheriff’s office violated the constitutional rights of Latinos by racial profiling and conducting unlawful traffic stops.
In his press conference announcing his departure, Penzone said the department now is not the department it was in 2007.
“What happened then doesn’t happen now,” Sheriff Penzone said. “It’s a thing of the past. What is not a thing fo the past is the quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money that’s still being spent because of oversight that in my opinion has overstayed.”
According to figures provided by Maricopa County, the county has spent $233 Million since 2008 in lawsuit costs and costs related to the years of federal monitoring. The money spent on the case in 2023 was the most spent since the case began.
“The federal court oversight is more concerned about internal punishment than it is about external public safety and that hurts the people of this community. When I have more people investigating internal affairs and compliance issues than I do crimes in our community, something is wrong.”
“I’ll be damned if I’ll do three terms under federal court oversight for a debt I never incurred and not be given the chance to serve this community in the matter that I could --- if you’d take that other hand from being tied behind my back,” Penzone said.
Arizona’s Family Investigates reached out to the federal monitor Robert Warshaw and the ACLU of Arizona for their response on Penzone’s statement about the federal oversight.
This is a developing story. Stay with Arizona’s Family for continuing coverage of this event.
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Weapons, electioneering, conflicts: Reports offer insider view of Election Day challenges
As a group of poll workers — two Democrats and one Republican — were leaving a voting center in Sun City on the evening of Nov. 1, 2022, they encountered a voter in the parking lot.
The dark-haired man, 5-foot-8 and about 160 pounds, was holding two ballots and walking toward the polling place.
When the group told him it was closed, he quickly became irate.
“The voter indicated that he was going to try to vote anyway and began ‘charging’ toward the door,” according to a report on the encounter filed by Annarose Lilly, a Democrat and the voting location's head poll worker.
Another worker "walked toward the voter and told him the poll was closed. At that point, the voter started cussing. ... The voter continued to become agitated and said that we ‘liberals’ allow a lot of fake ballots."
The Sun City incident is one of 66 politically charged disruptions and conflicts between poll workers, election observers and voters during last year's general election reported to officials in Maricopa County.
Elections professionals nationwide continue to face intense scrutiny after unfounded allegations of widespread fraud surfaced during the 2020 presidential race. In Arizona, local elections officials have seen an onslaught of threats that have driven some from their jobs. They have long warned that conspiracy theories spread by some Republican officials and candidates could manifest in conflicts at the polls.
Reports made by poll workers and voters during the 2022 election show some of those predictions have become reality. Election officials are concerned about how they'll keep poll workers safe — and what effect increased hostility at the polls will have on voter turnout, poll workers and polling sites.
The reports, called "goldenrod forms" because of the color of the paper they are written on, are filled out by poll workers — and sometimes observers and voters — to make notes and document problems at polling sites. They offer an insider's view into the challenges and experiences of election workers in the state's largest county on Election Day. The Sun City report was dated Nov. 1, during early in-person voting, but most were written on Election Day.
Not all interactions documented by the 2022 election reports were as hostile as the one in Sun City. Some were more banal and resolved quickly.
For instance, one poll worker wrote of asking a family to stop taking selfies inside a polling place. The images violate state law, which bans anyone from taking photographs while inside or within a certain distance of a voting location. The family agreed, apologized and went on their way.
But many describe threatening behavior that appears related to election conspiracies.
While reviewing the nearly 500 reports submitted for the November election, The Republic found:
- Reports of tensions between poll workers, observers and voters were mentioned in about 14% of the forms. Poll workers and election officials said the number of incidents increased in 2022.
- A majority of the reports mention the printer problems that plagued many of Maricopa County's polling sites on Election Day or other technical issues. These reports reflect election workers' frustrations as equipment issues led to long lines and angry voters. In some cases, voters saw the problems as proof of election fraud.
- A handful relate to low supplies and lines at polling sites.
- A small number report mistakes by poll workers, which were either corrected on the spot or documented for election officials to resolve later. For instance, a poll worker reported on one form that she accidentally mixed up two voters' ballots, but canceled and reprinted them.
- A few of the notes mention instances in which officials with the U.S. Department of Justice entered polling sites. Maricopa County was one of five Arizona counties and 64 jurisdictions nationally where the DOJ monitored polls for compliance with federal voting rights laws.
- Just over 100 forms contain other accounts that couldn't be categorized. These include everything from short, end-of-the-day notes from observers — "Everything ran smoothly," wrote one Republican observer at the end of her shift in El Mirage — to reports of medical emergencies among poll workers and voters. The forms are handwritten, and in some cases, The Arizona Republic couldn't fully decipher the accounts. Other reports had so few details that they couldn't be categorized.
The Republic reached out to Democratic and Republican workers involved in the incidents described in the forms. One wouldn't agree to talk on the record, citing concern for her personal safety, and six others didn't return The Republic's calls.
Some of those who did agree to speak acknowledged that they might receive harassment and backlash for doing so.
"Maybe I'll regret this, but I'm just like, 'I am not going to be intimidated by these bullies,'" Lilly said. "That's it."
This summer, election officials are focused on finding polling locations for 2024 and keeping everyone safe. Maricopa County Elections Director Scott Jarrett said he is concerned about ballot drop box observers and conflicts at the polls, but also worries that reports of such incidents will cultivate fear around elections, making voters think twice about turning out.
"It's incredibly frustrating that we have people that don't have confidence in this process," Jarrett said. "And it's because there is a well-resourced campaign to build that distrust."
Forms document conflicts, disruptions and electioneering
At an unidentified polling station, a poll worker approached a voter openly carrying a gun. Initially, the man said he was unaware that he couldn't bring his weapon into the voting center but later admitted that he knew it was illegal, the poll worker wrote.
At Sunrise United Methodist Church in Phoenix, a woman in a white SUV parked near the entrance to the polling station and screamed at voters as they walked in to cast their ballots.
And in another report, a lawyer entered Palm Lane Elementary School in west Phoenix to speak with a Republican observer about "proper identification of a voter and other issues."
"He didn't ask poll inspector or staff about permission to be here," the report notes.
All are evidence of problematic Election Day scenarios that have increased in recent years as electoral distrust has grown, Jarrett said.
Every election has conflicts, he said, and with more in-person voters in Maricopa County in 2022 than in 2020, it makes sense that there might have been an increase in disruptions last year. But he doesn't believe an increase in in-person voters entirely accounts for the uptick in polling place disturbances. At least some of the increase is attributable to distrust of elections, he said.
And, he said, the reports of electioneering, conflicts, threats and disruptions contained within the goldenrod forms are likely an undercount of such incidents. Jarrett said he's received other reports of concerning activity via the Election Department's poll worker hotline and in post-election conversations with staff and representatives of voting locations. Additionally, poll workers at some voting sites that didn't turn in any goldenrod forms still said they experienced disruptions and threatening behavior from voters.
Politically charged voting disruptions and conflicts aren't limited to Maricopa County. Local election officials across the country have reported threatening behavior at the polls, according to David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election and Innovation Research, a nonpartisan organization that works to build confidence in elections.
"I hear these stories all the time from election officials where they tell me that they've heard their poll workers have experienced harassing conduct," he said. "These aren't widely reported all the time."
Printers, tabulators played into false voter fears, forms show
Erin Smith was nervous coming into the November election.
She already had worked a rough August election where county-issued pens smeared some ballots. The problem only occurred at a few voting locations, and nobody was prevented from voting, but the issue annoyed voters and Smith, a Republican, said she endured a long shift filled with irate people.
As a troubleshooter, she was tasked in November with addressing any issues that might arise at several polling sites in the northern part of the county, including Desert Hills Community Church and Outlets at Anthem. The first 20 minutes of Election Day went smoothly, she said, and then the tabulators at one of her sites began rejecting ballots.
"The mood of the building changed," Smith said. "People immediately got pissed off."
Things went downhill from there, she said. Nobody directly threatened her with violence, but she was cursed at and berated by frustrated voters. Several hurled insults at her and a few tore up their ballots, threw down the pieces of paper and walked out, she said.
No goldenrod forms were turned in for either of the polling sites Smith worked, showing that these records underrepresent the number of issues experienced at polling places last year.
A number of the forms reviewed by The Republic that were submitted by voters mentioned printer problems. Some also expressed discontent with tabulators and pushed for a hand count in Maricopa County.
"Machines working sometimes and not taking ballots at times," one voter at a Scottsdale polling location wrote. "Same old crap. We are better than this. I demand hand counting. ... This is ridiculous."
Proponents of hand counting argue that it is more secure and would increase trust in elections. But tabulators are air-gapped — disconnected from the internet and from other machines that might be connected to the internet — and numerous studies have concluded that human error could make hand counting less accurate than a tabulator count.
There are also many logistical barriers to the idea, including costs and staffing needs, and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes recently warned that hand counts might violate state law.
Other voters took the printer problems as proof of fixed election results. A voter in Sun City wrote that he "reluctantly" submitted his ballot via a secure box used for tabulator misreads after attempting to cast his vote several times at two different polling sites. The box, known as "door 3," allows voters to drop their completed ballots into the tabulator to be counted later at the county's election facility.
"I don’t feel comfortable about this coincidence," the voter wrote.
Smith, a military veteran, said she went home "traumatized" by Election Day.
"When you're surrounded by a crowd of very angry people, they don't really have to make direct physical threats," Smith said. "It's an extremely uncomfortable experience just by itself."
Keeping voters and election workers safe
The day after the Sun City incident, which took place early in the in-person voting period, the voting location's head poll worker called an all-hands morning meeting.
Lilly and her team were concerned the man from the night before might come back, she said, perhaps with weapons. They wanted to be ready in case he did.
"We just kind of went through it," she said. "We just said, basically, 'If somebody comes in here with a gun, what are we going to do? We're going to get out as fast as we can. So, always watch your back and know where the exits are.'"
One of her poll workers contacted the Sheriff's Office asking for deputies to provide additional security at the polling site. Initially, Lilly's team hoped a deputy could be on-site when they were in the building.
But law enforcement can scare away voters, Jarrett said, and balancing that concern with security needs is often a complex decision.
"When that call came in, it was me working with the Sheriff's Office on what was the best response — what they could provide, what we felt comfortable with," he said. "And definitely having a sheriff's presence outside a voting location during operations was not something that we felt comfortable with."
Instead, Jarrett told Lilly and other poll workers at the Sun City site that a deputy would sit in the parking lot at closing so that they could safely get to their cars.
In an urgent, life-threatening situation, deputies would still respond as normal, Jarrett said. In most cases, however, election workers are encouraged to try de-escalating the situation themselves rather than calling law enforcement for help. Jarrett said de-escalation techniques to calm upset voters have become a major part of poll worker training over the years.
When law enforcement does need to respond to the polls for an incident, they typically do so in an unmarked vehicle and not in full uniform, Jarrett said.
So far, that system has worked. Lilly said the man who her colleagues encountered in the parking lot didn't come back. Amid the printer problems on Election Day, she worried that her team might "have an insurrection on our hands," but she and other poll workers — whose pay started at $12.80 per hour — successfully defused situations that arose throughout the day.
"It's a matter of survival," she said. "If we don't de-escalate, our lives could be at stake. ... We are the first line of defense. Whether it's fair or not, that's the way it is."
Will poll workers come back? Election officials brace for 2024
Although cases of harassment and threats of violence are becoming more common nationwide, the vast majority of election workers and voters aren't impacted, said Becker, the Center for Election and Innovation Research head.
"The number of voters or poll workers affected by this are probably in the hundreds nationwide out of hundreds of millions of voters and poll workers," he said.
But he and Jarrett worry that broader perspective might get lost in reports of such incidents and drive away voters from the polls. Becker said he encourages concerned voters to mail in their ballot or vote early since most incidents tend to happen on Election Day.
Jarrett is preparing for the 2024 election cycle by expanding de-escalation training for poll workers. He'll also begin meeting with the Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement partners as voting draws closer, he said.
In the meantime, he's worried about finding churches, schools, community centers, shopping centers and other places willing to serve as polling locations.
"We're hearing feedback from our facilities that are not wanting to be voting locations because of electioneering going on," he said, adding that roughly 50 locations that served as polling sites during the 2020 election didn't come back for 2022.
Finding poll workers, he said, is less of a concern. Although some who worked on Election Day may not come back, it's normal for a significant number of election workers each year to be new to the polls, Jarrett said.
Lilly said she intends to return. Most of her fellow poll workers from the Sun City site who are planning to sit out future elections will do so for reasons unrelated to fear or harassment, she said, although she knows of one who won't come back because he was so infuriated by verbal abuse from voters.
"He was just not going to take it," she said. "He wasn't afraid, but he was angry."
Initially, Smith was so frustrated by her experience as an election worker that she didn't plan to work the next cycle.
"I was super, super pissed," she said.
Her mind has changed since then, she said. If she has the opportunity to work another election, she'll take it.
"We need people to do this sort of stuff," Smith said. "And it would be wrong for me to encourage people to do it when I am unwilling to do it myself. We have to have elections, and we have to have people who run these elections, and we have to have people from across the political spectrum that are willing to pitch in."
Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County, Pinal County and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip to share on elections or voting? Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka. | US Federal Elections |
Police lapel videos captured the moments a couple was detained by Las Vegas SWAT officers during a Tupac Shakur.at a home in July in connection with the cold case killing of rapper
The 24 heavily redacted videos obtained Thursday by The Associated Press do not provide a view into the home or identify the couple, whose faces were blurred from view as the officers shouted commands to "come out with your hands up and your hands empty!"
But a copy of thesaid police were searching on the night of July 17 for items "concerning the murder" of Shakur from Duane "Keffe D" Davis, one of the last surviving witnesses to a crime that has fascinated the public for decades.
Authorities have been tight-lipped about their investigation. Beyond a brief statement released last month confirming their raid in the nearby city of Henderson, they haven't released any information about the long-dormant case, including why they had obtained a warrant now to collect items from a man who has long been known to investigators.
Davis, now 60, is a self-described "gangster" and the uncle of one of Shakur's known rivals who was seen as a suspect early on in the police investigation.
The newly released videos showed the couple emerging from the garage, spotlight on them, after a SWAT officer on a bullhorn repeatedly announced their arrival.
"It's the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department," the officer said. "We have a search warrant. You need to come out with your hands up and your hands empty!"
Meanwhile, another officer was on the phone with the woman, asking her to stay calm and to exit through the garage, according to one of the videos.
"I want you to stay on the phone with me," the SWAT officer told her. "Open up that door, OK?"
"Please don't shoot me," the woman responded.
One at a time, with hands on their heads, the man and woman walked slowly down the driveway to the officers and into a swirl of red and blue police lights illuminating the neighborhood.
"Who you looking for? Me?" the man said while the officers zip-tied his hands behind his back. He was wearing dark shorts, a tank-top and a black shirt.
The officers asked the man for his name, but the video's audio cut off when he answered. He told police only he and his wife were inside the home.
Messages left at phone numbers publicly listed for Davis and his wife were not returned, and it wasn't immediately clear if Davis has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
The videos don't show the actual police search. But, detectives reported collecting multiple computers, a cellphone and hard drive, a magazine that featured Shakur, several .40-caliber bullets, "tubs containing photographs" and a copy of Davis' 2019 tell-all memoir, "Compton Street Legend."
In the book, Davis said he first broke his silence over Tupac's killing in a closed-door meeting with federal and local authorities in 2010. He was 46 and facing life in prison on drug charges when he agreed to speak with them.
"They promised they would shred the indictment and stop the grand jury if I helped them out," Davis wrote.
Shakur was gunned down on the night of Sept. 7, 1996, while waiting at a red light near the Las Vegas Strip in a BMW driven by Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight. A white Cadillac pulled up next to them and gunfire erupted, striking Shakur multiple times. The 25-year-old rapper died a week later.
Davis, in his memoir, admitted to being inside the Cadillac. He said he "tossed" the weapon used in the attack into the back seat and implicated his nephew, Orlando Anderson, saying he was one of two people in the back of the car where the shots were fired.
The shooting happened shortly after a casino brawl earlier in the evening involving Anderson, Shakur and others.
Anderson denied any involvement in Shakur's killing. He died two years later in a shooting in Compton, California. Davis describes himself in his memoir as the only living witness among the four men in the Cadillac. Knight, who survived the drive-by shooting, is serving prison time in California for running a man over in 2015 with his pickup truck, killing him.
In 2019, Greg Kading, a retired Los Angeles police detective, alleged tothat Shakur's murder had already been solved after Davis confessed to his involvement in the killing of Shakur while being questioned in connection with the murder of Biggie Smalls.
But at the time, Las Vegas police only said that the case was still an open investigation.
In June, Shakurin honor of his contributions to the arts, as well as his activism for racial equality.
In May the city council in Oakland, Californiato rename a stretch of MacArthur Boulevard between Grand Avenue and Van Buren Avenue, where the rapper once lived, as "Tupac Shakur Way."
The rapper influenced the hip-hop genre and amassed a global fan base, selling over 75 million records worldwide and winning six Grammy Award nominations during his short five-year recording career.
Gina Martinez contributed to this report.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Increasingly desperate Republicans convened behind closed doors again Friday as the endless search for a House speaker drags deeper into a second week leaving the GOP majority spiraling into chaos for the foreseeable future.
READ MORE: GOP’s Scalise ends his bid to become House speaker after failing to secure the votes
Attention swiftly turned to Rep. Jim Jordan, the hardline Judiciary Committee chairman and founder of the hardline Freedom Caucus as the next potential candidate after Majority Leader Steve Scalise abruptly ended his bid when it became clear hardline holdouts refused to back him.
But not all Republicans want to see Jordan as speaker, second in line to the presidency. Overwhelmed and exhausted, anxious GOP lawmakers worry their House majority is being frittered away to countless rounds of infighting over rules, personalities and direction of the GOP.
“Someone said ‘You know, you could put Jesus Christ up for Speaker of the House, and he still wouldn’t get 217,” said Rep. Mark Alford, R-Mo., about the number needed to win a floor vote.
Next steps are uncertain as the House is essentially closed while the Republican majority tries to elect a speaker after ousting Kevin McCarthy from the job.
Jordan and his backers instantly revived calls for party members to get behind the Ohio Republican.
Backed by Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner to challenge Joe Biden in 2024, Jordan had nominally dropped out of the race he initially lost to Scalise, 113-99, during internal balloting at the start of the week.
“Make him the speaker. Do it tonight,” said Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “He’s the only one who can unite our party.”
Jordan also received an important nod Friday from the Republican party’s campaign chairman, Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., who made an attempt to unify the fighting factions.
“Removing Speaker Kevin McCarthy was a mistake,” Hudson wrote on social media, saying the party finds itself at a crossroads also blocking Scalise. “We must unite around one leader.”
WATCH: Jeffries encourages moderate Republicans to join Democrats and end House deadlock
Heading into the morning meeting, Jordan said: “I feel real good.”
But the firebrand Jordan has a long list of detractors who started making their opposition known. Other potential speaker choices were also being floated.
Some Republicans proposed simply giving Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who was appointed interim speaker pro tempore, greater authority to lead the House for some time.
With the House narrowly split 221-212, with two vacancies, any nominee can lose just a few Republicans before they fail to reach the 217 majority needed in the face of opposition from Democrats who will most certainly back their own leader, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Absences heading into the weekend could lower the majority threshold needed.
READ MORE: Trump says Netanyahu ‘let us down’ before the 2020 airstrike that killed Iranian Gen. Soleimani
In announcing his decision to withdraw from the nomination, Scalise said late Thursday the Republican majority still has to come together and “open up the House again. But clearly not everybody is there.”
Asked if he would throw his support behind Jordan, Scalise said, “It’s got to be people that aren’t doing it for themselves and their own personal interest.”
Scalise had been laboring to peel off more than 100 votes, mostly from those who backed Jordan. But many hard-liners taking their cues from Trump have dug in for a prolonged fight to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster from the job.
The hold-outs argued that as majority leader, Scalise was no better choice, that he should be focusing on his health as he battles cancer and that he was not the leader they would support. The House closed late in the night, with lawmakers vowing to meet again early Friday.
Handfuls of Republicans announced they were sticking with Jordan, McCarthy or someone other than Scalise — including Trump. The position as House speaker does not need to go to a member of Congress.
Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, repeatedly discussed Scalise’s health during a radio interview that aired Thursday.
“Well, I like Steve. I like both of them very much. But the problem, you know, Steve is a man that is in serious trouble, from the standpoint of his cancer,” Trump said on Fox News host Brian Kilmeade’s radio show.
Scalise has been diagnosed with a form of blood cancer known as multiple myeloma and is being treated, but has also said he was definitely up for the speaker’s job.
McCarthy said afterward that Scalise would remain as majority leader but had no other advice for his colleagues. The California Republican had briefly floated a comeback bid but that seems uncertain.
“I just think the conference as a whole has to figure out their problems, solve it and select the leader,” he said.
The House is entering its second week without a speaker and is essentially unable to function during a time of turmoil in the U.S. and wars overseas. The political pressure increasingly is on Republicans to reverse course, reassert majority control and govern in Congress.
The situation is not fully different from the start of the year, when McCarthy faced a similar backlash from a different group of far-right holdouts who ultimately gave their votes to elect him speaker, then engineered his historic downfall.
But the math this time is even more daunting, and the problematic political dynamic only worsening.
Exasperated Democrats, who have been waiting for the Republican majority to recover from McCarthy’s ouster, urged them to figure it out.
“The House Democrats have continued to make clear that we are ready, willing and able to find a bipartisan path forward,” he said, including doing away with the rule that allows a single lawmaker to force a vote against the speaker. “But we need traditional Republicans to break from the extremists and partner with us.”
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
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EXCLUSIVE: Internal government communications obtained by Fox News Digital show administration officials scrambled to respond to information requests pertaining to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg's use of government jets.
According to the communications, officials within the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) independent office that handles Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests actively consulted with a spokesperson for Buttigieg and a senior FAA official appointed by President Biden when processing the requests. In addition, they discussed how to sort data, enabling them to avoid sharing taxpayer costs of Buttigieg's flights.
"It’s become increasingly clear that the Biden administration is engaging in purposeful political meddling to protect Secretary Buttigieg and hide the true cost of his taxpayer-funded private jet travel," Caitlin Sutherland, the executive director of government watchdog group Americans for Public Trust, told Fox News Digital.
"They continue to willfully ignore public disclosure laws, confirming the unofficial motto of this administration: Rules for thee, but not for me."
In December, Fox News Digital reported that, based on flight tracking data, Buttigieg had taken 18 trips on an FAA-managed fleet of executive aircraft, reserved for government officials for occasions when flying commercial isn't feasible. The flight records aligned with Buttigieg's internal calendar obtained at the time by Americans for Public Trust.
Following that report, Fox News Digital filed an FOIA request for detailed information and costs of all flights logged by FAA planes since early 2021. For months, the DOT FOIA office repeatedly delayed providing the requested information.
Then, on Feb. 27, the FAA finally shared the flight log for its private jets almost immediately after the Transportation Department's inspector general announced an investigation into Buttigieg's use of the planes. The FOIA office, though, opted to leave costs associated with all the flights carrying Buttigieg and his advisers blank and ignored multiple attempts for clarification.
One day later, Fox News Digital filed a second FOIA request, asking for all internal communications related to the first request from December. Those communications were turned over this month.
"One thing I did discuss with Randa: where we provide the ‘...cost the FAA charged for the flight...’, to use a header for that column that is something like ‘OMB Circ A-126 Cost,’" Wil Riggins, the vice president of the FAA Flight Program Operations office, said in a Jan. 20 email to other officials discussing the Fox News Digital request from December.
Randa appears to be a reference to Alexandra Randazzo, a senior FAA attorney.
The email from Riggins — who remains the most senior official in the Flight Program Operations office which maintains the government jets — came in response to an email thread from a month prior in which a senior adviser said they would hold on any action related to the request until "preliminary discussion" was conducted.
Further, by altering how costs for the flights requested by Fox News Digital were defined, the FAA appeared to have found a loophole to avoid sharing such cost information.
On Jan. 30, six days after his email, Riggins then abruptly contacted Transportation Department spokesperson Benjamin Halle and FAA Assistant Administrator for Communications Matthew Lehner, who Biden appointed to the position in 2021, to arrange a conference call discussing the FOIA request. The call took place less than an hour later.
"Wil, is it possible to send over the spreadsheet when you get a sec? I know it’ (sic.) not final, I just want to check it against our record to make sure what we have is all accurate," Halle emailed after the call.
Riggins responded shortly after with the entire flight log of Buttigieg's flights on government jets. In addition, on Jan. 30, FOIA manager Dean Torgerson informed other officials that the responsive records were compiled, meaning the entirety of the records Fox News Digital requested were produced about a month before the FAA finally shared them on Feb. 27.
The communications additionally show Riggins repeatedly delayed giving his final signature on the FOIA production for reasons unknown to lower-level FOIA managers.
At one point, on Feb. 14, a senior adviser to Riggins arranged a phone call with Torgerson who inquired about the delay. A week later, on Feb. 27, when Torgerson was asked by others whether the FOIA records had been given a final signature, he said he "advised that their Deputy VP can sign on behalf of the VP."
After additional back-and-forth, Torgerson was informed on Feb. 27 at 1:10 p.m. that Riggins had finally signed off on the records, allowing them to be shared with Fox News Digital. Four minutes later, The Washington Post, citing information given to it by the Department of Transportation, scooped that agency's inspector general had opened its probe into Buttigieg.
After the FOIA was shared, Fox News Digital emailed the FOIA office multiple times, asking for clarification on why the taxpayer costs of Buttigieg's flights were omitted. While the agency never responded, the emails show officials discussed the issue offline.
"The FAA follows FOIA requirements and regulations which include ensuring a complete response," the FAA said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "We routinely provide internal notifications about FOIA updates and responses."
Riggins did not respond to a request for comment.
And in a separate email to Fox News Digital, Lehner said it is standard FAA practice that the FOIA office advises "when a media FOIA is released." However, the emails showed Lehner communicated with Riggins several weeks before the FOIA was released. | US Political Corruption |
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is forging ahead with his bid to become House speaker and suggested he intends to hold votes this weekend if he does not win on Friday.
Jordan's office announced a Friday morning press conference late on Thursday night. House lawmakers are expected to hold a third round speaker vote later Friday morning after Jordan failed to clinch a majority of the chamber in two rounds of voting this week.
"Our plan this weekend is to get a speaker elected to the House of Representatives soon as possible, so we can help the American people," Jordan told reporters.
Jordan called on Congress to "get to work" and cited the crisis in the Middle East as well as the looming government funding deadline on Nov. 17.
"We've got important work to do, important work to do. We need to help Israel. We need to get the appropriations process moving so that the key elements of our government are funded and funded in the right way, particularly our military," Jordan said.
"We need to get back to our committee work and frankly, we need to continue the oversight work that I think is so darn important. In short, we need to get to work for the American people."
The GOP bomb-thrower fell 17 votes short of a 217-threshold majority on Tuesday, and then 18 votes short on Wednesday.
Tentative plans for a Thursday vote were scuttled as GOP lawmakers huddled behind closed doors for nearly four hours trying to figure out how to move forward.
The House has been paralyzed for more than two weeks since ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy's ouster by eight Republicans and every House Democrat.
It's not immediately clear what kind of path forward Jordan has. Multiple holdouts who met with him on Thursday told reporters their minds remained unchanged.
Nevertheless, Jordan brushed off questions about what he intends to do if he loses again Friday, insisting the best way to get the House back in order was to elect a speaker.
"Between the first and the second vote, you all said we're going to lose ten, 15 votes…We picked up a few. We lost a few. I think the ones we lost can come back," Jordan said.
"So look, there's been multiple rounds of votes for speaker before. We all know that. I just know that we need to get a speaker as soon as possible, so we can get to work for the American people." | US Congress |
Scalise Drops Out Of U.S. House Speaker Race, Adding More Chaos
The struggle prolonged the House’s inability to address an approaching fiscal deadline and respond to the Middle East war.
(Bloomberg) -- Representative Steve Scalise abandoned his short-lived campaign Thursday to become US House speaker following days of contentious meetings among fellow Republicans.
The struggle has only deepened divisions within the party and prolonged the House’s inability to address an approaching fiscal deadline and respond to the Middle East war.
“It wasn’t going to happen today. It wasn’t going to happen tomorrow,” Scalise told reporters. “I withdraw my name.”
Scalise’s withdrawal from the race after narrowly winning the party’s nomination followed the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who was voted out of the job by eight Republican dissidents and unified Democrats.
The two events illustrate a historically dysfunctional House majority party riven by ideological and policy disputes over issues like immigration, Ukraine assistance and a potential government shutdown.
Several senior House Republicans expressed doubt any member of their party could get the 217 votes on the floor required to claim the speaker’s gavel without some help from Democrats.
Earlier in the day, the Republican leaders of two national security committees called for dramatic action to overcome the standoff.
Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers and Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul acknowledged Thursday that their party is unable to get 217 votes to elect a speaker solely on the backs of Republican support. Republicans can afford to lose only four votes if Democrats remain united behind Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Rogers suggested Republicans might have to cut a deal with Democrats and called on Jeffries to spell out what concessions he would require to help the GOP elect a speaker.
(Updates with additional detail beginning with fourth paragraph)
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | US Congress |
What President Joe Biden is selling as a win for student loan borrowers in the debt ceiling deal is actually a forfeiture of his own authority to help debtors and a ticking time bomb for tens of millions of Americans. Biden could still move to save his student debt cancellation agenda from conservative sabotage — but instead his administration has been downplaying the threat and assuring borrowers that everything is going to be just fine.
Student loan payments have been on pause for the past three years, as part of a COVID-19-era relief program initiated by former president Donald Trump. In one of a series of concessions to Republicans during the recent debt ceiling standoff, Biden must restart student loan payments by the end of this summer.
That means more than forty million Americans will be once again crushed by debt, but it also strips Biden of his best tool to defend his broader student debt cancellation program: delay. His order to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for federal borrowers is expected to be struck down by the Supreme Court any day now — making it an inopportune moment for Biden to relinquish his power to extend the payment pause.
Democrats could have avoided this scenario. But they refused to get rid of the debt ceiling, an arbitrary limit on government borrowing, when they controlled the House and Senate during the first two years of Biden’s term. Then, instead of bypassing it unilaterally using executive authority, Biden chose to negotiate with Republicans, making major concessions — including his own power to keep the student loan payment pause in place — to raise the ceiling for just two years. In doing so, Biden may be cementing his decades-long legacy as a defender of student debt.
There are still tools available to Biden to enact his student debt program, but the options are limited, and the time left to move on them is dwindling.
“We have moved mountains to get to this point,” said Thomas Gokey, cofounder of the Debt Collective, a debtors’ union that has been pushing for universal student debt cancellation. “To have the whole thing sabotaged by the Biden administration is a bitter, bitter pill.”
“He Rolled Out the Red Carpet for Republicans”
Biden’s student debt cancellation program began with a campaign trail promise, and is now turning into a pipe dream as the president negotiates away his own power to provide relief to borrowers.
When Congress was negotiating a COVID relief package in March 2020, Biden argued from the campaign trail that the bill should cancel a minimum of $10,000 in debt per federal borrower. The legislation Trump ultimately signed didn’t cancel any student debt, but it paused payments and interest accrual.
Biden promised additional relief. At a town hall just before the November election, he told voters, “I’m going to make sure everyone gets $10,000 knocked off of their student debt.”
Finally, in August 2022, after more than a year of pressure to fulfill his campaign promise, Biden signed an executive order that canceled $10,000 in debt for some federal borrowers and up to $20,000 for Pell Grant recipients.
But the cancellation didn’t go into effect right away, because Biden means-tested the cancellation, which meant it only applied to people who made less than $125,000 per year, and required debtors to submit applications to claim relief — a time-consuming process. In the meantime, conservatives found plaintiffs who were willing to sue to block Biden’s plan.
“They didn’t even start the application process until a month after they made the initial announcement,” said Luke Herrine, a law professor at the University of Alabama and student debt expert. “There was no reason for the delay, I think, except to see who decided to sue.” By waiting for lawsuits, explained Herrine, the administration could potentially adjust the program in response.
But instead, the strategy made the program vulnerable. “If they had forced the Supreme Court to make a decision that didn’t just stop [the cancellation program] but actually forced the court to reenact debt, I think that would be a different situation,” said Herrine, because of the logistical challenge and potential political backlash of reimposing already-canceled debt.
In other words, said Gokey, “He rolled out the red carpet for Republicans to try to kill it.”
Biden’s cancellation program was halted in November by legal challenges before it took effect, and is likely to be struck down by the Supreme Court any day now — in a case that bypassed normal fact-finding procedures and stands on extremely dubious legal grounds.
In the meantime, more than forty million Americans have not had to make any payments since March 2020 and interest has not accrued on their debts, because the payment pause has been renewed eight times since it began under Trump. It won’t be renewed again.
This week, Congress raised the debt ceiling through legislation that contained a number of key Republican priorities — including affixing new work requirements to food stamps and cash assistance, an increased military budget, funding cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and an end to the payment pause by August 30.
Even so, Education Secretary Michael Cardona is calling the deal a win. “I applaud @POTUS for averting a crisis with this deal and for protecting our student debt relief plan in full,” Cardona tweeted after the deal was announced. “I thank President Biden and his team for looking out for the 40 million hard-working Americans who will benefit from student debt relief and protecting our new and improved Income Driven Repayment plan. We will continue fighting for student borrowers.”
Biden’s Last Best Shot at Cancellation
Even after Biden negotiated away his power to help tens of millions of student borrowers, he can still attempt to salvage his campaign promise.
If the Supreme Court strikes down his original order, Biden can cancel debt through a different avenue known as “compromise and settlement” under the Higher Education Act of 1965. Under this authority, the education secretary can enter into settlements with debtors to lower the amount they owe or cancel their debt altogether.
Conservatives would likely bring legal challenges to this authority, too, but it might have a better shot at surviving than his original debt cancellation plan. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court denied a challenge to a compromise and settlement agreement that canceled $6 billion in debt for graduates of three for-profit schools.
Biden could also expand the existing income-driven repayment program, which allows debtors to make monthly payments based on their income and forgives their debt after a couple of decades. His Education Department is currently undergoing rulemaking for an income-driven repayment program that could reduce the monthly payments of many debtors and pave the way for full forgiveness in the long run.
This effort could also face court challenges — which is why the clock is ticking on all of these options. That’s because if Biden does attempt one of these backup plans and it gets tied up in litigation, there’s no possibility this time around to extend the payment pause as a temporary solution while waiting for a court ruling.
Gokey of the Debt Collective fears that slow-walking the first round of debt cancellation and the debt ceiling deal have defanged the executive branch of its power to cancel debt. Combined with the imminent end of the yearslong loan pause, many student debtors may end up in a worse position than when Biden took office.
Some people might end up thinking this was Biden’s plan all along.
“There is a significant portion of people who take a cynical read on this and say, ‘Biden was never serious, that this was all a con game,’” Gokey said. “We began the Biden administration with a Swiss Army Knife of tools to cancel student debt, and we could end with no legal options to cancel student debt, not just under the Biden administration but for future administrations.” | US Federal Policies |
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) criticized a handful of House Republicans who are blocking efforts to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.
“The American people elected a House Republican majority to serve as a check and balance and be able to govern,” Lawler said Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “Some of my colleagues have, frankly, been stuck on stupid and refused to do what we were elected to do, against the vast majority of the conference, who have been working to avoid a shutdown.”
Lawler doesn’t think it’s possible for the Senate to pass the remaining 12 appropriations bills by Friday’s deadline and avoid a shutdown.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and a few other hard-line conservatives have opposed any short-term funding measures, blocking Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from passing anything and that requires compromising with Democrats.
“Two weeks ago, the speaker came forth with a proposal that would reduce spending by 8 percent in the 30-day continuing resolution, as well as enact most of the provisions of H.R. 2 to deal with our border crisis,” Lawler said. “Unfortunately, folks like Matt Gaetz chose to oppose that for some ridiculous reason.”
Gaetz has repeatedly said he will oppose McCarthy’s resolutions and has threatened to call for a vote to remove the Speaker from his position. On Tuesday, he also asked for pay to be withheld from members of Congress if a shutdown occurs.
Lawler said he agrees with his party that federal spending must be cut, but avoiding a shutdown is necessary.
“I’ve been very clear from the start, that I will not support a government shutdown, that we need to do everything we can to avoid one,” Lawler told Collins. “Nobody wins in a shutdown. And in fact, the American people are going to be the ones that get hurt.”
Congress has three days to come to an agreement to fund the government past Sept. 30.
On Tuesday, the Senate revealed its own proposal for a resolution, which would put off a shutdown for six weeks. While House Republicans were able to advance four full-year spending bills Tuesday, it is not enough to prevent the shutdown. | US Congress |
Police said they are searching for an 18-year-old male suspect in the apparently random fatal stabbing of a New York City social justice advocate.
Ryan Carson, 31, died after being stabbed in the chest multiple times during an assault early Monday morning in Brooklyn, police said.
The suspect in his murder works at a school in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, police said Wednesday. Authorities are searching for him in the area and other locations he is known to frequent.
The NYPD released a photo Tuesday of the unidentified suspect. Police are working to develop probable cause to make an arrest, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday.
The suspect is said to have had prior summonses for disorderly conduct in 2022.
The apparently unprovoked attack occurred shortly before 4 a.m. Monday. The incident was captured on surveillance footage.
The suspect walked past the couple while they were seated on a bench at a bus stop, police said. As the two then walked toward the suspect, he started to damage scooters and said to Carson, "What are you looking at?" according to Kenny.
As Carson tried to de-escalate the situation, the suspect swung a knife at him, Kenny said. Carson backed up and tripped, falling to the ground. The suspect then stabbed him three times, with the knife piercing his heart, Kenny said.
Prior to the attack, the suspect was seen "acting agitated" while talking to a woman police believe to have been his girlfriend, Kenny said. Following the stabbing, the woman apologized to the couple and said the name Brian, Kenny said.
First responders attempted lifesaving measures before transporting Carson to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Carson and his girlfriend were coming home from a wedding at the time of the attack, New York ABC station WABC reported.
He was a longtime campaign organizer for the New York Public Interest Research Group, a non-partisan political organization, focusing on waste policy. He also created the campaign No OD NY, which raised awareness for overdose prevention centers.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams called his murder "unthinkable," and vowed that the NYPD "won't rest until we bring him to justice."
"He advocated tirelessly for others, and his giving spirit was a buoy to all," Adams said on social media Tuesday. "I'm praying for all who knew and loved Ryan." | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Last Tuesday, Fidelity National Financial, or FNF, a real estate services company that bills itself as the “leading provider of title insurance and escrow services, and North America’s largest title insurance company,” announced that it had experienced a cyberattack.
Since then, homeowners who have mortgages and prospective buyers who are purchasing properties with FNF or one of its many subsidiaries have been left confused and concerned, not knowing exactly what is happening or what to do.
“I feel like I’m getting the runaround. I don’t even know where my money is at,” said one woman, who told TechCrunch that she sold a house in Illinois for $397,000 using IPX 1031, an intermediary owned by FNF.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said she has been trying to call IPX 1031 but has not been able to talk to anyone there.
When TechCrunch called a number for an employee at IPX 1031 that the woman had been calling, a voicemail said that “Fidelity National Financial is still experiencing a system wide outage. We do not have access to send or receive email or access to any system. We appreciate your patience.”
FNF has not responded to TechCrunch’s emails since last week.
A call on Monday to FNF’s receptionist at its corporate office was met with an automated message saying the receptionist was busy. Calls to the same number on Wednesday returned the same automated message.
Contact UsDo you have more information about this data breach? We’d love to hear from you. From a non-work device, contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or email [email protected]. You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.
FNF’s website was down at the time of publication.
To date, FNF has said little publicly about the incident. In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where it announced the breach, FNF said: “We blocked access to certain of our systems, which resulted in disruptions to our business. For example, the services we provide related to title insurance, escrow and other title-related services, mortgage transaction services, and technology to the real estate and mortgage industries, have been affected by these measures.”
Christine Youmans, who said she uses LoanCare to pay her mortgage, said she doesn’t know what to do. LoanCare, which is owned by FNF, offers “full-service subservicing to the mortgage industry, according to its website.
“Everything is shut down and no one can pay the mortgage and you can’t get them on the phone,” Youmans told TechCrunch.
A call to a number on the LoanCare website responded with an automated message that said: “For those of you impacted by the recent catastrophe, we hope you and your family are safe. We are here to help you and your family return to normal.”
Shortly after the cyberattack, the ransomware gang known as ALPHV (or BlackCat) claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on FNF in a message posted on the gang’s official dark web site. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
FBI, Federal Judge Agree Fighting Botnets Means Allowing The FBI To Remotely Install Software On People’s Computers
from the all's-fair-in-love-and-cyber-war dept
The ends aren’t always supposed to justify the means. And a federal agency that already raised the hackles of defense lawyers around the nation during a CSAM investigation probably shouldn’t be in this much of hurry to start sending out unsolicited software to unknowing recipients.
But that’s the way things work now. As a result of the DOJ-propelled push to change Rule 41 jurisdiction limitations, the FBI is now able to infect computers anywhere in the United States using a single warrant. In the “Playpen” case, the software was used to obtain information about users and devices visiting a seized (but still live) dark web CSAM site.
A couple of years later, the lack of jurisdiction limitations were used for something a bit more useful for even innocent computer users: the FBI secured a single warrant authorizing it to send its botnet-battling software to computers all over the nation, resulting in the disinfection of thousands of computers.
And while this all seems like a net positive for US computer users, the underlying facts are a bit more worrying: judges will allow the FBI to place its software on any user’s computer at any time, provided it can convince a court the end result will be something other than a massive number of privacy violations.
It’s inarguable that disrupting botnets is a public good. But is it inarguable that disruption should occur by any means necessary… or, at least, any means convenient. The disruption of another botnet has been achieved with the assistance of the FBI, a federal judge, and some government software deployed without notification to an unknown number of infected devices.
The FBI quietly wiped malicious programs from more than 700,000 computers around the world in recent days, the agency said Tuesday, part of an operation to take down a major component of the cybercrime ecosystem.
[…]
The FBI got a court’s permission to proceed with the operation on Aug. 21, according to a copy of the warrant. Agents proceeded to hack into Qakbot’s central computer infrastructure four days later, the FBI announced, and forced it to tell the computers in its botnet to stop listening to Qakbot.
An unnamed FBI “source” added this:
Victims will not be notified that their devices had been fixed or that they had ever been compromised, he said.
All of that was accomplished with a five-page warrant [PDF] that doesn’t have much to say about the probable cause compelling this invasion of users’ computers. The warrant authorized the FBI to, in effect, “search” every computer it sent its software to.
PROPERTY TO BE SEARCHED
This warrant applies to the electronic storage media contained in victim computers located in the United States onto which malicious cyber actors have installed, without authorization, the Qakbot malware, and which computers are in communication with the Qakbot botnet infrastructure.
What’s not immediately clear is how the FBI determined which computers were infected. Instead, it seems to authorize an intrusion into all computers it could access, with infections determined following the mass search.
The warrant says “remote access techniques may be used:”
To search the electronic storage media identified in Attachment A [PROPERTY TO BE SEARCHED, as shown above] and to seize or copy from those media any electronically stored information, such as encryption keys and server lists, used by the administrators of the Qakbot botnet to communicate with computers that are part of the Qakbot botnet infrastructure; and
To search the electronic storage media identified in Attachment A and to seize or copy from those media any electronically stored information, such as IP addresses and routing information, necessary to determine whether any digital device identified in Attachment A continues to be controlled by the Qakbot administrators after the seizure or copying of the electronically stored information identified in Paragraph 1.
At first glance, it might appear that the FBI limited its software deployment to known infected devices. But that’s clearly not the case, as was noted earlier in the NBC report quoted above. Here are the facts again, given a bit more weight with the addition of the FBI’s RAT warrant:
The FBI got a court’s permission to proceed with the operation on Aug. 21, according to a copy of the warrant. Agents proceeded to hack into Qakbot’s central computer infrastructure four days later, the FBI announced…
So, odds are the FBI didn’t know which computers were infected when it deployed its “remote access technique.” That means it was given permission to target any device it could access via the internet, with controlling factors only appearing four days after it had already performed its “search.”
The only mitigating factor is the last paragraph of the approved warrant. And that’s only mitigating if you believe the FBI would not use this opportunity to sniff around for others things it might be interested in.
This warrant does not authorize the seizure of any tangible property. Except as provided in the accompanying affidavit and in Paragraphs 1 and 2, this warrant does not authorize the seizure or copying of any content from the electronic storage media identified in Attachment A or the alteration of the functionality of the electronic storage media identified in Attachment A.
All this means is the court trusts the FBI not to abuse this access. And it forces all of us to operate by the same questionable standard, since the FBI has made it clear it is not willing, nor legally obligated, to inform computer users their computers were compromised by FBI software, however briefly or usefully.
Given that lack of disclosure, it’s going to make it almost impossible to challenge evidence of other criminal activity that might have been obtained during this mass search. It also means users aren’t able to double-check the FBI’s work by ensuring their devices are free of either botnet infections or FBI software.
And there’s a very good chance the FBI handled this all honestly and decently and actually performed a useful public service. The point is there are now court-accepted mechanisms in place that would easily allow the FBI to engage in activities that are more abusive of people’s rights without worrying too much about judicial oversight and/or victims of questionable spyware deployments ever finding out they were targeted during FBI activities ostensibly meant to take down botnets. | US Federal Policies |
Charlie Neibergall/AP
toggle caption
Republican presidential candidate former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Northside Conservatives Club Meeting, on August 30 in Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
Republican presidential candidate former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Northside Conservatives Club Meeting, on August 30 in Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/AP
At an event in New Hampshire, former Vice President Mike Pence took aim at his former boss, calling for the Republican Party to abandon populism in favor of good, old-fashioned conservatism.
At the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., and billed as a "major speech" by the Pence campaign, Pence said that Donald Trump had promised to run as a conservative in 2016.
"It's important for Republicans to know that he and his imitators in this Republican primary make no such promise today," Pence said.
Noting New Hampshire's status as an early-primary state, Pence said Republican voters "face a choice...will we be the party of conservatism, or will we follow the siren song of populism unmoored to conservative principles?"
In the speech, Pence argued that the party should be guided by what he described as longstanding conservative principles, such as a hawkish foreign policy and free-market economics, rather than a populism he argued is rising on both the political right and left.
Pence repeatedly invoked the memory of Ronald Reagan, calling for a return to what Pence described as the "limited government" and "traditional moral values" that he said the Republican Party had stood for for 50 years. Pence warned that the GOP stands "at a crossroads" and described populism as a path of "decline" and irrelevance.
Pence's speech confronting the rise of populism comes at a time when he and other Republican presidential hopefuls are trying to distinguish themselves in a crowded field that's been consistently dominated by Trump.
So far, Pence has walked a careful line when it comes to his former boss: stressing that he obeyed the Constitution rather than Trump during the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, while also saying that he would support Trump if he becomes the Republican party's 2024 presidential nominee, even if Trump is convicted of charges he's facing related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and other matters.
The former vice president also took aim at "liberal progressives" and what he described as failed policies by the Biden administration, including President Biden's economic and immigration policies.
But Pence focused some of his most pointed remarks on his former boss and his own party, describing the divide between conservatism and populism as a "fundamental divide between these two factions is unbridgeable."
The definition of populism - and the usefulness of the term itself - has been widely debated. According to Oxford Bibliographies, populism is an "anti-establishment, anti-elite ideology and political strategy" which tends to focus "on the tensions between the 'pure people' and the 'corrupt elite.'"
The meaning of "conservatism" is also a subject of contention. Oxford notes that conservatism is associated with the political right, "which was defined as defending inequalities and differential entitlements, concentrating matters involving rights around preserving property rights, shoring up public and social order, and promoting traditional values and conventional social relations."
Populism, meanwhile, is neither an exclusively right-wing or leftist phenomenon; the idea gained increasing prominence in the early 2010s with the rise of grassroots movements like the Tea Party on the right and Occupy Wall Street on the left. While the two movements offered starkly different visions for a way forward, both drew supports with the idea that individual citizens had to organize and push back against government and corporate interests that were not serving them, whether because of incompetence or by design.
The political ascent and election of former President Donald Trump in 2016 - with his promises to remember "the forgotten man" left behind by the political establishment - moved Trump's form of populism from from the fringes to the mainstream of the Republican Party.
As Trump's vice president, Mike Pence watched those policies unfold up close. While conservatives marked major wins in the Trump administration, like the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, many traditional priorities shifted under Trump. Most notably, Republicans long advocated for free and open markets, including international trade with few, if any, regulations.
Trump, however, took on a protectionist stance on trade, enacting tariffs on allies and adversaries alike to try to force concessions.
Pence added that he understands why many Americans across the political spectrum may be drawn to populist movements, pointing to economic inequality, widespread addiction, and other social trends as likely causes. But he said those movements on both the right and left "fellow travelers on the same road to ruin." | US Federal Elections |
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma's governor is seeking the resignation of four county officials after a newspaper's audio recording apparently captured some of them complaining about two of the paper's journalists and knowing hit men and where two holes are dug.
A portion of the recording was released by the paper, and it also appears to capture one of the four making racist comments about Black people.
Gov. Kevin Stitt said Sunday he was seeking the resignations of McCurtain County Sheriff Kevin Clardy and three other county officials: sheriff’s Capt. Alicia Manning, District 2 Commissioner Mark Jennings and Jail Administrator Larry Hendrix.
“I am both appalled and disheartened to hear of the horrid comments made by officials in McCurtain County," Stitt said in a statement. “There is simply no place for such hateful rhetoric in the state of Oklahoma, especially by those that serve to represent the community through their respective office.”
The McCurtain Gazette-News released portions of an audio recording following a March 6 county commission meeting in which Clardy, Manning and Jennings appear to discuss reporters Bruce and Chris Willingham. Jennings tells Clardy and Manning “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” and the sheriff responded, “I've got an excavator.”
Jennings also said he's known “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding "they're very quiet guys.”
In the recording, Jennings also appears to complain about not being able to hang Black people, saying: “They got more rights than we got.”
The Associated Press could not immediately verify the authenticity of the recording. None of the four returned telephone calls or emails from The Associated Press on Monday seeking comment.
A spokeswoman for the FBI’s office in Oklahoma City said the agency’s policy is not to confirm or deny any ongoing investigation. Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for Attorney General Gentner Drummond, said the agency had received an audio recording and is investigating the incident, but declined to comment further.
More than 100 people gathered outside the McCurtain County Courthouse in Idabel on Monday, with many of them calling for the sheriff and other county officials to resign.
Bruce Willingham, the longtime publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News, said the recording was made March 6 when he left a voice-activated recorder inside the room after a county commissioner's meeting because he suspected the group was continuing to conduct county business after the meeting had ended in violation of the state's Open Meeting Act. Chris Willingham, a reporter at the paper, is Bruce Willingham's son.
“I talked on two different occasions to our attorneys to make sure I wasn't doing anything illegal,” Bruce Willingham said.
Bruce Willingham said he believes the local officials were upset about “stories we've run that cast the sheriff's office in an unfavorable light,” including the death of Bobby Barrick, a Broken Bow, Oklahoma, man who died at a hospital in March 2022 after McCurtain County deputies shot him with a stun gun. The newspaper has filed a lawsuit against the sheriff's office seeking body camera footage and other records connected to Barrick's death.
Bruce Willingham said he has also turned over his audio recordings to the FBI and the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office and added he has had several conversations with federal investigators.
Joey Senat, a journalism professor at Oklahoma State University, said he was shocked to hear the comments made in the recording, especially in light of recent killings of journalists in the U.S., including the arrest last year of a Las Vegas-area elected official accused of fatally stabbing a veteran newspaper reporter who had been investigating him.
“The whole conversation seemed deplorable,” Senat said. “I was shocked as I assume most people were not only about the comments about journalists, but the racist comments regarding African Americans. Joking doesn’t excuse that.”
Senat said under Oklahoma law, the recording would be legal if it were obtained in a place where the officials being recorded did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
McCurtain County is in far southeast Oklahoma, bordering both Arkansas and Texas, in a part of the state often referred to as “Little Dixie,” because of the influence in the area from white Southerners who migrated there after the Civil War.
With its rolling, forested hills in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains, the area has become a tourism hotbed attracting a steady stream of visitors from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
State Rep. Eddy Dempsey, a Republican who represents the area in the Oklahoma House, said the recorded comments don't reflect the values of his constituents and echoed Stitt's call for the four people involved in the conversation to resign.
“All my life, we've always said we don't get enough recognition in southeast Oklahoma,” Dempsey said. “But we don't need this kind of recognition.” | US Political Corruption |
In the face of what seems like endless gun carnage in the U.S., Republican politicians call for more mental health funding even while withholding it. Not only are there now more guns than people in this country, many Republicans and the right-wing media continue to profit by leading people, especially younger men, to despair.
They're projecting their own unexamined mental health issues on others. As Salon's Amanda Marcotte has often pointed out, for Republicans it seems that every accusation is a confession.
When Donald Trump and his confederates claim that Democrats cheat in elections, that's what is known as a tell, since cheating at elections is precisely what they themselves are trying their best (or worst) to do.
When Ivy League–educated Republicans attack the liberal "elite." When Trump Republicans profess outrage about the "Biden crime family." When the malignant narcissist who formerly occupied the White House claims that liberals (whom he claims are "socialists," "radicals" or "Marxists") are out to destroy the country. Every accusation is a confession.
So Republican politicians and their media allies call for more mental health spending as a supposed solution to the gun violence crisis, one suspects that's a reflection of their own mental strain in championing an absurd interpretation of the Second Amendment and steadfastly ignoring the fact that people in other large Western nations have issues with mental health too, but for some reason don't shoot each other, or themselves, nearly as often.
So many conservatives live in an incessant state of fear — about books and experts and science and liberals and immigrants and independent women and people of color and people with different sexual preferences or gender identities — that it's no wonder they appear mentally and emotionally unhealthy.
Many men who vote Republican, it seems, are too focused on propping up their fragile masculinity to seek help in any case. (It might make them look like "betas.") Far too often, a right-wing man gets so worked up about a perceived threat to his manliness that he goes on a shooting rampage with assault-style weapons, which the Supreme Court has helpfully explained is every American's God-given right, under the twisted logic that there was no "history or tradition" in the 18th century of prohibiting high-powered firearms that hadn't been invented.
So many American conservatives live in a seemingly incessant state of fear — about books and experts and science and liberals and immigrants and independent women and people of color and people with different sexual preferences or gender identities — that it's no wonder they appear mentally and emotionally unhealthy. Then there are the evangelical and fundamentalist Christians who form the most reliable MAGA Republican base: Their alleged belief in Jesus Christ has become so warped they now perceive their savior in the person of our twice-impeached, four-times-indicted ex-president. None of this signals a group of well-adjusted human beings. The HBO series "The Righteous Gemstones," a dark comedy about shallow, grifting televangelists stunted and spoiled by wealth, has to work hard to outdo what we see at Trump rallies.
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Come on, it's not like we weren't warned about all this. Remember Trump's infamous 2016 response to Hillary Clinton: "No puppet, no puppet … You're the puppet!" Did that sound like a mentally well-adjusted adult? Or an adult of any kind? How about this lovely Mother's Day greeting, earlier this year. Who defends themselves against allegations of criminal actions by saying, "I'm a legitimate person"? Who frequently posts in all caps on social media, flinging incomprehensible accusations at political opponents?
As for anti-"woke" warrior Ron DeSantis, his campaign against Trump appears to be a spectacular failure, even as he apparently mimics Trump's fragile ego, accompanying vindictiveness and bizarre obsession with manliness. Like "personality" Tucker Carlson's 2022 special on "The End of Men," DeSantis' anti-Pride video was pretty darned homoerotic.
Along with the right-wing cable news machine profiting by actively diminishing the mental acuity of its viewers, "manfluencer" grifters like Andrew Tate, selling "alpha male" misogyny to lonely, insecure young men, have made fortunes encouraging them to become misogynistic white nationalists — essentially mini-Trumps, but with actual muscle tone (not just in risible fantasy). It's good to see some mentally healthy young people fight back with satire.
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When a serial liar and hatemonger like Trump remains the choice of a large majority of Republican voters even after two impeachments, an ever-growing count of felony indictments and an ongoing attempted coup; when voters send deeply unserious, dysfunctional or delusional individuals to Congress as their representatives; when fascist-fanboy governors like DeSantis and Greg Abbott model their states after authoritarian regimes and deploy stochastic terrorism to put marginalized populations at risk of violence, is it any wonder that ordinary citizens feel permanently on edge, in a state of chronic existential dread?
But the right won't give up — I don't mean on issues of principle or policy, since it doesn't have any, but in its crusade to "own the libs," take rights away from people who are not like them and enforce theocratic minority rule. In fact, that mean-spirited crusade is the basis of the right's tribal identity. As Adam Serwer of the Atlantic famously pointed out some time ago, the cruelty is the point:
Taking joy in that suffering is more human than most would like to admit. Somewhere on the wide spectrum between adolescent teasing and the smiling white men in the lynching photographs are the Trump supporters whose community is built by rejoicing in the anguish of those they see as unlike them, who have found in their shared cruelty an answer to the loneliness and atomization of modern life.
As I reread those lines, I think back to the cheering and laughter of the Trump supporters during CNN's pathetic "town hall" rally for Trump in May, as he turned in his typical shameless performance of lies, bluster, bullying and whining. Here's a suggested campaign slogan: "Trump 2024: Come for the Lying, Stay for the Crying." As Salon contributor Mike Lofgren has observed, the GOP's "heart of darkness" has moved beyond just whining; They want retribution, payback for all the real or perceived slights they have suffered, and they believe only their cult leader can deliver it.
The right just won't give up — I don't mean on issues of principle or policy, since it doesn't have any, but in its crusade to "own the libs," take rights away from people who are not like them and enforce theocratic minority rule.
Brian Klaas, a professor of global politics at University College London, writes that we end up with bad people in power so often for three main reasons: power acts as a magnet for corruptible people (often "Machiavellian narcissists, perhaps with a dash of psychopathy thrown in too"); holding power tends to corrupt people; we tend to give people power for the wrong reasons.
"Corruptible people are disproportionately drawn to power, disproportionately good at wriggling their way into it and disproportionately likely to cling to it once they've got it," Klaas notes. We can fix this, he argues, by fixing our political system, recruiting better candidates and instituting real accountability for wrongdoing. Good systems, he says, attract good people. Fighting corruption is an integral part of the Democratic Playbook published by the Brookings Institution. A political system dominated by money, "dark" or otherwise, is not working.
Most politicians would not entertain the thought that they are mentally unwell. They are simply playing the game; looking to gain advantage in any way that works and is not blatantly illegal (with some notable exceptions. But does that kind of Machiavellian behavior, part of the "dark triad," suggest a well-functioning mind and spirit? We too often shrug at politics, accepting the narrative that it's just a game. But it's not; it is freedom or tyranny, dignity or subjugation, life or death.
Those who dehumanize their political opponents by referring to them as enemies and who call teachers, librarians and parents "groomers" have mental health issues far exceeding those of young people struggling with questions of sexual orientation or gender identity. Men who work to limit women's autonomy over their own bodies, or for that matter conservative women who punch down to bolster their fragile status have serious issues to work on and should quit afflicting them on the rest of us.
To be fair, a great many of us in America face our own mental health issues across the political spectrum. More of us, almost certainly, should seek the counsel of friends and professionals. We are chronically depressed and lonely. Political polarization has separated friends and family members from each other. The religious right has embraced an evangelism of intolerance against other people whose mental and emotional struggles they don't understand. While Republicans play-act as defenders of the working class, they labor tirelessly to drive working people deeper into lives of endless labor and debt servitude.
As the late, great American novelist Kurt Vonnegut would have said, about this and about his currently banned books: "So it goes." I don't think he meant to indicate cynical acceptance, more like an acknowledgment of humanity's deep history of stupidity and intolerance — and the need to carry on nonetheless. So we work diligently to maintain our own sense of self, our fragile balance, our purpose and our will — even in a country where, far too often, the inmates are running the asylum. | US Political Corruption |
California recently passed a new law creating an Ebony Alert, a notification system that will keep the public informed about missing Black children and young people in an effort to address the disparity in missing persons cases. The Ebony Alert system — which will be used for Black people aged 12 to 25 — takes effect in California on Jan. 1, 2024, when it will become the first statewide program of its kind in the country.
What is an Ebony Alert?
California's legislation will allow law enforcement agencies across the state to submit requests directly to California Highway Patrol to activate an Ebony Alert, which will notify the public about incidents involving Black children and young people who are reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, or who have been abducted. The alert will also apply to situations where the missing person is disabled, cognitively impaired or otherwise at risk.
Highway patrol will then activate the alert within a designated geographic area, as requested by the investigating law enforcement agency, and "assist the agency by disseminating specified alert messages and signs, if the department concurs with the agency that an Ebony Alert would be an effective tool in the investigation of a missing person according to specified factors," the text of the legislation says.
Similar to an Amber Alert, that means an Ebony Alert could be displayed on electric signs along roads and highways. Television, cable, online, radio and social media outlets are also encouraged to pick up and share more widely the information in an alert.
How does an Ebony Alert differ from an Amber Alert?
Amber Alerts began as a local partnership between broadcasters and police in Dallas-Fort Worth to find abducted children in 1996, and expanded over the next several years into warning systems used throughout the country. The program has helped recover at least 1,127 children since it launched, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
But advocacy groups and policymakers, both within and outside of just California, have criticized the Amber Alert system for overlooking missing children who are Black, despite the fact that Black children make up a significant portion of missing people across the country. California's Ebony Alert system aims to address the racial disparity. It will apply to children and young people ages 12 to 25, as California lawmakers hope to confront a disproportionate number of young Black women who are missing.
At least 39% of children reported missing in the United States in 2022 were Black, according to the Black and Missing Foundation, which said 153,374 children of color were still missing across the country as of Oct. 11. That figure included people younger than 18 who are African American, Asian and Indian.
The nonprofit organization has compiled breakdowns of nationwide missing persons statistics by race, age and gender, using data from the Justice Department's National Criminal Information Center as well as the Census Bureau. Race was listed as unknown for a small percentage of children reported missing.
"A lot of minority children are initially classified as runaways, and as a result do not receive the Amber Alert," the foundation writes on its website, while "missing minority adults are labeled as associated with criminal involvement gangs and drugs." Statistics for adults reported missing in the U.S. last year showed at least 39% were people of color.
Berry Accius, the founder of Voice of the Youth, a Sacramento-based nonprofit youth mentoring and motivational speaking program, told, "You see the difference of when White girls go missing and Black girls go missing ... The sense of urgency is not there."
Who proposed or voted for it?
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Sunday that creates the Ebony Alert notification system. Passed earlier as Sen. Bill 673, the legislation was authored by Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat whose district covers a large block of southern Los Angeles County.
"Today, California is taking bold and needed action to locate missing Black children and Black women in California," Bradford said in a statement released by his office recently after Newsom signed the law.
"Our Black children and young women are disproportionately represented on the lists of missing persons. This is heartbreaking and painful for so many families and a public crisis for our entire state. The Ebony Alert can change this," his statement continued, adding that the notification system "will ensure that vital resources and attention are given so we can bring home missing Black children and women in the same way we search for any missing child and missing person."
In addition to citing statistics on missing Black children, Bradford also pointed to human trafficking data that found Black women and girls are at increased risk of being harmed and trafficked in the U.S.
In 2020, a report by the Congressional Black Caucus showed 40% of sex trafficking victims were identified as Black women after a two-year review of all suspected human trafficking incidents nationwide. The report said Black girls are more likely to be trafficked at a younger age than their racial counterparts, and, referencing data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, found that Black children make up more than 57% of all juvenile prostitution arrests.
California's Ebony Alert legislation is sponsored by the NAACP California Hawaii State Conference. In a statement, Rick Callender, the conference president, called its signing into law "a historic breakthrough, guaranteeing that Black children and young Black women will receive the attention and protection they need when they are reported missing."
"This is a great first step to mitigating the racial inequities when it comes to Black women and children when they go missing," Callender said in the statement.
for more features. | US Local Policies |
Senate Republican says GOP is ‘making progress’ with Democrats on border security
Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said Sunday that the GOP is “making progress” with Democrats over a bill on border security.
“We are making progress on this,” Lankford told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” “This is exceptionally important. When the administration actually put out their national security package, they asked for funding for Israel, for Ukraine, for Taiwan and for the border.”
“And then literally two days later, after they put that proposal out in their request, they also put out a piece saying that the border funding element would be, quote/unquote — this was their term — a ‘tourniquet.’ What they really need is a change in policy, because that’s the biggest issue that they need,” he continued.
A bipartisan group of Senate negotiators has been meeting over recent weeks to reach a consensus on a deal that would change immigration law in exchange for another round of Ukraine funding. However, some Senate Democrats have already sounded the alarm over the direction of the border talks.
Lankford pointed to statements made by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that suggested that the Biden administration wants to see “changes in policies so we can actually secure the border.”
“That means we’ve got to actually bring a proposal forward that will actually make that different, that could actually reform how we handle asylum, in his words, from top to bottom, that we can actually handle how we’re actually handling the process of all those individuals, and that we’re not just mass-releasing thousands of people,” he said.
When asked about whether he is prepared to go forward with any kind of overseas aid without a deal on border negotiation, Lankford emphasized that the package will need to include funding for the border and overseas aid.
“No. We’re going to do this all together,” Lankford said. “That’s been the agreement that — again, from the White House, originally. It asked for all these things to be together. We have agreed to do all these things together. We can get this done by the end of the year.”
The Biden administration outlined a roughly $106 billion national security supplemental funding request in October that included money for Israel and Ukraine as well as investments in the Indo-Pacific, humanitarian aid and border security measures. However, the House GOP passed its own package last month that only includes aid for Israel — a measure that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the upper chamber would not take up.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | US Federal Policies |
Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to overturn a district court order barring him from attacking or disparaging witnesses and other figures connected to the election subversion and conspiracy case pending against him in Washington.
In court papers filed late Thursday with the appellate court, Mr Trump’s legal team argues that the gag order imposed by Judge Tanya Chutkan on 16 October was inappropriate and an infringement on his right to free speech because he is “the leading candidate for President of the United States”.
At the time she entered the order, Judge Chutkan acknowledged Mr Trump’s status as a candidate and said her order would not bar him from “criticising the government generally ... or the Justice Department” or statements characterising his prosecution as “politically motivated”.
But she said she would prohibit anyone involved in the case from “targeting” court personnel, prosecutors, or their families.
“Mr Trump can certainly claim he’s being unfairly prosecuted. But I cannot imagine any other criminal case in which the defendant is permitted to call the prosecutor ‘deranged’ or a ‘thug,’ and I will not permit it here,” she explained.
She also said her order would prohibit statements about witnesses or potential witnesses, or about their testimony and noted that the ex-president’s past conduct and the tendency of those targeted by him to receive threats and harassment figured prominently in her decision to impose the order.
“My review of past statements made by Mr Trump in particular, as well as the evidence that they have led to harassment and threats for the people he has targeted persuades me that without this restriction, there is a real risk that witnesses may be intimidated or unduly influenced, and that other potential witnesses may be reluctant to come forward, lest they be subjected to the same harassment and intimidation,” she said.
Continuing, she said the ex-president “may still vigorously seek public support as a present presidential candidate, debate policies and people related to that candidacy, criticise the [Biden] administration and assert his belief that this prosecution is politically motivated”.
“But those critical First Amendment freedoms do not allow them to launch a pre-trial smear campaign against participating government staff, their families, or foreseeable witnesses, she said. “No other criminal defendant would be allowed to do so. I'm not going to allow it in this case”.
She added that his status as a presidential candidate “does not give him carte blanche to vilify and implicitly encourage violence against public servants for simply doing their job”.
But Mr Trump’s legal team, in their request to the circuit court, said the gag order should be lifted while he appeals it. Judge Chutkan had previously ordered an administrative stay of her own ruling but lifted it after the government asked her to reconsider the ruling.
Specifically, they asked for a ruling on whether the gag order would remain in place by 10 November, or barring that, a seven-day stay of her ruling so they can ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
“The prosecution’s request for a Gag Order bristles with hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint and his relentless criticism of the government—including of the prosecution itself,” Trump’s attorneys said. “The Gag Order embodies this unconstitutional hostility to President Trump’s viewpoint. It should be immediately stayed”.
They also argued that the order should be “subject to the most exacting scrutiny” because of his status as a political candidate, and because the order barring him from attacking prosecutors and witnesses “silences public criticism of quintessential public figures—speech entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection”. | US Circuit and Appeals Courts |
House Republicans are once again left scrambling for a leader after Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., stepped back from being speaker-designate on Thursday night.
Scalise won a closed-door secret ballot vote to be the House GOP’s new candidate for speaker on Wednesday afternoon. However, it quickly became clear that he did not have the 217 votes needed to win a House-wide vote.
Republicans could begin voting on a new candidate as soon as Thursday, and several names have been floated as possible nominees.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio
Jordan was the only other formally declared candidate in the House GOP’s race for speaker, netting 99 votes to Scalise’s 113.
He had dozens more public endorsements than Scalise, however, and despite publicly backing the Louisiana Republican after the first conference vote, several members still said they would vote for him on the House floor.
"My voters are breaking about 87% for Jordan. So we're doing polling back in the district, and my job is to represent them," Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., said on Thursday morning. He added that Jordan had not personally dissuaded him from voting in his favor on the House floor.
But Jordan’s reputation as a bomb-thrower has made a significant share of the House GOP’s moderates wary.
Jordan did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital's question about whether he would renew his speaker bid.
Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.
Two lawmakers told Fox News Digital that Emmer, who currently holds the No. 3 leadership spot within the House GOP, had been floating a run for speaker behind the scenes even while publicly backing Scalise.
He’s publicly said he was interested in the majority leader role — which Scalise is now retaining after backing out of the race.
One of the GOP lawmakers said Emmer would have been "whipping votes for our speaker candidate" if he were "running for majority leader."
Before Scalise stepped back on Thursday, the second GOP lawmaker said Emmer had been "trying to position himself as the fallback" amid concerns over Scalise’s recent cancer diagnosis.
Asked about those claims before Scalise stepped back, Emmer’s spokesperson told Fox News Digital: "Whip Emmer was one of the first people to publicly endorse Leader Scalise’s bid to become Speaker. He is focused on ensuring that happens."
They did not immediately respond to a question about his plans following Scalise's withdrawal.
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., told Fox News Digital when asked about the possibility of Emmer as a candidate, "I think he would be viable at some point."
Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry, R-N.C.
McHenry, chair of the House Financial Services Committee, is serving as interim speaker while a new one is being decided.
He’s distanced himself from the idea of running for the gavel – but reports indicate that some GOP lawmakers are looking to at least extend his tenure by fleshing out the vague boundaries of his role.
Additionally, Fox News learned earlier on Thursday, ahead of Scalise’s announcement, that a few Republicans were exploring ways to temporarily empower McHenry with certain authorities until mid-November, when the current continuing resolution on funding the government is supposed to expire.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, publicly threw cold water on the idea ahead of Scalise’s ouster on Thursday.
"I’m not going to speculate on Patrick unless Patrick wants to speculate about running. I mean, it's just not a thing right now," he told Fox News Digital.
Fox News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report | US Congress |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia journalist lost her job last month after she reported about alleged abuse of people with disabilities within the state agency that runs West Virginia's foster care and psychiatric facilities.Amelia Ferrell Knisely, a reporter at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, said she was told to stop reporting on the Department of Health and Human Resources after leaders of the embattled agency “threatened to discredit” the publicly funded television and radio network. She later learned her part-time position was being eliminated.In a statement, Knisely said her news director told her the order came from WVPB Executive Director Butch Antolini, former communications director for Republican Gov. Jim Justice. Antolini has served as executive director since 2021, when his predecessor was ousted after Justice overhauled the agency’s governing board.Justice has tried unsuccessfully to eliminate state funding for WVPB in the past and was accused of appointing partisan operatives to the board. WVPB receives around $4 million a year in state funding.Antolini declined to comment, but other officials denied any effort to influence coverage. West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority chairman William H. File III said Antolini told the board “he was not coerced or pressured by anyone."File said in a statement that Knisely was never fired and remains on the WVPB payroll, though she said her door key and email were deactivated.Knisely’s departure comes during a tumultuous time for West Virginia media. Days before she left WVPB, three reporters for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Charleston Gazette-Mail said they were fired after publicly criticizing an editorial decision by their company president Doug Skaff, who is minority leader in the state House of Delegates. Skaff approved and led a video interview with Don Blankenship, a coal company executive convicted of safety violations connected to one of the worst coal mining disasters in recent U.S. history.The departures leave a diminished capitol press corps to cover the upcoming legislative session, which begins Jan. 11.Knisely’s stories detailed alleged mistreatment of people with disabilities under state care. The department cares for some of the most vulnerable residents in one of the poorest U.S. states.After Knisely’s departure from WVPB was first reported by The Parkersburg News and Sentinel last week, both Republican Senate President Craig Blair and Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin called the circumstances around her departure “disturbing.”Pushkin said Knisely’s coverage of “the glaring issues at DHHR” was “detailed, in depth, and most importantly true.”“There’s a very clear difference between not liking what the media reports and actively working to silence them,” Blair wrote on Twitter Dec. 29.Knisely was hired as a part-time reporter at WVPB in September. In November, she was copied on an email from then-DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch alleging inaccuracies in a story and asking for a “complete retraction.”That never happened, but in early December, Knisely said she was told by WVPB news director Eric Douglas that she could no longer cover DHHR because of threats by state officials to discredit WVPB.A week later, amid mounting criticism, Crouch announced he was resigning.Douglas confirmed to The Associated Press that he was instructed to tell Knisely she would no longer be reporting on DHHR, and that Antolini directed him to do so.As for threats from DHHR officials about discrediting WVPB, he said: “I’d rather not comment on that.”On Dec. 15, Knisely filed a human resources complaint about interference with her reporting.Things came to a head later that same day over Knisely's press credentials for the 2023 legislative session, according to emails obtained by the AP and first reported by The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.Douglas initially informed legislative staffers that Knisely would “serve a vital role" in WVPB's 2023 legislative coverage. But then the station's chief operating officer left him off an email saying she wouldn't need credentials after all.That troubled Senate spokesperson Jacque Bland, who emailed Douglas to ask about it.“It feels kind of gross and shady to me that someone else would dip in and say that one of your reporters won’t have any assignments related to the session,” she wrote.She added: “I definitely wanted you to be aware that Butch and Pals were trying to stick their fingers in the pie.”Responding the next day, Douglas said he had been pulled into Antolini’s office and told “things had changed with Amelia.” He said he didn’t appreciate WVPB leadership going behind his back, “but for now it is out of my hands.”“And you’re right, it does feel gross and shady,” he wrote.Knisely said she was informed Dec. 20 that part-time positions were being eliminated. Her email and key card were deactivated around that time. | US Political Corruption |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — With a government shutdown five days away, Congress is moving into crisis mode as Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces an insurgency from hard-right Republicans eager to slash spending even if it means curtailing federal services for millions of Americans.
READ MORE: The government is headed for a shutdown. Who’s affected and what happens next?
There’s no clear path ahead as lawmakers return with tensions high and options limited. The House is expected to vote Tuesday evening on a package of bills to fund parts of the government, but it’s not at all clear that McCarthy has the support needed to move ahead.
Meanwhile, the Senate, trying to stave off a federal closure, is preparing its own bipartisan plan for a stopgap measure to buy some time and keep offices funded past Saturday’s deadline as work in Congress continues. But plans to tack on additional Ukraine aid have run into trouble as a number of Republicans in both the House and Senate oppose spending more money on the war effort.
Against the mounting chaos, President Joe Biden warned the Republican conservatives off their hardline tactics, saying funding the federal government is “one of the most basic fundamental responsibilities of Congress.”
Biden implored the House Republicans not to renege on the debt deal he struck earlier this year with McCarthy, which set the federal government funding levels and was signed into law after approval by both the House and Senate.
“We made a deal, we shook hands, and said this is what we’re going to do. Now, they’re reneging on the deal,” Biden said late Monday.
“If Republicans in the House don’t start doing their jobs, we should stop electing them.”
A government shutdown would disrupt the U.S. economy and the lives of millions of Americans who work for the government or rely on federal services — from air traffic controllers who would be asked to work without pay to some 7 million people in the Women, Infants and Children program, including half the babies born in the U.S., who could lose access to nutritional benefits, according to the White House.
It comes against the backdrop of the 2024 elections as Donald Trump, the leading Republican to challenge Biden, is egging on the Republicans in Congress to “shut it down” and undo the deal McCarthy made with Biden.
Republicans are also being encouraged by former Trump officials, including those who are preparing to slash government and the federal workforce if the former president retakes the White House in the 2024 election. With five days to go before Saturday’s deadline, the turmoil is unfolding as House Republicans hold their first Biden impeachment inquiry hearing this week probing the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.
“Unless you get everything, shut it down!” Trump wrote in all capital letters on social media. “It’s time Republicans learned how to fight!”
READ MORE: Speaker McCarthy says there’s still time to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month
McCarthy arrived at the Capitol early Monday after a tumultuous week in which a handful of hard-right Republicans torpedoed his latest plans to advance a usually popular defense funding bill. They brought the chamber to a standstill and leaders sent lawmakers home for the weekend with no endgame in sight.
After the House Rules Committee met Saturday to prepare for this week’s voting, McCarthy was hopeful the latest plan on a package of four bills, to fund Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture, and State and Foreign Operations, would kickstart the process.
“Let’s get this going,” McCarthy said. “Let’s make sure the government stays open while we finish our job passing all the individual bills.”
But at least one top Trump ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who is also close to McCarthy, said she would be a “hard no” on the vote to open debate, known as the Rule, because the package of bills continues to provide at least $300 million for the war in Ukraine.
Other hard-right conservatives and allies of Trump may follow her lead.
“Now you have a couple of new people thinking about voting against the Rule,” said Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., referring to the upcoming procedural vote.
Once a holdout himself, Buck told reporters at the Capitol he would be voting for the package, but he’s not sure McCarthy will have enough for passage. “I don’t know if he gets them back on board or not,” Buck said.
While their numbers are just a handful, the hard-right Republican faction holds oversized sway because the House majority is narrow and McCarthy needs almost every vote from his side for partisan bills without Democratic support.
The speaker has given the holdouts many of their demands, but it still has not been enough as they press for more — including gutting funding for Ukraine, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Washington last week is vital to winning the war against Russia.
The hardline Republicans want McCarthy to drop the deal he made with Biden and stick to earlier promises for spending cuts he made to them in January to win their votes for the speaker’s gavel, citing the nation’s rising debt load.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a key Trump ally leading the right flank, said on Fox that a shutdown is not optimal but “it’s better than continuing on the current path that we are to America’s financial ruin.”
Gatez, who has also threated to call a vote to oust McCarthy from his job, wants Congress to do what it rarely does anymore: debate and approve each of the 12 annual bills needed to fund the various departments of government — typically a process that takes weeks, if not months.
“I’m not pro-shutdown,” he said. But he said he wants to hold McCarthy “to his word.”
WATCH: Republican Rep. Ralph Norman discusses negotiations to avoid a government shutdown
Even if the House is able to complete its work this week on some of those bills, which is highly uncertain, they would still need to be merged with similar legislation from the Senate, another lengthy process.
Meantime, senators have been drafting a temporary measure, called a continuing resolution or CR, to keep government funded past Saturday, but have run into trouble trying to tack on Biden’s request for supplemental funding for Ukraine. They face resistance from a handful of Republicans to the war effort.
A Senate aide said talks would continue through the night. And a spokesperson for the White House Office of Management and Budget said the administration would continue to work with members of both parties in Congress to secure supplemental funds and ensure efforts to support Ukraine continue alongside other key priorities like disaster relief.
With just days remaining before a shutdown, several of the holdouts say they will never vote for any stopgap measure to fund the government as they push for Congress to engage in the full-scale debate.
Associated Press writers Seung Min Kim, Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
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Sep 25 | US Congress |
Donald Trump was arrested in Georgia tonight for his role in what prosecutors christened “a wide-ranging criminal enterprise” aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election. Trump and 18 others—his former lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani, and ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, among them—have been formally accused of 41 state-law felonies. The case is brought by Fani Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia. Willis is not the first local prosecutor to charge a United States president with a felony, but she is the first to accuse one of trying to steal an election.Among charges such as filing false documents and conspiracy to commit forgery, Trump is personally accused of trying to browbeat and suborn felony acts from high-ranking Georgia officials, including the chief elections supervisor, secretary of state Brad Raffensperger. Officials were pressed by Trump and other “co-conspirators” to take action to “decertify the election” and “unlawfully appoint presidential electors,” prosecutors claim. Together, the charges opened the door for Willis to pile on additional counts of racketeering. Filed under the state’s RICO Act, the charge would ask jurors to consider whether Trump and other defendants were involved in a single criminal undertaking. A conviction under RICO does not require that the defendants all know one another, or be involved at the same time, so long as they’re all working toward a single corrupt goal.RICO, which can carry up to a 20-year prison sentence, is a powerful and even dangerous legal weapon. Out of dozens of possible crimes, a prosecutor may only have to prove two to gain a conviction. The state is fairly ambiguous about what constitutes an “enterprise.” Jurors, meanwhile, may be shown a veritable tower of evidence and instructed, usually in some narrative fashion, to see a “pattern” in the defendants’ acts; something the human brain is already trained to do, even at a subconscious level. For Trump and his team, allowing the case to progress to the point where a jury is actually deliberating RICO is a doomsday scenario.In addition to the Georgia prosecution, the cases against Trump include one in Manhattan over “hush money” paid to a porn star; a case filed in Florida federal court over his retention of classified documents; and a federal case in Washington, DC, for his role in the January 6 insurrectionist riot at the US Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In total, Trump is facing 91 felony charges. He has pleaded not guilty to each one so far.The indictment is the culmination of a political career that Trump built by ignoring checks and balances, mocking the law and the courts, and cheering on supporters who use violence in his name, including groups rooted in white nationalism and misogyny, prone to spontaneous and premeditated violence. More than 1,100 of his most committed supporters have been charged in the past 31 months with trying to physically stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. More than 80 of them have pled guilty to beating police officers who had ordered them to disperse. More than 140 officers were reportedly injured and four of those would die by suicide within 200 days of the event.These are not Trump's only casualties. While deceptively trivial in the face of actual death, millions in damages, and election interference, legal experts have long warned that Trump's personal brand of politics—acrimonious, wielding tools of harassment—is corrosive to the very norms and conventions upon which the electoral process has long relied for stability. Prosecuting Trump could help make distinct lawful election challenges from those considered outright criminal. But his arrest alone has emphasized already that certain political activities are an affront to democratic norms upheld by the public, regardless of the court's own view.In a 2018 book, the Harvard Law duo Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt put forward two criteria for the foundation of a healthy democracy; “social norms,” or unwritten codes of conduct upon which the people generally agree. The Trump administration, by the end of its first year, had managed to violate both with a quotidian efficiency. Levitsky and Ziblatt’s norms included “mutual tolerance” and “institutional forbearance.” The latter describes the need for politicians to show restraint in the exercise of their authority; not to gain the upper hand and immediately use that power to obliterate one’s rivals. “Think of democracy as a game we want to keep playing indefinitely,” they write.Nothing in this century has done more to stamp out the mutual toleration of Americans than the presidency of Donald Trump. His strategy of painting political rivals as illegitimate and un-American has—for the better part of a decade—chipped away at social and democratic norms that titans of jurisprudence have—for more than a century—called indispensable to a functioning democracy. By the time Joe Biden took office, the Washington Post had cataloged a decidedly pathological 30,000 false or misleading claims uttered by his predecessor. The Trump administration's ever-broadening palette of ethics violations caused Americans to realize, perhaps for the first time on a national scale, that truly there are few if any laws against some of the most basic forms of corruption; that, instead, conventions and norms—an honor system, essentially—is all that stand between presidents and the gross abuse of their power.Americans typically point to the US Constitution as the pinnacle of their legal system. Many modern legal theorists, and even the nation’s own founders, painted the concept of state authority in a different light. The Genevan philosopher Rousseau considered la volonté générale, or the “general will” of the people, the only legitimate source of state power. American revolutionaries believed that only laws written with the “consent of the governed” could be considered legitimate. Jefferson once said the only “fountain of power” is the people, and that only “from them” is power derived. Regarding politicians who believe “supreme power” resides in constitutions, early US Supreme Court justice James Wilson suggested they had perhaps neglected to consider, “with sufficient accuracy, our political system.”Consequently, democratic institutions are effectively incapable of restraining elected autocrats by their own volition. Without robust norms, traditional checks and balances often prove useless. “The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism,” write Levitsky and Ziblatt, “is that democracy's assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.” The Georgia case yanks Trump and his associates out of the squishy realm of “norms violations,” and drops them instead into the cold, hard box of criminality. The best argument for prosecuting Trump under RICO is that it seemingly leaves jurors room to consider both.The prosecutions of Trump will do nothing to cement America’s deep partisan divide, of course. Legal scholars reasonably believe it will only further inflame hostilities and erode trust in US institutions. Republicans have meanwhile launched an aggressive PR campaign based on the notion of “letting voters decide.” But relying on the vote, rather jurors who are obligated to consider evidence and draw inferences from facts alone, could itself create a new norm anathema to democratic values. Prosecution was not the first choice. But every other lever that might’ve been pulled to stop and counteract the damage wrought by Trump was left in its place; particularly by Republicans, who’ve never actually been deprived of the means or opportunities to hold the de facto leader of their party accountable. Relying on the very system that Trump previously poured tens of millions of dollars into destroying feels otherwise, at best, like a nation fulfilling a death wish.For American democracy to thrive, or retain any semblance of the legitimacy it has left, the prosecutorial systems, judges, and jurors in New York, Georgia, Florida, and Washington, DC, must grind forward. The law may not always prevent people from profiting off the wrongs they commit. But it cannot be denied outright the chance to decide whether they deserve to be stripped of their ill-gotten gains.Laws are ultimately made “real” by the people against whom they’re imposed, including state officials, who, unlike private citizens, cannot scrape by merely obeying the law. Were judges, legislators, and even presidents to consider only themselves, ignoring the actions of their supervisors, subordinates and peers, the validity of the legal system—and eventually the system itself—would fall apart. The English legal theorist H.L.A. Hart once wrote that among the "necessary and sufficient” criteria for the existence of a legal system, is the requirement that public officials consciously adopt common standards of behavior and “appraise critically their own, and each other’s deviations as lapses.”For some observers, the concept of “norms violations” became erroneously intertwined during Trump’s presidency with the perceived failures of federal oversight officials, mostly by people unaware they were a phantom bulwark all along. A lack of coherence in the mainstays of democracy during Trump’s initial years left too many too focused on the absence of criminal charges, even though equally essential, but far less defensible democratic norms were being whittled into dust. Where criminals have laws and courts to contend with, and are beyond the public’s own power to prosecute, social norms are injusticiable—outside the realm of the law, defined by people, their values, and beliefs.And it’s no secret. The only fleshed-out directive revealed thus far to be implemented by Trump’s hypothetical follow-up presidency aims to see more than 50,000 bureaucrats and civil servants fired in an effort to insulate Trump from legal scrutiny and shield him from potential prosecution down the line. Groups of lobbyists have, according to Axios’ Jonathan Swan, already compiled their “extensive” lists of individuals believed loyal to the president and who fill those ranks instead. This plan is notably the opposite of the restraint on which Levitsky and Ziblatt place so much significance in the upkeep of a healthy and functioning democracy. | US Political Corruption |
Cold case Detective Clark Schwartzkopf was working a double murder case from the early 1990s and had arranged to meet a person of interest at a Chili's restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona. The idea was to get the possible suspect's DNA so forensic investigators could determine if it matched male DNA found on the bodies of the two female victims, Angela Brosso and Melanie Bernas.
Those unsolved murders had become known as the canal murders because both women were attacked while taking bike rides along the city's distinctive canal paths.
It was Jan. 2, 2015, and Schwartzkopf was meeting with a guy named Bryan Patrick Miller. The detective had learned that Miller was something of a local celebrity. He liked to attend popular zombie walks and other festivals in Phoenix dressed as a character known as the Zombie Hunter, and fans and police officers posed with him.
When he was in character, Miller wore a homemade costume with goggles and a menacing mask and carried a fake Gatling gun. He also drove and tricked out an old Crown Victoria police car, splashed it with fake blood and put the name Zombie Hunter on the back. He also often put a ghoulish mannequin in the back seat behind bars.
The day they met for dinner, Miller had driven his distinctive car to Chili's. That certainly caught Schwartkopf's attention, but the detective still didn't believe Bryan Miller was the canal killer. One of the reasons he was a potential suspect was because a genetic genealogist had matched the name Miller to the crime scene DNA.
But Schwartzkopf remained skeptical that this 42-year-old divorced dad raising a teenage daughter alone and working at an Amazon warehouse could be the killer.
Schwartzkopf told "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant that he essentially wanted to cross this Miller off his list. "I was really more about just getting his DNA," Schwartzkopf said, "clearing him and moving on because my conversation with him, he was the last person I ever thought would be responsible for this. He was mild-mannered."
Van Sant reports on the case in "Unmasking the Zombie Hunter," airing Saturday, Oct. 21 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
The detective's doubts were reinforced as he observed the way Bryan Miller treated his teenage daughter whom he had brought along for the meal at Chili's. "He had a good rapport with his daughter."
Van Sant asked, "Was he physically imposing? He looked like a guy who could overpower people?"
The canal killer had ambushed Brosso and Bernas while they were each out on nighttime bicycle rides. Somehow, the killer had stopped them, and then stabbed and sexually assaulted them. The killings were particularly vicious and Brosso had been beheaded.
"He's a bigger guy, but he's more soft," the detective said. "Big enough to where he could certainly overpower women, but not someone you'd be really scared of on the street."
Schwartzkopf had arranged to be seated in a quiet section of Chili's. Undercover detectives watched workers take the silverware and plates out of the dishwasher and then detectives placed them on the table to ensure they would not be contaminated, Schwartzkopf told "48 Hours."
Miller ordered a burger and a glass of water. "He swallows his hamburger, in like, five bites, Schwartzkopf said. "Won't take a drink of his water. And I'm sitting there going, 'Are you sure you…don't want…something else to drink? You just got water.' 'No, no, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.'"
But then to Schwartkopf's relief, Miller finally took a sip of water: "That's when I knew that, OK, now we've at least got his DNA."
As soon as Miller walked out, undercover detectives secured the glass Miller had used. Miller then gave Schwartzkopf a quick tour of his Zombie Hunter car before he left.
Eleven days later, the detective got a visit from the head of the forensic lab. Schwartzkopf told Van Sant what happened. "She leans down to me, she goes, 'It's him.' I go 'What?' She goes, 'Bryan Miller, it's him.' … Well, the blood rushed from my head. … I kind of sat back and I went, 'You've gotta be kidding.'"
Miller was arrested immediately and denied he had killed anyone. The case took almost eight years to get to trial, butof murdering Brosso and Bernas and received the death penalty in June 2023.
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PHOENIX (AP) — A judge on Monday dismissed the only remaining legal claim in Republican Kari Lake’s challenge of her loss in last year’s race for Arizona governor, affirming the election of Democrat Katie Hobbs.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson said Lake failed to prove her claim that Maricopa County did not verify signatures on mail ballots as required by law.
READ MORE: Kari Lake is on the hook for $33,000 in witness fees in failed election challenge
Lake was among the most vocal of last year’s Republican candidates promoting former President Donald Trump’s election lies, which she made the centerpiece of her campaign. She has built a loyal following among Trump supporters and is openly considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Kyrsten Sinema, an independent and former Democrat. Lake is also often mentioned as a potential vice presidential pick for Trump.
While most other election deniers around the country conceded after losing their races in November, Lake did not. She has touted her legal battle in fundraising appeals and speeches around the country.
Lake did not immediately comment on the ruling.
She filed suit after losing to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes, asking the courts to install her as governor or order a new election. Thompson dismissed the case, but the Arizona Supreme Court revived a claim that challenges how signature verification procedures were used on early ballots in Maricopa County, home to more than 60 percent of the state’s voters. County officials had defended the signature verification efforts and said they had nothing to hide.
READ MORE: Kari Lake’s election loss lawsuit lacks merit, according to Arizona state lawyers
Lake’s signature verification claim was the subject of a three-day trial. Her lawyers argued that there was evidence that lower-level screeners who found inconsistencies in signatures ran them up the chain of command, where they were neglected by higher level verifiers.
She did not contest whether voters’ signatures on ballot envelopes matched those in their voting records.
The former TV anchor faced a high bar in proving not only her allegation over signature verification efforts but also that it affected the outcome of her race.
Thompson, who was appointed to the bench by former Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, said she did not meet that high bar.
“The evidence the Court received does not support Plaintiff’s remaining claim,” he wrote.
WATCH: Arizona’s election certification delayed by baseless claims of fraud
Earlier in her lawsuit, Lake had focused on problems with ballot printers at some polling places in Maricopa County. The defective printers produced ballots that were too light to be read by the on-site tabulators at polling places. Lines were backed up in some areas amid the confusion. Lake alleged ballot printer problems were the result of intentional misconduct.
County officials say everyone had a chance to vote and all ballots were counted because those affected by the printers were taken to more sophisticated counters at election headquarters.
In mid-February, the Arizona Court of Appeals rejected Lake’s assertions, concluding she presented no evidence that voters whose ballots were unreadable by tabulators at polling places were unable to vote.
The following month, the state Supreme Court declined to hear nearly all of Lake’s appeal, saying there was no evidence to support her claim that more than 35,000 ballots were added to vote totals.
Earlier this month, the court sanctioned Lake’s lawyers $2,000 for making false statements when saying that more than 35,000 ballots had been improperly added to the total count.
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A California grandmother accused of running a global fentanyl ring while working for a police union hoodwinked her family for years with a Walter White-worthy performance, stunned relatives and coworkers told The Post.
Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, kept family and colleagues in the dark by leading a “Breaking Bad”-style double life from late 2015 through January as she allegedly accepted at least 61 illegal drug shipments from Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore at her home in a gated San Jose neighborhood.
Those who know her are struggling to figure out why she would do this.
According to Irma Segovia Sweat, Joanne and her husband, Domingo, weren’t hurting financially, although Joanne dealt with an unspecified illness about three years ago, Sweat said.
“They didn’t need any money,” she said. “They both had made really good money and didn’t need anything.”
“We are still trying to wrap our heads around everything because that is so not her,” a different relative, Segovia’s niece, told The Post. “Our family is very shocked and surprised. No one knew anything!”
Segovia, who worked as the executive director of the San Jose Police Officers’ Association, apparently never gave any indication she was — as alleged in the federal complaint against her — using her personal and office computers to order thousands of opioid pills and other drugs to her home and then ship them throughout the country.
“She is the sweetest lady ever, very loving, very giving, very family-oriented,” according to Segovia’s niece, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “She’s a very awesome lady. That’s why we are, like, all surprised and can’t believe it.”
Segovia’s husband, Domingo, 79, was also oblivious to his wife’s alleged scheme to import valeryl fentanyl, his niece said. The shipments of drugs were marked as “wedding party favors” or “chocolate and sweets,” federal prosecutors said.
“My uncle would never allow that, nor participate in anything like that,” Segovia’s niece said. “He’s a very successful man — knowledgeable and smart. I can guarantee 1,000,000% he had no clue about that.”
Domingo Segovia, a military vet who previously worked as a butcher, did not return messages seeking comment.
Segovia’s niece said she was still struggling to process the accusations as of Tuesday — six days after the police union official was charged with unlawfully importing valeryl fentanyl, a version of the deadly drug.
If convicted, Segovia faces up to 20 years in prison.
“I was in a state of shock,” the couple’s niece added of the news about her aunt. “I had just woken up in the morning and I had messages from family members. Nobody wants to believe it, but we just got to let the justice system run its course. And our family’s going to need a lot of healing because their name is being dragged across the country over this whole ordeal.”
Sweat said she doesn’t believe her cousin Domingo knew anything about his wife’s purported split personality as an international drug dealer.
“He is just a really good man and if he found out something like that, I don’t think he would ever put up with it,” Sweat told The Post. “I am as shocked as everyone else — and actually, none of us believe it.”
Segovia has worked for the San Jose Police Officers’ Association since 2003 as a civilian employee. As executive director, she oversaw the front office and supervised two other workers, spokesman Tom Saggau said.
“When the news broke, it was utter disbelief,” Saggau told The Post. “That’s now turned to anger due to the alleged deception and what the accusations detail. Every cop goes to work trying to get fentanyl and other drugs off the street, so you do feel a little betrayal.”
Segovia, a grandmother of two, was the union’s “front face,” Saggau said, the first person who greeted office visitors.
“Everyone knew who Joanne was,” Saggau continued. “You’d walk in the door and there’d always be a pleasant conversation or she’d ask about your family. She was just very personable, she was nice, she would bring in cookies and candy. So, when this broke, everybody was like, ‘What are you talking about? This can’t be.’”
Segovia, who appeared in court Friday, was released without bond. She could not be reached for comment and remains on paid leave from her police union job as an internal investigation continues. Saggau said he last saw her about three weeks ago and nothing appeared out of the ordinary.
“It makes it incredibly hard to understand what was going on,” the union spokesman said. “She was like the grandma of the POA. No one’s going to think grandma is dealing fentanyl.”
Segovia had never previously worked as a police officer, Saggau said. It’s unclear if she’s hired an attorney who could speak on her behalf.
Special Agent David Vargas also said in the affidavit Segovia used the police associations’ supplies to help run her drug business.
“Based on my training and experience, I believe that Segovia was using a computer at her home, and another at her office, to pay for shipments of controlled substances,” Vargas wrote.
The complaint details how, in 2021, “Segovia was told by a supplier to send a package to a woman in North Carolina. Segovia then sent this supplier a photograph of a shipment made using the UPS account of San Jose Police Officers’ Association.”
Some of the packages intercepted by authorities between 2019 and January contained thousands of synthetic opioid pills, federal prosecutors said.
At least one subsequent shipment made by Segovia led to an overdose, a source close to the matter told The Post.
Segovia allegedly relied on encrypted WhatsApp messages to to plan shipments, exchanging hundreds of messages over the past three years with a phone number that had an India country code.
Segovia denied the allegations and told authorities the mastermind was actually her housekeeper — a “family friend” allegedly suffering from a substance abuse disorder, according to a Homeland Security Investigations report.
If found guilty, Segovia betrayed her police union colleagues in the worst way while using her proximity to cops as a shield, former NYPD officer Bill Stanton said.
“It’s insidious,” Stanton told The Post of Segovia’s alleged actions. “Even though she wasn’t a police officer per se, she was amongst law enforcement and the code.”
Stanton, an author and security expert, said Segovia’s stunning arrest shows that “bad people come in all shapes and sizes” rather than fitting preconceived molds.
Stanton said Segovia’s alleged eight-year run as an international drug importer seemingly mirrored the duplicitous exploits of suburban chemistry teacher Walter White, portrayed by actor Bryan Cranston in AMC’s smash TV hit, “Breaking Bad.”
“The villain doesn’t always wear a black suit with a top hat and a handlebar mustache,” Stanton said. “It’s incumbent upon all of us to realize that.”
San Jose’s mayor, meanwhile, said the charges against the outwardly-demure grandmother were “incredibly disturbing” while noting she didn’t represent any elected officials in the city.
“No one is above the law, regardless of who their employer is,” Mahan told The Post in a statement. “I want to thank US Attorney Ramsey and his colleagues for aggressively pursuing the sources of fentanyl coming into our communities and holding drug-dealers accountable.”
San Jose Police Chief Anthony Mata confirmed Segovia had never been employed by the department.
“This news is disheartening and comes as a shock to me and the leaders and membership of the SJPOA,” Mata told The Post. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Judge rules Trump can stay on Michigan ballot, rejects insurrection clause challenge
A Michigan judge ruled former President Trump can remain on the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot, rejecting an attempt to remove him with a Civil War-era constitutional clause.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge James Redford rejected arguments made by activist groups that claimed Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol meant he was ineligible for the presidency.
Similar lawsuits have popped up in Colorado and Minnesota. The challenge in Minnesota was dismissed by the state Supreme Court last week, with justices arguing that the primary process is an internal party election and does not place the candidate on the general ballot or as president of the United States. There is no state statute that prohibits a political party from placing a nomination on the ballot, they ruled.
The Colorado case is expected to have its closing arguments Wednesday, and the judge is expected to make her decision by Friday.
In Michigan, Redford wrote that because Trump followed state law by qualifying for the primary ballot, he can’t be removed, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
It should be up to Congress to decide whether Trump can be disqualified, the judge argued.
Congress could decide if a person is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which states no person who has engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the government can run for elected office.
Deciding if an event is deemed a “rebellion or insurrection or whether or not someone participated in it” is best left to Congress and not “one single judicial officer,” Redford said.
One judge can’t “embody the represented qualified of every citizen of the nation” the same way that the House of Representatives and the Senate do.
According to the AP, Free Speech for People, the group that filed the suits, is going to immediately appeal the decision.
The Hill has reached out to the activism group and the Trump campaign for comment.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. | US Federal Elections |
AutoZone alerted authorities on Tuesday that it had been a victim of the Clop ransomware gang's MOVEit attacks earlier this year. According to a breach notification filed with the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the data leak from the auto parts retailer impacted 184,995 people. The hackers acquired personal information, including full names and social security numbers, the notification said.
The incident happened in May, as a part of a string of attacks linked to Clop. The hackers exploited a vulnerability in file transfer software MOVEit, attacking more then 2,000 organizations and impacting 62 million people, according to researchers at Emsisoft.
AutoZone realized it had fallen victim to the Clop attack in August, but it didn't suss out what data had been affected by the attack until earlier this month. That said, Clop claimed responsibility for an attack on AutoZone in July, publishing 1.1GB of internal and employee data from the auto retailer, according to Bleeping Computer.
"AutoZone became aware that an unauthorized third party exploited a vulnerability associated with MOVEit and exfiltrated certain data from an AutoZone system that supports the MOVEit application," AutoZone wrote in a notification to customers. It's unclear which parts of the AutoZone systems the Clop hackers accessed and, although the Maine notification says social security numbers had been leaked, AutoZone did not provide any specifics.
AutoZone rakes in $17.5 billion in revenue each year, operating more than 7,000 retail locations. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
The Arizona Democratic Party is set to file a lawsuit against the state’s top election official in an effort to block his decision granting a third-party group access to the 2024 ballot.
State Democratic leaders are planning to file the lawsuit against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes on Thursday as a way to reverse his decision to recognize the centrist group No Labels as a third-party ticket in the presidential election. The move reflects growing concern among Democrats that a “spoiler” candidate could derail President Joe Biden’s hopes of being reelected and threaten the party’s chances of maintaining control of the Senate.
The lawsuit accuses Fontes of violating state laws when accepting signature petitions from No Labels to receive access to the ballot, according to the Washington Post. Democratic officials claim the accompanying affidavits were signed and approved before the minimum number of petitions were gathered.
As a result, the party leaders argue the affidavits that verified the signatures are false and should be nullified, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit also targets No Labels itself, accusing the group of violating federal requirements for a political party by not disclosing its donors and failing to comply with donation limits. Since No Labels describes itself as a nonprofit political group, it is not required to disclose its donors.
“No Labels is not following the rules for political party recognition, while attempting to be placed on the ballot alongside actual, functioning political parties who do,” Morgan Dick, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party, told the outlet. “Arizonans deserve better and voters deserve to know who is behind this shadowy organization and what potentially nefarious agenda they are pushing.”
Members of the No Labels movement pushed back against those allegations, arguing the lawsuit was being used as a political tactic to suppress third-party voices.
“This undemocratic and unscrupulous lawsuit is a disgrace,” Ryan Clancy, chief strategist for No Labels, said in a statement. “Next time you hear this crowd talking about protecting democracy, remember what they are really doing is protecting their turf.”
The lawsuit comes after No Labels qualified to appear on the Arizona ballot in 2024, stoking fears among left-leaning groups about a “spoiler” candidate who could cost Democrats the presidency and open the door for former President Donald Trump to be reelected. The group has vowed to compete for access in several states and has already qualified for ballots in Arizona, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado.
No Labels has been quietly working to craft a bipartisan third-party ticket for over a year, looking to give voters an alternative option to candidates they view as extreme. No Labels has not yet indicated who they would nominate, but the group plans to hold a nominating convention in April.
Several Democrats and Never Trump Republicans are calling on No Labels to cease its efforts to create a third-party ticket, warning such a move would open the door for Trump or a MAGA-aligned candidate to be elected. The group rejected those arguments, predicting its ticket could win in at least 23 states with 279 electoral votes, which is enough to secure the White House. | US Federal Elections |
- Jenny Town is a leading expert on North Korea at the Stimson Institute and the director of Stimson's 38 North Program.
- About six years ago, North Koreans hacked into her computer and stole certain personal information, Town revealed at Mandiant's mWISE conference on Monday.
- They then used that information to create an impersonator, who used Town's name to try and extract other information from her colleagues.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Six years ago, a well-respected researcher was working late into the night when she stepped away from her computer to brush her teeth. By the time she came back, her computer had been hacked.
Jenny Town is a leading expert on North Korea at the Stimson Institute and the director of Stimson's 38 North Program. Her work is built on on open-source intelligence, Town said on Monday. She uses publicly available data points to paint a picture of North Korean dynamics.
"I don't have any clearance. I don't have any access to classified information," Town said at the conference.
But the hackers, a unit of North Korea's intelligence services codenamed APT43, or KimSuky, were not only after classified information.
The hackers used a popular remote-desktop tool TeamViewer to access her machine and ran scripts to comb through her computer. Then her webcam light turned on, presumably to check if she had returned to her computer. "Then it went off real quickly, and then they closed everything down," Town told attendees at the mWISE conference, run by Google-owned cybersecurity company Mandiant.
Town and Mandiant now presume the North Koreans had been able to exfiltrate information about Town's colleagues, her field of study, and her contact list. They used that information to create a digital doppelganger of Town: A North Korean sock puppet that they could use to gather intelligence from thousands of miles away.
In D.C., every embassy has an intelligence purpose, Town explained. People attached to the embassy will try to take the pulse of the city to gauge what policy might be in the pipeline or how policymakers felt about a particular country or event.
But North Korea has never had diplomatic relations with the U.S. Its intelligence officers can't stalk public events or network with think tanks.
The country could fill that void by obtaining intelligence through hacking into government systems, a challenging task even for sophisticated actors. But APT 43 targets high-profile personalities and uses them to collect intelligence.
Within weeks, the fake Town began to reach out to prominent researchers and analysts pretending to be her.
"It's a lot of social engineering. It's a lot of sending fake emails, pretending to be me, pretending to be my staff, pretending to be reporters," Town said.
"They're literally just trying to get information or trying to establish a relationship in the process where eventually they may impose malware, but it's usually just a conversation-building device," Town said.
The group behind Town's clone has been tied to cryptocurrency laundering operations and influence campaigns, and has targeted other academics and researchers.
The tactic still works, although widening awareness has made it less effective than before. The most susceptible victims are older, less-tech-savvy academics who don't scrutinize domains or emails for typos.
Adding to the complexity, when the real people reach out to potential victims to try to warn them they've been talking with a North Korean doppelganger, the targets often refuse to believe them.
"I have a colleague who I had informed that he was not talking to a real person," Town said.
But her colleague didn't believe her, Town said, and decided to ask the doppelganger if he was a North Korean spy. "So of course, the fake person was like, 'Yes, of course, it's me,'" Town said at the conference.
Ultimately, her colleague heeded her warnings and contacted the person he thought he was corresponding with another way. The North Korean doppelganger, in the meantime, had decided to break off contact and in a bizarre turn of events, apologized for any confusion and blamed it on "Nk hackers."
"I love it," joked Mandiant North Korea analyst Michael Barnhart. "North Korea apologizing for them pretending to be somebody." | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has testified in the trial of ex-Fugees rapper Pras Michel, who is accused of accepting money from a fugitive tycoon to influence US politicians.
Mr Michel, 50, allegedly received more than $100m (£80m) from Malaysian billionaire Jho Low.
He denies a slew of charges, including conspiracy and witness tampering.
Mr DiCaprio, 48, who is not accused of wrongdoing in the case, was asked to testify about his links to Mr Low.
Mr Low is alleged to have stolen billions from Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund in the 1MDB scheme, the biggest embezzlement case in history.
According to federal prosecutors, Mr Michel was being paid to bring "secret, illegal foreign influence to bear" on US politics.
Mr Michel is accused of making illegal contributions to Barack Obama's 2012 US presidential campaign, using an illegal network of third parties paid with foreign funds.
Prosecutors believe Mr Low also wanted to use Mr Michel to lobby Trump administration officials to abandon their investigation into Mr Low's alleged role in the 1MDB scheme.
Mr Michel and Mr Low are both facing charges in the case, but only Mr Michel is appearing in court. Mr Low is currently at large, and believed to be in China.
'A multitude of lavish parties'
Prosecutors say the financier used his vast resources to curry favour with celebrities, including Mr DiCaprio and model Miranda Kerr.
Mr Low's parties also drew the likes of Alicia Keys, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Spears once jumped out of a cake to wish Mr Low a happy birthday.
In the Washington DC court on Monday, a soft-spoken, bearded Mr DiCaprio testified about his financial ties with Mr Low.
Mr DiCaprio - who described himself simply as "an actor" - told jurors he first met Mr Low at a party in Las Vegas in 2010.
In subsequent years, he attended "a multitude of lavish parties" on yachts and nightclubs at Mr Low's invitation, alongside other celebrities, actors and musicians.
On one occasion, Mr DiCaprio attended a New Year's Eve party in Australia with Mr Low, after which partygoers were flown to the US in an effort to celebrate New Year's twice.
The actor's 2013 film Wolf of Wall Street - about a notorious fraudster - was partially funded by a firm tied to Mr Low.
"I understood him to be a huge businessman with many connections," Mr DiCaprio said in court. "He was a prodigy in the business world and ultra-successful."
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly more than once asked the actor to "keep his voice up" so he could be heard by the jury and court reporter.
Mr Michel looked at the actor and waved when Mr DiCaprio was asked to identify him in court.
Bloomberg previously reported that Mr Low was "especially generous" with Mr DiCaprio and donated a $3.2m work of art by Picasso to his charity, in addition to a $9.2m piece from Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Mr DiCaprio reportedly later turned those items and others received from Mr Low over to authorities.
On Monday, the actor said that Mr Low also actively participated in auctions held by Mr DiCaprio in St Tropez "to bring in funds" for his environmentally focused foundation.
Later in their relationship, Mr DiCaprio said the two men began discussing US politics, with Mr Low expressing an interest in making a "significant contribution" of between $20m and $30m to the Democratic party ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
"I basically said, 'wow, that's a lot of money'," Mr DiCaprio said. Authorities believe those funds were embezzled from 1MDB.
Mr DiCaprio did not accuse Mr Michel of wrongdoing in his testimony.
He said that he first met Mr Michel in the 1990s following a Fugees concert.
He added that Mr Michel might have also attended a Thanksgiving party at his home, although "memory does not serve" and he could not say for sure.
In 2019 Mr DiCaprio reportedly testified before a grand jury in Washington DC as part of the justice department's investigation into the 1MDB scheme.
Mr DiCaprio told jurors that he lost contact with Mr Low around 2015 after being informed that he was under investigation for his financial dealings.
The Oscar-winner may not be the only celebrity to testify in Pras Michel's trial.
During jury selection, attorneys named actors including Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx and Mark Wahlberg as possible witnesses, in addition to director Martin Scorsese, according to CNN.
The sprawling case could also see testimony from former high-level US government officials and political insiders, including Donald Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York and previously a lawyer for Mr Trump. | US Political Corruption |
Ramaswamy, like the other candidates on the stage, had been asked to make the case for why he should be selected to be the 2024 GOP nominee, but he instead turned his ire on the debate's own moderators and McDaniel.
"I think there's something deeper going on in the Republican Party here, and I am upset about what happened last night," the entrepreneur said, referring to Tuesday's off-year elections. "We've become a party of losers at the end of the day. Is it cancer in the Republican establishment?"
"I speak the truth. I mean, since Ronna McDaniel took over as chairwoman of the RNC in 2017, we have lost 2018, 2020, 2022 — no red wave, that never came. We got trounced last night in 2023," he continued. "And I think that we have to have accountability in our party. For that matter, Ronna, if you want to come onstage tonight, you want to look the GOP voters in the eye and tell them you resign, I will turn over my — yield my time to you."
Ramaswamy continued his opening remarks by going after NBC's debate moderators, Lester Holt, Kristen Welker, and Hugh Hewitt, claiming that a debate moderated by "Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Elon Musk" would yield a much higher viewership and attract independent voters to the party.
He particularly criticized Welker for pushing the "Trump-Russia collusion hoax" and other "Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation" during her time at the network. | US Federal Elections |
Aerospace giant Boeing has confirmed that it is dealing with a “cyber incident,” days after the company was listed on the leak site of the LockBit ransomware gang.
In a statement given to TechCrunch, Boeing spokesperson Jim Prolux confirmed that attackers had targeted “elements of our parts and safety business.” The spokesperson added: “This issue does not affect flight safety. We are actively investigating the incident and coordinating with law enforcement and regulatory authorities. We are notifying our customers and suppliers.”
This confirmation comes soon after the Russia-linked LockBit ransomware gang claimed responsibility for a cyberattack targeting Boeing. According to a recent U.S. government advisory, LockBit has targeted approximately 1,800 victim systems in the U.S. and worldwide since late 2019.
In a since-deleted post, LockBit threatened to publish a “tremendous amount” of sensitive data allegedly stolen from Boeing if the company didn’t meet a ransom demand by November 2. The listing was removed from LockBit’s website this week, which ransomware gangs often use to extort companies by publishing stolen files if the ransom isn’t paid. A removed listing is often a sign that an organization has agreed to negotiate with the hackers, or paid some or all of the ransom demand.
When asked by TechCrunch, Boeing declined to say whether it had received a ransom demand or whether the company had paid.
The U.S. government has previously sanctioned Evil Corp, believed to be an affiliate of the LockBit ransomware group, which makes it illegal for any business or individual to pay the attackers. Paying ransoms to sanctioned hacking groups and ransomware gangs can violate U.S. law.
In a post on October 28, malware research group VX-Underground claimed to have spoken to LockBit administrators, who said that LockBit had not yet contacted Boeing. VX-Underground added that the LockBit representative declined to say how much or what types of data had been allegedly stolen.
When asked by TechCrunch, Boeing declined to say how it was compromised or whether the company was aware of any exfiltration of data from its systems. However, the spokesperson did not dispute that Boeing had been affected by a cybersecurity incident that involved data exfiltration.
Last year, Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen, which offers navigational information, operations planning tools and flight planning products, said it had been the target of a cyber incident that had caused some disruption to flight planning. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Less than a week before the Republican National Committee's first primary debate, which is being broadcast on Fox News, former President Donald Trump wrote two social media posts criticizing the network.
In two separate posts to Truth Social, Trump hit Fox News for not showing "polls where I am beating Biden," using unflattering photographs of him, and having former Attorney General Bill Barr on as a guest.
"Why doesn’t Fox and Friends show all of the Polls where I am beating Biden, by a lot. They just won’t do it!" he wrote Thursday morning. "Also, they purposely show the absolutely worst pictures of me, especially the big 'orange' one with my chin pulled way back.
"They think they are getting away with something, they’re not. Just like 2016 all over again … And then they want me to debate!" he added, referencing the upcoming debate, which he has yet to announce a final decision on.
In a later post, he wrote, "Why does FoxNews constantly put on slow thinking and lethargic Bill Barr, who didn’t have the courage or stamina to fight the Radical Left lunatics while he was A.G., and who, even more importantly, refused to fight Election Fraud. He knew what was going on, just look at his past remarks!
"Unless FoxNews starts putting the RIGHT people on, their Ratings will never recover," Trump continued.
Fox News did not provide comment to the Washington Examiner regarding the posts.
The RNC debate will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 23. However, the far and away primary front-runner, Trump, has yet to decide if he will participate.
He has maintained that he should not need to debate because of his significant lead over all other opponents, as well as the fact that he was president previously. "Why would I let these people take shots at me?" he asked in a recent interview.
Both Fox News and the RNC have encouraged the former president to participate. Last month, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel claimed skipping the event would be a mistake for Trump. Executives for the network also reportedly worked to convince Trump to attend during a dinner at his New Jersey golf club earlier this month.
Several of Trump's primary opponents have also said they want him to appear.
According to Trump's campaign, the former president is going to dominate the debate whether he attends or not.
"President Trump leads the Republican field by more than 40 points. So he's going to dominate the conversation at the debate whether he's there or not. Meanwhile, Ron DeSanctimonious is dropping like a rock and finds himself in third place in many polls with his opponents smelling blood in the water," Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller said.
Debate hosts Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier expressed similar sentiments. The former indicated that candidates will be expected to respond to Trump's recent indictment. Baier added, "He’ll be a part of questioning. There may be sound bites, there may be elements where ‘This is what the leader of the primary says about this issue.’ He’ll be there, even if he’s not there.” | US Campaigns & Elections |
On Sunday night, Donald Trump threw down the gauntlet at the feet of Rupert Murdoch and his sons, Joe Biden and the "WSJ heads." He posted this cri de guerre on his social media platform, Truth Social:
In a phony and probably rigged Wall Street Journal poll, coming out of nowhere to soften the mental incompetence blow that is so obvious with Crooked Joe Biden, they ask about my age and mentality. Where did that come from? A few years ago I was the only one to agree to a mental acuity test, & ACED IT. Now that the Globalists at Fox & the WSJ have failed to push their 3rd tier candidate to success, they do this. Well, I hereby challenge Rupert Murdoch & Sons, Biden, WSJ heads, to acuity tests!
He added:
I will name the place and the test, and it will be a tough one. Nobody will come even close to me! We can also throw some physical activity into it. I just won the Senior Club Championship at a big golf club, with many very good players. To do so you need strength, accuracy, touch and, above all, mental toughness. Ask Bret Baier (Fox), a very good golfer. The Wall Street Journal & Fox are damaged goods after their failed DeSanctimonious push & stupid $780,000,000 "settlement." MORONS!!!
That's just a little bit over the top even for him, don't you think?
All the Wall Street Journal did was publish a poll question asking whether Biden and Trump were too old to be president. Trump's own pollster was a partner in the poll so he should probably take it up with him. And despite the fact that he's 77 years old and would be 78 when he re-assumes the presidency should he win in 2024, he seems to think that's off limits because he "aced" the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test given to him some years ago by his favorite White House doctor Ronny Jackson.
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The test is designed to track cognitive changes over time. It's not an "acuity" test or an IQ test but Trump has gone back to it again and again as proof of his mental fitness. In the famous interview in which he bragged that he had been able to remember a string of words, he explained that it was actually quite difficult:
No normal person would make such a big deal out of that test because it's obvious to anyone with a brain that it's just a memory test that many elderly people take to see if they may have signs of dementia. He acts as though he just scored 1600 on the SAT (which, by the way, he reportedly paid someone to take for him.) Or maybe he thinks the MoCA is actually MENSA?
He's terrified of developing Alzheimer's disease because his father had it.
This incessant reminder that he was able to take this very simple test and that all the doctors were shocked because nobody ever does that well is just ... pathetic. And it's very telling. It's one thing to just assert that you are a very stable genius, as preposterous as that is, but it's quite another to brag about passing a very rudimentary memory test over and over and over again.
And it is rudimentary.
He knows that he's not all that bright and it drives him crazy. Back in July of 2022 he told his rally crowd:
"I said 'Ronnie, I don't like when people call me stupid. I have great heritage, an uncle who was a great, great genius, a father who was a genius, they're all geniuses, we had a lot of geniuses. I don't like being called stupid. Is there a test I can take to prove to these radical left maniacs that I'm much smarter than them?
He's worried. He's been worried for years. He had heard talk that people might want to remove him for "incapacitation" and gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation in which he claimed that "they" were trying to get him with an "Article 5." But he claimed that since he took the test, "they don't think about it now, the 25th Amendment. They don't think about that now at all, they never mention the 25th. But they would never – any time I had a great idea they would mention –'25th Amendment, there's something wrong with him.'"
If only "they " had had the guts to do it.
He's terrified of developing Alzheimer's disease because his father had it. As the New York Times reported at the time of his "person, woman, man, camera TV" moment, he said, "...I have, like, a good memory, because I'm cognitively there. Now, Joe should take that test, because something's going on and, and, I say this with respect. I mean — going to probably happen to all of us, right? You know? It's going to happen."
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According to his niece Mary Trump's book, "Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man," Trump derided his father when he was ill with Alzheimer's — and took full advantage of it by coercing him into changing the will in Donald's favor. Mary Trump has taped interviews with Trump's sister who said, "Dad was in dementia...I show it to [husband]John, and he says, 'Holy s—t.' It was basically taking the whole estate and giving it to Donald." She also said that Trump "has no principles" and "you can't trust him," which is stating the obvious.
There were lawsuits over Fred Trump's will and the Washington Post reported that Donald testified in a deposition that he didn't know his father had dementia and that he believed he was "very, very sharp." That is certainly a lie. He'd been in cognitive decline for years by that point.
It's quite obvious that Trump is clinging to that test as a way to reassure himself that he's not impaired. But, of course, he is, and on some level he knows it. He may not have dementia but he's got so many other psychological defects that it hardly matters. After all, the man has bought himself two felony indictments for the simple reason that he couldn't admit he lost.
As his niece Mary Trump said, "his talking about the dementia test the way he's talking about it is failing the dementia test." And he fails it again every time he talks about it. He just can't seem to stop himself.
Read more
about the 2024 race for the White House | US Federal Elections |
Donald Trump has amped up his attacks on Ron DeSantis -- making some of his harshest public comments yet directed at Florida's governor and potential GOP campaign rival.
"You have to remember Ron was a disciple of Paul Ryan, who is a RINO (Republican In Name Only) loser," Trump said to a crowd in Davenport, Iowa on Monday, attempting to cast DeSantis -- a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus in Congress -- as a pre-MAGA Republican who opposed ethanol and supported cuts to Medicare and Social Security.
Trump then appeared to speak directly to DeSantis: "So, I don't think you're going to be doing so well here. But we're going to find out."
DeSantis has not yet declared his candidacy for a White House bid despite recent tours of pivotal early voting states like Iowa and Nevada, though he's privately indicated to allies he intends to launch his candidacy in May or June, sources familiar with his plans told ABC News.
DeSantis is considered maybe Trump's chief rivals should he enter the race as he trails the former president's favorability ratings only slightly in a recent Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll.
During Trump's speech -- which sources familiar with the matter had said would be focused on education -- he vowed to cut funding for any school that is pushing critical race theory or what he called "transgender insanity," or that has a vaccine or mask mandate. He also again said he would support the direct election of school principals by parents, and vowed to break up the Department of Education if elected.
DeSantis did not comment directly on Trump's attacks but released a tweet following the remarks, where he addressed education by disavowing "political indoctrination" in universities.
"The publications said Trump still has really high approval ratings with the Republican voter base is defeating Ron DeSantis in poll after poll by a lot and I'm beating Joe Biden by a lot– very important," Trump said.
The former president on Monday focused directly on DeSantis' record as a former member of Congress and dove into other stances the governor has taken.
Trump attacked DeSantis over his previous support -- while serving in Congress in 2017 -- of a bill that would have immediately ended the Renewable Fuel Standard, or the RFS. The RFS mandates that specific percentages of ethanol -- a major industry in Iowa -- be part of the nation's fuel supply.
"Okay, so remember this -- Ron Desanctus. Did anyone ever hear of Desanctus? Desanctimonious ... Ron Desanctus strongly opposed ethanol. Do you know that? And we don't even know if he's running but I might as well tell you. If he's not running, I'll say he was fine on ethanol, don't worry," Trump said in his speech.
"He strongly opposed ethanol and fought against it at every turn. And he's gonna do that again. Because people that come out early for something, that's where they go. Politically, but he was very, very bad on ethanol," he said.
Ethanol is a key issue for many of Iowa's farmers. Trump himself has faced criticism from farmers while president because he granted ethanol waivers to some small refineries, giving them an exemption from blending ethanol into their fuel. Trump, however, billed himself as the "most pro-farmer president," on Monday.
The former president also continued to attack DeSantis over his positions on Social Security, saying he "wanted to decimate it and voted against it."
"A lot of people don't know that. I think they've been finding out over the last four weeks. One of the reasons that we're zooming in the polls, perhaps," Trump said. "He also voted to severely cut Medicare. I will not be adding Medicare and I will not be cutting Social Security."
Trump did not mention GOP opponent Nikki Haley's recent calls for changing the retirement age for Americans currently in their 20s and limiting Social Security and Medicare benefits for wealthy Americans.
The former South Carolina governor first proposed the entitlement program changes and change of retirement age for "young people" at a town hall in Iowa last week.
Haley had the highest uncertainty in the recent Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, with 40% of Republicans surveyed saying they do not know enough about her, while garnering a 53% approval rating.
Trump also addressed DeSantis' with a group of reporters on en route to Davenport, Iowa on Monday, the same town DeSantis toured on Friday.
Trump said he regretted endorsing DeSantis for governor in 2018, saying, "This guy was dead. He was dead as a doornail … I might say that," Trump told Politico.
"I said, 'You are so dead right now you are not going, no endorsement is going to save you. George Washington won't save you.' He said, 'I'm telling you, if you endorse me, I have a chance,'" Trump said.
Politico also reported that Trump has been workshopping nicknames for his potential rival, but he said that he has decided against attacking DeSantis with the name "Meatball Ron," calling it "too crude."
ABC News' Olivia Rubin contributed to this report. | US Campaigns & Elections |
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jim Jordan has such a reputation as a political brawler that former House Speaker John Boehner once said he'd never met someone "who spent more time tearing things apart.”
Now, nearly a decade after Boehner stepped down in the face a conservative revolt, it is Jordan who is trying to bring the Republican Party together to win the speaker's gavel.
A favorite of former President Donald Trump and darling of the party’s rabble-rousing base, Jordan's path to the U.S. government's third-highest office is by no means certain in a House Republican conference riven by conflict following the ouster two weeks ago of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. To win, he'll need support from nearly every House Republicans, having few votes to spare in a chamber they only narrowly control.
Should Jordan succeed, it would help cement the far right’s takeover of the Republican Party and trigger fresh conflict with Democrats over the size and scope of government. But a Jordan speakership would also come with baggage that could present a challenge to Republicans as they labor to hold their House majority in next year's election, an effort that will likely hinge on drawing support from moderate voters in swing districts.
Some members of Congress — including some in his own party — label Jordan an extremist unworthy of the speakership, pointing to his active role in Trump's bid to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election, as well as his refusal to honor a congressional subpoena about the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol. Further in his past, Jordan continues to be questioned over his alleged knowledge of sexual abuse in the wrestling program at Ohio State University — accusations he adamantly denies.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney, who helped lead the Jan. 6 investigation and was ousted from GOP leadership by conservatives, has warned that giving Jordan the gavel could even pose a threat to democracy itself.
“If the Republicans decide that Jim Jordan should be the speaker of the House,” Cheney said during a recent speech, "there would no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could be counted on to defend the Constitution.”
Jordan has defended his bare-knuckled approach as rooted in principle, a message that resonates with conservatives who have long accused GOP leaders of capitulation.
“One person says disruption," Jordan told The Associated Press in 2017. “We like to say we’re doing what we told the voters we were going to do.”
Jordan, a 59-year-old father of four, was born near Dayton in western Ohio. He was a four-time state wrestling champion in high school and a two-time NCAA champion at the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s. That helped him land a coaching job at Ohio State University before his election to the Ohio legislature in the mid 1990s.
His conservatism and zeal for a political fight were evident in early clashes with GOP legislative leaders, as well as with Republican Gov. Bob Taft.
When he decided to pursue a state Senate seat in 1999, he faced opposition from the GOP establishment and from Boehner, then a four-term congressman, who supported a rival. Jordan easily won, ousting a veteran state representative with nearly 60% of the vote. Jordan was elected to Congress several years later, in 2006.
After the tea party wave swept Republicans to power in 2011, the roles reversed, and Jordan was among the conservatives who were frequently Boehner's tormentors.
Jordan was the founding chairman in 2015 of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of conservative hardliners who eventually pressured Boehner to step aside. More than eight years later, members of the group were instrumental in McCarthy's removal, a stunning outcome testament to the group's outsized power.
But it is Jordan's past as a wrestling coach — a sport he described as "good for a society” — that has posed one of his biggest political liabilities.
In 2018, several former athletes he coached at Ohio State came forward to describe a lurid atmosphere surrounding the school's wrestling program when Jordan was an assistant coach. The allegations centered around sexual misconduct by Richard Strauss, a doctor who was on the faculty and medical staff.
Jordan would "even make comments: ‘This guy better not touch me,’” Dunyasha Yetts, one of the wrestlers, told AP in 2018.
A subsequent investigation found Strauss, who died by suicide in 2005, groped or sexually assaulted nearly 200 students, many of them wrestlers seeking medical care. Since then, even more former wrestlers Jordan coached have come forward to say that Jordan was aware of the doctor's conduct but did nothing to stop it — an allegation that Jordan vehemently denied.
“It’s false. I never saw, never, heard of, never was told about any kind of abuse,” Jordan told Fox News in 2018, suggesting that the allegations against him were politically motivated. “What bothers me the most is the guys that are saying these things, I know they know the truth.”
Adam DiSabato, a former Ohio State wrestling captain and brother to one of the early whistleblowers, offered an unsparing assessment during a 2020 legislative hearing in Columbus. DiSabato testified that he repeatedly urged Jordan and others on the coaching staff to intervene.
“Jim Jordan called me crying ... begging me to go against my brother," DiSabato said, referring to a call he said he received after the abuse allegations first became public. “He’s throwing us under the bus — all of us. He’s a coward.”
Ohio State has since doled out tens of millions of dollars in settlements. Jordan's political committee paid $84,000 to a conservative public relations firm in 2018 to help manage the fallout, campaign finance disclosures show.
Unlike many in Congress, Jordan has not adopted some of the flashier trappings of office, appearing regularly in a blue button-up and gold tie, sans jacket and with his shirt sleeves rolled up. Nor, unlike many of his peers, does Jordan appear to have experienced a dramatic improvement in his personal finances while serving in Congress, public financial disclosures show.
When Jordan first entered Congress, his wife, Polly, earned a modest salary from a western Ohio school district while he relied on a mid-five-figure income from a deferred compensation plan. His most recent disclosure, filed last year, show Jordan’s net worth has improved only slightly, thanks to his $174,000 salary as a congressman and royalties from a political memoir.
“It’s true, retail legislative activity for him, so there’s no like, ‘I’m gonna buy a house in Washington and live there,’” said Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, a longtime ally. “He’s doesn’t have any interest in that.”
Jordan's skill set proved particularly useful in the politically charged years after Trump won the White House.
His allegiance was on full display during the Justice Department’s investigation into potential coordination between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, when he used his platform on the House Judiciary Committee to rail against the probe as politically motivated and to attack the law enforcement officials who supervised it.
In recognition of Jordan’s growing influence, Republicans moved him to the House Intelligence committee during the first impeachment proceedings against Trump in 2019. And when Republicans won the House in last year's election, Jordan secured the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee, one of the most prestigious posts in Congress — and one well-suited to his combative style.
In tense hearings this year, Jordan has sparred with Cabinet secretaries, FBI officials and ambassadors alike, accusing them all of taking part in a “weaponization” of government against conservatives. Jordan comes to the hearings with a wrestler's mindset, trying to anticipate his opponents' moves ahead of time during preparatory sessions in his Capitol Hill office.
Jordan is also among the Republicans leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Republicans say the investigation is needed to root out whether the Biden family corruptly profited from their connections in Washington.
But it was in the period after Trump lost the election to Biden in 2020 that Jordan's strongest connections to Trump were forged. Jordan repeatedly cast doubt on the outcome of the contest while organizing the House Republican response.
Documents obtained by Congress through its investigation of the attack offer a window into Jordan's involvement in Trump's bid to stay in office.
Days after the election, Jordan traveled with fellow GOP Rep. Scott Perry to Pennsylvania to meet with the Republican state House speaker, where the two congressmen “raised some questions regarding what I’ll call the legal process," then-Speaker Bryan Cutler told investigators.
On Dec. 21, 2020, Jordan was among those attending a White House meeting focused on pressuring then Vice President Mike Pence to use his ceremonial role presiding over the electoral college to overturn the election, according to documents from the investigation.
Jordan also hosted a Jan. 2, 2021 conference call with the White House to discuss logistics for Jan 6, including Republican plans to object to the election's certification, according to call logs and testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows.
White House call logs also show that Jordan called Trump twice on Jan. 6 — both before and after the attack.
During his speech that day, which preceded the Capitol attack, Trump singled out Jordan for praise.
“There’s so many weak Republicans. And we have great ones. Jim Jordan and some of these guys, they’re out there fighting,” Trump said. “The House guys are fighting.”
In the days after the Capitol was attacked, Jordan raised the possibility of getting presidential pardons for members of Congress, though never directly asked for one, Hutchinson told the congressional committee.
A week later, Trump presented Jordan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. | US Congress |
World's Biggest Bank ICBC Still Faces Trader Wariness After Cyberattack
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. has been unable to convince some traders of safety after a recent ransomware attack.
(Bloomberg) -- Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world’s largest lender by assets, has been unable to convince some market participants that it’s safe to reconnect their computer networks to the bank’s US unit after a ransomware attack disrupted its systems, according to people familiar with the matter.
The attack, which was claimed by the Russia-linked LockBit cybercrime and extortion gang earlier this month, impeded trading in the $26 billion Treasury market and, the people said, it has left users of the bank’s US arm skittish about trading with the bank.
These financial institutions, including banks, brokerages and other types of securities firms, have looked to the US Treasury Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for guidance about when it’s safe to begin processing Treasury trades again through the Chinese bank’s US arm, ICBC Financial Services, the people said. The guidance has done little to sway partners back to the bank, they said. Treasury trades continue to move and clear elsewhere through other firms, said the people, who asked not to be identified to discuss confidential matters.
ICBC’s US division is a critical go-between for financial firms investing in the Treasury market because it helps settle and clear the trades. The fallout from the cyberattack highlights the fragile and interconnected nature of modern electronic banking, as well as how long it can take for traders to regain trust in financial institutions hit by a ransomware attack.
The aftermath of the ICBC attack also puts American authorities in the unusual position of being asked to weigh in on a fast-moving situation involving a Chinese company and a key market participant’s cybersecurity. For the financial services industry, cybersecurity is an issue governed by a thicket of regulations and lengthy inspections to ensure compliance.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection is “working with market participants to ensure that best practices are being followed in the wake of the incident,” a representative said in a statement to Bloomberg. “When there is a cybersecurity issue impacting sector participants, we will work expeditiously to isolate the incident and ensure that its impact remains limited.”
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, known as FINRA, a self-regulatory organization for broker-dealers, is “closely monitoring for any impact on member firms and customers,” and is coordinating efforts with other regulators, according to an emailed statement.
The SEC declined to comment. ICBC didn’t respond to requests for comment. ICBC Financial Services had $23.5 billion of assets at the end of 2022, according to its most recent annual filing.
Systems Online
ICBC has set up entirely new IT infrastructure in recent weeks to resume its US trading service, according to two of the people. Several executives from Beijing remain in the US to continue checks and remediation, the people said. The attack against ICBC exposes how new and undefined the roles are for market participants and regulators when entities in the highly regulated banking sector are trying to recover from ransomware.
For its part, ICBC has told users that its US division is back online and operational, the people said. One person familiar with the hack and investigation said a reason the bank could get back online quickly was that a key part of its trading system was unaffected by the attack — a server that was more than 20 years old, made by now-defunct IT equipment maker Novell Inc.. That server contained much of the bank’s trading data and capabilities and is so old that LockBit’s ransomware didn’t work on it, the person said.
Treasury Department officials have also provided the bank a set of recommended reconnection criteria, and ICBC has quickly built a skeleton system based on new infrastructure for handling the transactions, the people said. Still, the speed of the turnaround and questions about how the bank has handled its infected infrastructure has raised concerns about the security of the setup, making ICBC’s partners hesitant to reconnect, one of the people said.
The SEC, which regulates securities markets and investors in it, recently adopted final rules requiring companies to disclose serious cybersecurity incidents within four business days after they’re deemed significant. Regulators can advise entities, but ultimately it’s the trader’s decision whether to connect to a company’s system, the people said.
“Whether or not an intermediary’s clearing infrastructure is compliant with the SEC’s rules is a call for the intermediary and its lawyers to make,” said David Slovick, partner at Barnes & Thornburg LLP and a former SEC enforcement attorney. “Regulators typically don’t give ad hoc advisory opinions — and they definitely don’t want to be responsible for market participant’s bad decisions.”
Cyberattack Fallout
One of the key functions of ICBC’s US unit is settling Treasury trades. The hack on Nov. 8 had immediate repercussions for the broader US Treasury market — the world’s biggest — disrupting liquidity and making it hard for traders to settle transactions for days.
The bank had flown executives into the US from China to try and help limit fallout from the incident and reassure market participants that it had a handle on the situation, Bloomberg News reported last week. But some were left without a clear outline or timeline for when the bank’s US operations would be back online.
ICBC is now trying to reverse an exodus of customers. Immediately following the attack, the bank’s partners disconnected from the stricken systems, forcing ICBC to send Treasury settlement details via a messenger carrying a thumb drive. After the hack, the number of US Treasury securities that weren’t delivered to fulfill a trade contract spiked to an eight-month high.
The Treasury Department’s top domestic finance official, Nellie Liang, last week defended the resiliency of the market, saying that it has dealt well with surprises this year including the cyberattack.
“Despite the various shocks and stresses that emerged during this year, Treasury market functioning has been orderly,” Liang said in a prepared speech at a conference held Thursday at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “There is still more to complete. Efforts to continue strengthening Treasury market resilience will serve us well over the years to come.”
Some observers have called for all Treasury transactions to be routed through a central clearinghouse, a change that proponents argue will improve the security and stability of the market.
In this case, however, such a system would have been little help as the attack was a firm-level hack that could have happened to any market participant, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Brian Meehan wrote in a November 16 report. The incident exposes broad risks in the way Treasuries are currently traded and is likely to push the SEC to tighten its regulations around compliance and integrity for all the US Treasury electronic trading platforms, Meehan wrote.
“ICBC is — or was, until this attack — a presence in the US Treasury market but not a cornerstone,” he wrote. “Other firms offer the same services, so it’s unlikely clients will migrate back quickly. This is a lesson all firms should heed.”
--With assistance from Lydia Beyoud, Elena Popina, Liz Capo McCormick and Zheng Li.
©2023 Bloomberg L.P. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
The former editor of a left-leaning political news site reportedly has been charged with possessing and distributing child pornography, according to authorities in Massachusetts.
Slade Sohmer, 44, who until last month was editor-in-chief of the video-driven news site The Recount, was released on $100,000 bail on Monday after he was charged in Massachusetts court with possessing and disseminating “hundreds of child pornography images and videos,” according to The Berkshire Eagle.
Sohmer — who also has worked as a camp counselor for a New York City-based nonprofit — was arrested at his home in Otis, Mass. on Friday, weeks after law enforcement officials confiscated his electronic devices after obtaining a search warrant, the newspaper reported.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of dissemination of child pornography.
If convicted, Sohmer faces minimum mandatory sentences of 10 years in state prison if convicted of dissemination of child pornography and five years if convicted of possession of child pornography.
Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey said this was one of the most “egregious” cases of its kind that she has come across.
A spokesperson at The Recount’s parent company The News Movement told The Post has Sohmer “is no longer editor-in-chief” of the site “following a company restructure exercise in early October to focus on our editorial and commercial plans.”
The Post has sought comment from Sohmer.
According to Sohmer’s LinkedIn page, his resume includes stints at SiriusXM Radio, HyperVocal, Mic, and Beme, the now-defunct video news company that was once bought out by CNN.
His LinkedIn page also indicates that Sohmer since 2010 has worked as a co-director at Camp Power, a nonprofit which “provides kids from New York City’s most underfunded and underserved neighborhoods with freedom and encouragement that are often lacking in their communities back in the city.”
Officials at Camp Power couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Court documents cited by The Berkshire Eagle allege that Sohmer’s phone contained disturbing video clips showing boys believed to be as young as three years of age being raped and forced to perform sex acts by adults.
Authorities were tipped off to Sohmer’s alleged proclivities by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which reportedly informed the Massachusetts State Policy Cyber Crime Unit that somebody sent a suspicious video on Snapchat in late September of last year.
The video is alleged to have shown a boy around 11 years of age masturbating, according to court documents cited by The Berkshire Eagle.
Authorities later traced the video to an IP address that allegedly originated from Sohmer’s home internet account, The Berkshire Eagle reported.
On Oct. 18, Berkshire police seized electronic devices from Sohmer’s home in Otis. Investigators alleged that one of Sohmer’s phones was used to send 53 videos which contained child pornography, according to the report.
Prosecutors also allege that Sohmer was filmed instructing a minor to perform sex acts. The child has since been identified, according to The Berkshire Eagle.
Sohmer will likely face additional charges as a result of the child being identified, it was reported.
“We went from just dissemination of child pornography to production of child pornography,” Shelvey told Judge Danielle Williams of Southern Berkshire District Court on Monday. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Donald Trump's move to delay the closing arguments in his civil fraud trial may backfire as it shortens his legal team's preparation time for the former president's next trial.
In September, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a partial summary judgment in the civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, ruling that Trump and top executives at The Trump Organization committed fraud. He held that Trump grossly inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. The rest of the trial will determine how much the Republican will pay in damages, as well as rule on six other accusations—including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy claims.
On Thursday, Engoron extended the scheduled end of the trial from mid-December to January 11 after Trump's lawyers asked for more time to prepare.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), Lisa Rubin, a legal analyst for MSNBC, pointed out that this will leave Trump's lawyers, including Alina Habba and Christopher Kise, "just days" before his defamation trial involving writer E. Jean Carroll.
Newsweek has contacted representatives for Trump, Kise and Habba by email to comment on this story.
Trump is facing a trial after a New York City jury awarded Carroll, a journalist, $5 million in damages in May, ruling that Trump had sexually assaulted her and was civilly liable for defamation.
Carroll's lawyers are seeking another $10 million in compensatory damages and "substantially more" after the former president continued to deny the accusations that he assaulted her in a New York City department store changing room in the mid-1990s, claiming he has no idea who she is and that Carroll was not his "type." Trump also called Carroll's account "fake" and labeled her a "whack job" during a CNN town hall broadcast.
In early September, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Trump's comments against Carroll were defamatory. The damages trial is now set for January.
Meanwhile, the Iowa caucuses—the first contest in the Republican nominating calendar—are scheduled on January 15, days after the end of the civil fraud trial. A win in Iowa is typically seen as a solid indicator of who will eventually secure their party's nomination.
Trump is leading in the polls in the state with 44.7 percent of the vote against challengers including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (17.5 percent) and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley (15.3 percent). He also leads the overall Republican primaries, with about 60 percent of the vote.
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About the writer
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and she is particularly interested in the impact of social policy decisions on people as well as the finances of political campaigns, corruption, foreign policy, democratic processes and more. Prior to joining Newsweek, she covered U.K. politics extensively. Kate joined Newsweek in 2023 from The Independent and has also been published in multiple publications including The Times and the Daily Mail. She has a B.A. in History from the University of Oxford and an M.A. in Magazine Journalism from City, University of London.
Languages: English.
You can get in touch with Kate by emailing [email protected], or by following her on X at @kateeplummer.
Kate Plummer is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. politics and national affairs, and... Read more
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CHICAGO -- A Chicago father has been convicted of attempting to kill three people to avenge the slaying of his 9-year-old son who was lured from a playground into an alley with the promise of a juice box by rival gang members in 2015 and shot.
A jury deliberated several hours Wednesday before finding Pierre Stokes, 33, guilty of attempted murder, aggravated battery with a firearm and a gun charge, according to the Chicago Tribune.
He was accused of shooting and wounding the girlfriend of one of the men responsible for his son's death and her two adult nephews in 2016.
Prosecutors have said the shooting was the result of a feud between the Bang Bang Gang/Terror Dome faction of the Black P Stones and the Killa Ward faction of the Black Gangster Disciples, which Stokes allegedly belonged to.
According to prosecutors, Dwright Boone-Doty and Corey Morgan believed Stokes’ faction was responsible for an October 2015 shooting that killed Morgan’s 25-year-old brother and wounded his mother. Initially, the plan was to kill Tyshawn Lee's grandmother to send a message to Stokes before the boy was targeted, prosecutors said.
Morgan, Boone-Doty and Kevin Edwards were charged in the boy's slaying. Morgan was convicted and sentenced to 65 years in prison. Doty was convicted and sentenced to 90 years, while Edwards, the getaway driver, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for a 25 years in prison.
Prosecutors alleged during a 2016 bond hearing that Doty told other inmates that he shot Tyshawn and considered cutting off the boy's fingers and ears, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Stokes later approached Morgan's girlfriend, Robyn Matthews, at a South Side gas station and shot her and her nephews.
Assistant State’s Attorney Melanie Matias told the jury during closing arguments in Stokes’ trial that “vigilante justice is not justice.”
But Assistant Public Defender Celeste Addyman argued that saying Matthews' shooting "is a retaliatory shooting for Tyshawn’s death doesn’t make sense.”
“This happens four or five months later," she said. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Mother, son charged with kidnapping after police say they took a teenager to Oregon for an abortion
An Idaho woman and son have been charged with kidnapping after prosecutors say they took the son’s minor girlfriend out of state to get an abortion
An Idaho woman and her son have been charged with kidnapping after prosecutors say they took the son's minor girlfriend out of state to get an abortion.
Court documents show Idaho police began investigating the mother and son earlier this summer after a 15-year-old girl's mother told authorities her daughter had been sexually assaulted and later taken to Oregon to have an abortion.
With some narrow technical exceptions, abortion is banned throughout pregnancy in Republican-controlled Idaho. The procedure is legal in left-leaning Oregon, prompting many patients to cross the state border for services, a trend anti-abortion opponents have struggled to stifle ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion last year.
Idaho's Republican-controlled Legislature and Republican Gov. Brad Little are seeking more ways to curb abortion as well. Recently, the state made it illegal to help minors get an abortion without their parents’ consent, legislation aimed at preventing minors who don’t have parental approval from getting abortions out of state. However, that law is being challenged in court, and prosecutors in the kidnapping case aren't relying on it.
According to an affidavit, the mother of the girl who travelled for the abortion believed her daughter was living with her father, but told authorities she later discovered the teen was staying at her boyfriend's house for several months in Pocatello, Idaho.
The girl told law enforcement officials she began having a consensual sexual relationship with her boyfriend when he was 17 and she was 15. The relationship continued when he turned 18, right around when the girl said she became pregnant.
According to court documents, the girl said she was “happy” when she found out she was pregnant, but her boyfriend was not — warning that he would not pay for child support and that he would end their relationship.
The boyfriend's mother later demanded the girl not to tell her parents and threatened to “kick her out of their house” if she did.
The girl told authorities she then traveled to Bend, Oregon — about 550 miles (885 km) from Pocatello — with her boyfriend and his mom in May to get an abortion. Police later used the girl's cellphone data to confirm that the trio traveled to Oregon around the same time.
The mother later told police she rented a car to go with her son and the girl to Oregon and said that the abortion was “mutually agreed upon” between the girl and her son. She said she she never “coerced” anyone into having an abortion.
Prosecutors have since charged the mother with second-degree kidnapping and the son with the same charge, along with rape and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material after authorities said that the boyfriend captured sexually explicit video and photos of the girl.
The mother is also facing multiple drug charges.
Prosecutors say the kidnapping charges were brought because the mother and son intended to “keep or conceal” the girl from her parents by transporting “the child out of the state for the purpose of obtaining an abortion.”
Both the mother and son have been assigned a public defender, David Martinez, who said he was assigned the case the day before and declined to comment. | US Federal Policies |
Police, including a former professional baseball player, Friday in Nevada in connection to a Lake Tahoe-area attack that left a man dead and his wife in critical condition.
After a two-year investigation, Danny Serafini, 49, and Samantha Scott, 33, were arrested separately, hundreds of miles apart in Las Vegas and northwest of Reno. Authorities say they knew each other and the victims — Robert Gary Spohr and his wife, Wendy Wood.
Spohr, 70, was killed and Wood survived the shooting at their home in an unincorporated community in California off the shore of Lake Tahoe, the Placer County Sheriff's Office said.
The two will be extradited to California, officials said.
"Today, justice was served," Placer County Sheriff Wayne Woo said in a statement. "The apprehension of those responsible for the tragic events that unfolded in Homewood, North Lake Tahoe in 2021 stands as a testament to the unwavering dedication of our detectives, law enforcement partners, and the persistence of our pursuit of truth."
Serafini's attorney, David Fischer, didn't immediately respond to a phone call and an email Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment about the arrest.
Serafini, born in San Francisco, was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 1992 MLB Draft, CBS Sacramento reported. He also played for the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds and the Colorado Rockies, according to MLB.com. He also pitched for Italy during the World Baseball Classic in 2013.
The Clark County Public Defender's Office didn't immediately return a call from the AP about whether Scott had an attorney who could speak on her behalf. Police records don't list an attorney, and a spokesperson with the Placer County Sheriff's Office said the department has no information on her representation.
Video surveillance from the Spohr and Wood home showed a man wearing a gray hoodie, face covering and backpack approaching it hours before the attack, police said. Another video shows the same man walking up the driveway.
Deputies responded to the home after receiving a 911 call. They discovered Spohr had been shot once, and Wood was shot at least twice. Wood recovered from the injuries but died a year later.
The sheriff's office said "detectives have worked tirelessly over the course of the past two years, devoting countless hours of follow up by detectives, along with the DA's Office" to solve the case.
Sources told CBS Sacramento last year that investigators were considering the possibility. Then, in April 2023, the Placer County Sheriff's Office said that it was looking for multiple suspects who may live in the Reno area.
The family offered a six-figure reward for information that leads to an arrest.
After the crime, the Spohrs' daughter, Adrienne Spohr, told CBS Sacramento her parents were targeted.
"We still don't completely understand the motive of the killer, and, at the end of the day, he came here to kill my mom and my dad," Spohr told the station in 2021.
for more features. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
Republican senators railed against Democrats and the Biden administration's handling of the migrant crisis during an impassioned press conference Wednesday afternoon.
Amid Congress' funding negotiations to keep the government open past the September 30 deadline, Senators Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., John Kennedy, R-La., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Katie Britt, R-Ala., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, shifted their focus to illegal immigration, indicating that they would introduce supplementals to the funding package come November with extra border security provisions.
"We're facing an unmitigated disaster at our southern border. Illegal Immigration is the worst in our nation's history and it's indefensible. Their only defense is to cover it up," Cruz said of Democrats. "Karine Jean-Pierre stands at the White House podium and says, 'People are not just walking across the border, it's not happening.'"
He added: "There's a technical legal term for what that is — that's called ‘bulls---.’ It is an utter and complete lie."
Other GOP leaders highlighted the need to address stranded migrant children lost after crossing the border, as well as the rise in drug smuggling and human trafficking, and help needed for cities like New York that have been overrun by illegal immigrants.
While the Senate's Continuing Resolution (CR) proposed deal does not include additional funding for securing the border in its current form, the House is attempting to include the "Secure the Border Act" — H.R. 2 — in different versions of continuing resolutions to keep the government open past September 30.
The bill was passed by the House in May but has so far received little interest from Democrats. A Senate version was introduced this month by Cruz. In addition to strengthening border security measures, it would authorize an additional $110 million in grants to law enforcement agencies in border states to increase border security and increase drone flights at the border.
However, the White House has previously threatened that Biden will veto the legislation if it were to make it to his desk.
U.S. border patrol officials encountered nearly 233,000 migrants at the border in August, which is the highest number recorded since December 2022.
When GOP senators were asked whether they would be willing to shut down the government over additional border security provisions not being in the upper chamber's current CR, Graham said, "We're not going to leave this issue unattended and unaddressed."
"The House is going to insist that there be border security fixes," Graham said. "I think we're all saying we agree with the House, keeping the government open . . . but come November the 17th, whatever date they pick, I expect we'll have substantial fixes to a broken border."
Graham added: "To my Democratic colleagues . . . consider this an opportunity. I want to keep the government open. I think we'll have to do a supplemental in November if we can't pass the appropriation bills. . . . There will be no legislation without strong border security."
Meanwhile, Cruz asked, "Chuck Schumer, are you willing to shut the government down in order to stop any effort to secure the border?"
On Capitol Hill Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said following the GOP Conference's luncheon that the Senate's main priority "is to try to keep the government open," and to continue payroll for "security like air traffic controllers, border patrol, Capitol Police, because the Constitution requires that we continue to be paid during the shutdown."
"We're going to concentrate on trying to do our job here in the Senate, which I think is to pass a bill that keeps the government open, and I can't have an impact on what happens in the House," he said.
The short-term CR includes only $6.2 billion allocated to Ukraine — an $18 billion decrease from Biden’s August request to Congress. Another $6 billion is allocated to natural disaster funding. The Senate CR does not include any additional funding for border security like the House's version.
The House and Senate must come to some kind of agreement on how to fund the government by the end of the fiscal year, September 30, or risk a partial government shutdown. House lawmakers voted 216 to 212 late Wednesday to advance four appropriations bills, teeing them up for debate and a final vote sometime this week.
Fox News' Liz Elkind, Adam Shaw and Griff Jenkins contributed to this report. | US Congress |
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A prison escapee from Tennessee who was on the run for more than a month is now back in custody, after authorities caught up with him in Florida Tuesday night.
Authorities say his fate was sealed by a desire to buy a hot dog at a gas station there.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) says Sean Williams was taken into custody in Pinellas County, near Tampa. That comes after he was spotted near Sylva, North Carolina.
Williams is charged with the rape of a child, aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13, and especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. The TBI says he also faces several federal charges, including escape.
Williams escaped custody during a prisoner transport on October 18th.
Earlier, authorities said the camera in the transport van wasn't working and he had left through a broken back window.
David Jolley, a U.S. Marshal, said Williams had stolen a car in Greeneville, Tennessee a few days ago, and that's ultimately what led agents to search for him in Florida.
An officer spotted the vehicle Tuesday, and a pursuit began. Jolley said Williams bailed out of the car, left his possessions, and tried to run away.
A store clerk at a local 7/11 noticed Williams buying a hot dog, and recognized him from news footage. He ran from the store and was hiding underneath a tarp until the police and K9 were able to locate him.
Officials say that Williams will have to undergo an extradition hearing in Florida before he returns to Tennessee.
Jolley said before the most recent escape from the prison van, Williams was being kept in Kentucky after a separate escape attempt in Washington County.
Depend on us to keep you posted. | US Crime, Violence, Terrorism & cybercrime |
WASHINGTON — Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats abandoned their plan to vote Thursday on a subpoena for Dallas real estate magnate Harlan Crow as they seek more information about his gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
The abrupt about-face came after Republicans launched a barrage of amendments with retaliatory subpoenas targeting left-leaning Justice Sonia Sotomayor, officials in President Joe Biden’s administration and others.
Democrats said they were jammed by the late dump of GOP amendments and scheduling conflicts required them to punt.
“We will continue our efforts to authorize subpoenas in the near future,” Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement. “The highest court in the land cannot have the lowest ethical standards.”
ProPublica has reported Crow provided luxury trips that Thomas did not disclose, bought property in Georgia from the justice, and paid private school tuition for a grandnephew being raised by Thomas and his wife.
Durbin said Congress needs more information from Crow to inform legislation requiring the Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of conduct.
“The country is still waiting for a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, even after story after story about lavish gifts and luxury trips that Supreme Court justices have accepted and refused to disclose,” Durbin said as he opened Thursday’s session. “Congress needs to understand the full scope of the court’s ethical crisis.”
But after the committee voted to advance a couple of judicial nominations, Durbin quickly adjourned the meeting.
Democrats might have underestimated the fervor with which Republicans would fight the subpoena. GOP senators have denounced the inquiry as an unconstitutional, partisan witch hunt intended to embarrass a staunchly conservative jurist and undermine public faith in rulings by the court’s right-leaning majority.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the committee, kicked off Thursday’s session by predicting a long day and a knock-down, drag-out fight.
“You’ve opened up Pandora’s box and you will get a look into it. It’s not very pretty,” Graham warned Democrats. “We could spend all of our time talking about what we would like to subpoena versus what you would like to subpoena. You’re going to understand pretty soon today, there’s a pent up demand on our side for information.”
Before the committee voted on the judicial nominations, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., previewed subpoenas she planned to offer.
They included subpoenas for Sotomayor’s staff and publisher, aimed at investigating reports the liberal justice’s aides pushed public institutions to buy her books. Sotomayor has earned nearly $4 million from those books since she joined the court in 2009, according to the Associated Press.
Blackburn said she would seek a subpoena for flight logs from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell while facing sex trafficking charges. The clear implication was those flight logs might include the names of some prominent Democrats.
She ticked through a series of additional subpoenas aimed Biden administration officials and their policies, but she never got the chance to offer any of them.
Graham told reporters he hopes Democrats have reconsidered the wisdom of seeking subpoenas and will instead focus on topics that have bipartisan support.
In addition to Crow, committee Democrats had planned to approve a subpoena for Leonard Leo, chairman of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group, who has been a key adviser to Republicans on judicial nominations.
According to ProPublica Leo helped organize a 2008 Alaska fishing trip that included Justice Samuel Alito.
Wealthy real estate executive Robin Arkley II had recently acquired the fishing lodge and covered Alito’s stay free of charge, according to ProPublica. Alito has defended the trip, but the committee says it wants to know more.
Durbin had planned to seek a subpoena for Arkley, too, but dropped that after he provided information voluntarily.
“Given his cooperation, I’ve decided that voting to authorize a subpoena to Mr. Arkley is not necessary at this time,” Durbin said.
In contrast, Durbin said, Leo stonewalled and Crow offered to provide information about his dealings with Thomas for only the past five years, even though his gifts to the justice reportedly go back 25 years.
Crow maintains his offer was a reasonable compromise and a good faith effort to work with the committee despite “serious constitutional and privacy concerns.”
Durbin called Crow’s offer “completely insufficient.”
“This committee cannot sit by idly and ignore our constitutional duty to conduct oversight over the judiciary when the American people’s confidence in the Supreme Court has reached record lows,” Durbin said.
With an 11-10 majority on the committee, Democrats can approve subpoenas without any GOP support. But enforcing them would be another matter.
Senate Democrats cite stories about gifts to Thomas and Alito as evidence the nation’s highest court needs a binding code of ethics similar to one that applies to lower federal courts.
The committee voted along party lines in July to advance legislation requiring the Supreme Court to adopt such a code.
That proposal would tighten disclosure requirements, and add procedures for misconduct complaints and recusals to avoid conflicts of interest.
The full Senate has not taken up the bill, which would likely fail in the face of a Republican filibuster. | SCOTUS |
"I want to talk about Gov. Newsom," Biden said Wednesday during a reception for APEC leaders. "I want to thank him. He's been one hell of a governor, man. As a matter of fact, he can be anything he wants. He can have the job I'm looking for."
While Newsom has been a vocal backer of Biden's 2024 re-election, he's also been accused of running a "shadow campaign" for president with his headline-grabbing domestic travel and high-profile international trips, including one last month to China. Newsom has played a prominent role at APEC, greeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the airport and hosting a high-dollar fundraiser for Biden on Tuesday.
During his remarks, Biden also mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris, another San Francisco Bay Area native. While Newsom was the former mayor of San Francisco, Harris served as the city's district attorney before she became California's attorney general.
"I'm particularly grateful for the Bay Area for giving our great vice president the chance to become vice president," he said. "She's the best. She's an outstanding leader and a great partner."
Biden additionally told current San Francisco Mayor London Breed she had "the hardest job in American politics.”
Biden's remarks preceded a performance by Gwen Stefani, who thanked the president and first lady Jill Biden for hosting her in between renditions of "Sweet Escape" and "Hey Baby."
Biden's appearance at the reception caps his first full day at APEC, one dominated by his meeting with Xi.
Biden is scheduled to speak at APEC's CEO Summit on Thursday, followed by attending the APEC Informal Dialogue and Working Lunch, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework family photo event, and the Heads of Delegation for the APEC Dinner. | US Federal Elections |
WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers in several Democratic-controlled states are advocating sweeping voter protections this year, reacting to what they view as a broad undermining of voting rights by the Supreme Court and Republican-led states as well as a failed effort in Congress to bolster access to the polls.
Legislators in Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico have introduced voting rights measures, while Michigan’s secretary of state is preparing a plan.
Among other things, the proposals would require state approval for local governments to change redistricting or voting procedures, ban voter suppression and intimidation, mandate that ballots are printed in more languages, increase protections for voters with disabilities, ensure the right to vote for those with previous felony convictions and instruct judges to prioritize voter access when hearing election-related challenges.
The measures are taking a much wider approach than legislation targeting a single aspect of voting or elections law. They seek to implement on a statewide basis many of the protections under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law that many Democrats and voting rights groups say is being stripped of its most important elements.
If the legislation is enacted, the states would join California, New York, Oregon, Washington and Virginia in having comprehensive voting rights laws.
“It’s up to states now to ensure that the right to vote is protected,” said Janai Nelson, president of the the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Maryland's proposal includes a requirement for local voting changes to receive preapproval, mirroring core provisions of the federal law that was struck down by the Supreme Court a decade ago.
Maryland was not among the states, mostly in the South, that was covered under the provision known as preclearance before the court ended it. But lawmakers there saw it as important because of persistent concerns over how districts for local governing bodies have been drawn, said Morgan Drayton, policy and engagement manager at Common Cause Maryland.
“A lot of our maps here are drawn behind closed doors, and there’s not a lot of input from the public that’s able to be given," she said. "So this would do a lot to make these processes more transparent.”
In Maryland's Baltimore County, a lawsuit claimed the county council's map packed most Black voters into a single district. The state legislation would require jurisdictions in Maryland with a history of voter discrimination to have redistricting and election changes cleared by the state attorney general.
Democratic state Del. Stephanie Smith, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said that despite Maryland's racial diversity and history of diversity in its political leadership, "access to the ballot and equitable representation is uneven.”
“This bill strengthens our commitment to voting access and protections at a time of great stress on our democratic institutions,” she said.
Proposals in Michigan and New Mexico address harassment against election workers and voters, especially those in minority communities. One of several bills in New Mexico would protect election officials, from the secretary of state to county and municipal elections clerks, from intimidation. That would be defined as inducing or attempting to induce fear, and a violation would be punishable as a fourth-degree felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said she will seek similar protections for voters, including prohibiting firearms within a certain distance of polling places.
“We need an explicit ban on voter suppression and intimidation,” she said.
Connecticut’s legislation would expand language assistance for voters who speak, read or understand languages other than English. Language assistance is covered under the federal law, but only specifies protections for Spanish-speakers and for Asian, Native American and Alaska Native language minorities.
Ballots offered in Arabic, Haitian Creole and other languages also are needed, said Steven Lance, policy counsel at the national NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
A language would be covered if the group speaking it is more than 2% of the citizens of voting age in a particular municipality or the group includes more than 4,000 citizens of voting age, under Connecticut's legislative proposal.
Residents also would have the right to ask the secretary of state to review whether a certain language should be covered, Lance said.
In New Jersey, advocacy organizations are pushing to expand voting rights legislation to include more groups that would be specifically protected from discrimination, including the state's sizable Arab American population.
“A reality is the federal VRA was originally crafted in 1965, and while there have been other bills in the decade since, the VRA doesn’t reflect the diversity of the population of New Jersey in 2023,” said Henal Patel, law & policy director at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
Some state voting rights bills also seek to create databases for information that has not always been readily available, such as polling place locations, voting rules and redistricting maps. The bills also would specify that state judges interpret voting laws in a way that ensures people maintain their right to vote.
Democrats in Minnesota are pushing numerous voting changes, including restoring voting rights to felons as soon as they are released from prison, allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to preregister so they are ready to vote as soon as they turn 18 and automatically registering people to vote when they obtain or renew their driver’s licenses.
Passing state voting rights legislation is only half the battle, said state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, a Virginia Democrat who introduced a state voting rights act that passed in 2021 when Democrats controlled both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office.
McClellan noted that ensuring voting rights historically was a bipartisan issue, but said Republicans are now focused on “fighting phantom voter fraud” — making this year's Virginia legislative elections all the more important.
“The entire General Assembly is up for election this year, and I think that’s going to be a big theme in the election — that if we want to protect our progress on voting rights, we’re going to need to make sure that Democrats keep the Senate and regain the majority in the House," McClellan said.
McClellan won a special election this past week to fill an open seat in the U.S. House, where she will make history as the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
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Associated Press coverage of race and voting receives support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | US Federal Elections |
It has been years, maybe, since you thought about the pee tape, and I regret to report that you are about to think about it again, even though you probably don’t want to. Donald Trump, somehow still alive and screaming, brought up the pee tape’s contents unprompted at an exclusive retreat for high-rolling GOP donors this week. “I’m not into golden showers,” he shouted at the crowd during his speech to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in Palm Beach on Thursday. To be clear, nobody asked him to articulate his position on the matter, but here we are.
What is this man doing speaking on a public platform — I though he lost that when he left the Oval Office? you may be asking yourself. Unfortunately, Trump pivoted to fundraising and rallies, which he isn’t explicitly calling campaigning, even though a 2024 bid seems likely. With that in mind, maybe you are also wondering why he would voluntarily dredge up a splashy claim that surfaced almost five years ago: That, circa 2013, Trump allegedly watched two sex workers pee on a bed at the Moscow Ritz-Carleton, and that this spectacle allegedly brought Trump pleasure because the Obamas supposedly slept in that bed. This encounter, if it occurred, would not actually qualify as a golden shower, seeing as no one got peed on directly. But! Because Russian state security allegedly had the hotel under surveillance, there may — may — be footage this event if, again, it actually happened.
That is the perennial mystery of the pee tape. No one knows whether or not it actually exists. Though many people believe that it does, and some of them suspect Russian President Vladimir Putin used it to influence and/or blackmail Trump, simply wanting the pee tape to be real doesn’t make it so. And anyway, none of this answers the larger question of why Trump is still talking about the pee tape, apropos of nothing. I don’t know about you, but when someone comes at me with an unsolicited denial of a topic that wasn’t even on the table — for example, insisting at high volume that they do not enjoy being peed on during sex when I hadn’t even thought to ask them about that — I assume some reverse psychology to be afoot. I hear “I’m not into golden showers” and I think, Okay, buddy, sure you’re not ;)
Either way, I’m sorry to bring this all back up for you. | US Political Corruption |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Christian Ziegler, chair of the Republican Party of Florida, is involved in a sexual battery investigation, his attorney confirmed to WFLA on Thursday.
The Oct. 4 incident report provided by the Sarasota Police Department was almost completely redacted, including Ziegler’s name, and the nature of his involvement was not made immediately clear. No charges have been filed in the case.
An attorney representing Ziegler provided the following statement to WFLA:
We acknowledge the reports that there is an investigation being conducted by the Sarasota Police Department regarding Mr. Ziegler. Mr. Ziegler has been fully cooperative with every request made by the Sarasota Police Department. We are confident that once the police investigation is concluded that no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be completely exonerated. Unfortunately, public figures are often accused of acts that they did not commit whether it be for political purposes or financial gain. I would caution anyone to rush to judgment until the investigation is concluded.Derek Byrd, Esquire
The investigation was first reported by government watchdog Florida Center for Government Accountability (FCGA), that claimed a woman filed a sexual battery complaint in Sarasota against Ziegler. The FCGA cited anonymous sources close to the investigation in its report, but WFLA could not confirm the allegations.
The report also mentions Ziegler’s wife, Bridget Ziegler, who is a Sarasota County School Board member and co-founder of Moms for Liberty. The conservative advocacy group emerged on the Florida political scene as a parental rights organization, decrying what it calls “woke indoctrination,” including COVID lockdowns, teachers unions and “pornographic” books. Ziegler has since stepped down from the Moms for Liberty board.
The group also has quickly gained a close ally in Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Moms for Liberty advocated for the 2021 “Parental Rights in Education” legislation and the 2022 bill labeled “Don’t Say Gay” by its opponents. Bridget Ziegler appeared behind DeSantis at the latter bill’s signing ceremony.
DeSantis also appointed her to the board overseeing the special district covering Walt Disney World, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. It was known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District before the state took it over amid DeSantis’ feud with Disney.
The Republican Party of Sarasota County released the following statement in response to the allegations against Christian Ziegler:
“We are shocked and disappointed to hear of the reports concerning Republican Party of Florida Chair and Sarasota County State Committeeman Christian Ziegler, and his wife, Sarasota County School Board Member Bridget Ziegler. The Republican Party takes all such allegations of potential criminal conduct very seriously and will fully cooperate with investigators.”Jack Brill, RPOSC Chairman
This is a developing story. Stay up to date on the latest from News Channel 8 on-air and on the go with the free WFLA News Channel 8 mobile app. | US Political Corruption |
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