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Kevin McCarthy ‘clearly despises the base’: Congressional hopeful opposes GOP leader’s bid for speaker
May 13, 2022
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California is facing opposition from within his own party as he seeks to become Speaker of the House of Representatives.
In Washington's 3rd congressional district, Joe Kent is challenging Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler in the GOP primary after her vote to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
According to a report published by The Washington Post on Friday, McCarthy counseled a member of the GOP caucus against endorsing Kent, who has the endorsement of Trump.
"McCarthy told the Republican lawmaker that working against a GOP incumbent would be difficult to defend before the House Republican steering committee, the group responsible for doling out committee assignments in the next Congress. The member then relayed the conversation to four people who spoke with The Washington Post. McCarthy’s office declined a request for comment," the newspaper reported.
Kent is now opposing McCarthy's bid to be lead the House.
The behind-the-scenes machinations have frustrated Kent, who has so far been able to secure only three endorsements from sitting members of Congress: Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ) and Troy E. Nehls (R-TX). Kent has said he would oppose McCarthy’s bid for speakership if he wins Congress next year.
Kent, a former Army Special Forces officer, said McCarthy is "horrible."
“McCarthy clearly despises the base of the Republican Party right now," he charged.
Read the full report.
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'Remember Jan. 6': Conservative warns of complacency as GOP continues threat to democracy
May 13, 2022
MSNBC "Deadline: White House" host Nicolle Wallace on Friday warned that America is in danger of losing our democracy.
Wallace interviewed conservative Washington Post columnist Max Boot about his latest column.
"It has been stirring to see so many Americans come together to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom. But it is dismaying to see that there is no similar consensus on defending democracy at home. Indeed, much of the country remains in denial about the threat," Boot warned. "The only way to save democracy is to vote for Democrats in the fall. And I say that as an ex-Republican turned independent. It doesn’t matter if you disagree with Democrats on some issues. The overriding issue is the preservation of our democracy."
Boot expanded on his column.
"Our rights are fundamental to living in a democracy," Wallace noted. "Are you really pessimistic that that conversation isn't take place or is it your observation the message isn't being conveyed?"
"I don't think the message is being conveyed to most ordinary voters," Boot replied. "In some ways, I think it's kind of circular, because Democrats are doing polls in focus groups which show that there is not enough alarm out there about the threat to our democracy, so therefore the pollsters are saying focus on other things in the election. Well, there could be more alarm about it, if President Biden and other leading Democrats are talking about it in the way they should be talking about it."
"But they're not and it's kind of falling off the agenda and the threat is growing," he continued. "And I just, you know, I can't believe that we have to sit here and say the threat is real. Remember Jan. 6th!"
"It's unbelievable. what more is it going to take?" Boot wondered.
Watch the segment below or at this link.
Max Boot www.youtube.com
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Arizona election security chief quits — and issues urgent warning about MAGA radicals trying to take over
May 13, 2022
On Friday, VICE released an interview with Ken Matta, Arizona's longtime head of election security, who is now leaving office for the private sector — and warning that the efforts by pro-Trump conspiracy theorists to hijack and intimidate election offices is becoming a dire problem for both the election process and for the well-being of the officials running it.
"Right now with the threats, the hostility, the public bashing of election workers and election officers based on misinformation, disinformation, and mal-information, it’s tough to stay," Matta told Todd Zwillich. "The job is fairly thankless anyway; we only get bad press."
Arizona, which voted for President Joe Biden by barely 10,000 votes, has been a hotbed of election conspiracy theories, and state-sponsored attempts to gather evidence for them — most infamously, a months-long partisan "audit" of Maricopa County done by a private security firm at the request of the GOP-controlled state Senate. That investigation, which explored bizarre ideas like hunting for bamboo fibers in ballots to look for Asian forgeries, ended with Biden netting slightly more votes — but then the state launched another "investigation," this time of the voting machines, headed up by a man who attended a pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" rally.
According to Matta, he feared for his own safety through all of this — and even felt the need to walk around armed.
IN OTHER NEWS: 'Absolute chaos': Psaki's final press briefing marred as reporter shouts over other correspondents
"Working out of the Arizona secretary of state’s office, you can imagine we got hit pretty hard. Just mean abuse, horrible and harassing language. Just hundreds of them. For a while there, a good part of my day was just listening to these horrible messages," said Matta. "I started carrying a gun. When they started sending me to the partisan review in Maricopa County, what some people call an 'audit,' as I’m driving through, there’s people out front with full autos and assault rifles. They’re looking in our cars, they’re seeing who’s going in and who’s going out. I decided I was going to start carrying. I have a concealed-carry permit in Arizona."
Matta's biggest fear, he warned, was these same people taking jobs like the one he is now leaving.
"A lot of the people coming in to take those empty spots are going to be election deniers or conspiracy theorists," said Matta. "We have a lot of concerns about their entry into the process. This is really important: In the elections community, I can still say everybody is on board with the rules-based integrity of their jobs and the importance of elections. I can say I’d still trust my vote to any of these people. That will not continue to be true, starting in 2022 and definitely in 2024. It’s just impossible for that to remain true nationally."
You can read more here.
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