Washington (AFP) - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due Sunday in Egypt at the start of a Middle East trip on which he will look to use US influence to notch down Israeli-Palestinian tensions after an eruption of violence.
Blinken, who will travel Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah, had long planned the visit to see Israel's new right-wing government, but the trip takes on a new urgency after some of the worst violence in years.
A Palestinian gunman on Friday killed seven people outside a synagogue in a settler neighborhood of east Jerusalem, and another attack followed on Saturday.
On Thursday, nine people were killed in an Israeli army raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in one of the deadliest such operations in years. Israel said it was targeting Islamic Jihad militants and also hit the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire.
Blinken will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and call "broadly for steps to be taken to de-escalate tensions," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters as he condemned the "horrific" synagogue attack.
The violence is also likely to figure in talks between Blinken and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, whose country's traditional role as a Middle East mediator has helped him remain a key US partner despite President Joe Biden's criticism of his human rights record.
The United States, with its close relationship to Israel, has historically taken a lead on Middle East diplomacy.
But experts questioned whether Blinken could achieve any breakthroughs.
"The absolute best they can do is to keep things stable to avoid another May 2021," said Aaron David Miller, a veteran US negotiator, referring to more than two weeks of fighting between Israel and Hamas that ended with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.
Ghaith Al-Omari, a former Palestinian official now at The Washington Institute, expected Blinken to repeat traditional US positions rather than break new ground.
"The trip itself is the message," he said.
"Blinken will ask Abbas to do more but it is not clear what they can do," he said, referring to the Palestinians.
Blinken's visit is part of an effort by the Biden administration to engage quickly with Netanyahu, who returned to office in late December leading the most right-wing government in Israel's history.
Israel's longest-serving prime minister had a fraught relationship with the last Democratic president, Barack Obama, as Netanyahu openly sides with his Republican adversaries against US diplomacy with Iran.
Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, visited earlier in January to discuss Iran after Biden's efforts to restore a 2015 nuclear accord -- despised by Netanyahu -- effectively died.
"I've never seen such an intense flurry of high-level contacts under any administration as you're watching right now," said Miller, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Biden team is looking "to avoid confrontation with Netanyahu," Miller said, noting the strong support for the Israeli leader among Republicans who now control the House of Representatives.
David Makovsky, also at the Washington Institute, said he also understood that CIA Director Bill Burns has been visiting the region.
"It looks a little like flooding the zone," he said.
Netanyahu has hailed as a key achievement the normalization of relations in 2020 with the United Arab Emirates, which has moved full speed ahead on developing ties despite public concerns over the new government’s moves.
Blinken is expected on his trip to reiterate US support for a Palestinian state, a prospect that few expect to advance under the new Israeli government.
The State Department said Blinken would also call for the preservation of the status quo at the flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is holy both to Jews and Muslims.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right ideologue who holds a security post in Netanyahu's government, in early January defiantly visited the site, which Jews call the Temple Mount.
In Egypt, Blinken is also expected to discuss regional issues such as Libya and Sudan, the State Department said.
Egypt remains one of the top recipients of US military assistance, but the cooperation faces scrutiny from parts of Biden's Democratic Party due to Sisi's rights record.
Authorities released hundreds of political prisoners last year, but rights groups estimate some 60,000 remain in detention, many facing harsh conditions and overcrowded cells.
Donald Trump's ongoing war with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will likely blow up in his face should he manage to become the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nominee because he refuses to halt the racist attacks on the GOP leader's wife.
In a column for Bloomberg, longtime political observer Robert George suggested that, had the former president confined his attack to McConnell, that would be politics as usual -- particularly for Trump.
However Trump can't seem to get off a shot at the Kentucky senator without taking a swipe at his wife, former Trump administration official Elaine Chao by repeatedly calling her "Coco Chow" and pointing out her Chinese heritage while questioning her ties to China.
In a recent post on Truth Social, Trump wrote, "Does Coco Chow have anything to do with Joe Biden’s Classified Documents being sent and stored in Chinatown? Her husband, the Old Broken Crow, is VERY close to Biden, the Democrats, and, of course, China.”
According to George, Trump's using Chao as a cudgel against McConnell will drive away Asian American voters who tend to be more conservatively , but also represent a growing and powerful voting bloc.
ALSO IN THE NEWS: Big money donors avoiding Trump have forced him to run a 'small scale' presidential campaign
As George put it, Trump's racist smears are not only "repugnant" but "politically stupid."
"There’s at least anecdotal evidence over the last several elections that Asian Americans are becoming more conservative on crime, education and possibly the economy," he wrote before explaining, "In New York state, not only did Asian American voters move significantly rightward during 2022’s gubernatorial election, they also helped Republicans pick up four US House seats. And an Asian American Republican ousted a 36-year incumbent Democrat on the New York City Council."
"Trump’s animus is almost pathological," George suggested. "And Republicans can’t excuse his behavior as just belligerent pettiness stemming from Chao’s resignation after Jan. 6 or the many times Trump was criticized by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Chao’s husband. How else to explain Trump’s odd mocking of Virginia Governor Glen Youngkin’s name: 'Sounds Chinese, doesn’t it?' Could the insult have anything to do with Youngkin’s status as a possible 2024 candidate?"
According to the columnist, Trump is providing advertising fodder for Democrats in 2024 who will most certainly use his comments to target Asian American voters.
He added, "There are at least two ways for Republicans to avoid sabotaging their emerging relationship with the fastest-growing minority group in the country. They can denounce Donald Trump when he goes off on one of his racist rants, as he inevitably will. And they can nominate a presidential candidate who doesn’t have racist baggage."
You can read more here.
Donald Trump will make his first major foray out into the world for his 2024 presidential campaign with a visit to New Hampshire on Saturday where he will reportedly make an announcement that is expected to raise eyebrows among Republican Party activists.
The former president will appear in a high school gym before approximately 200 GOP faithful, and Politico reports that he will announce the hiring of outgoing New Hampshire GOP head Stephen Stepanek to oversee his campaign in the state — which is not expected to be greeted with universal approval.
With the Washington Post reporting that there is a general sense of "Trump fatigue" in the state, with one key Republican bluntly stating "Trump has run his course," Politico is reporting the former president won't be helping his case with the selection of Stepanek — and that has some Trump insiders questioning how serious the former president is about his third presidential run.
"The choice of Stepanek signals a potential return to the roots of Trump’s 2016 campaign in the state that handed him his first primary win that year. Trump lost New Hampshire by a fraction of a point in that general election. Four years later, the state slipped away from him badly, as he lost to President Joe Biden by 7 points," Politico's Lisa Kashinsky wrote before adding, "But Stepanek’s involvement is also likely to rankle some Republican activists. State committee members were clamoring for a change in party leadership after a disastrous election in which the GOP’s slate of hard-right, pro-Trump congressional candidates got pummeled and the party lost seats in the state Legislature."
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Writing that the choice of Stepanek will do "little to quell concern among some of Trump’s former allies in the state about the seriousness of his operation," Kashinsky added, "Associates from Trump’s past campaigns have expressed frustration with what they describe as lackluster — or nonexistent — communication since his November launch. At least one key ally was left in the dark about the former president’s visit this weekend, his first trip back to the state since 2020."
Noting that GOP activists in the state have shown a desire to check out other potential GOP presidential nominees, New Hampshire consultant Jim Merrill claimed the former president has his work cut out for him if he hopes to win the state's primary.
"President Trump starts the [New Hampshire] primary season as a frontrunner but his standing isn’t what it once was,” Merrill explained before conceding, “There is curiosity among voters and operatives alike to check out the potential field.”
You can read more here.
President Joe Biden on Friday spoke with the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, the Black man whose beating to death by police officers has set the United States on edge.
Biden told reporters that he was "very concerned" about the potential for violent protests, but that Nichols' mother, RowVaughn Wells, had made a powerful appeal for calm.
"I was really pleased that she called for peaceful protests -- no, no violence," he said. "She has made a very strong plea."
Biden said his call, which was also with Nichols' stepfather Rodney Wells, lasted 10-15 minutes.
The slain man's mother was "obviously in enormous pain," Biden said, adding that he sought to comfort her, saying "the time will come when his memory will bring a smile before a tear."
There were fears of potentially violent protests later Friday when police release what has been described as gruesome video footage of the incident in which five officers, all of them also Black, fatally beat Nichols after a traffic stop.
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated Biden's appeal for calm and said the White House was bracing for trouble.
"The White House has been in coordination with the various agencies to ensure they prepare if the protests become violent. This coordination is standard practice."
"The president has been briefed but he has not seen the video. Nor has anyone else at the White House seen the video," she said.
Talking about the wider issue of police brutality, she said the "president was very clear we need to deliver change. We must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oath and we need to build a long-lasting trust."
Biden said the way the incident is handled will have an impact on "the image of America."
"That has a lot do with whether or not we are the country we say we are -- that we're a country of law and order...(where you) peacefully protest," he said.
The White House said that senior staff had briefed the mayors of more than a dozen cities, including Atlanta, Chicago and Philadelphia, on federal assistance in case of protests.
"Participating mayors shared their perspectives on how important it is to recognize the pain felt by communities across this country, be prepared in advance with a game plan to provide adequate community support, and to reinforce the importance of peace and calm during these difficult moments," the White House said.
© Agence France-Presse
By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump will swing through New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday in the first two stops of a presidential campaign that has largely idled since he launched his new White House bid in November.
Trump will speak first at the New Hampshire Republican Party's annual meeting in Salem before heading to Columbia, South Carolina's capital, where he will unveil his leadership team in the state.
Both states are seen as potential kingmakers, as they are among the first to hold their nominating contests. How a candidate performs there often makes or breaks their campaign.
Political observers in both the Republican and Democratic parties will be keenly watching to see who shows up to support Trump at the events.
Once the undisputed center of gravity in the Republican Party, an increasing number of elected officials have expressed concerns about his ability to beat Democratic President Joe Biden, if he decides to run again, as is widely expected.
In New Hampshire, Republican Governor Chris Sununu has said he is having conversations about a primary bid, and many high-ranking Republicans there - including those who supported Trump previously - say publicly they are looking for an alternative.
In South Carolina, where Trump will appear alongside Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham, there will be a number of conspicuous absences.
Among those not attending are the state party chairman, at least three Republican U.S. representatives from the state and South Carolina U.S. Senator Tim Scott, who has himself been floated as a potential Republican presidential candidate. Scott and others have cited scheduling conflicts.
Several Republican state lawmakers decided against attending after failing to gain assurances from Trump's team that doing so would not be considered an endorsement, according to a person with knowledge of the planning.
"You know, there's a lot of remaining appetite for Trump, and I think a lot of people still believe that Trump is being treated unfairly," said Reese Boyd III, a Republican official from the Myrtle Beach area.
"But you also see that softening from some groups."
To be sure, Trump retains a significant base of support, particularly among the grassroots. While he loses in some head-to-head polls against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, another potential competitor, he wins by significant margins when poll respondents are presented with a broader field of options.
Since launching his campaign in November, Trump has maintained a relatively low profile. He called multiple conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives in early January to persuade them to vote for Kevin McCarthy, an ally, for the new Speaker.
Most brushed off his entreaties, though McCarthy was elected to the position after a bruising battle.
As with previous events, many Republicans will be looking at whether Trump offers a forward-looking vision or instead retreads false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The latter opinion has proven unpopular with independent voters, and political analysts say it was a factor in the Republicans' underwhelming performance in the November congressional midterm elections.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Ross Colvin and Daniel Wallis)
The bill, passed 221-205, mostly along party lines, would strip the president’s power to remove oil from the reserve unless the U.S. Energy Department has a plan to allow new leasing on federal lands and waters for oil exploration.
The vote comes after a volatile two years for gas prices, which have spiked and fallen in response to several factors. President Joe Biden sought to reduce price spikes by selling record amounts from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the federally controlled stockpile of crude oil housed in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Texas.
The bill would require that the percentage of federal lands and waters opened to leasing is the same as the percentage of oil drawn from the reserve, with a limit of 15%.
All Republicans who voted were in favor, while only one Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, cast a ballot to pass the bill. Eight members did not vote.
The measure is unlikely to become law, as Biden has already pledged to veto it — even in the unlikely event the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate were to send it to his desk.
House Democrats largely dismissed the measure as an unserious messaging bill.
The Republican message, voiced repeatedly by members over two days of debate, was that Biden mismanaged the country’s energy agenda in his first two years in office.
The 2 ½-page bill itself deals narrowly with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters.
Republicans criticized the use of emergency reserves.
“The bill today will help ensure this vital American energy asset — and American security interests — will not be drained away for non-emergency, political purposes,” the bill’s chief sponsor, Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, said on the House floor Thursday.
“It provides a path towards making energy more affordable for Americans, who are looking to us to help ease the pain at the pump.”
The bill’s requirement that Strategic Petroleum Reserve withdrawals are offset by additional leasing responds to an order in the early days of the Biden administration — later reversed in federal court — to pause new oil and gas leases on federal lands.
But the debate Thursday and Friday quickly morphed into an airing of wider GOP grievances against the administration’s energy agenda.
They said the need to raid the emergency supply was emblematic of the administration’s misguided policy to limit oil and gas development.
Biden blocked the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline that was to run from Canada through Montana en route to U.S. refineries, they said. He sought to import oil, sometimes from adversarial countries, while stifling domestic production, they said.
Biden’s moves proved he had “an intentional plan to destroy America’s oil industry,” Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Rome said.
Democrats dismissed the measure as frivolous and counterproductive. If enacted, it would only take a tool away from presidents of either party to deal with future oil supply volatility. That would result in less available oil, not more, they said.
“There is no real vision for Republican energy policy,” Energy and Commerce ranking Democrat Frank Pallone of New Jersey said. “They are reduced to defending their oil and gas interests and attacking President Biden’s successful efforts to lower gas prices for Americans.”
“The bill would significantly weaken a critical energy security tool, resulting in more oil supply shortages and higher gas prices for working families,” Biden’s statement of administration policy said. “This Administration’s use of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been essential to protecting our energy security and to lowering gas prices for Americans.”
One criticism centered on the idea that more leases don’t necessarily lead to more oil reserves.
Energy companies already hold thousands of leases of federal lands and waters that are not being used for oil exploration. Auctioning more leases would do little to increase short-term oil supply or drop the price of gas, Democrats said.
“There is no relationship between opening up more federal lands for the production of oil and gas and the price that Americans pay at the pump,” Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette said. “None. And instead of helping to bring down prices for consumers, what this bill does is it really makes it harder for future administrations to respond.”
Among the dozens of failed Democratic amendments was one from Nevada’s Susie Lee that would have barred leasing of lands deemed to have low potential for oil and gas.
Democrats and environmentalists generally oppose oil companies leasing lands with little potential, saying that those lands would be better used for conservation or recreation.
The measure was the second bill the House has passed this year related to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
The first was a measure barring sale of the reserve crude oil to China or state-backed Chinese companies. That bill passed Jan. 12 with broad bipartisan support.
Republican U.S. Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and Susan Collins of Maine have cosponsored a similar bill, as did Ted Cruz of Texas. None yet have Democratic cosponsors.
Barrasso has also introduced a bill similar to the one the House passed Friday.
The House took two days, Thursday and Friday, to consider the bill under a modified open rule, a process that has become rare in recent decades and doesn’t restrict any relevant amendments filed by a certain deadline.
Members filed nearly 150 amendments and voted on 56, rejecting most of them. Others were ruled not germane to the bill and did not receive votes.
Of those that passed, several restricted or opened specific areas for oil exploration.
Amendments offered by Republicans Matt Gaetz of Florida and Nancy Mace of South Carolina stipulated that existing restrictions on drilling off the coasts of those states would still be in effect if the bill became law.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, authored a successful amendment that would require any plan for additional leasing under the bill would include identifying portions of the Thompson Divide in her district to be leased.
Another Boebert amendment lifted the cap on total lands and waters offered for leasing from 10% to 15%.
The House adopted an amendment from New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer requiring that any drawdown from the reserve not be sold to China, Iran, North Korea or Russia.
The amendment would expand the bill the House passed two weeks earlier that barred only sales to China.
Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and Twitter.
The release by the Memphis Police Department of the brutal traffic stop beating of Tyre Nichols has already sent shockwaves around the nation and elicited horrified reactions from President Joe Biden and legal experts.
On Friday's edition of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," analyst Van Jones broke down what made the footage so stunning.
"Van, I want to emphasize again," said Cooper. "We are not replaying it ... this is still happening. Nothing has happened. The beating is now more than 12 or more minutes ago and he's just still lying on the ground."
"Brutal, inhumane, unacceptable, unjustifiable," said Jones. "I mean, he's just now getting attention. A dog being beaten would have been helped by somebody at this point. Also, you know, talk about the images. The voices are so telling. Tyre's voice, the first time you hear him, he's calm, he's trying to calm the police down. He's saying, all right, all right, all right. He goes from a voice of reason and calm. They are so brutal toward him that he runs. The next time you hear him, went from calm to panicked. Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma, Ma! Screaming for his mother. He's a hundred yards from his house, hoping that somebody can help him. And then he goes from a voice of calm to panic to agony, completely incoherent. Unable to form a word."
What the video shows, Jones said, is a "deterioration of a human being."
"And then the cops' voices, profane, 'I hope they stomp his ass,' unbelievable level of viciousness," continued Jones. "And the only sympathy is for themselves. Because they're so busy pepper-spraying him, they're pepper-spraying each other. Look at the reaction of the police to the pepper spray. They can't stand the burning, the sensation. They need help from each other, and yet it's continuing for someone else and no aid to someone else who got the full force of the pepper spray."
"So even if you didn't see these images, just the voice of Tyre, you can tell that he was — the only calm person at the beginning. At the end, he can't even form a word," added Jones. "This is disgusting, it's despicable, it's inhumane, it is shocking. It's as bad as people said, but even if you can't see it, you could hear the inhumanity here."
Van Jones reacts to Tyre Nichols beating footage www.youtube.com
In a statement released by the White House on Friday, President Joe Biden reacted to the footage of Memphis police officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols during a traffic stop.
"Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death," said Biden in the statement. "It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day."
"My heart goes out to Tyre Nichols’ family and to Americans in Memphis and across the country who are grieving this tremendously painful loss," the president continued. "The footage that was released this evening will leave people justifiably outraged. Those who seek justice should not to resort to violence or destruction. Violence is never acceptable; it is illegal and destructive. I join Mr. Nichols’ family in calling for peaceful protest."
"I spoke with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells, Mr. Nichols’ mother and stepfather, this afternoon," Biden continued. "There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a beloved child and young father. Nothing can bring Mr. Nichols back to his family and the Memphis community. But Mr. and Mrs. Wells, Mr. Nichols’ son, and his whole family deserve a swift, full, and transparent investigation."
"We must do everything in our power to ensure our criminal justice system lives up to the promise of fair and impartial justice, equal treatment, and dignity for all," said Biden. "Real and lasting change will only come if we take action to prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again. That is why I called on Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to my desk. When Senate Republicans blocked that bill, I signed an executive order that mandated stricter use of force standards and accountability provisions for federal law enforcement, as well as measures to strengthen accountability at the state and local level."
The five officers who carried out the beating have been fired and charged with second-degree murder. The paramedics who failed to administer proper medical attention are also under heavy professional scrutiny.
Shocking bodycam footage showing the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of five Memphis cops was released Friday night as officials urged the public to remain calm.
The video was described by the chief of Memphis police as "perhaps worse" than infamous footage showing Rodney King being attacked by LAPD cops in 1991 – an event that sparked six days of riots.
Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was severely beaten during a traffic stop on Jan. 7 and died three days later. Police said he was stopped for reckless driving and chased after he ran from the scene.
The five police officers were fired and, on Thursday, charged with second-degree murder.
"I join Tyre's family in calling for peaceful protest," President Joe Biden said on Thursday. "Outrage is understandable, but violence is never acceptable."
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The lawyer representing Nichols' family said on Jan. 23 that the video showed the man being treated like a "human pinata."
"It was an unadulterated, unabashed, nonstop beating of this young boy," attorney Antonio Romanucci told reporters.
"Our son ran because he was scared for his life. He did not run because he was trying to get rid of no drugs, no guns, no any of that. He ran because he was scared for his life. And when you see the video, you will see why he was scared for his life," said Nichols' stepfather, Rodney Wells.
Watch the videos below or at this link. Warning: Graphic content.
Tesla head Elon Musk met with senior White House officials Friday to discuss the Biden administration's push to grow the electric vehicle market, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
"That meeting did happen today," she told reporters.
Musk, who has had sometimes openly prickly relations with President Joe Biden, met infrastructure development coordinator Mitch Landrieu and clean energy advisor John Podesta.
They discussed "electrification and how the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act can advance EVs and increase the electrification more broadly," Jean-Pierre said, referring to two major pieces of legislation passed under Biden providing subsidies and incentives to bolster clean energy, electric vehicles and general infrastructure.
Jean-Pierre said Biden did not meet with Musk, but "it’s important that senior members of his team had a meeting."
The billionaire entrepreneur occupies an unusual place at the intersection of cutting edge industry and politics with ownership of the country's most famous EV brand, space projects and Twitter.
He has often tangled with the Biden administration and has used Twitter to embrace right-wing talking points.
On Thursday, he said he met with Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries as Congress explores potential curbs on social media platforms.
Musk tweeted that he went to "discuss ensuring that this platform is fair to both parties."
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who gained notoriety for spouting false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election being stolen from former President Donald Trump, accepted his defeat on Friday in the race to be the next chairperson of the Republican National Committee.
Shortly after Lindell suffered a blowout defeat in which he only received four votes, he was approached by Semafor reporter Dave Weigel, and Lindell offered up his opinion on whether he lost a "fair election."
"Yes," Lindell replied. "There were no machines."
For the past two-plus years, Lindell has obsessively posited that voting machines in key swing states switched votes from Trump to President Joe Biden, even though he has so far produced absolutely no evidence to back up this assertion.
READ MORE: ‘Rot in hell!’ Trump rages about 'deranged' investigations in Truth Social video binge
Lindell's falsehoods about voting machines have even made him the subject of a $1 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, the company whom Lindell is alleged to have slandered with his false claims about the 2020 election.
Despite all this, Lindell still pitched Weigel and other reporters on Friday about the need to get rid of all voting machines.
"I pray for you guys every day, that you’ll say we need to get rid of these voting machines," he said.
In the past, U.S. Supreme Court justices often had radically different views yet managed to disagree without being disagreeable. Liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and far-right socially conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, a Reagan appointee, vehemently disagreed on numerous occasions, yet there was a certain respect between the two of them. And libertarian Justice Anthony Kennedy, another Reagan appointee, was the wild card who often sided with Scalia on economic matters and with Ginsburg on social issues like abortion and gay rights.
But these days, it isn’t unusual to read reports on tensions between the High Court’s Democrat-appointed minority and its GOP-appointed right-wing supermajority. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has even used the word “stench” to describe the Court’s current direction.
NBC News’ Lawrence Hurley, however, reports that according to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, stories about the Court’s tensions are exaggerated.
In an article published by NBC News’ website on January 27, Hurley explains, “Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh said the Supreme Court is not as divided as members of the public might think, praising his liberal colleagues and highlighting rulings in which the justices were not divided along ideological lines in a recent public appearance.”
The public appearance Hurley refers to was at Notre Dame Law School.
“Kavanaugh had special praise for the late liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the recently retired liberal Justice Stephen Breyer and Breyer’s successor, the liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, saying she ‘has hit the ground running’ and is ‘thoroughly prepared,’” Hurley notes. “Ginsburg and Breyer ‘couldn't have been better at welcoming me to the Court,’ Kavanaugh said, referring to his nomination by then-President Donald Trump in 2018. He joined the Court after having barely survived a Senate confirmation process in which he faced accusations of sexual misconduct dating back decades, all of which he denied.”
During his speech, according to Hurley, Kavanaugh “appeared eager to counter any perceptions that the Court is usually divided along ideological lines, pointing out several cases in which he had joined liberal justices in 5-4 decisions.”
Kavanaugh said, “There are great relations among all nine justices both personally and professionally. We only get tough cases, and we disagree on some of those. I think that's more nuanced than it is sometimes portrayed.”
Steven Mazie, in an article published by the Atlantic on January 16, cites the Dobbs ruling as something that set off an “obvious departure from collegiality” among the justices, but Kavanaugh disagrees that such a departure has occurred.
One of the cases that Kavanaugh mentioned was a 5-4 ruling in Conception v. United States, a criminal case decided on June 27, 2022. Sotomayor authored the majority opinion in that case, and she was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Another decision in which Democratic and GOP appointees found some common ground in 2022 had to do with a Trump-era immigration policy. In that 5-4 decision, Roberts and Kavanaugh concurred with the three Democratic appointees and allowed President Joe Biden to end Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy.
Adding to criticism of the Court is the outcome of an investigation into the leak of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling. Before the ruling was officially released, a leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito was given to Politico — and showed that the Court would be overturning Roe v. Wade. But the Court’s investigation failed to name who leaked Alito’s opinion.
Sarah Lipton-Lubet, president of the progressive group Take Back the Court Action Fund, told BuzzFeed News, “The Supreme Court’s report on the Dobbs leak raised more questions than it answered — namely, why were the justices not investigated with the same rigor and to the same lengths as every other employee of the Court?”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel won reelection on Friday despite the fact that her party has suffered three consecutive disappointing election cycles in which it lost the House of Representatives, lost the White House and the Senate, and then regained the House by an unexpectedly slim margin.
Given this record, McDaniel drew challenges to her leadership from attorney Harmeet Dhillon and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, neither of whom were able to round up enough votes to topple her in the final vote tally.
Former President Donald Trump, who championed McDaniel's ascension as RNC chair at the start of his first term in office, did not make any endorsements in the race and appeared content to let it play out.
Once McDaniel won, however, Trump posted a hearty congratulations on his Truth Social account, along with what appeared to be a subtle warning about not letting Democrats get away with "cheating" in future elections.
RELATED: Arizona GOP convention ‘devolved into chaos’ as members ‘hissed and screamed’ about voting machines
"Congratulations to Ronna McDaniel on her big WIN as RNC CHAIR," he wrote. "Now we have to STOP THE DEMOCRATS FROM CHEATING IN ELECTIONS!"
Trump still has not gotten over losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden, and has often championed the work of Lindell, who has pushed multiple false conspiracy theories about voting machines switching votes from Trump to Biden.
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