According to a report by Politico on Friday, the primary super PAC for Senate Republicans is canceling close to $8 million in ads in Arizona, a move that indicates the GOP could be cooling on its support for Senate nominee Blake Masters.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, is getting rid of $8 million worth of ads that were to begin airing in the fall. The amount is reportedly approximately half of what the fund had originally planned to spend in Arizona for the November primaries.
"News: GOP super PAC SLF canceling $8m in ad buys in Arizona Senate race, about half its reservations. Will raise questions about GOP view of Blake Masters. Group also cutting two weeks of ads for Murkowski; they think she’s in good shape."
Masters is running against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and according to Politico, Republicans believe that protecting Senate seats in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as flipping Georgia and Nevada, is more important than flipping Arizona.
The super PAC said it has plans to reallocate the money elsewhere but isn't giving up on Arizona. Senate Leadership Fund President Steven Law said the PAC is "leaving the door wide open" in the state.
“We’re leaving the door wide open in Arizona, but we want to move additional resources to other offensive opportunities that have become increasingly competitive, as well as an unexpected expense in Ohio,” said Law. “We think the fundamentals of this election strongly favor Republicans, we see multiple paths to winning the majority, and we are going to invest heavily and strategically to achieve that goal.”
The move caused many to speculate whether the GOP was giving up on Masters. New York Times national political reporter Shane Goldmacher speculated that PAC's move was a message to Republican donor Peter Thiel.
"Confirmed: The main Senate GOP super PAC is cutting *four weeks* of TV time reserved in Arizona. This is about Blake Masters, who is down in the polls. But it's also very much a message to Peter Thiel, who they want to step up."
Arizona Republic Journalist Elvia Diaz shared Goldmacher's tweet on social media with the caption, "GOP throwing (in) the towel with Blake Masters already?"
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Masters earlier this summer. "Arizona is a State where the 2020 Election was Rigged and Stolen, and a very thorough audit proved it," Trump said in a statement. "Blake knows that the ‘Crime of the Century’ took place, he will expose it and also, never let it happen again."
Politico has obtained a list showing the GOP mega-donors who "funneled anonymous contributions to former U.N ambassador Nikki Haley’s nonprofit as she lays the groundwork for a prospective 2024 presidential bid."
The publication says the Internal Revenue Service filing for Haley's Stand For America, Inc. shows contributions from billionaire hedge fund executives Paul Singer and Stanley Druckenmiller. Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson donated before he passed away. His wife, Miriam Adelson, also donated.
"The roster of supporters who gave undisclosed donations in 2019 also includes Suzanne Youngkin, the wife of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, himself a possible presidential contender; former Pennsylvania Senate candidate and hedge fund executive David McCormick; and Vivek and Lakshmi Garipalli, members of a New Jersey family that has donated large sums to Democrats — but which gave Haley’s organization $1 million," Politico reported. "The donor list also includes dozens of people who gave anonymously to Haley’s nonprofit but have not given disclosed contributions to her PAC, which was formed two years later and is required to regularly disclose the names of donors who give at least $200. Those contributors include the Garipallis and GOP megadonor Joe Ricketts."
Haley served as governor of South Carolina before joining the Trump administration as ambassador to the United Nations.
"Like other nonprofits, Stand For America files an annual tax return with the IRS. While the agency and the nonprofit must make those filings available to the public, including the amounts of contributions to the group, such nonprofits do not have to disclose the identities of their donors," Politico reported. "However, the organization Documented, which describes itself as a nonpartisan government watchdog that investigates money in politics, obtained an unredacted copy of Stand For America’s 2019 filings, which it then shared with Politico. The group did not share the original source of the filing, but it bears a stamp from the charity office of the New York state attorney general."
Politico reports Haley attempted to block the publication of the story.
“This disclosure of a confidential tax return was clearly a corrupt violation of state and federal law to try to intimidate conservative donors,” Haley told Politico in a statement. “Liberals have always weaponized government against conservatives, and Republicans have been too nice for too long. We will make sure the buck stops here.”
The White House on Friday blasted the latest set of "radical" abortion restrictions in four more states run by Republicans, signaling President Joe Biden's determination to lean on the issue ahead of tight November congressional elections.
There are now full-scale abortion bans in 12 Republican-controlled states, which had prepared so-called trigger laws ready to be activated when the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision ensuring automatic rights to abortion access nationwide.
"Today marks the latest attack against the fundamental rights of Americans as new abortion bans go into effect in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas," Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
"These near-total abortion bans are part of a growing effort by Republican legislators to roll back the freedoms Americans have relied on for nearly half a century. Today's radical steps take away women's reproductive rights and put personal health care decisions in the hands of politicians instead of women and their doctors," she said.
The Supreme Court ruling two months ago put jurisdiction over abortion access in the hands of individual state legislatures, immediately turning swaths of the country into areas where getting the procedure has become all but impossible.
Jean-Pierre echoed Biden's frequent demand for Congress to pass a new law enshrining nationwide abortion rights and urged "people across the country to make their voices heard" ahead of the November midterm elections, which will decide whether Democrats retain their narrow hold on the legislature.
Republicans have fought for decades to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and finally achieved their goal in a Supreme Court that tilted sharply to conservative interpretations of the constitution after Donald Trump filled three vacancies during his one-term presidency.
Polls show the court's ruling was unpopular with a majority of Americans, however, and Democrats hope the issue will help them fend off a previously predicted sweep by Republicans in the midterms.
"I think the American people realize this is just beyond the pale, it goes too far," Biden told reporters at the White House.
Meanwhile, the White House is trying to help women who want to circumvent the bans by supporting their travel to states that do allow abortions.
The health department on Friday announced increased federal funding for states where the authorities want to help such women.
"We have seen the gut-wrenching stories of women suffering and not getting the care they need because of newly-enacted laws that restrict abortion care," Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said.
The new federal assistance will "protect women's access to reproductive care, including abortion," he said.
Donald Trump has filed an appeal seeking to dismiss a civil suit filed by a Capitol Police officer on Friday. The lawsuit accuses the former president of inciting the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, which resulted in several deaths and 140 injured police officers.
According to documents shared by CBS News Congressional Correspondent Scott MacFarlane, Trump is arguing "Absolute Immunity" in the appeal.
"MEANWHILE Donald Trump is going to an appeals court to *again* seek dismissal of a civil suit filed by Capitol Police officer," wrote Macfarlane. "Suit accuses him of provoking Jan 6 attack Arguing 'absolute immunity.'"
According to The Washington Post, the civil lawsuit was filed by U.S. Capitol Police Officer Briana Kirkland on the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6 in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
Kirkland accused Trump of provoking the attack, which caused her emotional and physical pain. Kirkland was outnumbered 450 to 1 while she protected the Capitol doors and suffered a traumatic brain injury after the Trump-incited mob breached the building. The lawsuit contends that Trump "directed the mob" that attacked the Capitol building and resulted in her being "assaulted and battered."
"As the leader of this violent mob, who took their cues from his campaign rhetoric and personal tweets and traveled from around the country to the nation’s capital at Trump’s invitation for the January 6 rally, Trump was in a position of extraordinary influence over his followers, who committed assault and battery on Briana Kirkland,” read the complaint. “Trump, by his words and conduct, directed the mob that stormed the Capitol and assaulted and battered Briana Kirkland.”
In addition to scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and over the January 6 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters, Trump is facing an FBI investigation related to the potential mishandling of classified documents that had been sent to Mar-a-Lago.
Among the records seized during the unprecedented search of the home of a former president were documents marked "Top Secret," "Secret" and "Confidential."
Trump, who is weighing another White House run in 2024, vehemently denounced the FBI raid and claimed that all of the material confiscated during the search had been previously "declassified."
The warrant to search Trump's home, which was personally approved by Attorney General Merrick Garland, directed the FBI to seize records "illegally possessed" in violation of three criminal statutes, including one falling under the Espionage Act, which makes it a crime to illegally obtain or retain national security information.
Trump is also facing investigations into his business practices.
President Joe Biden‘s approval rating in the past month has skyrocketed, jumping six points after massive successes in getting his legislative agenda passed. At 44%, Biden’s approval rating is now higher than the approval ratings of Donald Trump (41%), Barack Obama (43%), Bill Clinton (39%), Jimmy Carter (43%), and Ronald Reagan (41%) at this point in their presidencies.
The only Presidents who had higher job approval ratings at this point were George W. Bush (65%) and George H.W. Bush (74%), both of whom were engaged in prosecuting wars in the Middle East, and Richard Nixon (55%). Gerald Ford’s was 48% at this point in his presidency, but as an unelected president coming in after the Nixon resignation it’s a difficult comparison to weigh.
All the approval ratings above come via Gallup’s Presidential Job Approval Center and are based on the current poll number and time period for that poll. Gallup does not publish weekly presidential job numbers any more, so the Biden figure is for August 1-23, 2022. Other presidential numbers are for the polls closest to that date and week number (around 79-84 weeks in office.)
President Biden has every reason to celebrate the huge jump. In recent months he has become a historic president, battling an opposition party fresh off an attempted coup, with a cult–like leader facing possible criminal charges on a variety of potentially unlawful acts, an evenly-divided Senate, a House with only a modest majority, all at a time of nearly unprecedented crises – domestic, international, and worldwide.
Despite all that, Biden has racked up big wins on longtime Democratic goals, including taxing corporations and the ultra-wealthy, signing into law the biggest climate change bill in history, making huge inroads on reducing drug prices, working to get what is now a massive reduction in gas prices and stabilization of inflation, helping millions of veterans access care for toxin-based cancers, signing the first major gun control law in decades, maintaining and even reducing historically low unemployment while overseeing historic job and wage growth, signing the first major infrastructure bill in decades, getting America’s first Black woman justice confirmed to the Supreme Court, removing the leader of al Qaeda, strengthening and expanding NATO while supporting Ukraine after Russia attacked the sovereign nation, and more.
Yesterday, which is not included in the latest Gallup poll period, President Biden announced 20 million Americans will see their student loan debt, between $10,000 (loans) and $20,000 (Pell Grants) forgiven. Despite GOP pushback, and thanks to a White House now on offensive instead of defense, it is proving to be another major win for Biden and the Democrats.
The early morning crew at Fox News lashed out at President Joe Biden Friday morning, just hours after he held a fiery rally in Maryland Thursday night and made the stakes for the November midterms clear: It's democracy or fascism.
"What we’re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism," President Biden, aware he was entering dangerous territory, declared as he steam rolled ahead.
"America must choose. You must choose — whether our country will move forward or backward," Biden told the audience at the fundraising event that looked more like a Trump rally, packed to the gills with thousands of screaming fans of the president. “Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice — to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division."
READ MORE: Biden White House Smacks Down Marjorie Taylor Greene in a Tweet
"The MAGA Republicans don’t just threaten our personal rights and economic security,” Biden said. "They’re a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace political violence. They don’t believe in democracy."
"I want to be crystal-clear about what's on the ballot this year," Biden said. "Your right to choose is on the ballot this year. The Social Security you paid for from the time you had a job is on the ballot. The safety of our kids from gun violence is on the ballot."
"MAGA Republicans don't have a clue about the power of women. Let me tell you something: They are about to find out."
"I respect conservative Republicans," Biden added. "I don't respect these MAGA Republicans."
It was President Biden labeling Trump's "Make America Great Again" philosophy "semi-fascism" and how he defined "MAGA Republicans" that infuriated the Fox News "Fox & Friends First" hosts.
"President Biden just trashed 70 million Trump supporters again!" one Fox News host screamed. "Boy that seems very familiar, a little like Hillary's 'deplorables' comment, doesn't it?"
In fact, it seems nothing like former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2016 remarks, which were almost never fully reported, although Buzzfeed's Ruby Cramer captured them and NPR published the transcript in full, which is below.
READ MORE: Watch: Megyn Kelly Unleashes Profane ‘F’ Word Attack on Dr. Fauci
It's important to note how Clinton expressed great compassion for GOP voters, and called on all Americans "to understand and empathize" with them:
"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America," Clinton said barely months before the 2016 election.
"But the other basket, the other basket, and I know because I see friends from all over America here. I see friends from Florida and Georgia and South Carolina and Texas, as well as you know New York and California. But that other basket of people who are people who feel that government has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they are just desperate for change. It doesn't really even matter where it comes from. They don't buy everything he says but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won't wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they're in a dead-end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well."
Watch Fox News' Friday morning response to President Biden's remarks below or at this link:
Last night at a DNC event, President Biden called the philosophy of MAGA Republicans "like semi-fascism."
Fox News this morning: "Boy, that seems very familiar, a little like Hillary's 'deplorables' comment, doesn't it?" pic.twitter.com/zC1sLMWehN
Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant occupied by Moscow's troops came back online on Friday afternoon, the state operator said, after Kyiv claimed it was cut from the national power grid by Russian shelling.
The plant -- Europe's largest nuclear facility -- was severed from Ukraine's power network for the first time in its history on Thursday due to "actions of the invaders", Energoatom said.
In an update, the operator said that as of 2:04 pm (1104 GMT) the plant "is connected to the grid and produces electricity for the needs of Ukraine" once again.
French President Emmanuel Macron warned "civil nuclear power must be fully protected".
"War in any case must not undermine the nuclear safety of the country, the region and all of us," he said during a visit to Algeria.
Separately on Friday, the EU presidency vowed to hold an emergency summit on the spiraling energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, which this week entered its seventh month.
The bloc has vowed to wean its 27 member states off Russian oil and gas in protest against the invasion.
However, anxiety over supply has sent prices soaring, and on Friday both Germany and France reported record electricity prices for 2023.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the Czech Republic, which holds the EU presidency, "will convene an urgent meeting of energy ministers to discuss specific emergency measures".
Energy anxiety
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been cause for mounting concern since it was seized by Russian troops in the opening weeks of the war.
In recent weeks, Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for rocket strikes around the facility in the southern Ukrainian city of Energodar.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Thursday the cut-off was caused by Russian shelling of the last active power line linking the plant to the network.
"Russia has put Ukrainians as well as all Europeans one step away from radiation disaster," he said in his nightly address.
Energoatom said the outage was caused by ash pit fires at an adjacent thermal power plant, which damaged a line connecting the only two of the plant's six reactors in operation.
The three other power lines linking the complex to the national grid "were earlier damaged during terrorist attacks" by Russian forces, the operator said.
On Friday afternoon Energoatom said one reactor had been reconnected "and capacity is being added".
No time to lose
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has previously said the situation at the plant is "highly volatile" and "underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster".
"We can't afford to lose any more time," the organization's Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Thursday.
"I'm determined to personally lead an IAEA mission to the plant in the next few days."
Ukraine energy minister adviser Lana Zerkal said the inspection "is planned for the next week, and now we are working on how they will get there".
But in an interview with Ukraine's Radio NV on Thursday evening, she was skeptical the mission would go ahead, despite Moscow's formal agreement.
"They are artificially creating all the conditions so that the mission will not reach the site," she said.
Zelensky has said "the IAEA and other international organizations should react much quicker".
Energoatom did not disclose whether there were blackouts as a result of the power cut.
However, the mayor of the city of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov said on Thursday "Russian occupiers cut off the electricity in almost all occupied settlements of Zaporizhzhia".
'Unacceptable'
Kyiv suspects Moscow intends to divert power from the Zaporizhzhia plant to the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russian troops in 2014.
But on Thursday, Washington issued a direct warning against any such move.
"The electricity that it produces rightly belongs to Ukraine," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters.
"Any attempt to disconnect the plant from the Ukrainian power grid and redirect to occupied areas is unacceptable."
President Joe Biden, in a telephone conversation with Zelensky, also called for Russia to return full control of the plant and let in nuclear inspectors, the White House said.
Zelensky said he had spoken with Biden and thanked him for the United States' "unwavering" support.
Britain's defence ministry has warned that weekend satellite imagery shows an increased presence of Russian troops at the power plant.
Armored personnel carriers were deployed within 60 meters (200 feet) of one reactor and "Russian troops were probably attempting to conceal the vehicles by parking them under overhead pipes and gantries".
"Russia is probably prepared to exploit any Ukrainian military activity near (the plant) for propaganda purposes," the ministry said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told President Joe Biden to "Go to hell" on Friday. The MAGA Republican made the comment following the Aug. 24 reveal from the White House that Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.
Greene made the remark on Twitter and also shared a video of Biden saying that he did not respect MAGA Republicans. "I don't respect these MAGA Republicans," said the president in the clip. Greene responded by accusing Biden of allowing drugs into the country by leaving the border "wide open," arming the Taliban and supporting the genital mutilation of children.
"I don’t respect you for leaving our border wide open allowing an invasion & deadly drugs in daily," she whined. "Arming the Taliban, wrecking our economy, killing our energy independence, & supporting killing the unborn & genital mutilation of children. Go to hell Joe."
Journalist Aaron Rupar shared the entire clip of Biden's comments in which Biden said that he respected conservative Republicans but that he did not respect MAGA Republicans.
"There are not many real Republicans anymore," said the president. "By the way, your sitting governor, he's a Republican you can deal with ... I respect conservative Republicans. I don't respect these MAGA Republicans."
According to NBC News, Biden was speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in Bethesda, Md. when he made the comments. The president also noted that the MAGA philosophy is "like semi-fascism."
"What we’re seeing now is the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy. It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something, it’s like semi-fascism," said Biden.
Greene has repeatedly attacked Biden after the president announced this week that most Americans trying to pay off university loans will get $10,000 forgiven
The official Twitter account for the White House responded on Thursday, noting that the congresswoman “had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven.”
EL PASO — Willian woke up before dawn on a recent Tuesday, packed his legal documents into a blue folder and got in a van with other migrants to one of the international bridges that connect El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.
At the port of entry, the 46-year-old asylum-seeker from Ecuador was disenrolled from the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled the Biden administration had the right to formally end the Trump-era policy. The program, also known as “remain in Mexico,” forced thousands of asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico as their cases made their way through U.S. courts.
Immigration officials transported Willian and at least eight other migrants to El Paso’s immigration court, where judges gave them all permission to stay in the U.S. They can continue their asylum cases in courts closest to wherever they settle.
After his hearing, Willian — who asked to be identified by his first name out of fear that criminals in Ecuador may target his family — walked out of the courthouse and felt a sense of relief wash over him. At a migrant shelter a few blocks away, he waited for his niece to pick him up before he caught a flight to New York City. He plans to stay with his sister-in-law there until his asylum case is decided.
It was his first time stepping on American soil as a free person after waiting a month in a Ciudad Juárez shelter.
“I think I’m finally going to be able to get a good night’s sleep. In Juárez, I couldn’t sleep very well,” Willian said as he stood outside Annunciation House, where a volunteer was administering rapid COVID-19 tests to migrants before they entered.
Willian is among the 7,112 who were enrolled in “remain in Mexico” and were returned to Mexico following initial enrollment under the Biden administration after Amarillo-based U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk ordered it to restart the program in December. Immigrant rights advocates said the program had put vulnerable asylum-seekers in dangerous situations in Mexican border cities.
Not every migrant seeking asylum was enrolled in MPP. Immigration agents also have the discretion to let a migrant enter the country to make an asylum claim or send them back to Mexico under Title 42, the emergency health order that immigration officials have used 2.1 million times since March 2020 to quickly expel people seeking to enter the U.S.
During the Trump administration, 70,000 asylum-seekers were sent across the border under the program, which was launched in January 2019. The Biden administration canceled it in June 2021, sparking a lawsuit by Texas and Missouri that argued the decision violated administrative and immigration laws and forced the states to expend resources on migrants for necessities such as driver’s licenses, education for migrant children and hospital care.
Migrants from Venezuela looking for a place to stay for the night on Tuesday spoke to a volunteer at Annunciation House, a local migrant shelter in El Paso. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
In a rare win for the Biden administration on immigration policy, the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled the administration had the legal right to end the program. Kacsmaryk, the federal judge, then rescinded his order.
Some immigrant rights advocates criticized President Joe Biden for not immediately ending the program after the Supreme Court ruling. On Aug. 8, five weeks later, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said migrants placed in the program would be disenrolled at their next scheduled court date in the U.S.
“As Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas has said, MPP has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” DHS said in a statement earlier this month.
A bumpy ending
Since that announcement, the actual ending of MPP has been bumpy.
Marysol Castro, a managing attorney with the Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services in El Paso, which provides pro bono and low-cost legal representation to migrants, said in the first week after MPP ended that a judge denied her client’s request to continue their case in a different Texas court because it wasn’t clear whether migrants released from the program would be allowed to enter the U.S.
In another case, she said a couple and their son from Honduras who had been placed in MPP didn’t have a court date until 2023, which meant they would have to stay in Mexico for at least another year. She filed a motion to move up their court hearing, and last week they were disenrolled, released directly from the court and moved to Tyler.
Castro also said some people enrolled in MPP arrived at their court hearings in El Paso unaware that they were going to be immediately released into the U.S. — and not allowed to cross the border again — so some of them had to leave behind their personal belongings.
Being removed from MPP and allowed to enter the U.S. greatly increases migrants’ chances of being granted asylum, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Only 2.4% of people placed in MPP under the Biden administration have been granted asylum. By comparison, 50% of asylum-seekers who have been allowed into the U.S. while their cases were pending have won the legal protection during the same period.
Castro said a government lawyer recently told her in court that her client was going to be deported now that MPP was over. She said she explained to the lawyer and judge that the end of MPP doesn’t mean asylum-seekers’ cases are over, but instead allows them to enter the U.S. until a decision is made in their cases.
“I think a lot of people just don’t know what’s going on or don’t know what MPP is,” she said. “They’re clueless about it.”
“I feel relieved”
On Tuesday, in Judge Nathan Herbert’s courtroom, three Venezuelan men and a Colombian man sat on wooden benches as Herbert explained their rights — including their right to continue their asylum requests in other U.S. cities.
“Señores, buena suerte y buen viaje” — good luck and have a good trip — Herbert told the men as they walked out of his courtroom at the end of the 45-minute court hearing. “Gracias y Dios le bendiga,” one of the men responded. Thanks, and God bless you.
Annunciation House volunteer Kyung Ju Lee gives an orientation to 25-year-old asylum-seeker Arias of the Dominican Republic after arriving to the migrant shelter on Tuesday in El Paso. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Asylum-seekers walk to a local migrant shelter moments after leaving immigration court. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
Migrants wait inside a local migrant shelter, Annunciation House, after leaving immigration court on Tuesday in El Paso, Texas. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
First: Asylum-seekers walk to Annunciation House after leaving immigration court. Last: Migrants wait inside Annunciation House. Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
One of the Venezuelan men walked out of the federal building with a father and son from the Dominican Republic who had emerged from a different courtroom. He fist-bumped the Dominican father to celebrate their release from the program.
“I’m happy,” said the younger Dominican man, a 25-year-old who asked to be identified only by his last name, Arias. “I feel relieved.”
As they walked to Annunciation House, Willian joined them just outside the shelter.
Willian explained he left Ecuador because criminals attempted to extort him for $200 a month — one-third of his $600 monthly salary.
He said he was driving from his administrative job at the country’s health department to his home in September when a man on a motorcycle cut him off, approached his window and showed him a recent photo of his 18-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter at a park. The man, who was wearing a ski mask, told him the $200 monthly payment would guarantee the safety of his family, Willian said.
He declined.
Two days later, two men in ski masks approached him again, demanding money. He said he tried to report the incident to the police, who told him that if he couldn’t identify or describe the men, they wouldn’t make a report.
“They were very discouraging,” he said.
Willian said the threats and demands for money continued until he resigned from his job in January and moved his family into his mother-in-law’s house, while he moved to a different city. But he said he couldn’t find a steady job and decided to leave Ecuador for the U.S. in June.
He arrived at the El Paso port of entry in July and requested asylum. He said he thought he was going to get deported to Ecuador. Instead, immigration agents enrolled him into MPP.
For the past month, he said he didn’t leave the Juárez shelter out of fear. Nearly two weeks ago, a wave of violence — sparked by the killings of two prison inmates by a rival gang — spilled out of the prison and into the city’s streets. One of the gangs killed 11 civilians in retaliation.
“When I heard the gunshots, I didn’t leave the shelter for anything,” Willian said, glancing at his phone to make sure he didn’t miss a call or a message from his niece.
He said he hopes he can win his asylum case, then bring his wife and two children legally to the U.S.
After the rest of the migrants received negative COVID-19 test results, they walked into the shelter. Willian sat alone on a bench outside the brown brick building until his ride showed up. He could now begin his journey to New York.
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Republican candidates who claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump have been nominated for governor in four critical swing states, raising concerns that if elected they could try to sway election results in 2024 and beyond.
In Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, Republican primary voters elected a candidate who has denied the results of the 2020 election and believes that voter fraud influenced the results. GOP voters also nominated an election-denying candidate in Maryland, though he has less chance of winning in a blue state.
Many more Republican gubernatorial candidates have questioned whether the 2020 election was legitimate or refused to say that President Joe Biden was the rightful winner. But these five are more vocal election deniers, who would be willing to call for audits or move to decertify results.
If they win in November, they will have less of a direct impact on elections than the six election deniers who are running for secretary of state, a position that’s the chief election official in most states. But the governors’ impact could still be significant.
They will sign or veto legislation governing the administration of elections, which could affect which voters are able to cast ballots and how much financial support counties get to administer elections. Governors can also issue executive orders concerning election administration in emergency situations. And in Pennsylvania, the governor gets to appoint the secretary of state, giving that governor immense power over elections.
Currently, state law determines whether governors play a part in the certification of electoral votes, but in every state, governors are then supposed to transmit those votes to Congress.
If Congress were to pass a bill to modernize the Electoral Count Act to reform how electoral votes are counted, governors could be empowered to select their state’s presidential electors in a new way.
The current proposal, introduced by a bipartisan group of senators, requires that at least six days before the Electoral College meets, each governor must submit a “certificate of ascertainment” identifying their state’s presidential electors, and that document would be “conclusive.”
The provision is included to prevent states from submitting more than one slate of electors, as seven states did in 2020 when Trump supporters submitted fake electors.
If a rogue, election-denying governor chose to certify the electors with fewer votes, the certification would then go to state and federal courts, who would have the final say.
Marc Elias, an elections lawyer who has worked for Democratic campaigns and elected officials, has expressed concerns that the reform bill gives too much power to potentially election-denying governors.
“One would hope that a federal court would overturn the results in a particular state if the ‘Big Lie’ governor, for instance, certified the presidential candidate who received fewer lawful votes than the candidate who actually won,” he wrote for Democracy Docket, a progressive voting advocacy group he started. “But nothing in this law assures that or even expresses that preference over the conclusiveness of the governor’s certification.”
But Rick Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University, said that’s a misunderstanding of the bill.
He said currently, governors have too much discretion when it comes to transmitting the document certifying the state’s electors. “The concern there is a governor who comes up with reasons to refuse to send the result that the state has already certified as the proper result of the election,” he said.
Several of the GOP candidates for governor say that in 2020, they would not have transmitted their state’s certified electors.
But the Electoral Count Reform Act would protect against that possibility by adding judicial review. Pildes also said that a simple tweak, making it clear that the results of the judicial review would preempt the governor’s decision, could make that even clearer and has been supported by senators.
Under “the Reform Act bill, Congress is binding itself to the position that it should accept the certificate from the governor unless the federal court orders that certificate to be modified, and in that case, Congress should accept the certificate as it’s required to be modified by the federal court,” Pildes said.
Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a Democrat, and Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican, who sponsored the legislation, have said they expect to pass it before the end of the year. That would mean it could be enacted before the 2024 presidential election cycle and before Democrats potentially lose the U.S. House in the midterm election.
Here are the five GOP candidates for governor who have said they would not have certified Biden as the winner of the 2020 election or who say the 2020 election was rigged:
Arizona
Kari Lake, a former news anchor, is a staunch supporter of Trump’s baseless claims that he won the 2020 election. The GOP nominee in Arizona is also endorsed by Trump and has suggested that she won’t accept the results of her upcoming election if she loses.
“If we don’t win, there’s some cheating going on. And we already know that,” she said just hours before polls closed on primary day.
After she won the race, she told reporters: “We out-voted the fraud, we didn’t listen to what the fake news had to say.”
In the same debate, she called the election corrupt and said — with no evidence — that 34,000 ballots “were counted two, three, and four times” in Arizona and that 200,000 ballots were trafficked by mules. “He lost the election, and shouldn’t be in the White House,” she said about Biden.
Pennsylvania
Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano will face Democrat Josh Shapiro in November in Pennsylvania. Mastriano is an extreme supporter of Trump’s Big Lie.
The nominee was at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and helped thousands of others come to the event by bus. He says he left before the riot began, but video contradicts his claim and shows him passing through police lines.
The House Jan. 6 committee has subpoenaed Mastriano for information about how he participated in events that led to the insurrection.
Mastriano has also surrounded himself with other election deniers. In June, he hired election denier and former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis to be a senior adviser on his campaign.
After the 2020 election, Mastriano led a state Senate hearing in which Ellis and Trump campaign lawyer Rudy Giuliani testified and shared false information about fraud in the election.
In Pennsylvania, the governor appoints the secretary of state. Though Mastriano has not publicly named the person he plans to select, he has hinted at his pick in interviews with far-right radio and TV programs. Mastriano has said he would appoint someone who would dramatically reform elections.
“I saw better elections in Afghanistan than in Pennsylvania,” Mastriano, an Army veteran, said while campaigning.
He has vowed that his pick for the state’s top election official would require everyone to “re-register” to vote, a requirement that would violate the National Voter Registration Act. And according to election experts consulted by Bolts magazine, a secretary of state under Mastriano could try to refuse to certify election results from Democratic-leaning counties.
Mastriano is also a user of Gab, an online platform for hate speech
Michigan
Tudor Dixon, a conservative commentator, is endorsed by Trump and recently dodged the question when asked if she still believes Trump won the 2020 election. But on numerous occasions since 2020, the Michigan GOP nominee has supported Trump’s claims that fraud cost him the election.
In a debate in May, Dixon unequivocally answered “yes” when asked if she believes Trump legitimately won the 2020 election in Michigan.
And in a November tweet reply to Trump, she wrote: “Steal an election then hide behind calls for unity and leftists lap it up.”
In an interview in November 2021, Dixon blamed Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for “not running the election the way she should have” and “in a way that was rife for fraud.” She then said that Benson provided the opportunity for Joe Biden to tilt the election so he could win.
Wisconsin
Tim Michels, a millionaire construction executive and the most recent election denier to win a GOP primary, is also supported by Trump, although he has distanced himself from the former president in recent months and has been more hesitant to say he believes the 2020 election was stolen.
During a debate in July, Michels said that if elected, he would not prioritize decertifying the 2020 election results.
But he’s tried to appeal to all GOP primary voters, also saying he would consider signing legislation that came to his desk from the GOP-controlled Assembly to decertify the results. He said he would “need to see the details” before making a decision on decertification. Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by about 21,000 votes.
It’s not the only time Michels has gone back and forth on his support for the former president. He also said in a debate that he wouldn’t endorse Trump if he ran for president in 2024, but then reversed course in a later campaign event.
Maryland
Republicans in Maryland elected attorney and state delegate Dan Cox in the June primary over a candidate supported by the state party establishment and current Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.
Cox has been endorsed by Trump and organized buses and attended the rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I am co-hosting two buses to the Million MAGA March/Rally with the Frederick County Conservative Club in support of President Trump @realDonaldTrump on January 6, 2021 to #StoptheSteal,” he wrote on Twitter on Jan. 1, 2021.
After the election, in December 2020, he wrote on Facebook that Trump should seize voting machines. He also called for an audit of the 2020 election in Maryland, even though he wasn’t able to cite any credible evidence of fraud.
Cox has continued to deny the results of the 2020 election, writing on his social media platforms in June that the election was “the GREAT HEIST of 2020.”Hogan has called Cox a “QAnon whack job.”
Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on Facebook and Twitter.
California ruled Thursday that all new cars sold in America's most populous state must be zero emission from 2035, in what was billed as a nation-leading step to slash the pollutants that cause global warming.
The widely touted move has been hailed by environmentalists, who hope it will prod other parts of the United States to quicken the adoption of electric vehicles.
The rules demand an ever-increasing percentage of new cars sold to California's 40 million inhabitants produce no tailpipe pollutants, until their total ban in 13 years' time.
"The timeline is ambitious but achievable: by the time a child born this year is ready to enter middle school, only zero-emission vehicles or a limited number of plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) will be offered for sale new in California," the California Air Resources Board said.
The board, which was tasked with finding a way to implement Governor Gavin Newsom's order to transition the state's automotive sector, said the health benefits would be significant.
"By 2037, the regulation delivers a 25 percent reduction in smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles.
"This benefits all Californians but especially the state's most environmentally and economically burdened communities along freeways and other heavily traveled thoroughfares."
From 2026 through 2040 the regulation is expected to result in 1,290 fewer cardiopulmonary deaths, 460 fewer hospital admissions for cardiovascular or respiratory illness, and 650 fewer emergency room visits for asthma, it said.
Popularity
California already accounts for the lion's share of electric vehicles in the United States, with 1.13 million of them on the state's roads -- 43 percent of the nation's total.
Their popularity has mushroomed in the years since they were seen as little more than novelty golf carts for tree-huggers content to drive no more than a few dozen miles (kilometers).
Ten years ago only two percent of new cars sold in the state were electric; that figure is now 16 percent, and Teslas and other premium offerings with a range of hundreds of miles are a common sight on roads around Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Still, the vehicles remain more expensive than their fossil fuel-powered equivalents and critics say only federal subsidies of up to $7,500 make them viable for many buyers.
But supporters say the incentives are necessary short-term supports that will fade away as increased adoption boosts economies of scale and drives down prices.
As the biggest auto market in the United States, one manufacturers cannot ignore, California has an outsized influence in effectively setting national standards.
Thursday's ruling comes on the heels of a climate law signed last week by US President Joe Biden, which sets aside hundreds of millions of dollars in incentives for clean energy programs.
Biden and his Democratic Party are rushing to make up climate policy ground they feel was lost under former president Donald Trump, who yanked the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord and reversed what many environmentalists viewed as already-weak progress in reducing the fossil fuel emissions that drive global warming.
Newsom, a leading light in the Democratic Party, who is rumored to have presidential ambitions, welcomed the ruling.
'Groundbreaking'
"California now has a groundbreaking, world-leading... roadmap to reducing dangerous carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels," he said.
The reduction in the number of petrol and diesel-powered cars on the roads is equivalent to "915 million oil barrels' worth of emissions that won't pollute our communities."
"With the historic $10 billion we're investing to accelerate the transition... we're making it easier and cheaper for all Californians to purchase electric cars."
In recent years jurisdictions around the world, notably in Europe, have set their sights on the polluting automobile sector.
Norway is aiming to have all new cars produce zero tailpipe emissions by 2025.
The UK, Singapore and Israel are eyeing 2030, while the European Union wants to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035.
Human-caused global warming has already raised average temperatures around the planet, affecting weather patterns and worsening natural hazards like wildfires and storms.
Scientists say dramatic action is required to limit the damage, and point to curbing emissions from fossil fuels as key to the battle.
Abortion became illegal in three more US states on Thursday, further restricting access to elective terminations for millions of women despite some signs of popular and judicial pushback.
Two months after the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, nearly 21 million women have already lost access to the procedure in their home states, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.
And with Idaho, Tennessee and Texas joining 10 other Republican-controlled states on Thursday in implementing near-total bans on abortion, that number is set to rise. Another dozen states are expected to follow suit with their own restrictions.
The laws in Idaho, Tennessee and Texas were "triggered" after the Supreme Court on June 24 overturned the landmark 1973 "Roe v. Wade" decision enshrining a woman's right to an abortion and allowed states to set their own laws.
In Texas, under the new law, doctors could face life in prison and a fine of no less than $100,000 for performing an abortion. Texas and Tennessee make no exceptions for rape or incest, though Idaho does.
State restrictions range from total bans on elective abortions to bans after six weeks, when many women do not even know they are pregnant. Many women have already been forced to travel hundreds of miles to obtain the procedure in other states.
Democratic President Joe Biden condemned the ruling by the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and has pledged to do everything within his power to ensure access to abortion.
The Biden administration notched up a narrow victory in Idaho on Wednesday when a judge ruled that federal law requires doctors to provide abortions to women suffering medical emergencies at hospitals that receive Medicare funding from the government.
In an illustration of the complicated legal landscape, however, a judge in Texas, an appointee of Republican Donald Trump, issued a contrary ruling in a similar case, setting the stage for further court battles.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre welcomed the outcome in Idaho but called the Texas ruling a "devastating decision for women in that state, who can now be denied the same life-saving care."
Besides battling in the courts, Democrats are hoping abortion will be a galvanizing issue for their candidates in the upcoming midterm elections.
US voters will decide control of Congress in November, with all 435 House seats up for grabs, as well as 35 of the 100 Senate seats and the governor's mansion in 36 out of 50 states.
'Health care is on the ballot'
"More women today are living with fewer freedoms thanks to Republicans' relentless war to ban abortion in their states," Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison said.
"Make no mistake: No matter what state you live in, reproductive health care is on the ballot this November, and GOP candidates will be held accountable for their extreme anti-choice agenda," Harrison said.
A Democratic candidate notched up a victory in a special election in New York on Tuesday seen as a bellwether of the public mood on abortion ahead of November's midterms.
According to political data firm Target Smart, women have been outpacing men in new voter registrations in numerous states.
In a Pew Research Center poll, 56 percent of registered voters said the abortion issue will be very important in their midterm vote, up from 43 percent in March.
Abortion rights advocates also recently celebrated a victory in a referendum in Kansas that would have removed the right to the procedure from the constitution of the conservative midwestern state.
The state is a Republican stronghold, but Kansans, by a 59 to 41 percent margin amid unusually heavy turnout, rejected the amendment that would have scrapped language in the state constitution guaranteeing the right to abortion.
Planned Parenthood, which lobbies for abortion access and plans to reportedly spend $50 million on the midterms, called the Kansas vote "a clear warning to anti-abortion politicians."
While some two dozen Republican-led states are restricting access to abortion, a number of Democratic-controlled states, including giants California and New York, are putting protections in place.
A Fulton County judge will decide whether Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp must testify before a special grand jury after prosecutors and state attorneys sparred in court Thursday over the investigation into possible interference in the 2020 election.
Kemp’s attorneys argued before Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney that Kemp is protected under state law from forced compliance with a subpoena. Fulton prosecutors issued the subpoena after their negotiations with the governor’s lawyers for a voluntary appearance turned sour.
Kemp’s legal team has accused Fulton District Attorney Fani Willis of targeting Kemp for political reasons and argues the governor shouldn’t have to appear before the jury until after the Nov. 8 election when Kemp faces a challenge from Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams.
Kemp was originally expected to provide the special grand jury with his videotaped testimony back in June, but the cooperation dissolved into bickering between the Republican governor and the Democrat-led district attorney’s office.
After the 2020 election, Kemp refused to call a special legislative session requested by President Donald Trump and allies in order to block the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s win. Willis wants to ask Kemp about the pressure Trump and his allies heaped on him to call a special session of the Legislature to overturn Joe Biden’s Georgia victory.
Since its June convening, the special grand jury has reportedly heard from dozens of witnesses, including Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. The 23-member panel will recommend whether prosecutors should pursue criminal charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The governor’s lawyers said Kemp can’t be forced to testify about activities he performed under his official duties as governor because he’s protected by sovereign immunity.
Kemp’s lawyer Derek Bauer told McBurney that since the special grand jury cannot indict people as a regular grand jury can, its investigative role is considered a civil matter, so the governor is exempt from complying.
“What jumps out to me is that (prosecutors) think their authority is unlimited and that they are performing a criminal investigation,” he said. “It’s not a criminal investigation and a civil investigation has no authority under state law to investigate a state authority.”
McBurney asked the state’s attorneys several times why this wasn’t a criminal investigation, similar to how police officers and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation also cannot indict.
The judge said there is no indication that Kemp is anything more than a potential victim who was targeted by Trump’s allies.
“I get that a special grand jury cannot bring charges but why does that mean it’s not a criminal investigative body?” McBurney said. “A police officer can’t indict someone but if a police officer is asking questions, it’s a criminal investigation.”
Kemp’s lawyers said he has been put in an uncomfortable position while trying to uphold the state constitution. The states attorney’s call for granting Kemp sovereign immunity, a legal concept dating back to the British doctrine that the King could do no wrong, led to a quick exchange between Bauer and the judge.
“The governor is not above the law,” Bauer said. “He’s just the king,” McBurney interjected.
Bauer responded, “he’s the state, he’s not the king.”
“We’re not looking for an unnecessary fight but he has to protect future governors from overzealous district attorneys,” Bauer said.
But prosecutor Daniel Wakeford noted that under state law, a special grand jury can investigate any type of violation.
Gov. Brian Kemp is asking Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney to quash a subpoena in the 2020 presidential investigation special grand jury. On Thursday, prosecutor Daniel Wakeford explains to McBurney why he disputes Kemp attorneys claiming that the governor is protected by sovereign immunity. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder
“In the district attorney’s request to (empanel), it clearly says over and over that there could be possible criminal disruptions to the state,” Wakeford said.
Both sides Thursday continued their dispute over why agreements for Kemp to voluntarily testify in June and August eventually disintegrated into the governor’s unwillingness to answer questions.
Kemp attorney Brian McEvoy accused prosecutors of not being willing to go over the scope of the investigation beforehand, thereby putting Kemp in a bind.
In a terse letter last week, Willis chided Kemp and his attorneys.
“I never heard of a subpoena because we had been operating in good faith for over a year and then I heard a change in tone (from prosecutors),” McEvoy said during Thursday’s two-hour hearing.
Prosecutors insist that they are unwilling to comply with state attorneys’ demands to provide questions beforehand.
Wakeford said Kemp’s role wouldn’t have attracted as much attention if he wasn’t publicly fighting the subpoena.
It is likely that publicity about Kemp’s potential testimony would have remained low key if he had simply followed through with the terms he had agreed to with testifying earlier this month.
“There wouldn’t have been a story, no controversy,” Wakeford said.
Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, said McBurney seemed skeptical Thursday about the state’s using sovereign immunity as a defense.
State attorneys representing Kemp indicated if McBurney upholds the subpoena they will appeal.
Other probe targets fight subpoenas
Fulton prosecutors have been busy over the last month fending off a flurry of attempts to block subpoenas made by Kemp, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and members of Trump’s inner circle, including Giuliani, who spent six hours on the stand last week.
In a ruling Thursday, McBurney denied motions to quash subpoenas issued to 11 Georgia Republicans who, during a secret December 2020 meeting at the Capitol, served as fake Republican electors and cast illegitimate votes for Trump.
In the meantime, Graham scored a legal victory over the weekend when the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals delayed South Carolina official’s testimony.
Graham’s attorneys have been asked to submit their final arguments next week before Judge Leigh Martin May who will decide how much Graham can be compelled to talk about since there are congressional protections regarding speech and debate.
Graham contacted the Georgia secretary of state’s office twice following Election Day to ask about disallowing questionable absentee ballots, a call that the state’s chief of elections called concerning.
As the Fulton case unfolds, a similar U.S. Justice Department investigation is underway and a special U.S. House committee continues to examine the events leading up to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Gwen Keyes Fleming, former DeKalb County District Attorney, said Willis and her team are focused on uncovering facts as they would in any other case.
“We all know as things heat up, defensive attorneys are required to zealously represent their clients and we would not expect anything else in this case,” she said during a briefing hosted by the States United Democracy Center. “Prosecutors are used to that dynamic, and Fani’s team will continue to move forward in a very deliberate and cautious fashion to be able to bring justice to the citizens of Fulton County.”
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.
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