MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Tuesday's election results should serve as a warning to Donald Trump and "radical" Republicans heading into next year.
Democrats notched wins in Kentucky's gubernatorial race and Virginia's legislative races, while voters overwhelmingly approved abortion rights in Ohio, and the "Morning Joe" host said the GOP losing streak since the right's handpicked U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade could very well bleed into the 2024 election because voters don't believe Trump is a moderate on women's rights.
"Here's the only problem," Scarborough said. "[We've] got clip after clip after clip after clip of Donald Trump bragging, 'I was the one who killed Roe v. Wade, I put the judges in who took away the right for abortion, I destroyed Roe v. Wade' – it's all over the place. Donald Trump should expect to see all of these victims of rape, all of these victims of these women who were bleeding out because they couldn't get treatment because of Donald Trump."
The right-wing Federalist Society and its former head Leonard Leo spent a generation engineering a Supreme Court that would end reproductive rights, and Trump put the finishing touches on that project by appointing three right-wing justices with the help of Mitch McConnell and a GOP Senate who blocked Barack Obama from nominating one to replace the late Antonin Scalia.
"Because of Leonard Leo, because of radicals on the Supreme Court, he can expect to see those girls, those girls who had to flee the state when they were raped by an illegal immigrant, those girls who had to flee the state because they were raped by a member of their own family, that the doctors were afraid to provide even life-saving care because of Donald Trump," Scarborough said. "Because of Leonard Leo's radical Supreme Court, all of those young women, whose lives have been made a living and breathing hell because of Donald Trump and that list of people, Donald Trump can expect and he should expect – and he deserves to expect – to hear that throughout 2024, along with a clip that said, 'Yeah, I was the one who killed Roe v. Wade.'"
"He made their lives a living and breathing hell," Scarborough added. "Bleed outside of operating rooms where they could have been saved, because, well, Donald Trump and Leonard Leo, the guy who has $1.4 billion now trying to rig every federal judiciary selection, he's already done it to the U.S. Supreme Court. You sit back and wonder, why in the world do we have 10-year-old girls who are raped by illegal immigrants fleeing the state to get an abortion? Because of the Supreme Court, because of what happened. Because the buying of the United States Supreme Court that Donald Trump did. Donald Trump meekly and blindly followed along, and now he's bragging, 'I'm the one who killed Roe v. Wade. Lots of luck with that, Donald, it's going to be a long year."
SANFORD, N.C. — A former U.S. soldier-turned-neo-Nazi, who recently served a federal prison sentence for distributing bomb-making instructions for killing former presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, protested outside a children’s story hour led by drag performers last month, Raw Story has confirmed.
Jarrett William Smith, 28, wore a skull mask and a shirt inscribed with the chilling words, “Support your local Einsatz-Kommando” to protest a drag show at a yoga studio in Sanford, N.C.
“Einsatz” refers to a Third Reich-era Nazi mobile death squad that assassinated political enemies, Jews and communists. The shirt also includes the Totenkopf “death’s head” skull that was utilized by Adolf Hitler’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary squad.
Smith, a resident of South Carolina, traveled to Sanford, N.C., where he met five other men and a child wearing masks and sunglasses. Together, they marched single-file down Main Street and joined a small group that included a local pastor on a public sidewalk behind the Sanford Yoga & Community Center, which was hosting a Halloween-themed drag story hour for about 15 children.
Raw Story identified Smith by matching the vehicle that he used to travel to the rally to a 2012 Honda registered in his name in Horry County, S.C., where he currently lives. Ryan Patrick, one of the men wearing skull masks, confirmed in an interview with Raw Story that Smith was also one of the skull-mask wearers and present beside him.
Smith’s presence at the protest does not appear to violate a law. But it indicates he’s back in the business of intimidation following his release from prison.
In 2019, prosecutors accused Smith of encouraging a federal informant to assassinate O’Rourke — a former congressman who’s run for president, U.S. Senate and Texas governor — with a car bomb.
Court documents also indicate that Smith, who law enforcement arrested at Fort Riley in Kansas in September 2019, encouraged users on an encrypted social media app to commit arson against an anti-fascist podcaster.
In February 2020, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction. A judge ultimately sentenced Smith to 30 months in prison.
Smith was released from prison in November 2021 after serving slightly more than 14 months, and earlier this year, he successfully petitioned for early termination of supervised release.
“Early termination of Mr. Smith’s supervised release poses no danger to public safety and is in the best interest of justice,” Smith’s federal public defender argued in a court filing. A federal judge in Kansas signed off on the order in July, noting that the government did not oppose the move, effectively cutting Smith’s probation in half — from three years to 18 months.
As part of the special conditions of Smith’s supervised release that U.S. District Court Judge Daniel D. Crabtree imposed, Smith was ordered to “not participate in any anti-government or tax protesting activities which endorse or encourage violence or associate with individuals who are known members of these groups, or possess any literature advocating or supporting these groups” during his probation.
Crabtree freed Smith from these conditions on July 14, when the same judge granted him early release from probation.
Smith, who lives in the Myrtle Beach area — a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sanford — could not be reached for comment, despite multiple efforts to contact him by phone and email, and through family members and his employer.
Rebecca Bongiorno, Smith’s mother, told Raw Story by email that his family would “speak to no one unless they can reverse this lie about him, both in the court and the media.” Asked to elaborate, Bongiorno cited unspecified accusations by then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Tony Mattivi that she said “were thrown out of court.”
Mattivi declined to comment on Smith’s release from probation.
But Mattivi, who now directs the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told Raw Story he left the U.S. Justice Department while Smith was serving his prison sentence. Mattivi has an extensive prosecutorial history on matters related to terrorism and explosives, having served as the lead prosecutor against the al Qaeda operative who masterminded the bombing of the USS Cole and led the team of prosecutors that convicted three militia members for plotting to bomb an apartment building where Somali Muslim immigrants lived and worshiped.
According to Smith’s motion, the government was represented by First U.S. Attorney Duston Slinkard, who did not oppose Smith’s request for early termination of supervised release. In his order, Crabtree took note that the government did not oppose the request.
“Anyone who is sentenced to probation following conviction has a right to request early release,” Danielle Thomas, a spokesperson for the government, told Raw Story. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas respects the decision of the court in these matters, and we have nothing further to add.”
‘We want you gone’
Smith’s presence Oct. 15 in Sanford, a city of about 30,000 residents, was neither coincidental nor accidental.
And he had help in ensuring the atmosphere around the children’s story hour would be filled with tension.
Jarrett William Smith protests a drag story hour with a bullhorn outside a yoga center in Sanford, N.C. on Oct. 15, 2023.
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As observed by a Raw Story reporter, Smith led the group of masked men to a corner of the public sidewalk at the edge of a gravel parking lot behind the yoga studio in Sanford where two drag performers were reading to children.
They fell in behind Thomas Booher, a local pastor. Holding a Bible to his chest, Booher chastised a small group of pro-LGBTQ supporters stationed throughout the parking lot to protect the venue. Among them: yoga studio co-owner Mike Knapp.
In addition to Ryan Patrick, the crew with Smith included Nicholas Garner Fisher, a 32-year-old self-identified “Nazi” skateboarder from Raleigh.
Fisher, like Smith, has a criminal record, with his record including convictions for illegally carrying a concealed gun.
In Telegram chats reviewed by Raw Story, Fisher has expressed hostility toward Black people. Of Black people using a skate park that he frequents, Fisher wrote, “If someone’s in my way, they get snaked by Fuhrer daddy and the skateparks are a no n----er zone.” Less than 10 days before the Sanford protest, he had posted on Telegram that he had been prevented from boarding a flight in Florida for using a racial slur.
In a written statement provided to Raw Story, Fisher did not confirm or deny that he was present at the protest in Sanford.
“Everyone was wearing a mask, and I reckon they were just concerned citizens as I was,” he said. “I can’t tell you who was there because of the masks.”
While Booher was speaking, some members of Smith’s group introduced themselves to Jere Brower, a local man who served about 30 days in the D.C. Jail for violating the curfew instituted by Mayor Muriel Bowser after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Brower attracted notoriety when coverage of his arrest noted his past association with Aryan Nations, a white power group that brought together racist skinheads and Klansmen in the 1980s and ’90s.
The 48-year-old Brower acknowledged to Raw Story in an interview last week that he has previous ties to the white power group Aryan Nations, but said that today he accepts that whiteness is not a precondition of American citizenship.
Brower told Raw Story that he did not know Smith at the time of the Oct. 15 protest in Sanford, but that members of the crew introduced themselves to him using their nicknames.
Brower had warned — in a comment on the yoga center’s Facebook page prior to the drag event — that he would be tracking who went into the building. He would be ready, he said, to call Child Protective Services, even though performing in drag in the presence of children is not illegal in North Carolina.
Brower tagged friends on a thread under a post on the yoga studio’s page announcing the event.
Some of the responders openly suggested violence. One of them replied by posting a drawing of a person dressed in the colors of the transgender flag colors hanging from a noose. Brower himself replied to a comment by one of the drag performers with a meme promoting the idea that trans people are prone to self-harm.
Smith’s crew coordinated their travel to the protest on Telegram, Patrick told Raw Story. Information about the protest came up in an online chat, he said. One member asked if anyone was going, and another responded affirmatively. Knowing Smith’s affinity for skull masks, Patrick said it was his idea that everyone should wear one so that they could “all look the same, more or less.”
During the protest, Brower ominously predicted, “This will be the last time.”
Smith raised a bullhorn. He slowly launched into a staccato harangue that gradually increased in intensity and volume.
“If you sit around wearing sexual-fetish gear to give yourself sexual pleasure, and you require the presence of children in order to attain that sexual pleasure, you are a pedophile!” he shouted, parroting a false accusation that drag show organizers and attendees are pedophiles.
Smith shook his head in disgust, and his foot slowly edged into the gravel parking lot.
One of the LGBTQ supporters approached and warned, “Hey, back up, man. Back up on the sidewalk.”
One of the members of Smith’s crew then stepped between the two men, and called the LGBTQ supporter a “f---ot.”
Smith resumed his tirade, seething with rage and frustration
“You do not represent us!” he yelled. “We do not want you here! We want you gone! Out of our town! Out of our state! And out of our country!”
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
‘Kindness and support’
Inside the yoga center, drag performer Stormie Dae wielded a light saber and wore a headdress, heavy gray shawl, pants and knee-high boots while portraying the Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, the other performer, embodied the Muppet character Cookie Monster, wearing a floor-length, blue velvet dress with googly eyes. The two performers read books such as Gustavo the Shy Ghost, Calvin, and Creepy Carrots. They made candy bracelets with the children in attendance.
As a trans person, Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle told Raw Story that this performance name puts a “gender queer” spin on “the idea of princess.” Peritwinkle, whose real name Raw Story agreed to withhold for safety reasons, generally uses the ze/zim/zir pronouns.
“When I would go to drag shows, I would see Black and brown and queer and trans people being free and being their authentic selves,” Peritwinkle told Raw Story. “I was like, ‘How do I sign up?’ I learned a new way to sew a zipper and hem a skirt. It’s a space where I’m able to be free and be me and explore how I move my body and how I interact with the audience. There’s so much kindness and support. It feels good being onstage and seeing the audience live for the performance.”
Lindsey Knapp, a lawyer who has represented military veterans facing retaliation for reporting sexual assault, opened the Sanford Yoga & Community Center with her husband in 2020.
Located 30 miles from Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) — one of the largest military installations in the world — the yoga studio initially focused on providing trauma-informed services to veterans.
During the pandemic, the Knapps’ son came out as trans. Initially, they started an “LGBTQ kids hangout,” Lindsey said, adding that LGBTQ adults started asking for programming as well. Thus, the yoga center expanded into an LGBTQ resource center, incorporating drag shows as one among many queer-friendly activities, including a monthly game night and “sip and paint” sessions.
“My kiddo, when he came out as trans, I wanted to expose him to a lot of different trans humans so he could know he has options,” Lindsey said. “Not everybody who performs in drag events is trans and not every trans person performs in drag events. There are plenty of cisgender people who do drag. Drag in itself is just an art form. I enjoy it because it’s a lot of fun. It’s letting people be creative and use their attire in an effort to express themselves.”
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center
During the brief altercation between Smith’s crew and the LGBTQ supporters outside, one of the LGBTQ supporters called the Sanford police. Two officers showed up and informed the protesters that, because they didn’t have a permit, they could not use amplified devices and would need to stay on the sidewalk.
The police left. The energy at the protest began to flag. LGBTQ supporters maintained a line and stared down Smith’s crew. About 30 minutes before the conclusion of the drag story session, Smith and his cohort filed out. Most of the drag show protesters joined them in a nearby Dollar Store parking lot where they continued to talk before returning to their cars and driving away without further incident.
A track record of encouraging violence
The federal criminal complaint against Smith alleged that after enlisting in the Army in 2018, he led a group chat on Facebook with other extremists in which he bragged about his expertise in bomb-making.
“Oh yeah, I got knowledge of IEDs for days,” Smith wrote, referring to improvised explosive devices. “We can make cell phone IEDs in the style of the Afghans. I can teach you that.”
Additionally, an FBI confidential source who was communicating with Smith asked him to recommend a political figure in Texas who would be a good candidate for assassination.
“Outside of Beto?” Smith responded. “I don’t know enough people that would be relevant enough to cause a change if they died.”
Meanwhile, according to an affidavit filed by the government, “Smith talked with the [confidential source] about killing members of the far-left group, Antifa, as well as destroying nearby cell tower or [a] local news station.”
In August 2019, the affidavit alleges that Smith told the confidential source “that the headquarters of a major American news network would be a suggested target, utilizing a vehicle bomb.”
During Smith’s sentencing in 2020, he sought to undercut the government’s case by hiring a retired Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives enforcement officer as an expert witness. The retired officer submitted a report that concluded that Smith’s advice was largely “incorrect or without sufficient detail to have anyone assemble a functioning explosive or incendiary device or weapon of mass destruction.”
According to the government, Smith’s advocacy for violence was motivated by an obscure Satanic belief system known as Quayinism.
Based on an interview following his arrest, an FBI agent wrote about Smith: “He gives information out freely to people who may use it for harm, for the glory of Quayinism, and his religion of anti-kosmik Satanism. He wants to cause chaos, as it brings back the realm of his religious beliefs, through the destruction of the universe.
“Smith said the idea of chaos in the world is a disruption and he can be an agent of chaos by enabling people with his knowledge,” the report continues. “Smith said that if the death of people isn’t affecting him, then he doesn’t see an issue.”
Although Smith was ultimately convicted only of distributing bomb-making instructions, the government also charged him with threatening interstate communication. While stationed at Fort Riley, Smith allegedly communicated a plan to burn down the home of a Michigan man identified in court documents only as “D.H.”
Matching the username “Anti-Kosmik 2182,” which was cited in Smith’s charging documents, anti-fascist researchers noted the user’s contributions to an energetic discussion on the encrypted social media app Telegram about how to respond to a podcast by Daniel Harper that discussed Atomwaffen and how the group drew inspiration from a text by an obscure neo-Nazi author.
“Ditch the car somewhere a few blocks away, take back alley trails in the woods, etc., and then come up to the house wearing a mask,” Anti-Kosmik 2182 wrote, according to a report by the Daily Beast. “I’m not saying do anything illegal, but I am saying it would be a real shame if all he has went up in literal flames.”
In another chat, according to screenshots from a neo-Nazi channel infiltrated by anti-fascist researchers, Smith provided instructions for assembling and setting off an improvised chlorine bomb.
“Good for clearing out a room or breaking up a meeting,” he wrote, while posting as Anti-Kosmik 2182.
Arson appears to be a consistent theme in Smith’s online communications, as well as in his music interests.
The 2019 chats show Smith advocating that someone burn down the trailer of a white supremacist Satanist whom Smith faulted for betraying the cause by supporting North Korea.
Arson is also a theme in the story of “Burzum,” the Norwegian black metal music project whose shirt Smith was wearing in Sanford on Oct. 15.
Burzum was a solo project of Norwegian musician Kristian Vikernes, who served a prison sentence from 1994 to 2009 for murder and arson related to a church-burning spree.
Vikernes was convicted for the murder of former bandmate Øysten Aarseth. Vikernes and his erstwhile musical collaborator “burned churches and desecrated cemeteries,” according to a report by Southern Poverty Law Center. In the early 1990s, Vikernes and Aarseth helped establish National Socialist black metal, a musical subgenre that is explicitly racist.
Smith’s arrest in late 2019 came at a time when the FBI carried out a significant crackdown against white supremacists and their alleged terror plots. Smith found himself at the epicenter and served prison time for his crime.
But since Smith’s release from prison in November 2021, the white power movement has rebounded with a proliferation of so-called “active clubs,” and other, more obscure neo-Nazi and fascist groups.
Smith’s documented history of calling for car-bombings and arson is striking in the current climate of intimidation against the LGBTQ community in which neo-Nazis and other far-right actors have threatened to shut down drag shows.
‘Greater risk’
For some observers, Smith’s presence at the drag show story hour indicates he hasn’t reformed himself.
“If Smith has remained involved in white supremacist activity, that would be concerning,” Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for ADL Center on Extremism, told Raw Story. “His sentence was relatively short, which makes him at greater risk to hold on to extreme views and perhaps even reoffend.”
As an example, Hyman cited Brandon Russell, an Atomwaffen leader who served prison time for possession of explosives, and then was arrested again roughly a year after his release for allegedly plotting an attack on the power grid.
Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle, one of the drag performers at the Sanford Yoga & Community Center on Oct. 15, is no stranger to threats from far-right protesters.
Last December, Peritwinkle participated in an ensemble drag performance at a downtown theater in Southern Pines, N.C. Peritwinkle stood alongside lead performer Naomi Dix as Dix addressed a throng of protesters outside the show. Peritwinkle was onstage that night right before a power outage disrupted the show.
The outage was caused by someone shooting out a substation in surrounding Moore County, resulting in a blackout that was celebrated by accelerationist neo-Nazis who embrace chaos and societal collapse as a precondition for establishing white ethno-states.
Peritwinkle’s mind would go back to that show in Southern Pines for several months when applying drag makeup. But over time the preoccupation with fear diminished and the joy of being in the moment while performing onstage returned.
“After the violence at the Moore County show, knowing that drag can be protested and can be met by so much animosity, I like to remind people that this gets me free,” Peritwinkle said. “It has a way of reaching queer, trans folks, young and old folks. For me, it’s so personal.”
Conservative Scott Morefield, a one-time backer of former President Donald Trump who has now switched allegiances to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, issued a dire warning to Republicans about making Trump their nominee for a third time.
Writing on Twitter, Morefield pointed to Tuesday's election results as evidence that Trump and his hand-picked candidates such as failed Kentucky gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron would drag down the entire party in 2024.
"If Trump is on the ballot next year, the GOP is looking at a wipeout of epic proportions up and down the ballot," he argued. "Anyone remotely associated with him in non-blood-red states/districts (and even some red ones) will be fortunate to eek out a win."
Morefield went on to explain that voters' hatred of the twice-impeached, four-time indicted former president was so strong that it would override voter concerns about issues such as inflation.
"Republicans can’t win without moderates and independents, and his name is mud with them," he added. "Hatred for Trump nationally is much stronger than even peoples’ own economic self interest. Millions will vote against him and the candidates he endorses, even to their own detriment. Today is a harbinger of things to come if Republicans stay on this path."
Donald Trump howled in rage hours before his eldest daughter Ivanka was scheduled to take the stand in his $250 million fraud trial.
Both of her brothers, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, spent more than a day on the witness stand last week and her father antagonized Judge Arthur Engoron during his testimony Monday, but an appeals court dismissed Ivanka Trump as a defendant in June, saying the claims against her were too old.
"Tomorrow my wonderful and beautiful daughter, Ivanka, is going to the Lower Manhattan Courthouse, at the direction of Letitia Peekaboo James, the Corrupt and Racist New York State Attorney General, who has allowed Murder and Violent Crime in New York to flourish, and a Trump Hating, out of control Clubhouse appointed Judge, Arthur Engoron, who viciously ruled against me before the trial even started, wouldn’t even consider a Jury, and said that Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, is worth $18,000,000 when, in fact, it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount," the former president posted on Truth Social.
"Other properties likewise," he added. "Based on this information, which is so ridiculous, he said that I was a Fraud, when in fact it is Letitia James and the Judge who are Fraudulent for setting such LOW VALUATIONS in order to undermine and discredit my Financial Statements, thereby making me look bad - Election Interference! Now they are trying to bring Ivanka into the case, despite the Court of Appeals ruling that she cannot be charged. Sad!"
Donald Trump's critics have been slamming him for his Monday, November 6 testimony in New York State Attorney General Letitia James' civil fraud case against the Trump Organization. The former president, in court, angrily described the case as a politically motivated "witch hunt." And his critics have been lambasting him for making a mockery of the United States' judicial system.
But MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, during a November 6 commentary, argued that the "chaos" he brought to Justice Arthur Engoron's courtroom was by design — as undermining U.S. institutions is part of his game plan.
Maddow argued, "Chaotic, rambling, non-sequitur, out of control, insulting —sort on unprofessional, inappropriate testimony may not help with his case. But it does make a mockery of the legal system."
The MSNBC host added that Trump is "trying to denigrate" and "delegitimize" not only this case, "but the whole legal system."
"That does appear to be his larger goal," Maddow warned. "And it makes sense. When your legal troubles include a couple of huge civil cases and 91 felony criminal counts against you…. the more efficient path is just to run against the legal system — to tell your followers that the American legal system…. it's all illegitimate."
A Tennessee Republican state lawmaker is arguing federal funds to feed school children from low-income families should not be accepted unless it can be proven that the program will increase test scores.
GOP Rep. John Ragan, who has a history of targeting school students from low-income households, told the legislature’s Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding he was concerned about “tying ourselves to the federal government,” and inquired about the amount of “waste” in the federal program, according to a video clip posted by The Tennessee Holler. The Working Group’s purpose is to determine how the State of Tennessee can reject $1.8 billion in federal education funds.
“The question that is, in the top of my mind, is how – we get this money that’s supposedly aimed at the most needy students and the lowest performing students. What’s the measure of improvement? For this money coming in? How much has it improved the performance of these students?
Rep. Ragan also claimed, “if we are tying ourselves to the federal government by accepting their money to do this thing, then it would seem to me that we as a state should be looking for the improvements that this money is purportedly going to make. Otherwise we’re just throwing money at something and being potentially wasteful.”
“Yesterday,” Ragan continued, referring to a prior meeting, “a question was addressed concerning the nutrition program related to the waste that’s involved in that. To my knowledge, there is no measurement of that waste.”
Tennessee is exploring becoming the first state in the nation to reject $1.8 billion in federal education funding.
The Joint Working Group on Federal Education Funding was appointed by embattled House Republican Speaker Cameron Sexton and Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally, and is comprised of six Republicans and two Democrats from both the House and Senate.
Its purpose is to “review what funding state and local governments in Tennessee receive from the federal government, how the funding is used, whether the state could provide the same services, and whether it would be feasible to reject the funds,” according to The Tennessean. “Tennessee receives $1.8 billion in Title I, IDEA, and other federal program funding each year, which support low-income students, students with disabilities, and school lunch programs.”
But The Tennessean also reports the Working Group’s members have been tasked not with whether to reject the funds, but “with recommending a strategy for how to reject the federal funds.”
Democratic Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson, who is running to unseat Republican U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), was the target of Speaker Sexton who tried but failed to expel her earlier this year from the legislature. (Sexton successfully had expelled two Black Democrats, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, who later were returned to the legislature by voters.)
Responding to the video clip of Rep. Ragan, Johnson, a retired special education teacher, wrote on social media: “Sure, because how do we know kids with food in their bellies perform better? (there is research for that.) How do we know kids with speech problems improve w/speech therapy? (Research for that too.) Guess 7 yr olds need to prove to him they’re working for those meals.”
In 2020 Rep. Ragan targeted school students whose families were behind on paying their lunch bills. Ragan’s amendment, which passed the House according to The Tennessean, “Allows schools to deny students who don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch the opportunity to participate in school events and activities, to graduate, or to receive a diploma if they don’t use their own work money to pay off the lunch debt.”
It also “Requires schools to tell parents and guardians they may be reported to the Department of Children’s Services for investigation of child abuse or neglect related to the accumulation of meal debt,” and “Removes the word ‘stigmatize’ from the line saying schools shall not ‘publicly identify or stigmatize a student who cannot pay for a meal.'”
If elected to another term in the White House, former President Donald Trump would likely exercise the full powers of the executive branch to punish his political enemies, according to a Washington Post columnist.
While on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, Trump falsely asserted to an audience that because he was the victim of a political persecution, that gave him the license to do the same thing if given a second term. Ruth Marcus argued in a Tuesday column that the former president's latest authoritarian signaling should be a huge red flag for American voters ahead of next year's presidential election.
"In a motion to dismiss the case for 'selective and vindictive prosecution,' [Trump's lawyers] have asked Judge Tanya Chutkan to dismiss charges against Trump, claiming that 'Joe Biden pressured DOJ to pursue the nakedly political indictment in this case,'" Marcus wrote. "Of course, selective and vindictive prosecution is precisely what Trump and his allies are now plotting."
Marcus' column comes on the heels of a New York Times/Siena poll that showed President Joe Biden trailing Trump in five out of six must-win swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania — and only slightly ahead in Wisconsin. That poll also showed Biden's support among core Democratic constituencies like young voters, Black voters, Hispanic voters and women waning fast. While the election is still a year away, Marcus warned that Trump's surge in these states is a "hair-on-fire situation" given what Trump has communicated he would do if given the reins of power again.
Trump has previously communicated that he wouldn't hesitate to weaponize the Department of Justice to investigate opponents like former Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Attorney General Bill Barr, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and various FBI officials. He's also indicated a willingness to utilize the Insurrection Act, which gives the president the power to "to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions." Marcus pointed out that Trump attorney Jeffrey Clark — one of his co-defendants in the Georgia election fraud case — suggested using the Insurrection Act to quell any protests that arose if Trump succeeded in stealing the 2020 election on January 6.
While Marcus' column may seem hyperbolic, her worries are on track with conservatives' Project 2025, which is a clearly stated objective to elect Donald Trump to a second term in the White House and drastically expand executive powers to give him near-absolute authority to act with virtual impunity. MSNBC columnist Hayes Brown likewise warned that this vision is far from a pipe dream, and has the support of an increasingly large number of conservative voters.
"It is time to be very, very afraid," Marcus wrote.
RICHMOND — Virginia Democrats beat back Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s effort to turn the state fully red by defending their state Senate majority in Tuesday’s General Assembly elections and flipping control of the House of Delegates.
While the final counts in the high-stakes battle for the statehouse weren’t fully clear at midnight, with multiple races still too close to call, Democrats appeared to have secured control of both chambers.
Even before outlets including the Associated Press called the House races around midnight, Democrats were already hailing the night as a victory, one that will further erode Youngkin’s ability to enact his conservative agenda as he begins the second half of his four-year term.
At a watch party in downtown Richmond, caucus leaders pulled out a pair of blue bricks to symbolize that the so-called “brick wall” against Youngkin’s agenda had endured.
“We’re more than just a brick wall now. We are building a house,” said Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, the chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus.
On the House side, where Republicans had a 52-48 majority earlier this year, Democrats are now poised to elevate Minority Leader Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, to become the first Black House speaker in Virginia history.
“The people of the commonwealth of Virginia have spoken,” said Scott. “What they said was we won’t go backward. What they said was, we believe in freedom. …We have the blueprint for freedom in the Democratic Party.”
According to unofficial results, Del. Schuyler VanValkenburg, D-Henrico, defeated incumbent Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, in one of the toughest suburban districts Republicans were trying to defend. In Northern Virginia, Democrat Russet Perry beat Republican Juan Pablo Segura in a competitive race for an open seat representing parts of Loudoun and Fauquier counties. In another Northern Virginia contest, Del. Danica Roem, D-Prince William, triumphed over Republican Bill Woolf, making her the first transgender person ever elected to the state Senate.
Republican Dels. Tara Durant, R-Fredericksburg, and Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, won two other close contests, defeating Democratic opponents Joel Griffin and Del. Clint Jenkins, D-Suffolk, respectively.
The Senate matchup between Sen. Monty Mason, D-Williamsburg, and Republican Danny Diggs was too close to call at night’s end and may take days to resolve as election officials continue to tabulate votes cast under the same-day registration system.
Youngkin has spent months rallying Republicans to flip the Senate and hold the House, but the GOP’s failure to achieve that ambitious goal shows the limits of the governor’s brand of conservatism, as well as the staying power of Democrats, who gained new evidence for their belief that Youngkin’s 2021 win was more of a pandemic-era anomaly than a lasting realignment of state politics.
“The emperor has no clothes except for a red sweater vest,” Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, said as results rolled in.
Democrats ran largely on preserving abortion access, launching a wave of ads that declared a vote for their party was a vote to stop Youngkin from passing his proposal to ban most abortions after 15 weeks. Youngkin had portrayed that plan as a reasonable “limit” because it would have allowed exceptions for cases of rape and incest and when the mother’s life or physical health is at risk.
The GOP effort to defuse abortion as a motivating issue for Democratic-leaning voters wasn’t enough to stop the tide in the suburban battlegrounds.
In an interview, Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said “abortion rights won” despite Republican efforts to obfuscate the issue.
Though he has two more years left in office, Youngkin will have to spend that time working with a new crew of Democratic leaders at the statehouse who have been sharply at odds with him on virtually every major issue.
Republican candidates mostly campaigned this year on the same themes Youngkin ran on in 2021: cutting taxes, getting tougher on crime and giving parents a bigger role in K-12 schools. Many of the GOP candidates running in swing districts echoed the governor’s stance on abortion, characterizing their position as a reasonable compromise that would keep the procedure legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy, when most Virginia abortions occur.
Tuesday’s results are also a setback for the lingering buzz about Youngkin as a possible late entrant into the GOP presidential primary by complicating the governor’s narrative about flipping a blue state red.
Youngkin and other Republican leaders had not yet weighed in on the results as of publication.
At an election night event in Henrico, Dunnavant indicated she was not conceding her race but acknowledged she was “down.”
“I am 100% proud of my campaign,” she said.
Mercury reporter Charlie Paullin contributed to this report.
Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sarah Vogelsong for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.
Republicans made it a clean sweep Tuesday – as they did in 2019 — in winning Kentucky’s so-called “down ticket” races.
All five of the down-ticket races went to Republicans: Russell Coleman for attorney general, incumbent Michael Adams for secretary of state, Allison Ball for auditor, Mark Metcalf for treasurer and Jonathan Shell for agriculture commissioner.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said on the Kentucky Educational Television network that the GOP sweep of the five races show that “Kentucky is still a red state.”
They are called “down-ticket” races because they are constitutional offices with less authority than the governor’s office. Each winner will serve for four years at an annual salary of $148,108.56.
Here’s a closer look at the five races.
Attorney general
Coleman, a former FBI agent who served as a federal prosecutor and was a former attorney for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, turned back a challenge from Democratic state Rep. Pam Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel and military lawyer. Both are from Louisville.
Russell Coleman
The office of the state’s top law-enforcement official has been held since 2019 by Republican Daniel Cameron, who decided to challenge Democrat Andy Beshear in the governor’s race.
Coleman, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, told his supporters Tuesday night that he “will protect the family, will defend your rights and we will back the blue.”
He gave a special nod to the Fraternal Order of Police for its endorsement and to Stevenson for her service to the state and nation.
Secretary of state
Michael Adams
Adams of Louisville, who ran as a moderate, defeated former Democratic state Rep. Charles “Buddy” Wheatley of Covington, an attorney and former fire chief of the Northern Kentucky city.
Throughout most of the campaign, Adams touted his record in bringing to the state photo ID to vote and working with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear in making it easier to vote during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But during his victory speech Tuesday night, Adams broadened his outlook by saying Kentucky also by working together could do well in areas like public safety, quality of life and its long-term future.
He said he will continue to make it “easier to vote and harder to cheat.”
Auditor of public accounts
Ball, who has been state treasurer for eight years, will move her office to that of auditor.
She turned back a bid by Kim Reeder, a tax attorney from Morehead, who was making her first race for public office.
Ball, a Prestonsburg attorney, said she will be a “watchdog” over how the state spends its money.
Treasurer
Metcalf is leaving 22 years as Garrard County attorney to become the state’s next treasurer. Ball could not seek re-election because of term limits. She ran successfully Tuesday for auditor.
Metcalf won the treasurer’s race over Democrat Michael Bowman, who also ran unsuccessfully for the office four years ago against Ball. Bowman, of Louisville, is a former bank official and staffer for Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.
As treasurer, an office which some have sought to abolish, Metcalf said he wants to provide Kentuckians more information about its debt.
Commissioner of agriculture
Shell, a former state House floor leader and a Garrard County farmer, ran a strongly conservative race in beating Democrat Sierra Enlow, a LaRue County native who is an economic development consultant in Louisville.
Shell has been a supporter of U.S. Sen. McConnell and was instrumental in helping the Republican Party recruit state House candidates in the GOP’s 2016 takeover of the chamber.
He replaces Ryan Quarles, who ran unsuccessfully last spring in the Republican Party’s primary election for governor and has been named to head the Kentucky Community and Technical College Systems.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com. Follow Kentucky Lantern on Facebook and Twitter.
Monmouth County Democrat Sen. Vin Gopal coasted to reelection in the 11th District Tuesday , nabbing nearly 60% of the vote over GOP candidate Steve Dnistrian and helping to flip control of both of the district’s Assembly seats for Democrats.
Gopal’s victory in this closely watched race came amid Republican attacks on his stances on offshore wind, crime, and LGTBQ issues in schools. His election to a third term in the state Senate dimmed GOP hopes that they could take control of the chamber.
“What we did tonight in Monmouth County is we drew political parties together to bring this massive landslide. If that doesn’t send a message to our opposition, I don’t know what will,” Gopal said to a crowd of about 300 supporters Tuesday night in Long Branch.
Gopal and his running mates —Assemblywomen-elect Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul — were introduced by Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who said the trio showed that the Republican-leaning 11th District “is no longer competitive.”
Gov. Phil Murphy also joined the festivities, whooping and cheering after the speeches wrapped up.
“You are rocking, baby!” Murphy told the crowd of energetic supporters
Throughout the night, as it became clear Gopal would win, his supporters chanted, “Vin with win!”
On the campaign trail, Gopal focused on abortion, tax relief, and increased school funding for local districts. He also highlighted his bipartisanship and his support from law enforcement.
Democrats said voters clearly rejected the GOP’s arguments on parental rights. Republicans had hoped legal battles between the Murphy administration and some Monmouth County school districts — battles focused on whether school employees should be required to tell parents if their children change their gender identity or sexuality — would boost the GOP in this district.
Murphy called Tuesday’s outcome a “huge validation of our collective agenda, and that has been extraordinary.”
“This should tell every Republican senator that when you’re running on culture wars, you’re not doing anything productive for residents on affordability, taxes, mental health. That should tell you that your message is not a good one,” Gopal said.
Republican Assemblywomen Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner lost their seats to Donlon and Peterpaul by about 7,000 votes each. Dnistrian, a businessman who has never held elected office, did not immediately comment on the election results.
“It’s a good night for Democrats,” Scutari said. “I feel great.”
This year, Democrats spent millions to defend Gopal’s seat and flip the two Assembly seats, making it one of the most expensive races in state history. In 2021, Gopal won reelection with 52% of the vote, but his running mates lost to Eulner and Piperno.
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence McDonald for questions: info@newjerseymonitor.com. Follow New Jersey Monitor on Facebook and Twitter.
Convicted double murderer Alex Murdaugh's appeal to overturn his verdict and seek a new trial is being combatted by state prosecutors, calling the claims that the Colleton County Clerk of Court Becky Hill engaged in jury tampering as "conspiracy theory".
“Never does the law permit highly motivated convicts to put their own jury on trial,” reads a 25-page Tuesday filing in Colleton County state court signed by the state Attorney General as well as three state prosecutors, and cited by The State.
It added that the incarcerated embezzler and disbarred attorney, who is currently serving life in prison without parole for the slayings of his wife Maggie, and son Paul at their family's hunting estate back in the summer of 2021.
To back up their argument not to grant Murdaugh a second trial, the document showcases how South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED) interviewed nine of the 12 jurors who deliberated and found Murdaugh guilty.
“None of the jurors who were willingly interviewed with SLED reported feeling any pressure or influence to reach their verdict,” according to The State, noting that three jurors requested to not be interviewed.
The document describes any tampering allegations raised by Murdaugh's legal team to score a new trial as based on falsehoods, noting that any accusations of jury tampering are based on “a sweeping conspiracy theory about wholly irrelevant Facebook posts.”
In response to the prosecutors' filed document that is attempting to torpedo the convict's appeal, Murdaugh attorney Jim Griffin told the outlet, “We have received the state’s filing and are reviewing it and will be submitting our response in a future court filing.”
It continued: "[Hill] even misrepresented critical and material information to the trial judge in her campaign to remove a juror she believed to be favorable to the defense."
Prosecutors countered in their document that the trial and conviction of Murdaugh was just.
“The greater weight of anticipated juror and court staff testimony is that Clerk Hill made no materially improper statements. ... Any evidentiary hearing (a hearing with witnesses) will only reaffirm that validity of his convictions for the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh,” the papers say, according to The State.
“Furthermore, even if Clerk Hill made any improper comments to the jury, the State has found no juror that will aver that anything Clerk Hill said or did influenced their verdict."
A Georgia attorney who was among the first to break into the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection lost his license after he was slapped with a felony conviction, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The Supreme Court of Georgia suspended William McCall Calhoun Jr.'s law license about three years after the riot, according to the report.
Calhoun, 60, pushed past Capitol Police and joined a screaming crowd that charged to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office door, ATL reports.
Calhoun also reportedly posted violent messages on social media.
"Get ready to rise up and kill the Democratic communists before they do it to us," Calhoun reportedly wrote.
Calhoun was found guilty of felony obstruction an official proceeding of Congress and sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, the report notes.
No attire or clandestine accessory can hide their MAGA stripes.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker painted a wide brush of the 2023 GOP candidates vying to challenge President Joe Biden for the White House next November by lifting the veil of their MAGA agenda no matter what they wear.
“They may try to to dress it up in different ways — in boots or in high heels or a red tie — but it’s all the same,” he said to reporters on Tuesday, according to NBC News' Sarah Dean's tweet.
DeSantis is expected to engage in crossfire with four other candidates — former South Carolina Gov. and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie —while the front-running former President Donald Trump will be a no-show.
LGBTQ supporters stand guard during a drag story hour at a yoga center while facing protesters led by Jarrett William Smith (holding bullhorn). Jordan Green/Raw Story
Drag performers Stormie Dae (foreground) and Mx. Princexx Peritwinkle make bracelets with children during a drag story hour. Courtesy Sanford Yoga & Community Center