All posts tagged "mark kelly"

Brazil's only astronaut begs for help as Trump tariffs threaten to cripple country: Dem

WASHINGTON — Farmers, bankers and international policymakers find themselves in the same camp as President Donald Trump’s international trade war gathers pace: confused, freaked out and lobbying for clarity — if not a carve out.

Just this week, after Trump signed an executive order introducing 50 percent tariffs on most goods from Brazil, a leading Democratic senator met with a handful of concerned Brazilian counterparts, among them a friend from the senator's literally stellar contact book.

“I've met with eight Brazilian senators in my office, and one of them is a guy I’ve known for 30 years, who was the only Brazilian astronaut,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), a former U.S. astronaut himself, told Raw Story at the Capitol.

“I worked with him for over a decade. So he brought a bunch of people, because we have a [trade] surplus with Brazil and [yet] … they were told 50%.

“They don't know what to do. Because usually, [tariffs are imposed on] a country where you’ve got a trade deficit. This is the opposite.”

Kelly was a U.S. Navy aviator and flew combat missions in the first Gulf War before becoming a NASA astronaut and taking part in four space missions.

His Brazilian astronaut friend, 62-year-old former air force pilot Marcos Pontes, completed a mission to the International Space Station in 2006.

In 2019, Pontes became Brazil’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. In 2022, he was elected as a federal senator for São Paulo.

Trump announced punitive tariffs against Brazil July 9. On Wednesday he put his order into effect. Some Brazilian products were exempted — including orange juice, some aircraft, wood pulp and energy products.

But a U.S. government fact sheet explicitly linked the tariffs to what it called “the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters.”

Bolsonaro and seven associates are on trial regarding his attempt to stay in power in 2022, which opponents call an attempted coup similar to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol that Trump incited in an attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.

In his fact sheet on Wednesday, Trump claimed the current Brazilian government, under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known simply as Lula, was guilty of “serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil.”

Kelly gave that short shrift.

“There's this whole political component that has to do with Bolsonaro and this prosecution, trying Bolsonaro, but they [Brazilian politicians] can’t interfere with their judicial process,” the senator said.

“They can't interfere. Lula's not going to interfere with their judiciary.

“That's just something that we do. This administration.”

Raw Story asked: “So [your Brazilian friends are] kind of freaked out” by Trump’s tariffs?

Kelly said: “Yeah, they're like, ‘Hey, have you got any advice?’ So I reached out to the Secretary of Commerce [Howard Lutnick] on this because they’d like an extension to try to figure [this] out, so this doesn't get put in at all. And they’re good trading partners.

“If these tariffs go into effect, prices are gonna go up on a lot of things. Depends on the country. Using Brazil as an example, I think something like a third of the coffee in the United States comes from Brazil, so you're gonna see higher coffee prices.”

Raw Story asked: “Are we gonna see now individual nations do like Brazil, ask for a carve out?”

Kelly said: “I think everybody's gonna try to ask for something. And I think some of these might benefit us, but the big picture is incredibly chaotic and haphazard, and not the way you're supposed to run trade policy, and the American people are going to be on the losing end of this.

“But I was trying to, you know, help out my friend of 30 years.”

'They're gonna regret': GOP warned disaster looms as Senate drama boils

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate kicked off a “vote-a-rama” — a lengthy process where senators from both parties get to offer amendments, political or otherwise, on budget measures — as Republicans rushed to appease President Donald Trump by clawing back funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting.

Whenever the party in control of the White House changes, lawmakers seek to undo the previous administration’s agenda. Only this time, the Senate’s debating a $9 billion package shipped to Capitol Hill by former Trump ally Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

It’s an effort to enshrine otherwise illegal government-wide cuts — because, constitutionally-speaking, Congress is supposed to hold the nation’s purse strings, not the White House, agencies and un-elected DOGE team members.

Trump has demanded Republicans send him the measure by week’s end — even as veteran Democrats on Capitol Hill predict the political equivalent of nuclear fallout should the GOP pass the measure, thereby upending decades of bipartisanship on such matters in one fell swoop.

“We won't have the resources and capacity to respond to disasters,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) told Raw Story of likely effects in the realm of foreign policy should the recissions package pass.

“We'll retreat from fighting pandemics and investing in public health. Dozens of countries that have relied on us as trustworthy partners for decades are left abruptly questioning whether they can count on us at all. So across the world, there will be specific and concrete harms to people: clinics that close, classrooms that shutter, folks who don't get help.”

Three Republican senators tried to block the measure by opposing it in committee, but Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote, setting up Wednesday’s amendments marathon.

Among the GOP rebels, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) raised alarms over the measure's proposed $400 million cut to PEPFAR, a Bush-era program to combat AIDS and HIV in developing countries that’s credited with saving millions of lives.

The White House conceded the point, and agreed to exempt PEPFAR. But the measure’s still promising deep cuts to formerly bipartisan foreign aid programs.

Those cuts will “really hurt our position in the world,” Coons said.

“Isn't China just waiting in the wings?” Raw Story asked of Beijing’s efforts to take America’s place in the developing world.

“They're not waiting here,” Coons said. “They're filling the gap.”

Closer to home, the GOP cuts would hammer public broadcasting, an area long decried by conservative talking heads as biased and costly, even as more moderate Republicans and Democrats have championed public broadcasting as vital for under-served communities.

Rural communities will suffer harmful cuts if Trump gets his wish, said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), particularly among Native American communities throughout the U.S.

“For some people, that's their only access to local news,” Kelly told Raw Story while hopping an elevator up to the Senate floor as the “vote-a-rama” kicked off. “For kids, you know, being able to watch Sesame Street and just other shows, and emergency alerts.

“I think people are going to be shocked as some of these stations, whether it's public radio or public broadcasting stations, start to shut down. The public radio thing for the Navajo is really big.”

Asked if he thought Republicans would pay an electoral price for such cuts, the swing state senator predicted backlash for the MAGA-tinged GOP.

“There is a lot of stuff that they're gonna regret,” Kelly said.

He also pointed to the passage earlier this month of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — a mixture of deep health-care cuts, funding boosts for immigration enforcement, and tax cuts — which polls badly with the American people.

“They’re going to regret $4 trillion added to the debt, that they now own,” Kelly said. .

“I think they're going to regret kicking millions of people off their health care, because those people still get sick, and it's going to cost more. Ultimately, it's going to cost somebody more.”

'Curse words?' CNN host scolds senator over 'bad language' on social media

CNN's Brianna Keilar put Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) on the spot Wednesday over her word choice while posting on social media.

The scolding revolved around Smith's social media response to Elon Musk's infamous email to federal workers asking them to list five things they accomplished during the week.

"I want to say to people, there's a bad language-curse word-expletive alert here," Keilar began, before reading the post.

"You said, 'This is the ultimate d--- boss move from Musk, except he isn't even the boss, he's just a d---.' And then you follow that up with, 'I'm on the side of the workers, not the billionaire a--h--- bosses.'"

Keilar told the senator that voters "want more" from the Democratic Party.

ALSO READ: 'Absolutely unconscionable': Ex-Republican demands Trump removed from office after fight

"They want to see you opposing Trump in a more fulsome way. So, I ask you this sincerely: Do you, like, what's the value in that kind of language and communication? Is that the best way to communicate the stakes of the moment that the country is in?"

"Well, what I am hearing from voters at home and what I heard on your show, is that people want to see some fight," Smith said. "They want to see some urgency in this moment that we're in. And I think with that tweet that I did, it touched a nerve with millions of people. Because everybody has had the experience of having some boss who treats them with disrespect, who denigrates their work and is just basically using big power play moves to terrorize them."

Smith mentioned Elon Musk's post calling Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) "a traitor" for siding with Ukraine.

"Let me play a little devil's advocate on that," Keilar said. "And it was ridiculous that Elon Musk called him, of all people, a traitor. That wasn't a four-letter word that he used — what Elon Musk said to him — and it got a lot of attention. I mean, isn't there a way to mirror what your constituents — the outrage they're feeling — maybe even in a bigger way than using like, the limited vocabulary of curse words? Because there's a lot of great words out there that can communicate a lot."

Smith declined to apologize for her word choice.

"I would just say that In that moment, that's what I thought, and obviously, it struck a nerve."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

'Passed out in the back': Frustrated senator tries to pry booze answers out of Hegseth

A frustrated Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) tried to pry answers out of Pete Hegseth Tuesday about reports the defense secretary nominee had a problem with drinking during his time leading a veterans organization.

"Leading Concerned Veterans of America, there were very specific cases cited by individuals about your conduct," Kelly began. "I'm going to go through a few of them, and I just want you to tell me if these are true or false. Very simple."

Kelly went on to list damning examples of Hegseth's alleged overindulgent behavior.

"On Memorial Day 2014, at a CVA event in Virginia, you needed to be carried out of the event for being intoxicated," Kelly posited.

"Anonymous smears," answered Hegseth.

"Just true or false," Kelly said. "Very simple. Summer of 2014 in Cleveland. Drunk in public with the CVA team."

"Anonymous smears," Hegseth replied.

ALSO READ: Fox News has blood on its hands as Trump twists the knife

"I'm just asking for true or false ... answers," Kelly said again. "An event in North Carolina. Drunk in front of three young female staff members after you had instituted a no-alcohol policy and then reversed it. True or false?"

"Anonymous smears."

Kelly continued, "December of 2014 at the CVA Christmas party at the Grand Hyatt at Washington, DC, you were noticeably intoxicated and had to be carried up to your room. Is that true or false?"

"Anonymous smears."

"Another time, a CVA staffer stated that you passed out in the back of a party bus. Is that true or false?"

"Anonymous smears."

The line of questioning continued with Kelly concluding, "Now, the behavior I cited, if true, do you think that this behavior of intoxication going into these type of establishments — women on your staff being so uncomfortable that they have to file these sort of harassment claims — do you think this is appropriate behavior for a leader?"

Hegseth answered that the on-the-record statements from colleagues testified to his "leadership and professionalism." As Hegseth tried to continue, Kelly interjected, "I have limited time. I'm not even going to go into the accusations...that come from Fox News...There are multiple instances of accusations against you about drinking on the job —"

"All anonymous, all false, all refuted by my colleagues," Hegseth maintained.

Watch the clip below via CNN.

Harris set to name V.P. pick ahead of swing state tour

Kamala Harris will name her running mate as soon as Monday, as she prepares for a tour of US battleground states aimed at turning excitement over her presidential bid into durable support that can power her to victory.

All paths to the White House run through a handful of swing states, and Harris will kick off her five-day run Tuesday in the largest — Pennsylvania — as she builds momentum for her showdown with Republican Donald Trump on November 5.

“At this moment, we face a choice between two visions for our nation: one focused on the future and the other on the past… This campaign is about people coming together, fueled by love of country, to fight for the best of who we are,” she posted on X.

Fresh from winning enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the country’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president heads into the national convention in Chicago in two weeks in total control of her party.

In a campaign that is barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, attracted huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing the polling leads Trump had built before President Joe Biden quit the race.

Next on the agenda is a vice presidential pick, with an announcement expected any time before her rally Tuesday evening alongside the mystery nominee in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.

The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the closely fought battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.

It is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin — two states where Harris is due to woo crowds on Wednesday.

Pennsylvania is governed by 51-year-old Democrat Josh Shapiro, a frontrunner in the so-called “veepstakes” shortlist that also includes fellow state governors Tim Walz and Andy Beshear, as well as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

‘Freedom’

Later in the week, Harris will tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, as she seeks to shore up the Black and Hispanic vote that had been peeling away from the Democrats.

Just a month ago, Trump was in cruise control, having opened a significant lead in swing state polling after a dismal debate performance by Biden, with the Republican tycoon keeping the country in suspense over his own vice-presidential pick.

Trump’s White House bid was upended on July 21 when 81-year-old Biden, facing growing concerns about his age and lagging polling numbers, exited the race and backed Harris.

Energetic and two decades younger than 78-year-old Trump, the vice president has made a fast start, raising $310 million in July, according to her campaign — more than double Trump’s haul.

While Biden made high-minded appeals for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris has focused on the future, making voters’ hard-fought “freedom” the touchstone of her campaign.

She and her allies have also been more aggressive than the Biden camp — mocking Trump for reneging on his commitment to a September 10 debate and characterizing the convicted felon as an elderly crook and “weird.”

While she has disavowed some of the leftist positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris hasn’t given a wide-ranging interview since jumping into the race, and rally-goers will look for more detail on her plans for the country.

Meanwhile Trump and his Republicans have struggled to adapt to their new adversary or hone their attacks against Harris — at first messaging that she was dangerously liberal on immigration and crime, before suggesting she was lying about being Black.

Speculation swirls as top Harris V.P. contender posts and deletes statement

A top contender to be Kamala Harris' pick for her running mate appeared to say he was no longer in contention on Sunday before quickly deleting and replacing the statement that potentially indicates otherwise.

U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who is thought to be one of the top Democratic options for Harris' #2 spot, posted on his social media over the weekend saying, "My background is a bit different than most politicians. I spent my life serving in the Navy and at NASA, where the mission always comes first."

"Now, my mission is serving Arizonans," the now-deleted post said.

ALSO READ: We asked 10 Republican senators: ‘Is Kamala Harris Black?’ Things got weird fast.

This didn't go unnoticed by eagle-eyed social media users, who took it to mean Kelly was no longer an option for Harris' V.P. But the post was taken down within minutes and replaced with a different one.

"Whether it was from my time in the Navy and at NASA, serving in the United States Senate, or visiting our troops overseas: I've learned that when your country asks you to serve, you always answer the call," it now says.

Despite the deletion, speculation is swirling online.

"What I've been told is that Vice President Harris did the interviews today and hasn't told anybody anything. This could be just [Captain Mark Kelly] reading the tea leaves," commentator Eugene Daniels told MSNBC.

@darnidoneit said, "Mark Kelly is playing with us."

@mattlonestar wrote, "I highly doubt the Mark Kelly announcement would come as a tweet from him."

@DanaKelly7 asked, "So do we think the Mark Kelly tweet was a 'leak' and delete and more are coming?"

Journalist Yashar Ali said, "This tweet by Mark Kelly was deleted because it was being misunderstood. Likely by the same people who thought a hype video posted by a Philadelphia politician was somehow an announcement of who Kamala Harris picked for VP. Stop driving yourselves nuts."

'Baggage': Writer reveals VP candidate he feels Kamala Harris ought to avoid

Washington Post associate editor Karen Tumulty last week submitted that Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) would be the "smartest selection" to be Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, as he "would help inoculate her in areas where she is likely to be vulnerable" — such as immigration.

The New Republic's Timothy Noah, on the other hand, believes Harris would benefit from staying away from selecting the Arizona senator.

The New Republic staff writer wrote in a Tuesday, July 30 op-ed, "Kamala Harris should not choose Kelly to be her running mate," emphasizing, "Putting Kelly on the ticket might seem like an electorally smart strategy because he’s from Arizona. But Kelly brings with him so much baggage on important working-class issues that [GOP vice presidential nominee JD] Vance, by comparison, might start to look like the plausible tribune of the proletariat he tries so hard to be. It isn’t worth the risk."

Noah lays out three reasons why the Democratic leader could hurt Harris' chance of defeating Donald Trump in November.

He starts with the fact that although Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs "under Arizona law" would have "to replace Kelly with another Democrat" should Harris select him, "a special election would be held in 2026—three years before Kelly’s current Senate term is due to expire. And in a state like Arizona, a Democratic victory would be far from assured."

Secondly, Noah emphasizes:

The Democrats are projected to lose their Senate majority in November, and even if they confound expectations and keep it, that majority will be razor-thin, as it is today. No current senator should be under consideration for the Democratic vice presidential slot (and, for that matter, no current representative either, though the Great Mentioner tends to disdain the House of Representatives). The Republicans can perhaps spare a Senate seat if Senator J.D. Vance becomes vice president; the Democrats cannot.

The third reason Harris shouldn't choose Kelly, Noah writes, "is that the Arizona senator has a lousy record on labor."

The New Republic staff writer notes, "The Protecting the Right to Organize, or PRO, Act, which would eliminate various barriers to organizing in the workplace, is labor’s highest priority," but Kelly is the lone Democratic senator who originally failed to sponsor the legislation."

He told HuffPost’s Igor Bobick and Dave Jamieson three years ago that although he supported 'the overall goals' of the bill, he opposed a part of the bill that narrowed the definition of 'independent contractor,'" Noah writes, "thereby making it more difficult for employers to deny workers unemployment and other employee benefits and to dodge paying payroll taxes."

Noah adds, "Kelly’s resistance raised suspicions that he was caving to Arizona’s business community, which is fiercely anti-labor."

Last week, the Arizona leader "altered his position on the PRO Act, one day after it was reported that he was one of five potential candidates who’d furnished vetting materials to the Harris campaign," but Noah argues the senator's "endorsement, welcome though it is, does not wipe the slate clean."

Though some "might argue that a single blind spot should not disqualify Kelly," Noah emphasizes, "labor is not just some Democratic interest group. It’s the party’s heart and soul."

Noah's full article is available at this link.

Gabby Giffords reveals IVF dream ‘stolen’ by shooter and calls Vance's views ‘disgraceful’

Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords shared that she and her husband Sen. Mark Kelly, who has been shortlisted as a potential running mate for Kamala Harris, were trying to have a child through in vitro fertilization before an attempted assassin nearly ended her life.

In a post on the social media app X, Giffords responded to a clip of Vance’s resurfaced — and widely spread — remarks about “childless cat ladies” running the government, by stating “Vice President [Kamala Harris] is a proud mom of two remarkable stepchildren–and so am I.”

“[Mark Kelly] and I were trying to have a baby through IVF before I was shot and that dream was stolen from us,” Giffords wrote. “To suggest we are somehow lesser is disgraceful.”

Giffords was nearly killed and suffered ongoing brain damage in the 2011 shooting. She subsequently became a staunch advocate for gun control, forming a PAC with Kelly to advocate for stricter gun laws.

Democratic Florida Senate candidate Mike Harvey responded to Giffords with his support, calling her and Kelly’s family “a true American success story.”

“For anyone, especially a low hanging freshman senator, to say anything else isn’t just an insult, it’s evil,” Harvey wrote. “The type of evil you can’t pray for, it’s the kind you have to cast out.”

Vice President @KamalaHarris is a proud mom of two remarkable stepchildren—and so am I. @CaptMarkKelly and I were trying to have a baby through IVF before I was shot and that dream was stolen from us. To suggest we are somehow lesser is disgraceful. https://t.co/1dKzHkBx0M
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) July 26, 2024

What history says about V.P. picks: senator, governor or wild card?

We know this much: Vice President Kamala Harris will pick her running mate before accepting her party’s presidential nomination in August at the Democratic National Convention.

Harris also has a short list of about a dozen potential candidates she’s vetting, according to CBS News.

So should she choose a U.S. senator, governor, U.S. House representative — or someone else?

Let’s examine the historical record to see which type of vice presidential candidates have helped — or hurt — a presidential ticket.

Since 1945, presidential candidates have made 31 vice presidential picks — not counting vice presidential renominations.

ALSO READ: How much access did $50,000 buy someone at the Republican National Convention?

Of these 31 picks, 19 most recently served in elected office as U.S. senators, four were governors and seven had prior electoral experience only from the House of Representatives, such as Dick Cheney and George H. W. Bush. One did not have experience in any of those offices.

Of their 18 vice presidential selections, Democrats have chosen a U.S. senator in 16 cases since 1945. The Republicans are a little more diverse in their selections, with four U.S. Senate picks — including Donald Trump’s selection of J. D. Vance — four gubernatorial picks and six selections from the House of Representatives.

There’s the adage that a vice president can only hurt you, and he or she can’t help you. Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, who Gerald Ford selected when he replaced President Richard Nixon as president, was not renominated by Ford when he unsuccessfully ran for his own term in 1976 — not that it mattered much in the end.

Historical evidence indicates that the prior job of the running mate makes little difference in victory or defeat — if he or she is a senator or governor. U.S. senators nominated for vice president have won nine times and lost eight times. Governors as vice presidential nominees are split, winning twice and losing twice.

But those without gubernatorial or senatorial experience fare poorly. Picking a candidate from the House of Representatives has only been successful two times in seven tries.

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The one candidate without experience as a governor, senator or representative, Sargent Shriver, lost in 1972 as Democrat George McGovern’s ticket partner.

Republicans picked Vance, and their record with U.S. Senate vice presidential nominees is pretty good: two wins (Richard Nixon and Dan Quayle) and one loss (Bob Dole).

Democrats, however, have seven wins with U.S. senators (Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Al Gore, Walter Mondale, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Alben Barkley) against seven losses (Tim Kaine, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Lloyd Bentsen, Edwin Muskie, Estes Kefauver and John Sparkman).

Republicans are the only ones since World War II who have picked a governor as a running mate. Two (Mike Pence, Spiro Agnew) won, while two (Sarah Palin and Earl Warren) lost.

U.S. House representatives have largely failed for both parties, with the GOP picking two winners (George H. W. Bush and Dick Cheney) and four losers (Paul Ryan, Jack Kemp, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., and Bill Miller). Democrats picked one (Geraldine Ferraro) and she lost.

It should also be noted that Bush — UN ambassador, CIA director — and Cheney — secretary of defense, CEO of Halliburton — both had extensive experience in other realms between their stints as House members and selections as vice presidential candidates.

Trump has already made his pick. What should Harris do?

It’s a flip of a coin based on the historical record, so long as she doesn’t pick a U.S. House member.

At present, senators and governors top her shortlist, including Harris can choose North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. J. B. Pritzker, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, California Gov. Gavin Newsom or even Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Some new names include Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, as CBS reports.

Given that the record shows all things are equal in vice presidential picks, it is probably best to select a running mate from a state that will help you. That would put those candidates from swing states, such as Kelly (Arizona), Shapiro (Pennsylvania), Whitmer (Michigan) and even perhaps Cooper (North Carolina), at the top of the list.

Had Gore picked popular Florida U.S. senator and former Gov. Bob Graham for his VP, he would have very likely won the 2000 election, given Florida’s overriding significance in that race. Taking a running mate from Connecticut in 2000 — Joe Lieberman — made little difference.

Ford might have done better in 1976 with a Texan such as George H. W. Bush instead of a Kansan in Dole, given that Ford lost the Lone Star State to Democrat Jimmy Carter.

For John McCain in 2008, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge would have been a far better choice than Palin, of then-deep red Alaska. McCain lost the Keystone State (and some Obama-backing moderates).

In a close presidential race, particularly now, vice presidential candidates from swing states may matter more, regardless of prior office experience.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.

Major donor believes Democrats 'squandered' chance to draft party's next 'Lebron James'

A big-time donor for President Joe Biden thinks the Democrats missed a big opportunity by passing the ball to Vice President Kamala Harris without a convention, and he won’t be funding her run.

John Morgan, a Florida attorney and major donor for previous Democratic candidates, shared his views with Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Tuesday afternoon on why he’s not giving the Democratic presidential nominee any money.

“Harris brings a lot of great things to the table,” Morgan said. “Is she the best messenger? Is she the best person? Is her way the best way to go forward? And for me, I don’t think so.”

He compared the convention process to a fantasy basketball draft, noting that any smart player’s top draft should be a no-brainer.

“We would pick Lebron James,” Morgan said. “We had that type of opportunity but they seem to be squandering it by taking a lesser pick.”

Cavuto pressed Morgan on who he thinks his party’s Lebron James is, and he listed off several party favorites: Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer – noting that a vetted combination of star players would be the strongest choice.

But that ship has sailed, Morgan said, adding that whoever she picks as a running mate is irrelevant at this point.

“The deal is done. I don’t think there’s anything more that can be done,” Morgan said. “People vote for president, they don't vote for vice president.”

Watch the clip below or at this link.