Tag: The News Caravan

Biden says he’s exploring 14th amendment to defuse debt ceiling standoff

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“I said I would come back and talk,” he said. “The one thing I’m ruling out is default, and I’m not going to pass a budget that has massive cuts.”
The president’s remarks came at the White House shortly after a meeting he called “productive” with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the three other top congressional leaders. But Biden leveled criticism at McCarthy for sometimes making remarks during the meeting that were “maybe a little bit over the top” and for not knowing what he had proposed in his GOP bill.
“Three of the four participants [were] very measured and low key,” Biden said.
Back at the Capitol, McCarthy laughed off the comment, saying: “If you ever spend time with [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer, you’ll find out who the fourth is.”
On a more serious note, Biden warned that not everyone at the negotiating table pledged to avoid default.
Among only “three of the five, there was substantial movement that everyone agreed that deficit — defaulting on the debt was off the table,” Biden said.
The president is scheduled to meet again Friday with McCarthy, Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Until then, White House staff and aides to the four congressional leaders would continue to hold discussions, those involved said.
Biden is scheduled to leave for Japan in a week for the G-7 summit, but the president said he’d consider delaying his trip if an agreement appeared to be in reach. Underscoring the seriousness of the debt discussions, he called it “the single most important thing that’s on the agenda.”

Canceling the trip, he said, is possible, but not likely.
“In other words, if somehow we got down to the wire and we still hadn’t resolved this and the due date was in a matter of, when I was supposed to be away. I would not go. I would stay till this gets finished,” he said.
White House and congressional appropriations staff are to begin discussions on a budget, which could form the outlines of an agreement. The Biden administration has insisted that the budget talks would be separate from a debt limit increase.
Biden expressed openness to one key GOP ask: Rescinding tens of billions of dollars in Covid funding.
“The answer is, I’d take a hard look at it,” Biden said, adding that the government “didn’t need it all” but needed to determine how much of that pot has been committed to various projects. “It’s on the table.”
Still, Biden made clear that an agreement is not imminent.
“There’s a lot of politics, posturing and gamesmanship and it’s going to continue for a while, but I’m squarely focused on what matters,” he added.
Sarah Ferris and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.
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#Biden #hes #exploring #14th #amendment #defuse #debt #ceiling #standoff
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Read the full jury verdict form from the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial

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POLITICO
By POLITICO Staff
05/09/2023 06:26 PM EDT
A federal jury on Tuesday found that Donald Trump sexually abused and defamed E. Jean Carroll, a writer who accused the former president of attacking her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.
The verdict in the civil trial marks the first time that Trump, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, has been held legally responsible for sexual assault. And it adds fresh tarnish to the former president’s reputation as he seeks to regain the White House amid a tide of legal troubles.

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#Read #full #jury #verdict #form #Jean #Carroll #defamation #trial
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
New Jersey representatives vow fight against New York’s ‘cash-grabbing’ congestion pricing plan

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“New York City wants this because they want cash in their pockets,” Menendez said. “We’re going to keep fighting the cash-grabbing MTA.”
The congestion tax shifts money from the Port Authority to the MTA, Menendez said, which could threaten the Port Authority’s ability to improve the PATH service and add more riders.
New York’s plan also includes no expansion of New York City subway’s seven line to Secaucus Junction, a proposed solution that would provide a commuting alternative and get cars off the road, Menendez said.
Gottheimer, who co-chairs the Congressional Anti-Congestion Tax Caucus, called the tax plan “absurd” and “anti-environment.” He said a full environmental study should be done and he intends to submit a comment during the 30-day review period demanding the Biden administration reconsider the decision.
The MTA hasn’t determined how much to charge drivers, but options include fares ranging from $9 to $23 for passenger vehicles.
Gottheimer has introduced legislation in the meantime intended to aid commuters, which includes laborers, nurses and restaurant workers who can’t afford the added costs.
“It’s not right to suddenly drop a $23 dollar-a-day, or $5,000-a-year bill, on top of the $17 dollars they pay to enter this tunnel every day, not including gas or nearly $35 dollars to park,” Gottheimer said.
The environmental assessment of the plan found that the congestion tax, if implemented this year, would increase pollutants in the Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Bergen Counties. It also showed there would be increases in particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide in Bergen County this year.

“New York’s congestion pricing plan stands to push traffic and pollution to our communities,” Menendez said. “While New York is funding environmental mitigation in the Bronx, they refuse to do so for our communities.”
The MTA plans to spend $130 million in revenue to mitigate environmental impacts in New York, but will not do so in New Jersey.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the Biden administration’s approval of the plan “unfair and ill-advised.” Murphy said his administration is looking into legal options to fight the plan.
“Everyone in the region deserves access to more reliable mass transit, but placing an unjustified financial burden on the backs of hardworking New Jersey commuters is wrong,” Murphy said in a statement.
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#Jersey #representatives #vow #fight #Yorks #cashgrabbing #congestion #pricing #plan
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Santos set to face federal criminal charges

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Santos and aides in his congressional office also did not reply to requests for comment on the imminent charges, first reported by CNN. But some of Santos’ already fierce critics in the New York GOP took the fresh opportunity to reiterate their insistence that he isn’t welcome in their ranks.
“These charges bring us one step closer to never having to talk about this lying loser ever again,” first-term Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said when asked about the Santos charges.
“Resign,” fellow New York Republican first-term Rep. Mike Lawler simply said.
Rep. Marc Molinaro (R), another first-term New Yorker, echoed Lawler: “He should have resigned in January. He should resign now.”
Lawler, LaLota and Molinaro are among the handful of House Republicans — mostly those who helped the party cruise in Empire State swing districts last fall — who have called for Santos to resign. Those fellow Republicans began turning against him after an avalanche of reports showed he had lied about his background and resume, both on the campaign trail and before his run.
While Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) has not called for him to resign, she said she was “not surprised” by the news and she looks forward to someone new filling Santos’ seat.
“I figured this was where it was headed,” Malliotakis said Tuesday. “I would love to see someone new run because I could tell you that we will hold that seat. The sooner George Santos leaves, the sooner we can get someone in there that’s not a liar.”
In fact, Republicans beyond New York were openly stunned by his willingness to hang onto his battleground seat.

“I’m surprised he made it as long as he did,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.).
In New York, the GOP and the conservative parties don’t expect him to resign, according to a Republican familiar with their thinking who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity. Instead, this person said they expect Santos to try and use resignation as a bargaining chip, as they presume he is guilty of the charges set to be filed.
But Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been far more quiet, particularly given that Santos’ vote is integral to his four-seat majority as he wages a major fight with the Biden administration over the debt ceiling.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday night, the California Republican declined to put pressure on Santos. McCarthy noted that the New Yorker has already ceded his committees, adding that in past cases he has waited until a guilty verdict before calling on a member to resign.
Oddly enough, Santos became House Republicans’ deciding vote as the party Republicans moved to pass their debt ceiling plan. That vote saw four defections, but absences helped push them to victory.
Jordain Carney contributed.
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#Santos #set #face #federal #criminal #charges
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
A Stunning Result in Trump’s Sexual Assault Trial

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The verdict came, however, with an important qualification: The jury concluded that Carroll did not prove that Trump had raped her, as Carroll had alleged, but that Trump had nevertheless sexually abused her. A finding of rape would have required the jury to conclude that Trump had engaged in non-consensual sexual intercourse with Carroll, but the jury apparently opted to conclude that something short of that — but nevertheless disturbing, illegal and sexually abusive — had happened.
Still, the jury’s verdict in Carroll’s favor is a stunning result, though for people who have been following the case closely, it was not particularly surprising. Carroll had very capable lawyers, who moved their case forward briskly and professionally and kept the pressure on Trump, who tried to dodge the case in pretty much every conceivable way. (Disclosure: I used to work with Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, and remain friendly with her.)
At the trial, according to reporting from journalists who watched the proceedings, Carroll’s lawyers presented an efficient, well-constructed and coherent case — including testimony from Carroll herself, from two witnesses who spoke with Carroll shortly after her encounter with Trump, from a former Bergdorf Goodman employee who testified that the relevant area in the store at the time matched Carroll’s description, and from another employee of the store who testified that there were no security cameras in the area at the time.
Other witnesses for Carroll included Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who testified that Trump had sexually assaulted them as well. In short, Carroll’s lawyers presented her account, they corroborated it with testimony from other witnesses close to Carroll or who had had their own encounters with Trump, and they addressed head on some of Trump’s lawyers’ dubious claims in defense, which included questioning why there was no video available of an assault that occurred more than 25 years ago.
For their part, Trump’s lawyers struggled to put up much of a defense. In the run-up to the trial, they made multiple long-shot efforts to get the trial adjourned, which the presiding judge — a long-serving, well-regarded judge in the district — repeatedly rejected. At trial, Trump’s lawyers vigorously cross-examined Carroll, though this clearly did not fully persuade the jurors, and Trump’s lawyers put on no witnesses of their own. Trump did not testify in his own defense, even though nothing prevented him from doing so if he had a compelling response to offer to Carroll’s claims. Instead, Carroll’s lawyers played excerpts from Trump’s deposition, which was a debacle that effectively made Trump a witness against himself.
Of course, Trump is not the only politician — he is not even the only president — to face allegations of sexual assault. Former President Bill Clinton, for instance, has also been accused of rape — a point that Trump has raised before in trying to deflect from the more voluminous and broader array of allegations against him. President Joe Biden has also been accused of sexual assault, though that claim faded from mainstream news coverage after questions emerged about the credibility of the accuser. (Both Clinton and Biden have denied the allegations against them.)
Needless to say, every allegation needs to be taken and judged on its own terms, but even if you hate Clinton or Biden, Trump’s case now exists in a distinct realm: The allegations by Carroll were subject to a legitimate and robust adversarial legal process; the case was overseen by a highly competent judge and litigated by competent attorneys on both sides; and the claims were adjudicated by a jury of Trump’s peers pursuant to the law.
It is true that Manhattanites strongly dislike Trump, but there is no indication at this time that the jury did anything less than listen to the evidence and to the judge’s instructions. During the trial, Trump’s lawyers sought to lay the groundwork for an appeal by complaining about alleged bias on the part of the judge, but the arguments raised so far do not appear to be particularly strong.

By itself, the verdict in Carroll’s case is a remarkable and ugly turn of events for Trump, but there are broader implications as well.
Most notably, the verdict serves as at least partial vindication for many other women who have lodged their own allegations against Trump. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by dozens of women over the years. Carroll’s allegations were particularly shocking and horrifying, so the case served both as a referendum on Carroll’s specific case — albeit one that the jury resolved in somewhat mixed fashion — but also as a larger proxy battle over Trump’s mistreatment of women over the decades. Whether Trump likes it or not, the verdict lends further support to the credibility of all of those other allegations, which range in their substantive particulars but generally track Trump’s appalling comments on the Access Hollywood tape about how he can do pretty much whatever he wants to women, including assaulting them.
There is, however, little reason to believe that there will be a cascade of litigation following Carroll’s victory, but that appears to have just as much to do with legal constraints as anything else. The statutes of limitations for any other civil and criminal claims based on other alleged sexual misconduct by Trump have probably largely if not entirely lapsed, which is fortunate for the former president. Carroll’s suit, however, managed to emerge for at least two reasons — first, because Trump offered very specific and repeated denials of her allegations even after he left office, and second, because New York passed a law last year that revived civil claims based on sexual assault that would otherwise have been too old to bring in court. Under the circumstances, it is safe to assume that anyone else with a viable legal claim against Trump for comparable conduct would likely have brought it by now.
As a country, we also now have to grapple with the political implications of having a leading presidential contender who has been found liable for conduct as grotesque as sexual assault. Regardless of what one thinks of Trump’s fitness for the presidency, this is a qualitatively new development that could — or at least should — conceivably turn some voters away from him.
In the political arena, Trump might offer some version of his usual bluster to defend himself — perhaps that the judge was systematically biased against him, that Carroll’s lawyer is some sort of covert political operative working on behalf of the Democratic Party, or that he was for some reason or another unable to defend himself in court. None of this is true, though that has never stopped Trump before. Indeed, after the verdict, his presidential campaign claimed: “In jurisdictions wholly controlled by the Democratic Party our nation’s justice system is now compromised by extremist left-wing politics.”
Even before the verdict, there were assessments in the media of the political fallout — or lack thereof — from the case, but there is at least one important reason that the case did not attract more widespread or prominent coverage in the run-up to the trial: Carroll and her lawyers appear to have exercised extraordinary restraint in giving interviews or making public appearances in the months leading up to the trial, perhaps so as not to antagonize the judge, who was particularly concerned about ensuring that the case was decided based on the evidence in the courtroom rather than media coverage. Suffice to say that that may now change — both Carroll and Kaplan should now be free to give interviews if they like — now that the verdict is in.
Still, we should also be prepared for the distinct possibility that the verdict will not significantly shift voters’ preferences. This may be a dispiriting prospect, but so far, his supporters do not appear particularly concerned about his many legal problems, and many of them are likely to hang much on either Trump’s denials or the jury’s rejection of Carroll’s specific claim of rape, even though sexual assault without intercourse is awful enough on its own terms.
That political dynamic could always change, but at least one thing remains true. Trump, while often wrong, has always been right about something that the verdict on Tuesday confirmed once again. The former president is one of a kind — just not for the reason he might like.
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#Stunning #Result #Trumps #Sexual #Assault #Trial
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
It could’ve been worse: White House debt meeting ends with plans for a repeat

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Aides to the four party leaders in each chamber of Congress and White House staff will continue talks during the week, McCarthy said, and the players will convene again on Friday. Democratic leaders said separately that party leaders would begin discussing a possible budget and spending deal as soon as Tuesday evening — a step closer to pairing the debt limit with another major headache for party leaders.
Yet neither party’s leaders even edged away from their entrenched positions on the debt limit: Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there’s nothing to negotiate. And McCarthy dinged Biden for being unable to articulate any spending cut he might consider as part of a deal to increase the Treasury Department’s borrowing power.
Instead, the speaker reiterated that the House is the only chamber that has passed a bill dealing with the topic — a measure packed with conservative priorities that Biden’s party has rejected.
Biden actually went further after the meeting, saying he was “considering” the use of the 14th amendment as a means to circumvent the debt ceiling standoff. But he cast some doubt on whether it could work, saying it would “have to be litigated, and in the meantime without an extension it’d still end up in the same place.”
Deal-making senators in both parties, however, appeared irked by the lack of progress. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who met with McCarthy himself and pressed Biden to negotiate, said he expected more.
“To have five of the political leaders for our country walk out of the meeting and not one of them say that we made progress?” Manchin said. “Ridiculous.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said that whether the country defaults or not depends largely on Biden saving the day: “If the president shows leadership, I don’t think we’re going to default. If the president just kind of sits there and, you know, repeats the same thing over and over again, we’ve got an issue.”
Despite that bleak result, Tuesday’s meeting ended as positively as anyone could have hoped for with a possible debt ceiling breach potentially a month or less away. After near-total silence since February between Biden and McCarthy, the two main negotiating partners, the duo is now set to meet twice in one week.

As McCarthy returned to the Capitol after a week-long recess on Tuesday, the California Republican declared that party leaders should nail down the outlines of a deal in the next two weeks to ensure the U.S. doesn’t go careening off a fiscal cliff.
“We now have just two weeks to go,” McCarthy said, offering little clarity on that timeline. While the Treasury Department has predicted the country could breach the debt limit as soon as June 1, the Senate is scheduled to leave Washington in just 10 days, with the House going on a separate recess the week of Memorial Day.
Schumer described Tuesday as a “bad news and good news” meeting, blasting McCarthy for refusing to rule out default.
McCarthy dodged reporters’ attempts to get him to promise the nation would make good on its debt, though Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said pointedly: “The United States of America is not going to default.”
Despite McCarthy suggesting a firm deadline and both parties pooh-poohing the idea of a short-term hike, it remains unclear how seriously negotiators are taking Treasury’s projections of a default as soon as June 1. It took the White House and congressional leaders a week to sit down together after that estimate, and some in Congress are privately wondering whether the debt limit won’t get dealt with until after the Memorial Day holiday.
“I believe the Treasury secretary when she names the X-date,” House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said, referring to the department’s June 1 warning. “I think we have to be prepared to move in anticipation of that date being earlier in the month [of June].”
McHenry, like McCarthy, said a short-term increase was off the table. But it may be difficult to negotiate a budget deal in time to avoid a debt ceiling breach without more breathing room.
McConnell essentially backed McCarthy’s position during the meeting and the press availability afterward. Rather than raise alarms, he said the back and forth is normal and Washington is merely “having a debate here” on federal spending “in conjunction with raising the debt ceiling.”
In the run-up to the meeting, the GOP hardened its position: 43 Republican senators signed on to a letter pledging to filibuster any bill raising the debt ceiling “without substantive spending and budget reforms.” McConnell signed onto that letter and has rhetorically locked arms tightly with McCarthy.
Biden also has refused to budge from his opposition to negotiations on the debt ceiling. Democrats cite the 2011 debt limit crisis, and the spending cuts and credit downgrades that resulted from that era’s talks with the GOP, as an episode they are unwilling to repeat.
“People have asked: Will the president give Speaker McCarthy an off-ramp, an exit strategy?” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday. “The exit strategy is very clear: do your job, Congress must act, prevent a default.”
House Republicans had generally set low expectations for the meeting, given Democrats’ repeated insistence that they won’t entertain the GOP’s demands. One of the best scenarios possible, as they saw it, was simply that negotiators would agree to a second meeting.
Some, however, are leaving it to McCarthy to decide what constitutes a win.
“I’ll let him define that,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the House Rules Committee, said of the speaker after McCarthy departed for the meeting.
In the meantime, House GOP leaders have no plans to tee up any additional debt measures on the floor. Many privately feel that Biden has more to lose than Republicans, as his approval ratings teeter around 40 percent compared with McCarthy, whose conference has been in lockstep behind him.
The Senate has not yet voted on the House’s bill or a clean debt ceiling bill introduced by Schumer.
While both sides prepare to meet again, the parties are expected to keep duking it out in a messaging battle over who would shoulder the blame for the painful effects of a drawn-out debt crisis. That finger-pointing will only grow more tense as financial markets begin to respond to the specter of a potential default.
The 2011 debt ceiling debacle, which stemmed from Tea Party Republicans pushing the Obama administration for steep spending cuts, ultimately resulted in a downgrade in the country’s credit rating — even after an 11th-hour deal to avoid a default.
At the time, McConnell swooped in to work with Democrats and then-Vice President Biden to secure a plan they could all swallow. But he has stated clearly that won’t be the case this year: McCarthy is leading the charge this round.
Adam Cancryn, Sam Stein and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
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#couldve #worse #White #House #debt #meeting #ends #plans #repeat
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Tucker Carlson to relaunch show on Twitter

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“And you know if you bump up against those limits often enough, you will be fired for it,” Carlson said. “That’s not a guess; it’s guaranteed. Every person who works in English language media understands that. The rule of what you can’t say defines everything.”
Carlson, the former host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News, exited the company after Fox News settled Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million.
Carlson first joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009, and in 2017, Carlson took over the network’s 8 p.m. hour after Bill O’Reilly was forced out. Carlson was one of the most-watched hosts on the cable news network, with an average audience of 3.2 million viewers.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) took to Twitter to say that she “can’t wait” for Carlson’s new show.
“The truth will be unstoppable,” Greene said.

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#Tucker #Carlson #relaunch #show #Twitter
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Hill reactions: Several Republicans are unfazed by Trump’s sex abuse verdict

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The verdict “creates concern,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said, but whether or not it disqualifies the former president from his current presidential bid will be up to the voters.
But not all Republicans had the same hesitation. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), who served as ambassador to Japan under Trump, said the verdict was the latest act in the “legal circus” surrounding Trump.
“I think we’ve seen President Trump under attack since before he became president,” Hagerty said during an interview on Fox News. “This has been going on for years. He’s been amazing in his ability to weather these sorts of attacks and the American public has been amazing in their support through it.”
“This won’t be the last,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who has endorsed Trump this election cycle, said of the case. “I mean, people are gonna come at him from all angles… People are gonna try and convict him on the papers in Mar-a-Lago. [They] Can’t have him win.”
The case and the jury were both “a joke,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said, and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said he believes it is “very difficult” for Trump to get a fair trial “in any of these liberal states.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy dodged a question about the verdict during a stakeout with reporters following his meeting with President Joe Biden over the debt limit. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump’s foe in the chamber, declined to comment, as did Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), an ardent supporter of Trump, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has endorsed Trump.
When it comes to the impact the court’s decision will have on voters, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) said he is “highly skeptical” the case will bring Trump down. And Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) doesn’t think it will change many minds. “People who love him will still support him and people who don’t, won’t,” Cornyn, a McConnell said, adding that it’s “too early to tell” what the effect will be, if any.
“He has his due process, and the American people will determine who they want as the leader of this country,” said Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), who has endorsed Trump for 2024.

The ruling comes weeks after the former president was charged with 34 felonies related to the alleged role he played in a scheme to bury accusations of extramarital affairs ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Despite his legal battles, the former president remains the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination.
On Tuesday, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said the former president was “unfit to hold office.”
“The *front runner* for the Republican nomination for President of the United States has just been found liable for sexual abuse,” Moulton said in a tweet. “The more these lawsuits pile up, the more of an aggrieved version of Trump we’ll get. He is unfit to hold office.”
Moulton wasn’t alone in noting Trump’s mounting legal battles.
“Donald Trump — the leader of the Republican Party — has now been impeached twice, indicted, and found liable of sexual abuse and defamation,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) tweeted. “You’ve hitched your wagon to a real stand-up guy, @HouseGOP.”
First-term Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) also turned the verdict on Republicans, criticizing support for Trump.
“The Republican party will STILL eagerly stand by him to prop him up while they offer their unwavering support. Their subservience is a slap in the face to survivors and all women,” Lee said on Twitter.
The former president has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women, and in the now infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, he was caught saying that when it comes to women, if you’re a star you can “grab them by the pussy.” Tuesday’s verdict was the first time he has faced legal repercussions for sexual assault.
Trump defended himself on social media Tuesday afternoon, calling the verdict “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time!”
In a statement, Trump’s campaign called the case “bogus” and said Trump was being targeted because of his position as a frontrunner in the presidential race.
Daniella Diaz and contributed to this report.

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#Hill #reactions #Republicans #unfazed #Trumps #sex #abuse #verdict
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Kari Lake to meet with senators as she inches closer to Senate bid

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Lake would likely galvanize Trump supporters to the point that many Republicans think she would be all but impossible to defeat in a primary. But GOP strategists are concerned that Lake would turn off swing voters in the general election, particularly after she contested her loss in the gubernatorial contest in 2022.
Last year, a number of Senate contenders tied to Trump won their primaries but were defeated in the fall. In an effort to avoid another disappointing election, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), chair of the NRSC, has actively recruited candidates he believes are electable in key battleground states, including West Virginia, Montana and Pennsylvania. But Daines has not picked a favorite as of yet in Arizona.
In a CNN interview this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined to comment directly on a possible run by Lake, though he left Arizona out of his list of top four Senate battlegrounds. He said there is “high likelihood” that GOP leaders would wait until after the primary to determine whether to get involved. “I think there are some other places where with the right candidate, we might be able to compete — in Nevada, Arizona,” he said. The Arizona Senate primary won’t take place until August of 2024.
The NRSC regularly sits down with potential and declared candidates, and such a meeting does not suggest any preference on its part. Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb, the only Republican who has announced a run for Sinema’s seat, had a meeting with the NRSC earlier this year, as did Karrin Taylor Robson, a businessperson who is considering a campaign. Taylor Robson lost to Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial primary.
Lake’s spokesperson did not provide the names of the senators she is sitting down with this week. The NRSC declined to comment on whether Daines is meeting with Lake. When Lake previously gathered with NRSC officials in February, she did not meet with him.
Lake and her staffers have taken a number of steps recently that suggest she is either close to running for the Senate or positioning herself as Trump’s running mate, should he win the presidential nomination. Her aide, Colton Duncan, said he is “99 percent sure she’s going to run for Senate.” She is releasing a book, “Unafraid: Just Getting Started.” She has also attacked Gallego as too liberal for Arizona.
A GOP strategist close to Lake said she is expected to announce a Senate campaign in the early fall, though others in her orbit said a kickoff could take place earlier.
In addition, Lake has made two stops this year in Iowa, the first-in-the-nation caucus state where she happens to have grown up. Last week, she spoke at Conservative Political Action Conference Hungary and met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a venerated international figure in America’s MAGA movement. She is currently in the United Kingdom, where she appeared on “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” speaking to him about her lawsuit disputing her loss in the governor’s race as well as her future.

“If for some reason we don’t get a fair outcome in our election, I will run for Senate, most likely,” Lake told him.

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#Kari #Lake #meet #senators #inches #closer #Senate #bid
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023
Trump world to donors: A dollar to DeSantis may as well be a donation to Biden

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The memo was sent hours before a New York court delivered a verdict finding that Trump was guilty of sexual abuse of advice columnist E. Jean Carroll and awarding her $5 million in damages for that and defamation.

Budowich’s memo is, to a degree, a classic boast of a campaign that finds itself in a leading position. He describes Trump as “thoroughly vetted on a national stage” and portrays the legal troubles surrounding the ex-president as fundamentally good for him. “GOP voters aren’t just supporting President Trump overwhelmingly despite the investigations, they are supporting him because of the investigations,” he writes. He also writes that the argument Trump is “not electable” doesn’t hold water with recent polling.
But the memo is also notable in another respect: underscoring that Team Trump isn’t content to rest on its current lead but eager to keep attacking its main competitors. The memo bashes DeSantis’ Florida legislative session as a “bucket of cold water” for the governor.
“On top of losing major financial backers and cratering poll numbers, the most memorable part of his legislative session is that he picked a fight with Disney and lost,” Budowich writes. “DeSantis invested tremendous political capital to pass a 6-week abortion ban — in contrast, President Trump maintains a strong pro-life record with exceptions for rape and incest.”
The memo comes as DeSantis inches closer to making a presidential announcement and as Trump’s team is going after high dollar donors for support — some of whom have publicly wobbled on support for DeSantis or have put their donations on ice until they have a more clear picture of the field. The latest sign that the Florida governor plans to announce soon: DeSantis recently severed ties with his state-level PAC, which has a whopping $86 million, opening the door for that money to be transferred to a pro-DeSantis super PAC supporting his presidential ambitions.
Last month, Never Back Down, the pro-DeSantis PAC, said it had raised $30 million. The PAC also plans to have staff in the first 18 states on the Republican nominating calendar, according to the AP.
“While Governor DeSantis tallied up an impressive number of wins for the people of Florida this legislative session, Donald Trump offers the same old, pathetic attacks right out of Nancy Pelosi’s playbook to attempt to diminish the Governor’s conservative success story,” said Erin Perrine, the communications director for Never Back Down in a statement. “Donald Trump blamed the pro-life movement for his endorsed candidates’ losses in the 2022 midterm elections, and states like Trump’s real home, New York, have legalized infanticide up until birth. In Florida, Governor DeSantis has enacted historic measures to defend the dignity of human life and transform Florida into a pro-family state,” she added.
At the end of 2022, MAGA Inc. reported $54.1 million on hand, and the PAC has spent millions on national cable ads taking direct aim at DeSantis’ record on Medicare and Social Security. The PAC also paid for an eyebrow raising ad that accused DeSantis of “sticking his fingers where they don’t belong” into entitlements. The ad was also a reference to a story about DeSantis using his fingers to eat chocolate pudding on an airplane.

The MAGA Inc. memo, according to a PAC official, was being circulated on an individual basis Tuesday “to current, past, and targeted donors to MAGA Inc. and like-minded committees” as it “makes a strong push for unity as it looks towards the end for the quarter.”
After a disappointing midterm election for Republicans, where some important primary races were split over Trump’s endorsement and involvement, the memo calls on donors to rally around one singular Republican candidate to best help 2024 down ballot candidates.
“The 2024 cycle presents a promising opportunity for Republicans to realize massive gains in the U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, and down ballot races across the nation. Unifying early and focusing our collective resources towards maximizing our gains can be the difference maker,” Budowich writes.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

May 10, 2023