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Post by Webster on Jul 10, 2024 15:16:12 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Jul 10, 2024 17:16:51 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Vulnerable House Democrat calls on Biden to end re-election campaign 'for the good of the country'Democratic congressman Pat Ryan, whose district is one of the most closely contested in the country, told the New York Times that he does not think Joe Biden can beat Donald Trump, and that the president should step aside and make way for another nominee. “I’d be doing a grave disservice if I said he was the best candidate to serve this fall,” he told the Times by phone. “For the good of our country, for my two young kids, I’m asking Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming election and deliver on the promise to be a bridge to a new generation of leaders.” “I really hope, with all my heart, that he will listen,” he added.
With Pat Ryan’s statement, the number of Democratic members of Congress who have publicly called for Joe Biden to stand aside has risen to eight. In his interview with the New York Times, Ryan hit back on Biden’s insistence earlier this week that it was only party “elites” who want him to end his bid for re-election. Ryan said he made his decision after spending days in his exurban New York City district, where constituents were “deeply concerned” about Biden. “These are the opposite of elites,” Ryan told the Times “These are people eating hot dogs and drinking beer and talking about my Yankees and where the country’s at and expressing some pretty deep and weighty things.” Should Biden step aside, Ryan said it “would go down in history at or near what George Washington did in terms of stepping aside for the good of the country”, and “it would be such a stark contrast to the selfishness of Trump.” Should that happen, he said Democrats should hold an open process to replace Biden, and that he thought Kamala Harris, governors Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Wes Moore of Maryland, or perhaps Pete Buttigieg or Gina Raimondo, both cabinet secretaries, would make good candidates.
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Post by Webster on Jul 16, 2024 14:56:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Before Donald Trump chose JD Vance as his running mate, there was some speculation that the junior Ohio senator’s presence on the party’s presidential ticket might boost the Republican Bernie Moreno in his effort to unseat the Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent. Republicans are bullish about winning the Senate, and the Ohio race is seen as one of their best opportunities to flip a seat. The race was already going to be a challenge for Brown, who will have to attract some of Trump’s supporters to defy the political headwinds in his state. Vance’s nomination is unlikely to change those dynamics, said Kyle Kondik of the Crystal Ball, which has rated the race a “toss up”. Kondik wrote in an email: Trump was already going to win [Ohio] and Vance has not been around all that long and didn’t perform all that well in his 2022 race relative to other Republicans.He noted that Vance, author of Hillbilly Elegy, faced a stronger Democratic opponent in the former Ohio congressman Tim Ryan than other Republicans running in the midterm cycle, but nevertheless was not viewed as an influential political force in the state. Ohio, once a perennial presidential battleground, is now seen as safely Republican. Brown has managed to defy the trend, winning a tough re-election race in 2018. The Democrat’s team is squarely focused on Moreno and is not adjusting strategy in any way as a result of Vance’s nomination. Kondik, who authored The Bellwether, an analysis of Ohio’s presidential voting history, said, contrary to popular perception, running mates rarely deliver a home state boost to anymore. Kondik noted that the last major party vice-presidential candidate to hail from Ohio, John Bricker, may have helped Republican presidential nominee Thomas Dewey clinch the state. But that was in 1944, and he ultimately lost the election to the incumbent, Franklin Roosevelt.
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Post by Webster on Jul 16, 2024 14:57:42 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Ramaswamy interested in filling Vance's Ohio Senate seat – reportVivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, said he is interested in filling the Ohio Senate seat occupied by JD Vance. “I would strongly consider it if I were asked to serve,” Ramaswamy said about the Senate seat that would be vacated if Donald Trump is re-elected to the White House with Vance as his vice-president, the Hill reported. He added: I would also want to have a serious conversation with President Trump about the other ways I could have an impact on the country. My top passion is taking on the regulatory state.Ramaswamy, who was speaking in an interview with NBC News at the Republican national convention, said he had not discussed the issue yet with the Ohio governor, Mike DeWine, but noted: “I would strongly consider it if asked.” He added that he has also discussed with Trump the possibility of serving in a future cabinet, saying: We’ve talked about a lot of different possibilities, President Trump and I. I mean, we talk regularly. I spoke to him, actually most recently, it was after midnight on the night that he suffered that injury, tragedy, assassination attempt on Saturday night. So, we’ve talked about different ideas, potentially, in a cabinet or other ways of driving change.
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Post by Webster on Jul 17, 2024 20:33:47 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Top congressional Democrats warn Biden his candidacy jeopardizes their chances of retaking majority - reportThe Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries warned Joe Biden that if he continues his bid for re-election, it will be difficult for his party to retake the majority in Congress’s lower chamber, the Washington Post reports. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer delivered a similarly dire message to Biden about Democrats’ chances of holding on to the majority in that chamber, the Post reported. The top lawmakers’ comments to the president are the latest sign of the pressure Biden is facing to reconsider his bid for another four years following his disastrous performance in his debate against Donald Trump. Here’s more on the conversations, from the Post: In a separate one-on-one conversation, a person close to Biden told the president directly that he should end his candidacy, saying that was the only way to preserve his legacy and save the country from another Trump term, the person said. Biden responded that he adamantly disagreed with that opinion and that he is the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.
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Post by Webster on Jul 17, 2024 20:35:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden told Schumer and Jeffries 'he is the nominee of the party' - spokesmanResponding to the Washington Post’s report that the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries warned Joe Biden that his candidacy will imperil their efforts to control Congress, White House spokesman Andrew Bates indicated Biden had no intention of stepping aside. “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families,” Bates said in a statement.
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Post by Webster on Jul 18, 2024 20:01:27 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Vulnerable Senate Democrat calls on Biden to drop re-election bidWhile Republicans rally in Milwaukee, a red state Democratic senator joined the chorus of voices calling on Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race. Senator Jon Tester, who faces a difficult reelection bid in Montana this year, became the second Democratic senator to publicly call on the president to drop out. “Montanans have put their trust in me to do what is right, and it is a responsibility I take seriously. I have worked with President Biden when it has made Montana stronger, and I’ve never been afraid to stand up to him when he is wrong,” Tester said. “And while I appreciate his commitment to public service and our country, I believe President Biden should not seek re-election to another term.” Biden is reportedly “soul searching” to determine his next steps, but it seems like the increasing pressure on him may be reaching a breaking point.
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Post by Webster on Jul 23, 2024 10:49:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, sent talking points to their members in competitive races warning of the difficulties of trying to define a presidential candidate in such a short amount of time before the November election. “Republicans have never had less time to define the presidential nominee of our opponents,” the memo said, according to a copy seen by Punchbowl News. “Because of that, it is vital that our entire conference is on message and working together to present Kamala Harris as an extreme San Francisco progressive who is out of step with the American people.”
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Post by Webster on Jul 30, 2024 15:45:36 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Republican primaries across Arizona today will test whether the far-right cadre focused on election denial still can win among their base, despite major losses in the 2022 primaries. The state has been gripped with fights over elections for years, with candidates like Donald Trump and Kari Lake refusing to concede their respective races. These general election losses in 2020 and 2022 ended decades-long Republican dominance, delivering the governor’s office and other top spots to Democrats. The results could foretell whether Arizonans, particularly Arizona Republicans, are ready to move on from election denialism and the far-right flank that controls the state party. And that lesson could carry into November in the swing state, which Biden narrowly won in 2020 in an upset. Lake, who lost the governor’s race in 2022, is now running for Senate. She faces Mark Lamb, the sheriff of Pinal county, but she is expected to win the Republican contest on Tuesday. The winner will face the Democratic representative Ruben Gallego. The seat is open after senator Kyrsten Sinema left the Democratic party and decided not to run for re-election, making it a top race to watch nationally for control of the chamber.
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Post by Webster on Aug 2, 2024 23:19:36 GMT -5
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Post by Webster on Aug 6, 2024 14:48:48 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state will cast ballots in their congressional primaries today. Results in Michigan will be especially scrutinized, as the battleground state will play a key role in the presidential election. In Missouri, the progressive congresswoman Cori Bush is facing a primary threat from her fellow Democrat Wesley Bell, whose campaign has benefited from millions of dollars spent by pro-Israel groups. Their efforts come after Bush became one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Guardian’s Chris McGreal reports: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP). …
The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.
The UDP’s spending to oust Bush is second only to the money it poured into a successful campaign to defeat another member of the ‘Squad’, New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, in a Democratic primary in June.
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Post by Webster on Aug 7, 2024 15:59:11 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel campaign against herThe other big news late on Wednesday was congresswoman Cori Bush losing her Democratic primary after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza. St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad”, took about 46%. Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticized the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary. Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
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Post by Webster on Aug 7, 2024 16:00:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary. Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her. Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat. “Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”
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Post by Webster on Aug 13, 2024 13:25:21 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Representative Ilhan Omar of Minnesota will defend her seat on Tuesday in the state Democratic primary, a rematch against Don Samuels that comes two years after she barely eked out a victory against him. Tuesday’s race is the last in a series of heated primaries for the progressive “squad” of House Democrats who have been vocal in their criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. Her fellow squad members Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri were recently defeated by candidates supported by a deluge of pro-Israel spending. But Omar faces a lower-key race. The two-term congresswoman became the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in the US House of Representatives in 2019. While in office, she has allied herself with the left wing of the Democratic party, serving as the deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive caucus and backing key progressive measures like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Even before the 7 October Hamas attacks and Israel’s ensuing offensive, Omar had established herself as a vocal critic of Israel. She famously drew criticism in 2019 for quipping that US politicians’ support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins”, in reference to donations from the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (Aipac). The comment drew accusations of antisemitism and she later apologized for it. In the wake of the 7 October attacks, and as Israel escalated its retaliatory war, Omar was among the first in Congress to call for a ceasefire. She has spoken out in support of the university encampments in solidarity with Gaza. Her daughter was suspended from Barnard College for taking part.
George Santos, the former Republican New York congressman, is appearing in court for a pre-trial hearing today in the federal fraud case against him. Santos has pleaded not guilty to charges of defrauding supporters, illegally receiving benefits and lying to Congress. The trial is set to begin with jury selection on 9 September, and the parties have proposed for opening statements to begin 16 September.
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Post by Webster on Aug 13, 2024 18:47:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Tuesday’s Minnesota Democratic primary is the last in a series of heated primaries for the progressive “Squad” of House Democrats who have been vocal in their criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. Fellow Squad members Jamaal Bowman of New York and Cori Bush of Missouri were recently defeated by candidates supported by a deluge of pro-Israel spending. But Omar faces a lower-key race. The two-term congresswoman became the first woman of color to represent Minnesota in the US House of Representatives in 2019. While in office, she has allied herself with the left wing of the Democratic party, serving as the deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and backing key progressive measures such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for All. Even before the 7 October Hamas attacks and Israel’s ensuing offensive, Omar had established herself as a vocal critic of Israel. She memorably drew criticism in 2019 for quipping that US politicians’ support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins”, in reference to donations from the American Israel Political Affairs Committee (Aipac). The comment drew accusations of antisemitism and she later apologized for it. In the wake of the 7 October attacks, and as Israel escalated its retaliatory war, Omar was among the first in Congress to call for a ceasefire. She has spoken out in support of the university encampments in solidarity with Gaza. Her daughter was suspended from Barnard College for taking part. These together would seem to make Omar a natural target of pro-Israel groups, but Samuels, a former Minneapolis city councilman has not drawn support from Aipac or its affiliated Super Pac, United Democracy Project. In contrast, UDP dropped more than $20m to unseat Bowman and Bush. The lobby groups have not said why they have not gotten involved in the Minnesota primary – but it is possible that Omar just did not provide them the fodder.
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