#Social Security Administration’s Primary office in Manhattan
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A Real Social Security Office Gave Me A Flyer With A Scam Phone Number On It
Scammers have Infiltrated a Social Security Administration Building in New York, Imperiling Your Personal Information.
— Shawn Musgrave | March 17, 2024 | The Intercept
A flyer handed out at the Harlem office of the Social Security Administration in late February. The number printed for the Manhattan office was actually for a scam line. Photo: Shawn Musgrave/The Intercept
“We Need To Let You Know You Have Been Selected For $100 in Rewards.”
It was a cheery automated message, not what I expected when I called the number for the Social Security Administration’s Primary office in Manhattan. The message went on: “Simply press 1 now to be connected to a live agent and claim your gift today.”
I double-checked the number, which a Social Security employee had just given me at the agency’s local office in Harlem in late February. I needed to replace a lost card, which was a service only offered at certain locations, the agent told me. He slid me a flyer and circled the contact information for the office in the Financial District in Manhattan.
“You can call this number to try making an appointment,” the agent told me.
“There are a ton of scams that use government agencies. But nothing like this.”
Still sitting in the lobby of the Harlem building, I dialed the number a couple more times, and each time reached a different grifter: I was eligible for another $100 gift card to Walmart, then help getting “free insurance.” I just had to hand over my name and address, to “confirm you’re eligible,” one scammer said. These are prototypical phone scam scripts.
In a recent experimental study, researchers posing as employees of a fictious government agency convinced more than 16 percent of older adult participants to hand over personal information, including their Social Security numbers. In another experiment, with college students, more than a third of participants gave out personally identifying information to scammers.
Highly unusual about the flyer in my hands, however, was that a very real government agency had given it to me.
“There are a ton of scams that use government agencies,” said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention at the AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, such as “pretending to be the SSA and saying there’s a problem with your number or that your card has been suspended. But nothing like this.”
“I find that very concerning,” Stokes told The Intercept. “I can’t imagine how that would happen other than that someone on the inside being involved in it.”
When I brought the flyer back into the Harlem office that day, the same window agent called the number with me on speakerphone. When an automated message about $100 gift cards began to play, his eyes widened with confusion and he quickly hung up. “I need to tell a manager about this,” he said.
“I Can’t Imagine How That Would Happen Other Than That Someone On The Inside Being Involved In It.”
Reached for this story, Social Security employees at the Harlem office did not answer detailed questions about how this version of the flyer came into existence. “We were made aware” of the scam number on the flyer, one ticket agent said, “and that’s why we stopped giving those out.”
On closer inspection, the scam phone number was off by a single digit from the real direct line to the Manhattan Social Security office, and the phone numbers for other offices were legitimate. Stokes noted that the scam flyer had some hallmarks of amateurish doctoring, like inconsistent formatting and fonts. (I found pictures of similar documents posted to nongovernment websites — including Yelp and personal blog posts about the Social Security process — which the posters claimed were from other Social Security offices in the NYC area. Unlike the scam flyer, none of these versions included the phone numbers for individual offices.)
“This looks like some guy made this in the FedEx down the street and somehow got this in the pile of things to be given out,” Stokes said, instead of more a “sophisticated” scheme.
The scammers on the other end of the line were “pretty unsophisticated” too, noted Adam Doupé, a professor at Arizona State University who studies phone scams, after I showed him the flyer and he called the number himself.
“I wonder if the scammers themselves actually know what they have,” he said. “Imagine you are a scammer and realize that your number is printed on an official government document. How would you make the most money from this opportunity?”
Unable to let it go, I called the scam line several more times from different phone numbers to see what the scammers were after. Above all, they wanted my full name and address, which can be all a fraudster needs to pull off a change-of-address scam.
Only one scammer pretended to work at the Social Security Administration and said they could help me get a replacement card. They asked for my full name and address, but not my Social Security number.
A few scammers offered $100 in various forms as pretext to hand over my info. A couple said I could have a free “medical alert device,” and another claimed to offer “ID protection services.” Only one asked for a credit card number in addition to my address, on the pretext that it was needed to “activate” a gift card.
Amateur or not, this scam number still managed to sneak into a pile of handouts for at least one busy Social Security office in New York City. The Social Security inspector general’s office, which investigates phone scams, is looking into how this happened, according to Rebecca Rose, a press officer for the inspector general. But Rose would not give details about the inquiry, including whether the agency knows how long this version of the handout was given out or if other offices beside Harlem were also affected.
The inspector general’s office was unaware of prior instances of scam flyers at government offices. Instead, “the most common technique criminals use regarding fake numbers is to spoof an SSA number or caller ID, so that it appears the call is coming from SSA,” Rose said.
Reached via the actual phone number for the Manhattan office, a Social Security employee, who did not give a name, said numerous people had called about the scam number. “We’re trying to figure out who created this flyer.”
#Social Security Administration Office#Scam Flyer#Scammers | Infiltrated#New York | New York#Personal Information#Social Security Administration’s Primary office in Manhattan
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Even among the hundreds of videos capturing the violent police response to Black Lives Matter protests last year, this one stood out.
A muscular male officer, in a navy blue shirt with “NYPD” across the back, lunged at a young demonstrator, shoving her several feet and sending her crashing to the ground on a street in Brooklyn.
In a video shot by a reporter and shared widely on social media, the woman, Dounya Zayer, can be seen clutching her head and writhing in pain after she tumbles to the asphalt.
The mayor called the officer’s actions “absolutely unacceptable,” the police commissioner said internal affairs was investigating and, 11 days after the incident, the district attorney announced criminal charges against the officer, Vincent D’Andraia.
Zayer, 21, went on to file a lawsuit alleging that D’Andraia had violated her right to free speech, and last month, the city’s Law Department, which almost always represents officers sued for on-the-job actions, told D’Andraia it wouldn’t defend him in court.
It looked like the city was cutting the cop loose, a step rarely taken in the hundreds of lawsuits filed every year against NYPD officers. But while a city lawyer won’t be representing D’Andraia in court, it turns out New Yorkers are still paying the law firm that is representing him in the case.
That’s because every year, the city treasury effectively bankrolls a union-controlled legal defense fund for officers. The little-known fund is financed in part by a direct city contribution of nearly $2 million a year that is expressly intended to pay for lawyers in civil cases like D’Andraia’s, where the Law Department has decided an officer’s conduct is essentially indefensible. Or, as the police union’s legal plan puts it, “when the City of New York fails or otherwise refuses to provide a legal defense.”
The money isn’t supposed to be used by the union, the Police Benevolent Association, “in any action directly or indirectly adverse to the interests of the City,” according to a 1985 letter memorializing the deal that established the annual taxpayer contribution. But the agreement doesn’t define those “interests,” and the city is typically a co-defendant in such cases, as it is in the lawsuit by Zayer. So even as the city might distance itself from an officer, it could still argue that the government’s legal interests are best served by its employee having robust legal representation.
“It’s not bad public policy to invest and make sure that all sides have adequate representation,” said Zachary Carter, who ran the Law Department from 2014 to 2019.
But critics say that subsidizing such defenses could undercut police accountability by sending a message to officers that the city will back them no matter what.
“The bottom line is this is scandalous,” said Joel Berger, a lawyer who specializes in police abuse cases and who, in the 1990s, served as a senior official in the Law Department who decided when the city should withdraw representation of officers. “It was a sweetheart deal with the union and it should never have been agreed to.”
Neither the mayor’s office nor the Law Department would address detailed questions from ProPublica about the fund, including how the city squares paying for the defense of officers it won’t represent with the provision stipulating that the money not be used for any purpose “adverse to the interests of the City.”
The Legal Services Fund of the Police Benevolent Association has in recent years paid for the representation of an NYPD officer accused in a lawsuit of slamming a 75-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease against the hood of a car after the man talked back to the cop, and has paid to defend another officer who court papers charge tackled an unarmed, chronically ill, 4-foot-8-inch, 85-pound man and shocked him with a stun gun.
The message to officers, said Zayer’s lawyer, Tahanie Aboushi, is that the city will help shield them from some of the consequences of even their most egregious conduct.
“Maybe you’re going to be disciplined,” said Aboushi, who is a candidate in the race to be the next Manhattan district attorney, “but getting a lawyer, paying for a lawyer, understanding the accountability that comes from a lawsuit — they’re completely insulated from that.”
It is the sort of protection that, in the last few decades, has proliferated in police labor agreements across the country, often negotiated behind closed doors, with little attention paid to the public policy implications.
But in the reckoning that has followed George Floyd’s killing, many Americans are rethinking how the country is policed and unions are facing particularly pointed questions, not just in Minnesota or in New York, but also in city halls, in state legislatures and at negotiating tables across the country.
“There is a whole set of what I’ve labeled ‘special privileges’ that employees in other contexts don’t enjoy,” said Samuel Walker, an emeritus professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a national expert on police accountability. “It’s been a very secretive development, and the lack of any organized opposition until just recently has kept it secret.”
The violent police response to many Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country in the weeks after Floyd’s death only intensified calls for sweeping changes in American policing.
In New York, the furor after Floyd’s death pushed through the long-sought repeal of a state law that made police disciplinary records secret. And last month, the city beat back a legal challenge by the PBA and other unions that had sought to block the release of those records.
But Mayor Bill de Blasio, who campaigned as a champion of police reform, has been criticized for his embrace of the NYPD, particularly during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. As he prepares to leave office at the end of the year, many of the leading candidates to succeed him have promised a new approach to policing.
Still, it’s a long way from the campaign stump to the negotiating table, and even after the events of the last year, the police unions — and the power and protections entrenched in their contracts — will pose a formidable test for the next mayor. The PBA’s contract expired in 2017 and will remain in force until a new one is approved, so it will almost certainly fall to the new administration to negotiate the next labor deal and to decide whether to take on sacred cows like the legal defense fund.
ProPublica pieced together the origins of the defense fund by reviewing tax records, studying labor agreements and examining other city documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Law.
Like anyone charged with a serious crime, an officer facing criminal prosecution has a right to a defense lawyer. But the deal establishing the city’s contribution to the fund was specifically designed to pay for defending officers in civil litigation, where an officer could face a substantial monetary judgment.
The deal, struck by the then-police union head and the city’s top labor negotiator, created what has become an annual taxpayer contribution that amounts to $75 per officer. The legal services fund takes in another $3.7 million every year from the union’s health and welfare fund, a city-funded entity that provides health insurance and other employee benefits. That portion of the defense fund can be used for legal representation, too, though not in those lawsuits where the city has said it will not represent the officers.
All told, the defense fund takes in about $5.5 million a year, which the PBA pays to the Manhattan law firm of Worth, Longworth & London to represent officers, tax filings show.
A spokesman for the PBA, which represents about 25,000 rank-and-file officers, didn’t respond to detailed questions about the fund.
While the PBA was the first to secure the city contribution, the annual $75-per-member taxpayer funding for civil defense has been replicated in the contracts that cover thousands of NYPD sergeants, lieutenants and captains.
The union representing the 9,000 jail guards who run the violence-plagued Rikers Island complex and other city jails secured a $75-per-member city contribution to their defense fund as well. Correction officers are frequently sued over allegations of prisoner abuse and neglect in New York City, suits that have led to multimillion-dollar settlements and, in recent years, a federal investigation and monitoring agreement. And the union representing jail wardens, deputy wardens and assistant deputy wardens gets a $189-per-member contribution for civil defense, according to their contract.
New York City’s mayoral primaries are on June 22, and de Blasio’s staunch support for the NYPD has made police accountability a key issue in the race to succeed him, especially among candidates with their own ties to oversight and reform of the department.
Candidate Maya Wiley, once a close adviser to de Blasio and later the chair of the city’s police oversight board, said she would renegotiate the police union contract to ensure better accountability. A Wiley spokesperson said the taxpayer money going to officers’ civil defense should go to gun violence prevention or “a dozen other, better ways to ensure public safety.”
Another mayoral candidate, Comptroller Scott Stringer, plays a key role in police accountability, reviewing and approving every settlement reached in civil cases brought against police officers. But a campaign spokesman said Stringer wasn’t familiar with the defense fund provision of the PBA’s contract and that his policy staff was now looking into it. Mayoral hopeful Eric Adams was for many years a prominent reform voice within the NYPD, rising to the rank of captain and co-founding the group 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care. But Adams, now the Brooklyn borough president, didn’t respond to questions.
In New York, the rare rollback of police union protections has typically come only when a case of police brutality seized the public conscience and compelled political leaders to act. Even then it can take years.
For decades, NYPD officers involved in shootings or other incidents of potential wrongdoing had two full days to consult with lawyers before being questioned by internal affairs investigators. But after officers sodomized a Haitain immigrant with a stick in the bathroom of a Brooklyn police station in 1997, the so-called 48-hour rule emerged as a key obstacle in the investigation.
In negotiations to settle his lawsuit against the city and the police union, the man, Abner Louima, and his lawyers called for the rule to be scrapped. It wasn’t until 2002, during labor negotiations with the police union, that city officials moved to extract the provision from the agreement, asserting that the police commissioner had broad authority to oversee disciplinary matters. That prompted a yearslong legal battle, which the union ultimately lost in 2006.
Removing a union benefit that has been renewed for decades is possible, but it’s hard to do, said Victor Kovner, who served as the city’s chief lawyer under Mayor David Dinkins in the early 1990s. “And hard doesn’t begin to suggest how challenging it would be,” he said.
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Who Are The Two Republicans Running Against Trump
New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/who-are-the-two-republicans-running-against-trump/
Who Are The Two Republicans Running Against Trump
Who Is Not Running For The Seat:
Donald Trump: I’m running against two parties
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan
Once a back-bencher in the Georgia House, the former professional baseball player won a surprising runoff victory in the 2018 GOP primary over David Shafer and then raced to a general election win.
In Georgias No. 2 job, hes allied himself tightly to Kemp and was one of the early supporters of Loeffler even as he butted heads with fellow Republicans in the fractious Georgia Senate he presides over.
He earned national attention and Trumps fury during the runoffs as he appeared frequently on cable news to counter false claims of widespread voter fraud and urge Republicans to stand up to Trumps attempts to overturn the election.
Now, he often talks of a GOP 2.0 that tilts further away from Trump and toward big-tent conservativism. He said in March that he wouldnt run for the U.S. Senate. He also is not running for another term as lieutenant governor.
Former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins
A four-term Republican congressman from the conservative bastion of Gainesville, Collins aggressively pitched himself for the open U.S. Senate seat following Isaksons resignation and was spurned by Kemp despite Trumps initial support.
He and his allies pilloried Loeffler as a squishy moderate long before he entered the 2020 Senate race, and the two exchanged vicious barbs throughout the campaign.
Attorney General Chris Carr
Former Chief Justice Harold Melton
State Sen. Burt Jones
Why Donald Trump Is Republicans’ Worst Nightmare In 2024
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Earlier this week, amid a rambling attack on the validity of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump said this: “Interesting that today a poll came out indicating I’m far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024.”
“Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health, according to two sources close to the former president. That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection.”“Manhattan prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump, his company and its executives have told at least one witness to prepare for grand jury testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter — a signal that the lengthy investigation is moving into an advanced stage.”
Maryland Gov Larry Hogan
Hogan, 64, is a two-term governor and cancer survivor who underwent chemotherapy while in office. He was declared cancer-free in 2015. A moderate, Hogan told The Washington Post that he saw the 2024 Republican primary as a competition between 10 or 12 or more people fighting in the same lane to carry on the mantle of Donald Trump and another lane straight up the middle that would be much less crowded. Though he said it was too early to say whether he saw himself in that lane, Hogan wrote in his 2020 memoir Still Standing that members of Trumps cabinet approached him about challenging Trump in the GOP 2020 primary.
Florida Gov Ron Desantis
DeSantis narrowly beat out Trump in a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver last month, but his greatest strength could also prove to be his greatest weakness. Praised by Republicans as a next-generation Trump, it could put him on a collision course with Trump should both run.
DeSantis is up for reelection next year, and hes purposely avoided Iowa to not drive 2024 speculation, according to Politico. Still, hes building out a gubernatorial record sure to please primary voters. Name a top Republican issue today, chances are DeSantis has signed a bill and/or has run Facebook ads about it.
Hes signed bills banning vaccine passports,restricting ballot drop boxes and voting by mail, and setting mandates for civics curriculum in the state. Another bill prohibiting deplatforming was signed into law in May, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, arguing it likely violates social media networks First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Hes run Facebook ads about critical race theory and transgender athletes in sports.
But DeSantis has backed away from partisanship when responding to the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The first-term governor welcomed President Joe Biden to the state last week when he visited to meet with families and survivors. Youve recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one and youve been very supportive, DeSantis said of Biden.
Read Liz Cheney’s Full Statement In Support Of Trump’s Impeachment
But five of the pro-impeachment members are battle-tested incumbents in crucial swing seats that Republicans need to hold. That includes Rep. David Valadao , who is close to McCarthy and just won back his seat after losing in 2018; Rep. Fred Upton , a House veteran whom Republicans are desperately trying to prevent from retiring; Rep. Peter Meijer , a freshman who replaced retiring Trump critic Justin Amash; and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler , one of the only Republicans to represent a district touching the Pacific Ocean.
While the makeup of their constituencies are likely to change somewhat in redistricting, all five ran ahead of Trump to secure their reelections. Trump handily lost Valadaos and Rep. John Katkos districts in 2020 and 2016 and carried the other three with 51 percent of the vote or less.
President Trump can play in any open seat he wants. That’s fine, said Sarah Chamberlain, the head of the center-right Republican Main Street Partnership. But to challenge the Main Street members, frankly, and have them lose a primary with the majority on the line Emmers absolutely right. I don’t know if whoever beats them in a primary can win a general.
If ultra-conservative or pro-Trump candidates were to prevail in primaries for some of those swing seats, the GOP risks losing the general elections in those districts, said Cole, a former NRCC chair. Thats a concern,” he added.
Winning the majority to me is not worth selling our soul, he added.
Filed Under:
Sen Ted Cruz Of Texas
During his remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to Majority conference in Florida last month, Cruz said that a conservative revival is coming and hearkened back to the Reagan revolution. It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan, he said. Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter 2.0. Left unsaid, but implied, is that Cruz sees himself as the Reagan 2.0 who will ensure Biden is a one-term president.
Cruz said at that conference that having social conservative or patriotic views can get you canceled, and its time to fight back. He also recited a favorite quote from the late Andrew Breitbart who said politics is downstream from culture, and said the phrase was now outdated. Today, politics is culture, Cruz said, which might help explain why he signaled his support to free Britney Spears from her conservatorship the day after her court testimony.
Cruz has begun making endorsements in other races, including Susan Wright in the runoff for Texas 6th Congressional District later this month, as well as former Rep. Matt Salmon in Arizonas gubernatorial race next year. While Republicans are undoubtedly happy to have Cruzs support, Democrats like it, too, at least in Virginia, where fundraising emails from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe that mention Cruzs endorsement of his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin bring in big bucks, per the Dallas Morning News.
More Gop Challengers Line Up Against Trump More States Cancel Their Primaries
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump now has three GOP primary challengers, but they won’t be given a chance to compete in at least four states after Republicans there decided to scrap their presidential nominating contests in favor of supporting Trump.
The Republican parties of Nevada and South Carolina, both crucial early nominating states, voted this weekend not to hold contests, as did Kansas and Arizona.
“With no legitimate primary challenger and President Trump’s record of results, the decision was made to save South Carolina taxpayers over $1.2 million and forgo an unnecessary primary,” South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said in a statement. “President Trump and his administration have delivered for South Carolinians, and we look forward to ensuring that Republican candidates up and down the ballot are elected in 2020.”
Iowa Republican Presidential Caucuses
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The 2020 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses took place on Monday, February 3, 2020, as the first caucus or primary in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election. The Iowa caucuses are a closed caucus, with Iowa awarding 40 pledged delegates to the Republican National Convention, allocated on the basis of the results of the caucuses. Incumbent president Donald Trump received about 97 percent of the vote to clinch 39 delegates, while Bill Weld received enough votes to clinch 1 delegate.
Heres Whos Running Against Trump
Is There Any Republican That Would Actually Run Against Trump?
So whos decided to try to run against Trump so far?
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who ran in the Libertarian VP spot in 2016, is running for President as a Republican.
Donald Trump, by turns arrogant and paranoid, has made no secret of the fact that he wishes to be crowned as President rather than elected. That might be fine in a monarchy, but we overthrew ours two centuries ago.https://t.co/EzHZ2yeFxJ
The One Place House Republicans Want To Be Trump
Republicans are sounding the alarm that his attempts to meddle in primaries could hurt the partys efforts to win back the majority.
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Republicans have a message for Donald Trump: stay out of our primary races.
As Trump ramps up his revenge tour against the House Republicans who voted to impeach him, GOP lawmakers are sounding the alarm that his attempts to meddle in primaries could hurt the partys efforts to win back the House next year, especially in critical swing districts in New York, Michigan and California. With just five seats between the GOP and the House majority, any one race could determine the balance.
The loudest warning shot came Wednesday from Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who told POLITICO Playbook he planned to urge the former president to refrain from playing in primaries. Thats not going to be helpful, he said. Its probably better for us that we keep these people.
That’s not to say Republicans don’t see Trump still playing a role in the future of the party. But an increasing number of them from across the conference are echoing Emmer, pleading with Trump to back off even as they simultaneously acknowledge the former commander in chief is a private citizen and can do whatever he wants.
I look forward to working with each member of our conference in support of their re-election efforts, McCarthy said in the statement. We will take back the House in November 2022.
Who Is Considering A Run:
Herschel Walker
Georgia Republicans have been buzzing with the rumor that the UGA football legend and friend of Trumps could challenge Warnock next year. And the former president has chimed in, to join the fray.
Walker emerged as a voice for far-right conservative causes during Trumps term in the White House and spoke in support of the president at last years Republican National Convention.
He also has a history of violent and erratic behavior, some of which he outlined in a 2008 book that detailed his long struggle with mental illness. Subsequent reports exposed questionable business dealings, threats he leveled against his ex-wife and other issues that could factor into a campaign.
Polls show him as the front-runner in the GOP race, thanks in part to his soaring name recognition. He would be helped by Trumps boast that Walker would be unstoppable in a campaign.
Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler
The former financial executive was tapped by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill Isaksons seat in hopes of winning back women and more moderate voters who were disgusted by Trump.
Instead, Loefflers short stint in the Senate turned into a race to the partys right, as she dueled with Collins for the hearts of conservatives and pumped more than $31 million of her own money into her campaign.
Shes said shes weighing a comeback bid but that I dont know if any Republican can win if we dont shore up what were doing around voter registration, engagement and election integrity.
The 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Wild Cards
The first Democratic debate back in 2019 had 20 TWENTY! candidates, so dont be surprised if the Republican field is just as large or larger. We could have some more governors or representatives run, or even other nontraditional candidates, like a Trump family member, a Fox News host or a celebrity, like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, whos said hes seriously considering a run. Stranger things have happened.
What Happened: Arizona Turned Blue In The 2020 Presidential Election But The Republicans Still Control The State
Reflecting broader democratic shifts, recent decades have seen big changes in politics in Arizona: moving from deep red Republican domination to a particular shade of purple over the last decade. Eldrid Herrington maps how these changes have played out in recent years, the 2020 general election, and what they might mean moving forward.
Following the 2020 US General Election, our mini-series,What Happened? explores aspects of elections at the presidential, Senate, House of Representative and state levels, and also reflects on what the election results will mean for US politics moving forward. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Rob Ledger or Peter Finn .
At 2.14pm on the 6th of January 2021, as Congress conducted its ceremonial Electoral Vote count, Paul Gosar of Arizona was addressing the US House of Representatives, challenging the electoral votes in his own state, when he and his colleagues had to be rushed out of the chamber and taken to safety elsewhere in the Capitol building. Hours later, when the legislature returned, almost all Republican representatives from Arizona persisted in repeating the lie that their party did not, in fact, lose the elections in the state .
Republicans Cannot Promise To Check Biden While Also Claiming That He Lost
A lot is riding on Januarys two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia: For the GOP, winning at least one of these races would mean narrowly retaining control of one house of Congress, and with it the ability to preserve the filibuster rule and maintain a check on the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and incoming Democratic president. Those two races should be the Republican Partys highest priority.
But the biggest threat to Republicans in those races might not be their runoff opponents or the Democratic Party apparatus. Right now, it might be a Republican: outgoing President Trump.
Its no surprise that Trump has gone all in on questioning the results in his losing reelection bid. After his very first electoral contest, the 2016 Iowa Republican caucuses, which he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz , Trump said that Cruz stole the election and claimed that a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified. Ahead of Election Day 2016, Trump said that election is going to be rigged. Even after he won, and became president, he convened a voter fraud commission, maintaining that fraud was the reason his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, had a popular vote tally millions higher than his. It is Trumps approach whenever he loses or expects to lose, including in the election he just lost:
Trump Takes Two Punches From Gop
It’s been a tough week for former President TrumpDonald TrumpProgressive Democratic lawmakers urge Biden to replace Powell as Fed ChairCautious scrutiny of COVID origins marks a win for US intelligence agenciesJan. 6 panel seeks records of those involved in ‘Stop the Steal’ rallyMORE. Trump’s preferred candidate in a special House election in Texas lost on Tuesday to another Republican who was likely boosted by some protest votes against the former president. And on Wednesday, 17 Senate Republicans voted to advance a bipartisan infrastructure deal that Trump spent weeks railing against. While Trump remains a towering figure in the GOP, the back-to-back blows have led some to question whether his influence may have started to wane since he left office.
What Makes The 2024 Presidential Election Unique
The lead up to the 2024 presidential election is different from past years because of former President Donald Trump. Hes eligible to run for a second term, and has publicly toyed with the idea while also weighing in on other Republicans he thinks could be the future of the party. If Trump does run in 2024, hed start out with unparalleled name ID and massive support, but if he doesnt, the field could be wide open for other Republicans hoping to win over his supporters. President Joe Biden said recently he expects to run for reelection in 2024.
Related
Golden Trump statue at CPAC 2021 was no graven image, according to the artist
This early on, wannabe candidates must raise their profiles, show their commitment to the party, and raise money, one Republican strategist said, to get on peoples radars even when your candidacy is in a holding pattern.
Some of the most visible 2024 presidential candidates will surely flame out long before the Iowa caucus, and theres always the chance that the next Republican nominee isnt yet considered a serious player . Theres a million and one things that will happen between now and then that will shape the race in ways we cant now predict, but the invisible primary that comes before any votes are cast has started.
Heres your very early guide to some of 2024s Republican presidential candidates, based on early polling, interviews with Republican donors and strategists and results from online political betting markets.
Four State Republican Parties Cancel 2020 Primaries To Protect Trump’s Re
Trumps GOP Rival Challenges SNLs Trump? To Debate On The Beat | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC
South Carolina’s move is an attempt to sideline the states former Republican governor, Mark Sanford, who on Sunday declared his intention to challenge the president in the GOP primary. Also in the running against Trump are former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.
Trump was asked Monday if he would debate any of his Republican rivals.
“I don’t know them,” the president responded. “I would say this: They are all at less than 1 percent. I guess it’s a publicity stunt. We just got a little while ago 94 percent popularity or approval within the Republican party. So to be honest, I’m not looking to get them any credibility. They have no credibility.”
He added, “One was a person that voted for Obama, ran as a vice president four years ago and was soundly defeated, another one got thrown out after one term in Congress and he lost in a landslide and the third one Mr. Appalachian trail he wasn’t on the Appalachian trial; he was in Argentina.”
Sanford, a conservative who clashed with Trump when he served in Congress, said on MSNBC on Monday that he’s running because Republicans have turned their back on their values in favor of personal allegiance to Trump.
“Right now, the sun, moon and stars too often basically orbit around Donald Trump, Sanford said of the attitude of the GOP. “And if it’s not personal allegiance to him, not issue allegiance or idea allegiance, but if it’s not personal allegiance, it’s not good enough.”
Roque Rocky De La Fuente
An entrepreneur and businessman whos had a career in car sales, banking, and real estate development, Roque De La Fuente, known as Rocky, is accustomed to running for public office. in 2016, he sought the Democratic party nomination, then ran as Reform Party and self-funded American Delta Party candidate in the same election, coming in eight in the popular vote. In 2018, he sought the nomination in nine senate raceswinning none. In May 2019, De La Fuente announced his candidacy to challenge Trump in the 2020 election.
De La Fuentes name is on the ballot in a dozen states, and he owns businesses and property in several of them. His program reflects the candidate bipartisan inclination. De La Fuente talks about gun control, immigration reform that unites families, not divides them, promises to match immigrants with job shortage, and supports environmental protection and investment in renewable energy.
Age: 65 Years in political office: 0
Who gives him money: Himself.
Biggest idea for the economy: Match immigrants with job shortages, invest in renewable energy to create new jobs.
Social media following: 65,400, : 241,000.
Who will like this candidate: Moderate Republicans, conservative independents.
Who will hate this candidate: Trump supporters.
Florida Mayor: Desantis Is Treating Children As Political Pawns
The passage of a sweeping infrastructure plan in the Senate on Tuesday gives both parties plenty of ammunition heading into a midterm campaign season — look no further than the most competitive Senate seats for how that will play out.
Opinion Polling For The 2020 Republican Party Presidential Primaries
This is a list of nationwide and statewide public opinion polls that have been conducted relating to the Republican primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election. The persons named in the polls are declared candidates or have received media speculation about their possible candidacy. The polls included are among Republicans or Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. If multiple versions of polls are provided, the version among likely voters is prioritized, then registered voters, then adults.
Democrats Sweat Turnout Disaster In California Without Trump To Run Against
Without Trump on the ballot, California Democrats are trying to motivate voters.
In a heavily Democratic state where Gov. Gavin Newsom beat his Republican opponent in 2018 by 3 million votes, the recall stands within a few percentage points of passing next month. | Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
08/26/2021 02:34 PM EDT
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LOS ANGELES Donald Trump could swing the California governorship to a Republican. Merely by his absence.
Democrats turned out in record numbers when they had Trump to vote against. But in one of the first, large-scale tests of voter enthusiasm for Democrats in the post-Trump era, Californias surprisingly close gubernatorial recall election is laying bare just how hard it may be for the party to motivate its base without Trump as a foil.
Even in this bastion of progressive politics, ominous signs for the Democratic Party are everywhere. A last week found voters who cast ballots for Joe Biden were less likely than Trump supporters to be very closely following the recall and less motivated to vote. In a Berkeley-IGS survey, registered Democrats and independent voters were nearly 30 percentage points less likely than Republicans to express a high level of interest in voting in the election.
Can Democrats win without having Trump as their foil? This is the challenge, said Gray Davis, the former California governor who was recalled in 2003.
Were going to find out pretty soon,” he said in an interview.
He said, We have to rise to the challenge.
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Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani is notable as the 107th Mayor of New York City. He turned into an American lawyer, network protection consultant, and the government officials who fill in as city hall leader from January 1, 1994, to December 31, 2001.
Individual Life
Rudy Giuliani was conceived on May 28, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York City, the U.S. as a child of the dad, Harold Angel Giuliani, and mother, Helen Giuliani. He was the main child of Harold and Helen Giuliani, where Harold used to be a handyman and barkeep. In any case, later, he was doing contrary to the principles exercises, so he was kept in jail, and when he delivered, he had been seen accomplishing the work as the master yet in 1981, he kicked the bucket as a result of prostate malignancy.
Relationship
Rudy Giuliani wedded Regina Peruggi on October 26, 1968, where the two of them know each other from their youth. However, they were experiencing some difficulty, so they gave a preliminary to live independently in 1975. From that point onward, in 1982, Peruggi was seen that she has been meeting another person so Giuliani petitioned for their lawful partition, and they were legitimately isolated on August 12, 1982.
Afterward, on April 15, 1984, Giuliani wedded Hanover in the Catholic function at St. Monica's Church in Manhattan. They at that point brought forth their youngsters, where one is child, Andrew, and another is little girl Caroline. Afterward, he additionally gave Hanover a separation in October 2000 on the grounds that Judith Nathan was had likewise expressed that she is the ideal individual, and they were closest companions. However, he and Nathan got hitched on May 24, 2003, and brought forth their youngster Whitney where; this was Nathan's third marriage. Afterward, he expressed that his relationship is just acceptable with his youngsters, where it was discovered that he was playing around with his child Andrew.
From that point forward, Nathan petitioned for the separation, and they got separated lawfully chosen December 10, 2019, subsequent to living in 15 years of marriage life.
Ethnicity and Physical Stats
Rudy Giuliani holds an American ethnicity where his folks were Italian migrants. He is presently 76 years of age, where his tallness is 5 feet 11 inches (180cm/1.8m), with a load of 74kg. He had got light earthy colored eyes with white hair.
Early Life and Education
In 1951, Rudy Giuliani moved from Brooklyn to Garden City South when he was just seven years of age. From that point forward, he joined a nearby Catholic school, St. Anne's. He returns to Brooklyn to show up in Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, where he graduated in 1961. He additionally joined Manhattan College, where he took the significant subjects like political theory with a minor in philosophy. He likewise turned into the leader of his group and furthermore went to the Phi Rho Pi brotherhood.
In 1965, he was graduated, and from that point onward, in 1968, he showed up in New York University School of Law, where he had the option to make NYU Law Review and graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor certificate. Afterward, she started his life as a Democrat, where he had additionally chipped in mission of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and during the 1960s, he functioned as Democratic Party Committeeman. He additionally casted a ballot in 1972 to George McGovern.
Vocation
After Rudy Giuliani was moved on from graduate school, he functioned as an assistant for the adjudicator Lloyd Francis MacMahon which was in the United States District Judge for the south of New York. Later he was renamed as 1-A with the goal that he was not called up for administration. From that point onward, he made his consideration on sentenced for defilement of Democratic U.S Representative Bertram L. Podell (NY-13).
During the 1980s, Rudy Giuliani had driven the government indictment of the New York City mafia, where he was as U.S Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Afterward, he was unable to win the New York Mayoral political decision in 1989, however he got fruitful in 1993, where he was reappointed in 1997, and he made it hard for those in wrongdoing. From that point onward, he filled in as the chairman of New York City from 1994 to 2001. From that point forward, he puts a New York City's new police official to William Bratton. He additionally changed the police office's practices, organization, and strategies by applying the messed up window hypothesis.
They center around the critical issue that makes more wrongdoings, and from what individuals were apprehensive like, they attempted to zero in on the issues like social problem, lottery addicts, prostitution, and then some. It likewise centers around thoroughly eliminating the sex clubs, homeless people, and a lot more cases. They additionally made individuals consider their family's qualities and give great vibes into their general public to know about that. From that point onward, he was seen battling for the US Senate seat from New York, which was against Hillary Clinton, however she couldn't make it due to his prostate malignancy.
At the point when he was in his civic chairman position, there was a fear monger assault in 2001, from where he was likewise named as Time magazine's Person of the Year 2001. Afterward, in 2002 he was regarded by Elizabeth II, who was the sovereign of the United Kingdom. Subsequent to getting bunches of achievement in his work, numerous individuals scrutinized him by saying he was the C-in addition to civic chairman. He was not that An or more civic chairman but rather figured out how to do his obligation despite the fact that individuals scrutinized him consistently.
Afterward, Rudy Giuliani achieved a security counseling business, "Giuliani Partners," in 2002, which was sold early. From that point onward, he goes to a law office in 2005, which was renamed Bracewell and Giuliani. Giuliani had filled quick in his profession, however later, he was seen low in the Primary political decision he was pulling out from her position. He was additionally unfit to run for the New York lead representative in 2010 and the "Conservative official designation in 2012. Afterward, he concentrated on his business firms, and he additionally got the greeting for public talking, political critique, and Republican mission uphold.
In 2018 April, Rudy Giuliani likewise turned into the piece of President Donald Trump's legitimate group. Turning into an Attorney of Trump's, he was returned into media security, including a claim of defilement and profiteering. From that point onward, in the year 2019, he was under government examination to disregard campaigning laws. Different charges were incorporated and known as a focal figure in the Trump-Ukraine outrage, which brought about the denunciation of Trump.
Total assets
The assessed total assets of Rudy Giuliani is $45 million.
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2020 Watch: Trump navigates chaos after his Oklahoma rally
NEW YORK — Presidential politics move fast. What we’re watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:
Days to next set of primaries (New York and Kentucky): 1
Days to general election: 134
___
THE NARRATIVE
President Donald Trump’s campaign relaunch is off to a rocky start, and his Republican critics are getting louder as coronavirus infections continue to surge.
There were thousands of empty seats at the Oklahoma arena where Trump hosted his comeback rally on Saturday, an embarrassing development at an event designed to showcase the Republican president’s strength. Aides were scrambling to explain away the poor optics as they juggled damaging headlines on other fronts.
Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton’s much-anticipated book will be formally released this week. Bolton becomes the latest in a long line of former Trump aides to raise dire warnings about the president’s job performance. At the same time, the president is trying to distance himself from Attorney General William Barr’s firing of the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who was forced out in the midst of investigating Trump’s allies.
As Trump navigates continued chaos, voters in New York and Kentucky head to the polls on Tuesday in another set of primary elections that will test the nation’s ability to host fair elections in the age of the coronavirus.
___
THE BIG QUESTIONS
What happened in Tulsa?
The political world was genuinely surprised to see thousands of empty seats at Trump’s comeback rally in Oklahoma over the weekend. Critics often question the president’s grasp of policy, his discipline and his character, but before Tulsa, few people questioned his ability to pack an arena.
Was the relatively low turnout simply an anomaly caused by fears of protests, the pandemic or social media trolls? Or was it a legitimate sign that the energy behind Trump’s reelection is fading?
For a president obsessed with crowd size, this is clearly an embarrassing development that will linger into the week, even if Joe Biden might well have struggled to draw a crowd like Trump did. And perhaps more importantly, the finger-pointing inside Trump’s campaign will intensify ahead of a possible staff shakeup.
Will voting problems continue?
Primary voters across New York and Kentucky offer another high-profile test Tuesday for the nation’s election system amid continued coronavirus concerns. After a series of disturbing recent trends in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada, election experts are worried.
Georgia voters waited as long as five hours to cast ballots earlier in the month, a problem that disproportionately affected voters of colour. And a surge in mail balloting created days-long delays in reporting final results in Pennsylvania, among other states.
Trump and Biden face no real opposition this week, so we’ll be paying particular attention to a handful of key Democratic congressional primaries. In Kentucky, Democrats will decide if establishment favourite Amy McGrath or underdog progressive state Rep. Charles Booker takes on Mitch McConnell this fall. And in New York, former school principal Jamaal Bowman has a legitimate chance to defeat 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel.
Has Democratic overconfidence become a problem?
As Trump’s chaotic presidency continues, Democrats are increasingly under pressure to guard against overconfidence. That’s easier said than done, especially as Trump’s own advisers privately worry about his reelection prospects and a stream of public polls raise the prospect of a Biden victory.
Biden’s numbers may be strong more than four months out, but it’s easy to forget that he struggled badly to energize voters in early primary contests. And few progressive activists seem genuinely excited about his candidacy.
Biden’s campaign and its allies will have their hands full in the coming weeks and months maintaining a real sense of urgency in its supporters. History suggests that fear of Trump alone is not enough.
How much damage will Bolton do?
While the most damning details have already been reported, Bolton’s book, “The Room Where It Happened,” is scheduled for formal release on Tuesday. That means Trump is far from past the negative attention related to the book, which he ensured would remain a bestseller by suing unsuccessfully to block its publication.
Bolton, who worked alongside Trump in the White House for nearly a year and a half, has already called the president unfit for office. He tops a remarkable list of people who have worked closely with Trump and raised similar concerns.
In recent weeks alone, former Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis called Trump a threat to the Constitution; Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff John Kelly agreed; and one of the administration’s highest ranking African Americans, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, resigned to protest Trump’s stance on racial justice.
Will Trump’s attacks on Biden’s mental capacity work?
Lest anyone think some things might be off limits in 2020, the Trump campaign ramped up its attacks on Biden’s age, health and mental capacity last week by launching a website suggesting he’s “barely there.” Among a series of the gaffe-prone Biden’s career lowlights, the site notes that Biden forgot when he had a brain aneurysm: “Both of his brain aneurysms were in 1988.”
Trump’s campaign is well aware that Biden has siphoned away some of his support among older Americans, a trend that could prove extremely detrimental for Trump in several states come November, especially in Florida. Is this the kind of message that might help Trump win back older voters? One thing is clear: The deeply personal attack has become a pillar of Trump’s 2020 strategy, and the president’s team has the money and the willingness to take it as far as it needs to.
___
THE FINAL THOUGHT
As bad as it looks for Trump’s reelection right now, 134 days is a lifetime in presidential politics. His team has only begun to spend its tremendous resources to persuade swing state voters, the candidates have yet to debate and Biden’s flaws aren’t going away.
___
2020 Watch runs every Monday and provides a look at the week ahead in the 2020 election.
___
Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, “Ground Game.”
Steve Peoples, The Associated Press
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Who Are The Two Republicans Running Against Trump
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Who Are The Two Republicans Running Against Trump
Who Is Not Running For The Seat:
Donald Trump: I’m running against two parties
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan
Once a back-bencher in the Georgia House, the former professional baseball player won a surprising runoff victory in the 2018 GOP primary over David Shafer and then raced to a general election win.
In Georgias No. 2 job, hes allied himself tightly to Kemp and was one of the early supporters of Loeffler even as he butted heads with fellow Republicans in the fractious Georgia Senate he presides over.
He earned national attention and Trumps fury during the runoffs as he appeared frequently on cable news to counter false claims of widespread voter fraud and urge Republicans to stand up to Trumps attempts to overturn the election.
Now, he often talks of a GOP 2.0 that tilts further away from Trump and toward big-tent conservativism. He said in March that he wouldnt run for the U.S. Senate. He also is not running for another term as lieutenant governor.
Former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins
A four-term Republican congressman from the conservative bastion of Gainesville, Collins aggressively pitched himself for the open U.S. Senate seat following Isaksons resignation and was spurned by Kemp despite Trumps initial support.
He and his allies pilloried Loeffler as a squishy moderate long before he entered the 2020 Senate race, and the two exchanged vicious barbs throughout the campaign.
Attorney General Chris Carr
Former Chief Justice Harold Melton
State Sen. Burt Jones
Why Donald Trump Is Republicans’ Worst Nightmare In 2024
Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Earlier this week, amid a rambling attack on the validity of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump said this: “Interesting that today a poll came out indicating I’m far in the lead for the Republican Presidential Primary and the General Election in 2024.”
“Trump is confiding in allies that he intends to run again in 2024 with one contingency: that he still has a good bill of health, according to two sources close to the former president. That means Trump is going to hang over the Republican Party despite its attempts to rebrand during his exile and its blockade of a Trump-centric investigation into January’s insurrection.”“Manhattan prosecutors pursuing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump, his company and its executives have told at least one witness to prepare for grand jury testimony, according to a person familiar with the matter — a signal that the lengthy investigation is moving into an advanced stage.”
Maryland Gov Larry Hogan
Hogan, 64, is a two-term governor and cancer survivor who underwent chemotherapy while in office. He was declared cancer-free in 2015. A moderate, Hogan told The Washington Post that he saw the 2024 Republican primary as a competition between 10 or 12 or more people fighting in the same lane to carry on the mantle of Donald Trump and another lane straight up the middle that would be much less crowded. Though he said it was too early to say whether he saw himself in that lane, Hogan wrote in his 2020 memoir Still Standing that members of Trumps cabinet approached him about challenging Trump in the GOP 2020 primary.
Florida Gov Ron Desantis
DeSantis narrowly beat out Trump in a straw poll at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver last month, but his greatest strength could also prove to be his greatest weakness. Praised by Republicans as a next-generation Trump, it could put him on a collision course with Trump should both run.
DeSantis is up for reelection next year, and hes purposely avoided Iowa to not drive 2024 speculation, according to Politico. Still, hes building out a gubernatorial record sure to please primary voters. Name a top Republican issue today, chances are DeSantis has signed a bill and/or has run Facebook ads about it.
Hes signed bills banning vaccine passports,restricting ballot drop boxes and voting by mail, and setting mandates for civics curriculum in the state. Another bill prohibiting deplatforming was signed into law in May, but a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Wednesday, arguing it likely violates social media networks First Amendment freedom of speech rights. Hes run Facebook ads about critical race theory and transgender athletes in sports.
But DeSantis has backed away from partisanship when responding to the building collapse in Surfside, Florida. The first-term governor welcomed President Joe Biden to the state last week when he visited to meet with families and survivors. Youve recognized the severity of this tragedy from day one and youve been very supportive, DeSantis said of Biden.
Read Liz Cheney’s Full Statement In Support Of Trump’s Impeachment
But five of the pro-impeachment members are battle-tested incumbents in crucial swing seats that Republicans need to hold. That includes Rep. David Valadao , who is close to McCarthy and just won back his seat after losing in 2018; Rep. Fred Upton , a House veteran whom Republicans are desperately trying to prevent from retiring; Rep. Peter Meijer , a freshman who replaced retiring Trump critic Justin Amash; and Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler , one of the only Republicans to represent a district touching the Pacific Ocean.
While the makeup of their constituencies are likely to change somewhat in redistricting, all five ran ahead of Trump to secure their reelections. Trump handily lost Valadaos and Rep. John Katkos districts in 2020 and 2016 and carried the other three with 51 percent of the vote or less.
President Trump can play in any open seat he wants. That’s fine, said Sarah Chamberlain, the head of the center-right Republican Main Street Partnership. But to challenge the Main Street members, frankly, and have them lose a primary with the majority on the line Emmers absolutely right. I don’t know if whoever beats them in a primary can win a general.
If ultra-conservative or pro-Trump candidates were to prevail in primaries for some of those swing seats, the GOP risks losing the general elections in those districts, said Cole, a former NRCC chair. Thats a concern,” he added.
Winning the majority to me is not worth selling our soul, he added.
Filed Under:
Sen Ted Cruz Of Texas
During his remarks at the Faith & Freedom Coalition Road to Majority conference in Florida last month, Cruz said that a conservative revival is coming and hearkened back to the Reagan revolution. It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan, he said. Joe Biden is Jimmy Carter 2.0. Left unsaid, but implied, is that Cruz sees himself as the Reagan 2.0 who will ensure Biden is a one-term president.
Cruz said at that conference that having social conservative or patriotic views can get you canceled, and its time to fight back. He also recited a favorite quote from the late Andrew Breitbart who said politics is downstream from culture, and said the phrase was now outdated. Today, politics is culture, Cruz said, which might help explain why he signaled his support to free Britney Spears from her conservatorship the day after her court testimony.
Cruz has begun making endorsements in other races, including Susan Wright in the runoff for Texas 6th Congressional District later this month, as well as former Rep. Matt Salmon in Arizonas gubernatorial race next year. While Republicans are undoubtedly happy to have Cruzs support, Democrats like it, too, at least in Virginia, where fundraising emails from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe that mention Cruzs endorsement of his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin bring in big bucks, per the Dallas Morning News.
More Gop Challengers Line Up Against Trump More States Cancel Their Primaries
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump now has three GOP primary challengers, but they won’t be given a chance to compete in at least four states after Republicans there decided to scrap their presidential nominating contests in favor of supporting Trump.
The Republican parties of Nevada and South Carolina, both crucial early nominating states, voted this weekend not to hold contests, as did Kansas and Arizona.
“With no legitimate primary challenger and President Trump’s record of results, the decision was made to save South Carolina taxpayers over $1.2 million and forgo an unnecessary primary,” South Carolina GOP Chairman Drew McKissick said in a statement. “President Trump and his administration have delivered for South Carolinians, and we look forward to ensuring that Republican candidates up and down the ballot are elected in 2020.”
Iowa Republican Presidential Caucuses
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The 2020 Iowa Republican presidential caucuses took place on Monday, February 3, 2020, as the first caucus or primary in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2020 presidential election. The Iowa caucuses are a closed caucus, with Iowa awarding 40 pledged delegates to the Republican National Convention, allocated on the basis of the results of the caucuses. Incumbent president Donald Trump received about 97 percent of the vote to clinch 39 delegates, while Bill Weld received enough votes to clinch 1 delegate.
Heres Whos Running Against Trump
Is There Any Republican That Would Actually Run Against Trump?
So whos decided to try to run against Trump so far?
Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, who ran in the Libertarian VP spot in 2016, is running for President as a Republican.
Donald Trump, by turns arrogant and paranoid, has made no secret of the fact that he wishes to be crowned as President rather than elected. That might be fine in a monarchy, but we overthrew ours two centuries ago.https://t.co/EzHZ2yeFxJ
The One Place House Republicans Want To Be Trump
Republicans are sounding the alarm that his attempts to meddle in primaries could hurt the partys efforts to win back the majority.
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Republicans have a message for Donald Trump: stay out of our primary races.
As Trump ramps up his revenge tour against the House Republicans who voted to impeach him, GOP lawmakers are sounding the alarm that his attempts to meddle in primaries could hurt the partys efforts to win back the House next year, especially in critical swing districts in New York, Michigan and California. With just five seats between the GOP and the House majority, any one race could determine the balance.
The loudest warning shot came Wednesday from Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, who told POLITICO Playbook he planned to urge the former president to refrain from playing in primaries. Thats not going to be helpful, he said. Its probably better for us that we keep these people.
That’s not to say Republicans don’t see Trump still playing a role in the future of the party. But an increasing number of them from across the conference are echoing Emmer, pleading with Trump to back off even as they simultaneously acknowledge the former commander in chief is a private citizen and can do whatever he wants.
I look forward to working with each member of our conference in support of their re-election efforts, McCarthy said in the statement. We will take back the House in November 2022.
Who Is Considering A Run:
Herschel Walker
Georgia Republicans have been buzzing with the rumor that the UGA football legend and friend of Trumps could challenge Warnock next year. And the former president has chimed in, to join the fray.
Walker emerged as a voice for far-right conservative causes during Trumps term in the White House and spoke in support of the president at last years Republican National Convention.
He also has a history of violent and erratic behavior, some of which he outlined in a 2008 book that detailed his long struggle with mental illness. Subsequent reports exposed questionable business dealings, threats he leveled against his ex-wife and other issues that could factor into a campaign.
Polls show him as the front-runner in the GOP race, thanks in part to his soaring name recognition. He would be helped by Trumps boast that Walker would be unstoppable in a campaign.
Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler
The former financial executive was tapped by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill Isaksons seat in hopes of winning back women and more moderate voters who were disgusted by Trump.
Instead, Loefflers short stint in the Senate turned into a race to the partys right, as she dueled with Collins for the hearts of conservatives and pumped more than $31 million of her own money into her campaign.
Shes said shes weighing a comeback bid but that I dont know if any Republican can win if we dont shore up what were doing around voter registration, engagement and election integrity.
The 2024 Republican Presidential Candidate Wild Cards
The first Democratic debate back in 2019 had 20 TWENTY! candidates, so dont be surprised if the Republican field is just as large or larger. We could have some more governors or representatives run, or even other nontraditional candidates, like a Trump family member, a Fox News host or a celebrity, like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, whos said hes seriously considering a run. Stranger things have happened.
What Happened: Arizona Turned Blue In The 2020 Presidential Election But The Republicans Still Control The State
Reflecting broader democratic shifts, recent decades have seen big changes in politics in Arizona: moving from deep red Republican domination to a particular shade of purple over the last decade. Eldrid Herrington maps how these changes have played out in recent years, the 2020 general election, and what they might mean moving forward.
Following the 2020 US General Election, our mini-series,What Happened? explores aspects of elections at the presidential, Senate, House of Representative and state levels, and also reflects on what the election results will mean for US politics moving forward. If you are interested in contributing, please contact Rob Ledger or Peter Finn .
At 2.14pm on the 6th of January 2021, as Congress conducted its ceremonial Electoral Vote count, Paul Gosar of Arizona was addressing the US House of Representatives, challenging the electoral votes in his own state, when he and his colleagues had to be rushed out of the chamber and taken to safety elsewhere in the Capitol building. Hours later, when the legislature returned, almost all Republican representatives from Arizona persisted in repeating the lie that their party did not, in fact, lose the elections in the state .
Republicans Cannot Promise To Check Biden While Also Claiming That He Lost
A lot is riding on Januarys two U.S. Senate runoff elections in Georgia: For the GOP, winning at least one of these races would mean narrowly retaining control of one house of Congress, and with it the ability to preserve the filibuster rule and maintain a check on the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and incoming Democratic president. Those two races should be the Republican Partys highest priority.
But the biggest threat to Republicans in those races might not be their runoff opponents or the Democratic Party apparatus. Right now, it might be a Republican: outgoing President Trump.
Its no surprise that Trump has gone all in on questioning the results in his losing reelection bid. After his very first electoral contest, the 2016 Iowa Republican caucuses, which he lost to Sen. Ted Cruz , Trump said that Cruz stole the election and claimed that a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified. Ahead of Election Day 2016, Trump said that election is going to be rigged. Even after he won, and became president, he convened a voter fraud commission, maintaining that fraud was the reason his opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, had a popular vote tally millions higher than his. It is Trumps approach whenever he loses or expects to lose, including in the election he just lost:
Trump Takes Two Punches From Gop
It’s been a tough week for former President TrumpDonald TrumpProgressive Democratic lawmakers urge Biden to replace Powell as Fed ChairCautious scrutiny of COVID origins marks a win for US intelligence agenciesJan. 6 panel seeks records of those involved in ‘Stop the Steal’ rallyMORE. Trump’s preferred candidate in a special House election in Texas lost on Tuesday to another Republican who was likely boosted by some protest votes against the former president. And on Wednesday, 17 Senate Republicans voted to advance a bipartisan infrastructure deal that Trump spent weeks railing against. While Trump remains a towering figure in the GOP, the back-to-back blows have led some to question whether his influence may have started to wane since he left office.
What Makes The 2024 Presidential Election Unique
The lead up to the 2024 presidential election is different from past years because of former President Donald Trump. Hes eligible to run for a second term, and has publicly toyed with the idea while also weighing in on other Republicans he thinks could be the future of the party. If Trump does run in 2024, hed start out with unparalleled name ID and massive support, but if he doesnt, the field could be wide open for other Republicans hoping to win over his supporters. President Joe Biden said recently he expects to run for reelection in 2024.
Related
Golden Trump statue at CPAC 2021 was no graven image, according to the artist
This early on, wannabe candidates must raise their profiles, show their commitment to the party, and raise money, one Republican strategist said, to get on peoples radars even when your candidacy is in a holding pattern.
Some of the most visible 2024 presidential candidates will surely flame out long before the Iowa caucus, and theres always the chance that the next Republican nominee isnt yet considered a serious player . Theres a million and one things that will happen between now and then that will shape the race in ways we cant now predict, but the invisible primary that comes before any votes are cast has started.
Heres your very early guide to some of 2024s Republican presidential candidates, based on early polling, interviews with Republican donors and strategists and results from online political betting markets.
Four State Republican Parties Cancel 2020 Primaries To Protect Trump’s Re
Trumps GOP Rival Challenges SNLs Trump? To Debate On The Beat | The Beat With Ari Melber | MSNBC
South Carolina’s move is an attempt to sideline the states former Republican governor, Mark Sanford, who on Sunday declared his intention to challenge the president in the GOP primary. Also in the running against Trump are former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld.
Trump was asked Monday if he would debate any of his Republican rivals.
“I don’t know them,” the president responded. “I would say this: They are all at less than 1 percent. I guess it’s a publicity stunt. We just got a little while ago 94 percent popularity or approval within the Republican party. So to be honest, I’m not looking to get them any credibility. They have no credibility.”
He added, “One was a person that voted for Obama, ran as a vice president four years ago and was soundly defeated, another one got thrown out after one term in Congress and he lost in a landslide and the third one Mr. Appalachian trail he wasn’t on the Appalachian trial; he was in Argentina.”
Sanford, a conservative who clashed with Trump when he served in Congress, said on MSNBC on Monday that he’s running because Republicans have turned their back on their values in favor of personal allegiance to Trump.
“Right now, the sun, moon and stars too often basically orbit around Donald Trump, Sanford said of the attitude of the GOP. “And if it’s not personal allegiance to him, not issue allegiance or idea allegiance, but if it’s not personal allegiance, it’s not good enough.”
Roque Rocky De La Fuente
An entrepreneur and businessman whos had a career in car sales, banking, and real estate development, Roque De La Fuente, known as Rocky, is accustomed to running for public office. in 2016, he sought the Democratic party nomination, then ran as Reform Party and self-funded American Delta Party candidate in the same election, coming in eight in the popular vote. In 2018, he sought the nomination in nine senate raceswinning none. In May 2019, De La Fuente announced his candidacy to challenge Trump in the 2020 election.
De La Fuentes name is on the ballot in a dozen states, and he owns businesses and property in several of them. His program reflects the candidate bipartisan inclination. De La Fuente talks about gun control, immigration reform that unites families, not divides them, promises to match immigrants with job shortage, and supports environmental protection and investment in renewable energy.
Age: 65 Years in political office: 0
Who gives him money: Himself.
Biggest idea for the economy: Match immigrants with job shortages, invest in renewable energy to create new jobs.
Social media following: 65,400, : 241,000.
Who will like this candidate: Moderate Republicans, conservative independents.
Who will hate this candidate: Trump supporters.
Florida Mayor: Desantis Is Treating Children As Political Pawns
The passage of a sweeping infrastructure plan in the Senate on Tuesday gives both parties plenty of ammunition heading into a midterm campaign season — look no further than the most competitive Senate seats for how that will play out.
Opinion Polling For The 2020 Republican Party Presidential Primaries
This is a list of nationwide and statewide public opinion polls that have been conducted relating to the Republican primaries for the 2020 United States presidential election. The persons named in the polls are declared candidates or have received media speculation about their possible candidacy. The polls included are among Republicans or Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. If multiple versions of polls are provided, the version among likely voters is prioritized, then registered voters, then adults.
Democrats Sweat Turnout Disaster In California Without Trump To Run Against
Without Trump on the ballot, California Democrats are trying to motivate voters.
In a heavily Democratic state where Gov. Gavin Newsom beat his Republican opponent in 2018 by 3 million votes, the recall stands within a few percentage points of passing next month. | Jeff Chiu/AP Photo
08/26/2021 02:34 PM EDT
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LOS ANGELES Donald Trump could swing the California governorship to a Republican. Merely by his absence.
Democrats turned out in record numbers when they had Trump to vote against. But in one of the first, large-scale tests of voter enthusiasm for Democrats in the post-Trump era, Californias surprisingly close gubernatorial recall election is laying bare just how hard it may be for the party to motivate its base without Trump as a foil.
Even in this bastion of progressive politics, ominous signs for the Democratic Party are everywhere. A last week found voters who cast ballots for Joe Biden were less likely than Trump supporters to be very closely following the recall and less motivated to vote. In a Berkeley-IGS survey, registered Democrats and independent voters were nearly 30 percentage points less likely than Republicans to express a high level of interest in voting in the election.
Can Democrats win without having Trump as their foil? This is the challenge, said Gray Davis, the former California governor who was recalled in 2003.
Were going to find out pretty soon,” he said in an interview.
He said, We have to rise to the challenge.
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The Ever-Trumpers: ‘I never expected consistency, so I’m not surprised or shocked’
A little more than a year ago, as Donald Trump was solidifying his frontrunner status for the Republican nomination in the face of a mounting toll of gaffes and outrageous pronouncements, Yahoo News set out to answer the question that had many establishment Republicans scratching their heads: Who are his supporters, anyway? In a series of profiles, we explored the backgrounds and beliefs of voters who had fallen early and hard for Trump. Now, with the president’s approval ratings near historic lows, we have gone back to these voters for their views about his presidency as it nears the 100-day mark. Are they disappointed that Obamacare hasn’t been repealed? Excited by the administration’s stepped-up deportation efforts? Dismayed by reports of chaos in the White House? Or energized by the president’s continued outspokenness? Here is one of those reports. Links to the others and a summary of what we found are here. [link to intro].
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In recent days, Beltway pundits have taken to speculating that President Trump’s rapid-fire reversals on a dizzying array of subjects — Syria, Russia, NATO, China, the Export-Import Bank — might strike his voters as a betrayal of sorts: proof that the candidate they cast their ballots for isn’t the president they wanted him to be.
But for Ron Vance, at least, Trump’s willingness to change positions — his “flexibility”— is precisely the reason he voted for the Manhattan mogul in the first place.
“He’s unpredictable — and I see that as a positive, not as a negative,” the 60-year-old insurance agent from Pahrump, Nev., told Yahoo News. “He’s a salesman, not a diplomat. He’s a master marketer, not a bureaucratic manager. He’s a macromanager, not a micromanager. He likes controversy. He likes confrontation. He’s an entrepreneur. He has always said, ‘If something doesn’t work, let’s try it another way. Let’s rethink the process. Let’s get back to work and get the job done.’ I never expected consistency, so I’m not surprised or shocked. I’m liking it.”
Back in March 2016, we profiled Vance as part of a series of portraits of the real people supporting Trump in the Republican presidential primary. Vance was “the independent”: a college-educated social liberal who’d previously cast ballots for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, John McCain and Mitt Romney (and who even admitted that Hillary Clinton was his No. 2 pick for the presidency, after Trump but ahead of the other Republicans who were still in the race at that time).
When Trump was elected, Vance called it “one of the happiest days of my life,” citing Trump’s deal-making résumé and his “good common horse sense” as signs that the “bomb-throwing” outsider might actually shake up Washington at last.
So what does Vance think of Trump now, 100 days into his presidency?
“If I had to give him a grade,” he said, “I’d give him an A-minus.”
Though Vance said he would dock the president a few points for failing to “overthrow” Obamacare, otherwise he’s pleased — especially by the aspects of Trump’s presidency that seem to scare the Breitbart wing of his base.
“Trump is listening to a lot more advisers,” Vance said. “This whole Steve Bannon thing — Bannon is pretty far out there. But otherwise Trump has some very, very competent people in there, and I’m glad he’s turning to them for advice.
“I’ll throw out a few names,” he continued. “Gary Cohn, the chief economic adviser, from Goldman Sachs. Richard LeFrak [a New York real estate developer]. Stephen Ross [another real estate developer]. Stephen Schwarzman from Blackstone. These are the people on the economic side — on job growth — that we’re going to be hearing more from over the next three and a half years. Other people might not like that he’s listening to a Democrat [Cohn], but I don’t have a problem with it, being an independent.”
Vance supports abortion rights, and he thinks the GOP’s “obstructionist” decision to “stonewall” President Barack Obama’s “qualified” Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, was “wrong.” But when asked to single out Trump’s biggest achievement to date, he immediately named Neil Gorsuch.
“It’s a slam-dunk,” Vance said. “Five stars. The guy is 49 years old. In 30 years I’ll be long gone, but Gorsuch will be making decisions that will affect this country in, I think, a positive way.”
As for Trump’s biggest flop, Vance said he’s confused about the president’s unfounded allegation that Obama tapped his phones during the election — and many of the other “lightning bolts” that Trump tweets out in the wee hours of the morning, seemingly to sow “chaos” and “discord.”
“I don’t think the wiretapping thing is true,” Vance said. “I don’t know why he brings it up. He’s a little thin-skinned, and his Twitter is a little crazy at times. So he can lay off some of that stuff.”
Looking forward, Vance is eager for tax reform — he expects it to benefit his Allstate insurance business — and he can’t wait for the so-called wall.
“They can’t build it high enough or fast enough for me,” he said. “It’s not the answer — but it’s a good start.”
Still, after a campaign in which Trump promised a less interventionist foreign policy, Vance is concerned about the president’s recent muscle flexing in Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea. He’s wary of another George W. Bush.
“Trump has surrounded himself with three generals at really high positions,” Vance said, naming Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. “The military always thinks there’s a military solution to these problems. And that’s not always the case. I hope Gary Cohn and Schwarzman and these other guys put their nose to the grindstone in terms of getting back to putting America first — our economy — and don’t spend an inordinate amount of time with these other countries. I don’t want to see us going down a rabbit hole, dropping big MOAB bombs every week over in Afghanistan.”
If Vance has a message for his fellow voters — both the liberals who are resisting Trump’s agenda at every turn and the conservatives who fear Trump isn’t really one of them — it’s this: “There’s no need to push the panic button.”
“The presidency is not a sprint,” Vance said. “This whole ‘first 100 days’ thing started back in 1933 when Franklin D. Roosevelt took office. The country was in dire straits. We had 20 to 25 percent unemployment. The stock market was crashed. Banks were closing every day. We’re not in those same times. I don’t care if Hillary got elected or Trump got elected. The presidency is far and away the most difficult job on earth. It’s a learning process. And Trump’s learning, he’s growing, he’s adapting.”
Vance paused as he searched for the right analogy. “It would be like going to a basketball game and predicting who’s going to win in the first five minutes,” he finally said. “It’s ludicrous. So everybody just sit back, take a deep breath and see where this thing goes. It’s too early to pass judgment.”
#_uuid:d552f463-5af7-31f9-a947-639c8ab99aef#$First 100 Days#$Donald Trump#_revsp:Yahoo! News#_lmsid:a077000000CFoGyAAL#_author:Andrew Romano
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China, ‘Roseanne,’ Immigration: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. The tough talk on trade with China has resumed in Washington.
The Trump administration said it would proceed with a series of punitive trade-related measures on China next month, increasing pressure on Beijing as negotiations continue.
The news comes a little more than a week after the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, above, said that the trade war with China was “on hold.”
The plan is to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, and officials said a list of products affected would be released by June 15.
2. ABC canceled “Roseanne” hours after its star and co-creator, Roseanne Barr, above, posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, who was a top adviser to President Obama.
The show had just finished a smash-hit comeback season, and gotten the green light for a second one. But network executives had been worried about Ms. Barr’s Twitter feed, which was full of conspiracy theories and hateful speech.
On Tuesday, Ms. Barr wrote of Ms. Jarrett, who is African-American: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The network’s entertainment president called the statement “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
3. Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri announced that he will resign, bowing to months of pressure as he faced a felony charge, a scandal tied to an extramarital relationship and the threat of impeachment.
A newcomer to politics and former member of the Navy SEALs, the Republican was widely believed to have aspirations for higher office, perhaps even the presidency.
He remains under indictment in St. Louis on a charge of tampering with computer data, and could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
____
5. Starbucks closed 8,000 stores across the U.S. on Tuesday for companywide anti-bias training. Above, a store in Manhattan.
The training is part of its effort to improve its corporate image after the arrests of two African-American men in a Starbucks in Philadelphia last month prompted accusations of racial bias.
Starbucks teamed up with the Perception Institute, an anti-bias research and advisory group, to create the program, which will focus on how employees can better assess their own assumptions and biases.
____
6. The California primary is on June 5, and it’s one of the most anticipated voting days in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
We visited the state’s 22nd Congressional District, a rural area that went overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2016. (Above, citrus trees covered by netting there.) The seat is held by Representative Devin Nunes, a close ally of the president’s.
While he has become a lightning rod for the left, which accuses him of using his position to run interference for the president on the Russia investigation, Mr. Nunes is also considered a very safe bet to win the seat again.
7. Less than a year after Iraqi security forces and their allies recaptured Mosul from the Islamic State, the city is coming back to life.
New businesses are open and people stay out late into the evening for the first time in years. Our photographer went out to a banquet hall, an amusement park, even a bar, and found a deep sense of relief among residents.
“Everything has changed and now everything is as if nothing happened at all,” said one former soldier.
____
8. “I was a little kid, and he was God.”
For decades, Jimmy A. Williams was a prized equestrian coach at the Flintridge Riding Club in Southern California.
He died in 1993. But it’s only now that allegations of sexual abuse against him have become public. Above, Anne Kursinski, one of the country’s most decorated show jumpers, who says she was abused for years.
We talked to former students and others, and learned that he groped and kissed young girls publicly and with impunity. But few knew the extent of the abuse.
____
10. The Golden State Warriors will battle the Cleveland Cavaliers for the N.B.A. championship for the fourth straight year.
Our sports columnist writes that the Warriors “went through the regular season looking like a famous orchestra that paid too little attention to its score sheets.” Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are the “most improbable of N.B.A. championship contenders,” save for the presence of the great LeBron James, above.
Game 1 is at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, and you can watch it on ABC.
11. Finally, if you’re in New York City — or look at the social media accounts of people who are — get ready to marvel at Manhattanhenge.
For two days every spring and summer, the sunset lines up with Manhattan’s street grid, creating a gorgeous celestial spectacle. For a brief moment, the sun’s golden rays illuminate the city’s buildings and traffic with a breathtaking glow.
Some people call it “the Instagram holiday,” and it takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, at about 8:10 p.m. (Your next chance is July 12 and 13.)
Have a great night.
____
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.
And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning.
Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.
What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [email protected].
The post China, ‘Roseanne,’ Immigration: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing appeared first on World The News.
from World The News https://ift.tt/2kzrw8n via News of World
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China, ‘Roseanne,’ Immigration: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing
(Want to get this briefing by email? Here’s the sign-up.)
Good evening. Here’s the latest.
1. The tough talk on trade with China has resumed in Washington.
The Trump administration said it would proceed with a series of punitive trade-related measures on China next month, increasing pressure on Beijing as negotiations continue.
The news comes a little more than a week after the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, above, said that the trade war with China was “on hold.”
The plan is to levy 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, and officials said a list of products affected would be released by June 15.
2. ABC canceled “Roseanne” hours after its star and co-creator, Roseanne Barr, above, posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, who was a top adviser to President Obama.
The show had just finished a smash-hit comeback season, and gotten the green light for a second one. But network executives had been worried about Ms. Barr’s Twitter feed, which was full of conspiracy theories and hateful speech.
On Tuesday, Ms. Barr wrote of Ms. Jarrett, who is African-American: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The network’s entertainment president called the statement “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
3. Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri announced that he will resign, bowing to months of pressure as he faced a felony charge, a scandal tied to an extramarital relationship and the threat of impeachment.
A newcomer to politics and former member of the Navy SEALs, the Republican was widely believed to have aspirations for higher office, perhaps even the presidency.
He remains under indictment in St. Louis on a charge of tampering with computer data, and could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
____
5. Starbucks closed 8,000 stores across the U.S. on Tuesday for companywide anti-bias training. Above, a store in Manhattan.
The training is part of its effort to improve its corporate image after the arrests of two African-American men in a Starbucks in Philadelphia last month prompted accusations of racial bias.
Starbucks teamed up with the Perception Institute, an anti-bias research and advisory group, to create the program, which will focus on how employees can better assess their own assumptions and biases.
____
6. The California primary is on June 5, and it’s one of the most anticipated voting days in the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections.
We visited the state’s 22nd Congressional District, a rural area that went overwhelmingly for President Trump in 2016. (Above, citrus trees covered by netting there.) The seat is held by Representative Devin Nunes, a close ally of the president’s.
While he has become a lightning rod for the left, which accuses him of using his position to run interference for the president on the Russia investigation, Mr. Nunes is also considered a very safe bet to win the seat again.
7. Less than a year after Iraqi security forces and their allies recaptured Mosul from the Islamic State, the city is coming back to life.
New businesses are open and people stay out late into the evening for the first time in years. Our photographer went out to a banquet hall, an amusement park, even a bar, and found a deep sense of relief among residents.
“Everything has changed and now everything is as if nothing happened at all,” said one former soldier.
____
8. “I was a little kid, and he was God.”
For decades, Jimmy A. Williams was a prized equestrian coach at the Flintridge Riding Club in Southern California.
He died in 1993. But it’s only now that allegations of sexual abuse against him have become public. Above, Anne Kursinski, one of the country’s most decorated show jumpers, who says she was abused for years.
We talked to former students and others, and learned that he groped and kissed young girls publicly and with impunity. But few knew the extent of the abuse.
____
10. The Golden State Warriors will battle the Cleveland Cavaliers for the N.B.A. championship for the fourth straight year.
Our sports columnist writes that the Warriors “went through the regular season looking like a famous orchestra that paid too little attention to its score sheets.” Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are the “most improbable of N.B.A. championship contenders,” save for the presence of the great LeBron James, above.
Game 1 is at 9 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, and you can watch it on ABC.
11. Finally, if you’re in New York City — or look at the social media accounts of people who are — get ready to marvel at Manhattanhenge.
For two days every spring and summer, the sunset lines up with Manhattan’s street grid, creating a gorgeous celestial spectacle. For a brief moment, the sun’s golden rays illuminate the city’s buildings and traffic with a breathtaking glow.
Some people call it “the Instagram holiday,” and it takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, at about 8:10 p.m. (Your next chance is July 12 and 13.)
Have a great night.
____
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern.
And don’t miss Your Morning Briefing. Sign up here to get it by email in the Australian, Asian, European or American morning.
Want to catch up on past briefings? You can browse them here.
What did you like? What do you want to see here? Let us know at [email protected].
The post China, ‘Roseanne,’ Immigration: Your Tuesday Evening Briefing appeared first on World The News.
from World The News https://ift.tt/2kzrw8n via Breaking News
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When You're Expecting Your 3rd Kid, what To Assume.
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Trump finds golf isn't the way to Congress' heart
https://ryanguillory.com/trump-finds-golf-isnt-the-way-to-congress-heart/
Trump finds golf isn't the way to Congress' heart
One weekend in early June, President Donald Trump tested out his golf course diplomacy with Sen. Bob Corker, making the Tennessee Republican one of his first congressional partners at his Northern Virginia country club.
The pair shared a cart and partnered up in a match that included former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. They discussed both politics and policy – “a little of it all,” Corker recalled in an interview earlier this week – and there wasn’t much in the way of the trash talking that Trump is known for on the green.
Story Continued Below
“Honestly, it was enjoyable,” Corker told POLITICO. “You learn a lot about him personally.”
But that springtime round hasn’t stopped Corker from undercutting Trump since then, firing off a series of blistering attacks in media interviews and Twitter against a president who he characterized as in need of “adult daycare.”
Trump also didn’t have much luck with another recent golfing partner: Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. Just days after the former 2016 GOP presidential primary rivals played at the president’s members-only Virginia golf course, Paul sided against Trump on a critical budget resolution vote that the president hopes can pave the way for a wider measure cutting taxes.
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The president found some early success using golf to his advantage in office, inviting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to play with him at two of his South Florida courses in February to cement their personal relationship – a favor Abe is planning to repay by hosting a golf game when Trump visits Tokyo next weekend. But it has worked less well in Washington, where the president hasn’t been able to leverage his nearby golf club into close relationships on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s other recent golfing partner has been South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said in an interview that his two rounds with the president over back-to-back October weekends have helped pave the way for him to be critical of the White House in a way that can ultimately advance his agenda.
“I said I want to beat you on the golf course,” Graham said in an interview. “But the best thing I can do for you is tell you what I think and be respectful about it. Here’s the one thing about playing golf, and you’re getting to know someone, you’re far less likely to take gratuitous shots because you’ve spent time with them.”
Graham hasn’t missed a beat in playing this role. He recently praised Trump for assembling a strong national security team that’s “good for the Republican party.” And after a recent visit to South Carolina together aboard Air Force One, Graham jumped at the president’s offer of a helicopter ride back to the White House.
But Graham remains a critic on one of the biggest White House sore spots: the Russia investigations. The senator a few weeks before his first golf outing with Trump issued a scathing warning to the president over the notion of firing special counsel Robert Mueller, saying it “could be the beginning of the end” of his administration. Last weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham said Trump continues to have “a blind spot on Russia I still can’t figure out.”
Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt – a member of GOP leadership who cautioned that he’s “not in the club championship ranks” of golfing ability – said it wasn’t clear whether the president’s recent overtures on the golf course have been productive in building support for Republican policies.
“I don’t think it hurts,” Blunt said. “Anything that builds relationships is generally helpful, though I’d like to see…more specific votes that respond to the investment of time.”
Trump is likely at the tail end of his weekend golf trips this year to his Washington-area course. He leaves on Friday for a 12-day, five-nation Asia trip, and he won’t have many warm weekends left in 2017 by the time he returns to the capital.
Meantime, the president’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach beckons. It will open again for the season around Halloween, and Trump has his pick of three South Florida golf courses with his name on them, including one that’s a short motorcade ride from his beach home.
Trump’s bid to connect with lawmakers through golf is limited in no small part by a lack of people who play at his level. Former House Speaker John Boehner was the last congressional leader known to seriously golf. But he retired two years ago, and the current ranks of House and Senate leadership are bare when it comes to the type of quality player Trump prefers. The field of good golfers among rank-and-file members is small, too.
“I would not call it widespread at all,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat who is both a member and property owner at the president’s semi-private golf club in Ireland.
By all accounts, Trump is a top-notch player. Golf Digest in January ranked him No. 1, ahead of John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford among the 16 most recent presidents who played the game. But his skills – and desire to keep a round moving – also can work against him when it comes to finding playing companions from the political ranks.
“It’s almost that he’s too good,” said Mike Sommers, a former Boehner chief of staff. “You can’t see him driving through the rough helping someone find their ball.”
Chris Ruddy, a Trump friend and Mar-a-Lago member, said Trump only likes golfing with people around his same skill level. “He doesn’t enjoy playing with real amateurs. He likes to move around quick. Someone who isn’t great is slower,” said Ruddy, the CEO of the conservative website Newsmax.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative Freedom Caucus founder, said he plays golf on some weekends back home with his brother-in-law. But he said he’d fall into the category of amateur golfer who would suggest that Trump – should he ever offer an invitation – try looking elsewhere.
“He wouldn’t enjoy playing with me because I’m nowhere near that handicap level,” Jordan said. “If the president asks you to do something you’d consider that. But I’d also tell him, ‘Mr. President, I’m not very good. You might want to play with someone else.’”
Another obstacle for Trump to forge golfing connections in Washington: his schedule. Playing as often as he does on Saturdays and Sundays doesn’t match up well with members of Congress who make it a point to go back to their states and districts on the weekends.
Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican ranked by Golf Digest last year as the best golfer among members of Congress, said he had just discussed playing 18 holes with Trump when the president visited the Capitol for a GOP luncheon earlier this week.
“I’ve been invited for sure,” Perdue said. But Perdue said that finding a date in recent weeks has been challenging because of his commitments back in Georgia.
While Perdue said he expected to talk political shop when he does finally play golf with Trump, he also expected the round to be heavy on the social side.
“I’m not sure he’s using it as a tool,” Perdue said. “It’s a personal thing to do. This man has friends and uses it that way. He uses it to get relaxation. He uses it to think.”
Ruddy said he also didn’t see Trump as trying to use golf to win allies or policy converts. “The idea that somehow you get an inside track just because you play golf is just a nonstarter,” he said. “Trump uses it as a good way to understand people and hear them out.”
Trump repeatedly disparaged President Barack Obama for golfing as much as he did during eight years in office. But Trump has ended up playing even more golf than his Democratic predecessor.
In his first 40 weeks in office in 2009, Obama played 23 rounds of golf. Trump, during that same period of time this year, has played at least 32 rounds that have been confirmed by either the White House, social media reports or journalists traveling with the president. There have also been another 28 times where Trump was known to be at one of his country clubs and seen as likely playing golf, according to data compiled by the website Trump Golf Count.
Trump and Obama have also followed similar paths in eschewing fellow politicians as their playing partners. Obama often filled out his golfing foursome with longtime staffers and close friends. In fact, just 5 of the 333 rounds that the Democratic president played over his two terms were with members of Congress, according to a tally kept by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller. Obama only played golf three times with foreign leaders.
For Trump, the playing partners he’s had who have been publicly named have included longtime friends like New York real estate executive Richard Levine and professional athletes, including Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins and PGA professional Rory McIlroy.
Golf during Trump’s life prior to politics – and Washington — was all about making money. He frequented the links with his fellow golf-obsessed Manhattan billionaires and CEOs. His name is also attached to 12 courses in the U.S., including the iconic “Blue Monster” Doral in Miami, and five more abroad in Dubai, Ireland and Scotland.
Partisanship also wasn’t a factor in who Trump teed off with. In 2012, for example, former President Bill Clinton in a CNN interview – conducted by guest host Harvey Weinstein, standing in for Piers Morgan – volunteered this about Trump: “I love playing golf with him.”
But 2012 is not 2016. And the idea of hitting the links with the president is hardly seen as a smart career move for a Trump critic – especially in the smart phone era where club members and guests frequently post video and pictures of Trump whenever he’s at one of his courses.
“I’m not sure there’s a lot of Democrats who’d want to go out and spend four hours with him,” said Yarmuth, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and a serious golfer who plays at about the same level as the president.
Asked if he’d entertain playing golf with Trump, Yarmuth hedged. He waited nearly six years before finally getting out on a course with Obama — at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Washington in 2015.
“That’d be a very tough call for me,” Yarmuth said. “I say it because I so cherish my one presidential golf experience. I don’t want to necessarily tarnish it. I’d like to keep it as my only presidential golf memory because it was so good.”
Burgess Everett contributed to this report.
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Trump finds golf isn't the way to Congress' heart
https://ryanguillory.com/trump-finds-golf-isnt-the-way-to-congress-heart/
Trump finds golf isn't the way to Congress' heart
One weekend in early June, President Donald Trump tested out his golf course diplomacy with Sen. Bob Corker, making the Tennessee Republican one of his first congressional partners at his Northern Virginia country club.
The pair shared a cart and partnered up in a match that included former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning. They discussed both politics and policy – “a little of it all,” Corker recalled in an interview earlier this week – and there wasn’t much in the way of the trash talking that Trump is known for on the green.
Story Continued Below
“Honestly, it was enjoyable,” Corker told POLITICO. “You learn a lot about him personally.”
But that springtime round hasn’t stopped Corker from undercutting Trump since then, firing off a series of blistering attacks in media interviews and Twitter against a president who he characterized as in need of “adult daycare.”
Trump also didn’t have much luck with another recent golfing partner: Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul. Just days after the former 2016 GOP presidential primary rivals played at the president’s members-only Virginia golf course, Paul sided against Trump on a critical budget resolution vote that the president hopes can pave the way for a wider measure cutting taxes.
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The president found some early success using golf to his advantage in office, inviting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to play with him at two of his South Florida courses in February to cement their personal relationship – a favor Abe is planning to repay by hosting a golf game when Trump visits Tokyo next weekend. But it has worked less well in Washington, where the president hasn’t been able to leverage his nearby golf club into close relationships on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s other recent golfing partner has been South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said in an interview that his two rounds with the president over back-to-back October weekends have helped pave the way for him to be critical of the White House in a way that can ultimately advance his agenda.
“I said I want to beat you on the golf course,” Graham said in an interview. “But the best thing I can do for you is tell you what I think and be respectful about it. Here’s the one thing about playing golf, and you’re getting to know someone, you’re far less likely to take gratuitous shots because you’ve spent time with them.”
Graham hasn’t missed a beat in playing this role. He recently praised Trump for assembling a strong national security team that’s “good for the Republican party.” And after a recent visit to South Carolina together aboard Air Force One, Graham jumped at the president’s offer of a helicopter ride back to the White House.
But Graham remains a critic on one of the biggest White House sore spots: the Russia investigations. The senator a few weeks before his first golf outing with Trump issued a scathing warning to the president over the notion of firing special counsel Robert Mueller, saying it “could be the beginning of the end” of his administration. Last weekend on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Graham said Trump continues to have “a blind spot on Russia I still can’t figure out.”
Missouri GOP Sen. Roy Blunt – a member of GOP leadership who cautioned that he’s “not in the club championship ranks” of golfing ability – said it wasn’t clear whether the president’s recent overtures on the golf course have been productive in building support for Republican policies.
“I don’t think it hurts,” Blunt said. “Anything that builds relationships is generally helpful, though I’d like to see…more specific votes that respond to the investment of time.”
Trump is likely at the tail end of his weekend golf trips this year to his Washington-area course. He leaves on Friday for a 12-day, five-nation Asia trip, and he won’t have many warm weekends left in 2017 by the time he returns to the capital.
Meantime, the president’s private Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach beckons. It will open again for the season around Halloween, and Trump has his pick of three South Florida golf courses with his name on them, including one that’s a short motorcade ride from his beach home.
Trump’s bid to connect with lawmakers through golf is limited in no small part by a lack of people who play at his level. Former House Speaker John Boehner was the last congressional leader known to seriously golf. But he retired two years ago, and the current ranks of House and Senate leadership are bare when it comes to the type of quality player Trump prefers. The field of good golfers among rank-and-file members is small, too.
“I would not call it widespread at all,” said Rep. John Yarmuth, a Kentucky Democrat who is both a member and property owner at the president’s semi-private golf club in Ireland.
By all accounts, Trump is a top-notch player. Golf Digest in January ranked him No. 1, ahead of John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford among the 16 most recent presidents who played the game. But his skills – and desire to keep a round moving – also can work against him when it comes to finding playing companions from the political ranks.
“It’s almost that he’s too good,” said Mike Sommers, a former Boehner chief of staff. “You can’t see him driving through the rough helping someone find their ball.”
Chris Ruddy, a Trump friend and Mar-a-Lago member, said Trump only likes golfing with people around his same skill level. “He doesn’t enjoy playing with real amateurs. He likes to move around quick. Someone who isn’t great is slower,” said Ruddy, the CEO of the conservative website Newsmax.
Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative Freedom Caucus founder, said he plays golf on some weekends back home with his brother-in-law. But he said he’d fall into the category of amateur golfer who would suggest that Trump – should he ever offer an invitation – try looking elsewhere.
“He wouldn’t enjoy playing with me because I’m nowhere near that handicap level,” Jordan said. “If the president asks you to do something you’d consider that. But I’d also tell him, ‘Mr. President, I’m not very good. You might want to play with someone else.’”
Another obstacle for Trump to forge golfing connections in Washington: his schedule. Playing as often as he does on Saturdays and Sundays doesn’t match up well with members of Congress who make it a point to go back to their states and districts on the weekends.
Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican ranked by Golf Digest last year as the best golfer among members of Congress, said he had just discussed playing 18 holes with Trump when the president visited the Capitol for a GOP luncheon earlier this week.
“I’ve been invited for sure,” Perdue said. But Perdue said that finding a date in recent weeks has been challenging because of his commitments back in Georgia.
While Perdue said he expected to talk political shop when he does finally play golf with Trump, he also expected the round to be heavy on the social side.
“I’m not sure he’s using it as a tool,” Perdue said. “It’s a personal thing to do. This man has friends and uses it that way. He uses it to get relaxation. He uses it to think.”
Ruddy said he also didn’t see Trump as trying to use golf to win allies or policy converts. “The idea that somehow you get an inside track just because you play golf is just a nonstarter,” he said. “Trump uses it as a good way to understand people and hear them out.”
Trump repeatedly disparaged President Barack Obama for golfing as much as he did during eight years in office. But Trump has ended up playing even more golf than his Democratic predecessor.
In his first 40 weeks in office in 2009, Obama played 23 rounds of golf. Trump, during that same period of time this year, has played at least 32 rounds that have been confirmed by either the White House, social media reports or journalists traveling with the president. There have also been another 28 times where Trump was known to be at one of his country clubs and seen as likely playing golf, according to data compiled by the website Trump Golf Count.
Trump and Obama have also followed similar paths in eschewing fellow politicians as their playing partners. Obama often filled out his golfing foursome with longtime staffers and close friends. In fact, just 5 of the 333 rounds that the Democratic president played over his two terms were with members of Congress, according to a tally kept by CBS News reporter Mark Knoller. Obama only played golf three times with foreign leaders.
For Trump, the playing partners he’s had who have been publicly named have included longtime friends like New York real estate executive Richard Levine and professional athletes, including Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins and PGA professional Rory McIlroy.
Golf during Trump’s life prior to politics – and Washington — was all about making money. He frequented the links with his fellow golf-obsessed Manhattan billionaires and CEOs. His name is also attached to 12 courses in the U.S., including the iconic “Blue Monster” Doral in Miami, and five more abroad in Dubai, Ireland and Scotland.
Partisanship also wasn’t a factor in who Trump teed off with. In 2012, for example, former President Bill Clinton in a CNN interview – conducted by guest host Harvey Weinstein, standing in for Piers Morgan – volunteered this about Trump: “I love playing golf with him.”
But 2012 is not 2016. And the idea of hitting the links with the president is hardly seen as a smart career move for a Trump critic – especially in the smart phone era where club members and guests frequently post video and pictures of Trump whenever he’s at one of his courses.
“I’m not sure there’s a lot of Democrats who’d want to go out and spend four hours with him,” said Yarmuth, the ranking member of the House Budget Committee and a serious golfer who plays at about the same level as the president.
Asked if he’d entertain playing golf with Trump, Yarmuth hedged. He waited nearly six years before finally getting out on a course with Obama — at Joint Base Andrews in suburban Washington in 2015.
“That’d be a very tough call for me,” Yarmuth said. “I say it because I so cherish my one presidential golf experience. I don’t want to necessarily tarnish it. I’d like to keep it as my only presidential golf memory because it was so good.”
Burgess Everett contributed to this report.
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David Clarke just said he accepted a prominent role in Trump’s administration — here’s how he rode the Trump wave to stardom
Editor’s Note: Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke announced that he accepted a job as an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security on a Wisconsin radio network Wednesday. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Here’s our profile of Clarke from January 2017.
It was October 27, and David Clarke was furious with a Fox scheduler.
The outspoken Milwaukee County sheriff had been set to appear on Stuart Varney’s Fox Business show, but there was a mixup.
Clarke decided to air his frustration to the public.
“Cancel @Varneyco appearance,” the bombastic sheriff tweeted to some 400,000 followers. “Scheduling folks not on the same page with remote studio. Time lost I’ll never get back.”
Charlie Sykes, a recently retired conservative Wisconsin radio host who had been friends with Clarke for the better part of 20 years, couldn’t stay silent when he saw the tweet. As with a number of Milwaukeeans, Sykes believed that while Clarke was off becoming a media personality, he was neglecting the job the local community elected him to do — be sheriff.
And on that October day, he chose to say something.
“Maybe you could actually spend time doing your day job then?” Sykes tweeted at Clarke.
Clarke was having none of it. He blocked Sykes, an ally for more than two decades. And Clarke later tweeted — without mentioning Sykes’ name — that a “local guy claims to be a conserv & contributor @MSNBC. Sends ICYMI when he’s on. No wonder. No one watches!”
Over the course of the 2016 campaign, Clarke was elevated to the mantel of the nation’s most divisive law-enforcement figure. He emerged as one of President-elect Donald Trump’s most visible supporters on cable news, propping him up as he attempted to run a campaign heavy on law and order. He now looks set to earn an influential spot in Trump’s administration.
Milwaukee’s sheriff is adored by many on the right for his unapologetic tough talking, while he is loathed by others for making wild statements believed to be below the dignity of the office he holds.
But the “old” Clarke, as Sykes described him, was different. He had only recently been replaced by “the brand ‘Sheriff David Clarke’ who trends on Twitter and is on Fox News and is a YouTube sensation.”
“He clearly has just kind of moved on to this national stature,” Sykes said in a recent interview. “There are a lot of jobs you don’t have to show up for, but [sheriff] is one where you do.”
In Milwaukee people took notice.
Through a spokeswoman, Clarke did not accept interview invitations for this story. Business Insider spoke with several people who have known him for years.
‘The things he says transcend politics’
To understand Clarke, it’s important to gain a sense of his improbable rise to power, and his ability to maintain it against long-shot odds.
A son of a solider, he was born in 1956 in a predominantly white Milwaukee neighborhood. Early in his adult life, Clarke went into law enforcement, sworn in as a Milwaukee police officer in 1978 at age 21. He spent 24 years at the city police department, serving as a patrolman for 11 years before being promoted to homicide detective.
According to a 2003 Milwaukee Magazine profile, he fired his weapon only once on the job, shooting and wounding a Saint Bernard that lunged at him while he was investigating a break-in. He also received two merit citations, one of which was for helping to catch a man dubbed the “ski mask rapist” in 1981.
In 1993, Clarke received another promotion, this one to lieutenant of detectives. One year later, he faced a complaint from the mother of a 15-year-old boy who claimed he used excessive force when arresting her son, including putting his gun to the side of the teen’s head and kicking him in the ribs. The complaint was later dismissed when the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission ruled the evidence was insufficient to charge him.
Clarke was promoted in 1996 to captain before becoming commanding officer of the intelligence division in 1999, where most of his work involved protecting major politicians who visited town.
By 2002, he had been a member of the Milwaukee police force for 24 years. And Clarke was looking for a big break.
He got one.
Unexpectedly, the Milwaukee County sheriff at the time resigned to take an early pension payout, and Clarke applied for the job. He was chosen by Wisconsin’s Republican governor at the time, Scott McCallum, out of a crowded field of 10 applicants.
Clarke was not a widely known figure in 2002, and when his first election rolled around shortly after the appointment, the overwhelmingly Democratic Milwaukee County still had no idea he was staunchly conservative.
The community’s political leanings left no viable option for Clarke but to run as a Democrat and make it through a contested primary, as he has managed to in every election since.
“The thing about his appointment that I think has not been picked up on by a lot of people who’ve been reporting on this is when Clarke was under consideration to be chosen at sheriff, there was not any hint from anywhere that he was a conservative,” said Mark Belling, a conservative Wisconsin talk-show host. “I mean, it was from nowhere.”
“A few weeks before the primary, somebody contacted me who was working with Clarke and whose opinion I trusted; they used an intermediary to say, ‘Mark, nobody really knows this, but Clarke’s a conservative,'” Belling continued. “The Clarke that ran in that first campaign in the Democratic primary back in his first primary, he didn’t talk about any of the things he talks about now. It was just kept a complete, I wouldn’t say a secret, but the candidate talked about other things.”
Even after Clarke’s conservative views became more apparent to the masses, he kept winning Democratic primaries. In 2006, he won by 8 percentage points, before winning in 2010 by 6 and in 2014 by 4. Each year, the general election was a wipeout.
“There’s no way he should’ve survived some of the primaries he had before,” Sykes said.
Belling called his victories “extraordinary.”
“Everyone knows he’s not really a Democrat,” Belling said. “But he keeps winning these Democratic primaries, and he’s getting the support of a majority of Democratic voters despite his views that are clearly not Democratic, which tells me that the things he says transcend politics and if there is not universal acceptance, there’s more widespread acceptance for his beliefs and viewpoints than I think people realize.”
From ‘just another sheriff in the Midwest’ to ‘someone who has to be reckoned with nationally’
All the while, Clarke frequently feuded with local politicians with whom he disagreed, often finding backup on Sykes’ and Belling’s programs. He regularly found himself in hot water for politically charged rhetoric — much as he does today — aimed at black Milwaukeeans he believed were in a state of social dysfunction.
But his rants about black Americans and his full-throated defense of police during high-profile shootings were eventually what earned him a seat at the Fox News table, where he frequently appears but is not a paid contributor.
As his profile began to grow, criticism of Clarke increased. Ahead of his 2014 race, a political action committee, headed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, tossed in a large amount of money to defeat Clarke in the race, as did other state groups.
But with the backing of the National Rifle Association and conservative talk radio, he fought off his toughest challenge. The election took place just three days after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
“Those two things moved him from being just another sheriff in the Midwest to someone who has to be reckoned with nationally,” said Daniel Bice, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who has spent years covering Clarke.
Clarke relished the newfound spotlight in conservative media. He criticized President Barack Obama, claiming he had a “love affair with criminals.” He started using “Black Lies Matter” when speaking of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The hard-nosed sheriff became a frequent guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show. He also appeared on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ program.
In a 2015 op-ed, Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee went after Clarke, writing that it was time for him to “prove that he’s more than just another partisan agitator with a badge and a cowboy hat.”
“The self-proclaimed ‘people’s sheriff’ needs to drop the sideshow act and get serious,” she wrote. “Until then, I can only wonder if Sheriff Clarke is still a lawman or just a guy who plays one on TV.”
But Clarke’s brand only grew. He amassed more followers on Twitter than any political figure in the state, aside from House Speaker Paul Ryan. With his growing platform and his past interest in pursuing the job, conservative donors approached him in 2015 about the possibility of a 2016 mayoral run. But a source with knowledge of the meeting said Clarke seemed to blow off the idea.
The sheriff wanted to become a national figure.
Enter the 2016 presidential election.
Clarke became a boisterous Trump supporter and regularly skewered Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. His fiery campaign rhetoric earned him a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make something very clear: Blue Lives Matter in America!” Clarke said from the lectern at Quicken Loans Arena at the onset of his prime-time convention speech.
He campaigned for Trump along the trail, sometimes performing the opening speech before the Manhattan billionaire took the stage.
And, most of all, he appeared on television countless times in support of Trump. Clarke appeared on both Fox News and CNN dozens of times.
The most memorable moment of the campaign for Clarke came in mid-October, when polls showed Clinton comfortably ahead nationally and in key swing states. He said ahead of a Wisconsin rally that the system was “rigged” and that it was “pitchfork and torches time in America.”
The crowd went wild.
“I think the ‘pitchforks and torches’ quote introduced David Clarke and his incendiary rhetoric to the rest of the nation,” Bice said.
Sykes said he knew the sheriff wasn’t actually calling for violence. But he called the remarks hypocritical, considering Clarke had tied rhetoric from Obama and Black Lives Matter activists to violence for years.
“I almost get the sense he feels the need to become more extreme and outrageous to maintain his brand,” the former talk-show host said.
Lt. Chris Moews of the Milwaukee Police Department, who ran against Clarke in the last two primaries, put it this way: “David Clarke, really in the last six months, has come unhinged.”
‘The most divisive figure in Wisconsin politics’
The blossoming of Clarke into a national star has correlated with his diminishing presence at home.
“You do have to come home at least once in a while,” Sykes said. “And all you do is speak out on [crime], that’s been the wrap on him. Big hat, no cattle. Talks a big game but he doesn’t actually do a lot of stuff.”
After he came out in support of Trump, Sykes said Clarke has been “routinely AWOL.”
“He has to run a law-enforcement department, which has very specific responsibilities, and a city that has had a really, really tough year,” Sykes said. “And when he gets involved, it often has an almost gratuitous, grandstanding sense to it.”
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office has relatively few functions compared to other local law-enforcement entities, such as the city’s police department. Its main responsibilities are to patrol the local freeways and parks, as well as to maintain the courtrooms and the jail. In Clarke’s reduced role at the office, Bice said a pair of inspectors are running the operation.
Though Belling argued the office is carrying out its responsibilities “just fine,” Moews strongly disagreed.
“He always talks a good game, very vocal, pointing fingers, very judgmental,” Moews said, strongly underscoring he was not speaking for the department. “But when it comes to enacting proactive policing strategies that would have an impact on violent crime in Milwaukee, and in Milwaukee County, he is completely absent from the situation. One thing that has been said about him in the past is never before has anybody had so much to say about law enforcement in Milwaukee County and so little to do with it.”
Under Clarke, Moews said, the office ended the gun and narcotics units, cut freeway and park patrol, and cut “proactive units.”
In 2005, Clarke cut the office’s witness-protection program. Not long after, in 2007, 24-year-old Maurice Pulley was gunned down after testifying against a man who had shot him in the face earlier that year. The program was later revived.
And, Moews said, things have “gotten even worse.”
“David Clarke is not a team player,” he said. “He’s someone who wants to be on the forefront of the headlines, but when it really comes down to it, it’s like the real-life version of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ — pay no attention to the man behind the curtain there.”
In 2016 alone, Milwaukee faced a bevy of law-enforcement-related problems, including what Moews said is a spiked homicide rate. Although FBI Uniform Crime Statistics for 2016 have yet to be released, Milwaukee County saw a significant spike in homicides between 2014 and 2015.
In August, riots broke out in the city after the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Smith, who was black, was shot by a black officer on the police force. Body-camera footage later showed that Smith was holding a gun in his hand.
With the riots making national news, Clarke called for the National Guard to be mobilized, and he moved to shut down a neighborhood park before its regular closing time.
“And to a certain extent, that sort of embodied what has become of Sheriff Clarke,” Sykes said. “He’s often absent, but when he shows up it’s some sort of an over-the-top symbolic gesture to assert his relevance when it doesn’t really accomplish anything and people have to say, ‘What was the point of that? To shut down an entire park just because it was near where some crime was committed four days ago?'”
But Clarke’s biggest controversy at home has been the four people who have died at the jail maintained by his office. One was a man who died of dehydration; another was a newborn baby delivered by an inmate.
Clarke has been almost entirely silent on the matter until recently, when he said the jail populations are “filled with sick people who have made a lot of bad decisions that have compromised their health.”
Moore, the congresswoman from the district, tweeted that the Justice Department, with weeks to go until Trump’s inauguration, told her they’re considering an investigation into the deaths at the jail.
Clarke fired back in a lengthy post on the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. He declared that Moore was “ghost-chasing” because he played a “key role” in getting Trump elected. Clarke also criticized local Milwaukee media for getting “suckered” into “making a fake news story out of it because they love when people attack the sheriff.”
“None of these political attacks on the Sheriff started until AFTER Donald Trump won,” he wrote, with a photo of himself and Trump included in the post.
Sykes called this “regular rant about media bias” tiresome.
“At some point, you do actually have to do your job,” he said. “He goes around the country wearing that sheriffs uniform.”
Bice called him “the most divisive figure in Wisconsin politics.”
“And that’s saying a lot given that the governor went through a recall election,” he said, referring to former Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker.
Moews, who said he intends to make another run for county sheriff in 2018, called Clarke an ineffective, absent “egomaniac” who has “no interest in sharing the responsibility of the problems we’re facing.”
“He’d rather be the guy in the headlines who’s saying whatever he is saying because he’s saying a lot of outlandish things,” he said.
His future
With Trump’s unexpected election win, Clarke has a shot at a job on the national stage, one for which he’s certainly been angling.
Although he did not get the nod as the Department of Homeland Security secretary, a position for which he interviewed, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told WTMJ “we definitely” want Clarke to be involved “in the administration at some level” and that he is “going to have opportunities” to serve in the Trump White House.
Belling said the sheriff could be valuable as a policy adviser in the areas of law enforcement and homeland security.
“He has a lot of credibility with the public, and at least with the conservative public,” he said. “He is an outstanding communicator.”
Taking a post in the Trump administration would be a big change for Clarke — a Milwaukeean his whole life — as he would have to make the transition to DC.
Regardless of what his next move is, it seems widely accepted that the sheriff’s story is far from over. The more he is ridiculed for his incendiary remarks, the more popular he becomes.
“He’s offering a perspective that is shared by tens of millions of Americans, but that virtually nobody offers,” Belling said. “You also can’t get past the symbolism of the fact this is an African-American law-enforcement officer who has a very strong, tough-on-crime high-morals stance. The symbolism of Clarke is powerful. It drives his critics crazy that he’s always out there wearing the sheriff’s uniform and wearing the white hat, but that is powerful symbolism.”
“I think that’s what makes him important,” Belling added. “And it’s what drives his critics crazy.”
SEE ALSO: A poorly-worded question led the internet to freak out about 52% of Republicans thinking Trump won the popular vote
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David Clarke just said he accepted a prominent role in Trump's administration — here's how he rode the Trump wave to stardom
Editor's Note: Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke announced that he accepted a job as an assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security on a Wisconsin radio network Wednesday. The position does not require Senate confirmation.
Here's our profile of Clarke from January 2017.
It was October 27, and David Clarke was furious with a Fox scheduler.
The outspoken Milwaukee County sheriff had been set to appear on Stuart Varney's Fox Business show, but there was a mixup.
Clarke decided to air his frustration to the public.
"Cancel @Varneyco appearance," the bombastic sheriff tweeted to some 400,000 followers. "Scheduling folks not on the same page with remote studio. Time lost I'll never get back."
Charlie Sykes, a recently retired conservative Wisconsin radio host who had been friends with Clarke for the better part of 20 years, couldn't stay silent when he saw the tweet. As with a number of Milwaukeeans, Sykes believed that while Clarke was off becoming a media personality, he was neglecting the job the local community elected him to do — be sheriff.
And on that October day, he chose to say something.
"Maybe you could actually spend time doing your day job then?" Sykes tweeted at Clarke.
Clarke was having none of it. He blocked Sykes, an ally for more than two decades. And Clarke later tweeted — without mentioning Sykes' name — that a "local guy claims to be a conserv & contributor @MSNBC. Sends ICYMI when he's on. No wonder. No one watches!"
Over the course of the 2016 campaign, Clarke was elevated to the mantel of the nation's most divisive law-enforcement figure. He emerged as one of President-elect Donald Trump's most visible supporters on cable news, propping him up as he attempted to run a campaign heavy on law and order. He now looks set to earn an influential spot in Trump's administration.
Milwaukee's sheriff is adored by many on the right for his unapologetic tough talking, while he is loathed by others for making wild statements believed to be below the dignity of the office he holds.
But the "old" Clarke, as Sykes described him, was different. He had only recently been replaced by "the brand 'Sheriff David Clarke' who trends on Twitter and is on Fox News and is a YouTube sensation."
"He clearly has just kind of moved on to this national stature," Sykes said in a recent interview. "There are a lot of jobs you don't have to show up for, but [sheriff] is one where you do."
In Milwaukee people took notice.
Through a spokeswoman, Clarke did not accept interview invitations for this story. Business Insider spoke with several people who have known him for years.
'The things he says transcend politics'
To understand Clarke, it's important to gain a sense of his improbable rise to power, and his ability to maintain it against long-shot odds.
A son of a solider, he was born in 1956 in a predominantly white Milwaukee neighborhood. Early in his adult life, Clarke went into law enforcement, sworn in as a Milwaukee police officer in 1978 at age 21. He spent 24 years at the city police department, serving as a patrolman for 11 years before being promoted to homicide detective.
According to a 2003 Milwaukee Magazine profile, he fired his weapon only once on the job, shooting and wounding a Saint Bernard that lunged at him while he was investigating a break-in. He also received two merit citations, one of which was for helping to catch a man dubbed the "ski mask rapist" in 1981.
In 1993, Clarke received another promotion, this one to lieutenant of detectives. One year later, he faced a complaint from the mother of a 15-year-old boy who claimed he used excessive force when arresting her son, including putting his gun to the side of the teen's head and kicking him in the ribs. The complaint was later dismissed when the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission ruled the evidence was insufficient to charge him.
Clarke was promoted in 1996 to captain before becoming commanding officer of the intelligence division in 1999, where most of his work involved protecting major politicians who visited town.
By 2002, he had been a member of the Milwaukee police force for 24 years. And Clarke was looking for a big break.
He got one.
Unexpectedly, the Milwaukee County sheriff at the time resigned to take an early pension payout, and Clarke applied for the job. He was chosen by Wisconsin's Republican governor at the time, Scott McCallum, out of a crowded field of 10 applicants.
Clarke was not a widely known figure in 2002, and when his first election rolled around shortly after the appointment, the overwhelmingly Democratic Milwaukee County still had no idea he was staunchly conservative.
The community's political leanings left no viable option for Clarke but to run as a Democrat and make it through a contested primary, as he has managed to in every election since.
"The thing about his appointment that I think has not been picked up on by a lot of people who've been reporting on this is when Clarke was under consideration to be chosen at sheriff, there was not any hint from anywhere that he was a conservative," said Mark Belling, a conservative Wisconsin talk-show host. "I mean, it was from nowhere."
"A few weeks before the primary, somebody contacted me who was working with Clarke and whose opinion I trusted; they used an intermediary to say, 'Mark, nobody really knows this, but Clarke's a conservative,'" Belling continued. "The Clarke that ran in that first campaign in the Democratic primary back in his first primary, he didn't talk about any of the things he talks about now. It was just kept a complete, I wouldn't say a secret, but the candidate talked about other things."
Even after Clarke's conservative views became more apparent to the masses, he kept winning Democratic primaries. In 2006, he won by 8 percentage points, before winning in 2010 by 6 and in 2014 by 4. Each year, the general election was a wipeout.
"There's no way he should've survived some of the primaries he had before," Sykes said.
Belling called his victories "extraordinary."
"Everyone knows he's not really a Democrat," Belling said. "But he keeps winning these Democratic primaries, and he's getting the support of a majority of Democratic voters despite his views that are clearly not Democratic, which tells me that the things he says transcend politics and if there is not universal acceptance, there's more widespread acceptance for his beliefs and viewpoints than I think people realize."
From 'just another sheriff in the Midwest' to 'someone who has to be reckoned with nationally'
All the while, Clarke frequently feuded with local politicians with whom he disagreed, often finding backup on Sykes' and Belling's programs. He regularly found himself in hot water for politically charged rhetoric — much as he does today — aimed at black Milwaukeeans he believed were in a state of social dysfunction.
But his rants about black Americans and his full-throated defense of police during high-profile shootings were eventually what earned him a seat at the Fox News table, where he frequently appears but is not a paid contributor.
As his profile began to grow, criticism of Clarke increased. Ahead of his 2014 race, a political action committee, headed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, tossed in a large amount of money to defeat Clarke in the race, as did other state groups.
But with the backing of the National Rifle Association and conservative talk radio, he fought off his toughest challenge. The election took place just three days after Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
"Those two things moved him from being just another sheriff in the Midwest to someone who has to be reckoned with nationally," said Daniel Bice, a columnist for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel who has spent years covering Clarke.
Clarke relished the newfound spotlight in conservative media. He criticized President Barack Obama, claiming he had a "love affair with criminals." He started using "Black Lies Matter" when speaking of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The hard-nosed sheriff became a frequent guest on Sean Hannity's Fox News show. He also appeared on conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' program.
In a 2015 op-ed, Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Milwaukee went after Clarke, writing that it was time for him to "prove that he’s more than just another partisan agitator with a badge and a cowboy hat."
"The self-proclaimed 'people’s sheriff' needs to drop the sideshow act and get serious," she wrote. "Until then, I can only wonder if Sheriff Clarke is still a lawman or just a guy who plays one on TV."
But Clarke's brand only grew. He amassed more followers on Twitter than any political figure in the state, aside from House Speaker Paul Ryan. With his growing platform and his past interest in pursuing the job, conservative donors approached him in 2015 about the possibility of a 2016 mayoral run. But a source with knowledge of the meeting said Clarke seemed to blow off the idea.
The sheriff wanted to become a national figure.
Enter the 2016 presidential election.
Clarke became a boisterous Trump supporter and regularly skewered Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee. His fiery campaign rhetoric earned him a prime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make something very clear: Blue Lives Matter in America!" Clarke said from the lectern at Quicken Loans Arena at the onset of his prime-time convention speech.
He campaigned for Trump along the trail, sometimes performing the opening speech before the Manhattan billionaire took the stage.
And, most of all, he appeared on television countless times in support of Trump. Clarke appeared on both Fox News and CNN dozens of times.
The most memorable moment of the campaign for Clarke came in mid-October, when polls showed Clinton comfortably ahead nationally and in key swing states. He said ahead of a Wisconsin rally that the system was "rigged" and that it was "pitchfork and torches time in America."
The crowd went wild.
"I think the 'pitchforks and torches' quote introduced David Clarke and his incendiary rhetoric to the rest of the nation," Bice said.
Sykes said he knew the sheriff wasn't actually calling for violence. But he called the remarks hypocritical, considering Clarke had tied rhetoric from Obama and Black Lives Matter activists to violence for years.
"I almost get the sense he feels the need to become more extreme and outrageous to maintain his brand," the former talk-show host said.
Lt. Chris Moews of the Milwaukee Police Department, who ran against Clarke in the last two primaries, put it this way: "David Clarke, really in the last six months, has come unhinged."
'The most divisive figure in Wisconsin politics'
The blossoming of Clarke into a national star has correlated with his diminishing presence at home.
"You do have to come home at least once in a while," Sykes said. "And all you do is speak out on [crime], that's been the wrap on him. Big hat, no cattle. Talks a big game but he doesn't actually do a lot of stuff."
After he came out in support of Trump, Sykes said Clarke has been "routinely AWOL."
"He has to run a law-enforcement department, which has very specific responsibilities, and a city that has had a really, really tough year," Sykes said. "And when he gets involved, it often has an almost gratuitous, grandstanding sense to it."
The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office has relatively few functions compared to other local law-enforcement entities, such as the city's police department. Its main responsibilities are to patrol the local freeways and parks, as well as to maintain the courtrooms and the jail. In Clarke's reduced role at the office, Bice said a pair of inspectors are running the operation.
Though Belling argued the office is carrying out its responsibilities "just fine," Moews strongly disagreed.
"He always talks a good game, very vocal, pointing fingers, very judgmental," Moews said, strongly underscoring he was not speaking for the department. "But when it comes to enacting proactive policing strategies that would have an impact on violent crime in Milwaukee, and in Milwaukee County, he is completely absent from the situation. One thing that has been said about him in the past is never before has anybody had so much to say about law enforcement in Milwaukee County and so little to do with it."
Under Clarke, Moews said, the office ended the gun and narcotics units, cut freeway and park patrol, and cut "proactive units."
In 2005, Clarke cut the office's witness-protection program. Not long after, in 2007, 24-year-old Maurice Pulley was gunned down after testifying against a man who had shot him in the face earlier that year. The program was later revived.
And, Moews said, things have "gotten even worse."
"David Clarke is not a team player," he said. "He's someone who wants to be on the forefront of the headlines, but when it really comes down to it, it's like the real-life version of the 'Wizard of Oz' — pay no attention to the man behind the curtain there."
In 2016 alone, Milwaukee faced a bevy of law-enforcement-related problems, including what Moews said is a spiked homicide rate. Although FBI Uniform Crime Statistics for 2016 have yet to be released, Milwaukee County saw a significant spike in homicides between 2014 and 2015.
In August, riots broke out in the city after the fatal police shooting of 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Smith, who was black, was shot by a black officer on the police force. Body-camera footage later showed that Smith was holding a gun in his hand.
With the riots making national news, Clarke called for the National Guard to be mobilized, and he moved to shut down a neighborhood park before its regular closing time.
"And to a certain extent, that sort of embodied what has become of Sheriff Clarke," Sykes said. "He's often absent, but when he shows up it's some sort of an over-the-top symbolic gesture to assert his relevance when it doesn't really accomplish anything and people have to say, 'What was the point of that? To shut down an entire park just because it was near where some crime was committed four days ago?'"
But Clarke's biggest controversy at home has been the four people who have died at the jail maintained by his office. One was a man who died of dehydration; another was a newborn baby delivered by an inmate.
Clarke has been almost entirely silent on the matter until recently, when he said the jail populations are "filled with sick people who have made a lot of bad decisions that have compromised their health."
Moore, the congresswoman from the district, tweeted that the Justice Department, with weeks to go until Trump's inauguration, told her they're considering an investigation into the deaths at the jail.
Clarke fired back in a lengthy post on the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office Facebook page. He declared that Moore was "ghost-chasing" because he played a "key role" in getting Trump elected. Clarke also criticized local Milwaukee media for getting "suckered" into "making a fake news story out of it because they love when people attack the sheriff."
"None of these political attacks on the Sheriff started until AFTER Donald Trump won," he wrote, with a photo of himself and Trump included in the post.
Sykes called this "regular rant about media bias" tiresome.
"At some point, you do actually have to do your job," he said. "He goes around the country wearing that sheriffs uniform."
Bice called him "the most divisive figure in Wisconsin politics."
"And that's saying a lot given that the governor went through a recall election," he said, referring to former Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker.
Moews, who said he intends to make another run for county sheriff in 2018, called Clarke an ineffective, absent "egomaniac" who has "no interest in sharing the responsibility of the problems we're facing."
"He'd rather be the guy in the headlines who's saying whatever he is saying because he's saying a lot of outlandish things," he said.
His future
With Trump's unexpected election win, Clarke has a shot at a job on the national stage, one for which he's certainly been angling.
Although he did not get the nod as the Department of Homeland Security secretary, a position for which he interviewed, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told WTMJ "we definitely" want Clarke to be involved "in the administration at some level" and that he is "going to have opportunities" to serve in the Trump White House.
Belling said the sheriff could be valuable as a policy adviser in the areas of law enforcement and homeland security.
"He has a lot of credibility with the public, and at least with the conservative public," he said. "He is an outstanding communicator."
Taking a post in the Trump administration would be a big change for Clarke — a Milwaukeean his whole life — as he would have to make the transition to DC.
Regardless of what his next move is, it seems widely accepted that the sheriff's story is far from over. The more he is ridiculed for his incendiary remarks, the more popular he becomes.
"He's offering a perspective that is shared by tens of millions of Americans, but that virtually nobody offers," Belling said. "You also can't get past the symbolism of the fact this is an African-American law-enforcement officer who has a very strong, tough-on-crime high-morals stance. The symbolism of Clarke is powerful. It drives his critics crazy that he's always out there wearing the sheriff's uniform and wearing the white hat, but that is powerful symbolism."
"I think that's what makes him important," Belling added. "And it's what drives his critics crazy."
SEE ALSO: A poorly-worded question led the internet to freak out about 52% of Republicans thinking Trump won the popular vote
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from All About Law http://www.businessinsider.com/david-clarke-homeland-security-trump-milwaukee-fox-news-sheriff-2017-5
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