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MAGA Fans Drop Huge ‘Trump Or Death’ Banner At Yankees Game
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-07-1249/2024-presidential-election-maga-fans-drop-huge-trump-or-death-banner-yankees
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://dailycaller.com/2023/09/07/maga-fans-donald-trump-or-death-banner-new-york-yankees-game-mlb/
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Chris Christie: I’m ‘Really Concerned’ for Trump’s ‘Mental Health’
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-07-1246/2024-presidential-election-chris-christie-i-m-really-concerned-trump-s-mental
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/09/06/chris-christie-im-really-concerned-for-trumps-mental-health/
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Chris Christie: I’m ‘Really Concerned’ for Trump’s ‘Mental Health’
0 seconds of 2 minutes, 50 seconds
PAM KEY6 Sep 20231,957
1:46
Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ), a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said Wednesday on Newsmax TV’s “The Balance” that he was “really concerned” for former President Donald Trump’s “mental health.”
Host Eric Bolling said, “Donald Trump was on with Hugh Hewitt, a radio host and took some shots at you. We have a little quote box up there. I think he called you a crazy lunatic.”
Christie said, “Well, look. I feel bad for Donald. I really do. You know, he’s on there saying that I’m not very smart, that I’m very deranged. Look, he didn’t think that, Eric, in 2018 when he offered me White House chief of staff. He didn’t think that in 2016 when he offered– when he made me chairman of his transition. He didn’t think that in 2017 when he made me chairman of his opioid commission. He didn’t think of that when he offered me Secretary of Homeland Security twice and Secretary of Labor.
He continued, “So, look. I disagree with the things that Donald Trump did in the 2020 election. I disagree with the way he’s conducted himself after the fact. I think it’s bad for the country. I think it’s beneath the office he held. But when he says stuff like that about somebody who you know, supported him in 2016, prepared him for the debates with Hillary Clinton, supported him in 2020, and prepared him for the debates with Joe Biden, if I was so useless and dumb and deranged, how did all that stuff happen?”
Christie added, “It’s sad. He’s under a lot of stress and a lot of pressure, and saying these things makes me really concerned for his mental health.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
ClipsMediaPolitics2024 Presidential ElectionChris ChristieDonald TrumpEric BollingNewsmax TVRepublican Party
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Pence: GOP Must Choose Between Conservatism And Populism
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-1538/2024-presidential-election-pence-gop-must-choose-between-conservatism-and
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.dailywire.com/news/pence-gop-must-choose-between-conservatism-and-populism
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— NEWS —
Pence: GOP Must Choose Between Conservatism And Populism
By Hank Berrien
•
Sep 6, 2023 DailyWire.com
•
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Scott Eisen/Getty Images for SiriusXM
Speaking at a “SiriusXM Town Hall” at New England College on Wednesday, former Vice-President Mike Pence called for the Republican party to stop adopting populist policies and return to the kind of conservatism that former President Ronald Reagan espoused and typified the Republican Party.
“Here within the Republican Party, I think we have a choice to make, and that is whether or not we are going to offer the American people a candidate and a standard bearer that will carry forward the common sense conservative agenda of a strong national defense: American leadership in the world; fiscal responsibility and pro-growth policies; a commitment to traditional values and liberty and life, or whether or not we’ll follow the siren song of populism, unmoored to conservative principle,” Pence declared.
“Frankly, my former running mate and other candidates for the Republican nomination are beginning to move away from that conservative agenda, abandoning American leadership on the world stage, being willing to ignore the debt crisis that’s facing this future generations of Americans,” he continued.
In the eight years of the Obama presidency, the national debt increased $8.6 trillion. In the four years of the Trump presidency, the debt increased $6.7 trillion. Between President Biden’s inauguration and April 2023, the national debt has increased roughly $3.5 trillion.
“And of course, there are those who want to marginalize the cause of life to simply being a states-only issue,” Pence stated.
“But for me, all of those issues have been central to this movement,” he asserted.
Noting that he had been a Democrat when he was young, Pence noted, “It was the voice of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, it was the same common-sense principles that drew me to the Republican Party, and more importantly, haven’t just delivered victories for the GOP but they’ve actually delivered real prosperity and real security for the American people.”
“We’ve come to a Republican time for choosing, and we’re going to choose whether our party’s going to stay on that time-honored tradition of conservative principles or whether we’re going to slide in the direction of populism and be more like an echo, frankly, of the policies of the other party,” he said.
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2024 Primaries,Conservatism,Mike Pence,Populism
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Moms for Liberty co-founder appointed by DeSantis to Florida ethics commission
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-1536/politics-moms-liberty-co-founder-appointed-desantis-florida-ethics-commission
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/moms-for-liberty-co-founder-appointed-florida-ethics-commission
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RON DESANTIS
Moms for Liberty co-founder appointed by DeSantis to Florida ethics commission
by Jack Birle, Breaking News Reporter
September 06, 2023 03:59 PM
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Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announced he will appoint one of the co-founders of the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty to the Florida Commission on Ethics.
DeSantis said he will be appointing Tina Descovich and attorney Luis Fuste to the commission on Wednesday, weeks after the chairman of the commission resigned to maintain his post as the administrator of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, which encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort.
EX-HOUSE INTEL CHAIRMAN MIKE ROGERS LAUNCHES RUN FOR SENATE IN MICHIGAN
Descovich called the appointment by the governor "a privilege" in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday.
"The Florida Ethics Commission is charged with serving as the guardian of the standards of conduct for public officers and employees as well as safeguarding public trust. It will be a privilege to serve the state I love as a member of this commission," Descovich said.
Moms for Liberty co-founders Tina Descovich, left, speaks at the Moms for Liberty meeting in Philadelphia, Friday, June 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Matt Rourke/AP
Moms for Liberty bills itself as a group that fights for parental rights, and members were major opponents of mandatory masking and the teaching of critical race theory in schools.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Descovich's appointment is the latest instance of one of the co-founders of the influential conservative group being elevated by the governor of the Sunshine State. Bridget Ziegler, another co-founder of Moms for Liberty, was appointed to the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District by DeSantis in February.
Appointments to the Florida Commission on Ethics are subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate, where Republicans hold a 28-12 majority.
Ron DeSantis Florida Ethics News
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I Can’t Keep Trump Off the Ballot
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-1048/voting-rights-and-voter-fraud-i-can-t-keep-trump-ballot
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2024 Presidential Election
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rights
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/i-cant-keep-trump-off-the-ballot-georgia-sec-state-14th-amendment-c1017ede?mod=hp_opin_pos_2#cxrecs_s
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By
Brad Raffensperger
Sept. 6, 2023 12:27 pm ET
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(2 min)
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Competing energy plans from GOP White House hopefuls would boost domestic oil, nuclear power
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-0918/energy-competing-energy-plans-gop-white-house-hopefuls-would-boost-domestic-oil
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/sep/6/competing-energy-plans-gop-white-house-hopefuls-wo/
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Trump supporters dismiss electability challenges, see him as best hope against Biden
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-05-1000/donald-trump-trump-supporters-dismiss-electability-challenges-see-him-best-hope
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/sep/5/trump-supporters-dismiss-electability-challenges-s/
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The Frozen Political Battlefield
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-05-0743/2024-presidential-election-frozen-political-battlefield
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/the-frozen-political-battlefield/
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THE MORNING JOLT
ELECTIONS
The Frozen Political Battlefield
President Joe Biden delivers remarks celebrating Labor Day and honoring America’s workers and unions at the Annual Tri-State Labor Day Parade at Sheet Metal Workers' Local Union 19, in Philadelphia, Pa., September 4, 2023. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
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By JIM GERAGHTY
September 5, 2023 8:41 AM
On the menu today: I’m back in the U.S., and the American political scene is . . . not all that different from when I left. A new Wall Street Journal survey finds that Americans still overwhelmingly think President Biden is too old to serve another four years, still believe the economy is doing poorly, still feel bedeviled by inflation and high prices, and are not itching to sign up for another four years of Biden. In fact, in normal circumstances, the incumbent would look doomed . . . except the same survey also finds that Republican primary voters remain hell-bent on nominating Donald Trump again, leaving the race a toss-up.
Stalemate in the States
Right now the Democratic Party is going all-in on the health, competence, and popularity of an incumbent president who turns 81 in a few months, who is seen favorably by only 39 percent of the voting public, and whose argument that “Bidenomics” is a modern-day success story has been thoroughly rejected by a majority of the electorate.
The new Wall Street Journal survey results released Monday paint a picture of a first-term president who, at first glance, looks like a long shot for a second term:
Although the candidates are only three years apart, 73 percent of voters said they feel Biden is too old to seek a second term, compared with 47 percent of voters who said the same of the 77-year-old Trump. Two-thirds of Democrats said Biden was too old to run again.
By an 11-point margin, more voters see Trump rather than Biden as having a record of accomplishments as president — some 40 percent said Biden has such a record, while 51 percent said so of Trump. By an eight-point margin, more voters said Trump has a vision for the future. And by 10 points, more described Trump as mentally up to the presidency. Some 46 percent said that is true of Trump, compared with 36% who said so of Biden.
Nor is this new WSJ survey out of line with the rest of the national public-opinion surveys; Biden’s job-approval rating remains around 40 percent in the FiveThirtyEight average of all polling. Public attitudes about Biden really haven’t changed much since they worsened in late summer and autumn of 2021, after the debacle of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This summer, the president started touting the state of the economy and talking up “Bidenomics.” Usually, a president wants to take credit for an economy that people like; Biden is running around taking credit for an economy that Americans believe is getting worse. The survey found, “58 percent of voters say the economy has gotten worse over the past two years, whereas only 28 percent say it has gotten better, and nearly three in four say inflation is headed in the wrong direction.” Just 37 percent of registered voters said they approved of the job Biden was doing on the economy, and 59 percent disapproved. The numbers were even worse on inflation, with just 34 percent approving, and 63 percent disapproving.
Many Americans believe that inflation never went away. When this is pointed out, you’ll find some Democrats denouncing the electorate for perceiving the economy incorrectly. But credit-card debt recently hit a new record, which is an indicator that Americans are still having a hard time paying those new higher prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture states, “Food prices are expected to grow more slowly in 2023 than in 2022 but still at above historical-average rates. In 2023, all food prices are predicted to increase 5.9 percent, with a prediction interval of 5.3 to 6.5 percent.” If people are paying about 6 percent more than they paid last year to eat, it is not surprising that they’re not rating the economy highly. And also note that gas prices are high by historical standards; last month, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.95.
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In a normal political environment with a normal political opponent, Biden would be toast.
But Joe Biden doesn’t appear likely to face a normal political opponent.
The previous day, the WSJ released the portion of the same survey focusing on Republican primary voters across the country, and it showed that the 2024 GOP presidential race continues to be uncompetitive. The story of the race so far isn’t anyone else catching up to Trump; it’s that Ron DeSantis, Trump’s closest competitor, appears to have slid back to the rest of the pack:
Trump, for now, has no formidable challenger. The former president is the top choice of 59 percent of GOP primary voters, up 11 percentage points since April, when the Journal tested a slightly different field of potential and declared candidates.
Trump’s lead over his top rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has nearly doubled since April to 46 percentage points. At 13 percent support, DeSantis is barely ahead of the rest of the field, none of whom has broken out of single-digit support.
The standard defense of the trailing candidates is that it’s early and GOP primary voters aren’t tuned in yet. But at least some of them are. Since the beginning of the year, Trump has added about ten percentage points to his lead, DeSantis has lost ground, and Vivek Ramaswamy has climbed from nothing to about 7 percent in the nationwide polls. Some GOP voters are indeed paying attention.
The WSJ survey found Biden and Trump tied at 46 percent each. Biden and Trump have developed an oddly symbiotic dynamic — in that they are both erratic, old, factually challenged candidates with exceptionally high unfavorable ratings. (Biden’s disapproval rating is just under 55 percent, and Trump is knocking at the door of 57 percent.) Biden’s strongest argument for another term is the country’s reluctance to sign on for another four years of Trump. Trump’s strongest argument for a return to the Oval Office is the country’s reluctance to sign on for another four years of Biden.
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It may well be that the only man Biden could lose to is Trump, and vice versa. In a strange way, they need each other — or at least the threat of another four years of the other guy to make themselves look good by comparison.
Watch What They’ve Done, Not What They Promise
Here’s an observation about the Republican presidential primary: Every now and then, I’ll hear someone express a preference for a candidate with the words, “I like what he’s saying.”
I don’t want to disparage anyone’s criteria for picking a candidate, but I will note that saying things that you, the voter, like to hear is really just about the easiest part of running for president. You don’t have to actually do anything; you just toss out a bunch of ideas and repeat the ones that get the most applause.
Anybody can show up and promise, “I’ll do this,” or “I’ll do that.” And the candidates who are really unprepared for the job think it will be easy. There’s only so much a president can do with executive orders, given that the next president of the opposite party can rescind such orders with the stroke of a pen. To really enact lasting changes, a president must be able to persuade Congress to turn his agenda into law. The job of the president isn’t really to run around the country giving speeches that generate applause. The job is to run the executive branch and its 15 departments, and to persuade Congress to enact his ideas into law. Just staffing up the executive branch could be a full-time job; there are roughly 1,200 positions that require Senate confirmation.
The best way of measuring what a candidate can do in the Oval Office is looking at what they’ve done with their lives so far. Experience matters, if for no other reason than to demonstrate what this person is likely to do in the future.
ADDENDUM: Once again, thanks to everyone who read the past few weeks’ coverage from Ukraine. On yesterday’s edition of the Three Martini Lunch podcast with Greg Corombos, I elaborated a bit on the good, bad, and crazy of what I saw out there — extraordinarily brave and decent people, absolute horror stories about war crimes and the brutality of the Russian invasion, and sometimes just the most bizarre juxtaposition of the mundane and the astonishing in wartime.
In case you missed a day or two, here are the links to the coverage from Ukraine:
What It’s Like to Cross into Ukraine
‘Putin Will Not Stop’: Ukraine’s Civilian Fighters Prepare for Long War
What Makes Kyiv So Difficult to Conquer
How Ukraine’s Museums Memorialize a War That’s Not Over
When the Biggest Land War in Europe Since WWII Comes to Your Suburban Street
The Horror in Bucha
The Ukrainian Anti-Drone Rooftop Party with Machine Guns
‘The Front Line Starts at the Water’s Edge’: The War as Seen from Odesa
Related reporting from just outside Ukraine:
Poland’s Pivotal Role
The Spectacularly Strange Land of ‘Mini-Russia’
For the Washington Post:
In Ukraine, war reaches into every corner
Before the war, this Ukrainian rabbi was a quiet man. No longer
NEXT JOLT
The Spectacularly Strange Land of ‘Mini-Russia’
BACK TO THE MORNING JOLT
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JIM GERAGHTY is the senior political correspondent of National Review. @jimgeraghty
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Trump Remains Clear 2024 Frontrunner among GOP Voters: Poll
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-04-0935/2024-presidential-election-trump-remains-clear-2024-frontrunner-among-gop
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.nationalreview.com/news/trump-remains-clear-frontrunner-among-gop-voters-poll/
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NEWS
ELECTIONS
Trump Remains Clear 2024 Frontrunner among GOP Voters: Poll
Former president Donald Trump delivers remarks following his arraignment on classified document charges, at Trump National Golf Club, in Bedminster, N.J., June 13, 2023. (Amr Alfiky/Reuters)
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By ARI BLAFF
September 4, 2023 9:16 AM
Donald Trump has almost doubled his lead against Florida governor Ron DeSantis since April among GOP voters, a new poll released by the Wall Street Journal on Saturday found.
According to the survey, Trump is the clear frontrunner with 59 percent of 600 registered Republican primary voters backing him as a “first choice” candidate. By comparison, DeSantis is the first choice candidate for only 13 percent of likely voters.
In April, a similar survey conducted by the same outlet found the gap between the two Republican presidential hopefuls to be just 13 percentage points in favor of Trump. At the time, DeSantis secured nearly a quarter (24 percent) of Republican primary voters.
Whereas 84 percent of Republican primary voters in April saw DeSantis in a positive light, by late August, that number had fallen to just 70 percent. Meanwhile, Trump’s favorability among core GOP members had experienced a marginal drop from 78 percent to 75 percent over the same time span.
“DeSantis collapsed,” Michael Bocian, a Democratic pollster, told the Journal. “The one candidate who back in April really seemed to be a potential contender, seemed to have a narrative to tell, has totally collapsed, and those votes went to Trump.”
The Journal poll also found a reordering of the GOP field with middle-of-the-pack candidates such as former vice president Mike Pence, Senator Tim Scott, and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie all failing to grab at least 5 percent of first choice ballots.
Following the first Republican presidential debate in late August which found tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley widely touted for their performances, the poll showed the latter leading the pack after the two frontrunners with 8 percent of first choice ballots nipping at the Florida governor’s heels. Ramaswamy only grabbed 5 percent of such voters but is among the leading candidates in terms of “second choice” ballots.
Notably, when the Journal asked 1,500 registers voters across the political spectrum who they would likely vote for in 2024, Trump edged out President Joe Biden, by one percentage point.
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The Pope’s Reign and Ruin
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“They don’t know how to run the country like Trump knows how to run the country,” one respondent told the Journal. “The country was a whole lot better under Donald Trump.”
Send a tip to the news team at NR.
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ARI BLAFF is a news writer for National Review. His writing has appeared in Tablet Magazine, Quillette, City Journal, and Newsweek. He holds a Master's from the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs and writes from Toronto, Canada. @ariblaff
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Federal Judge Dismisses 14th Amendment Lawsuit Attempting to Keep Trump off Ballot
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-02-0103/donald-trump-federal-judge-dismisses-14th-amendment-lawsuit-attempting-keep
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2024 Presidential Election
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https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/09/01/federal-judge-dismisses-14th-amendment-lawsuit-attempting-to-keep-trump-off-ballot/
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Federal Judge Dismisses 14th Amendment Lawsuit Attempting to Keep Trump off Ballot
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images
JORDAN DIXON-HAMILTON1 Sep 20232,089
3:56
Judge Robin Rosenberg on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit challenging former President Donald Trump’s presence on the presidential ballot under the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.
Florida attorney Lawrence Caplan and two others filed the lawsuit one week ago as part of a growing effort nationwide to use the Fourteenth Amendment to remove Trump from the ballot, citing his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.
Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment says public officials are not eligible to hold office if they “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the United States.
However, Rosenberg, an Obama-appointee, dismissed the case on standing grounds. Rosenberg ruled the plaintiffs did not have a “cognizable” injury that gives them standing to bring the lawsuit.
As the Palm Beach Post reported:
“Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge Defendant’s qualifications for seeking the Presidency,” Rosenberg wrote, adding that “the injuries alleged” from the insurrection on Capitol Hill more than two years ago “are not cognizable and not particular to them.”
Rosenberg also added that “an individual citizen does not have standing to challenge whether another individualis qualified to hold public office.”
She noted two prior court rulings against plaintiffs trying to keep candidates off the ballot because they participated in the Jan. 6 violence in Washington, D.C.
The Fourteenth Amendments’ “disqualification” clause has gained steam in recent months after elitist legal scholars from both the left and Never right have proposed using it to keep Trump off the ballot.
As Breitbart News reported:
[Former Clinton administration labor secretary Robert] Reich was recently joined by legal scholars William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen, both Never Trump members of the otherwise conservative Federalist Society, who wrote in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review that Section 3 “disqualifies former President Donald Trump, and potentially many others, because of their participation in the attempted overthrow of the 2020 presidential election.”
…
This weekend, legal scholars J. Michael Luttig and Laurence H. Tribe joined the chorus, in The Atlantic. They cited the fact that Trump has been indicted at both the state and federal levels for various crimes, including a federal indictment in Washington, D.C., and a state indictment for Fulton County, Georgia, for his efforts to challenge the 2020 election results.
Secretaries of state nationwide have been addressing the issue in recent weeks as these challenges are raised.
New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan (R) said earlier in the week he is “not seeking to remove any names” from the GOP primary ballot after Charlie Kirk urged his supporters to call Scanlan’s office following reports Scanlan was weighing the idea.
Arizona’s Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes announced this week state law prohibits the Fourteenth Amendment from being used to keep Trump off the Arizona ballot.
“Now, the Arizona Supreme Court said that because there’s no statutory process in federal law to enforce Section 3 of the 14th amendment, you can’t enforce it,” Fontes said. “That’s what the Arizona Supreme Court said, so that’s the state of the law in Arizona. Now, do I agree with that? No, that’s stupid What I’m saying is I’m going to follow the law. And the law in Arizona is what the law in Arizona is. Whether I like it or not, is irrelevant.”
The case is Caplan v. Trump, No. 0:23-cv-61628, in the United States District Court for Southern District of Florida.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
Law and OrderPolitics2024 Presidential ElectionDonald TrumpFloridaFourteenth Amendment
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Dana Perino, Stuart Varney to co-moderate second GOP primary debate hosted by FOX Business
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https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-01-1528/2024-presidential-election-dana-perino-stuart-varney-co-moderate-second-gop
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https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/dana-perino-stuart-varney-co-moderate-second-gop-primary-debate-hosted-fox-business
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MEDIA Published August 30, 2023 12:20pm EDT
Dana Perino, Stuart Varney to co-moderate second GOP primary debate hosted by FOX Business
'We are very proud to have Stuart Varney and Dana Perino co-moderating the second debate with Univision,' Jay Wallace said
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Voters choose their winners and losers from the first Republican debate
Brian Benstock and Pedro Rodriguez size up the GOP presidential field after the pivotal first primary debate on 'The Evening Edit.'
FOX News Media’s Stuart Varney and Dana Perino will co-moderate the second Republican presidential primary debate alongside Univision's Ilia Calderón on Sept. 27 on FOX Business Network.
"We are very proud to have Stuart Varney and Dana Perino co-moderating the second debate with Univision to provide Americans with a comprehensive view of the qualifying candidates vying for the Republican nomination for president," FOX News Media President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace said.
FOX Business will host the debate from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California.
FOX News Media was tapped to host the first two debates of the critical 2024 election cycle. Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum co-moderated FOX News Media's "Democracy 24: FOX News Republican Primary Debate" last week. The debate drew a staggering 12.8 million total viewers, making it the most watched non-sporting event cable telecast of the year to date.
FOX NEWS MEDIA DRAWS 12.8 MILLION TOTAL VIEWERS FOR ‘DEMOCRACY 24: FOX NEWS REPUBLICAN PRIMARY DEBATE’
Dana Perino and Stuart Varney will co-moderate the second Republican presidential primary debate alongside Univision's Ilia Calderón.
Univision Executive Vice President Maria Martinez-Guzman is eager to inform Hispanic voters ahead of the critical GOP primary.
"As the No. 1 source of news for the U.S. Hispanic community, Noticias Univision’s participation as co-host of the second 2023 Republican primary debate reflects the journalistic mission of TelevisaUnivision’s news division to provide our audience with fair and balanced information. As in past election cycles, we seek to inform Hispanic voters nationwide about their choices while representing our community’s issues during this election cycle," Martinez-Guzman said.
Varney, who has been in the television industry for 45 years, was one of FOX Business’ original anchors at its inception in 2007 and is the host of "Varney & Co.," the highest-rated market hours program on business television. He also hosts "American Built," a series that showcases the ingenuity behind some of the country’s most iconic landmarks.
Varney has interviewed titans from all walks of life and provides analysis for the network’s political coverage. He was part of FOX Business' midterm election programming in 2022 and has also contributed to the business team at FOX News Channel since 2004.
OUTKICK’S SIGNATURE PROGRAMS WITH CLAY TRAVIS, TOMI LAHREN, RILEY GAINES TO STREAM ON FOX NATION
FOX News Media’s "Democracy 24: FOX News Republican Primary Debate" drew a staggering 12.8 million total viewers, making it the most-watched, non-sporting event cable telecast of the year to date. (Getty Images / Getty Images)
Perino co-anchors FOX News’ "America’s Newsroom" and is a co-host on "The Five," the most watched program in cable news. She also recently launched a signature podcast on FOX News Audio called "Perino on Politics" and co-anchored the pre-show for the first Republican presidential debate alongside Bill Hemmer.
Perino, who has prominent role across all of FOX News' major political events throughout her 14-year tenure at the network, has conducted notable exclusive interviews, including with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, among others.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis participate in FOX News Media’s "Democracy 24: FOX News Republican Primary Debate." (Kamil Krzaczynski / Getty Images)
Calderón is the first Afro-Latina to anchor an evening newscast for a major broadcast network in the U.S. She has interviewed President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and many other political heavyweights.
Fox News' Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
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Nikki Haley calls Senate 'most privileged nursing home in the country,' says McConnell freeze-up was 'sad'
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MITCH MCCONNELL
Nikki Haley calls Senate 'most privileged nursing home in the country,' says McConnell freeze-up was 'sad'
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's freeze-up was the 2nd time the veteran GOP senator was unable to speak while holding a press conference
By Timothy H.J. Nerozzi Fox News
Published September 1, 2023 8:33am EDT | Updated September 1, 2023 10:08am EDT
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Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley mocked the U.S. Senate on Thursday as a "nursing home."
Haley made the comments in an interview with Fox News when asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's latest episode of freezing up while addressing the press.
"It's sad," she told Fox News. "No one should feel good about seeing that any more than we should feel good about seeing Dianne Feinstein, any more than we should feel good about a lot of what’s happening or seeing Joe Biden’s decline."
MCCONNELL CLEARED TO RESUME 'SCHEDULE AS PLANNED' FOLLOWING KY PRESS CONFERENCE FREEZE
Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations, speaks at the Republican Party of Iowa's annual Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, Iowa. (Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country," Haley added. "I mean, Mitch McConnell has done some great things and he deserves credit. But you have to know when to leave."
McConnell has been cleared to resume his "schedule as planned" after he froze for more than 30 seconds while fielding questions from reporters in Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday.
"I have consulted with Leader McConnell and conferred with his neurology team. After evaluating yesterday’s incident, I have informed Leader McConnell that he is medically clear to continue with his schedule as planned," Dr. Brian Monahan, Congress' attending physician, wrote in a note Thursday.
MCCONNELL FREEZES UP AGAIN DURING KENTUCKY NEWS CONFERENCE
"I think that we do need mental competency tests for anyone over the age of 75, I wouldn’t care if they did them over the age of 50," Haley told Fox News in the interview.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., freezes while trying to answer a question from the press on Wednesday. (WXIX)
She continued, "But these are people making decisions on our national security. They’re making decisions on our economy, on the border. We need to know they’re at the top of their game."
The long-standing GOP lawmaker previously froze for about 30 seconds during a news conference alongside other Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., a month ago.
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At the time, an aide told Fox News Digital he "felt light-headed and stepped away for a moment."
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and can email him at [email protected]
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Trump says he may be open to future primary debates after all
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Trump says he may be open to future primary debates after all
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Former President Donald Trump suggested in an interview on Thursday that he may participate in future GOP primary debates, a change in tune from his past resistance to battling it out with his 2024 rivals onstage.
Trump snubbed the first Republican National Committee and Fox News-sponsored debate last week and instead released a prerecorded interview with ousted Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
TRUMP'S GOP SUPPORT HAS ONLY CLIMBED SINCE THE INDICTMENTS BEGAN
But on Thursday, Trump appeared open to attending a future debate. "Do you anticipate at some point jumping into the debates?" Trump was asked during the Todd Starnes' radio show.
"I might. I mean, you know, it's possible. I liked debating. I guess I won because of the debates," he said. "You know, they've been very good to me. So I might. But at this moment, I'm leading by so much that it seems to be foolish to do it."
Earlier this month, a source familiar with Trump’s thinking told NBC News that his decision announcing he wouldn't participate in the first debate applies to only the first two debates, allowing him a chance to attend other debates if he changed his mind.
Trump's change in thinking also comes after an Emerson College poll released on Monday showed Trump dropped six percentage points after skipping the debate. A predebate poll showed Trump garnering 56% of Republican support, but in the wake of the debate, his support decreased to 50%.
However, Trump still remains the current front-runner in the primary race with 53.6% support, according to a RealClearPolitics poll average.
The former president went on to brag about the number of views his interview with Carlson received during his radio show interview. "It got good reviews. But more than anything, it got numbers that, the biggest numbers in history," he added.
The Trump-Carlson interview has more than 263 million views as of Thursday afternoon. But it must be noted that Twitter views are not held to the same standards as the primary debate on Fox News and Fox Business Network, which had 12.8 million viewers tune in.
Ep. 19 Debate Night with Donald J Trump pic.twitter.com/ayPfII48CO
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 24, 2023
Trump also criticized Fox News when Starnes asked him, “Mr. President, what the heck is going on at Fox News?” in reference to Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy claiming Trump had slipped in polling after snubbing the debate.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"Well, he’s incorrect because most of the polls, and I’m way ahead in Emerson, too, but most of the polls literally have me going up a lot since the debate, if you can call it that,” Trump said. "They’ll pick one poll where if you go down a little bit, they’ll use that one poll, but they won’t use 15 polls or a lot of the polls where you go up. But we’ve gone up very substantially, and we’ve gone up in just about every state."
The next Republican debate is scheduled for Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California.
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Ron DeSantis super PAC halts door-knocking efforts in Nevada, Super Tuesday states
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Ron DeSantis super PAC halts door-knocking efforts in Nevada, Super Tuesday states
By Josh Christenson
Published Aug. 31, 2023
Updated Aug. 31, 2023, 5:33 p.m. ET
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A super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential run has ended door-knocking efforts in one key early-voting state and three Super Tuesday states, officials confirmed to The Post Thursday.
Never Back Down closed down its political canvassing operations in Nevada, California, North Carolina and Texas over the past few weeks, after having pledged to spend $100 million to promote DeSantis.
The shutdowns were first reported by NBC News.
“We want to reinvest in the first three,” said Never Back Down spokeswoman Erin Perrine, referring to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “We see real opportunities in the first three. The first three are going to set the conditions for the March states.”
South Carolina has long been recognized by Republicans as the third primary state to vote for an eventual nominee, but Nevada’s GOP announced earlier this month it would move its caucus ahead of the Palmetto State.
A super PAC supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential run has ended door-knocking efforts in an early voting primary state and three Super Tuesday states.
AP
“Uh… Nevada is in the first 3?” Make America Great Again Inc. spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to Perrine’s remarks. “Never Back Down has some serious issues if they don’t even know the primary calendar.”
Nevada Republicans have set their caucus for Feb. 8, 2024, while the South Carolina GOP scheduled its primary for Feb. 24.
More than 250 field staff had been employed in the four states before operations ended, according to NBC.
Thursday’s news follows a series of summer shakeups in the DeSantis campaign, climaxed by the laying off of dozens of staffers and the replacement of his campaign manager amid persistent rumors of overspending.
Never Back Down closed down its political canvassing in Nevada, California, North Carolina and Texas in the past few weeks, NBC News first reported.
AFP via Getty Images
On Super Tuesday, March 5, 13 states will hold their Republican presidential primaries or caucuses: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, and Virginia.
A day earlier, DeSantis’ main primary rival, former President Donald Trump, is due to appear in Washington, DC, federal court for the start of his trial on charges that he attempted to unlawfully overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
The Nevada GOP, which was sympathetic to Trump’s fraudulent election claims, has since filed a lawsuit after the Democratic-controlled legislature adopted a state-run primary system.
Republican leaders say the change was made without putting in certain voting integrity measures, such as enforcing voter ID and doing away with same-day registration and mail-in ballots.
A local judge ruled against the Nevada Republican Party, but they have since appealed to the state Supreme Court.
“When you have that kind of uncertainty about how the election’s going to be conducted, that becomes a pretty unstable environment to be investing the kind of resources that we’re investing,” Perrine told The Post, referring to Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald as a “Trump puppet.”
Never Back Down spokeswoman Erin Perrine told The Post that Nevada GOP chairman Michael McDonald was a “Trump puppet.”
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Currently, the state-organized Nevada Republican primary is set for Feb. 6, while the party-organized caucuses are scheduled for two days later.
McDonald told The Post in response to Perrine that the primary changes were not intended to give any candidate the upper hand but to push back against Democratic efforts to undermine election integrity.
“I’m nobody’s puppet, never have been, never will be. I’m too old to be a puppet,” McDonald said. “This isn’t about President Trump, this isn’t about DeSantis … this is about bringing it back to Nevada voters.”
McDonald was one of several Trump allies federally investigated this year for being part of an alleged fake elector scheme meant to reverse the former president’s electoral loss.
Perrine noted that there was a “similar situation in California,” where new rules will allow the primary candidate with the most votes to be awarded all 169 state delegates, or a proportion of them equal to their statewide voter tally.
“I’m nobody’s puppet, never have been, never will be. I’m too old to be a puppet,” McDonald told The Post.
AP
Delegates were previously awarded through a tally of primary votes in each of the Golden State’s congressional districts.
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“When they changed it to a proportional, statewide winner-take-all, that completely eliminated the opportunity for grassroots campaigning,” Perrine said, adding that it was a “Trump-inspired rigging.”
“And so with neither state having a fair process, the door knockers that were in Nevada and California, we decided to make them kind of refocus into the first three,” she added, repeating: “The first three are going to set the conditions for the March states.”
FILED UNDER CALIFORNIA NEVADA RON DESANTIS SUPER PACS 8/31/23
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DeSantis built a massive network of big donors. Many have ditched him.
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A POLITICO analysis shows just a substantial drop off in giving.
The inability of Ron DeSantis to convert more of his gubernatorial donors into presidential ones is emblematic of a larger shortcoming of his current campaign. | Sean Rayford/Getty Images
By ALEX ISENSTADT and JESSICA PIPER
09/06/2023 05:00 AM EDT
Former Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner was among Ron DeSantis’ biggest boosters during the 2022 midterm election, giving nearly $1 million to his reelection bid. But as he has surveyed the field of GOP candidates for president, Rauner — a wealthy former private equity executive who was DeSantis’ fifteenth biggest donor in last year’s election — has not given any more money to the Florida governor. Rauner told POLITICO he thinks another candidate, former U.N Ambassador Nikki Haley, has a better shot of defeating President Joe Biden than DeSantis.
“I think he’s done a terrific job as governor of Florida, and I’ve been, as I think you know, a big supporter of him in that role,” Rauner said of DeSantis. But, he added, “I think Nikki Haley probably has the best chance to win the general election ... I think everyone is trying to sort things out. We gotta win, we gotta win the general.”
Rauner isn’t the only former mega-DeSantis donor who’s refused to open his wallet for DeSantis. Of the 50 donors who gave at least $160,000 in the years leading up to his 2022 reelection campaign, only 16 — less than a third — provided funds to the super PAC Never Back Down, which can receive unlimited contributions, through the end of June. Eight other major donors gave directly to his presidential campaign but not the super PAC.
The top 50 list includes five donors who are now financially supporting rival presidential candidates. And of those who are giving money to the DeSantis campaign or his super PAC, five are splitting their funds with other candidates.
The inability of DeSantis to convert more of his gubernatorial donors into presidential ones is emblematic of a larger shortcoming of his current campaign. And it presents particular problems for the governor precisely because his operation has leaned so heavily on the super PAC to perform basic campaign functions.
Trailing former President Donald Trump by wide margins in Republican primary polls — some of which show him struggling to keep his second-place status — many former contributors to the Florida governor are looking to other candidates or keeping their wallets shut entirely.
DeSantis still has a well-funded effort. Never Back Down had nearly $97 million available to spend as of the end of June, according to the second quarter filings — a figure that far surpasses the super PACs supporting his rivals. That includes the outfit supporting Trump, which reported just short of $31 million in cash on hand.
“Ron DeSantis outraised both Biden and Trump last quarter, and we continue to see overwhelming enthusiasm from grassroots and major supporters chipping in to help our campaign,” said Andrew Romeo, a DeSantis campaign spokesperson. “We look forward to continued fundraising success this quarter as we capitalize on his strong debate performance and momentum in the early states.”
The funds Never Back Down has raised, however, are overwhelmingly drawn from an $82 million transfer from the Florida-based political committee that backed DeSantis’ reelection bid.
And in recent weeks, some of DeSantis’ biggest past donors have come out publicly to say they are holding back on writing checks to the super PAC. That includes hotel and aerospace executive Robert Bigelow, by far the biggest individual contributor to Never Back Down and to DeSantis’ reelection campaign. Last month, Bigelow told Reuters that he would not give further donations to the super PAC unless DeSantis adopted more moderate policies and “until I see that he’s able to generate more [contributions] on his own.”
Billionaire investor Ken Griffin, the second biggest donor to DeSantis’ 2022 campaign, has also withheld his money. Griffin said in a statement that he was “assessing how the policies of each candidate will address the challenges facing our country.”
And this spring, businessman Thomas Peterffy, who gave $3.6 million to DeSantis’ reelection effort — making him the governor’s twenty-fifth biggest contributor — told the Financial Times that he and “a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry” because of positions the governor had taken on social issues. Peterffy has since wired $2 million to a political committee aligned with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who some donors would like to see enter the Republican primary.
DeSantis’ decision to sign a six-week abortion ban has alienated some big donors, many of whom embrace more moderate positions on social issues. Walter Buckley, a retired venture capitalist who was DeSantis’ tenth-biggest donor in 2022, said the governor’s decision to sign one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country had weakened his political standing. Buckley had given $6,600 to DeSantis’ campaign through the end of June but nothing to Never Back Down. He has given far more — over $500,000 — to support a DeSantis rival: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
“If it becomes apparent that Ron has boxed himself into a corner … in Florida, and is not going to win because of the consequences, I may not support him. It’s that simple,” Buckley said. “That at this point is really my consternation because I like DeSantis. I think he’s talented, hardworking as hell and smart. But I cannot understand why he took such a hard position in Florida. I think it’s a mistake.”
Griffin, meanwhile, has expressed reservations over DeSantis’ high-profile fight with Disney, according to a person briefed on the investor’s thinking. DeSantis targeted the corporation’s governance board and tax status after it came out against his initiative to restrict discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in the state’s schools.
Other donors have taken issue with DeSantis’ positions on foreign policy; namely his decision to describe the war in Ukraine as a “territorial dispute.” Businessman Chris Reyes, the fifth-biggest donor to DeSantis’ reelection campaign, has privately criticized DeSantis’ posture on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, according to a person familiar with his remarks. So too has Griffin, said the person briefed on his thinking.
ELECTIONS
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A Griffin spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Reyes, who through the end of the second quarter had not financially backed DeSantis presidential campaign or super PAC, did not respond to a text message requesting comment.
There are indications that the DeSantis team is hurting for resources. Jeff Roe, Never Back Down’s lead strategist, gave a presentation to donors prior to last month’s Republican primary debate in which he pleaded for $50 million to fund the super PAC’s efforts. Roe’s remarks were first reported by CNN and The New York Times.
But any challenges DeSantis faces financially, those close to him say, can also be seen in a positive light: a reflection of his willingness to buck the interests of big donors who are used to getting their way.
“Gov. DeSantis wouldn’t let $1 or even $1 billion drive him in a political direction that he doesn’t believe in,” said Roy Bailey, a Republican fundraiser who is helping the candidate. “No amount of political contributions could erode his core values.”
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DeSantis-aligned super PAC asked for $50 million from donors on day of first GOP primary debate, leaked audio shows
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Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Speaks to guests at Ashley's BBQ Bash hosted by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson on August 6, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
CNN
—
In an urgent appeal to wealthy Republicans who had assembled in Milwaukee ahead of the first GOP presidential primary debate, top brass for the super PAC backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told donors they needed an injection of $50 million over the next four months, according to leaked audio obtained by CNN.
“We just need your help getting $50 million more by the end of the year, and $100 million more by the end of March,” Never Back Down CEO Chris Jankowski told donors hours before DeSantis stepped on the stage Aug. 23, according to the audio. “I’m not worried about the second 50. We need the first 50.”
Throughout an hour-long presentation, Jankowski, chief operating officer Kristin Davison and chief strategist Jeff Roe walked donors through their inside view of how DeSantis is faring just five months before the Iowa caucus kicks off primary season. Their frank but upbeat assessments touched on perceived shortcomings in media exposure compared to the Trump campaign, their push to lean more heavily on Florida first lady Casey DeSantis and their goal of getting more than 100,000 Iowans to caucus for DeSantis.
Among the information shared was the “DeSantis index,” an in-house metric that measures the likelihood someone will back the Florida governor.
“If you have an education, if you have higher income, if you read the Bible and if you go to church regularly, you happen to be a DeSantis supporter,” Roe told the room.
The audio provides an inside look at the strategy behind a super PAC that has assumed an unusually outsized role in DeSantis’ presidential campaign – one that has attracted the attention of campaign finance watchdogs and has, at times, led to friction with DeSantis’ official operation. The tension spilled into the open just days before the Milwaukee event, when the super PAC released a memo with debate pointers for DeSantis. The unsolicited advice was poorly received.
Never Back Down – initially funded in large part by $82.5 million transferred from DeSantis’ state political committee – has operated as a de facto shadow campaign for the governor. It has assumed traditional campaign duties, including building out an extensive field operation in early nominating states, training operatives, enlisting endorsements from local leaders and planning DeSantis’ travel and staging his events. Last week, DeSantis toured northwest Iowa on a bus operated by Never Back Down.
Roughly 60 donors attended the fundraising lunch, hosted at a DoubleTree hotel blocks away from the debate venue, sources familiar with the event details told CNN. Among the attendees was Dallas businessman Roy Bailey, the former co-chair of the Trump campaign’s finance committee who has since changed allegiances.
Davison told CNN Thursday “every investor wants to see how you get to the final round and how you win, and almost all the donors left confident that that we had a clear path to victory to help the governor win.”
The super PAC arranged the pre-debate fundraiser at a critical juncture in the campaign for DeSantis. After a month-long shakeup of his political operation to address stalled poll numbers and cost overruns, the debate was seen internally as a moment for the Florida governor to rally fundraisers and supporters for its aggressive fall campaign.
While it was up to DeSantis to deliver a performance that could quell outstanding concerns fears about his viability, his super PAC was privately working to reassure a room of wealthy individuals – described on the recording as a mix of DeSantis’ loyal backers and longtime GOP donors – of its long-term strategy.
The pitch appeared structured to convince donors the super PAC had a plan for their dollars if they would open up their pocketbooks. A fundraising goal of $50 million by the end of the year would exceed the $47 million the super PAC raised on its own between its March launch and the end of June. Almost half of that money came from one source, Nevada businessman and space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, who recently told Reuters he intended to refrain from further contributions until DeSantis could demonstrate he’s “able to generate more on his own.”
The additional resources would help cover $25 million in airtime Never Back Down plans to purchase after Labor Day through Halloween in New Hampshire and Iowa, according to a source with understanding of the super PACs strategy. The fall television advertising – likely to be extended to Thanksgiving – is an unexpected expense that Never Back Down has nevertheless taken on, the source said.
Jankowski, Davison and Roe spent much of their presentation hyper-focused on former President Donald Trump and his inherent ability to out-gain all other GOP candidates in earned media, meaning organic and free coverage on television, online and in newsprint. Both Davison and Roe emphasized the positive impact Trump’s indictments are having on the former president’s White House bid, something they used to try and persuade donors to help them overcome.
“Donald Trump probably gets roughly at least $30 million of earned media every single day. We’re number two, with roughly $5 (million) to $6 million every single day. Where you see the spikes are after every indictment,” Davison said. “After every indictment, it goes up to $100 million of earned media, and in a presidential race, no news is bad news. What we really learned in 2016 is that Donald Trump dominated earned media and we see it happening now.”
Roe, meanwhile, made very clear how problematic this is for DeSantis, arguing that Trump is not only a major threat to DeSantis, but to the GOP at large.
“We can’t lose to Trump. If Trump’s the nominee, we’re gonna lose the White House. If we lose the White House, we’re gonna lose the Senate. And if we lose the Senate, we’re gonna lose the House. And [Democrats] are going to be in charge of the full House, Senate and White House for at least two years,” Roe told the audience.
Roe further suggested Democrats would add two new states if given the chance, including Puerto Rico. DeSantis while serving in the US House co-sponsored a bill authored by Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress to provide the US territory with a path to statehood.
Though Never Back Down officials warned Trump’s legal troubles present a challenge, they insisted it had not hardened Republicans’ resolve to nominate him once again.
“Trump gets a bump every time he gets indicted. But there are fewer and fewer and fewer people that will support him in the party,” he added.
The PAC representatives walked the crowd through their internal plans for improving DeSantis’ likeability with voters who remain on the fence. One of the key takeaways from their data, they said, is how messaging around DeSantis’ “bio” — mainly his military record, his family and his background as “a blue-collar worker” — plays better with voters than other topic areas. Super PAC advisers acknowledged many Republicans were unaware DeSantis is the only veteran in the race or that he was a father.
DeSantis mirrored that biographical emphasis later that night at the debate. He called himself a “blue collar kid” who “worked minimum wage jobs to be able to make ends meet” and he touched on his personal responsibilities as a husband and dad to three young kids. He emphasized his military experience at several points, noting that he was “assigned with” and deployed “alongside” Navy SEALs — leaving out that he was a JAG lawyer.
Enlarging Casey DeSantis’s role, specifically, is something super PAC officials said they view as a crucial way to boost the governor’s campaign. “With her help, they convert an entire room,” Davison said of the governor’s wife. “She just brings a level of humility and warmness.”
The group also spent much of their presentation boasting that Never Back Down has undertaken an unprecedented operation, arguing they will change the way presidential politics rely on PACs for decades to come.
In recent presidential cycles, super PACs have leveraged their ability to raise unlimited sums to pay for digital and television advertisements, one of the costliest expenses for a political operation.
“Our role is really new and it’s even grown to play a role like no other PAC in a presidential race,” Jankowski said. “We are hosting events. We’ve been doing fundraising online. We are doing advertising. We have built a political program in the early states and beyond like none other. And, you know, simply put, Never Back Down is changing the game.”
Roe claimed the super PAC’s data operation had developed extensive knowledge of Republican primary voters and caucus goers. That data told them Georgia was “our best state” given the demographics and that “79% of the people tonight are going to watch the debate and turn it off after 19 minutes.”
“We’re tracking these people all the time,” he said.
Federal rules prevent presidential candidates and their campaigns from coordinating with supportive super PACs. Many Republican strategists and campaign veterans have questioned the arrangement between DeSantis’ campaign and the super PAC, pointing to the limitations of running a political operation from the outside. It is also the subject of a complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission by the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, which alleged a violation of campaign finance laws.
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Yang urges Biden to break precedent and debate RFK Jr.
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Trump Could Clinch the Nomination Before the G.O.P. Knows if He’s a Felon
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Trump improves lead over Republican primary rivals after mugshot release
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Donald Trump in Atlanta, Georgia, on 24 August. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP
Donald Trump
Trump improves lead over Republican primary rivals after mugshot release
Former president has also seen polling and fundraising boosts with each indictment this year
Hugo Lowell
@hugolowell
Wed 30 Aug 2023 10.00 CEST
Last modified on Wed 30 Aug 2023 10.17 CEST
Donald Trump extended his lead over his Republican nomination rivals in a series of polls conducted since the release of his mugshot in Fulton county after he surrendered on charges that he conspired to subvert the 2020 election in Georgia and his absence from the first GOP primary debate.
The former US president held commanding advantages across the board in recent surveys done for the Trump campaign and for Morning Consult, leading his nearest challenger, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, in the overall race, in a head-to-head matchup, and in favorability ratings.
Trump has ‘moral compass of an axe murderer,’ says Georgia Republican
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That outcome has been a trend for Trump who has seen polling and fundraising boosts with each indictment this year – in the hush-money case in New York, in the classified documents case in Florida, and in the federal 2020 election subversion case in Washington.
It also suggests that some of DeSantis’s principal campaign arguments – that he is more electable than Trump – have failed to cut through with likely Republican voters even after he had the opportunity to establish himself last week in Trump’s absence on the debate stage.
The polling commissioned and touted by the Trump campaign in the days after Trump surrendered at the Fulton county jail suggests the release of his mugshot that underscored his legal jeopardy and skipping the first GOP debate has not weakened him among likely Republican primary voters.
Overall, Trump polled at 58% compared with DeSantis at 13% among roughly 2,700 likely Republican primary voters surveyed by Coefficient, improving his lead by three points since the start of the month. No other candidate topped 10%.
The Trump campaign polling was consistent with a Morning Consult poll which found Trump’s lead unshaken in the immediate aftermath of the release of his mugshot and the first Republican primary debate, with Trump at 58%, DeSantis at 14% and no other candidate again above 10%.
The survey found that even if all the other candidates withdrew for a unified opposition against Trump, the former president would win the hypothetical head-to-head race against DeSantis by almost a two-to-one margin, 62% to 23%.
Notably, in the days after Trump’s surrender in Fulton county, the share of voters who believed Trump is guilty of the charges dropped by 11%, while the share of voters who believed Trump was being indicted as part of an effort to stop him running for president held at 74%.
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The survey comes less than six months before the first 2024 primary contest and the political landscape for Trump could still change as he spends more time in courtrooms across the country and off the campaign trail.
On Monday, the federal judge presiding over the special counsel prosecution of Trump over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, scheduled the trial to commence on 4 March 2024, one day before Super Tuesday, when 15 states are scheduled to hold Republican primaries or caucuses.
Both Trump and DeSantis are viewed favorably among likely Republican primary voters, 75% to 62%. But the intensity of the approval split for Trump, as 54% held a “very favorable” opinion for the former president compared with 19% for DeSantis.
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Trump open to Vivek Ramaswamy as vice president
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Conservatives are on a mission to dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision
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Kristen Eichamer, right, talks to fairgoers in the Project 2025 tent at the Iowa State Fair, Monday, Aug. 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump. The Project 2025 effort is being led by the Heritage Foundation think tank. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than a year to go before the 2024 election, a constellation of conservative organizations is preparing for a possible second White House term for Donald Trump, recruiting thousands of Americans to come to Washington on a mission to dismantle the federal government and replace it with a vision closer to his own.
Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s return — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024.
With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers.
“We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking.
“This is a clarion call to come to Washington,” he said. “People need to lay down their tools, and step aside from their professional life and say, ‘This is my lifetime moment to serve.’”
The unprecedented effort is being orchestrated with dozens of right-flank organizations, many new to Washington, and represents a changed approach from conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending.
Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.
FILE - Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2023, March 4, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first years in office, when the Republican president’s team was ill-prepared, his Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers and even Trump’s own appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals.
While many of the Project 2025 proposals are inspired by Trump, they are being echoed by GOP rivals Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy and are gaining prominence among other Republicans.
And if Trump wins a second term, the work from the Heritage coalition ensures the president will have the personnel to carry forward his unfinished White House business.
“The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state,” said Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official involved in the effort who is now president at the conservative Center for Renewing America.
Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired.
Biden had rescinded the executive order upon taking office in 2021, but Trump — and other presidential hopefuls — now vow to reinstate it.
“It frightens me,” said Mary Guy, a professor of public administration at the University of Colorado Denver, who warns the idea would bring a return to a political spoils system.
Experts argue Schedule F would create chaos in the civil service, which was overhauled during President Jimmy Carter’s administration in an attempt to ensure a professional workforce and end political bias dating from 19th century patronage.
As it now stands, just 4,000 members of the federal workforce are considered political appointees who typically change with each administration. But Schedule F could put tens of thousands of career professional jobs at risk.
“We have a democracy that is at risk of suicide. Schedule F is just one more bullet in the gun,” Guy said.
The ideas contained in Heritage’s coffee table-ready book are both ambitious and parochial, a mix of longstanding conservative policies and stark, head-turning proposals that gained prominence in the Trump era.
There’s a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice, particularly curbing its independence and ending FBI efforts to combat the spread of misinformation. It calls for stepped-up prosecution of anyone providing or distributing abortion pills by mail.
There are proposals to have the Pentagon “abolish” its recent diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, what the project calls the “woke” agenda, and reinstate service members discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Chapter by chapter, the pages offer a how-to manual for the next president, similar to one Heritage produced 50 years ago, ahead of the Ronald Reagan administration. Authored by some of today’s most prominent thinkers in the conservative movement, it’s often sprinkled with apocalyptic language.
A chapter written by Trump’s former acting deputy secretary of Homeland Security calls for bolstering the number of political appointees, and redeploying office personnel with law enforcement ability into the field “to maximize law enforcement capacity.”
At the White House, the book suggests the new administration should “reexamine” the tradition of providing work space for the press corps and ensure the White House counsel is “deeply committed” to the president’s agenda.
Conservatives have long held a grim view of federal government offices, complaining they are stacked with liberals intent on halting Republican agendas.
But Doreen Greenwald, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said most federal workers live in the states and are your neighbors, family and friends. “Federal employees are not the enemy,” she said.
While presidents typically rely on Congress to put policies into place, the Heritage project leans into what legal scholars refer to as a unitary view of executive power that suggests the president has broad authority to act alone.
To push past senators who try to block presidential Cabinet nominees, Project 2025 proposes installing top allies in acting administrative roles, as was done during the Trump administration to bypass the Senate confirmation process.
John McEntee, another former Trump official advising the effort, said the next administration can “play hardball a little more than we did with Congress.”
In fact, Congress would see its role diminished — for example, with a proposal to eliminate congressional notification on certain foreign arms sales.
Philip Wallach, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies the separation of powers and was not part of the Heritage project, said there’s a certain amount of “fantasizing” about the president’s capabilities.
“Some of these visions, they do start to just bleed into some kind of authoritarian fantasies where the president won the election, so he’s in charge, so everyone has to do what he says — and that’s just not the system the government we live under,” he said.
At the Heritage office, Dans has a faded photo on his wall of an earlier era in Washington, with the White House situated almost alone in the city, dirt streets in all directions.
It’s an image of what conservatives have long desired, a smaller federal government.
The Heritage coalition is taking its recruitment efforts on the road, crisscrossing America to fill the federal jobs. They staffed the Iowa State Fair this month and signed up hundreds of people, and they’re building out a database of potential employees, inviting them to be trained in government operations.
“It’s counterintuitive,” Dans acknowledged — the idea of joining government to shrink it — but he said that’s the lesson learned from the Trump days about what’s needed to “regain control.”
This story has been corrected to show the name of the university is the University of Colorado Denver, not the University of Colorado.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
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How Vivek Ramaswamy has changed his characterization of Jan. 6
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Most candidates at the first GOP primary debate said former Vice President Mike Pence did the right thing by certifying the 2020 election results while also suggesting it's time to move past Jan. 6. The question was not posed to Vivek Ramaswamy though, who has been vocal in his condemnation of alleged government lies that he says have fueled national division around former President Donald Trump and his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
In a contentious interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Ramaswamy echoed earlier statements he made to the National Review by saying Pence missed “a historic opportunity … to unite this county” when he certified the results of the 2020 presidential election. During his appearance on the show, he also said that if he had been in Pence’s position, he would have implemented his voting reform proposal by Jan. 7, the day Pence certified Biden's win, before “declaring a reelection campaign” and certifying results.
His proposal: single-day voting via paper ballots requiring a government-issued I.D. "matching the voter file.”
Entrepreneur and author Vivek Ramaswamy gestures as he arrives to take part in the first Republican Presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisc...
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Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
MORE: 14th Amendment, Section 3: A new legal battle against Trump takes shape
"If we achieve that, then we have achieved victory, and we should not have any further complaint about election integrity,” he said.
Ramaswamy has said that he would extend limited accommodations for absentee voting to people with disabilities, for example, but he does “not think that is an excuse for creating [a] multi-week voting processes with ballot harvesting, and mail-in voting that undermines public trust in our elections,” he told reporters recently during a campaign stop in Pella, Iowa.
Ramaswamy’s views on Jan. 6 and Donald Trump’s role in it have evolved since 2021. The presidential candidate once called Trump’s actions on the day “downright abhorrent” and criticized “stolen election” claims in his second book, “Nation of Victims.”
"It was a dark day for democracy. The loser of the last election refused to concede the race, claimed the election was stolen, raised hundreds of millions of dollars from loyal supporters, and is considering running for executive office again,” he wrote in the book. "I'm referring, of course, to Donald Trump."
MORE: Trump's indictments: Polling shows half of Americans want him to suspend his campaign, and more takeaways
Now, two and half years later, Ramaswamy seems to give the claims slightly more credit, focusing on public distrust stemming from the aftermath of the riot at the Capitol and standing on his commitment to pardon Trump and those now facing federal charges related to that day to “move the country forward," he said in a live town hall with NewsNation in mid-August.
Ramaswamy, who has said that he would have made different decisions than Trump on Jan. 6 but does not consider Trump’s actions criminal, told ABC News that his comments condemning Trump in the days after the riot were about how he handled Jan. 6.
"What I would have done? ... Starting that day under the same circumstances, I would have said, as soon as there are people violently approaching the Capitol, 'Stand down,’” he said in an interview with ABC News.
"Standing by while protesters turned violent, I think, was a bad mistake of leadership," he added while reiterating, "I don't think Donald Trump was the cause of Jan. 6."
Although he says he stands by his writings, maintaining as he wrote a year ago that he has not seen evidence of mass ballot fraud, he attributes his new views in part to skepticism over “the truth about the Hunter Biden laptop story,” he said on the Sunday news program. What has remained the same, however, is Ramaswamy's assertion that higher powers are at play, whether it be Big Tech and censorship, as he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in 2021, or what he calls the “administrative state,” which he defines as an unofficial fourth shadow branch of government that has influence over political and civic action.
The supposed nuance of Ramaswamy's views, however, does not always appear to come across as he may hope, something that played out in real-time at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, after Ramaswamy answered a question about how to restore faith in the U.S. voting system due to ongoing debate over the validity of Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.
“So many Republicans have lost faith in our voting system. And they say they're not going to vote because it doesn't matter. How are we going to change that?” one voter asked.
Explaining his proposal, Ramaswamy asked that attendees join him in “dropping our complaints about ballot fraud or election integrity” if it were to be enacted. Though many applauded, another voter called his stance “offensive.”
“I just want to be honest, and your answer was slightly offensive. We … the United States of America has the most secure elections,” she asserted. “I don't think you've ever actually worked an election.”
Ramaswamy told ABC News on Friday that he sees his voting reform proposition as an appropriate common ground for bipartisan efforts to resolve a pressure point in the country. Asked by ABC News as he met with a group of press after the Newton, Iowa event later if he thinks the U.S. has secure elections and if Trump or the indictments against him have affected public opinion of election security, Ramaswamy said: “I think the indictments have shaken public trust in our institutions, in our government more generally, to a pretty bad place.”
“I've laid out a very practical, a deeply pragmatic, and I believe noncontroversial approach to restore that public trust," he said.
ABC News' Will Steakin contributed to this report.
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‘Bring them to justice’: Georgia town residents demand answers in Trump election plot
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The Georgia state capitol in Atlanta. Fulton county is the epicenter in the election subversion case against Donald Trump, but neighboring Coffee county is also involved. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
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‘Bring them to justice’: Georgia town residents demand answers in Trump election plot
People from Douglas say accountability is lacking for local officials involved in election machine data breach in 2021
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Timothy Pratt in Douglas, Georgia
Mon 28 Aug 2023 12.00 CEST
Last modified on Mon 28 Aug 2023 19.58 CEST
O
n Saturday afternoon, roughly 70 people gathered on folding chairs in a sweltering church meeting room in the small town of Douglas, about 200 miles (322km) south-east of Atlanta, Georgia. Less than a week earlier, Donald Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in Fulton county for efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including allegedly entering the Coffee county elections office less than a mile away and copying the state’s voter software and other data.
County residents at the town hall raised concerns about the lack of accountability for those who played a role in copying software and other data, and said they felt insecure about the safety and integrity of future elections.
Fury at Michigan officials charged in 2020 false electors scheme: ‘This isn’t who we are’
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“People think, ‘He’s been indicted in Atlanta, so it’s over,’” 80-year-old county resident Jim Hudson said to the room, referring to Trump. “[But] how do we regroup? How do we become a county not referred to as ‘Crooked Coffee’?”
The Rev Bruce Francis read a message from Bishop Reginald T Jackson, who oversees 500 Black churches in Georgia, referring to “troubling improprieties” that had brought this town of about 12,000 residents to the world’s attention.
“The nation is now aware of the travesty that happened in 2020,” he read. “What do we do to make sure it doesn’t happen again?”
The “travesty” was what Marilyn Marks, the town hall’s main speaker, called “the largest voting system breach in US history”. It happened in January 2021, when multiple people working on behalf of Donald Trump allegedly entered the Coffee county elections office and copied software and other digital information from the agency’s computers, gaining access to the entire elections system of the state of Georgia, home to about 7.9 million registered voters.
The digital information obtained is now in an unknown number of hands, meaning that future elections could be affected in Georgia and in other states that use Dominion Voting Systems and other equipment made by partner companies. The breach has been publicly reported for more than a year, but was launched into a global spotlight on 14 August, when the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, issued indictments to Trump and 18 others. Several people were indicted for their direct role in the Coffee county breach, and nearly half the group had some kind of involvement in the incident, according to Marks.
It wasn’t federal, state or local investigators who turned up evidence of the incidents, but Marks’ nonprofit organization, the Coalition for Good Governance. The group obtained video, text messages and other information about what happened in Douglas as part of a lawsuit against Georgia, now in its sixth year, that seeks to force the state to switch from computers to hand-marked paper ballots in elections, due to vulnerabilities in digital voting systems. Seventy percent of US voters mark ballots by hand.
The Coffee county elections and registration office in Douglas, Georgia. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images
The town hall was the first occasion for residents of Douglas to hear a detailed explanation of how events that took place in their own back yard had become headlines, what those events mean for future elections and, perhaps most important, who among their neighbors had not been held accountable, what can be done to change that and how to prevent such a breach from happening again.
Local residents wanted to know whether their personal information was “floating around in cyberspace”, if poll workers in Coffee county would be safe in future elections, and whether “money was exchanged for favors” during any of the visits to the local elections office by Trump’s associates.
Hanging over the room were not just the challenges members of small communities face when their own neighbors are implicated in serious wrongdoing, but, also, the issue of race.
Coffee county is about 68% white, but most of the attendees at the town hall were Black. One white woman said she had urged other white locals to attend, but was met with indifference.
Many were also aware that one of the more prominent locals present – city commissioner of 24 years and voting rights activist Olivia Coley-Pearson – was persecuted for years by the state for helping disabled and illiterate voters, while state election officials have shown little interest in investigating the breach, according to Marks. Coley-Pearson is Black; Trump’s associates involved in the breach here have all been white.
Screen shot from a Coffee county, Georgia, security camera at the Coffee county elections office showing a county Republican official, Cathy Latham, in a long light blue shirt, with a team of computer specialists that created copies of voting equipment data in January 2021. Photograph: Alamy
Before Marks began her talk, titled, “What the hack happened in Coffee Co?”, Hudson, a retired lawyer, addressed the room. A thin, soft-spoken man, Hudson told those gathered how, as a seventh-generation Georgian and county resident, he felt had “skin in the game” when it came to the breach. “That’s why, when I discovered what happened, I was so disappointed,” he said.
He lamented there had been “no independent investigation by our officials … [and] almost no local press coverage”.
Hudson suggested there needs to be an independent, local investigation and a plan for the future – “So this never occurs again in our county,” he said. The first reform, he said, should be that “the elections department office should never be used for a partisan meeting again”. The crowd applauded.
Marks took the stage. “Coffee county is the central foundation for this incredible indictment that the world is watching,” she said. The nonprofit director recounted how Atlanta bail bondsman Scott Hall called her on 7 March 2021 and told her that he and others had been to Douglas and “scanned all the equipment … imaged all the hard drives, scanned every ballot … all the poll pads – everything”.
On Tuesday morning, Hall became the first defendant named in last week’s indictments to surrender to authorities in Fulton county. He was shortly thereafter released on $10,000 bond.
Marks went on to detail how local elections director Misty Hampton – also indicted last week – communicated with people in Trump’s orbit, including Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO who has repeatedly backed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Later, Hampton’s replacement found the business card of Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the group that performed a discredited audit of Arizona’s votes, in the county elections office, according to information Marks uncovered. Lindell and Logan remain unindicted.
She pointed the room to “unanswered questions”: what happened to Hampton’s emails and laptop, which state investigators say they haven’t been able to obtain, and when did local election board members and the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, learn of the breach? Also, why did local elections board member Eric Chaney, seen on video obtained by Marks welcoming Scott Hall and others into the elections office, remain on the board until September of last year? Chaney is also unnamed in Willis’s indictments.
“You can’t wait on the state,” Marks told the room. “It’s up to local people to demand accountability.”
Residents wait in line to vote early outside a polling station on 29 November 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Cliff Albright, co-founder of the national group Black Voters Matter, took the stage and told the audience that he knew what it was like to be dealing with political controversy in a small town in the south, “where everybody knows what car you drive, and whether you’ve been at a meeting”.
Albright also reminded the audience what was at stake, pointing to Coley-Pearson, who faced multiple felony charges for allegedly breaking election laws. Coley-Pearson was never found guilty, but has suffered greatly from years of legal battles, she told the Guardian.
“They put all this money and time into investigating one woman?” Albright asked the room, again bringing applause. “And then you’re talking about the largest breach in US history? My message to the secretary of state and the county … is ‘Act like you care about it!’”
Then Coley-Pearson addressed her neighbors. “This is so important,” she said. “This is a threat to our democracy.” She noted that she had invited local elected officials from the county commission, the city commission and the board of elections – and only two came.
Referring to the breach, she said: “They felt like they could come to Coffee county because ain’t nobody gonna get involved except for Olivia and her few folks … [but] we’ve worked too hard … to let them take our rights away!”
Afterward, 70-year-old Alphermease Moore, who is Black and a Coffee county resident, noted that she was part of the local high school’s first integrated graduating class, in 1971.
“I was in Coffee high school’s first integrated group and was hoping, 50 years later, that things would be different. But the same things happening then are happening now,” she said, referring to Coley-Pearson’s prosecution on the one hand, and the lack of accountability for local white officials on the other. “It’s a constant climb.”
Those responsible need to be held accountable. Bring them to justice. Don’t let them walk away!
Douglas resident Larry Nesmith
Standing outside the church, Hudson was emotional. He had learned about the breach months ago, after reading about it in the national press. “I was stunned. I could not believe it.”
Hudson, a well-known, longtime white resident of Coffee county, has been writing the county commission and board of elections, seeking an independent investigation. He attended an elections board meeting this spring and remarked, “If this was Olivia Coley-Pearson [who breached the elections system], she’d be in jail already.”
Douglas resident Larry Nesmith has been active in local Democratic party politics for 14 years. He said he would have been at the board of elections office on 7 January 2021, when the first visit by Trump’s associates occurred, but Hampton “told me not to come”.
Months later, he said, “I found out what happened on TV. I was shocked to find out. I feel our board of elections tried to cover [it] up. There’s no way they didn’t know.”
“Those responsible need to be held accountable,” he added. “These are people I know. Those who haven’t been indicted need to be. Bring them to justice. Don’t let them walk away!”
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Team Trump demands dibs on mug shot windfall
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Untangling Ron DeSantis’ debate anecdote about an improbable abortion survival story
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listens as former Vice President Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy cross-talk during a Republican presidential primary debate Aug. 23, 2023, in at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. (AP)
When the topic of abortion came up during the first Republican primary presidential debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared a perplexing anecdote about a woman he met who he said had survived the procedure.
"I know a lady in Florida named Penny," DeSantis said. "She survived multiple abortion attempts. She was left discarded in a pan. Fortunately, her grandmother saved her and brought her to a different hospital."
Some accused the governor of fabricating the story.
"Let me see if I understand this correctly. Doctors tried to abort ‘Penny’ multiple times and discarded her in a pan, and then her grandmother took her to another hospital? DeSantis lies like a toddler," one person posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Our research found that a woman named Penny, who tells an unusual birth story about an attempted abortion, does exist.
We asked DeSantis’ campaign for evidence or more information. The campaign replied via email, sending only a link to a Daily Signal article that identified "Penny" by her full name and recounted her story.
The woman DeSantis referred to is Miriam "Penny" Hopper, an anti-abortion activist who said she survived an abortion attempt in Florida in 1955. Her claim, which is uncorroborated, has been featured online by Protect Life Michigan, an anti-abortion advocacy group.
In a video and in interviews, Hopper said she had been delivered around 23 weeks gestation after her mother went to a hospital in Wauchula, Florida, while experiencing bleeding. In a 2013 interview with radio station WFSU, Hopper said she believes an abortion had been attempted at home before her parents went to the hospital, which also could be why DeSantis referenced "multiple" abortion attempts.
Hopper said the doctor at the hospital induced labor, and she was born at 1 pound, 11 ounces and was left in a bedpan. She told WFSU her grandmother found her alive the next day and was enraged about her being abandoned. Then a nurse volunteered to transport Hopper to what was then Morell Memorial Hospital in Lakeland, Florida, now the site of Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center. That’s about 40 miles north of the hospital where Hopper says she was born.
Her story has been used to support "born alive" bills in state legislatures, which aim to protect infants that survive an abortion, even though there are federal laws for that purpose.
We were unable to gauge the accuracy of Hopper’s account. We couldn’t find records, such as news reports, dating to the 1950s, and people who could corroborate the story, such as her grandmother, are no longer living. Hopper did not respond to requests for comment.
Medically speaking, the scenario is dubious.
From the 1950s through 1980, "newborn death was virtually ensured" for infants born at or before 24 weeks of gestation, The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says on its website.
Recent studies have shown wide variation in modern-day survival rates for infants born around 23 weeks, partly because of improved hospital practices for resuscitation and active treatment.
A 2022 University of Rochester Medical Center study found that babies born at 23 weeks — who were "actively treated" at academic medical centers in the National Institutes of Health-funded Neonatal Research Network — had a 55% chance of survival.
This is considerably higher than the 23-week survival rate at many other institutions, as well as a previous study conducted from 2008 to 2012 in the same network, which put the rate at 32%. (Lifesaving care for babies born at 22 and 23 weeks varies by hospital policy and physician opinion, according to a New York Times story.)
Before the 1970s, most babies born before 28 weeks gestation died because they lacked the ability to breathe on their own for more than a short time, and reliable mechanical ventilators for these infants did not yet exist. That also makes it improbable that Hopper could have survived overnight without medical intervention when born at 23 weeks in the 1950s.
PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
RELATED: Fact-check: What Republican candidates got right, wrong in first debate on Fox News
RELATED: Ron DeSantis’ False claim that some states allow ‘post-birth’ abortions. None do.
Facebook video, YouTube archive, Sept. 16, 2022; Feb. 2, 2020
WFSU Public Media, For pro life advocates, the issues are both personal and political, April 18, 2023
Jezebel, Asked about abortion, Ron DeSantis tells bizarre story about a fetus in a pan, Aug. 23, 2023
The Lakeland Ledger, 100-year timeline: Lakeland hospital grew from 65 to nearly 900 beds
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Periviable Birth, October 2017
PubMed, Neonatal mortality rate: relationship to birth weight and gestational age, October 1972
PubMed, Neonatal mortality risk in relation to birth weight and gestational age: update, December 1982,
University of Pennsylvania Nursing, Care of Premature Infants, accessed Aug. 23, 2023
University of Rochester Medical Center, New research shows survival rate improvement for extremely pre-term infants, March 3, 2022
The New York Times, Parents of extremely premature babies face an impossible choice, April 16, 2020
Email interview, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology press office, Aug. 24, 2023
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
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Chris Christie Has A Blunt Comeback To Being Booed At The Debate
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie suggested he was unfazed by boos during Wednesday night’s Republican presidential primary debate.
The presidential candidate told CNN on Thursday that his best debate-stage moment was when he “told the truth about Donald Trump.” Christie is Trump’s loudest critic in the primary field, and one of few candidates willing to denounce the former president at all.
“Why do you think that was your best moment to get Republican primary voters to vote for you, when you had really loud boos every time you did that?” CNN’s Poppy Harlow asked Christie.
“Well, because not every Republican primary voter in America was in the arena,” Christie answered. “And because you can’t be looking to play to the grandstands, Poppy, when I was truly was talking to the people, the tens of millions of people who were watching in their living rooms.”
“The fact is, if you’re not going to talk about that, then then then why bother running? You should just concede the race to Donald Trump, which is what a lot of people did on the stage last night,” he added.
Of the eight candidates who participated in the debate ― which Trump skipped ― Christie was one of two who said they would not support former president as a nominee even if he was convicted in any of the four indictments he faces. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson was the other.
“Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States,” Christie said after the audience booed him.
On Thursday, Trump surrendered to authorities in Georgia, where he faces racketeering and conspiracy charges over an alleged “criminal enterprise” to change the state’s 2020 election results.
Watch the CNN interview below.
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Actual SEALs Fume at Ron DeSantis’ Navy Service Claims
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ELECTIONS
Actual SEALs Fume at DeSantis’ Navy Service Claims
‘MISLEADING’
DeSantis made a point during Wednesday night’s Republican debate to say he was “assigned with” and “deployed alongside” Navy SEALs.
Justin Rohrlich
Reporter
Updated Aug. 26, 2023 5:07PM EDT
Published Aug. 24, 2023 5:52PM EDT
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters
On Wednesday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had an important message for those watching him participate in the first Republican debate of the presidential primary season.
“I learned in the military—I was assigned with the U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq—that you focus on the mission above all else, you can’t get distracted,” DeSantis said. “So Republicans, we’ve got to look forward and we’ve got to make sure that we’re bringing the message that can win in November 2024.”
DeSantis moved on without further explanation, leaving some observers extremely impressed. Others, however, were far less moved.
“He was never a Navy SEAL,” Billy Allmon, a former member of SEAL Team 1, told The Daily Beast. “It’s a misleading statement.”
DeSantis again said during the debate that he “deployed to Iraq alongside U.S. Navy SEALs,” mirroring the backstory shared earlier this month on a podcast hosted by former Trump counsel-turned-co-defendant Jenna Ellis. During the show, DeSantis campaign surrogate Carly Atchison described her boss’ path through life in deeply inspirational terms.
An actual text from right leaning civilian last night. They think he's a SEAL. pic.twitter.com/IPco12Bt2I
— Brandon Sparks (@BrandonMSparks) August 24, 2023
DeSantis grew up blue-collar, then worked his way through Yale and Harvard Law, Atchison said. But rather than using his pair of Ivy League degrees to “make six-figures doing whatever, after 9/11 he raised his hand and said, ‘I want to serve my country.’”
So, Atchison continued, “He went out to Coronado, he trained, and was deployed, ultimately, with SEAL Team 1, in some of the most dangerous parts of the world at the time—Fallujah and others. Served his country out of this need for service. Then he went on to run for Congress. He obviously became governor, and now he’s running for president of the United States because he wants to reverse the decline of this country.”
The next day, Atchison appeared on another show, again lauding DeSantis over his decision to forsake a life of riches for a hitch with the SEALs. He “trained at Coronado with the SEALs, and he was ultimately deployed to Iraq with Navy SEAL Team 1,” Atchison told host Bill Mitchell, emphasizing that DeSantis spent time in “some of the most dangerous parts of the world.”
That’s “just the kind of person he is,” Atchison went on, before launching into a rundown of DeSantis’ poll numbers and complimenting his “bold, conservative leadership.” A day later, Atchison gave another interview, again describing the way DeSantis “went out to train in Coronado and was ultimately deployed with Navy SEAL Team 1 to Iraq… He earned a Bronze Star.”
In fact, DeSantis was a Navy lawyer, known in military parlance as a JAG. And in 2007, three years after his commission, he did serve as a legal adviser to a SEAL commander in Iraq. His role was to ensure the SEALs and Army Green Berets in the region abided by the rule of law and that captured enemy troops were treated humanely, in line with the Geneva Conventions.
“He did a phenomenal job,” Capt. Dane Thorleifson told the Miami Herald in 2018.
Nonetheless, while it may be technically true that DeSantis deployed “with” or “alongside” a SEAL team, which was based in Coronado, California, Allmon, who went through SEAL training in 1970 (BUD/S class 58), sees the governor’s narrative as something more akin to a lie by omission.
“I mean, I could go onboard the USS Constellation for a tour, and I can then go around saying, ‘I was on the USS Constellation,’ and just leave it at that,” Allmon told The Daily Beast. “And people would think, ‘Hey, he was on the Constellation.’ It just leaves an open forum, and he should have clarified it a lot better.”
I was on the Navy Staff at the Pentagon with a Navy SEAL.
So I, too, am a Navy SEAL. https://t.co/B9GY75YATE
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal) August 24, 2023
Don Shipley, another former SEAL (SEAL Teams 1 and 2; BUD/S class 131), has made a second career out of exposing fakers. He told The Daily Beast that he has “verified Ron so many times, for so many people,” and that he doesn’t think DeSantis is trying to purposefully mislead anyone. Yet, like Allmon, Shipley noted the distinct lack of follow-up by DeSantis to clarify his service.
“With DeSantis, ‘I was with SEAL Team 1,’ well, it’s the truth,” said Shipley. “But without going into a lot of detail, people [naturally] think, ‘Ah, you were a SEAL.’”
Still, in certain instances, a JAG can be more valuable than additional firepower, according to Shipley.
“They deploy with SEAL teams to keep them out of trouble,” he said. “[DeSantis] wasn’t a shooter, he wasn’t a door-kicker—but they do get some weapons training… [H]e deployed with Team 1 to keep them out of trouble… There’s a saying, ‘If you can take an extra shooter with you, or you can take a lawyer, take the lawyer.’”
DeSantis’ squishy descriptions of his “SEAL” service can be equally irritating for American vets who served in other branches of the service. Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), a onetime Air Force pilot who continues to serve as a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said on Thursday that he has “had people tell me that DeSantis was a Navy SEAL.”
“It bothers me,” Kinzinger told The Daily Beast. “I deployed to support SEALs, Delta, etc, and never once have [I] tried to pretend I was one. And never once said I ‘deployed with the SEALs.’”
Reaction online to DeSantis’ SEAL story was swift, with radio host and former Navy pilot Kai Ryssdal tweeting, “I was on the Navy Staff at the Pentagon with a Navy SEAL. So I, too, am a Navy SEAL.”
“He was just a fucking Navy lawyer, never a SEAL,” former Navy officer Scott Mettler posted. “The SEALs were merely his clients.”
“An actual text from [a] right leaning civilian last night. They think he's a SEAL,” another vet tweeted.
Ron DeSantis in Iraq.
DeSantis for Governor
And in response to Kinzinger, Allmon tweeted, “Let me assure everyone that DeSantis was NEVER a U.S. Navy SEAL! Adam, though we may disagree on political issues, I thank YOU for your Honorable Service to our country! God Bless you and keep you safe.”
DeSantis also spent time during his JAG career stationed at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was an assistant urinalysis coordinator.
Some former SEALs weren’t even aware until a couple of years ago that DeSantis served at all, and his name was not well-known in the SEAL community, Kevin Kent (SEAL Team 5; BUD/S class 200) told The Daily Beast. Kent said he has not heard “anything positive or negative from the community,” and doesn’t know “of anyone that feels like [DeSantis] is stealing valor or banking on the [Naval Special Warfare] community.”
A little embellishment here or there by someone who may have been “SEAL-adjacent,” such as a support technician or, ahem, a JAG, “usually starts out being harmless, and then it snowballs and you just can’t stop,” according to Shipley. “Not everybody in a Dallas Cowboys T-shirt was a Dallas Cowboy, but when you’re wearing a SEALs shirt in Walmart and somebody walks up to you and asks if you were a SEAL, nine times out of 10 they’ll say no. But that tenth time, they say yes—and they like the reaction they get.”
Making a broader point, U.S. Marine Corps Maj. Tom Schueman said he thinks it’s “unfortunate that the Global War on Terror generation has created a taxonomy of service.”
“Service always comes at a cost, and everyone who wears the uniform makes a sacrifice,” Schueman told The Daily Beast. “We should be proud of our service, and honest in our characterization of it.”
The DeSantis campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
With additional reporting by Zach Petrizzo and Jose Pagliery
Justin Rohrlich
Reporter
@justinrohrlich
[email protected]
Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.
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The Articulate Ignorance of Vivek Ramaswamy
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee Says if Trump Loses, 2024 Could Be Last Election ‘Decided by Ballots Rather Than Bullets’
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee Says if Trump Loses, 2024 Could Be Last Election ‘Decided by Ballots Rather Than Bullets’
The conservative pundit and former judge said tactics are being used against the ex-president similar to 'Third World dictatorships'
Published |Updated
Zachary Leeman
JWPlayer
Mike Huckabee made an extreme prediction about 2024 when discussing the possibility of Donald Trump losing or being prevented from running due to his legal troubles.
In a segment over the weekend on his Trinity Broadcast Network series, the former Arkansas governor suggested the four sets of criminal charges Trump is facing is an attempt to keep him from office, comparing the tactics to those used in "Third World dictatorships."
Mike Huckabee in the Fox News Channel Studios in New York CitySteven Ferdman/Getty Images
Huckabee, who has already endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, said if former president is kept from office in 2024 because of his legal troubles, it'll be the last election in the country decided by ballots instead of bullets.
"If you're not paying attention, you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024," he said. "Here's the problem, If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets."
Read More
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Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis outlined key points of his broad economic policy in late July, including replacing the Federal Reserve chair and revoking China’s trade status relations. Photo: CJ Gunther/Shutterstock
High-profile Democratic governors are stumping for President Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign and simultaneously auditioning to become the party’s next standard-bearer.
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Fox News pundit calls Ramaswamy proposal ‘criminally stupid’ and ‘like a freshman foreign policy paper’
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Jacksonville shooting: DeSantis booed at vigil for victims of racist attack
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Jacksonville shooting: DeSantis booed at vigil for victims of racist attack
Published
28 August
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Watch: Ron DeSantis is booed at a vigil after a racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville
By Gareth Evans
BBC News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been loudly booed at a vigil for victims of a racially motivated shooting.
The Republican candidate for president was heckled in Jacksonville, where hundreds gathered on Sunday to remember the three victims of the attack.
He was forced to step back from the microphone before a member of the city council asked the crowd to listen.
"It ain't about parties today," Ju'Coby Pittman said, adding: "A bullet don't know a party."
Mr DeSantis, 44, who has loosened gun laws in the state and faced criticism from civil rights leaders for targeting what he calls "woke ideology", eventually spoke and called the gunman a "scumbag" which prompted applause from some of the crowd.
Around 200 people attended the vigil, which took place in a predominantly black area just yards away from the Dollar General shop where the shooting happened the previous day.
Twenty-one year old Ryan Christopher Palmeter fired eleven rounds at 52 year-old Angela Carr who was sitting in her vehicle, before entering the shop and shooting another two people dead.
Anolt Laguerre Jr, 19, worked at the Dollar General and was killed as he tried to flee.
Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29, was shot dead as he entered the premises. Another woman was chased but managed to escape.
As police arrived, the attacker turned a gun on himself and died at the scene. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock handgun, both legally obtained, were used in the shooting.
IMAGE SOURCE,
GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
The deadly shooting happened at a Dollar General in Jacksonville on Saturday
Police have said the gunman was motivated by racist hatred.
"He knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid," Sheriff T K Waters told reporters. "Finely put: this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people."
He left behind racist messages, police said, which read like "the diary of a madman".
The gunman was detained for 72 hours in 2017 under mental health legislation that allows the involuntary detainment of an individual for treatment. He was released after the examination, police said, which is why it did not appear on his background checks when purchasing the guns.
More on US gun violence
The numbers behind the rise in mass shootings
America's fastest-growing gun problem
How gun violence is reshaping American lives
Parents' unimaginable grief a year after US massacre
Mr DeSantis said financial support would be provided to bolster security at the historically black Edward Waters University, near to where the shooting happened.
The gunman first went to the university campus, where he was asked to identify himself by a security officer. When he refused, he was asked to leave. He was then seen putting on a bullet-resistant vest and a mask before leaving the area.
"What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida," Mr DeSantis said. "We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race."
Bishop John Guns, referring to Mr Gallion, told the crowd: "In two weeks I have to preach a funeral of a man who should still be alive. I wept in church today like a baby because my heart is tired. We are exhausted."
The shooting fell on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous 'I have a dream' speech.
President Joe Biden, during remarks on the anniversary on Monday, called the shooting an "act of domestic violence extremism".
"Domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy is the greatest terrorist threat we face in the homeland," Mr Biden said.
The president also renewed calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier said the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
Related Topics
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Florida
Racism
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Ron DeSantis
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