GOP leaders start laying groundwork for more Ukraine aid
By KEVIN FREKING
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — Testimony on Russian war crimes. Monthly classified briefings. High-profile hearings, TV appearances and even op-eds in conservative media outlets.
Leading Republicans in Congress are not waiting for the next debate over assistance to Ukraine, instead launching an early and aggressive effort to make the case for why the U.S. should continue spending billions of dollars on the war effort.
One of their main challenges: winning over skeptical Republican colleagues.
“I’m very much focused on the dissension within my own party on this,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press.
McCaul plans to hold a hearing in the spring focused on Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, to try to bring home the war’s terrible toll.
“I find that moves the dial, when they see these horrific killings of children,” McCaul said.
The task ahead is challenging, particularly in the House. While Republicans have often been the nation’s leading defense hawks, eager for the U.S. to defend its interests through foreign action, former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach has emboldened a noninterventionist wing that is ascendant. They are clamoring for the Ukraine aid to come to an end.
The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, said of the Republicans across the aisle: “There are some that I’ve talked to, they don’t realize the interest the United States has in it.”
Last week, a group of 11 House Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida unveiled a “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution. It stated that the U.S. “must end its military and financial aid to Ukraine” and urged the combatants to “reach a peace agreement.”
“America is in a state of managed decline, and it will exacerbate if we continue to hemorrhage taxpayer dollars toward a foreign war," Gaetz said.
The U.S. has provided four rounds of aid to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion, totaling about $113 billion, with some of the money going toward replenishment of U.S. military equipment that was sent to the frontlines.
Congress approved the latest round of aid in December. While the package was designed to last through the end of the fiscal year in September, much depends upon events on the ground. Officials in Kyiv anticipate a new Russian offensive in coming weeks around the anniversary of the Feb. 24 invasion, which could hasten Ukraine’s need for more military and economic assistance.
But another funding request is certain to face heavy resistance from lawmakers closely aligned with Trump and budget hawks worried about the nation's $31 trillion in government debt.
“We’ve got to get our financial house in order in the United States before we put any more dollars overseas for things like that,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “We’ve met our goal for Ukraine.”
McCaul, as the new Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, is now a key player in U.S. funding decisions. He is working to bring in Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin to testify about the violence being inflicted on civilians.
A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body found last year that Russian forces are responsible for the vast majority of war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine. The commission documented patterns of summary executions, unlawful confinement, torture, rape and other sexual violence.
McCaul said he wants his colleagues and the public to see clearly what is happening in Ukraine and why U.S. aid is so vital.
“It’s not a question of either or,” McCaul said. “We’re a great country. We can secure our border and protect freedom and democracy around the world, which is what Ukraine is all about.”
With opponents of Ukraine spending warning of fraud and corruption, the House Armed Services Committee is planning to hold monthly classified briefings for lawmakers to detail, dollar by dollar, how the U.S. security aid is being allocated.
The briefings will be every two weeks for key staff, said Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers of Alabama, and a public hearing is in the works “to try to get more visibility for the public into the tracking that we’re doing.”
One of the challenges in ensuring accountability is the sheer number of activities that U.S. dollars are supporting.
U.S. dollars not only go to Stinger missiles to take out Russian aircraft, Javelin missiles to take out tanks, but also for food, water and shelter for refugees whose homes have been destroyed. The money also supports basic government services, such as medical care, firefighting and utilities.
The inspectors general for the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the lead offices tracking Ukraine spending. Rogers said he is encouraging NATO to bring in a third party to track U.S. weapons to assure the public they don’t end up in the wrong hands.
“We know it’s going to where it is supposed to, but how we know is classified,” Rogers said. “We’ve got to find a way to let the world know from somebody that they have confidence in."
Recent polling from Gallup found that about two-thirds of Americans support aid for Ukraine to help it regain its territory, even if it means a prolonged conflict. But that support varied depending upon political party. Nearly half of Republicans, or 47%, say the U.S. is doing too much compared with 35% of independents and just 10% of Democrats.
In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has consistently pressed the Biden administration for more robust action to help Ukraine win the war. He wore a bright blue and yellow tie to the State of the Union address last week — the colors of Ukraine’s flag — to trumpet his support.
The ranking Republican on the Senate's Armed Services panel, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is using the bully pulpit as well. He spoke at length on the Senate floor about Ukraine and followed up with an op-ed in the National Review, a conservative outlet.
“It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb,” Wicker told the AP. “The Ukrainians are willing to fight the fight for us if the West will give them the provisions. It’s a pretty good deal.”
"And what we’ve done is expose Russia’s very soft, vulnerable underbelly and we’ve made it less likely that any of our NATO allies will be attacked.”
But there are skeptics in the Senate, too. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said China is the U.S.’s top foreign adversary and that’s where Congress should be focusing its attention.
“We need to tell our European friends they need to carry the burden of the conventional defense in Ukraine,” Hawley said.
___
Congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,871
North Carolina GOP again seeking to ease gun restrictions
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
2 hours ago
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Both chambers of North Carolina's General Assembly are once again advancing previously vetoed gun legislation in light of Republicans' midterm election gains that landed them within one seat of a veto-proof supermajority.
A bill that advanced Tuesday through the Senate Judiciary Committee combines several measures already vetoed by the governor. Those would ease requirements to purchase handguns and allow people to carry concealed firearms in more locations, including some schools that are based in houses of worship. Standalone companion bills also advanced Tuesday through a House judiciary committee.
The House and Senate versions could head to the floor for votes later this week.
Senate Republicans have lumped in a bipartisan provision to launch and fund a two-year education campaign on the safe storage of firearms, which would also distribute free gun locks. The move will force Democratic supporters of safe storage to support all three provisions or reject the initiative.
One proposed measure, which has generated the most backlash from gun-control advocates, would do away with the permit someone must obtain from a county sheriff before purchasing a pistol. State law currently directs county sheriffs to evaluate applicants and ensure the gun will be use for lawful purposes.
Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican and one of the bill’s primary sponsors, called it a “common sense” measure that would remove what he considers an arbitrary requirement.
Many buyers would still undergo mandatory national background checks, which bill sponsors argue are comprehensive enough to remove the additional state requirement. However, a national background check is not mandatory for private gun sales, which only require North Carolina buyers to obtain a sheriff-issued permit, or face a misdemeanor charge.
While the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association supports repealing the requirement, its current president, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, does not.
Eddie Caldwell, the association’s executive vice president, said many sheriffs have found that the criminal history data available locally is now about the same as what’s available through the national system.
Several Democrats, including Sens. Natasha Marcus and Mujtaba Mohammed of Mecklenburg County, raised concerns at a committee meeting Tuesday that the bill would create a loophole that could enable criminals and people with mental illnesses to obtain firearms.
Britt responded that people who plan to commit crimes are likely not acquiring the required permits anyway.
“The criminal is not going to go to the sheriff and ask for it before he goes and commits the crime,” the senator said, adding that the bill would streamline the process for law-abiding gun buyers.
The law, he said, was first used during the Jim Crow era to prevent Black people from obtaining weapons. But Marcus Bass of the North Carolina Black Alliance told a House committee that the requirement is not duplicative or racially discriminatory and is an important safeguard against gun violence and suicides.
Stormy Ingold, the mother of a young adult son with bipolar disorder, told senators that North Carolina's pistol permit requirement is the only thing that has blocked him from purchasing a handgun in the state.
Her son passes the national background check, she said, but does not pass the more thorough mental health assessment required to obtain a permit from their local sheriff's office.
“I thank God for that requirement,” she said after a committee meeting. “If he buys a gun and hurts himself, that's blood on their hands.”
Another proposed measure — its own bill in the House and a component of the Senate package — would allow people with a concealed weapons permit to carry a gun openly or under clothing while they attend religious services at a location where private schools or charter schools also meet.
The proposal would not allow firearms during school hours or when any students are present. State law otherwise prohibits guns on school property.
While critics warned the proposal could endanger teachers and children, supporters such as the Rev. Ron Baity, a Winston-Salem pastor whose church is attached to a Christian school, said it would level the playing field for hundreds more North Carolina churches to protect their congregants.
“These bills are mischaracterized as being about schools,” said Sen. Jim Perry, a Lenoir County Republican and bill sponsor. “This is about a church and having the ability to enjoy equal protection.”
___
Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
What was that about cancel culture? You know, canceling stuff because you didn’t agree with some aspect of something? Drag shows. Abortion. AP classes. CRT. Disney. M&Ms. Wedding cakes. Speaking of which, why’s it taking so long for the Catholic Church to join the list? Oh yea, right. Now this? BOO! The repubs are scared of EVERYTHING! How do they ever leave the house?
Don’t forget boys and girls to put the two political parties up side by side to compare their budget proposals and policies. One side may not know which executive branch departments do what and might prefer that you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and quit bitchin’. From Letter From An American:
Biden appears to be trying to turn the nation to a modern version of the era before Reagan, when the government provided a basic social safety net, protected civil rights, promoted infrastructure, and regulated business. Since the 1980s, the Republicans have advocated deregulation with the argument that government interference in the way a company does business interrupts the market economy.
But the derailment of fifty Norfolk Southern train cars, eleven of which carried hazardous chemicals, near East Palestine, Ohio, near the northeastern border of the state on February 3 has powerfully illustrated the downsides of deregulation. The accident released highly toxic chemicals into the air, water, and ground, causing a massive fire and forcing about 5,000 nearby residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania to evacuate. On February 6, when it appeared some of the rail cars would explode, officials allowed the company to release and burn the toxic vinyl chloride stored in it. The controlled burn sent highly toxic phosgene, used as a weapon in World War I, into the air.
Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine has refused federal assistance from President Biden, who, he said, called to offer “anything you need.” DeWine said he had not called back to take him up on the offer. “We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it,” he said.
Just over the border, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that Norfolk Southern had botched its response to the accident. “Norfolk Southern has repeatedly assured us of the safety of their rail cars—in fact, leading Norfolk Southern personnel described them to me as ‘the Cadillac of rail cars’—yet despite these assertions, these were the same cars that Norfolk Southern personnel rushed to vent and burn without gathering input from state and local leaders. Norfolk Southern’s well known opposition to modern regulations [requires] further scrutiny and investigation to limit the devastating effects of future accidents on people’s lives, property, businesses, and the environment.”
Shapiro was likely referring to the fact that in 2017, after donors from the railroad industry poured more than $6 million into Republican political campaigns, the Trump administration got rid of a rule imposed by the Obama administration that required better braking systems on rail cars that carried hazardous flammable materials.
According to David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook, writing in the investigative journal The Lever, Norfolk Southern supported the repeal, telling regulators new electronically controlled pneumatic brakes on high-hazard flammable trains (HHFT) would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.” Railroads also lobbied to limit the definition of HFFT to cover primarily trains that carry oil, not industrial chemicals. The train that derailed in Ohio was not classified as an HHFT.
Nonetheless, Ohio’s new far-right Republican senator J. D. Vance went on the Fox News Channel show of personality Tucker Carlson to blame the Biden administration for the accident. He said there was no excuse for failing infrastructure after the passage last year of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and said that the administration is too focused on “environmental racism and other ridiculous things.” We are, he said, “ruled by unserious people.”
He also issued a statement saying that “my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.
Romney, outspoken about his own party, weighs reelection run
By MICHELLE L. PRICE and MARY CLARE JALONICK
Today
WASHINGTON (AP) — He twice voted in favor of convicting former President Donald Trump in impeachment trials. He excoriated his fellow senators who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. He even scolded New York Rep. George Santos for his audacity in grabbing a prominent seat at the State of the Union address after admitting to fabricating much of his biography.
After four years in Washington, Republican Mitt Romney has established himself as a rare senator willing to publicly rebuke members of his own party.
But the Utah senator’s outspoken stances, along with his willingness to work with Democrats, have angered some Republicans in the deep-red state he represents and led them to cast about for someone to try to dethrone him a primary race next year.
The 75-year-old said that he hasn't made a decision on whether to run for reelection in 2024 and doesn't expect to until the start of summer.
“I’m sort of keeping my mind open," Romney said in an interview. “There’s no particular hurry. I’m doing what I would do if I’m running with staffing and resources, so it’s not like I have to make a formal announcement.”
His decision about whether to run again comes as Trump is making his third campaign for the White House, presenting Romney an opportunity to continue to serve as a chief foil to the former president.
But that could also sustain the backlash Romney has faced for serving as a check on Trump, including being heckled at the airport, narrowly avoiding censure by the state GOP and becoming an insult that other Republicans use to slam their rivals as suspect: “A Mitt Romney Republican.”
Romney said he didn't know if the prospect of Trump becoming the Republican presidential nominee was something that would spur him to run for reelection run or stay out. But he said it was among the the things he would be weighing, along with personal considerations regarding his wife, Ann Romney, and family, and his goals for what he wants to accomplish in the Senate.
“We’ll look and see what happens in the rest of the Republican landscape and the national landscape, the presidential race and the other Senate races,” he said. “There is just a lot of elements that I will ultimately take into account. But I haven’t begun that process yet."
Romney has earned a reputation for bipartisanship, from his role helping broker a sweeping 2021 infrastructure law with Democrats to his being one of only three Republicans to vote to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. He helped negotiate legislation to protect same-sex marriages in December by demanding language ensuring that the rights of religious institutions would not be affected. And he joined 14 other Republican senators in supporting a sweeping gun control measure last summer in the wake of mass shootings.
“I didn’t come to the Senate to just fight and lose,” Romney said. “I came to actually fight and win. And I fell in with a group of Republicans and some Democrats who felt the same way and wanted to work together on issues of significance for the country and for our respective states.”
But what garnered Romney heavy booing two years ago and a near censure from the Utah GOP was his vote in 2020 that made him the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial. Romney voted to convict Trump on House charges that he had abused his power by urging the president of Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Biden. He voted to acquit on a separate charge that Trump had obstructed the impeachment investigation.
Romney did it again in the weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, becoming one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection.
Stan Lockhart, a former chair of the Utah Republican Party, said that while Romney’s votes in the impeachment trials drew a “huge negative outpouring,” he thinks that, nearly two years later, some of the support for Trump has softened and the hostility has “mellowed.”
“I think there are people today that were not big fans of Mitt Romney after that impeachment vote who like him better today,” Lockhart said.
Romney said he doesn’t have a measure of whether the backlash has eased, but said he was following an oath he took “to apply impartial justice.”
“People elect you and then you follow your conscience,” he said. “It would be sad if people who got elected to office tried to calculate their decisions based upon how popular it was at home. They have to do what they feel is absolutely right and then live with the consequences of that.”
No GOP challenger has stepped forward to run against Romney, but several prominent Utah Republicans are seen as potential candidates and at least one major conservative group is looking at spending in the race.
The anti-tax group Club For Growth, which used the phrase “Mitt Romney Republican” in attack ads in 2022, said the Utah Senate race is one where its political super PAC could likely get involved, throwing heft behind a conservative challenger.
“Even if he stays, I think there’s a desire among conservatives to have a real choice in Utah,” said Club For Growth President David McIntosh. “If somebody steps forward and is a credible candidate, we would definitely take a look at that.”
Former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who gained the national spotlight leading the House Oversight committee through aggressive investigations of Hillary Clinton, said he is considering a campaign.
“I do think about it. It’s not something I’m working on,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “It’s something I don’t think I need to decide right now and consequently I haven’t.”
He declined to say whether he thinks Romney is vulnerable but said, “I don’t think anybody should ever assume that they will continue to be there in perpetuity.”
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, is among those seen as a potential challenger. Reyes’ longtime political consultant Alan Crooks told the AP last year that Reyes was getting pressure to run and was well-positioned but wouldn’t say if he would launch a campaign.
The Western state allows candidates to secure a spot on the primary election ballot by collecting voter signatures — something a well-funded or popular candidate can generally do with ease — or by winning the support of 4,000 conservative-leaning delegates at the state GOP party convention.
Romney is unlikely to win the support of delegates — he didn’t in 2018 — and the impeachment votes made it worse.
“Trump is still very popular among the base," Utah GOP Chair Carson Jorgensen said. “Many Republicans felt it was a waste of time and taxpayer dollars to vote for impeachment."
In a primary election, where a larger pool of more moderate and independent Republicans cast ballots, the race is seen as Romney's to lose.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, had long been among the most popular figures in Utah by the time he moved to the state after his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign.
A Brigham Young University graduate, Romney was brought on to help the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, turning the games that had been overshadowed by a bribery scandal into a successful showcase for the small Western state. As the Republican presidential nominee a decade later, he became the most visible member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith to which more than half of Utah residents belong.
The church’s culture of decorum made the state a place where Trump, with his brazen personality and comments about women and people of color, initially received a chilly reception, losing the state’s 2016 caucuses.
Romney that year delivered a scathing speech against Trump, deeming him a “fraud” who was unfit to be president, but later warmed to him and accepted his endorsement during his Senate campaign.
Kirk Jowers, the former chairman and general counsel of Romney’s leadership PACs who remains in touch with Romney, said he has positioned himself at the center of much of what goes on in Washington and probably feels “that he has an incredibly important role to play in our state’s and our country’s and his party’s affairs.”
“I think it would be incredibly difficult for him to walk away from that role as things stand right now,” Jowers said.
Romney said he found it “fun” to get things passed in Washington but said he doesn't “understand someone who just wants to stay in the Senate.”
“I had a life before I came here, and I’ll have a life after I go,” Romney said. “And I came to actually do things and I’ve been part of a group that allowed me to do that.”
___
Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Does anyone think Kevin will create an investigative committee to look at the how and why and who is responsible for the train derailment? Appointing Gym Jordan chair? I mean he's from Ohio, right? Gym? Guess the Twatter files are much more important and its all Brandon's EPA's fault, right? I mean corporate 'Murica is never wrong, that's why they need tax cuts and less regulations. Maybe with some of that money they save from cutting food stamps, you know, to restore dignity, they can make up for the profits the railroad lost.
Does anyone think Kevin will create an investigative committee to look at the how and why and who is responsible for the train derailment? Appointing Gym Jordan chair? I mean he's from Ohio, right? Gym? Guess the Twatter files are much more important and its all Brandon's EPA's fault, right? I mean corporate 'Murica is never wrong, that's why they need tax cuts and less regulations. Maybe with some of that money they save from cutting food stamps, you know, to restore dignity, they can make up for the profits the railroad lost.
Only if Hunter's laptop shows up in the rubble
Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago 2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy 2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE) 2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston 2020: Oakland, Oakland:2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana 2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville 2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Trying to be funny because of Mayor Pete's comments. Its got the repub faux outrage machine all fired up. All fired up. Elimination of the white race, dontcha' know?
Addressing the National Association of Counties Conference, Buttigieg accused construction sites of not hiring workers that look like the communities they're building for.
'We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood,' Buttigieg said.
Trying to be funny because of Mayor Pete's comments. Its got the repub faux outrage machine all fired up. All fired up. Elimination of the white race, dontcha' know?
Addressing the National Association of Counties Conference, Buttigieg accused construction sites of not hiring workers that look like the communities they're building for.
'We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood,' Buttigieg said.
Put in a clause that has to higher a percentage of the work force locally. There is no way you're going to get even 50% of the locals to do that project, that's just not going to happen. Skill, unions and companies aren't going to take that type of gamble.
When we did construction in other states/countries our company made a point to the local governments that we are hiring X% of local people. It was a major selling point for a project.
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,871
Sen. Rick Scott alters policy plan causing heartburn for GOP
By KEVIN FREKING
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has amended his plan to overhaul how the federal government works after Democrats, including President Joe Biden, repeatedly invoked it to accuse Republicans of looking to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Scott unveiled his original plan last year when serving as chair of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans. It called for all federal legislation to sunset in five years, and if a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.
His revised plan specifies exceptions for Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services. The change comes as Democrats work to drive a wedge between GOP lawmakers and their base of older voters who rely on government programs for income and health insurance.
Biden held up a pamphlet of Scott's original plan when he visited the senator's home state of Florida last week, saying “I know that a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also been highlighting Scott’s proposals to criticize the GOP's budgetary demands. And Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has consistently sought to distance Senate Republicans from Scott, telling reporters this week: “Let me say one more time, there is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security, period."
Scott's new plan takes a shot at his critics, saying in bold typeface: “Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy."
Scott explained the changes he made in a Washington Examiner op-ed that lashed out at Biden as well as McConnell.
“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president. And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does," Scott wrote.
The White House wasn’t buying Scott’s explanation, though. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said cutting Medicare and Social Security was a “longstanding passion” for Scott.
“Make no mistake, his true colors are undeniable and on the record,” Jean-Pierre said.
McConnell and Scott have been at odds for some time now. Scott challenged McConnell in November to become the chamber's minority leader, but McConnell easily prevailed in the first attempt to oust him. The vote was 37-10, senators said, with one other senator voting present.
House Republicans have been calling for reducing government spending as part of any agreement to increase the nation's borrowing authority in the coming months. Democrats have been calling for a clean debt ceiling with no strings attached and are challenging Republicans to spell out any cuts they propose to make. Scott's overhaul Friday signals the difficulty Republicans will have in answering that challenge.
____
Associated Press staff writer Christopher Megerian contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
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mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,871
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Sen. Rick Scott alters policy plan causing heartburn for GOP
By KEVIN FREKING
2 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has amended his plan to overhaul how the federal government works after Democrats, including President Joe Biden, repeatedly invoked it to accuse Republicans of looking to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Scott unveiled his original plan last year when serving as chair of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans. It called for all federal legislation to sunset in five years, and if a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.
His revised plan specifies exceptions for Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services. The change comes as Democrats work to drive a wedge between GOP lawmakers and their base of older voters who rely on government programs for income and health insurance.
Biden held up a pamphlet of Scott's original plan when he visited the senator's home state of Florida last week, saying “I know that a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also been highlighting Scott’s proposals to criticize the GOP's budgetary demands. And Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has consistently sought to distance Senate Republicans from Scott, telling reporters this week: “Let me say one more time, there is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security, period."
Scott's new plan takes a shot at his critics, saying in bold typeface: “Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy."
Scott explained the changes he made in a Washington Examiner op-ed that lashed out at Biden as well as McConnell.
“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president. And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does," Scott wrote.
The White House wasn’t buying Scott’s explanation, though. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said cutting Medicare and Social Security was a “longstanding passion” for Scott.
“Make no mistake, his true colors are undeniable and on the record,” Jean-Pierre said.
McConnell and Scott have been at odds for some time now. Scott challenged McConnell in November to become the chamber's minority leader, but McConnell easily prevailed in the first attempt to oust him. The vote was 37-10, senators said, with one other senator voting present.
House Republicans have been calling for reducing government spending as part of any agreement to increase the nation's borrowing authority in the coming months. Democrats have been calling for a clean debt ceiling with no strings attached and are challenging Republicans to spell out any cuts they propose to make. Scott's overhaul Friday signals the difficulty Republicans will have in answering that challenge.
____
Associated Press staff writer Christopher Megerian contributed to this report.
Instills a whole lot of trust and faith, doesn't it?
Comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — Testimony on Russian war crimes. Monthly classified briefings. High-profile hearings, TV appearances and even op-eds in conservative media outlets.
Leading Republicans in Congress are not waiting for the next debate over assistance to Ukraine, instead launching an early and aggressive effort to make the case for why the U.S. should continue spending billions of dollars on the war effort.
One of their main challenges: winning over skeptical Republican colleagues.
“I’m very much focused on the dissension within my own party on this,” Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press.
McCaul plans to hold a hearing in the spring focused on Russian atrocities against Ukrainian civilians, to try to bring home the war’s terrible toll.
“I find that moves the dial, when they see these horrific killings of children,” McCaul said.
The task ahead is challenging, particularly in the House. While Republicans have often been the nation’s leading defense hawks, eager for the U.S. to defend its interests through foreign action, former President Donald Trump’s “America First” approach has emboldened a noninterventionist wing that is ascendant. They are clamoring for the Ukraine aid to come to an end.
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The top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, said of the Republicans across the aisle: “There are some that I’ve talked to, they don’t realize the interest the United States has in it.”
Last week, a group of 11 House Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida unveiled a “Ukraine Fatigue” resolution. It stated that the U.S. “must end its military and financial aid to Ukraine” and urged the combatants to “reach a peace agreement.”
“America is in a state of managed decline, and it will exacerbate if we continue to hemorrhage taxpayer dollars toward a foreign war," Gaetz said.
The U.S. has provided four rounds of aid to Ukraine in response to Russia’s invasion, totaling about $113 billion, with some of the money going toward replenishment of U.S. military equipment that was sent to the frontlines.
Congress approved the latest round of aid in December. While the package was designed to last through the end of the fiscal year in September, much depends upon events on the ground. Officials in Kyiv anticipate a new Russian offensive in coming weeks around the anniversary of the Feb. 24 invasion, which could hasten Ukraine’s need for more military and economic assistance.
But another funding request is certain to face heavy resistance from lawmakers closely aligned with Trump and budget hawks worried about the nation's $31 trillion in government debt.
“We’ve got to get our financial house in order in the United States before we put any more dollars overseas for things like that,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C. “We’ve met our goal for Ukraine.”
McCaul, as the new Republican chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, is now a key player in U.S. funding decisions. He is working to bring in Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin to testify about the violence being inflicted on civilians.
A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body found last year that Russian forces are responsible for the vast majority of war crimes and human rights violations in Ukraine. The commission documented patterns of summary executions, unlawful confinement, torture, rape and other sexual violence.
McCaul said he wants his colleagues and the public to see clearly what is happening in Ukraine and why U.S. aid is so vital.
“It’s not a question of either or,” McCaul said. “We’re a great country. We can secure our border and protect freedom and democracy around the world, which is what Ukraine is all about.”
With opponents of Ukraine spending warning of fraud and corruption, the House Armed Services Committee is planning to hold monthly classified briefings for lawmakers to detail, dollar by dollar, how the U.S. security aid is being allocated.
The briefings will be every two weeks for key staff, said Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers of Alabama, and a public hearing is in the works “to try to get more visibility for the public into the tracking that we’re doing.”
One of the challenges in ensuring accountability is the sheer number of activities that U.S. dollars are supporting.
U.S. dollars not only go to Stinger missiles to take out Russian aircraft, Javelin missiles to take out tanks, but also for food, water and shelter for refugees whose homes have been destroyed. The money also supports basic government services, such as medical care, firefighting and utilities.
The inspectors general for the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development are the lead offices tracking Ukraine spending. Rogers said he is encouraging NATO to bring in a third party to track U.S. weapons to assure the public they don’t end up in the wrong hands.
“We know it’s going to where it is supposed to, but how we know is classified,” Rogers said. “We’ve got to find a way to let the world know from somebody that they have confidence in."
Recent polling from Gallup found that about two-thirds of Americans support aid for Ukraine to help it regain its territory, even if it means a prolonged conflict. But that support varied depending upon political party. Nearly half of Republicans, or 47%, say the U.S. is doing too much compared with 35% of independents and just 10% of Democrats.
In the Senate, Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has consistently pressed the Biden administration for more robust action to help Ukraine win the war. He wore a bright blue and yellow tie to the State of the Union address last week — the colors of Ukraine’s flag — to trumpet his support.
The ranking Republican on the Senate's Armed Services panel, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is using the bully pulpit as well. He spoke at length on the Senate floor about Ukraine and followed up with an op-ed in the National Review, a conservative outlet.
“It is a relatively modest amount that we are contributing without being asked to risk life and limb,” Wicker told the AP. “The Ukrainians are willing to fight the fight for us if the West will give them the provisions. It’s a pretty good deal.”
"And what we’ve done is expose Russia’s very soft, vulnerable underbelly and we’ve made it less likely that any of our NATO allies will be attacked.”
But there are skeptics in the Senate, too. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said China is the U.S.’s top foreign adversary and that’s where Congress should be focusing its attention.
“We need to tell our European friends they need to carry the burden of the conventional defense in Ukraine,” Hawley said.
___
Congressional correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Both chambers of North Carolina's General Assembly are once again advancing previously vetoed gun legislation in light of Republicans' midterm election gains that landed them within one seat of a veto-proof supermajority.
A bill that advanced Tuesday through the Senate Judiciary Committee combines several measures already vetoed by the governor. Those would ease requirements to purchase handguns and allow people to carry concealed firearms in more locations, including some schools that are based in houses of worship. Standalone companion bills also advanced Tuesday through a House judiciary committee.
The House and Senate versions could head to the floor for votes later this week.
Senate Republicans have lumped in a bipartisan provision to launch and fund a two-year education campaign on the safe storage of firearms, which would also distribute free gun locks. The move will force Democratic supporters of safe storage to support all three provisions or reject the initiative.
One proposed measure, which has generated the most backlash from gun-control advocates, would do away with the permit someone must obtain from a county sheriff before purchasing a pistol. State law currently directs county sheriffs to evaluate applicants and ensure the gun will be use for lawful purposes.
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Sen. Danny Britt, a Robeson County Republican and one of the bill’s primary sponsors, called it a “common sense” measure that would remove what he considers an arbitrary requirement.
Many buyers would still undergo mandatory national background checks, which bill sponsors argue are comprehensive enough to remove the additional state requirement. However, a national background check is not mandatory for private gun sales, which only require North Carolina buyers to obtain a sheriff-issued permit, or face a misdemeanor charge.
While the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association supports repealing the requirement, its current president, Orange County Sheriff Charles Blackwood, does not.
Eddie Caldwell, the association’s executive vice president, said many sheriffs have found that the criminal history data available locally is now about the same as what’s available through the national system.
Several Democrats, including Sens. Natasha Marcus and Mujtaba Mohammed of Mecklenburg County, raised concerns at a committee meeting Tuesday that the bill would create a loophole that could enable criminals and people with mental illnesses to obtain firearms.
Britt responded that people who plan to commit crimes are likely not acquiring the required permits anyway.
“The criminal is not going to go to the sheriff and ask for it before he goes and commits the crime,” the senator said, adding that the bill would streamline the process for law-abiding gun buyers.
The law, he said, was first used during the Jim Crow era to prevent Black people from obtaining weapons. But Marcus Bass of the North Carolina Black Alliance told a House committee that the requirement is not duplicative or racially discriminatory and is an important safeguard against gun violence and suicides.
Stormy Ingold, the mother of a young adult son with bipolar disorder, told senators that North Carolina's pistol permit requirement is the only thing that has blocked him from purchasing a handgun in the state.
Her son passes the national background check, she said, but does not pass the more thorough mental health assessment required to obtain a permit from their local sheriff's office.
“I thank God for that requirement,” she said after a committee meeting. “If he buys a gun and hurts himself, that's blood on their hands.”
Another proposed measure — its own bill in the House and a component of the Senate package — would allow people with a concealed weapons permit to carry a gun openly or under clothing while they attend religious services at a location where private schools or charter schools also meet.
The proposal would not allow firearms during school hours or when any students are present. State law otherwise prohibits guns on school property.
While critics warned the proposal could endanger teachers and children, supporters such as the Rev. Ron Baity, a Winston-Salem pastor whose church is attached to a Christian school, said it would level the playing field for hundreds more North Carolina churches to protect their congregants.
“These bills are mischaracterized as being about schools,” said Sen. Jim Perry, a Lenoir County Republican and bill sponsor. “This is about a church and having the ability to enjoy equal protection.”
___
Hannah Schoenbaum is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoqeaAOjFQN/?igshid=NTdlMDg3MTY=
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edit because i forgot to add link...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/south-dakota-passes-first-law-200000769.html
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
lol...the list that tRump appears on
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
LOL...love it
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/15/us/kings-singers-pensacola-christian-college-cec/index.html
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"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
There are no kings inside the gates of eden
Biden appears to be trying to turn the nation to a modern version of the era before Reagan, when the government provided a basic social safety net, protected civil rights, promoted infrastructure, and regulated business. Since the 1980s, the Republicans have advocated deregulation with the argument that government interference in the way a company does business interrupts the market economy.
But the derailment of fifty Norfolk Southern train cars, eleven of which carried hazardous chemicals, near East Palestine, Ohio, near the northeastern border of the state on February 3 has powerfully illustrated the downsides of deregulation. The accident released highly toxic chemicals into the air, water, and ground, causing a massive fire and forcing about 5,000 nearby residents in Ohio and Pennsylvania to evacuate. On February 6, when it appeared some of the rail cars would explode, officials allowed the company to release and burn the toxic vinyl chloride stored in it. The controlled burn sent highly toxic phosgene, used as a weapon in World War I, into the air.
Republican Ohio governor Mike DeWine has refused federal assistance from President Biden, who, he said, called to offer “anything you need.” DeWine said he had not called back to take him up on the offer. “We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it,” he said.
Just over the border, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said that Norfolk Southern had botched its response to the accident. “Norfolk Southern has repeatedly assured us of the safety of their rail cars—in fact, leading Norfolk Southern personnel described them to me as ‘the Cadillac of rail cars’—yet despite these assertions, these were the same cars that Norfolk Southern personnel rushed to vent and burn without gathering input from state and local leaders. Norfolk Southern’s well known opposition to modern regulations [requires] further scrutiny and investigation to limit the devastating effects of future accidents on people’s lives, property, businesses, and the environment.”
Shapiro was likely referring to the fact that in 2017, after donors from the railroad industry poured more than $6 million into Republican political campaigns, the Trump administration got rid of a rule imposed by the Obama administration that required better braking systems on rail cars that carried hazardous flammable materials.
According to David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns, and Matthew Cunningham-Cook, writing in the investigative journal The Lever, Norfolk Southern supported the repeal, telling regulators new electronically controlled pneumatic brakes on high-hazard flammable trains (HHFT) would “impose tremendous costs without providing offsetting safety benefits.” Railroads also lobbied to limit the definition of HFFT to cover primarily trains that carry oil, not industrial chemicals. The train that derailed in Ohio was not classified as an HHFT.
Nonetheless, Ohio’s new far-right Republican senator J. D. Vance went on the Fox News Channel show of personality Tucker Carlson to blame the Biden administration for the accident. He said there was no excuse for failing infrastructure after the passage last year of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and said that the administration is too focused on “environmental racism and other ridiculous things.” We are, he said, “ruled by unserious people.”
He also issued a statement saying that “my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — He twice voted in favor of convicting former President Donald Trump in impeachment trials. He excoriated his fellow senators who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. He even scolded New York Rep. George Santos for his audacity in grabbing a prominent seat at the State of the Union address after admitting to fabricating much of his biography.
After four years in Washington, Republican Mitt Romney has established himself as a rare senator willing to publicly rebuke members of his own party.
But the Utah senator’s outspoken stances, along with his willingness to work with Democrats, have angered some Republicans in the deep-red state he represents and led them to cast about for someone to try to dethrone him a primary race next year.
The 75-year-old said that he hasn't made a decision on whether to run for reelection in 2024 and doesn't expect to until the start of summer.
“I’m sort of keeping my mind open," Romney said in an interview. “There’s no particular hurry. I’m doing what I would do if I’m running with staffing and resources, so it’s not like I have to make a formal announcement.”
His decision about whether to run again comes as Trump is making his third campaign for the White House, presenting Romney an opportunity to continue to serve as a chief foil to the former president.
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But that could also sustain the backlash Romney has faced for serving as a check on Trump, including being heckled at the airport, narrowly avoiding censure by the state GOP and becoming an insult that other Republicans use to slam their rivals as suspect: “A Mitt Romney Republican.”
Romney said he didn't know if the prospect of Trump becoming the Republican presidential nominee was something that would spur him to run for reelection run or stay out. But he said it was among the the things he would be weighing, along with personal considerations regarding his wife, Ann Romney, and family, and his goals for what he wants to accomplish in the Senate.
“We’ll look and see what happens in the rest of the Republican landscape and the national landscape, the presidential race and the other Senate races,” he said. “There is just a lot of elements that I will ultimately take into account. But I haven’t begun that process yet."
Romney has earned a reputation for bipartisanship, from his role helping broker a sweeping 2021 infrastructure law with Democrats to his being one of only three Republicans to vote to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson as a Supreme Court justice. He helped negotiate legislation to protect same-sex marriages in December by demanding language ensuring that the rights of religious institutions would not be affected. And he joined 14 other Republican senators in supporting a sweeping gun control measure last summer in the wake of mass shootings.
“I didn’t come to the Senate to just fight and lose,” Romney said. “I came to actually fight and win. And I fell in with a group of Republicans and some Democrats who felt the same way and wanted to work together on issues of significance for the country and for our respective states.”
But what garnered Romney heavy booing two years ago and a near censure from the Utah GOP was his vote in 2020 that made him the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party in an impeachment trial. Romney voted to convict Trump on House charges that he had abused his power by urging the president of Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Biden. He voted to acquit on a separate charge that Trump had obstructed the impeachment investigation.
Romney did it again in the weeks after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, becoming one of seven Republicans to vote to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection.
Stan Lockhart, a former chair of the Utah Republican Party, said that while Romney’s votes in the impeachment trials drew a “huge negative outpouring,” he thinks that, nearly two years later, some of the support for Trump has softened and the hostility has “mellowed.”
“I think there are people today that were not big fans of Mitt Romney after that impeachment vote who like him better today,” Lockhart said.
Romney said he doesn’t have a measure of whether the backlash has eased, but said he was following an oath he took “to apply impartial justice.”
“People elect you and then you follow your conscience,” he said. “It would be sad if people who got elected to office tried to calculate their decisions based upon how popular it was at home. They have to do what they feel is absolutely right and then live with the consequences of that.”
No GOP challenger has stepped forward to run against Romney, but several prominent Utah Republicans are seen as potential candidates and at least one major conservative group is looking at spending in the race.
The anti-tax group Club For Growth, which used the phrase “Mitt Romney Republican” in attack ads in 2022, said the Utah Senate race is one where its political super PAC could likely get involved, throwing heft behind a conservative challenger.
“Even if he stays, I think there’s a desire among conservatives to have a real choice in Utah,” said Club For Growth President David McIntosh. “If somebody steps forward and is a credible candidate, we would definitely take a look at that.”
Former U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, who gained the national spotlight leading the House Oversight committee through aggressive investigations of Hillary Clinton, said he is considering a campaign.
“I do think about it. It’s not something I’m working on,” Chaffetz said in an interview. “It’s something I don’t think I need to decide right now and consequently I haven’t.”
He declined to say whether he thinks Romney is vulnerable but said, “I don’t think anybody should ever assume that they will continue to be there in perpetuity.”
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican and staunch Trump ally, is among those seen as a potential challenger. Reyes’ longtime political consultant Alan Crooks told the AP last year that Reyes was getting pressure to run and was well-positioned but wouldn’t say if he would launch a campaign.
The Western state allows candidates to secure a spot on the primary election ballot by collecting voter signatures — something a well-funded or popular candidate can generally do with ease — or by winning the support of 4,000 conservative-leaning delegates at the state GOP party convention.
Romney is unlikely to win the support of delegates — he didn’t in 2018 — and the impeachment votes made it worse.
“Trump is still very popular among the base," Utah GOP Chair Carson Jorgensen said. “Many Republicans felt it was a waste of time and taxpayer dollars to vote for impeachment."
In a primary election, where a larger pool of more moderate and independent Republicans cast ballots, the race is seen as Romney's to lose.
Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, had long been among the most popular figures in Utah by the time he moved to the state after his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign.
A Brigham Young University graduate, Romney was brought on to help the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah, turning the games that had been overshadowed by a bribery scandal into a successful showcase for the small Western state. As the Republican presidential nominee a decade later, he became the most visible member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a faith to which more than half of Utah residents belong.
The church’s culture of decorum made the state a place where Trump, with his brazen personality and comments about women and people of color, initially received a chilly reception, losing the state’s 2016 caucuses.
Romney that year delivered a scathing speech against Trump, deeming him a “fraud” who was unfit to be president, but later warmed to him and accepted his endorsement during his Senate campaign.
Kirk Jowers, the former chairman and general counsel of Romney’s leadership PACs who remains in touch with Romney, said he has positioned himself at the center of much of what goes on in Washington and probably feels “that he has an incredibly important role to play in our state’s and our country’s and his party’s affairs.”
“I think it would be incredibly difficult for him to walk away from that role as things stand right now,” Jowers said.
Romney said he found it “fun” to get things passed in Washington but said he doesn't “understand someone who just wants to stay in the Senate.”
“I had a life before I came here, and I’ll have a life after I go,” Romney said. “And I came to actually do things and I’ve been part of a group that allowed me to do that.”
___
Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
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probably fitting that this guy and boebert are co-sponsors on this.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
I don't know....this hits me as kind of racist
1998: Noblesville; 2003: Noblesville; 2009: EV Nashville, Chicago, Chicago
2010: St Louis, Columbus, Noblesville; 2011: EV Chicago, East Troy, East Troy
2013: London ON, Chicago; 2014: Cincy, St Louis, Moline (NO CODE)
2016: Lexington, Wrigley #1; 2018: Wrigley, Wrigley, Boston, Boston
2020: Oakland, Oakland: 2021: EV Ohana, Ohana, Ohana, Ohana
2022: Oakland, Oakland, Nashville, Louisville; 2023: Chicago, Chicago, Noblesville
2024: Noblesville, Wrigley, Wrigley, Ohana, Ohana
Addressing the National Association of Counties Conference, Buttigieg accused construction sites of not hiring workers that look like the communities they're building for.
'We have heard way too many stories from generations past of infrastructure where you got a neighborhood, often a neighborhood of color, that finally sees the project come to them, but everyone in the hard hats on that project, doing the good paying jobs, don't look like they came from anywhere near the neighborhood,' Buttigieg said.
Pete Buttigieg talks lack of diversity in construction, ignores 'catastrophic' Ohio train derailment | Daily Mail Online
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When we did construction in other states/countries our company made a point to the local governments that we are hiring X% of local people. It was a major selling point for a project.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has amended his plan to overhaul how the federal government works after Democrats, including President Joe Biden, repeatedly invoked it to accuse Republicans of looking to cut Medicare and Social Security.
Scott unveiled his original plan last year when serving as chair of the campaign committee for Senate Republicans. It called for all federal legislation to sunset in five years, and if a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.
His revised plan specifies exceptions for Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services. The change comes as Democrats work to drive a wedge between GOP lawmakers and their base of older voters who rely on government programs for income and health insurance.
Biden held up a pamphlet of Scott's original plan when he visited the senator's home state of Florida last week, saying “I know that a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. If that’s your dream, I’m your nightmare.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has also been highlighting Scott’s proposals to criticize the GOP's budgetary demands. And Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has consistently sought to distance Senate Republicans from Scott, telling reporters this week: “Let me say one more time, there is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security, period."
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Scott's new plan takes a shot at his critics, saying in bold typeface: “Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy."
Scott explained the changes he made in a Washington Examiner op-ed that lashed out at Biden as well as McConnell.
“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democrat lie from a very confused president. And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is also well aware of that. It’s shallow gotcha politics, which is what Washington does," Scott wrote.
The White House wasn’t buying Scott’s explanation, though. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said cutting Medicare and Social Security was a “longstanding passion” for Scott.
“Make no mistake, his true colors are undeniable and on the record,” Jean-Pierre said.
McConnell and Scott have been at odds for some time now. Scott challenged McConnell in November to become the chamber's minority leader, but McConnell easily prevailed in the first attempt to oust him. The vote was 37-10, senators said, with one other senator voting present.
House Republicans have been calling for reducing government spending as part of any agreement to increase the nation's borrowing authority in the coming months. Democrats have been calling for a clean debt ceiling with no strings attached and are challenging Republicans to spell out any cuts they propose to make. Scott's overhaul Friday signals the difficulty Republicans will have in answering that challenge.
____
Associated Press staff writer Christopher Megerian contributed to this report.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©