US Politics

Judge warns of ‘dark shadow of tyranny’ as Capitol rioter jailed for 90 monthsAlbuquerque Head, who pleaded guilty to assaulting officer Michael Fanone on January 6, sentenced to seven and a half years Sentencing a January 6 rioter who assaulted a police officer to 90 months in prison, a judge warned the “dark shadow of tyranny” continues to loom nearly two years since the Capitol insurrection that attempted to overthrow the results of the US presidential election.Will he testify? Trump’s lawyers accept subpoena from Capitol attack panelRead moreAlbuquerque Head of Tennessee was sentenced on Thursday to the second-longest punishment of anyone involved in the Capitol attack so far. Head had already pleaded guilty to dragging officer Michael Fanone away from the police line while shouting “I got one!”Shortly after, other violent protesters grabbed Fanone, tasered him and stole his radio and badge.During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Fanone testified that he suffered a heart attack and a traumatic brain injury as a result of the attack, later quitting his job, reported the Detroit News.“I would trade all of this attention to return to policing, but I can’t do that,” Fanone said. “And the catalyst for my loss of career and the suffering that I’ve endured in the past 18 months is Albuquerque Head.”During sentencing, US district court judge Amy Berman Jackson, who has handled several politically significant court cases during the Trump era, called Head’s behavior some of the most chilling to come out of the January 6 riots.“He was your prey … He was your trophy,” Jackson told Head of his attitude to Fanone.“The dark shadow of tyranny unfortunately has not gone away,” she said. “Some people are directing their vitriol at Officer Fanone and not at the people who summoned the mob in the first place.”Thomas Webster, a former New York police officer, is the only person to receive a lengthier punishment than Head. Webster was sentenced by US district court judge Amit Meht to 10 years in prison last month for attempting to break the police line during the Capitol riot, including swinging a metal flagpole at an officer and choking him with his helmet chinstrap.When deciding his sentence, Jackson noted that Head admitted his guilt and had a finance and three children. She also reiterated, however, that Head was to blame.“The people who are upset need to understand that no matter how outraged they are … when they decide to do battle with the officers who are doing their duty, they will be held accountable,” the judge said.TopicsUS Capitol attackJanuary 6 hearingsUS politicsWashington DCnewsReuse this content More

Is Herschel Walker the worst candidate the Republicans have ever run?Jill FilipovicRepublican men can be accused of any number of horrors, and not risk their party’s support It’s possible that Herschel Walker is the worst candidate the modern Republican party has ever run for national office, and in an era of conspiracy theorists, Christian nationalists and Donald Trump, that’s saying a lot. Walker embodies everything the Republican party has claimed to oppose: violent crime, abortion, homes broken by absentee fathers, race-based affirmative action and straight-up incompetence. And yet no matter what Walker is accused of, up to and including acts many Republicans define as murder, he retains the support of the Republican party, and his race for a Georgia Senate seat remains a tight one.It’s not just that the modern Republican party has accepted as a norm that there should be absolutely zero moral or ethical expectations from the people they run for office. It’s that they seem to relish breaking the rules they want to set for others. It’s not hypocrisy so much as the celebration of conservative male impunity.Walker has now been accused by two different women of pressuring them to get abortions, and paying for the procedures – allegations which he denies. By the “pro-life” definition of abortion, one widely accepted within the Republican party, abortion is murder, which means that Walker allegedly paid to murder his own children. That Republican voters don’t see this as a problem suggests that they don’t really buy what their own movement is selling, and don’t actually believe that abortion is in fact murder. But they are nonetheless prepared to criminalize it.And the two women who say Walker paid for their abortions are different women from the ex-wife who has accused Walker of domestic violence. The latest woman to accuse Walker has remained anonymous, so it’s impossible to know if she is a different woman still from the one who accused Walker of stalking around her home and threatening her, or the other one who says Walker allegedly threatened to “blow her head off” if she left him. The first woman who came forward about Walker’s involvement in her abortion is, however, the mother of one of the several children Walker fathered out of wedlock and then did not publicly acknowledge – and had been sued to support – until after journalists tracked them down during his Senate campaign.Walker has described fatherless Black families as a “major, major problem” in the US. Last year, he told conservative celebrities Diamond and Silk that the typical irresponsible Black father “leaves the boys alone so they’ll be raised by their mom”, he said. “If you have a child with a woman, even if you have to leave that woman – even if you have to leave that woman – you don’t leave that child.”Walker did in fact leave his own children. At least one of their mothers had to sue him to get him to admit paternity.Still, this is the man selected by the party of “family values” to represent Georgia – and this is a man who believes he should get the job.Rightwing commentator Dana Loesch seemed to sum up the Republican view on Walker when she said of his abortion funding, “I don’t care if Herschel Walker paid to abort endangered baby eagles. I want control of the Senate.” Walker has denied the accusations, but not even Republicans seem to believe him. “I don’t know if he did it or not,” Loesch said. “I don’t even care.”Republicans definitely care when women choose to have abortions, though. The Republican party line is that abortion is murder and should be criminalized. Walker himself believes as much, and has voiced his support for Georgia’s strict abortion criminalization law, as well as Republican efforts to outlaw abortion nationwide.And it’s not just that Walker is by any measure a profoundly immoral person, with his long string of violent criminal behavior and abuse of women. He is also almost indescribably vapid, a man with what seems to be a shockingly light grasp of the most basic of concepts (he at least seems to recognize his own intellectual limitations, saying, “I’m not that smart”). He struggles to string together a coherent sentence. Climate change, he has said, is not worth fighting because “since we don’t control the air, our good air decided to float over to China’s bad air so when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got to clean that back up, while they’re messing ours up.”He is also a serial fabulist, although it’s unclear if he’s purposely lying all of the time, or if he truly does not understand what is happening around him at any given moment. Walker claimed he was his high school’s valedictorian and in the top 1% of his graduating class in college; in reality, he did not graduate from college, although he has since lied about lying about it. Walker told a group of soldiers, “I spent time at Quantico at the FBI training school. Y’all didn’t know I was an agent?” They did not know he was an agent because Herschel Walker was not, in fact, an agent. Nevertheless, he has persisted in claiming that he was in law enforcement, holding up an honorary sheriff’s deputy badge as proof – the rough equivalent of a child brandishing their kiddie pilot wings and claiming they can fly the plane.And while Republicans are crowing about the Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s depressing debate performance and claiming that he is mentally unfit for office – Fetterman is recovering from a stroke, and though his doctors say he is not cognitively impaired, he still struggles with auditory processing and stumbles over his words – they are also excusing Walker’s bad behavior by pointing to his history of concussions. And Walker himself has said he simply doesn’t remember much of his violent past, and has pinned blame on what he says are his multiple personalities – a disorder he sought treatment for by a guy whose professional credentials are a degree in Bible from the Dallas Bible College and a master’s degree in theology, and who blames demonic possession for mental illnesses, claims to be able to cure homosexuality and diagnoses mental disorders based on what color crayon a patient selects (the therapist himself is colorblind).Imagine, for a moment, if Kamala Harris had what seems to be inadequately treated multiple personality disorder, a history of violent criminal behavior she blamed on her other personalities, and several children with multiple different men who she attempted to hide during her campaign – the rightwing outrage and attacks would be vicious and unending, and she would not be in office. Michelle Obama had the audacity to simply exist in the public eye, and for that was subject to a barrage of racist and sexist vitriol, including Fox News calling her “Obama’s baby mama”.Republican men, in the meantime, can be proudly incompetent, self-defined imbeciles, moral degenerates and violent misogynists, and they don’t risk their party’s support or conservatives’ ballots.This is hypocrisy, yes. But Republicans aren’t ashamed of it not just because they seem to lack the capacity for shame – although that is certainly true – but because the below-the-surface conservative ethos isn’t about any real attachment to family values, moral uprightness, or fetal life, but rather a return to a traditional gender order where men dominate political, social and economic life, and women are financially and socially dependent on them, primarily tasked with raising children and tending to the home. Outlawing abortion helps to reinforce this patriarchal order by constraining women’s opportunities and our ability to choose the course of our own lives, but it’s the “patriarchal order” part of the equation that’s more desirable than the “preventing abortion” part of it. When Walker wants the women he allegedly impregnated to end their pregnancies because additional out-of-wedlock children are inconvenient for him, his future and his political career, that upholds the kind of traditional male power structure conservatives seek to reinstate – and is the kind of abortion exception Republicans can apparently get behind.
Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk.
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DeSantis’s old law firm received millions in state funds, investigation findsDaily Beast reports that Holland & Knight, where governor once worked, made nearly $3m in state contracts from 2018 to 2020 The old law firm of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has received millions in state funds during his tenure, according to a new investigation.Biden to scrap Trump missile project but critics attack US ‘nuclear overkill’Read moreThe Daily Beast reported that two law firms, Holland & Knight and Holtzman Vogel, received millions of dollars in state business in recent years from DeSantis’s administration.According to data the Beast reviewed, Holland & Knight – where DeSantis previously worked as a civil litigator before his 2012 congressional campaign – pocketed “only $2,750 in contracts with the state of Florida” up until 2018.However, from 2018 to 2020, the law firm made nearly $3m from representing the state in various lawsuits, including on mail-in voter restrictions, foster-home care inadequacies and a major case on felons’ voting rights.All the work was reportedly assigned to one lawyer from the firm, George Meros, who counseled the Florida state government as an outside adviser.Meros’s son, Nick Meros, is currently DeSantis’s deputy general counsel.In August 2020, George Meros left the firm. Since then, it has not signed any new contracts with state agencies, according to state data reviewed by the outlet.That year, Meros became the center of a public records lawsuit after he allegedly pressured his law firm into dropping a case from its client, the Miami Herald, asking the state to hand over Covid-19 data on its senior care facilities.In the past year, Holtzman Vogel also received an uptick in contracts from state agencies, with the Daily Beast reporting that it has done more than $4m in business with the Florida government. The firm, which represented Donald Trump in his 2020 election lawsuits, had previously not received any contracts from state agencies, according to state data.According to state records reviewed by the Daily Beast, the firm’s first contracts in October 2021 were worth $550,000 and $2.2m, both dealing with “two controversial election laws”.In September, DeSantis appointed partners from both Holland & Knight and Holtzman Vogel to the first district court of appeals judicial nominating commission.TopicsFloridaRon DeSantisUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

US economy bounces back to growth despite surging inflationCommerce department estimates show 2.6% annual growth rate for third quarter, snapping two straight quarters of contraction The US economy grew at a 2.6% annual rate from July through September, snapping two straight quarters of economic contraction and overcoming punishingly high inflation and interest rates.Thursday’s estimate from the commerce department showed that the nation’s gross domestic product – the broadest gauge of economic output – grew in the third quarter after having shrunk in the first half of 2022. Stronger exports and steady consumer spending, backed by a healthy job market, helped restore growth to the world’s biggest economy.Still, the outlook for the economy has darkened. The Federal Reserve has aggressively raised interest rates five times this year to fight chronic inflation and is set to do so again next week and in December.Fed chair Jerome Powell has warned that the Fed’s hikes will bring “pain” in the form of higher unemployment and possibly a recession.The government’s latest GDP report comes as Americans, worried about inflation and the risk of recession, have begun to vote in midterm elections that will determine whether Joe Biden’s Democratic party retains control of Congress. Inflation has become a signature issue for Republican attacks on the Democrats’ stewardship of the economy.With inflation still near a 40-year high, steady price spikes have been pressuring households across the country. At the same time, rising interest rates have derailed the housing market and are likely to inflict broader damage over time. The outlook for the world economy, too, grows bleaker the longer that Russia’s war against Ukraine drags on.Last quarter’s US economic growth reversed annual declines of 1.6% from January through March and 0.6% from April through June. Consecutive quarters of declining economic output are one informal definition of a recession. But most economists have said they believe the economy skirted a recession, noting the still-resilient job market and steady spending by consumers. Most of them have expressed concern, though, that a recession is likely next year as the Fed steadily tightens credit.Preston Caldwell, head of US economics for the financial services firm Morningstar, noted that the economy’s contraction in the first half of the year was caused largely by factors that don’t reflect its underlying health and so “very likely did not constitute a genuine economic slowdown.” He pointed, for example, to a drop in business inventories, a cyclical event that tends to reverse itself over time.Higher borrowing costs have weakened the home market, in particular. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, just 3.09% a year ago, is approaching 7%. Sales of existing homes have fallen for eight straight months. Construction of new homes is down nearly 8% from a year ago.Still, the economy retains pockets of strength. One is the vitally important job market. Employers have added an average of 420,000 jobs a month this year, putting 2022 on track to be the second-best year for job creation (behind 2021) in labor department records going back to 1940. The unemployment rate was 3.5% last month, matching a half-century low.Hiring has been decelerating, though. In September, the economy added 263,000 jobs – solid but the lowest total since April 2021.International events are causing further concerns. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted trade and raised prices of energy and food, creating a crisis for poor countries. The International Monetary Fund, citing the war, this month downgraded its outlook for the world economy in 2023.TopicsUS economyEconomicsBiden administrationUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Americans die younger in states run by conservatives, study findsMore liberal policies on environment, gun safety, labor, economic taxes and tobacco taxes associated with lower mortality Americans die younger in conservative states than in those governed by liberals, a new study has found.The authors wrote: “Simulations indicate that changing all policy domains in all states to a fully liberal orientation might have saved 171,030 lives in 2019, while changing them to a fully conservative orientation might have cost 217,635 lives.”Pandemic probably caused biggest drop in US life expectancy since 1945 – studyRead moreThe study was published on Plos One, “an inclusive journal community working together to advance science for the benefit of society, now and in the future”.The authors are from Syracuse University in New York, Harvard in Massachusetts, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Western Ontario, in Canada.They wrote: “Results show that the policy domains were associated with working-age mortality.”Bucking the trend, the study found that “more conservative marijuana policies” were associated with lower mortality rates.But it also found that “more liberal policies on the environment, gun safety, labour, economic taxes and tobacco taxes in a state were associated with lower mortality in that state”.They added: “Especially strong associations were observed between certain domains and specific causes of death: between the gun safety domain and suicide mortality among men, between the labour domain and alcohol-induced mortality, and between both the economic tax and tobacco tax domains and CVD [cardiovascular] mortality.”According to the National Council of State Legislatures, as of June this year Republicans controlled 61% of state legislatures and Democrats 35%. In terms of whole state governments, Republicans controlled 46% and Democrats 12%, with 12 states divided.The study authors also noted that American life expectancy as a whole is lower than in most high-income countries, “fall[ing] between … Cuba and Albania”.They wrote: “The rise in working-age mortality rates in the US in recent decades largely reflects stalled declines in cardiovascular disease mortality alongside rising mortality from alcohol-induced causes, suicide and drug poisoning; and it has been especially severe in some US states. Building on recent work, this study examined whether US state policy contexts may be a central explanation.”With federal and state midterm elections less than two weeks away, increased social spending in legislation passed by Democrats in Congress and the Biden administration has become a key issue in voters’ minds.Joe Biden and other senior Democrats have sought to emphasise the success and necessity of such measures. But Republicans, who have presented such measures as irresponsible and contributing to inflation, are poised to retake the House and perhaps the Senate.The study authors wrote: “One study found that US life expectancy could increase by nearly four years if the country matched the average level of social policy generosity offered in 17 other high-income countries.“More recent research has turned attention to policies and politics at the US state level, given the federalist structure of the US political system and the large size and geographical spread of the population. This new work suggests that changes in state policies and politics may have played a contributory role in producing the troubling US mortality trends.”TopicsUS newsLife expectancyUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Oregon could see first Republican governor in 40 years as polls tilt away from DemocratsIndependent hopeful with bipartisan support, along with funds from state’s richest man, could deliver victory to Christine Drazan For the first time in more than 40 years, a Republican could win the governor’s seat in Oregon, breaching the seemingly solid Democratic line of states running along the Pacific coastline of the US.‘Democracy on the ballot’: the man fighting to keep Arizona’s election out of an extremist’s handsRead moreThe tight race between former Oregon House speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, and former Oregon House minority leader Christine Drazan, a Republican, which in the latest polling showed Drazan with a hairline lead, indicates a rebuff of the current term-limited liberal governor, Kate Brown.Brown has one of the lowest approval ratings of any governor in the country amid brewing concern over how state leadership has handled everything from the pandemic to homelessness.But it’s a third-party candidate with support from both Republicans and Democrats, along with contributions from the richest man in the state, that have truly set a Republican on a path toward possible victory.“Democrats are pretty good at running a red-blue race in Oregon … But the dynamics of a three-way race have really kind of thrown that playbook out the window,” said Jake Weigler, a progressive political strategist in Oregon not involved in the race.Betsy Johnson, who was a moderate Democrat while serving as a state senator and now is running as an independent, has been forecast to receive as much as 14% of the vote. Outside of independent voters, 17% of Democrats plan to vote for her, while only 9% of Republicans do, according to an Emerson College Polling survey released earlier this month.Rebecca Tweed, a Republican strategist in Oregon with no connection to the governor’s race, said it will be this subset of voters to watch come election day.“We’ll have to see if any of those voters that got pulled toward Betsy end up going back into their corners of the Democratic and Republican parties,” she said.But it could also come down to what independent voters decide to do next month.Ariya Ahrary, who has lived in Oregon since 2007, said she was initially very happy to see the independent candidate on the ballot. But after taking a closer look at each candidate’s policies, she said she now will likely vote for Kotek in hopes that she will help change the direction of the state.“We do want actual real change instead of just all talk. Hopefully that happens, that it’s not just all talk, that it’s actual action,” she said.By far Johnson’s largest single financial contribution has come from Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike. Altogether, he has sent $3.75m to Johnson’s campaign since January, and then earlier this month sent $1.5m to Drazan. In an interview with the New York Times earlier this month, he said he would do anything to keep Kotek out of the governor’s seat.The gubernatorial race projections in a state where Joe Biden won by 16 points just two years ago have been a shock to many across the nation. They have prompted national political figures to visit the Pacific north-west hoping to drum up support for their candidates.On Saturday, Biden spoke at an event in Portland, where he highlighted the increasingly important role governors play in policy implementation, while praising Kotek’s leadership and bravery.“You’re a progressive state. You’re a state that’s always been ahead of the curve. Stay ahead of the curve, and elect Tina,” he said.Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, a rising Republican star, spoke at a rally for Drazan on Tuesday, while Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts, attended an event for Kotek this weekend.Kotek, Drazan and Johnson recently came together for the race’s final televised debate. The largely mild-mannered occasion was punctuated by sharp criticisms hurled between Drazan, Johnson and their Democratic rival, including over abortion.Following the US supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade earlier this year, Oregon has positioned itself as a safe haven for abortions. Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood board member, described herself as pro-choice. Kotek, who was endorsed by Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon and helped with the legislative effort to codify abortion access into state law in 2017, said she is a strong supporter of abortion access, including potentially using taxpayer money to support that type of care. She accused Drazan of posing a threat to abortion access in the state.Drazan rebutted by saying while she wouldn’t use taxpayer funds to support abortion, the practice would remain legal. “It gets more and more startling to me the extent to which Tina Kotek will lie to voters,” she saidAnother key issue the candidates responded to during the debate was the state’s response to the pandemic when it came to closing schools. Drazan accused both Governor Brown and Kotek of throwing “our kids under the bus”, while Johnson said: “The single worst thing we did during Covid was to shut kids out of the classroom.”Kotek, who agreed that students were kept out of the classroom too long, said it was in fact her Republican opponent who did the throwing by voting against a multibillion-dollar education bill in 2019.But it was a question from a resident of Wilsonville, a city about 17 miles south of Portland, that spotlighted an issue at the center of this race: “Since you’ve been a lifelong Democrat, how do you square yourself with knowing that your current efforts will probably cost Democrats the governorship for the state?”Johnson told the audience that she joined the race because she sees herself as the best candidate to lead a state that has “gone off the rails”, and that she has no plan to drop out.She said: “I believe sports oddsmakers don’t win games. Polls don’t predict elections. I’ve seen enough fourth-quarter finishes to know that it’s not over until it’s over. And I’m in this race until the absolute end.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022OregonUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Second woman says Herschel Walker pressured her to have abortionLawyer Gloria Allred introduces woman as Jane Doe who alleges anti-abortion candidate drove her to a clinic in the 1990s A new woman has claimed that Herschel Walker pressured her into having an abortion and drove her to a clinic to obtain one.On Wednesday, lawyer Gloria Allred – who has represented numerous alleged victims of sexual misconduct and assault – introduced to reporters a woman who alleges Walker, the anti-abortion Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, took her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion in the 1990s.Abortion rights take centre stage as Oz and Fetterman clash in Pennsylvania Senate debateRead moreAllred said that her client, whom she introduced as Jane Doe, began dating the former football player in 1987 and had an intimate relationship with him for several years.At the news conference, Allred presented evidence of hotel receipts, handwritten letters and a voice recording that Walker left Doe during their relationship.In 1993, Doe found that she was pregnant, according to her attorney. When she told Walker, he “clearly wanted her to have an abortion, and convinced her to do so. Our client alleges that Mr Walker gave her cash to pay for the abortion,” said Allred.In an emotional statement that Doe presented without revealing her face, she recalled how she felt “confused, uncertain and scared”.“I simply couldn’t go through with it. I left the clinic in tears,” she said.Doe then explained that Walker drove her again to the clinic and waited for her for hours until the abortion was complete.“I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion,” Doe said, adding that she felt “naive” and that Walker “took advantage of me”.“The reason I am here today, is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances, when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paid for it,” she said.“I do not believe that Herschel Walker is morally fit to be a US senator,” she said. “And that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof,” Doe said, adding that she was an independent and voted for Donald Trump twice.In response to to the new reports, Walker said: “I’m done with this foolishness. I’ve already told people this is a lie and I’m not going to entertain.”Walker has voiced strict anti-abortion policies but has already been accused of paying for an abortion for another woman.The Georgia Senate race is one of a group of contests that could be key to deciding control of the Senate in the midterm elections on 8 November.The Democratic incumbent, Raphael Warnock, was elected in 2020, and along with Jon Ossoff gave Democrats the seats they needed to split the Senate 50-50, and control it via the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris.Warnock is a pastor at a church where the civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King once preached. Walker is a former college and NFL football star with a chequered business career who is endorsed by Donald Trump.Nationwide, Democrats hope the supreme court ruling on abortion will help motivate turnout as they seek to hold the House and Senate.On Wednesday morning, before Allred’s intervention, the polling website FiveThirtyEight gave Warnock a three-point lead.The other woman said Walker encouraged and paid for an abortion in 2009. Walker denied paying for the abortion, telling the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt: “Had that happened, I would have said it, because it’s nothing to be ashamed of there. You know, people have done that, but I know nothing about it. And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that.”The same woman said he encouraged her to get a second abortion and had done “nothing” for their son.Walker has said he is in favour of a total abortion ban, in line with Republican policy in the aftermath of the US supreme court ruling which removed the right to abortion in June.On the debate stage earlier this month, Walker tried to deny being in favour of an outright ban and attacked Warnock for being a Baptist pastor but supporting abortion rights.TopicsRepublicansGeorgiaUS politicsUS SenateUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

Using the pseudonym Jane Doe, the woman accusing Georgia’s Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker of paying for her to have an abortion recounted in an emotional statement how he “pressured” her to go through with it. “I was confused, uncertain, and scared,” the woman, who declined to reveal her name and face, said at a press conference.Walker, who was married at the time but had told Doe he was going to seek a divorce, gave her money to pay for the procedure. Doe said she was “confused, uncertain, and scared,” and when she want to a clinic, “I simply couldn’t go through with it. I left the clinic in tears.”Doe then recounted how Walker drove her again to the clinic and waited for her until the procedure was finished.“I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion,” Doe said. She described herself as “naive,” and said Walker “took advantage of me.”“Most significantly, and the reason I am here today, is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances, when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paid for it,” the woman said.She noted she was an independent and voted for Donald Trump twice.“I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a US senator,” she said. “And that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof.”We are less than two weeks away from the 8 November midterms, and here’s where things stand: Joe Biden is growing more unpopular. Democrats’ chances of keeping control of the House of Representatives are slim, while predictions for the new Republican majority are expanding. And Senate control is coming down to a handful of races, including Pennsylvania, where the Democratic candidate struggled in last night’s debate. In Georgia, a new poll showed Republican Herschel Walker trailing in voter support, while his campaign is contending with a new allegation that the abortion foe paid for another woman to undergo the procedure.Elections were not the only sources of news today:
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, was ordered to appear before a special grand jury investigating election meddling in Georgia. Meadows’ lawyer says he plans to appeal.
Trump’s legal team received a subpoena compelling the ex-president’s testimony before the January 6 committee, but he may still challenge it in court.
A Michigan jury convicted three men of charges related to plotting to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Twelve GOP candidates to oversee voting in states nationwide deny the outcome of the 2020 election, presenting a threat to democracy. Arizona is home to one of the most high stakes of these races.
Speaking of people in legal trouble in Washington, reports have emerged the Democratic senator Robert Menendez is under federal investigation – again.“Senator Menendez is aware of an investigation that was reported on today, however he does not know the scope of the investigation,” an advisor to the New Jersey lawmaker told Semafor, which first reported on the inquiry. “As always, should any official inquiries be made, the Senator is available to provide any assistance that is requested of him or his office.”The investigation is being handled by prosecutors in New York, who have issued one subpoena in the case and contacted people connected to the senator, according to Semafor.Menendez represents a reliably Democratic state, and is not up for re-election until 2024. Federal prosecutors brought corruption charges against him in 2015 over accusations Menendez accepted gifts and campaign funds from a Florida eye doctor in exchange for using his clout in Washington on the doctor’s behalf. The case collapsed three years later after a jury deadlocked on the charges, and prosecutors decided not to retry Menendez.Federal prosecutors dismiss corruption charges against Senator Bob MenendezRead moreLawyers for Donald Trump have accepted a subpoena compelling him to sit for a deposition before the January 6 committee next month, but he may still choose to challenge the summons, Politico reports.At what was likely its final public hearing earlier this month, the bipartisan House panel voted unanimously to subpoena the former president, saying he can resolve unanswered questions about the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. Their summons requires him to provide documents they requested by 4 November, and sit for a deposition by 14 November.Reports have indicated the former president is open to speaking to the lawmakers. But Politico notes that Harmeet Dhillon of the The Dhillon Law Group, which is representing Trump in his dealings with the January 6 committee, has retweeted posts attacking the lawmakers’ work on Twitter.Herschel Walker responded to the unnamed woman’s claim this afternoon that he paid for her to have an abortion by saying, “it’s a lie”.That’s the same answer he gave last week when pressed on reports he paid for another woman to undergo the procedure.ABC News has video:Herschel Walker addresses reporters as a new woman comes forward alleging Walker drove her to a clinic to have an abortion.“I’m done with this foolishness. I’ve already told people this is a lie and I’m not going to entertain,” Walker said. He didn’t answer any Q’s. #gapol pic.twitter.com/hdthWIlZgR— Lalee Ibssa (@LaleeIbssa) October 26, 2022
Herschel Walker admits to writing $700 check but denies it was for abortionRead moreAttorney Gloria Allred has publicly presented some of the evidence her unnamed client has to substantiate the account of her relationship with Walker.These include greeting cards from Walker to the woman, and a photo of Walker in bed in the woman’s hotel room:Jane Doe’s attorney, Gloria Allred, presents what is alleged to be a photo of Herschel Walker (R) in the bed in Doe’s hotel room.Doe alleges Walker pressured her into having an abortion. pic.twitter.com/PKHVXQVuQP— The Recount (@therecount) October 26, 2022
Using the pseudonym Jane Doe, the woman accusing Georgia’s Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker of paying for her to have an abortion recounted in an emotional statement how he “pressured” her to go through with it. “I was confused, uncertain, and scared,” the woman, who declined to reveal her name and face, said at a press conference.Walker, who was married at the time but had told Doe he was going to seek a divorce, gave her money to pay for the procedure. Doe said she was “confused, uncertain, and scared,” and when she want to a clinic, “I simply couldn’t go through with it. I left the clinic in tears.”Doe then recounted how Walker drove her again to the clinic and waited for her until the procedure was finished.“I was devastated because I felt that I had been pressured into having an abortion,” Doe said. She described herself as “naive,” and said Walker “took advantage of me.”“Most significantly, and the reason I am here today, is because he has publicly taken the position that he is ‘about life’ and against abortion under any circumstances, when, in fact, he pressured me to have an abortion and personally ensured that it occurred by driving me to the clinic and paid for it,” the woman said.She noted she was an independent and voted for Donald Trump twice.“I do not believe that Herschel is morally fit to be a US senator,” she said. “And that is the reason why I am speaking up and providing proof.”Jane Doe found out she was pregnant in 1993, her attorney Gloria Allred said. When she told Herschel Walker, he “clearly wanted her to have an abortion, and convinced her to do so. Our client alleges that Mr. Walker gave her cash to pay for the abortion,” Allred said.Doe went to a clinic in Dallas, Texas to have an abortion, but could not go through with it. When Walker found out, Allred said he was upset. “He pressured her to go back to the clinic within the next day to go through with the abortion,” her attorney said. “The following day, Mr. Walker drove her to the clinic and waited in the parking lot for hours until the abortion was completed… Then he drove her to the pharmacy to pick up medications and supplies… And then he drove her home.”“In the days following the abortion, Mr. Walker began to distance himself from our client. She was very distraught because she felt that Mr. Walker had pressured her into having an abortion. She left Dallas and she did not return for more than 15 years because she was so traumatized,” Allred said. “Mr. Walker professes to be against abortion, even though he paid for and pressured our client to have an abortion,” Allred said, noting that Walker was married at the time he saw Doe, but said he was going to seek a divorce.“Our client feels that Mr. Walker is a complete hypocrite and does not deserve to be a United States senator from the state of Georgia,” Allred concluded.Attorney Gloria Allred has started the press conference where she’s introducing a woman using the pseudonym Jane Doe, who says Georgia’s Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker paid for her to have an abortion.“Today my client, also known as Jane Doe, will come forward for the first time to share her truth about Herschel Walker, a man with whom he had a romantic and intimate relationship for a number of years,” Allred began.The woman began dating Walker in 1987, said Allred, and saw him for a number of years. The attorney said she had a receipt from a hotel stay from when Doe went to visit Walker in Minnesota. She also played a voicemail from Walker to the woman, in which he tells her he loves her.Is Mike Lee, the Republican senator representing deep-red Utah, in trouble? His conservative colleague Ted Cruz thinks so.Lee is not facing a Democrat this year, but rather an independent: Evan McMullin, who has surprising momentum in a state that hasn’t sent anyone but a Republican to the Senate in more than four decades.Texas’s Republican senator Cruz thinks that Democrats’ tactic of staying out of the race in favor of McMullin might actually work:Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) thinks Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is in “jeopardy” of losing to Evan McMullin (I):“Democrats have done something really devious and dishonest … decided not to run a candidate.” pic.twitter.com/mvIlyM8QY8— The Recount (@therecount) October 26, 2022
McMullin was last heard from in 2016, when he stood as an independent against Donald Trump and managed to syphon the support of a few Republicans who abhorred their party’s nominee. This year, Utah’s other Republican senator, Mitt Romney, declined to endorse either McMullin or Lee, saying he considered both friends. Lee recently went on Fox News to press Romney for his backing.Nonetheless, most polls show Lee ahead in the state, though a couple have McMullin leading.We’re a few minutes away from a press conference where attorney Gloria Allred says she will introduce a woman whom Georgia’s Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker paid to have an abortion.The woman would be the second to come forward and say that Walker, who supports a national ban on abortion without exceptions, helped her afford the procedure. The woman’s identity and face won’t be revealed publicly, Allred said.Walker is in a close race for Georgia’s senate seat, which is currently occupied by Democrat Raphael Warnock. Polls have lately showed Warnock with an advantage, though an internal survey for the Walker campaign just released puts the Republican ahead: We’re just out of the field with a new poll for @TeamHerschel :Walker: 46%Warnock: 42%Oliver: 3%N=800 live callsMoE +-3%October 22-25Moore Information Group— Erik Iverson (@erikjiverson) October 26, 2022
New woman to say Herschel Walker took her to clinic for abortionRead moreA new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds two in five US voters fear violence or intimidation at polling stations during the midterm elections. Two thirds of voters responding to the poll feared violence from rightwing extremists after the elections, if the results do not go their way.A Republican party fueled by Donald Trump-supporting election deniers seems poised to retake the US House and maybe the Senate, and to win key state races including posts which involve the overseeing of elections.Kathy Boockvar, a former top election official in Pennsylvania who now advocates for secure elections, told Reuters: “Our country is based on democracy. We should be excited about election day.”The Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that “among the registered voters … 43% were concerned about threats of violence or voter intimidation while voting in person, [a fear] more pronounced among Democratic voters, 51% of whom said they worried about violence, although a still-significant share of Republicans – 38% – harbored such concerns.Reuters added: “About a fifth of voters – including one in 10 Democrats and one in four Republicans – said they were not confident their ballots would be accurately counted.”Some further reading: Ed Pilkington’s interview with Adrian Fontes, running for secretary of state in Arizona against a rightwing election-denying opponent, Mark Finchem…‘Democracy on the ballot’: the man fighting to keep Arizona’s election out of an extremist’s handsRead moreEd Pilkington, our chief reporter, has filed his report on the fallout from Tuesday night’s potentially momentous US Senate debate in Pennsylvania…As the dust settled over Tuesday night’s sole televised debate in the crucial US Senate race in Pennsylvania, pundits were starkly divided over the impact of the Democrat John Fetterman’s struggles with speech in his recovery from a stroke.The Pennsylvania lieutenant governor raised the issue of his auditory processing disorder, which makes it difficult for him to understand certain spoken words, in his opening remarks in the debate with his Republican rival, the former TV doctor Mehmet Oz.“Let’s also talk about the elephant in the room – I had a stroke,” Fetterman said.Fetterman used closed captioning to help deal with his speech difficulties. Questions and answers were transcribed in real time and beamed through large screens in front of both candidates.Reporters present in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, noted that Fetterman occasionally struggled to articulate his views in the hour-long debate. The Philadelphia Inquirer said that he “spoke haltingly and at times mixed up his words”, remarking that “his speaking has been much smoother in stump speeches on the campaign trail and in a recent interview with the Inquirer than during the back-and-forth” of the debate with Oz.Rightwing news outlets and commentators were much harsher, with several calling for Fetterman to drop out of the race. John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist with the New York Post, described the Democratic candidate as “impaired” and said “it is an act of personal, political, and ideological malpractice that Fetterman is still contesting for the Senate”.Full story:Pundits divided over Fetterman’s performance in key Senate debateRead moreJoe Biden spoke at the White House earlier, announcing an effort to remove “junk fees”, charges made by banks for services including overdrafts, or when a cheque turns out not to be valid.Before the coronavirus pandemic, US banks charged customers around $15bn in junk fees every year.Appearing with Biden, Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said: “We’re making progress. Banks across the country are cutting and even eliminating fees, saving families billions. This morning, the CFPB announced more actions to combat illegal and unexpected junk fees. One on surprise overdraft fees, and another on surprise depositor fees. “We’re putting companies on notice about their obligations under law. We’re taking enforcement actions like one against a large bank for charging illegal overdraft fees. And customers will see hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds. We also sued a payments company for cramming $300m in extra fees on families who were just trying to sign up their kids for YMCA camps, or were just registering for a charity walkathon in their community. “And we’re going to continue by finding ways to reduce burdens of other fees like the billions and penalties charged by banks and credit card companies through new rules and guidance. This is real money back in the pockets of American families is good for them. And it’s good for businesses that follow the law.”Biden said his administration would “lower the cost of everyday living for American families, to put more money in the pockets of middle-income and working-class Americans, to hold big corporations accountable”.There are, of course, less than two weeks to go before midterms election day, 8 November. Biden’s approval rating is falling and Democrats fear a battering at the ballot box, with Republicans poised to take back the House and maybe the Senate.Saying “one of the things that I think frustrates the American people is the world’s in a bit of disarray”, Biden told reporters: “A lot of you come from backgrounds like I came from, we’re not poor, just regular folks. But that matters. It matters in your life … So anyway, I’m optimistic, it’s gonna take some time. And I appreciate the frustration in American people.”Less than two weeks to go before the 8 November midterms and here’s where things stand: Joe Biden is growing more unpopular. Democrats’ chances of keeping control of the House of Representatives are slim, while predictions for the new Republican majority are expanding. And Senate control is coming down to a handful of races, including Pennsylvania, where the Democratic candidate struggled in last night’s debate, and Georgia, where voters appear disinclined to support the Republican.Elections haven’t been the only source of news today:
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, was ordered to appear before a special grand jury investigating election meddling in Georgia. Meadows’ lawyer says he plans to appeal.
A Michigan jury convicted three men of charges related to plotting to kidnap the state’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Twelve GOP candidates to oversee voting in states nationwide deny the outcome of the 2020 election, presenting a threat to democracy. Arizona is home to one of the most high stakes of these races.
New polling in Georgia from Monmouth University shows Herschel Walker trailing his Democratic opponent, senator Raphael Warnock.The state’s race is considered one of the GOP’s best chances to oust a sitting Democratic senator, but Monmouth finds Warnock has the edge, with 39% of those surveyed saying they will “definitely” vote for him and 10% saying they will “probably” do so. There’s slightly less enthusiasm for Walker with “definitely” at 33% among voters and “probably” at 11%.GEORGIA VOTER POLL: US Senate race – Definite backers of Raphael Warnock (D) and Herschel Walker (R) are each up 7 pts. from Sept.More say they will definitely *not* vote for @HerschelWalker (46%) than @ReverendWarnock (40%). https://t.co/tRZ1ESjiSx pic.twitter.com/WGoU5RL1c3— MonmouthPoll (@MonmouthPoll) October 26, 2022
Warnock has a clear advantage in favorability, coming in at 51% among voters as opposed to Walker’s 43%. Monmouth notes that those figures have changed little over the past month, the time period when Walker was accused of paying for a woman’s abortion, even though he says he supports a national ban on the procedure, without exceptions.“Walker’s path to victory is narrow, but it’s still there. He needs to get enough voters to overlook their misgivings about him to come over to his support or benefit from a turnout disparity among the two parties’ base voters. At this point, the latter option looks like his better bet,” director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute Patrick Murray said in a statement.Georgia’s Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker backs a national ban on abortion without exceptions, but has been accused of hypocrisy after reports emerged he paid for a woman to end her pregnancy. His credibility problem may worsen later today, after a lawyer announced plans to introduce another woman who will say Walker paid for her abortion, Martin Pengelly reports:The lawyer Gloria Allred was due on Wednesday to introduce to reporters a woman who alleges Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for Senate in Georgia, took her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion.Walker has voiced strict anti-abortion policies but has already been accused of paying for an abortion for another woman.Allred said the woman now stepping forward, named as Jane Doe, would speak on Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles.The woman, Allred said, would “allege that she had a romantic, intimate relationship with Herschel Walker and that he drove her to an abortion clinic to have an abortion after she became pregnant as a result of her relationship with him”.Allred also promised to reveal “some of Jane Doe’s evidence in support of her romance with Mr Walker”, and said her client would read a statement to reporters but would not reveal her name or her face.New woman to say Herschel Walker took her to clinic for abortionRead moreA jury in Michigan has convicted three men on charges related to a plot to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer, the Associated Press reports.The unsuccessful scheme was attempted by anti-government extremists and came after two other defendants were found guilty of similar charges in August.Whitmer is standing for re-election in the 8 November polls against Republican Tudor Dixon. Here’s more on today’s verdict from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Joe Morrison, his father-in-law Pete Musico, and Paul Bellar were found guilty of providing “material support” for a terrorist act as members of a paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen.
They held gun drills in rural Jackson County with a leader of the scheme, Adam Fox, who was disgusted with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other officials in 2020 and said he wanted to kidnap her.
Jurors read and heard violent, anti-government screeds as well as support for the “boogaloo,” a civil war that might be triggered by a shocking abduction. Prosecutors said COVID-19 restrictions ordered by Whitmer turned out to be fruit to recruit more people to the Watchmen.
“The facts drip out slowly,” state Assistant Attorney General Bill Rollstin told jurors in Jackson, Michigan, “and you begin to see — wow — there were things that happened that people knew about. … When you see how close Adam Fox got to the governor, you can see how a very bad event was thwarted.”Duo found guilty over plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen WhitmerRead more More