US Politics

Obama admits Democrats can be a ‘buzzkill’ and urges better messagingPresident says he ‘used to get into trouble’ by being too policy-focused as Democrats brace for losing House majority Barack Obama acknowledged Democrats can be “a buzzkill” with their abstract campaign messaging and could better connect with voters by emphasizing what constituents feel in their day to day lives.During an interview on Pod Save America, released Friday, Obama acknowledged that he “used to get into trouble” when he appeared too professorial, including by standing behind a lectern and talking about policy in theoretical ways that didn’t directly connect with voters.‘Desperate and disgraceful’: candidates spar in heated debates as US midterms near – liveRead more“That’s not how people think about these issues,” Obama said, less than a month before his party tries to hang on to control of both congressional chambers during the 8 November midterms. “They think about them in terms of, you know, the life I’m leading day to day. How does politics … how is it even relevant to the things that I care most deeply about?“My family, my kids, work that gives me satisfaction, having fun, not being a buzzkill, right?”He added: “And sometimes Democrats are, right? You know, sometimes, people just want to not feel as if they are walking on eggshells. And they want some acknowledgment that life is messy and that all of us at any given moment can say things the wrong way, make mistakes.”Obama went on to talk about his 86-year-old mother-in-law, Marian Robinson, whom he said was trying to learn “the right phraseology” to talk about issues. The former first lady Michelle Obama had said that was like “trying to learn Spanish” for her mother.“It doesn’t mean she shouldn’t try to learn Spanish, but it means that sometimes she’s not gonna get the words right,” the former president said. “And that’s OK, right?“And that attitude, I think, of just being a little more real and a little more grounded is something that I think goes a long way in counteracting what is the systematic propaganda that I think is being pumped out by Fox News and all these other outlets all the time.”Facing a slew of culture-war attack lines from Republicans, Democrats have sometimes become embroiled in their own debates over proper terminology, including the use of the term “Latinx” and “defund the police”. Democratic research from February found that voters could find the party “preachy”, “judgmental”, and “focused on the culture wars”, Politico reported.“Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it,” Democratic pundit James Carville, the former strategist for Bill Clinton, told Vox last year. “There’s nothing inherently wrong with these phrases. But this is not how people talk.“This stuff is harmless in one sense, but in another sense it’s not.”Obama’s comments came as Democrats are bracing to likely lose their majority in the US House while hoping that they can retain the Senate.A recent New York Times/Siena poll found that 49% of likely voters said they would cast their ballot for a Republican candidate, compared to 45% for Democrats in congressional races. One of the most alarming findings for Democrats in the poll was the swing to Republicans among women who identified as independents. Last month, independent women backed Democrats by 14%, but the October poll found they now backed Republicans by 18%.Overall, women were split 47% to 47% on whether they would support Democrats or Republican congressional candidates. Democrats had an 11-point advantage last month in the poll.“I’m shifting more towards Republican because I feel like they’re more geared towards business,” Robin Ackerman, a 37-year-old Democrat in New Castle, Delaware, told the New York Times.TopicsBarack ObamaUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDemocratsRepublicansReuse this content More

A social network for bigots? No wonder Kanye West wants to buy ParlerArwa MahdawiThe rapper’s antisemitic remarks have got him banned from Twitter and Instagram. But here’s a safe space where he’ll be able to say just what he likes Kanye West, a man who can’t seem to stop saying bigoted things, is buying Parler, a social network designed especially for people who like to say bigoted things. I was a little surprised when this news broke on Monday because I thought Parler was basically a Nazified version of Myspace that nobody used any more. There are a bunch of fringe rightwing social networks out there – Gettr, Gab, Truth Social – and Parler might be the least successful of a very unsuccessful bunch. The Twitter clone was launched in 2018 with the stated aim of countering the “ever-increasing tyranny … of our tech overlords”; it had a brief moment of popularity then that fizzled out. No doubt because of the tyranny of our tech overlords.Despite the fact it’s not a household name, I’m sure I don’t need to explain why West, who has changed his name to Ye, is interested in Parler, which, one imagines, may soon change its name to Er. The musician, who has been moving dramatically to the right in recent years, had his Twitter and Instagram accounts locked this month because of antisemitic comments. Or that’s what us lefties have been saying anyway – West seems to think he was being censored and free speech is dead and liberals are trying to cancel him yada yada yada. Instead of engaging in any sort of introspection following his Twitter suspension, Ye apparently decided to fight for his right to be a bigot. Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, put that in rather more sanitised terms. In a statement, it said West is making “a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again”.If you think you’ve heard this story before, it’s because you have. Rich conservatives are obsessed with creating safe spaces where they can never be criticised or contradicted; where nobody cares about facts and everyone cares about their feelings. Donald Trump launched Truth Social at the beginning of this year after he was banned by Twitter. Elon Musk said he was buying Twitter then said he wasn’t buying Twitter and now seems to be buying Twitter again. Trump-supporting Peter Thiel has put money into Rumble, a more rightwing version of YouTube.While it may look suspiciously like they’re too fragile to deal with other people’s opinions, conservatives always couch their obsession with building echo chambers in terms of “free speech”. George Farmer, the CEO of Parler’s parent company, for example, said he thinks West will “change the way the world thinks about free speech”. I don’t know about that. I do know, however, that the acquisition (which is for an undisclosed sum) is likely to change Farmer’s bank balance.Farmer, it’s important to note, happens to be married to Candace Owens, a rightwing pundit who once suggested the US military invade Australia in order to free its people “suffering under a totalitarian regime”. When she’s not dreaming about liberating Australia, Owens is busy palling around with West; the pair recently wore “White Lives Matter” shirts at Paris fashion week. Owens also defended West after he tweeted that he was going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE … You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.” This is obviously indefensible, but Owens did her best, saying on her podcast: “If you’re an honest person, when you read this tweet, you had no idea what the hell he was talking about … if you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic.” (If I’m honest, I think it was.) The Farmer-Owens-West connection has led a number of people to suspect that the Parler acquisition was a brilliant manoeuvre on Owens’ part to get West to redistribute some of his wealth to her family. Candace was cashing in on Kanye, in other words.While West’s descent into extremism is disturbing, his acquisition of Parler (assuming it goes through) is not keeping me up at night. If Truth Social is anything to go by, I highly doubt that Parler is going to be influential anytime soon. What is keeping me up at night, however, is the rightward drift of more mainstream platforms such as CNN. What’s keeping me up at night is the rightward drift of politics. West is a very prominent symbol of a much bigger problem. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
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TopicsKanye WestOpinionParlerSocial mediaUS politicsDigital mediaPeter ThielcommentReuse this content More

Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs?Ross Ellenhorn and Dimitri MugianisMagic mushrooms are no magic cure for society’s ills, and a substance as powerful as psychedelics can be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands Psychedelic therapies are receiving unprecedented financial and political support – and much of it comes from the right. Peter Thiel has invested extensively in the emerging psychedelic therapeutic industry. Jordan Peterson is a psilocybin fan. In 2018, the Mercer Foundation donated $1m to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (Maps), the leading US psychedelics research organization, for studies of MDMA treatment of PTSD in veterans.The Mercer family also supports the American right wing and climate crisis denial. They’re a long way from Woodstock – but Maps and some other psychedelic advocates seem glad for any support they can get.Democrats shouldn’t focus only on abortion in the midterms. That’s a mistake | Bernie SandersRead moreTo be sure, there are plenty of leftists and liberals who endorse the medical use of psychedelics. In July, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez offered a successful amendment to the new $768bn defense spending bill to support increased research into psychedelic treatment for veterans and active-duty service members. So did Dan Crenshaw, a navy veteran and Republican representative from Texas. Matt Gaetz, Republican from Florida and noted misogynist, offered a similar amendment.Psychedelics have long been associated with utopian experiments. Today, some researchers dream of finding a scientific basis for the hypothesis that psychedelics might help end intractable political conflict. Last year, Maps and Imperial College London organized a joint ayahuasca trip for Israelis and Palestinians. In 2018, Imperial College received much attention for a tiny study suggesting that one dose of psilocybin therapy reduced support for “authoritarian attitudes”. Could psychedelics be the cure for anti-democratic tendencies? Rick Doblin, founder of Maps, has even suggested that psychedelic use could help stop environmental degradation.Psychedelics can certainly increase openness – but this can be openness to Nazism, eco-fascism or UFO cults as well as to peace and love. Julius Evola, an Italian philosopher and fascist admired by both Hitler and Steve Bannon, was a staunch LSD advocate. Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, who recently made headlines for sending buses of migrants to New York, Washington and Chicago, signed a 2021 state bill to study the medical benefits of psychedelics. Steve Bannon supports legalized psychedelics, too.As professors Brian Pace and Neşe Devenot point out in their work rebutting the science on psychedelics as a kind of medicine for authoritarianism, psychedelics have never had a purely leftwing fanbase. Andrew Anglin, the founder of the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer, experimented extensively with psychedelics in his youth. The founder of 8chan, the now-defunct extremist message board that hosted the manifestos of several mass shooters, was inspired by a mushroom trip.Why is the American right so intrigued by these substances today? The most obvious answer is money. As psychedelics are absorbed into mainstream medicine, they promise to become another American cash cow. Money will come from patents on novel formulations and by patenting and providing the associated treatment techniques.There may be political factors at play, as well. Was the Mercer Foundation’s donation to Maps motivated by a desire to shore up American military resources by palliating the harms suffered by those sent to fight those wars? The military-industrial complex is even more lucrative than the pharmaceutical sector, but those weapons still require human beings to deploy them. Is rightwing psychedelic funding an attempt to ensure the continued viability of American wars around the world?And, if MDMA is so helpful in the treatment of PTSD, why are veterans given special priority in a society that has traumatized so many people? What about the trauma of racism, of poverty, of police violence and mass incarceration – problems actively increased by rightwing policies supported by people like the Mercers?Psychedelics have the potential to help people break out of repetitive, destructive thoughts, to help them discover new possibilities and new joy. But the effects of psychoactive drugs can never be detached from their setting.It’s foolish to imagine positive transformation achieved with the help of Rebekah Mercer, Steve Bannon or Greg Abbott. After all, these are the same people who vociferously oppose universal healthcare and deny climate change. With their support, we can expect psychedelic medicine for the elite, as a tool of state power or an engine of conspiracy theories, rather than a liberationist psychedelic movement. Until we have universal, single-payer healthcare, the benefits of psychedelic therapy will be out of reach for most Americans.And it’s naïve to expect psychedelics to change your mind for the better (in Michael Pollan’s formulation) when they’re a gift of the right wing, or when they’re offered within a framework of gross inequality. Look at Burning Man: this pseudo-utopia has become a playground of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich. It leaves the desert strewn with thousands of abandoned bicycles and produces 12-hour traffic jams in the desert – which is hotter than ever thanks to our profligate burning of fossil fuels. With the wrong company, a journey of self-discovery can lead to even deeper solipsism. In fact, the illusion of transcendence can be used to justify greater selfishness, even cruelty.Psychedelic therapies – like all other forms of care – should be available to those who need them, not only to those with money and connections and political utility. In the psychedelic community there’s a lot of talk about “integration”, a processing of your trip. But this “integration” is too often limited to the individual. To be truly beneficial, psychedelics should be integrated into a social vision of equality and justice, one that opposes the sacrifice of human life and health at the altar of military spending and empire building, one that values every life regardless of race, nationality, religion, gender or class.Magic mushrooms are no magic cure for society’s ills, and a substance as powerful as psychedelics can be dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. Psychedelic advocates need to stop cozying up to the right and expand their mission to encompass a commitment to broader social justice.
Ross Ellenhorn is a sociologist, psychotherapist and author and the founder and CEO of Ellenhorn. His new book, Purple Crayons: The Art of Drawing a Life, is out on 1 November. Dimitri Mugianis is a harm reductionist, activist, musician, poet, writer, and anarchist, with over two decades of experience as a psychedelic practitioner. Ellenhorn and Mugianis are the founders of Cardea
TopicsUS politicsOpinionMedical researchPeter ThielSteve BannonGreg AbbottHealthcommentReuse this content More

Why pro-Israel lobby group Aipac is backing election deniers and extremist RepublicansThe group places support for Israel over all over considerations, endorsing extreme rightwing candidates in the midterm elections The US’s largest pro-Israel lobby group is backing dozens of racists, homophobes and election deniers running for Congress next month because they have pledged to defend Israel against stiffening criticism of its oppression of the Palestinians.The powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) has justified endorsing Republicans with extremist views, including members of Congress with ties to white supremacist groups and representatives who attempted to block Joe Biden’s election victory, on the grounds that the singular issue of support for Israel trumps other considerations.But Aipac’s support for rightwing politicians has privately embarrassed some Democrats also endorsed by the powerful group and drawn accusations from more moderate pro-Israel organisations that it is attempting to stifle legitimate criticism of hardline Israeli policies.Pro-Israel lobbying group Aipac secretly pouring millions into defeating progressive DemocratsRead moreLogan Bayroff, a spokesman for J Street, a group campaigning for Washington to take a stronger stand to end the occupation of Palestinian territories, accused Aipac of attempting to impose a narrow definition of what it is to be pro-Israel amid shifting views in Democratic ranks.“Their actions have made clear that they view pro-Israel, pro-peace progressive Democrats as threats – and Trumpist Republicans as allies. That worldview could not be more out of touch with the vast majority of American Jews,” he said.“Aipac may hope to silence and intimidate political leaders who believe that settlement expansion, endless conflict and permanent occupation are harmful to Israel, the Palestinian people and US interests. Ultimately, however, these common-sense views are too popular, widespread and important to be suppressed, and will continue to gain strength within American politics and among the American Jewish community.”Aipac’s backing of extreme rightwing Republicans follows its $27m advertising campaign during the Democratic primaries to defeat candidates who spoke up for Palestinian rights, mostly with attacks over issues that had nothing to do with Israel.The campaign is part of push by more hawkish pro-Israel groups to shore up support in Congress in the face of rising advocacy for the Palestinian cause within the Democratic party and erosion of approval for Israeli actions among American Jews, particularly younger people.Earlier this year, the Israeli foreign ministry director general, Alon Ushpiz, said protecting bipartisan support for the Jewish state in the US was at the top of a list of Israel’s diplomatic priorities amid wider government concern about the impact of a series of international human rights reports that it is practicing a form of apartheid over the Palestinians.Among those candidates endorsed by Aipac is the New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Trump loyalist whose home town newspaper criticised her for “despicable” advertising and “hateful rhetoric” that promoted the racist and antisemitic “great replacement theory”, claiming the US is being flooded with immigrants to outvote white people. The Times Union accused Stefanik of “fear-based political tactics”.Another candidate backed by Aipac, the Pennsylvania congressman Scott Perry, pushed the same theory when he told a foreign affairs committee meeting “native-born” Americans are being replaced in order “to permanently transform the landscape of this very nation”.Aipac has also endorsed other candidates who have associated with QAnon, the far-right conspiracy theory. Among them are the Georgia congressman Buddy Carter, who attended a QAnon-linked rally claiming links between Democrats and child sex rings, and a Florida congresswoman, Kat Cammack, who appeared on QAnon-related channels including Patriots’ Soapbox.Other Republicans backed by Aipac have appeared on Patriots’ Soapbox. They include the Utah congressman Burgess Owens, who has promoted claims by the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars website, including anti-migrant diatribes and false claims of election rigging. Owens distributed an Infowars article that smeared the bereaved Muslim father of a US soldier by pushing an unfounded suggestion that his legal work helped the 9/11 hijackers enter the US.Aipac has endorsed Rick Allen, a Georgia congressman who refused to debate a fellow Republican at an Islamic community centre, calling it a “suspect venue”.The hawkish lobby group is also backing candidates known for anti-LGBTQ+ views. They include Mark Green, a Tennessee congressman who once said “transgender is a disease”, as well as members of Congress who denounced the supreme court ruling making marriage equality a right.Aipac’s approved list includes Steve Scalise, who opposed the end of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in the military, and Randy Weber, who broke down in tears as he begged God to forgive the US for the supreme court judgement.“Father, oh Father, please forgive us,” he pleaded.‘Morally bankrupt’: outrage after pro-Israel group backs insurrectionist RepublicansRead moreAipac support for far-right and homophobic candidates flies in the face of its routine defence of Israel as a liberal democracy surrounded by authoritarian Arab regimes.Pro-Israel groups routinely deflect criticism of what Israel’s leading human rights group, B’Tselem, called its “regime of Jewish supremacy” over Palestinians, systematic discrimination against Israel’s Arab citizens and the recent “nation-state” law that places Jewish identity over democracy, by emphasising Israel’s democratic credentials.Aipac has consistently pushed the message that Israel is “the only LGBTQ+-friendly country in the Middle East”.Last year, during one of Israel’s periodic assaults on Gaza that killed hundreds of Palestinians, the lobby group again resorted to what has become known as “pink washing” when it tweeted: “Do you support LGBTQ+ rights? Hamas doesn’t. Hamas discriminates against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.”Aipac caused upset among its supporters earlier this year when it endorsed more than 100 Republican members of Congress who refused to certify Biden’s 2020 election victory. The list again includes Scott, who voted against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to officers who defended the Capitol on January 6.Richard Haass, a former US diplomat and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, described the endorsement of politicians who “undermine democracy” as “morally bankrupt and short-sighted”. The former head of the strongly pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League, Abe Foxman, described the endorsement of election deniers as a “sad mistake” .Aipac has defended its backing of extremists on the grounds that support for Israel is more important that other issues.“This is no moment for the pro-Israel movement to become selective about its friends,” the group said in a message to supporters earlier this year.“The one thing that guarantees Israel’s ability to defend itself is the enduring support of the United States. When we launched our political action committee last year, we decided that we would base decisions about political contributions on only one thing: whether a political candidate supports the US-Israel relationship. Not on any other issue – just this one.”Although some Democrats have faced calls to reject Aipac’s endorsement, a senior staffer for one member of Congress said they were not prepared to get into a public confrontation with the lobby group.“Aipac is now an embarrassment but frankly it’s too powerful to go up against,” the staffer said. “We don’t need them pouring money in against us so we hold off on the public criticisms. But that doesn’t mean to say there are not some serious policy differences, particularly on Iran.”Aipac is not alone.The Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) was founded three years ago to bolster support for Israel within the party after polls showed younger supporters increasingly wanted to see Washington take a stronger stand in favour of the Palestinians.Differences within the party were thrown into sharp relief recently when a row blew up over comments by the Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who said there was a contradiction between backing policies that oppress Palestinians and claiming to be progressive.“I want you all to know that among progressives, it becomes clear that you cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government,” she told an Americans for Justice in Palestine conference.Although Tlaib’s comments were directed at Israeli government actions, she was denounced by fellow Democrats who accused her of questioning Israel’s right to exist. They included Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee backed by Aipac and the DMFI.“The outrageous progressive litmus test on Israel by Rashida Tlaib is nothing short of antisemitic. Proud progressives do support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state. Suggesting otherwise is shameful and dangerous. Divisive rhetoric does not lead to peace,” she tweeted.Americans for Peace Now, a sister organisation to Israel’s Peace Now movement, backed Tlaib.“No part of what [Tlaib] said is antisemitic. Weaponizing accusations of antisemitism cheapens the real fight against antisemitism and does nothing to make Jews safer,” it said.Aipac responded to questions about its support of extremist candidates by saying their views on issues other than Israel were not relevant.“Our sole factor for supporting Democratic and Republican candidates is their support for strengthening the US-Israel relationship,” said a spokesman, Marshall Wittmann.“Indeed, our political action committee has supported scores of pro-Israel progressive candidates including over half of the Congressional Black Caucus and Hispanic Caucus and almost half of the Progressive Caucus. Our political involvement has shown that it is entirely consistent with progressive politics to support America’s alliance with our democratic ally, Israel.”TopicsUS political lobbyingUS midterm elections 2022LobbyingUS politicsRepublicansIsraelfeaturesReuse this content More

Bibi review: Netanyahu memoir is hard-eyed – if not where Trump is concernedThe former Israeli PM is under a legal cloud but fighting for office again. His book is well-written and self-serving Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, in office three times over 15 years, as he reminds us in his memoir. These days, he leads the parliamentary opposition and is on trial for corruption and bribery. His countrymen return to the polls on 1 November, their fifth election since 2019.Netanyahu used golf metaphor to turn Trump against Palestinians, book saysRead moreIsrael’s politics are fractious and tribal. The far right grows as the left is decimated by the failed dream of the Oslo peace accords. Yet outside politics, things there are less fevered and acrid. Start-Up Nation has supplanted the kibbutz. Technology makes the desert bloom.In his memoir, Netanyahu doubles down on his embrace of the Covid vaccine and regrets easing up too early on pandemic closures, in hindsight a “cardinal mistake”. Here, the divide between Netanyahu and the other members of the populist right could not be starker. For him, modernity matters.Based on the latest polls, he has a serious shot at re-election but is not quite there. A win could mean immunity from prosecution. That decision will rest with his coalition partners – if he wins.Washington is watching, particularly if Jewish supremacists should enter the government. One seeks appointment as defense minister.“If we get a lot of mandates, we will have the legitimacy to demand significant portfolios such as the defense and the treasury,” Bezalel Smotrich, head of the far-right Religious Zionism party, declares.Bob Menendez is alarmed. He is a Democrat, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee and a major supporter of Israel. He led the fight against the Iran nuclear deal. As so often in US politics, the red-blue divide is on display and Israel is there in the middle.Netanyahu wrote his memoir longhand. It is not the standard campaign autobiography. It has heft, and not just because it runs to 650 pages. Primed for debate, he conveys his point of view with plenty of notes. He paints in primary colors, not pastels. The canvas is filled with adulation, anger, frustration and dish. Bibi is substantive and barbed. It is interesting. Netanyahu has scores to settle and punches to land. At times, he equates his fate with Israel’s.Netanyahu was born in Israel but attended high school in Philadelphia and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Throughout his book, Netanyahu calls his dad, Benzion Netanyahu, “Father”. Netanyahu the elder taught at Cornell. His son respects the US but is not enamored by its culture.The civil rights movement did not leave a lasting impression. Facing electoral defeat in 2015, against the backdrop of the 50th anniversary of the Selma march, Netanyahu warned that Israel’s Arabs, who are citizens, were voting “in droves”. To many, including Barack Obama, that 11th-hour campaign siren was reminiscent of the wail of Jim Crow. In his book, Netanyahu tries to explain away the episode. He comes up woefully short.Netanyahu is a former Israeli commando but also an ambassador to the UN. He catalogs differences with Obama, George HW Bush, Bill Clinton and, to a point, Donald Trump. James Baker, secretary of state to the first President Bush, barred Netanyahu from the state department. In 1996, Clinton reportedly exclaimed: “Who the fuck does he think he is? … Who’s the fucking superpower here?”Bibi recounts the episode but says his relationship with the Clintons was “civil”. He challenges Obama’s stances toward Iran and the Palestinians but stays mum about Trump aiming a tart “fuck him” his way, for congratulating President Biden.Netanyahu castigates Clinton and Obama for purported messianism and naivety but says nothing of his own bad calls. For instance, in September 2002, he testified before Congress in support of the Iraq war.“I think the choice of Iraq is a good choice, it’s the right choice,” he said, adding: “It’s not a question of whether Iraq’s regime should be taken out but when should it be taken out. It’s not a question of whether you’d like to see a regime change in Iran but how to achieve it.”The American war dead might disagree.Netanyahu laments that Obama vetoed his request that the US strike nuclear installations in Iran. He does not attempt to reconcile his demand for armed confrontation with hostility to “endless wars” on the Trumpist right.In a book published amid Russia’s war on Ukraine, Netanyahu repeatedly lauds Vladimir Putin for his intellect and toughness.“I took the measure of the man,” he claims. Once upon a time, George W Bush claimed to have looked into Putin’s soul. We know how that ended. In contrast, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney and Joe Biden got the Russian leader right from the off.Netanyahu says he understands Putin’s resentments: “The opening up of Russia …revealed that Russia had fallen hopelessly behind the west.”In a recently released transcript of an off-the-record conversation between Obama and a group of reporters, the then president charged that like the world’s strongmen and their future White House fanboy, Netanyahu subscribed to “Putinism” himself.Trump a narcissist and a ‘dick’, ex-ambassador Sondland says in new bookRead more“What I worry about most is, there is a war right now of ideas, more than any hot war, and it is between Putinism – which, by the way, is subscribed to, at some level, by Erdogan or Netanyahu or Duterte and Trump – and a vision of a liberal market-based democracy.”Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, has wholeheartedly embraced Putin. Reportedly, the Biden White House is “very disappointed”.Meanwhile, Trump lashes out at American Jews for not showing him the love evangelicals do: “US Jews need to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!”Don’t expect Netanyahu or Trump’s Jewish supporters to say much – if anything at all.
Bibi: My Story is published in the US by Simon & Schuster
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‘Cold war narratives’: why Miami’s Cuban Americans remain staunch Republicans Republican politics centering on opposition to Cuba’s late dictator Fidel Castro continue to resonate in Florida, even as they have faded in the rest of the USIt was a rainy Tuesday morning in South Florida, and two men in their 80s were deep into conversation and cafecito at the iconic Versailles Cuban Bakery in Miami.Born in Cuba and now retired, the pair – who would only give their first names Manuel and Juan – have lived in the area for more than 60 and 20 years, respectively. And when asked about their political stance, they shy away from the Republican label many of their neighbors proudly embrace and instead simply describe themselves as deeply anti-communist.“We believe the government should be small, everyone should have the right to work, and private companies are what make a country grow,” the more outspoken of the two, Manuel, said.He and Juan prefer to call themselves conservatives and haven’t considered backing a Democrat since the 70s, saying – without much evidence – that the party is full of the Marxist ideas embraced by the Cuban regime which they fled from and which took the belongings of many refugees’ families.Manuel said he and Juan supported the Donald Trump White House because he opposed communism, and his talk on the economy attracted them. “If we had the chance,” said Juan, who spent 10 years as a political prisoner in Cuba, they would send Ronald Reagan back to the Oval Office.For what seems to be countless election cycles now, Democrats and other Republican opponents have hoped that such staunch rightwing postures among south Florida’s key Cuban American electorate would die out – if not fade away – as younger generations from that community came of age, giving progressives an opening to more consistently win a perennial battleground state.But that hasn’t happened, and it doesn’t look like the stronghold and advantage that the Republican party enjoys in such a consequential part of Florida is weakening any time soon.A number of Cuban American Republican congressional candidates are up for re-election come November and the support of the Cuban American community will prove to be essential to secure positive outcomes. In the case of stalwart Republican senator Marco Rubio, who is up against Democratic challenger Val Demmings, some analysts predict “this could be the closest race of Rubio’s career”.Similarly, incumbent Republican House representative María Elvira Salazar could face a tight race in a district that is known for swinging in the past.Meanwhile, Republican House members Mario Diaz Balart and Carlos Gimenez, the former Miami-Dade mayor, are both expected to have favorable re-election results for the midterms.Still, with the Democratic party trying to cling on to razor-thin advantages in both congressional chambers in the looming 2022 midterms, conservative Cuban Americans remain the most influential bloc embedded within the 2.5 million Latinos that account for 17% of Florida’s registered voters.A Pew Research Center report from 2018, stated Cuban Americans make up 29% of registered Latino voters in the state of Florida, followed only by Puerto Ricans, who make up 27% of this demographic. The remaining 44% is composed of numerous origin nationalities, such as Mexicans, who account for 10% of this electorate, and Colombians, who account for 8%. NBC News exit polls for the 2020 election found that while 55% of Cuban American voters in Florida cast their ballot in favor of Trump, this was also the case for 30% of Puerto Rican voters and 48% of the remaining Latino electorate in the south-eastern state.In any case, Hispanics across the rest of the state preferred Joe Biden over Trump by a 2-to-1 margin during Biden’s successful run to the White House in 2020, according to a 2021 report by the Latino Policy and Politics Initiative at the University of California, Los Angeles.Yet Latinos in and around Miami supported Trump over the race’s Democratic victor 2-to-1, that same report showed. And the Democratic polling firm Catalist, which looked back at the 2020 election and estimated dips in leftwing support across presidential battleground states, found “the biggest drop by far was in Florida” despite Biden’s relative popularity.Both sets of data show that Reagan’s decision to align his Republican party with that populous region’s Cuban American majority is still paying dividends, said Northwestern University professor Geraldo Cadava, who teaches history as well as Latina and Latino studies.“Since the 1980s, Republicans have put boots on the ground [in Florida], they have organized Cuban Americans, they have supported Cuban American candidates, they have invested them, [and often] left the Democratic Party in the dust,” said Florida International University’s Guillermo Grenier, a professor of the college’s department of global and sociocultural studies.As Cadava sees it, Florida’s Cuban Americans remain loyal to Republican politics because of cold war-era narratives centering on opposition to Cuba’s late dictator Fidel Castro that continue to resonate here, even as they have faded in the rest of America. It’s why presidential candidates’ campaign stops in Florida have historically involved speeches on foreign policy, which is important to the many who either fled Castro’s regime themselves or have relatives who did.To this day, Cadava thinks many Cuban Americans in Florida are drawn to Republicans because this continues to be a group “driven by cold war narratives of opposition to Castro”. Similarly, Grenier points out, “when presidential candidates come to Florida, they give foreign policy speeches because they know there is a population that will respond to that”.A Cuban-born retiree who would only identify himself as Pablo said he gave up on even considering support for the Democratic party when the Barack Obama White House sought to thaw the US’s long hostile relationship with Cuba, including by easing restrictions on travel to the island of 11 million people for pursuits such as academics.Obama’s stance set the stage in 2016 for him to become the first US president to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years despite the regime there being repeatedly cited for human rights violations. And Pablo, along with many of his neighbors, preferred it when Trump reimposed some of the sanctions that Obama spurned but which predecessors had left in place in hopes of pressuring the communist Caribbean island toward capitalism and democracy.“I vote with Cuba’s freedom in mind,” Pablo said during one of his frequent visits to the renowned Calle Ocho in Miami-Dade county. “Republicans are better at putting more pressure on Cuba, and that’s why I align with the party.”A poll on Cuba that Grenier helps helm for FIU found in 2020 that 60% of Cuban Americans in south Florida were like Pablo, favoring the embargo of trade against the island, which is a stance that is tough to adopt for any candidates seeking progressive support.Meanwhile, 79-year-old Cuban retiree Thelma Dominguez said: “I’ve been a Republican since I came to this country.” One of her first acts as a citizen was to vote for Richard Nixon before the Watergate scandal forced him to become the only president to resign from the Oval Office.Dominguez now says she is a fierce supporter of Trump and is quick to call him a patriot. She did not seem all that worried that his supporters staged the January 6 2021 US Capitol attack in a desperate, undemocratic attempt to prevent the congressional certification of his loss to Biden.She’s more concerned about keeping guns accessible to the public through the US constitution’s second amendment, and she likes that Republicans are devoted to that, saying Cubans lost the right to bear arms after Castro’s ascent.When at the polls, she said the economy is at her mind’s forefront. And she counts herself among the 80% of Cuban Americans in south Florida who, according to the FIU Cuba poll, support the economic agendas of Trump, Florida’s extreme rightwing governor Ron DeSantis, and their Republican allies.“I deeply hate communism, and Democrats today are complete communists,” Dominguez said. “They’re against rich people and millionaires who have companies. If a country goes against big companies – the ones who employ people – the country goes south like it happened in Cuba.”Dominguez is far from alone in her thoughts. Many of the Latinos in and around Miami, as well as throughout Florida, see the Republicans as the party of “prosperity”, Cadava said.“[The Republican party is seen as] the party that helps you get a good paying job, pay lower taxes and own a home,” Cadava added.Latino Republican loyalists in south Florida don’t necessarily feel a kinship with other immigrants who flee violent, impoverished and corrupt countries – but who then aren’t granted asylum automatically because their native nations aren’t run by dictatorial communist governments.That could explain why they aren’t put off when DeSantis does something like arrange to fly 50 Venezuelan migrants to the wealthy liberal island of Martha’s Vineyard, a move he carried out recently whose legality is in question amid allegations that the migrants were deceived about where they were going.Arisleidy Rodriguez, a 39-year-old mother of two who makes a living selling her husband’s art after coming to the US more than two decades ago, said ensuring that close loved ones prosper will always be more important to her and many of her neighbors than some of the social justice and equality issues which the Democratic party has built itself around.“When I vote, I think about my children’s wellbeing,” said Rodriguez, who noted that the news sources she trusts the most come from Facebook and the Cuban news site Cubanos por el Mundo.All of which leads Grenier to conclude that the Democrats have not implemented the organization necessary to overcome the anti-leftist narrative that Reagan began deeply ingraining in voters like Rodriguez as control of Washington DC’s levers of power hangs in the balance in November.“In Florida, you can’t just believe that your ideas are right,” Grenier said. “You have to actually get on the ground and organize. Otherwise, people will either not vote or vote Republican.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022FloridaUS politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.She called the former president’s comments “antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.”“But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,” she added. “We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”She also condemned Ye’s antisemitic posts, but said she was not able to comment on the announcement this morning that he intends to purchase the far-right social media site, Parler.Good afternoon. We’re closing the liveblog for the day. Here’s a look back at what’s happened so far today.
Georgia Republican senate candidate Herschel Walker admitted to writing $700 check to his ex-girlfriend but denies it was for abortion. Walker, who is running in one of the most competitive Senate races in the country, has spent weeks dogged by reports that he sent the unnamed woman money to end her pregnancy. Running as a staunch conservative with Trump’s backing, Walker has publicly argued that abortion should be illegal nationwide without exceptions.
The US Secret Service was made to pay as much as $1,185 a night to stay at properties belonging to former president Donald Trump, a congressional committee said on Monday as it released documents that appeared to show the former president profiting from his protection details in and out of office.
Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress”, the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday. Bannon was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the US House committee investigating the January 6 attack.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned remarks by Donald Trump about American Jews as “antisemitic” and “insulting” to both Jewish people and Israelis. She also announced that Biden will host president Isaac Herzog of Israel at the White House on 26 October.
The White House formally unveiled its website for student loan forgiveness applications. “This is a game-changer for millions of Americans,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. He added that “it took an incredible amount of effort to get this website done in such a short time.”JUST IN: Pres. Biden unveils website for federal student loan debt relief application. “It takes less than five minutes…This is a game-changer for millions of Americans.” https://t.co/1SlS2LJ69i pic.twitter.com/zWAe1RUCjT— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 17, 2022
A beta version of the website, studentaid.gov, launched on Friday. Biden said 8 million Americans used the website over the weekend to apply for student-loan forgiveness. This summer, under immense pressure from progressives, Biden announced that he would cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt for individuals making less than $125,000 a year or more for Pell grant recipients. Asked if Biden regretted his comment that British Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tax -cut plan was a mistake, Jean-Pierre responded simply: “No.”Commenting on another world leader’s domestic policies, especially those of a close ally, is usually seen as taboo. Biden, an institutionalist who usually adheres to the norms and codes of foreign relations, is also prone to blunt admissions that often send his aides scrambling to clarify.Pressed further about the remark – Biden said he wasn’t the only one who thought her economic policies were a mistake – Jean-Pierre said she had no further comment on who the president might have been referring to. The reporter said he was curious if Biden was referring to discussions with world leaders or if it was a reference to a staff member who viewed the move as a “mistake”.Liz Truss admits ‘mistakes have been made’ as Jeremy Hunt says ‘eye-watering’ decisions on tax and spending need to be made – liveRead moreThe plan, which sent financial markets into a tailspin and caused a sharp drop in the value of the pound, was widely criticized by economists and experts.Jean-Pierre also wouldn’t weigh in on the UK’s new finance minister, Jeremy Hunt nor his plans to drop much of Truss’ tax plan.“The UK is a close ally … and we work with them on a range of issues, including on strengthening the global economy,” she said.Joe Biden calls Liz Truss tax cuts a ‘mistake’ as political fallout continuesRead moreOn Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, Jean-Pierre said: “The United States strongly condemns Russia’s missile strikes today which continues to demonstrate Russia’s brutality.” She said the administration is in touch with Ukraine across the administration and noted that Biden spoke to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week when he addressed the leaders of the Group of 7 nations.Russia attacked Kyiv with nearly 30 “kamikaze” drones on Monday morning, killing at least four people, including a pregnant woman and her partner, the Guardian is reporting.“We are going to continue to work with our allies and partners, continue to impose costs on Russia to hold them accountable for their war crimes,” Jean-Pierre said. Jean-Pierre has fielded a few questions on the midterms and Biden’s travel schedule in the final weeks of the election cycle, particularly why he isn’t appearing at more campaign events.Jean-Pierre, caveating her response by saying she is prohibited from talking about politics from the podium, pushed back. She argued that he has been “traveling nonstop,” noting his recent swing through Colorado, Oregon and California. This week he’ll travel to the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Florida.Reporters kept pressing. The subtext of their questions is that Biden is unpopular and his presence in some states could do more harm than good for Democrats in contested races. Biden has long joked that he would campaign for or against a Democrat – whatever would help them more.She would not say whether Democrats in states like Arizona and Georgia are asking the White House for help, saying only: “He is going to go where he is needed the most.”In Pennsylvania, Biden will appear alongside the Democratic candidate for Senate, John Fetterman, whose health has been under scrutiny since he suffered a stroke earlier this summer. Asked whether Biden has any concerns about Fetterman’s health, Jean-Pierre said: “The president has found him to be an impressive individual who is just as capable as always.”The White House press briefing is underway, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre began with a question about Donald Trump’s attack on American Jews.She called the former president’s comments “antisemitic, as you all know, and insulting both to Jews and to our Israeli allies.”“But let’s be clear, for years, for years now, Donald Trump has aligned with extremists and antisemitic figures and it should be called out,” she added. “We need to root out antisemitism everywhere it rears its ugly head. … With respect to Israel, our relationship is iron clad and it’s rooted in shared values and interests. Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understand that either.”She also condemned Ye’s antisemitic posts, but said she was not able to comment on the announcement this morning that he intends to purchase the far-right social media site, Parler.During Donald Trump’s presidency, hotels and properties owned by the former president charged the Secret Service “exorbitant” rates – as much as $1,185 per night at the Trump International Hotel in DC – according to new documents released on Monday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.The secret service was tasked with protecting the safety of Trump and his family during his presidency, and therefore followed them on their travels.“The exorbitant rates charged to the Secret Service and agents’ frequent stays at Trump-owned properties raise significant concerns about the former president’s self-dealing and may have resulted in a taxpayer-funded windfall for former president Trump’s struggling businesses,” the committee chair, the New York representative Carolyn Maloney, said in a statement.According to the Washington Post, which first reported on the payments, the new documents reveal, based on the committee’s review, that US taxpayers paid the president’s company at least $1.4m for Secret Service agents’ stays at Trump properties for his and his family’s protection.The analysis shows that the Secret Service received more than 40 waivers from the Secret Service to let the agency spend more than the recommended rates.In a new interview, Fiona Hill says Putin is adapting, not giving up and is using messengers like Elon Musk to propose an end to the conflict on his terms.“Putin plays the egos of big men, gives them a sense that they can play a role. But in reality, they’re just direct transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin,” Hill told Politico.Hill, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia and Putin, argues that the west has been slow to realize that Putin is waging a world war, what she describes as a “great power conflict over territory which overturns the existing international order and where other states find themselves on different sides of the conflict.”“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century,” Hill said. “It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”Read the full interview here.Donald Trump attacked US Jews on his social media platform last night, saying that they should “get their act together” and show more appreciation to Israel “before it’s too late.”“No President has done more for Israel than I have. Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.“Those living in Israel, though, are a different story — Highest approval rating in the World, could easily be P.M.!” he added.It is not the first time Trump has flirted with the antisemitic trope that Jews hold “dual loyalty” or are more loyal to Israel than the US. As in this post, he suggested that American Jews, who traditionally favor Democrats, should be more supportive of him because of his policies toward Israel.Former US president warns US Jews to get their “act together,” be more like Israelis, and appreciate him more pic.twitter.com/taRYa53d74— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) October 16, 2022
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Dr Anthony Fauci warned about the dangers of long Covid, which he called an “insidious” if hard-to-diagnose public health emergency for millions of people.Speaking to the Guardian’s David Smith, the nation’s top infectious disease expert explained that the rates of long Covid are worrying, even if they receive far less attention than death and hospitalization rates.“It isn’t that you have people who are hospitalized or dying, but their function is being considerably impaired,” he said.One of the major challenges to diagnosing and treating long Covid is that relatively little is known about it. There is no test for long Covid, Smith writes, and its precise causes remain mysterious. Fauci said long Covid is likely more prominent among those with existing psychological issues, but he adds: “The one thing you don’t want to fall into the trap of saying is well, it’s all psychological, because it’s not, it’s real.”Fauci urged Congress to continue investing in efforts to combat the virus and long Covid..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“We’ve hit a wall when it comes to further resources for Covid, including long Covid. There doesn’t appear to be a lot of resources that are waiting for us right now,” he said. “I hope that changes. If you declare victory, you’re declaring an imaginary victory because we haven’t won the battle yet.”Read the full interview here:Dr Anthony Fauci: long Covid is an ‘insidious’ public health emergency Read moreMajor retailers will begin selling hearing aids over the counter without a prescription and at a much lower cost, as part of a new Biden administration rule that take effect today.“Starting today, hearings aids are now on store shelves across the country — for thousands of dollars less than they previously cost,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Monday.The move comes as Democrats tout their efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs and ease the economic burden of high inflation and rising cost of living ahead of the midterms. According to the White House, several major retailers, Walgreens, CVS and Walmart among them, will begin selling the devices today. It estimates that the rule could lower average costs by as much as $3,000 per pair of hearing aids. Nearly 30 million Americans have hearing loss, according to the fact sheet, including nearly 10 million adults under age 60.Today the Guardian launched a four-part series on Latino voters – a fast-growing, incredibly diverse voting bloc with the collective power to sway the 2022 midterm elections. Though Latino voters have historically favored Democrats – and recent polling suggests that they still do – the party’s grip on these voters is slipping as economic forces provide an opening for Republicans. This year, due in part to population growth and redistricting, Latino voters make up a significant slice of the electorate in several of the most competitive House and Senate races. The stakes for both parties could not be higher. In the first installment, yours truly provides a very broad overview of the well-financed fight to engage and mobilize Latino voters this cycle. But look out for the rest of the series, with reports from Florida, Texas and the mountain west. Other pieces coming through Thursday look at why hopes that the south FL Latino vote would eventually turn aren’t materializing, what drives Latino voter turnout and changing patterns in south TX, and a profile of a Mtn. West community where Latino voters are unexpectedly mighty. https://t.co/F3Sf2VasDN— Ramon Antonio Vargas (@RVargasAdvocate) October 17, 2022
Read more:Democrats and Republicans fight to make inroads with Latinos ahead of midtermsRead moreMy colleague Joan Greve recently published this report from Maine, where she assessed the state of Paul LePage’s political comeback. The state’s famously belligerent former governor – Trump before Trump, as he once claimed – announced his retirement from politics in 2018 and decamped to Florida. But now he’s back, challenging the state’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills. Now, in his campaign to return to the governor’s mansion, LePage is distancing himself from the former president. He believes Biden won the 2020 election, a fact few Republicans are willing to accept publicly. But has he really changed?Read the full report here.Paul LePage: is Maine ready to welcome back the ‘Trump before Trump’?Read moreKevin McCarthy expects to be the next speaker of the US House of Representatives.That is the takeaway from a frenetic two days on the campaign trail with the Republican leader, according to a new report in Punchbowl news. Along the way, McCarthy spoke candidly about his path to the speakership, how difficult it is for Republicans to keep the job and offered his view of why he thinks his party is on track to wrest the majority from Democrats.McCarthy tells donors and supporters that Republicans’ chances are improving by the day. He is blunt that August was a bad month for Republicans, but says the tide is turning and the election is increasingly being fought on issues that advantage Republicans, such as the economy, immigration and crime..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“What happened was all the issues came back on the front page. The cost of living continued to rise. Kids are going back to school and you’re concerned about what type of education you’re getting. And if you question your school board, somehow you’re a terrorist. The price of gas was up seven cents last week with no hope of America being energy independent. We watch crime rise every single day,” McCarthy said at a fundraising event in Chicago.Interestingly, McCarthy believes the tide began to turn sharply against Democrats after Biden’s Philadelphia speech, in which the president warned that Trumpism posed an acute threat to American democracy.“It all stops Sept. 1, the night that President Biden gave a speech in Philadelphia – an angry speech,” McCarthy added.He also believes he’ll be speaker no matter how big – or small – Republicans’ winning majority is, meaning he thinks he can unite his fractious party behind him.“If I’m even up for speaker, that means we won seats. I’ve been [the top House Republican for] two cycles. I’ve never lost seats, I’ve only won,” he tells Punchbowl.I was shocked by McCarthy’s candor about just how hard it is for Republicans to stay speaker. pic.twitter.com/4c1PLjtqnT— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) October 17, 2022
McCarthy is also open about how hard it is for a Republican to keep the job, noting that his most recent predecessors left after only a few years. By contrast, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has led her party for decades.First lady Jill Biden sat down for an interview this weekend with Newsmax, the far-right news network that cast doubt on her husband’s election victory in 2020. According to a press release touting the 20-minute interview, Biden discussed her efforts to combat cancer and her meeting with Ukraine’s first lady. “There are things Americans disagree with, but fighting cancer is one thing that unites Americans; and we’re honored to have Dr. Biden talk of her efforts and President Biden’s to combat this deadly condition,” Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said.The Newsmax host, Nancy Brinker, is the founder of the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The interview airs at 9pm. A new NYT/Siena poll looks glum for Democrats. After their fortunes appeared to reverse this summer, Republicans have regained their edge with voters just weeks left before election day.NEW: NYT/Siena poll shows Republicans opening up a 49-45 lead in race for Congress as the economy becomes dominant concern of 2022.The swing toward the GOP among women voters who identified as independent in the last month is striking.https://t.co/JPRgHo55iZ— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) October 17, 2022
According to the poll, Republicans hold a 49-45 lead in the race for Congress, with the economy being a top priority for voters in 2022. The shift was driven by women who identified as independent voters.“In September, they favored Democrats by 14 points. Now, independent women backed Republicans by 18 points.”The poll found the share of voters who ranked the economy or inflation as a top issue climbed nearly 10%. Republicans have long held an advantage on the economy, a trend that is even more pronounced with inflation at a 40-year-high and Democrats in control in Washington. A far smaller share of voters prioritize issues that favor Democrats, such as abortion and guns. Moreover, voters are extremely dissatisfied with the president, a factor that further hurts Democrats. Read more here and play with the crosstabs here. Steve Bannon should be sentenced to six months in prison and a $200,000 fine for “his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress,” the justice department said in a legal filing on Monday..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Bannon, the former Donald Trump White House strategist, was found guilty on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress in July for ignoring a subpoena from the committee investigating the January 6 attack.
The department submitted its recommendation for his punishment on Monday ahead of his scheduled sentencing on Friday.Steve Bannon: justice department urges six-month prison term in contempt caseRead moreSome early-breaking news: Ye, formerly Kanye West, is buying the rightwing social media network Parler for an undisclosed sum, the platform announced on Monday.The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the Guardian reports. News of the purchase comes a week after Twitter and Instagram locked the rapper’s accounts over antisemitic posts.“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye said in a statement.Last year, Parler was effectively forced offline for allowing violent videos of the January 6 Capitol attack to circulate on its platform.Kanye West to buy rightwing social network Parler Read moreThis is only the latest in a series of controversial moves by the artist. Over the weekend, Ye claimed in a podcast appearance that George Floyd died from a drug overdose. Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of Floyd’s murder in May 2020. Floyd’s family is considering taking legal action.Family of George Floyd considers legal action over Kanye West commentsRead moreAnd that was after Ye appeared wearing a “White Lives Matter” shirt at Paris Fashion Week.Good morning, US politics blog readers. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We’re in the heat of election season, with just a handful of weeks left before Americans go to the polls.Hours ago, Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv with “kamikaze” drones, killing at least three people. For the latest, we encourage you to follow our Ukraine live blog.Here’s a look at what else is happening today in US politics:
Last night, Georgia Senate GOP candidate Herschel Walker was a no-show for his second and final debate with Democratic senator Raphael Warnock, hosted by the Atlanta Press Club debate on Sunday. The race is among the most competitive in the country and polling suggests the candidates are effectively tied.
We’re also watching an NBC interview with Walker set to air tonight. In a preview, Walker admits giving his ex-girlfriend a $700 check, but denies it was for an abortion after being “confronted with a receipt from an abortion clinic and a check dated days later and bearing his name”.
‘That’s my check’: Walker acknowledges giving $700 to his ex, but denies her claim he knew it was for an abortion https://t.co/uS1svxsGQI— Kristen Welker (@kwelkernbc) October 17, 2022

This evening, candidates in battleground states will square off in a series of crucial debates. In Georgia, Republican Governor Brian Kemp will debate Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. In Utah, Republican senator Mike Lee debates his independent challenger, Evan McMullin. The candidates for Ohio’s open senate seat – Democratic congressman Tim Ryan and Republican JD Vance – will hold their second debate this evening. While in Iowa, Republican governor Kim Reynolds faces her Democratic challenger, Deidre DeJear, in a debate.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden is returning to the White House after spending the weekend in his home state of Delaware. Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre will brief reporters at 1.30pm.
The January 6 committee is expected to formally subpoena Donald Trump this week, in an attempt to compel the former president to answer questions about his role in the deadly insurrection at the Capitol. More

Georgia voters face long waits as early voting begins in pivotal electionsMidterm elections will decide contested rematch between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp and which party controls the US Senate Today marks the first day of early voting in Georgia, the first major election for the critical state since the signing of the controversial Election Integrity Act, which brought forth new voting restrictions. Within the first few hours of the start of the election day, there were reports of disruption in service from polling places throughout the state, and later in the day voters at some stations saw two-hour lines.Still, voters and election officials remain optimistic about the midterm elections, which will decide the strongly contested rematch between gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp, and which party controls the United States Senate with the election between Senator Raphael Warnock and controversial figure Herschel Walker.“There are a lot of new learnings and procedures, but they are all working out very smooth,” says Janine Eveler, director of Cobb county elections and registration. “Every legislative session touches election laws in some way, so we’re not unfamiliar with assessing our existing procedures, looking at legislation and then making adjustments.”While election officials worked to prepare for the start of early voting, technological issues persisted. New Georgia Project, a voting rights organization based in the state, reported that in multiple counties, including two of the largest, DeKalb county and Fulton county, the system used to check-in voters, eNet, went down and extended the wait for voters waiting in line, sometimes occurring numerous times at a single location.In the past, Georgia voters have experienced hours-long wait times due to similar issues. Voting organizations and election officials throughout the state are encouraging voters to make a plan to vote early to ensure even when issues persist, they will have enough time to access the ballot.“We are encouraging voters to vote early because there are three weeks of early voting. Planning involves knowing what day they want to vote and how they want to vote, whether early in-person or absentee,” says Stephanie Ali, policy director at New Georgia Project. “And then, knowing things like if they need a ride or finding out if they know the candidates on their ballot.”Joyce Smith, a Gwinnett county voter, made her plan to vote early to meet her accessibility needs. “I am a senior, and I can’t stand in line too long, but I know how important it was for me to vote,” says Smith. Getting in line early and voting on the first day of elections means that she was able to cast her ballot in less than 15 minutes, thanks to the assistance of the precinct poll workers.Georgia’s poll workers play a crucial role in the success of the state’s elections. However, following the 2020 general election, some poll workers had trepidations about returning following accusations of election tampering that resulted in intimidation and death threats for some poll workers. Still, counties throughout the state worked to prepare poll workers for the election season, making changes where necessary to meet the needs of the time.“We’re always tweaking our [poll worker] training to address things that have come up in previous elections,” says Eveler. “This time, we have focused more on hands-on training so poll workers can work with the equipment quite extensively, which they seem to appreciate greatly as we head into early voting.”While many Georgian’s voting plans rely on in-person voting, voters like Jessie Ellis, another Dekalb county voter, plan to vote by absentee ballot. Although Ellis had the option to submit his ballot by mail, he chose to drop his ballot off in person. “I like to drop my ballot off because I want to be sure it gets here on time. Sometimes, with the mail, it can take a long time or get lost. I just want to be sure.”Through it all, Georgia voters remain steadfast in their quest to access the ballot. Dwain Smith, an NAACP member and DeKalb county voter, says, “This country is in a situation where it’s crucial to make sure that democracy succeeds, survives, and prospers. This is midterms, of course, but with these key statewide elections in place, you have to be sure you come out and vote.”TopicsUS newsThe fight for democracyGeorgiaUS midterm elections 2022US politicsnewsReuse this content More