US Politics

The latest threat to democracy? A Trump-backed candidate willing to ‘find extra votes’ Kristina Karamo is running for Michigans’s chief elections officer, and if she wins she would have considerable sway over how the presidential election is conducted in 2024Donald Trump will return to Michigan on Saturday for his first visit since November 2020 when he spent the final hours of his presidential election campaign desperately trying to hold on to the state and fend off nationwide defeat to his Democratic rival Joe Biden.This time his visit will be motivated by an attempt to forge a path to victory in the 2024 presidential election, in which he has hinted he may run again. If that is his intention, he is going about it in a very irregular fashion.Revealed: Trump used White House phone for call on January 6 that was not on official logRead moreHis guest of honor at the rally he is staging in Washington Township will be bear no resemblance to the local politicians whom former US presidents normally champion. Kristina Karamo is a part-time community college professor who has never held elected office and who up until 18 months ago was relatively little known outside conservative and religious circles in the Detroit suburb in which she lives.Karamo, 36, describes herself as a defender of the Christian faith and espouses some arresting beliefs. She opposes teaching evolution and has called public schools “government indoctrination camps”; she argues that many Americans live in poverty because “they just make dumb decisions”; and she contends that the instigators of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol were “totally antifa posing as Trump supporters”.There are two clues as to why Trump is willing to make the 1,200-mile schlepp from his home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, to chilly Michigan on Karamo’s behalf. The first is the position for which she is standing in November’s midterm elections – secretary of state.The post-holder acts as chief elections officer in Michigan, and in that capacity will have considerable sway over how the presidential election is conducted in 2024. What happens in the state could then in turn have enormous national implications: in both 2016 and 2020 Michigan was pivotal in securing the White House for Trump and Biden respectively.The second clue to Trump’s thinking is the language he used when he endorsed her last September. “She is strong on crime,” he said, “including the massive crime of election fraud”.What initially drew Karamo to Trump’s attention was the prominent role she played in Michigan in promoting his “big lie”, the false conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him. From almost total obscurity, Karamo was thrown into the limelight when she began to cry foul about what she claimed was illegal vote counting in the overwhelmingly African American city of Detroit.It all began with a basic misunderstanding.As America held its breath in the days after the election, when it remained uncertain whether Biden or Trump would win, Karamo relocated herself to the TCF Center in downtown Detroit where poll workers were counting 174,000 absentee ballots. Karamo was one of scores of Trump supporters who – without any formal training in election procedures or laws – designated themselves as “poll challengers” watching over the politically-charged count.The convention space was packed to overflowing, with about 900 poll workers counting ballots, as another 400 or so media and political observers looked on. Over the next 24 hours, TCF began to resemble, in the description of the Detroit Free Press, a high-stakes sports match “complete with yelling, taunting, cheering, fists pounding on glass and unruly challengers being hauled off by cops”.Amid the melee, Karamo claimed that she personally witnessed fraudulent activity in which ballots were switched illegally from Trump to Biden. A week after the election, by which time Biden had been declared winner, she filled out an “incident report” in her neat closely-spaced handwriting.The three-page document looks like an official police report, though the small print at the bottom says: “Paid for by Donald J Trump for President, Inc.” In it, Karamo gives her account of what she claims to have witnessed.She was standing at an “adjudication table” where ballots that are incorrectly filled in are scrutinized. She spotted a ballot on the screen in which a voter appeared to have cast their ballot along straight-party lines but for both main parties.That was clearly an error as you can’t vote for more than one presidential candidate at a time.Karamo says in the “incident report” that she watched as a poll worker unilaterally decided to award the ballot to Biden, no questions asked. When she complained and called for a supervisor, she claims she was told not to talk to the election staff.The supervisor, she wrote, instructed the poll worker “to ‘push it through’, when the ballot legally should have been rejected. I said I’m challenging the ballot… but he continued to tell the worker to push it through.”That sounds like a blatant abuse of election integrity, taking an effectively spoiled ballot and counting it for Biden. Karamo was incensed, and on the back of that eruption of anger began her meteoric rise as an advocate for Trump’s big lie that the election was rigged.The problem was that Karamo’s interpretation of what happened to the wrongly-completed ballot was based on a simple misreading of election procedure. Chris Thomas, Michigan’s former director of elections who oversaw the state’s vote counts for 36 years under both Republican and Democratic administrations, told the Guardian why.He explained that when Karamo heard “push it through” she assumed that meant “give the vote to Biden”. But that was a misunderstanding.In fact, the edict “push it through” when issued at the adjudication table is in effect an order to discard “overvotes” – ballots like the one Karamo witnessed where more than the maximum number of candidates are selected.“‘Push it through’ means you are done with it, and the vote is tabulated as a non-count,” Thomas said.In other words, the call to fraudulently count the ballot for Biden which Karamo thought she had heard was in fact an instruction to place the vote in the electronic equivalent of a dustbin where it would be stored but discounted.What did Thomas make of the fact that Karamo made a hue and cry about fraud based on a mistaken interpretation of electoral practices? “This is the problem when people make all these comments when they don’t understand the system,” he said. “They see what they want to see.”Thomas was present inside the TCF Center for the duration of the two-day count, working as a senior consultant and handling disputes. With his almost four decades of non-partisan experience of orchestrating elections, how would he rate the way the ballots were handled inside the space?“The count was totally above board,” he said. “It was accurate and it was fair. The count was good.”That one mistaken claim of fraud propelled Karamo into the dizzy heights of the Trump firmament. Sean Hannity billed her as a “whistleblower” on his primetime Fox News show, she was invited by Republicans to testify before a legislative committee, she participated in a four-state lawsuit seeking to overturn the presidential election result that went all the way up to the US supreme court (which promptly rejected it).Emboldened, her baseless critique of rampant election fraud became more forthright. “I was a poll challenger at TCF Center in Detroit,” she told the podcast Coffee and a Mike. “I saw illegal activity and I realized if we don’t cure our election system we no longer have a republic, we have a fake country, an illusion of a country, so I have to do something.”That “something” was to stand for Michigan secretary of state – a position that would potentially allow her to take her discredited views on voter fraud and use them to Trump’s advantage in 2024. So far, she is doing very well in the race, with a credible shot at prevailing.With Trump’s enthusiastic backing, she has amassed a campaign war-chest of more than $228,000, more than any other Republican vying for the secretary of state nomination. As an indication of how much heat the race is generating, Karamo has attracted more than 2,000 individual donors – more than all candidates combined in the last secretary of state contest in 2018.Michigan’s incumbent secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, is running for re-election as the Democratic candidate. She told the Guardian that the steam that has built up around the race this year is an indication of its high stakes.“This secretary of state race is the top targeted race in the country, and I am the top targeted incumbent secretary of state seeking re-election this year. Trump’s decision to endorse someone running against me, and his rally on Saturday, are a warning that what is unfolding here should be on everyone’s radar – democracy is on the ballot in November,” Benson said.Benson was in charge of the presidential election count in Michigan in 2020, which Biden won by 154,188 votes. She believes Karamo was present in the TCF Center “simply for the purpose of interfering with the counting process, causing chaos and confusion and spreading misinformation”.Asked what would happen if the Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist won in November and took her job, Benson replied: “Michigan would have a chief election officer more than willing to find those extra votes if the candidate asked them. It would be akin to putting an arsonist in charge of the fire department, or giving the keys to the vault to a bank robber.”As the secretary of state contest gains momentum, progressive groups are mobilizing to try and stop Karamo. The left-leaning End Citizens United/Let America Vote has launched a new “democracy defender program”, investing $7m in secretary of state and attorney general races where Trump-endorsed big lie candidates are on the ticket.“Karamo sought to silence and overturn the will of Michigan voters. Her false and extreme rhetoric is a threat to democracy because it undermines faith in our elections,” said a spokesperson for the group, Tina Olechowski.The Guardian reached out to Karamo, but she did not respond.As the race hots up she continues to claim that Trump won the 2020 election and to demand a “forensic audit” of the results – even though “forensic audits” do not exist under Michigan election law. In October she spoke at a QAnon convention in Las Vegas where she joined other pro-Trump big lie candidates running for secretary of state positions around the country.“She was one of several political candidates appealing to QAnon for political gain in ways that could have a drastic impact on future elections,” said Alex Kaplan, senior researcher at the watchdog Media Matters for America.Karamo has said that if she wins in November, her role as secretary of state will be “to make sure elections are secure and that the result represents the will of the people, not those corrupting the system”.That’s not how Benson sees it. Karamo, she said, is one of several Trump-endorsed secretary of state candidates around the country who appear willing “to violate their oath, the law and the principles of our democracy in service of their party and their private agenda”.And if that happens, Benson said, “then democracy will have been dealt perhaps its greatest blow since the origins of our country”.TopicsMichiganDonald TrumpUS politicsUS elections 2020featuresReuse this content More

During the Senate confirmation hearings for Joe Biden’s nomination for Supreme Court justice, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was repeatedly asked about an unfounded claim that originated in the QAnon community. Joan E Greve and Alex Kaplan of Media Matters look at why some in the GOP are turning to a far-right extremist group for attack lines.

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During the Senate confirmation hearings for Joe Biden’s nomination for supreme court justice, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson was repeatedly asked about an unfounded claim that originated in the QAnon community. Joan E Greve and Alex Kaplan of Media Matters look at why some in the GOP are turning to a far-right extremist group for attack lines

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Trump swooped in to profit from White House photographer’s book deal – reportEx-president blocked Shealah Craighead plan and then made up to $20m from publishing images in own memoir, New York Times says Donald Trump blocked plans by his chief White House photographer to publish a book of pictures of his time in power – then published a book of such images himself, the New York Times reported.The smooth compromise: how Obama’s iconography obscured his omissionsRead moreOne former White House photographer told the Times that by using Shealah Craighead’s images for his own profit – with books selling for as much as $230, Trump is reported to have made $20m – the former president had dealt her “a slap in the face”.Craighead was only the second woman to be White House chief photographer, after Sharon Farmer, who worked under Bill Clinton.In 2018, Craighead told Marie Claire magazine that she and Trump had “a lovely relationship … very professional, but also … quite humorous at times”, and added that Trump had “a genuine, strong, caring heart”.She also said she was “always very cautious to make sure I’m not pushing the photos in a manner that are associated with me on a personal level, but rather associated with the president and the administration on a professional level”.Nonetheless, the Times said, at the end of Trump’s time in power Craighead reached a “tentative deal with a publisher [that] involved an advance in the hundreds of thousands of dollars”.A Trump spokesperson did not dispute that Craighead was first asked to have Trump write a foreword in return for a cut of that advance. But the spokesperson, Taylor Budowich, told the Times that Trump then decided to use the images and others taken by other official photographers for his own book first.“President Trump has always had an eye for beautiful and engaging curation, which came alive through the pages of his book,” Budowich said.Most former presidents sign huge deals with mainstream publishers. Trump, who left office after four years of bitter partisan warfare, two impeachments and the deadly Capitol attack, has not done so.But he has released a pictorial memoir, Our Journey Together, via Winning Team Publishing, a venture started by his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a Republican operative, Sergio Gor.An unsigned copy of the coffee table book, for which Trump wrote captions, costs $74.99. Signed copies are $229.99.CNN recently reported sales amounting to $20m in just two months.White House photographers’ work is in the public domain, available to all via Flickr. But photographers commonly release books of their own work.Pete Souza worked for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama and has released bestselling books of his pictures. He told the Times: “It’s valuable for each chief photographer to do a book just for the historic record and put it together in a way that it tells sort of their story and contextualises images.”Eric Draper, chief White House photographer under George W Bush, said Trump had been disrespectful to Craighead.“It’s a slap in the face,” Draper said. “I would be disappointed if I were in her shoes.”‘It was worth giving up my anonymity’: how Obama’s photographer became a starRead moreSpeaking to the Times, Craighead said only that she was as “apolitical as possible, as I am a neutral historical documentarian. By staying neutral I am able to remain a keen observer.”But Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s third White House press secretary and the author of her own tell-all memoir, was less restrained.“Shea’s a very talented photographer,” Grisham said, “and this was really all of her hard work. I just keep thinking: what a shame that he is actually now profiting off of it. But then again, this is the guy who is hawking caps and all kinds of stuff right now to raise money for himself.”According to the Times, after it contacted Trump for comment, Trump called Craighead for the first time since leaving power.He reportedly said he was prepared to write her foreword now.TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Five sets of fetal remains found in anti-abortion activist’s home, DC police sayLauren Handy claims she gained access to organ bank at university in Seattle but authorities haven’t disclosed source of fetuses Five sets of human fetal remains were recovered from the Washington DC home of an anti-abortion activist after a raid, the capital’s Metropolitan police department confirmed to the Guardian on Thursday.The activist, a woman named Lauren Handy, 28, is a leader of the group Progressive Anti-Abortion uprising (PAAU) and has described herself as a “Catholic anarchist” in the past.Local television station WUSA9 reported remains were carried out in red biohazard bags on Wednesday. Handy’s only comment at the time was: “People will freak out when they hear.”Although the authorities have not disclosed the source of the fetal remains, Handy recently claimed to have gained access to an organ bank at the University of Washington in Seattle. Separately, she was indicted on Wednesday for forcing entry into a Washington DC abortion clinic in 2020 October.“On March 9th myself & [sic] fellow activists gained access to University of Washington’s fetal organ labs & freezers,” Handy claimed on Twitter on 23 March. She also retweeted pictures posted by PAAU that show the contents of a walk-in deep freezer.The university said it plans to release a statement but would not confirm whether the pictures were authentic. It also said that university authorities were investigating whether anything was missing from the lab.On Wednesday, federal prosecutors indicted Handy on charges of blockading a Washington DC abortion clinic, where she allegedly claimed to be a patient to gain entry. She and eight co-defendants could face up to 11 years in prison and $350,000 in fines if found guilty.The news comes as conservative states across the country rush to limit women’s access to abortion, in anticipation of a forthcoming supreme court decision expected to severely curtail women’s right to terminate a pregnancy.Conversely, some Democratic-led states have worked to enshrine the right to abortion in state law.Current federal law requires states to allow abortion until a fetus can survive outside the womb, generally regarded as 24 weeks gestation, because of a decision in the 1973 landmark supreme court case Roe v Wade.TopicsAbortionWashington DCUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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‘Incontrovertible evidence that this [war] has been a strategic disaster for Russia’ – White House

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Joe Biden says his plan to release 1m barrels daily from the US strategic oil reserves will: “Ease the pain families are feeling right now, end this era of dependence and uncertainty and lay a new and new foundation for true and lasting American energy independence.”
The president is speaking live at the White House to announce the move, which he said would last up to six months and which will represent the largest ever draw ever on the country’s emergency supplies.
“I know how much it hurts,” he said of rising gas prices that have followed the decision by the Russian president Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.
“Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.” More

Florida must seek court preapproval to change some voting laws, judge rulesFederal judge Mark Walker says state’s discrimination against Black voters warrants extraordinary oversight Florida cannot change certain voting laws without getting preapproval from a federal court for the next decade, a federal judge ruled on Thursday, saying the state has an ongoing and extensive history of discrimination against non-white voters that warranted extraordinary oversight.US district judge Mark Walker put the state back under preclearance on Thursday as part of a 288-page ruling striking down new voting restrictions in Florida limiting the availability of drop boxes, and making it more difficult for third-party groups to register voters. “Florida has repeatedly, recently, and persistently acted to deny Black Floridians access to the franchise,” he wrote in his opinion.Placing a state under federal preclearance is an extraordinary, and rarely used, action. A provision of the Voting Rights Act allows judges to place jurisdictions under federal supervision if there is evidence of intentional discrimination. Until Thursday, courts have not placed any states back under supervision since the supreme court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v Holder.“Without preclearance, Florida can pass unconstitutional restrictions like the registration disclaimer with impunity,” Walker wrote in his opinion. “Without preclearance, Florida could continue to enact such laws, replacing them every legislative session if courts view them with skepticism. Such a scheme makes a mockery of the rule of law. Under any metric, preclearance is needed.”Florida is expected to quickly appeal the ruling. The state is likely to find a more favorable audience in the US court of appeals for the 11th circuit and the US supreme court, which have both looked skeptically on challenges to new voting laws.Walker appeared to acknowledge the court’s hostility to voting rights in his ruling, writing “the right to vote, and the VRA particularly, are under siege”.In addition to the preclearance requirement, Walker’s opinion blocked a provision in the law that required election officials to continuously monitor ballot drop boxes and made them less available outside early voting hours. He also blocked a requirement that third-party voter registration groups provide voters a disclaimer that they might not deliver their registration in a timely manner. He also blocked a provision prohibiting assistance within 150ft of a polling place. Those requirements, he said, ran afoul of both the US constitution and the Voting Rights Act.The legislature enacted some of those provisions, Walker wrote, intending to discriminate against Black voters. Black voters are more likely, on average, to use drop boxes, he noted, and the legislature restricted their availability during times when Black voters were more likely to use them. Non-white voters are also more likely to rely on third-party voter registration groups than white voters and likely to wait longer in line at the polls, Walker noted. The legislature, he said, was aware of data showing the disparate impact.“The Legislature would not have passed the drop-box provisions, the solicitation definition, or the registration return provision absent an intent to discriminate against Black voters,” he wrote.A spokesperson for Florida governor Ron DeSantis did not immediately return a request for comment.TopicsUS voting rightsFight to voteFloridaUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

Romney suggests cutting retirement benefits for younger AmericansRepublican raises politically controversial idea of cutting future benefits for younger generations before they reach retirement age Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has addressed the vexing question of how the US copes with its ageing population, suggesting that retirement benefits may have to be cut for younger Americans.In comments to the Senate budget committee on Wednesday, the Republican senator from Utah said that the spiraling costs of retirement programs had to be tackled to bring national debt under control. Romney raised the politically controversial idea of cutting benefits, but only for younger generations before they reach retirement age.Supreme court ruling on Wisconsin maps highlights its hostility to voting rightsRead more“For younger people coming along, we got to be able to find a way to balance these programs or we’re gonna find ourselves in a heap of trouble,” he said. He added that he was not in favour of raising taxes as a way of balancing the books, but was open to adjusting “long-term benefits not for current retirees”.Romney’s remarks, first reported by Business Insider, open a can of worms often avoided by members of Congress given its intense political sensitivities. The programs in question include two of the most popular benefits in the country – social security and Medicare, which make up more than 40% of government spending.The backdrop to the issue is America’s ageing population. By 2034 projections suggest there will be 77 million Americans aged 65 and older – more than the projected 76.5 million under 18s.That means that for the first time in US history older people will outnumber children.That same year, 2034, the trust fund for social security is expected to run out, leaving the US government struggling to make full benefit payments. That looming deadline is a reflection of the intense and rising pressure on social security and Medicare given long-term funding shortfalls.Conservatives have consistently tried to chip away at the programs. Most recently, House Republicans proposed raising the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 69 and social security from 67 to 69.But in his Build Back Better plan, Joe Biden sought to protect and even extend the programs, adding hearing coverage to Medicare. The bill passed the House but was stalled in the US Senate.TopicsMitt RomneyUS politicsUS taxationnewsReuse this content More