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      The race for the 2024 election is on. But who will take on Trump?

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      The race for the 2024 election is on. But who will take on Trump?The ex-president is daring Republican challengers to make the first move – and some are preparing to attack The starting gun has been fired and the race for the White House is under way. But in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses are just a year off, the landscape is icy and snowy and eerily silent.There is no great mystery why: the Donald Trump effect.Sarah Huckabee Sanders to give Republican State of the Union responseRead more“These folks must be watching Trump’s poll numbers and that’s why there’s a delay,” said Art Cullen, editor of Iowa’s Storm Lake Times. “Trump and [Florida governor Ron] DeSantis are doing this sparring around the ring. Others are watching to see if somebody takes a blow and gives them an opening.”At the same stage in 2019, at least a dozen Democratic contenders for the presidency had either been to Iowa or announced plans to visit soon. “We were getting one every other week,” recalled Cullen, noting that the first major candidate forum took place in March.But among potential Republican hopefuls for 2024 only the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson has visited so far this year while Tim Scott, a senator for South Carolina, and Kari Lake, a former candidate for governor of Arizona, seen as a possible Trump running mate, have lined up appearances later this month.Trump, the only declared candidate so far, has not yet been to Iowa but his campaign is finally moving up a gear. Last weekend the former US president addressed Republicans at small-scale events in two other early voting states, New Hampshire and South Carolina, vowing to “complete the unfinished business of making America great again”. He is issuing policy statements, building infrastructure and unveiling endorsements that signal: catch me if you can.It is a surprisingly orthodox approach from the most unconventional of candidates. The 76-year-old was twice impeached, was blamed for thousands of deaths in the coronavirus pandemic and encouraged a violent coup on 6 January 2021. He is facing multiple criminal investigations and yet, with remarkable insouciance, styling himself as incumbent in all but name and betting on voters’ short memories.He is also throwing down the gauntlet to would-be challengers, daring them to make the first move. While there are signs that some are preparing to take him on, none has yet launched a full-frontal attack on Trump or Trumpism, apparently wary of earning his wrath and alienating his base.Bill Whalen, a former media consultant for California politicians including former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said: “I don’t think anybody wants to run and be a bad guy wrestler, be seen as the heel whose one purpose is just to attack Donald Trump. It’s not a ticket to success and it’s grinding because Trump will return fire. What’s the old saying about wrestling with the pig in the mud: you get dirty and the pig enjoys it more than you do.”It emerged this week that Nikki Haley, 51, who was South Carolina’s governor before serving as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, is planning to announce her candidacy in Charleston on 15 February. In 2021 Haley told the Associated Press that she “would not run if President Trump ran”, but she has since changed her mind, telling Fox News that she could be part of “new generational change”.In South Carolina last Saturday Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had called him several days earlier to seek his opinion. “She said she would never run against me because I was the greatest president, but people change their opinions, and they change what’s in their hearts,” he said. “So I said, if your heart wants to do it, you have to go do it.”Trump appears more threatened by – and less courteous towards – DeSantis, who won re-election in a landslide in Florida and is beating him in some opinion polls. Trump, who helped elevate DeSantis in the past, has dubbed him “Ron DeSanctimonious” and said a DeSantis challenge for the 2024 nomination would be “a great act of disloyalty”.But even DeSantis – who is not expected to declare until the Florida legislature adjourns in the spring – has pulled his punches so far. He responded to Trump’s attack with only a coded rebuke, drawing a contrast between his own success and Trump’s failure at the ballot box in 2020: “Not only did we win re-election, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has in the history of the state of Florida.”Other possible candidates such as Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence and his ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo have been similarly circumspect in critiquing their former boss, taking the odd swipe while also praising his administration and their parts in it. Taking on Trump directly carries huge political risks, as rivals such as Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio discovered via name calling, insults and humiliation in 2016.John Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “There is the the sense that alienating Donald Trump is a very thankless task. Trump comes down with a hammer, an anvil and a safe from the sky. Even though it is clear that a lot of the magic is gone from Trump, by the same token he can do extensive damage. He still has his own forum and he still has his own loyal following and he can suck up all the negative oxygen. Whether Trump wins or loses, he blocks.”Even so, Trump could soon have company on the campaign trail, not least because primaries often draw long-shot candidates who would welcome the consolation prize of a book deal, radio show, TV pundit gig or slot as winner’s running mate.State governors who might seek to build their brand nationally include Greg Abbott of Texas, Brian Kemp of Georgia, Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.It remains to be seen if forthright Trump critics such as Liz Cheney, a former congresswoman from Wyoming, and Larry Hogan, the ex-governor of Maryland, will throw their hats in the ring. Few observers expect such a candidate to win a primary more likely to offer voters different flavors of “Make America great again” (Maga), with culture warrior DeSantis aiming to prove himself a younger, more dynamic version of the brand than the Trump original.Drexel Heard, a Democratic strategist, said: “It’s going to be very interesting to see how Maga Nikki Haley becomes in the primary. I find Nikki Haley to be intelligent but she is going to have to go full tilt Maga to get through this primary because she’s up against somebody like Ron DeSantis, who is already coming out of the gate with red meat.”With a fiercely loyal base, Trump stands to benefit from a divided field, just as he did in 2016. In South Carolina he has already bagged the endorsements of Governor Henry McMaster and Senator Lindsey Graham, stealing a march on Haley and Scott within the state. But as Trump seeks to normalise himself with a traditional campaign so far, there are also important differences from seven years ago.Whalen, the former California consultant who is now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Palo Alto, said: “First, there are legal issues. Now, some are more serious than others but if you’re running for president and you’re taking the fifth amendment 400 times, it’s not a good look for a candidate.“Second, he has a record to deal with that he didn’t have. Donald Trump was a hypothetical in 2015 and 2016, a tabula rasa when it came to holding office. Now he has four years in office which he has to explain. He’s not a hypothetical, he’s somebody who has had the job before, so voters have to make the calculation: do they want him in office again?“Third, there was not a Ron DeSantis-like figure in 2016. There was nobody quite in the same position as DeSantis in terms of the ability to do three things at once: monetise, point to a very successful record in his state and play the game that Trump plays. That is what makes DeSantis an option that wasn’t there for Republicans in 2016. In 2024, there is someone potentially who could fight fire with fire.”Other commentators agree that, despite the slow start in Iowa, the Republican primary looks set to be far more competitive than anyone imagined a year ago. The party was willing to overlook any number of Trump’s lies and misdemeanors but not the miserable performance of his handpicked candidates in last November’s midterm elections. The self-proclaimed winner has become a serial loser: his fundraising numbers so far have been relatively disappointing.Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “I’m not seeing a whole lot of Trump fear. It looks to me that there has been a truly wide agreement in Republican circles that Trump is weak and that he’s beatable. Moreover, he may be even weaker with the coming indictments. To me what’s going on right now is just confirmation that Trump’s hold on the Republican party is loosening.“I would say it’s pretty open. Trump is a favourite but he’s got some very serious long-term viability issues in the field that is obviously no longer intimidated by him. Republicans are tired of losing.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansRon DeSantisIowaMike PenceNikki HaleyfeaturesReuse this content More

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      As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaigns

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      As Trump’s star wanes, rivals signal presidential nomination campaignsRepublicans vying for the party’s nomination have taken the ex-president’s midterm losses as a sign for them to step up Potential rivals to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination will this week be reading the runes of political fortune with their families ahead of the New Year – typically the time that nomination contenders begin to make themselves formally apparent.January 6 report review: 845 pages, countless crimes, one simple truth – Trump did itRead moreAmid a lackluster start to Trump’s own campaign and a string of scandals and setbacks to hit the former US president due to his links to far-right extremists and his own legal problems, a field of potential rivals is starting to emerge for a contest that only a few months ago many thought was Trump’s alone for the taking.They include multiple ex-members of Trump’s own cabinet, including his own former vice-president, his former UN ambassador and his former spy chief. Adding to that are a raft of rivals with their own political power bases, such as Florida’s increasingly formidable right-wing governor, Ron DeSantis.Now the hints of ambitions to taking on Trump are coming thick and fast, especially in the wake of the defeat of a host of Trump-backed candidates in November’s midterm elections which have triggered a reckoning with Trump’s grip on the Republican party.“I can tell you that my wife and I will take some time when our kids are home this Christmas – we’re going to give prayerful consideration about what role we might play,” former vice-president Mike Pence, 63, told CBS’ Face the Nation last month.Maryland’s term-limited Republican governor Larry Hogan, and Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s former governor and US ambassador to the UN, have said the holidays would also be a time for deliberation.“We are taking the holidays to kind of look at what the situation is,” Haley said in November. Hogan, a fierce critic of Trump, told CBS last week “it won’t be shocking if I were to bring the subject up” with his family during the break. Come January, he said, he would begin taking advice to “try to figure out what the future is”.“I don’t feel any pressure or any rush to make a decision … things are gonna look completely different three months from now or six months from now than they did today,” Hogan, 66, added.Others in the running are also readily apparent. Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo’s team has reached out to potential campaign staff in early primary states, the Washington Post reported over the weekend. “We figured by the first quarter next year, we need to be hard at it if we’re going to do it,” Pompeo, 58, said in an interview with Fox News.Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson is reportedly talking to donors to determine his ability to fund the 18-month “endurance race” of a nomination process. Hutchinson has said that Trump’s early declaration, on 15 November, had “accelerated everyone’s time frame”.“So the first quarter of next year, you either need to be in or out,” the outgoing, 72-year-old governor told NBC News earlier this month.New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu, 48, said this week he doesn’t believe Trump could win in 2024. He’s voiced concerns that the Republican party could repeat the nomination experience of 2016, when he was a contender, when a large, divided field allowed Trump’s “ drain the swamp” insurgent candidacy to triumph.“We just have to find another candidate at this point,” Sununu told CBS News. While Trump could be the Republican nominee, he added, he’s “not going to be able to close the deal”.Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin, 56, has said he’s “humbled” to be part of the 2024 discussions but in the convention of most candidates, he’s focused on his day job.Youngkin telegraphed his fiscal conservative credentials to wider Republican big-money interests by pushing $4bn in tax cuts through the Virginia legislature and meeting with party megadonors in Manhattan in June.“2024 is a long way away,” he recently told Fox News. “We’ll see what happens”.Helping to break the gender-lock on potential candidates is also South Dakota governor Kristi Noem. Her name has emerged as a potential Trump running mate, but she recently said he did not present “the best chance” for Republicans in 2024.“Our job is not just to talk to people who love Trump or hate Trump,” Noem, 51, told the New York Times in November. “Our job is to talk to every single American.”The biggest dog in the potential race – aside from Trump himself – is by far Florida’s DeSantis, who recently won re-election in his state by a landslide. Some of the Republican party’s biggest donors have already transferred their favors from Trump, 78, toward the 44-year-old governor.Republican mega donor and billionaire Ken Griffin, who moved his hedge fund Citadel from Chicago to Miami last year, described Trump as a “three-time loser” to Bloomberg a day after the former president’s declaration.“I don’t know what he’s going to do. It’s a huge personal decision,” Griffin said of DeSantis. “He has a tremendous record as governor of Florida, and our country would be well-served by him as president.”Similarly, Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of private-equity giant Blackstone, told Axios he was withdrawing his support from Trump for 2024 but stopped short of backing DeSantis. “America does better when its leaders are rooted in today and tomorrow, not today and yesterday,” he said. “It is time for the Republican party to turn to a new generation of leaders.”DeSantis has yet to rule a run in or out, but has signaled his interest by beginning to plant ads on Google and Facebook that target an audience beyond Florida.But in the post-midterm political environment, with Trump-backed candidates performing poorly in most contests, and the former president besieged by investigations and questions about his associations, the running is open.Maryland’s Hogan has described Trump as vulnerable, and “he seems to be dropping every day”. Hutchinson has said “you never know when that early front-runner is going to stumble”. Polls suggest Trump trails DeSantis in a nomination head-to-head, but leads over Pence and Haley.Other potential names in the pot include Texas governor Greg Abbott, 65; Florida senator Rick Scott, also 65; former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, 60; and Texas senator Ted Cruz, 52, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2016.In a provocatively titled “OK Boomers, Let Go of the Presidency” column last week, former George W Bush advisor Karl Rove warned that 2024 may resemble 1960 when voters were ready for a generational shift. In that year, they went for the youngest in the field, John F Kennedy, aged 43.“Americans want leaders who focus on the future,” Rove wrote in the Wall Street Journal. “The country would be better off if each party’s standard bearer came from a new generation … It’s time for the baby boomers and their elders to depart the presidential stage. The party that grasps this has the advantage come 2024”.TopicsRepublicansDonald TrumpRon DeSantisUS politicsNikki HaleyMike PompeoMike PencefeaturesReuse this content More

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      Texas sends bus carrying 28 migrants, including sick child, to Philadelphia

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      Texas sends bus carrying 28 migrants, including sick child, to PhiladelphiaDehydrated 10-year-old sent to hospital after arrival, as Governor Greg Abbott sends thousands of migrants to Democratic-led areas A bus carrying 28 migrants from Texas arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday, including a 10-year-old girl suffering from dehydration and a high fever who was taken to a hospital for treatment.Title 42: judge orders Biden to lift Trump-era immigration ruleRead moreAdvocates who welcomed the migrants with coats and blankets before dawn on a cold and drizzly morning said the families and individuals came from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Cuba. The city and several non-profit groups were ready to provide food, temporary housing and other services.“In general, people feel relieved,” said one Philadelphia city councilmember, Helen Gym, who accompanied several of the migrants onto a second bus taking them to a site where their needs could be assessed.“We want them to know that they have a home here. There’s a 10-year-old who’s completely dehydrated. It’s one of the more inhumane aspects that they would put a child who was dehydrated with a fever now, a very high fever” on the bus, Gym said. “It’s a terrible situation.”The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, announced on Tuesday that Philadelphia would be the next destination for migrants the state is transporting by the thousands to Democratic-led areas.Advocates who greeted the group in Philadelphia, which included 21 adults, said it was not clear how long the bus journey took. One said it would typically take about 40 hours.“The important thing is they got to Philadelphia, and they were received with open arms,” said Emilio Buitrago of the non-profit Casa de Venezuela. “The kids are frightened, they’re exhausted, they’re tired. They’re going to go to a place … where they’re going to have comfy, warm beds with a blanket, and warm food. From there, we’re going to work on relocation.”Some families hope to unite with relatives or friends in other locations, Gym said.US officials stopped more than 2m illegal border crossings in the last fiscal year, a record high that reflects deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries along with the relative strength of the US economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.In the fiscal year that ended on 30 September, migrants at the US border were stopped 2.38m times, up 37% from 1.73m times the year before.Other buses have turned up in recent months in New York, Washington and Chicago. Texas has transported more than 13,000 migrants since April. Abbott has sent the buses to Democratic-led cities as a way to maximize exposure over what he says is inaction by the Biden administration regarding the southern border.Critics have called the buses a cruel political stunt, but last week voters rewarded Abbott with a record-tying third term as Texas governor in his race against the Democrat Beto O’Rourke. Abbott made a series of hardline immigration measures the centerpiece of his campaign.Nearly six in 10 Texas voters favored Abbott’s decision to send migrants to northern cities, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of almost 3,400 voters in the state.In a statement announcing the bus trips to Philadelphia, Abbott’s office said the Philadelphia mayor, Jim Kenney, “has long celebrated and fought for sanctuary city status, making the city an ideal addition to Texas’ list of drop-off locations”.Kenney said: “It is truly disgusting to hear today that Governor Abbott and his administration continue to implement their purposefully cruel policy using immigrant families – including women and children – as pawns to shamelessly push his warped political agenda.”Kenney said the city was working with more than a dozen local organizations to provide the migrants with shelter space, emergency health screening, food, water, language interpretation and more. Some will probably make their way to other states.Arizona and Florida have also sent migrants to northern US cities.Philadelphia has also welcomed waves of Ukrainians, Afghans and others in recent years. The people arriving from Texas are all in the US legally while they seek asylum, Kenney said.“It is our duty to welcome and support these folks as they face some of the most trying times of their lives,” the mayor said. “At its core, this is a humanitarian crisis, that started with instability and violence in South and Central America and is being accelerated by political dynamics in our own country.”TopicsUS immigrationTexasGreg AbbottUS-Mexico borderUS politicsPhiladelphianewsReuse this content More

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      Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs? | Ross Ellenhorn and Dimitri Mugianis

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      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

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      Abbott and O’Rourke clash on abortion and immigration in Texas debate

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      Abbott and O’Rourke clash on abortion and immigration in Texas debateDemocratic challenger aiming to wrest governorship away from rightwing Abbott in November election Immigration, abortion and border security all came up in Friday’s contentious, rapid-paced gubernatorial debate in Texas, where Beto O’Rourke is trying to help the Democrats wrest back the far-right leaning state from Greg Abbott and the Republicans.Uvalde families stand with Beto O’Rourke amid Republican silence on gun reformRead moreTopicsTexasUS politicsBeto O’RourkeGreg AbbottReuse this content More

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      Uvalde families stand with Beto O’Rourke amid Republican silence on gun reform

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      Uvalde families stand with Beto O’Rourke amid Republican silence on gun reformFamilies of those killed in May school shooting support Democrat in race against Texas governor Greg Abbott A small photo of Jacklyn Casarez, one of the children killed during the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, in May, graced the front of a greeting card held by Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke, who visited a Rio Grande Valley park Friday morning before the one and only staged debate with incumbent governor Greg Abbott.“Maybe you don’t consider yourself a political person,” Kimberly Rubio, whose 10-year-old daughter Lexi was also killed in the 24 May shooting at Robb elementary, said Friday during a pre-debate news conference.TopicsTexasBeto O’RourkeGreg AbbottTexas school shootingUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘We have to do something’: calls mount for Texas gun control laws after latest deadly attack

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      ‘We have to do something’: calls mount for Texas gun control laws after latest deadly attackAs data indicates state leads the US in mass shooting deaths, Democrats – and some Republicans – demand legislative action Texas leaders are under growing pressure to increase gun control measures in the face of data indicating the state leads the US in mass shooting deaths, while Republicans have steadily eased restrictions on weapons and cut mental health spending.As the funerals of the 19 children and two teachers begin on Tuesday in the tiny, devastated southern Texas city of Uvalde, a week after a shooting at the elementary school, state Democrats – and some Republicans – are demanding a special legislative action.Right-leaning Republican governor Greg Abbott has been asked to convene a special legislative session to weigh legislation, with state senate Democrats calling for increasing the age for buying any gun to 21.They also want to mandate background checks for all gun sales, and regulate civilian ownership of high capacity magazines, the Austin ABC affiliate KVUE reported.They are also calling for “red flag” legislation that would permit the temporary removal of guns from persons who present an “imminent danger to themselves and others” and are urging a law to require a “cooling off” period when buying a gun.“We have to do something, man,” Democratic state senator Roland Gutierrez, whose district covers Uvalde, said to Abbott at a press conference. “Your own colleagues are telling me, calling me, and telling me an 18-year-old shouldn’t have a gun.”The gunman who took a military-style assault rifle and a backpack of ammunition into Robb elementary school last Tuesday and shot his victims in two adjoining classrooms was a local 18-year-old, Salvador Ramos.He reportedly had posted violent threats and boasted about guns on social media, and was shot dead by federal agents after local police waited for more than an hour in the hallway in what state authorities said was “the wrong decision”.“We’ve asked for gun control changes. I’m asking you now to bring us back [for a special legislative session] in three weeks … this is enough, call us back, man,” Gutierrez said.Several Texas Republicans are now also putting pressure on Abbott to act after the shootings in Uvalde. “Governor Abbott should call us into special sessions until we do SOMETHING The FBI or DPS [Texas department of public safety] BELIEVE will lessen the chance of the next Uvalde Tragedy,” Republican state senator Kel Seliger said in a tweet.“We should hope and pray every day, but DO something,” Seliger added, without presenting any specific proposals, the Dallas Morning News noted.Republican representative Jeff Leach tweeted his call for a special session, saying: “Texas lawmakers have work to do. Conversations to engage in. Deliberations & debates to have. Important decisions to make.”Abbott has sole authority to summon lawmakers before the next legislative session starts in January 2023. He has said all options are on the table. But Texas has responded to the many mass shootings to afflict the state in the last 15 years by loosening not tightening restrictions on the use of guns.And data from Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun regulation advocacy, indicate that 201 people have been killed in mass shootings in Texas since 2009, significantly more than any other state.California has suffered 162 such deaths, while Florida, the third most populous state, with 22 million people compared with 29.7m in Texas and 39.6m in California, has counted 135 such deaths, according to Everytown, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are killed, excluding the shooter.It was not immediately clear whether Uvalde was included in the Texas toll. Texas also leads the US in school shootings, according to US News & World Report.The Texas Tribune reported that state lawmakers relaxed gun laws during the last two legislative sessions, including the approval of permit-less carrying of firearms in 2021. Such easing of gun laws was approved less than two years after the Odessa and the El Paso mass shootings left 30 people dead.Some rightwing Texas Republicans last week called for more guns.“We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus,” US Senator Ted Cruz told MSNBC.Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general who faces felony fraud charges, voiced similar sentiments and predicted more mass shootings.“People that are shooting people, that are killing kids, they’re not following murder laws. They’re not going to follow gun laws,” Paxton said on the far-right network Newsmax. “I’d much rather have law-abiding citizens armed, trained so they can respond when something like this happens because it’s not going to be the last time.”Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running for governor and heckled Abbott at a press conference last week, tweeted about some of Texas’ recent mass shootings, saying: “Abbott should have acted after Sutherland Springs, after Santa Fe, after Midland-Odessa, after El Paso. He refused. Let’s vote him out and get to work saving lives.”He also slammed the weakening of gun restrictions and made a mark during his failed bid for the Democratic 2020 presidential nomination by advocating a ban on assault weapons for the general public.38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public.But thanks to Greg Abbott’s new law, they don’t need a license to carry anymore.— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) May 29, 2022
      Abbott, meanwhile, placed the blame for the Uvalde carnage squarely on mental health concerns, at his first press conference after the attack.But mental health advocates told ABC News that Abbott has neglected mental healthcare, saying that he moved money out of Texas agencies charged with providing services. CNN also reported on such budget cuts.“We as a state, we as a society need to do a better job with mental health. Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period. We as a government need to find a way to target that mental health challenge and to do something about it,” Abbott said last Wednesday, the day after the shooting in Uvalde.Debbie Plotnick, executive vice president for state and federal advocacy at the nonprofit Mental Health America (MHA), told ABC that mental health was a regular scapegoat. “Hate is not a mental illness … having a mental health condition does not make someone violent,” she said.This spring, Abbott switched $210m away from the state agency that oversees public mental healthcare, towards funding a controversial security program at the US-Mexico border.TopicsTexas school shootingUS gun controlTexasUS politicsUS crimeUS school shootingsGun crimenewsReuse this content More

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      Beto O’Rourke calls Texas governor Greg Abbott an ‘authoritarian’ and ‘thug’

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      Beto O’Rourke calls Texas governor Greg Abbott an ‘authoritarian’ and ‘thug’The Democratic gubernatorial candidate compared his Republican opponent to the Russian president Vladimir Putin

      Can Texas go purple? It may depend on Hispanic voters
      Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, has likened his Republican opponent to the Russian president Vladimir Putin, calling Greg Abbott an “authoritarian” and a “thug”.Judge blocks Texas from investigating parents of transgender childrenRead moreAs governor, Abbott has presided over draconian laws on issues including abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and voting rights. In February 2021, on his watch, a failure of the state energy grid during cold weather contributed to hundreds of deaths.O’Rourke is a former congressman and candidate for both US Senate and the Democratic presidential nomination. On Saturday, he spoke at the SXSW festival in Austin, the state capital.Speaking to Evan Smith, a co-founder of the Texas Tribune newspaper, O’Rourke said, “I just had a chance to meet with the ambassador from the [European Union]. We talked about the fact that you’re seeing the continued rise of authoritarians and thugs across the world. And we have our own, right here, in the state of Texas.”Smith asked: “Greg Abbott is a thug in your mind?”O’Rourke said: “He’s a thug, he’s an authoritarian. Let me make the case.“Not only could this guy, through his own incompetence, not keep the lights on in the energy capital of the planet last February, but when people like Kelcy Warren and other energy company CEOs made … $11bn in profit over five days – selling gas for 200 times the going rate – not only did [Abbott] not claw back those illegal profits, not only was there no justice for more than 700 people who were killed – who literally froze to death in their homes, outside, in their cars, people who are paying now tens of billions of dollars cumulatively to pay for the property damage that the flooding that ensued caused in their homes – but he’s taking millions of dollars in payoffs from these same people.“I mean, he’s got his own oligarch here in the state of Texas.”Russian oligarchs, billionaire businessmen who control fortunes often based on natural resources and work closely with Putin, have been subject to severe sanctions in the west since their president ordered the invasion of Ukraine last month.As the Texas Tribune reported, the state of Texas says 246 people died in the power grid failure in 2021 but other analysis has placed the figure as high as 702.The paper also pointed out that Warren, a co-founder of Energy Transfer, an oil pipeline company, recently sued O’Rourke for defamation. Warren did not immediately comment on Saturday. O’Rourke has called the lawsuit “frivolous”.According to testimony from a Texas power grid manager, energy prices were kept high in the aftermath of the failure as a way to incentivise private companies to avoid more blackouts.In a statement, Abbott’s campaign said: “It’s unfortunate Beto O’Rourke continues to run a campaign based on fear-mongering and tearing down Texas.”O’Rourke also linked Abbott to Putin when discussing a new elections law which critics say seeks to reduce participation among those likely to vote Democratic.“You think this stuff only exists in Russia or in other parts of the world?” said O’Rourke. “It’s happening right here. You think they rig elections in other parts of the planet? It is the toughest state in the nation in which to vote, right here.”‘Shivering under a pile of six blankets, I finally lost it’: my week in frozen Texas hellRead moreTexas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994 but progressives see hope in demographic change. O’Rourke showed strongly in his US Senate race in 2018, losing narrowly to the Republican Ted Cruz. But his run for the presidency went nowhere.The Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey’s decision not to run for governor cleared O’Rourke’s path but Realclearpolitics.com on Saturday put Abbott up by 8.8% in its polling average. Fivethirtyeight.com showed Abbott up by between 5% and 11%.On Saturday, O’Rourke said he would seek to work with Republicans on gun control reform, strong remarks on the subject having proved unpopular with Texans in 2020. He also discussed immigration and Joe Biden – who he said was “not a drag on anyone”.Mark Miner, Abbott’s communications director, said: “It appears if you want Beto to tell the truth, you need to put him in front of out-of-state liberal elitists, not the people of Texas.”TopicsBeto O’RourkeGreg AbbottTexasUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansUS domestic policynewsReuse this content More