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      ‘We must not stop’: potential Trump VP Ben Carson touts national abortion ban

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      In a new book, the retired neurosurgeon, former US housing secretary and potential Trump vice-presidential pick Ben Carson calls for a national abortion ban – a posture at odds with most Americans and even Donald Trump himself.Hailing the 2022 Dobbs v Jackson US supreme court ruling that removed the federal right to abortion, Carson writes: “We must not stop there … the battle over the lives of unborn children is not yet finished. Many states have made abortion illegal because of the Dobbs decision, yet the practice continues in many more states.“What is needed is legislation that guarantees the right to life for all American citizens, including those still in the womb. Therefore, we must be boldly vocal about saving our fellow human beings through the legislative process. They are counting on us!”Carson’s book, The Perilous Fight: Overcoming Our Culture’s War on the American Family, will be published later this month. The Guardian obtained a copy.With the book, Carson follows other potential Trump running mates in seeking to sell himself to the reading and voting public as well as the former president, among them the extremist congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene; the former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard; and the South Dakota governor and self-confessed dog- and goat-killer Kristi Noem.No 2 to Trump may be a dubious prize – his vice-president, Mike Pence, ended up running for his life from Trump supporters who wanted to hang him on January 6 – but contenders continue to jostle.Recent reporting suggests Carson has slipped from the front rank. On Thursday, Bloomberg said Trump was closely considering Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, and three senators: Marco Rubio of Florida, JD Vance of Ohio and Tim Scott of South Carolina.But Carson, 72, remains close to Trump, having challenged him for the Republican nomination in 2016 – briefly leading the race – before becoming one of the only members of Trump’s cabinet to stay throughout his term, even after Trump incited the deadly January 6 attack on Congress.Carson’s hardline views on abortion are well known: during his 2016 run he ran into controversy when he likened abortion to slavery and said he wanted to see the end of Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling which safeguarded the federal right.His new book comes nearly two years after Roe was brought down by a supreme court to which Trump appointed three rightwing justices.Carson writes: “I’m grateful that in my lifetime I was able to hear these incredible words established by the supreme court of the United States: “Held, the constitution does not confer a right to abortion; Roe and Casey are overruled; and the authority to regulate abortion is returned to the people and their elected representatives.”Planned Parenthood v Casey was a 1992 case that upheld Roe. Thirty years later, tilted 6-3 to the right by Trump, the court brought both rulings down.Carson continues: “The supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson was a crucial correction to the error of Roe v Wade, and I am certainly grateful for that correction. However, we must not stop there.”Many observers suggest Republicans should have stopped their attacks on abortion rights before achieving their goal with the fall of Roe.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionPublic opinion remains in favour of legal abortion: according to Gallup, just 13% of Americans agree with Carson that it should be banned entirely.Since Dobbs, fueled by such voter sentiment, Democrats have enjoyed electoral victories, even in Republican-run states, when campaigning on Republican threats to women’s reproductive rights. The issue has been placed front and centre of the presidential election to come by the Biden campaign.Extreme developments among the states have included the introduction of a six-week abortion ban in Florida and in Arizona the triggering (and repeal) of a brutal ban passed in 1864, before statehood and when the age of consent there was just 10.Trump has struggled to reconcile boasts about bringing down Roe with avoiding talk of a national ban.Last month, the former president said: “States will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. Whatever they decide must be the law of the land, or in this case the law of the state.“Many states will be different, many will have a different number of weeks, some will be more conservative than others. At the end of the day this is all about the will of the people. You must follow your heart, or in many cases your religion or faith.“Do what’s right for your family, and do what’s right for yourself.” More

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      ‘Chaos will be created’: Arizona court hears election-subversion case – with eyes on 2024

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      In a courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona, two elected officials who allegedly tried to subvert the county’s 2022 election tried to get a lawsuit against them thrown out in a case one of their defense attorneys called both “silly” and “scary”.The Cochise county supervisors, Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd, appeared in court virtually, to defend themselves against charges of attempted election interference for their initial failure to certify the county’s election results.The implications of the case extend far beyond the rural county and the Phoenix courtroom 200 miles away.The state attorney general, Kris Mayes, a Democrat, sought the charges in the deep-red border county, where election denialism has gripped part of the electorate. Those looking to sow doubt in elections found, to some degree, willing ears with the two Republicans on the board.View image in fullscreenTheir attorneys argue that the officials’ conduct did not actually delay the election results statewide. They also claim the two supervisors have legislative immunity for their votes, regardless of their underlying motivations. And, while the state has maintained that signing off on election results is a required duty not subject to supervisors’ discretion, the supervisors claim they don’t just serve as a “rubber stamp” on election results.The Arizona legislature’s Republican leaders filed a brief in the case aligning with the supervisors, saying that the lawsuit “portends further weaponization of legal and judicial processes for political retribution”.“What we’ve got is a rogue prosecution, a rogue prosecutor in a rogue prosecution, arguing, well, we’ll just take any legislative function – clearly, which it was, this vote – and we’re going to now read into it,” Dennis Wilenchik, Crosby’s attorney, said in a court hearing on 19 April.The lawsuit is part of a deeper conflict – a clash between a Democratic attorney general, narrowly elected in 2022, and Republicans who question election results in the state. The recent indictments against the Republican slate of Arizona fake electors, two of whom are sitting lawmakers, further the divide.Both Mayes and the Republican-controlled legislature allege the other side is playing politics instead of doing their job. The state house started a committee to investigate Mayes’ actions on various issues, including Cochise elections; the committee’s chair has said the group could recommend actions be taken against Mayes, including potential impeachment.The battle lines drawn in Cochise county extend far beyond its borders, into whether local elected officials can decide not to sign off on election results, into the fate of Arizona’s future and who controls it. The culmination of the case holds potential consequences for the 2024 election, when officials at the local level could try similar tactics to question results.View image in fullscreenPart of a patternAfter the 2020 election, activists in counties around the country turned up at meetings to allege that voter fraud stole the election from Donald Trump and demanded changes to how their elections are run.In Cochise county, these activists repeatedly brought up unsubstantiated claims about problems with tabulation machines that made their use in elections suspect. They wanted the county to count ballots fully by hand and throw out the machines.Crosby and Judd aligned with those activists, agreeing to a full hand-count. The idea invited a lawsuit, which led to a ruling that a full hand-count would be illegal in Arizona.The supervisors claimed they had lingering questions about the use of tabulation machines, specifically whether those machines had the proper certification, so they refused to certify the election. A court intervened, forcing certification. Judd eventually voted in favor of certifying results after the court ruling, but Crosby didn’t show up for the meeting.Personnel issues have plagued the elections office as these legal battles have played out. The county’s former elections director, Lisa Marra, opposed the hand count, and Crosby and Judd sued her personally in an attempt to get access to the ballots for a hand count. Marra eventually quit because of a “threatening” work environment, leading to a monetary payout.View image in fullscreenThe county is on its fourth elections director since the 2022 election, after the most recent director, Tim Mattix, left in April for personal reasons. The director before him, Bob Bartelsmeyer, was an election skeptic who stayed in the role for just five months after his conservative bonafides were repeatedly impugned by local far-right activists.Mayes’ office contends the two supervisors’ pattern of behavior leading up to delaying certification speaks to a plan to sow chaos in elections and question results.“This is a criminal conspiracy to obstruct the election,” the assistant attorney general Todd Lawson argued, “so that the secretary of state is unable to certify, and that chaos will be created, no one will know what will happen, and that people like the US House of Representatives, perhaps the Arizona legislature, will have to step in and declare election results, irrespective of who actually won.”Whatever happens in the case, now in Maricopa county superior court, it will almost certainly be appealed to a higher court.Crosby did not answer questions sent from the Guardian, responding: “No thanks.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionJudd also did not respond, and her attorney said he had advised against her speaking with the media at this time.But Judd told Votebeat that she wasn’t a driving force for a hand count in the first place and voted for it because of what she was hearing from constituents.“You can ask anyone. I never pushed for it,” she said.A separate courtroom battle over the legality of hand counts, stemming from Mohave county, could affect whether Cochise and other jurisdictions pursue the elimination of voting machines in this year’s presidential election.In the Republican-dominated county, the supervisor Ron Gould sued Mayes after her office sent a letter warning supervisors against a full hand-count of the 2024 election, something the board there had been considering but ultimately voted against.Mayes warned that supervisors could face criminal prosecution if they proceeded with a hand count, as many counties across the country have tried to do since 2020.View image in fullscreenLegislature strikes backBefore the first meeting of the house ad hoc committee of executive oversight in early April, Mayes held a press conference and derided the legislature’s “outlandish personal attacks” on her and the attorney general’s office.“Perhaps our Republican senate president and speaker of the house aren’t very used to an attorney general who will actually roll up her sleeves and fight for Arizonans,” she said. “But that is what they have in me.”View image in fullscreenIn the house, Democrats skipped the meeting in protest. Representative Jacqueline Parker, the committee’s chair, said it would investigate Mayes’ actions to see whether she had weaponized her office or abused her authority, but it seemed the committee already believed she had.The Cochise county skirmishes were just one part of their opposition – they also mentioned her refusal to prosecute anyone who violated Arizona’s abortion ban and her unwillingness to defend laws on LGBTQ+ issues such as one outlawing trans girls from playing girls’ sports, among other concerns.One of the first records requests to Mayes’ office from the committee centered on Cochise county – in particular, an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by the attorney general when the board voted to move some election authority to the Republican county recorder, who had pushed for the hand count and cast doubt on elections.“We would like to better understand your motivation for targeting Cochise county and including such inflammatory and irrelevant material in your court filings,” the committee chairs wrote.Parker said in the initial hearing that she hoped Mayes cooperates with the records request because she would “really be interested in finding out why she’s only going after Cochise county and not other bad-acting counties like Pima or Maricopa, who have had, in my opinion, many, many more issues”.After Mayes announced the fake electors charges, Parker called on her to recuse herself from “any legal matters involving elected officials or candidates” because she has “prosecuted or threatened to prosecute public officials if they dare disagree with you”.Mayes’ office said the backlash doesn’t affect her work and that she “won’t let the partisan attacks by the GOP deter her from doing her job”. 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      Biden campaign condemns Trump’s refusal to commit to honoring November election results – as it happened

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      Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has come out swinging against Donald Trump’s refusal in an interview yesterday to commit to accepting the results of the presidential election in November.From spokesman James Singer:
      President Biden has said, ‘You can’t love your country only when you win.’ But for Donald Trump, his campaign for revenge and retribution reigns supreme.
      In his own words, he is promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one’, use the military against the American people, punish those who stand against him, condone violence done on his behalf and put his own quest for power ahead of what is best for America.
      Bottom line: Trump is a danger to the constitution and a threat to our democracy. The American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence and his thirst for revenge.
      In a surprise address from the White House, Joe Biden condemned violence on university campuses where pro-Palestine demonstrations are taking place, while saying the unrest would not spur him to change his policies in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his campaign hit out at Donald Trump, who yesterday held a rally in swing state Wisconsin and refused to commit to accepting the results of the November presidential election. Trump also repeated his debunked claim that the 2020 election was marred by fraud.Here’s what else happened today:
      Biden met with the families of four law enforcement officers killed while serving a warrant in North Carolina last week, as well as those wounded in the shooting.
      Trump stayed away from the issue of abortion in his Wisconsin appearance, which Democrats have used to direct voter anger against Republicans in recent elections there and in other states.
      In addition to Wisconsin, Trump also visited fellow Great Lakes swing state Michigan, where his fans offered a reprieve from the dreary New York courthouse in which he has lately been spending a lot of time.
      The campus protests are the latest complication to Biden’s re-election chances, after he sparked the ire of key Democratic voting groups by backing Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
      Napping in court? Not me, Trump said, despite reports to the contrary.
      Perhaps you have heard that South Dakota’s Republican governor Kristi Noem killed a dog (the Guardian broke the story, after all!). Noem now says she had no choice, but blamed “fake news” (must be referring to us) for pushing the story that may have sunk her chances of becoming Donald Trump’s running mate, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota whose chance of being Donald Trump’s presidential running mate was widely deemed over after she published a description of shooting dead a dog and a goat, claimed reports of the story were “fake news” but also that the dog in question, Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, was “extremely dangerous” and deserved her fate.“You know how the fake news works,” Noem told Fox News. “They leave out some or most of the facts of a story, they put the worst spin on it. And that’s what’s happened in this case.“I hope people really do buy this book and they find out the truth of the story because the truth of the story is that this was a working dog and it was not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous.”The Guardian first reported Noem’s story of killing Cricket the dog and an unnamed, un-castrated male goat. The story is contained in Noem’s book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.In the book, Noem says her description of killing a dog and a goat illustrates her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” in politics as well as on her South Dakota farm – a defence she repeated before her Fox News interview.Noem says Cricket ruined a pheasant hunt and then killed a neighbour’s chickens, all the while presenting “the picture of pure joy”.Legal proceedings can be dull, sometimes so dull they put you to sleep – even if you happen to be a former president.On the first day of his trial in New York, Donald Trump appeared to shut his eyes for an extended period of time. That was a couple of weeks ago now, but he just got around to denying doing so, in a post on Truth Social:
      Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!
      Here’s more on the alleged nap:Yesterday, Donald Trump was appearing before crowds in Michigan and Wisconsin – two swing states that will put him well on his way to the White House, if he wins them in November.Today, he’s back at the defense table in a Manhattan courtroom, where his lawyers are cross-examining Keith Davidson, a former attorney for Stormy Daniels, the adult film actor at the center of the case against him for allegedly falsifying business records.Follow our live blog for the latest from the trial:Fun fact about Joe Biden: the 2020 election was the first one in which he faced a sustained campaign of negative television advertising, the New York Times reports.And it goes without saying that 2024 will be his second. In a look back at his lengthy political career, the Times recounts what it was like for the Republicans who attempted to oust Biden from his Senate seat in Delaware, over the 36 years he represented the state.Biden was something of juggernaut, his ex-opponents recount, both personally, and in the campaign infrastructure he wielded:
      In Delaware, Mr. Biden was so well known and, in his early years in office, had such a wellspring of sympathy from voters after the tragic crash that killed his first wife and daughter, that no rival ever mounted a sustained case that he should not be re-elected. For years, bumper stickers promoting his re-election just said ‘Joe,’ while opponents lost with an array of long-forgotten slogans.
      ‘I don’t think he ever broke a sweat once he was an incumbent,’ said Jane Brady, a Republican who lost to Mr. Biden by 27 points in 1990.
      The only negative ad run against Mr. Biden between 1978 and 2008, according to the University of Oklahoma’s archive, is one that his campaign would most likely embrace today. That 30-second spot reminded viewers that President Ronald Reagan endorsed John Burris, Mr. Biden’s Republican challenger in 1984, while Mr. Biden backed the unpopular Democratic presidential nominee, Walter Mondale.
      The Biden of today often makes gaffes, to the chagrin of his supporters, and the delight of his enemies. Here’s an example of a recent one, which was seized on by the conservative media:
      Just last week, Mr. Biden prompted the crowd at an endorsement event to chant, ‘Four more years!’ and then added ‘pause’ as it appeared to have been written into his teleprompter, an episode that drew much mocking in conservative news media and quiet forehead-slapping among Democrats.
      Back in the day, the Times reports such things did not happen:
      Mr. Biden’s opponent in 1996 and 2002 was Ray Clatworthy, an entrepreneur who owned restaurants and local Christian radio stations. During a 1996 televised debate, Mr. Clatworthy accused Mr. Biden of raising taxes while voting to increase his own salary and accused him of ‘attempting to portray himself as a conservative’ in an election year.
      Mr. Biden spoke quickly and precisely, without entering the verbal cul-de-sacs endemic to many of his presidential speeches 28 years later.
      Mr. Biden sought to pin down Mr. Clatworthy on his anti-abortion stance and then delivered a clear statement of his own views on the issue after Mr. Clatworthy accused him of flip-flopping to endorse abortion rights in his 1988 presidential campaign.
      ‘My position has been consistent from the very beginning,’ Mr. Biden said of his abortion stance. ‘I believe government should stay out – no constitutional amendment, no public funding.’
      Joe Biden is now in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he is meeting with the families of four law enforcement officers killed and four others who were wounded while serving a warrant last week.The shooting was the deadliest attack against police in the United States since 2016. Here’s more about what happened:As Donald Trump rallied elsewhere in Wisconsin, demonstrators convened outside the venue that will host the Republican National Convention this summer to decry his vow to bring back hardline immigration policies if elected, the Guardian’s Alice Herman reports:Led by a mariachi band, hundreds of demonstrators on Wednesday morning marched across Milwaukee to the Fiserv Forum – the home of the Milwaukee Bucks and, in July, the venue of the Republican National Convention.The rally, organized by the immigrant and workers’ rights group Voces de la Frontera, is an annual event, but in 2024 it holds particular weight. The focus of the rally extended beyond immigration, to fear of authoritarianism under Republican candidate Donald Trump and critique of Joe Biden’s handling of the US role in Israel and Gaza.This year, May Day also fell on the same day as a Trump campaign event in Waukesha, which organizers seized on to denounce Trump’s immigration policy and call on Biden to use his executive authority to adopt protections for undocumented workers.“We reject [Trump’s] political platform, which promises dictatorship, deportations and separation of families,” Voces de la Frontera executive director Christine Neumann-Ortiz told the crowd on Wednesday, to applause.While Donald Trump kept mum about abortion in a visit to to the swing state of Wisconsin, he was far more open in a pair of interviews with Time in which he described in depth what he would like to do if returned to the White House. The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington has more:Donald Trump has warned that Joe Biden and his family could face multiple criminal prosecutions once he leaves office unless the US supreme court awards Trump immunity in his own legal battles with the criminal justice system.In a sweeping interview with Time magazine, Trump painted a startling picture of his second term, from how he would wield the justice department to hinting he may let states monitor pregnant women to enforce abortion laws.Trump made the threat against the Biden family in an interview with Eric Cortellessa of Time, in which he shared the outlines of what the magazine called “an imperial presidency that would reshape America and its role in the world”.Trump made a direct connection between his threat to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens should he win re-election in November with the case currently before the supreme court over his own presidential immunity.Asked whether he intends to “go after” the Bidens should he gain a second term in the White House, Trump replied: “It depends what happens with the supreme court.”A potentially landmark lawsuit by youth activists against the federal government over its role in fueling the climate crisis was struck down by an appeals court, on the request of the Biden administration, the Guardian’s Dharna Noor reports:A federal appeals court on Wednesday evening granted the Biden administration’s request to strike down a landmark federal youth climate case, outraging climate advocates.“This is a tragic and unjust ruling,” said Julia Olson, attorney and founder of Our Children’s Trust, the non-profit law firm that brought the suit.The lawsuit, Juliana v United States, was filed by 21 young people from Oregon who alleged the federal government’s role in fueling the climate crisis violates their constitutional rights.The Wednesday order from a panel of three Trump-appointed judges on the ninth circuit court of appeals will require a US district court judge to dismiss the case for lack of standing, with no opening to amend the complaint.The decision affirmed an emergency petition filed by the justice department in February arguing that “the government will be irreparably harmed” if it is forced to spend time and resources litigating the Juliana case. It’s a measure the justice department should never have taken, said Olson.“The Biden administration was wrong to use an emergency measure to stop youth plaintiffs from having their day in court,” she said in a statement. “The real emergency is the climate emergency.”In a surprise address from the White House, Joe Biden condemned violence on university campuses where pro-Palestine demonstrations are taking place, while saying the unrest would not spur him to change his policies in the Middle East. Meanwhile, his campaign hit out at Donald Trump, who yesterday held a rally in swing state Wisconsin and refused to commit to accepting the results of the November presidential election. He also repeated his debunked claim that the 2020 election was marred by fraud.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      Trump stayed away from the issue of abortion in his Wisconsin appearance, which Democrats have used to direct voter anger against Republicans in recent elections there and in other states.
      In addition to Wisconsin, Trump also visited fellow Great Lakes swing state Michigan, where his fans offered a reprieve from the dreary New York courthouse in which he has lately been spending a lot of time.
      The campus protests are the latest complication to Biden’s re-election chances, after he sparked the ire of key Democratic voting groups by backing Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
      Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has come out swinging against Donald Trump’s refusal in an interview yesterday to commit to accepting the results of the presidential election in November.From spokesman James Singer:
      President Biden has said, ‘You can’t love your country only when you win.’ But for Donald Trump, his campaign for revenge and retribution reigns supreme.
      In his own words, he is promising to rule as a dictator on ‘day one’, use the military against the American people, punish those who stand against him, condone violence done on his behalf and put his own quest for power ahead of what is best for America.
      Bottom line: Trump is a danger to the constitution and a threat to our democracy. The American people are going to give him another electoral defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence and his thirst for revenge.
      Joe Biden is already facing heat from some Democratic voters for his support of Israel as it invades Gaza following the 7 October attack. As the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt reported earlier this week, the unrest on college campuses targeted at America’s closest Middle East ally could present the latest complication to his campaign for another four years in the White House:The policies of Joe Biden and Democrats towards Israel, which have prompted thousands of students across the country to protest, could affect the youth vote for Biden and hurt his re-election chances, experts have warned, in what is already expected to be a tight election.Thousands of students at universities across the US have joined with pro-Palestine rallies and, most recently, encampments, as Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 people.Some of the protests began as a call to encourage universities to ditch investments in companies that provide weapons and equipment to the Israeli military. But as the Biden administration has continued to largely support Israel, the president has increasingly become a focus of criticism from young people. Polling shows that young Americans’ support for Biden has been chipped away since 2020.With Biden narrowly trailing Trump in several key swing states, it’s a voting bloc the president can ill afford to lose.“The real threat to Biden is that younger voters, especially college-educated voters, won’t turn out for him in the election,” said Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history of education at the University of Pennsylvania.“I wouldn’t expect that the protesters on campuses today are going to vote for Trump, almost none of them will. That’s not the danger here. The danger is much simpler: that they simply won’t vote.”Joe Biden spoke about the nationwide protests against Israel at college campuses after police arrested more than 100 people at the University of California, Los Angeles.Follow our live blog for more on the ongoing demonstration wave:In his brief speech on the pro-Palestine protests on college campuses, Joe Biden cast himself as a defender of free speech rights, but said the demonstrations should not disrupt students’ learning.“Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others, so students can finish the semester and their college education. Look, it’s basically a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of what’s right. There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. People have the right to get an education, right to get a degree, right to walk across campus safely without fear of being attacked,” the president said.He later added:
      There should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism, or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech, or violence of any kind, whether it’s antisemitism, Islamophobia, or discrimination against Arab Americans or Palestinian Americans. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place for racism in America. It’s all wrong. It’s not American.
      Biden concluded with:
      As president, I will always defend free speech. And I will always be just as strong in standing up for the rule of law. That’s my responsibility to you, the American people, my obligation to the constitution. More

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      Kristi Noem calls dog shooting report ‘fake news’ but insists on need to kill animal

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      Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota whose chance of being Donald Trump’s presidential running mate was widely deemed over after she published a description of shooting dead a dog and a goat, claimed reports of the story were “fake news” but also that the dog in question, Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, was “extremely dangerous” and deserved her fate.“You know how the fake news works,” Noem told Fox News. “They leave out some or most of the facts of a story, they put the worst spin on it. And that’s what’s happened in this case.“I hope people really do buy this book and they find out the truth of the story because the truth of the story is that this was a working dog and it was not a puppy. It was a dog that was extremely dangerous.”The Guardian first reported Noem’s story of killing Cricket the dog and an unnamed, un-castrated male goat. The story is contained in Noem’s book, No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, which will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.In the book, Noem says her description of killing a dog and a goat illustrates her willingness to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” in politics as well as on her South Dakota farm – a defence she repeated before her Fox News interview.Noem says Cricket ruined a pheasant hunt then killed a neighbour’s chickens, all the while presenting “the picture of pure joy”.“I hated that dog,” Noem writes, adding that Cricket tried to bite her and proved herself “untrainable … dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog”.“At that moment,” Noem says, “I realised I had to put her down.”Noem describes killing Cricket in a gravel pit, then deciding to do the same to the goat because it was “nasty and mean”, smelled “disgusting, musky, rancid”, and “loved to chase” Noem’s children, knocking them down and spoiling their clothes.It took two shots – separated by a walk back to her truck to fetch more shotgun shells – to kill the goat, Noem writes.Speaking to Fox News, Noem did not mention the goat.Of Cricket the dog, she said: “It had come to us from a family who had found her way too aggressive. We were her second chance and the day she was put down was a day that she massacred livestock that were part of our neighbours. She attacked me and it was a hard decision.”Repeating her claim that the story illustrated her willingness to make tough decisions, Noem claimed to have done the same through the Covid pandemic by “keeping my state open”, a stance she said invited media attacks.Figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do show South Dakota with a relatively low Covid death rate, with 71.2 deaths per 100,000 people, for a total of 776.Noem’s Fox News host, Sean Hannity, tried to compare the governor’s decision to shoot Cricket with the case of Commander, a german shepherd owned by Joe Biden who was sent away from the White House – not shot – after being found to have been involved in more than 20 incidents of biting.Hannity then asked: “You say here you said you follow the law in your book. What is the law?”Noem said: “Virtually every state has a law in place that says the animals that attack and kill livestock can be put down in situations like this.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionA Guardian review of South Dakota state law found that Noem could have committed a misdemeanour, both by failing to control Cricket when she attacked and killed a neighbour’s chickens and by killing the dog later, on her own property.A spokesperson for Noem did not respond to a request for comment on that point.Noem continued: “Farmers and ranchers, they expect it. They know that once an animal like this starts killing and starts killing just because they enjoy it, that is a very dangerous animal. And that was the situation that we were dealing with.“And I’m a dog lover. I’ve trained dogs for years, I’ve been around hundreds of them, of course. And so this was a tough situation and very difficult. But that’s what happens in rural America many times.”Noem has also discussed a recent decision on her farm to put down three elderly horses – Lucy, Dunny and Tibbs – sharing pictures of the process including a horse standing in a freshly dug pit.“These weren’t just horses,” Noem told Newsmax in March. “These were family members … they raised my girls.”On Fox News on Wednesday, she said: “I hope people do read the facts of the story [about Cricket and the goat] and truly understand that I’m a mom, and at the time I had small children and a lot of small kiddos that worked around our business and people and I wanted to make sure that they were safe and that dogs that have this kind of a problem that have been to training for months and still kill for fun, they are extremely dangerous and a responsible owner does what they need to do and what the law will allow.”On the page, Noem’s story of the day she shot Cricket the dog and the unnamed goat – titled “Bad Day to be a Goat” – features the arrival of a school bus and the emergence of her daughter, Kennedy, who by the governor’s own accounting would then have been about seven years old.“Kennedy looked around confused,” Noem writes, “and asked, ‘Hey, where’s Cricket?’” More

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      Pro-Israel groups target Republican House candidate they deem antisemitic

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      Pro-Israel groups are wading into a Republican congressional primary, marking a departure from their recent focus on attacking progressive candidates and offering the latest test of the pro-Israel lobby’s strength as the war in Gaza weighs heavily on voters’ minds.The former Indiana congressman John Hostettler, who served in the House from 1995 to 2007 and will compete in a crowded primary on Tuesday, is looking to return to the chamber to represent the state’s eighth district. Hostettler’s allies praise him as an “America first conservative” who will help terminate financial aid to Ukraine, so his primary will also test Republicans’ embrace of isolationism, which has gained popularity in the party amid the rise of Donald Trump. But Jewish groups have criticized some of his past comments about the start of the Iraq war as antisemitic.Hostettler’s victory is far from assured, as seven other Republicans have launched primary bids and outside groups have already poured millions of dollars into the race.According to documents filed with the Federal Election Commission, the United Democracy Project (UDP) Super Pac, which is affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has spent $1.2m against Hostettler. The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) Victory Fund has also spent about $950,000 supporting one of Hostettler’s top rivals, the Indiana state senate majority leader, Mark Messmer.Those figures dwarf Hostettler’s own fundraising numbers, as his campaign has reported bringing in $40,635 in donations across the election cycle to date. Messmer brought in nearly 20 times as much, reporting $763,290 in contributions so far.The UDP ad attacks Hostettler as “one of the most anti-Israel politicians in America”, excoriating his past voting record in the House. Both the UDP and the RJC have specifically criticized Hostettler for his vote opposing a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel in 2000, after the start of the second intifada, as well as the comments he has made about the origins of the Iraq war.In his self-published book, Nothing for the Nation: Who Got What Out of Iraq, Hostettler criticized former president George W Bush for relying on foreign policy advisers “with Jewish backgrounds” in the lead-up to the war, arguing those officials were too focused on the fate of Israel. One review, published by the Jewish Standard in 2008, accused Hostettler of perpetuating “age-old slanders of Jewish disloyalty to their countries”.“We are deeply troubled by John Hostettler’s past record, and RJC is committed to ensuring he does not get back to Congress,” the group’s CEO, Matt Brooks, said last month. “Hostettler has consistently opposed vital aid to Israel, trafficked antisemitic conspiracy theories and voted against a 2000 resolution which supported Israel.”The UDP’s investment in Hostettler’s race marks a notable shift in its spending this election cycle, as the group has largely focused on Democratic primaries so far. In California’s 47th congressional district, the UDP spent $4.6m opposing the Democratic candidate Dave Min, who ultimately advanced to the general election. The group has also spent $2.4m backing the Democrat Sarah Elfreth in the third district of Maryland, which will hold its primaries later this month.The UDP ad against Hostettler also differs from those against progressive candidates such as Min, as it focuses on Hostettler’s approach to Israel. In Democratic primaries, UDP ads have largely highlighted progressive candidates’ personal weaknesses, such as Min’s drunk-driving arrest last year.The choice to highlight Hostettler’s voting record on Israel reflects how Republican voters generally view the Netanyahu government in a more favorable manner than Democrats and independents do. A Guardian review of the statements of members of Congress after the start of the war found that every Republican in Congress was supportive of Israel. According to one Gallup poll conducted in March, 64% of Republicans approve of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, compared with 18% of Democrats and 29% of independents who said the same.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlthough Hostettler faces an onslaught of spending from pro-Israel groups, other outside organizations have come to his aid in the primary. Two Super Pacs – the American Leadership Pac and the Protect Freedom Pac – have spent more than $790,000 combined to promote Hostettler’s candidacy.But other outside groups have rallied around his opponent Mesmer; the America Leads Action Super Pac has spent roughly $2m opposing Hostettler and more than $100,000 supporting Mesmer. A campaign ad from America Leads Action accuses Hostettler of advancing reckless fiscal policies during his time in Congress.America Leads Action is backed by the wealthy conservative donors Jay Faison and Rob Walton, who is a son of the Walmart founder, Sam Walton. The group has previously spent millions opposing other Republican primary candidates viewed as potential liabilities in a general election, such as Mark Harris of North Carolina and Brandon Gill of Texas.Both Harris and Gill went on to win their primaries anyway. More

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      Does shooting her puppy rule out Kristi Noem as Trump’s running mate? Don’t bet on it | Emma Brockes

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      There is a familiar moment in Republican electoral politics when an obscure politician thrust into the limelight during election season comes under intense public scrutiny and is found to be not quite as first impressions suggested. This was Sarah Palin in 2008, or Ben Carson in 2016, and the inflection point is the moment at which the supposedly promising new face shades into what Mitch McConnell once delicately referred to as the Republicans’ “candidate quality problem”. Or, as most of us know it colloquially, the moment we realise: oh, this person is unhinged.So it was last week for Kristi Noem, the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota, propelled into the big time as a possible running mate for Donald Trump, and who at first glance appeared appalling in all the ordinary ways. The 52-year-old, who was elected to the governorship in 2018, echoes the Republican party’s hardline positions on abortion, immigration and offshore drilling in ways indistinguishable from the rest of the VP field. She is telegenic, charismatic, reliably rightwing, and, according to her forthcoming memoir No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, also killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket.It’s worth noting the prevalence of animal stories in the journey of Republican politicians, from merely unpleasant to decisively weird. Noem’s history of targeted animal killing – she also dispatched a goat, for smelling bad and chasing her kids – sits alongside Mitt Romney’s decision to tie his dog, Seamus, to the roof of the car on a family road trip back in 1983 and Dick Cheney’s adventures in hunting. It also, for my money, recalls Sarah Palin’s first public reference to herself as a “mama grizzly”, a pivot point for many of us in her rapid descent from shiny VP pick to something more akin to a firework going off in a small room.These examples all pale into insignificance, however, compared with the account Noem gives of animal husbandry on her farm in South Dakota. In the memoir, she tells the story of how, after Cricket tried to bite her, killed some chickens and refused to submit to dog training, she took her to a gravel pit and shot her. “I hated that dog,” writes Noem; and it’s this tone, more than the act of killing itself, that is causing Noem so much trouble this week. Her defence – that city folk don’t understand the tough decisions that take place on a farm – doesn’t quite cover the relish with which she tells the story, or the effect of the words “gravel pit” on the imagination. By Noem’s own account, this was not a regrettable incident of having to have a dangerous dog put down, but something more like a mob killing.And what about the goat? He doesn’t rate a name check, but Noem characterises him as “nasty and mean,” an animal that, having survived Noem’s first attempt to shoot him, finally died after she reloaded and shot him again. Even for the most rugged, red-meat Republicans this is a bit bloody much, and you had to look hard to find defenders of Noem last week.Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, called the governor “small and empty”. The former GOP strategist Rick Wilson called her “trash”. Writing on X, Meghan McCain remarked, “All I will distinctly think about Kristi Noem now is that she murdered a puppy who was ‘acting up’ – which is obviously cruel and insane.” The Democrats had a field day, meanwhile, with former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield barely able to conceal her delight when referring to Noem’s “literal puppy murder”.As for Noem herself, she appeared to double down under criticism by mentioning three horses that had to be put down on the farm several weeks ago – whether this happened in the infamous gravel pit or not she didn’t allude to. The story about Cricket, she said, was included in the memoir to illustrate how she is prepared to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” – and, by implication, also mishandle the message so egregiously that everyone instantly and overwhelmingly despises her. (We can assume this isn’t a deal-breaker for Trump.)The last word on all this, however, must be given to Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential candidate and senator for Utah, who, after the comparison to Noem was made enough times, was finally provoked into defending himself. “I didn’t eat my dog,” he told HuffPost, appearing to escalate the accusations against Noem, possibly for comic effect. “I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.” Amen.
      Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist More

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      Trump trades New York worries for hit of adulation from his Maga faithful

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      At a remote rural airport in Michigan, an outsized plane touched down as music from Tom Cruise’s film Top Gun boomed from loudspeakers. Late afternoon sunshine gleamed off five giant golden letters on the plane’s side – “TRUMP” – and its Rolls Royce engines. A crowd bedecked in red roared as the plane rolled to a standstill behind a blue “TRUMP” lectern.A door opened and men in dark glasses and dark suits from what Donald Trump would call “central casting” made their way down the stairs. “Trump! Trump!” the audience chanted, raising hundreds of camera phones in eager anticipation. Great Balls of Fire, Macho Man and YMCA blared. Finally, the former and would-be future president emerged, clapping and fist pumping to the sound of whoops and cheers and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.How different the warm embrace from Trump’s recent experience as a defendant on criminal trial in a chilly, dingy courtroom in New York. On those days, threatened with prison, he looks old, vulnerable and small. Back on the election campaign trail, it is all about hypermasculine energy and bigness – big plane, big crowds, big promises and big lies.Trump had spent Tuesday in the now grimly familiar routine of the courtroom, where he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to the adult film performer Stormy Daniels. But the the court does not sit on Wednesday, freeing him to get a fresh shot of adulation from his fan base.The 77-year-old headed to two of the most crucial battleground states, holding rallies first in Waukesha, Wisconsin, then in Freeland, Michigan, where the rolling farmland, farmhouses and silos are a world away from the skyscrapers of Manhattan. Instead of a gag order that he has violated, resulting in a fine, Trump was at liberty to let rip with a stream of consciousness both profane (“bullshit”, “shit”) and divorced from fact.And instead of a sombre-faced jury deciding his fate, there were diehard supporters – mostly white retirees – sporting Make America great again regalia: “God, guns and Trump”; “Women for Trump”; “I stand with Trump”; “Trump was right”; and “Fuck Biden”. (High winds sent some Maga caps dancing across the grass and rocked lifesize cardboard cutouts of Trump rocking back and forth.)“He had our economy good and he’s for America, he’s for the people,” said Karen Mantyla, 65, wearing a T-shirt that said “I’m still a Trump girl – I make no apologies”, with an image of spectacles and a hair ribbon. “He believes in God and he’s my guy.”Mantyla, like many here, dismisses the New York trial as a politically motivated witch hunt. “It’s a farce,” she added “It’s just to stop him becoming president. Why is he the only person who’s being persecuted for nothing?”Supporters held signs that said, “Trump 2024”; “Fire Biden”; and “You’re fired!”. In a speech lasting just over an hour, his red tie and teleprompters tossed by the wind, the Republican presidential nominee made an argument familiar to anyone who has heard his rants outside the courtroom each day.Trump said: “As you know, I have come here today from New York City, where I’m being forced to sit for days on end in a kangaroo courtroom with a corrupt and conflicted judge enduring a Biden sideshow trial at the hands of a Marxist district attorney, Soros-backed, who’s taking orders from the Biden administration.”There is zero evidence that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg is taking orders from the White House; indeed, some commentators believe this is the weakest of four cases against Trump and could work to his political benefit. But unlike at the trial, candidate Trump can make outlandish statements without repercussions.View image in fullscreenHe went on to argue that, had he lost the Republican primary election, he would not now be facing prosecution and could be relaxing somewhere “beautiful” instead. “But you know what, I’d much rather be with you,” he assured the audience, who hollered their approval.He claimed that the New York trial has driven his poll numbers higher than ever “because people get it. It’s a scam and they get it.” He went on to recycle a now familiar line comparing himself to the gangster Al Capone. “Joe Biden wants to jail his political opponents like they do in third-world countries and banana republics,” Trump said. “There’s only one problem: every one of these cases is bullshit.”Trump also used the speech to press his case against Biden on inflation, promise to bring car industry jobs to Michigan at the expense of China, condemn “leftwing gender ideology” regarding men’s access to women’s bathrooms and sports, and repeat his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. He called on his base to make sure that his win in 2024 is “too big to rig”.The ex-president also fearmongered, asserting that Michigan is being “torn up to pieces by migrant crime” and that prisons and mental institutions all over the world are being emptied into the US “because we’re a dumping ground”. He promised the biggest ever domestic mass deportation of undocumented immigrants – a notion that thrilled this gathering. “When I return to the White House, we will stop the plunder, rape, slaughter and destruction of the American suburbs, cities and towns.”He swerved past the protests against Israel’s war in Gaza currently convulsing university campuses, although earlier in Wisconsin he said it “was a beautiful thing to watch” New York police officers raiding a Columbia University building occupied by pro-Palestinian students, calling the protesters “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathisers”.Trump repeatedly denounced Biden as the worst president in American history who is going down to defeat in a landslide. He made clear that his animus towards Biden is now highly personal because he blames his election rival for the indictments ranged against him.“What a crowd!” he said, evidently relishing the break from legal proceedings and the unqualified support from those who have bought his narrative. Among them was Renee Salzeider, a retired federal government employee wearing a Stars and Stripes cowboy hat and red Rockmount western shirt. “I think it’s bullshit,” she said.Bob Horny, 70, a retired builder, commented: “It’s just a big farce to get him out of the campaign trail and to keep him in the courts. Every one of them guys is guilty for years and years. Biden’s got a … well, I won’t even go there.”Asked if he would be troubled by court testimony that Trump paid hush money to a porn star, Horny replied: “No, I wouldn’t. They’re talking 30 years ago, 20 years, whatever it was. None of this stuff is pertinent to this country. He’s a good, strong leader. He’s a faithful man. He’s a hard worker. His kids work. And that’s basically it.”The rally ended, a musical soundtrack swelled once more and Trump performed an unintentionally comical on-stage dance, briefly taking off his Maga hat. He savoured the final waves of adoration from the faithful before boarding his plane, all too aware that the strange double life of Donald Trump is soon to resume in the Manhattan criminal courthouse. More

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      Arizona senate passes repeal of 1864 near-total abortion ban

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      Arizona lawmakers have repealed the state’s 160-year-old statute banning nearly all abortions.The 1864 law, which was reinstated by the state supreme court three weeks ago, has made abortion a central focus in the battleground state and galvanized Democrats seeking to enshrine abortion rights.In the state senate, Democrats picked up the support of two Republicans in favor of repealing the ban. The Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, is expected to ratify the repeal, which narrowly cleared the Arizona house last week after three Republicans joined with all the Democrats in the chamber.Dozens of demonstrators for and against the right to abortion gathered at the capitol before the vote, and others packed into the chamber’s gallery to watch. As senators began to vote, Republicans in the chamber voiced bombastic protests and criticisms in floor speeches.Antony Kern, a Republican who has been indicted as a fake elector in a plot to undermine the 2020 election results, said his fellow Republicans backing the ban were the “epitome of delusion”. He claimed the vote would take the state down a slippery slope towards acceptance of pedophilia, as supporters cheered from the gallery with silent claps. Kern also compared the chamber repealing the bill to Nazi Germany.Another Republican senator, JD Mesnard, played a sonogram recording of his child’s heartbeat on the floor. He said: “These will be fewer, these heart beatings.”Republican Shawnna Bolick gave a 20-minute speech in defense of her vote to support the repeal, covering stories about her own pregnancies, other pregnancies, and her critiques of the state’s Democratic governor. Ultimately, she said, repealing the ban would allow Republicans to maintain a less extreme version of abortion restrictions. She said: “We should be pushing for the maximum protection for unborn children that can be sustained. I side with saving more babies’ lives.”The civil-war era statute, which predates Arizona’s statehood, bans nearly all abortions, including those sought by survivors of rape or incest. It also imposes prison terms for doctors and others who aid in abortions. The law had been blocked by the 1973 supreme court Roe v Wade decisions that granted the constitutional right to abortion.“We are relieved that lawmakers have finally repealed this inhumane abortion ban – something extremist politicians refused to do for far too long,” said Victoria López, director of program and strategy for the ACLU of Arizona. “Unfortunately, cruel abortion bans like the law from 1864 have been at the center of political stunts for years, causing lasting harm to people who need abortions and their providers.”Last month, the state’s Republican-appointed supreme court justices suggested it could be reinstated since Roe was overturned in 2022.The repeal would not take effect until June or July, 90 days after the legislative session. Arizona’s attorney general, Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has vowed not to enforce the ban in the meantime. Providers, including Planned Parenthood, have been preparing resources to help patients seeking abortions to travel out of state during the time that the ban is in effect.“Today’s vote by the Arizona senate to repeal the draconian 1864 abortion ban is a win for freedom in our state,” Mayes said.Once the 1864 measure is stricken, a 2022 statue banning procedures after 15 weeks of pregnancy would supplant it as the state’s ruling abortion law.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionView image in fullscreenAbortion rights advocates have emphasized that repealing the ban is not enough. “This is an important step, but our work isn’t done,” said Ruben Gallego, a US congressman from Arizona who is running for the US Senate. “Arizona women deserve better. That’s why we’re going to pass a constitutional right to abortion and defeat anti-abortion extremists.”Democrats have been pushing for a ballot measure in November that would enshrine the right to abortions in the state’s constitution. In the weeks since the ban was reinstated , the Arizona for Abortion Access effort saw its volunteers grow from about 3,000 to more than 5,000.“Nothing has changed about the need for the Arizona abortion access act,” the group organizing the ballot measure said following the passage of the repeal.The issue has placed enormous pressure on the Arizona GOP, from conservatives who support the ban and from swing voters who oppose the extreme measure. On the senate floor on Wednesday, Bolick, as she cast her vote in favor of the repeal, said: “I want to protect our state constitution from unlimited abortions up until the moment of birth.”In the key swing state – one that historically leaned Republican but backed Joe Biden in 2020 – the issue could help turn out more voters who could help flip the statehouse blue.Republican lawmakersare considering putting one or more competing abortion proposals on the November ballot, including a 14-week ban and a “heartbeat protection act” that would make abortion illegal after six weeks. No such measures have been introduced yet. More