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      Anonymous woman claims Herschel Walker pressured her to have abortion and drove her to clinic – as it happened

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

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      Pundits divided over Fetterman’s performance in key Senate debate

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      Pundits divided over Fetterman’s performance in key Senate debateRightwing news outlets and commentators called for candidate to drop out of race while campaign said it raised $1m on back of event As the dust settled over Tuesday night’s sole televised debate in the crucial US Senate race in Pennsylvania, pundits were starkly divided over the impact of the Democrat John Fetterman’s struggles with speech in his recovery from a stroke.Biden’s approval rating drops as Democrats fight to hold majorities in midterms – liveRead moreThe Pennsylvania lieutenant governor raised the issue of his auditory processing disorder, which makes it difficult for him to understand certain spoken words, in his opening remarks in the debate with his Republican rival, the former TV doctor Mehmet Oz.“Let’s also talk about the elephant in the room – I had a stroke,” Fetterman said.Fetterman used closed captioning to help deal with his speech difficulties. Questions and answers were transcribed in real time and beamed through large screens in front of both candidates.Reporters present in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, noted that Fetterman occasionally struggled to articulate his views in the hour-long debate. The Philadelphia Inquirer said that he “spoke haltingly and at times mixed up his words”, remarking that “his speaking has been much smoother in stump speeches on the campaign trail and in a recent interview with the Inquirer than during the back-and-forth” of the debate with Oz.Rightwing news outlets and commentators were much harsher, with several calling for Fetterman to drop out of the race. John Podhoretz, a conservative columnist with the New York Post, described the Democratic candidate as “impaired” and said “it is an act of personal, political, and ideological malpractice that Fetterman is still contesting for the Senate”.Tucker Carlson, the far-right Fox News host, portrayed the evening as a “full-blown 30-car Amtrak derailment for Fetterman. If that guy’s elected senator from the state of Pennsylvania, you’ll have real concerns about the system being legitimate.”Pat Toomey, the sitting Republican senator whose retirement opened up the current contest, tweeted that was “sad to see John Fetterman struggling so much. He should take more time to allow himself to fully recover.”The Fetterman campaign said it had raised $1m on the back of the debate, suggesting a more empathetic response from Democratic donors. Fetterman’s campaign manager, Brendan McPhillips, said the surge in funding indicated that “the people of Pennsylvania have John’s back in this race. They stepped up tonight with a gigantic show of support for John and his debate performance.”Joe Cavello, Fetterman’s spokesperson, told reporters the candidate had been forced to work off “delayed captions filled with errors”. The company responsible for setting up the captioning system, Nexstar Media, disputed that, saying in a statement the process “functioned as expected”.Several commentators lauded Fetterman for his courage.“What John Fetterman is doing right now in the midst of his recovery – so publicly, on the same stage as a smirking TV doctor – is remarkably brave,” said the writer Pat Cunnane.The Pennsylvania contest is exceptionally fraught given its high stakes. Who wins the race could determine whether the Democrats hang on to the Senate, which is currently split 50-50, or whether the Republicans retrieve it, providing a platform from which to undermine Joe Biden’s agenda.The Real Clear Politics poll tracker shows Oz steadily closing on Fetterman since August, when the Democrat commanded a nine-point lead. On Wednesday Fetterman had just a 1.3% lead, well within the margin of error.Fetterman had a stroke four days before the primary in May and required hospital treatment. He released a report from his doctor last week that said he had “no work restrictions and can work full duty in public office”.Fetterman was asked during the debate whether he would release the full medical report concerning his stroke in the interests of transparency.“For me transparency is about showing up, I’m here today to have a debate,” he said.Abortion rights take centre stage as Oz and Fetterman clash in Pennsylvania Senate debateRead moreFetterman’s struggles with speech have become an unexpected and unpredictable factor in a race otherwise dominated by issues such as inflation, abortion and Oz’s record as an election denier endorsed by Donald Trump. But the TV doctor’s controversial stance on his opponent’s medical struggle also amounts to a high-risk strategy for the Republican.Oz, a former heart surgeon who was turned into a celebrity by Oprah Winfrey, has repeatedly mocked Fetterman for his disabilities. At one point in the debate, Oz said: “Obviously I wasn’t clear enough for you to understand this.”In previous interventions, the Oz campaign has been openly snarky.“Dr Oz promises not to intentionally hurt John’s feelings at any point,” the campaign once said.When Fetterman ridiculed Oz’s complaint about the price of “crudités”, a Republican senior adviser retorted: “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022PennsylvaniaUS SenateUS politicsDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Trump 2024 campaign seeks to recruit man who smeared John Kerry – reports

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      Trump 2024 campaign seeks to recruit man who smeared John Kerry – reportsEx-president eyeing Chris LaCivita, whose 2004 ‘Swift Boat’ campaign questioned Kerry’s Vietnam war record As he prepares a possible new presidential campaign, Donald Trump is seeking to recruit an operative who was behind a group which famously questioned the Vietnam war record of the 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry, the Washington Post reported.Biden ‘totally running’ for second term as president, MSNBC interviewer saysRead moreThe operative who ran Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Chris LaCivita, worked for one Trump-aligned political action committee during the 2020 election and now runs another. He is also a consultant for Ron Johnson, a Trump-supporting Wisconsin senator fighting for re-election.The Post cited four anonymous sources. It also reported LaCivita’s response: “Thank you for the opportunity but I don’t comment on rumours!!”Despite deepening legal jeopardy on numerous fronts, Trump dominates polling regarding potential Republican nominees in 2024 and continues to tease a third White House run.The Post said Trump was “telling allies he plans to run for president again” but also said many “longtime advisers do not want a role in the 2024 bid after a slate of federal investigations have ensnared many of them – and they fear a bruising battle he could lose”.A Trump spokesperson told the Post the former president “continues to fuel the Republican party’s march towards a historic midterm election” and claimed “America is rightfully hungry and excited to know what’s next”.In 2004 LaCivita, a former US Marine, organised Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which in one of the more shameless episodes in US political history, sought to cast doubt on Kerry’s record in Vietnam, a conflict the incumbent Republican president, George W Bush, had avoided.Swift boats were US navy riverine craft on which Kerry served, winning medals including the Silver Star. Kerry later became involved in protests against the Vietnam war, before entering politics and becoming a Massachusetts senator. After his failed tilt at the presidency, he was secretary of state under Barack Obama. He is now Joe Biden’s climate envoy.Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which became Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, was supposedly non-political but was in fact financed by major Republican donors.The group advanced its attacks on Kerry in TV ads and a book. The effort generated considerable controversy, with John McCain, a former prisoner of war then a Republican senator from Arizona, calling it “dishonest and dishonorable”.But the group proved an effective campaign presence, leading to the term “Swiftboating” entering the American political lexicon, denoting “an untrue or unfair political attack or smear campaign”.In one 2004 column, the New York Times examined – and thereby publicly rehashed – each claim advanced by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.Citing requests from “conservative readers”, the paper of record asked: “So is John Kerry a war hero or a medal-grabbing phony?”After an extensive and critical examination of Kerry’s military career and statements about it, the Times concluded: “Mr Kerry has stretched the truth here and there, but earned his decorations.“And the Swift Boat Veterans, contradicted by official records and virtually everyone who witnessed the incidents, are engaging in one of the ugliest smears in modern US politics.”TopicsDonald TrumpUS politicsJohn KerryRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Fury after Democrats publish and withdraw letter urging Biden to negotiate with Russia – as it happened

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      There is much anguish – and anger – among House Democrats over the publication and then withdrawal of a controversial letter to Joe Biden in which leading progressives urged the US to commit to a negotiated end to the Russian war in Ukraine. Manu Raju of CNN reports “major Democratic backlash over Jayapal’s decision to release a letter this week – that members signed in June – just two weeks before midterms. Some say they wouldn’t sign it now and were blindsided. ‘People are furious,’ one Democrat says.”Jake Sherman, a reporter, author and co-founder of Punchbowl News – a Washington website specialising in covering Capitol Hill – is discussing the role and position of Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.Sherman writes: “Important to keep in mind when thinking about this episode: CPC chair Jayapal wants to be in [party] leadership and has been making moves to set up a run. As we noted this [morning], being in leadership is asking your colleagues to trust your decision-making abilities..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In addition, Jayapal uses the statement to throw her staff under the bus.”In her statement just now, Jayapal said: “The letter was drafted several months ago but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As chair of the caucus, I accept responsibility for this.”Here are two tweets from different sides of the issue – the side which thinks the statement was a terrible mistake and the side which thinks admitting that mistake is at least a sort of a plus.Bill Browder, anti-Putin campaigner: “Makes my blood boil. 30 Democrats led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal call on Biden to pair [back] the military support for Ukraine. She wants the US to reward Putin’s murderous aggression. We all know where appeasement goes and it’s nowhere good.”Melissa Byrne, progressive activist and Bernie Sanders alum: “Friends can make mistakes and then friends can work to make it better. This is the sign of a functioning system. Good on Pramila Jayapal.”It was not a great day for progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives. They were put on the defensive yesterday after sending a letter signed by 30 of their caucus to the Biden administration, asking it to pursue negotiations with Russia to end the war in Ukraine – which caused an immediate blowback from other Democrats who warned it called Washington’s commitment to Kyiv into question. The caucus chair Pramila Jayapal withdrew the letter today with a statement that blamed her own employees for its release – not exactly a good look for a lawmaker whose treatment of staff has raised eyebrows in the past.Here’s what else happened today:
      The White House condemned a Russian court’s decision to uphold the nine-year jail sentence of WNBA star Brittney Griner for possessing cannabis vape cartridges. President Joe Biden said his administration is trying to reach an agreement with Russia to win the release of Griner and other jailed Americans, but hasn’t had success yet.
      Republicans are experiencing a jump in voter enthusiasm ahead of the 8 November midterms, though Democrats have a slight edge in terms of which party Americans prefer to control Congress, a poll showed.
      A prominent Democratic senator urged the Federal Reserve not to raise interest rates so high they cause job losses. The central bank is next week expected to hike rates again to lower inflation.
      Former defense secretary Ash Carter died yesterday at the age of 68.
      Insider has heard from a former staffer for Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Pramila Jayapal, who said the congresswoman keeps a close eye on her office’s interactions with the media and would not have allowed the Ukraine policy letter to be sent without her approval.“I would be shocked if they hit send on that release without her knowing,” the unnamed staffer said, according to Insider’s report. “Everyone who has worked with her office knows that she keeps a tight grip on media relations. She has held up press releases over small edits and delayed letting staff hit send while she reworks language – though delaying a release by three months would be a new record.”Jayapal’s interactions with her employees became an issue after she said a mistake by her staff was a reason why the letter was sent out two weeks before the 8 November midterms, even though it had been first circulated among Democrats over the summer. “The letter was drafted several months ago, but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As Chair of the Caucus, I accept responsibility for this,” Jayapal said earlier today.It’s not the first time the Washington congresswoman has been scrutinized over her treatment of employees. Last year, Buzzfeed News published a lengthy story in which several former staffers said Jayapal berates and mistreats her staff even as she pushes for policies that are intended to help America’s workforce.“I have never worked in a place that has made me so miserable and so not excited for public service as Pramila Jayapal’s office,” a former staffer told Buzzfeed.Jayapal’s chief of staff responded to the article by saying its anecdotes were “cherry picked” and contained “ugly stereotypes”.A signatory to the now-withdrawn letter on Ukraine strategy from progressive Democrats has spoken up in defense of congressional staff amid criticism that the caucus’s leader unnecessarily blamed them for the fiasco.Congressman Ro Khanna was among the 30 Democrats to sign the letter asking the Biden administration to pursue talks with Russia to end the war while continuing to support Kyiv militarily and economically. His comments come after Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the letter “was released by staff without vetting” – which was widely seen as an attempt to deflect blame onto employees that answer to her.Here’s what Khanna had to say about that:Let me just say something about Mike Darner & CPC staff. They are extraordinary. They have helped shape the biggest goals for progressives and have been very effective in our wins. They are committed also to human rights and diplomacy. Progressives owe them a debt of gratitude.— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) October 25, 2022
      Darner is the progressive caucus’ executive director.Add Donald Trump’s former chief of staff to the list of those trying to get out of testifying before a special grand jury investigating the attempts to meddle with the 2020 election in Georgia.Politico reports that Mark Meadows has asked a South Carolina court to block a subpoena for his appearance in November from Fanni Willis, the Atlanta-area district attorney who empaneled the grand jury looking into the election interference from Trump’s allies. Meadows has been tied to efforts by the former president to find ways to block Joe Biden’s ascension to office, including by traveling to Georgia to monitor an audit of the state’s ballot count. He also joined in when Trump pressed Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” him the votes to reverse Biden’s victory in the state.Yesterday, conservative supreme court justice Clarence Thomas put a temporary hold on a subpoena from Willis to Republican senator Lindsey Graham, though the step is a typical one taken when the high court weighs a case.President Joe Biden said the United States is continuing to negotiate with Russia to release women’s basketball star Brittney Griner and other detained Americans, but hasn’t made significant progress.“We are in constant contact with Russian authorities to get Brittney and others out, and so far we’ve not been meeting with much positive response, but we’re not stopping,” Biden said this afternoon.He also reiterated warnings of heavy consequences for Moscow if it deployed nuclear weapons to turn around its fortunes in Ukraine. “Russia would be making an incredibly serious mistake for it to use a tactical nuclear weapon,” he said.Biden was speaking after receiving an updated Covid-19 booster shot, which you can watch below:President Biden receives his updated COVID-19 booster shot. pic.twitter.com/0BjAwkNTnE— CSPAN (@cspan) October 25, 2022
      Next week, the Federal Reserve’s policy setting committee will convene and likely raise interest rates again to cut into America’s high rate of inflation. But an influential Democratic senator has a message for the independent central bank: be careful.Sherrod Brown is the chair of the Senate banking committee, and has written a letter to Fed chair Jerome Powell asking him not to raise interest rates so high that struggling businesses are made to lay off employees:For working Americans who already feel the crush of inflation, job losses will only make it worse.That’s why @SenSherrodBrown is reminding Chair Powell that the @federalreserve must promote stable prices AND max employment. pic.twitter.com/M1zaEgVEET— Senate Banking and Housing Democrats (@SenateBanking) October 25, 2022
      “Monetary policy tools take time to reduce inflation by constraining demand until supply catches up – time that working-class families don’t have,” Brown wrote. “We must avoid having our short-term advances and strong labor market overwhelmed by the consequences of aggressive monetary actions to decrease inflation, especially when the Fed’s actions do not address its main drivers.”The 12-member Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on which Powell sits makes decisions on rate increases, often unanimously. Brown doesn’t go so far as to ask Powell not to raise rates, but does remind him that the central bank’s mandate is both fighting inflation and ensuring job opportunities.“We can’t risk the livelihoods of millions of Americans who can’t afford it. I ask that you don’t forget your responsibility to promote maximum employment and that the decisions you make at the next FOMC meeting reflect your commitment to the dual mandate,” Brown wrote.President Joe Biden has released a statement of condolence following the death of former defense secretary Ash Carter.Carter died suddenly yesterday at the age of 68. He served as defense secretary during the time that Biden was vice-president under Barack Obama.Here’s what Biden had to say:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Integrity.
      When I think of Ash Carter, I think of a man of extraordinary integrity. Honest. Principled. Guided by a strong, steady moral compass and a vision of using his life for public purpose.
      Ash Carter was born a patriot. A physicist and national security leader across decades, he served with immense distinction at every level of civilian leadership at the Department of Defense, including as our nation’s 25th Secretary of Defense.
      I was Vice President at the time, and President Obama and I relied on Ash’s fierce intellect and wise counsel to ensure our military’s readiness, technological edge, and obligation to the women and men of the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.You can read the full statement here.With two weeks to go until the midterms, President Joe Biden has made a closing argument for continued Democratic control of Congress, by publishing an opinion column on CNN’s website.“Over the past nearly two years, we have made enormous progress. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out,” opens the piece, which touches on themes the president often raises in speeches. “But all of our progress is at risk. The American people face a choice between two vastly different visions for our country,” Biden continues, arguing that Republicans will undo attempts to lower prescription drug costs and cut the Social Security and Medicare programs many older Americans rely on.“Republicans in Congress are doubling down on mega, MAGA trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthy and big corporations. They’ve laid their plan out very clearly,” he said.You can read the full piece here.In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, the Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz claimed his new book laid out “evidence of election fraud and voter fraud in November 2020, which the Democrats and the corporate media insists doesn’t exist”.Today, Philip Bump of the Washington Post retorts: “This particular ‘corporate media’ outlet can now report that, in fact, rampant fraud continues not to exist – as demonstrated, here at least, by Cruz’s failure to present any of his promised evidence of election or voter fraud.”Bump’s column is a must-read. Here’s another taste: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Cruz quotes from the speech he gave shortly before the Capitol riot:
      “Voter fraud has posed a persistent challenge in our elections, although its breadth and scope are disputed. By any measure, the allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election exceed any in our lifetimes.”
      Let’s shift the focus to make the gambit here clear: “UFOs remain a threat to our nation’s cows. By any measure, the claims of people seeing UFOS exceed any in our lifetimes.” See how that works?And here’s our story on another aspect of the senator’s book – his description of how when rioters inspired by Republican talk of non-existent mass voter fraud broke into the Capitol, some looking for lawmakers to capture and possibly kill, he hid in a closet.Ted Cruz took refuge in supply closet during January 6 riot, book revealsRead moreThere is much anguish – and anger – among House Democrats over the publication and then withdrawal of a controversial letter to Joe Biden in which leading progressives urged the US to commit to a negotiated end to the Russian war in Ukraine. Manu Raju of CNN reports “major Democratic backlash over Jayapal’s decision to release a letter this week – that members signed in June – just two weeks before midterms. Some say they wouldn’t sign it now and were blindsided. ‘People are furious,’ one Democrat says.”Jake Sherman, a reporter, author and co-founder of Punchbowl News – a Washington website specialising in covering Capitol Hill – is discussing the role and position of Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.Sherman writes: “Important to keep in mind when thinking about this episode: CPC chair Jayapal wants to be in [party] leadership and has been making moves to set up a run. As we noted this [morning], being in leadership is asking your colleagues to trust your decision-making abilities..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In addition, Jayapal uses the statement to throw her staff under the bus.”In her statement just now, Jayapal said: “The letter was drafted several months ago but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As chair of the caucus, I accept responsibility for this.”Here are two tweets from different sides of the issue – the side which thinks the statement was a terrible mistake and the side which thinks admitting that mistake is at least a sort of a plus.Bill Browder, anti-Putin campaigner: “Makes my blood boil. 30 Democrats led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal call on Biden to pair [back] the military support for Ukraine. She wants the US to reward Putin’s murderous aggression. We all know where appeasement goes and it’s nowhere good.”Melissa Byrne, progressive activist and Bernie Sanders alum: “Friends can make mistakes and then friends can work to make it better. This is the sign of a functioning system. Good on Pramila Jayapal.”The group of progressive House Democrats, among them high-profile members of Congress including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamie Raskin, who yesterday wrote to Joe Biden urging him to commit to a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine have withdrawn their letter.Pramila Jayapal of Washington, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, issued the following statement:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The Congressional Progressive Caucus hereby withdraws its recent letter to the White House regarding Ukraine.
      The letter was drafted several months ago but unfortunately was released by staff without vetting. As chair of the caucus, I accept responsibility for this.
      Because of the timing, our message is being conflated by some as being equivalent to the recent statement by Republican [minority] leader [Kevin] McCarthy threatening an end to aid to Ukraine if Republicans take over. The proximity of these statements created the unfortunate appearance that Democrats, who have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people, are somehow aligned with Republicans who seek to pull the plug on American support for President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian forces.
      Nothing could be further from the truth. Every war ends with diplomacy, and this one will too after Ukrainian victory. The letter sent yesterday, although restating that basic principle, has been conflated with GOP opposition to support for the Ukrainians’ just defense of their national sovereignty. As such, it is a distraction at this time and we withdraw the letter.”Here’s the letter in question in full:We need direct talks with Russia and a negotiated settlement | Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and othersRead moreAnd here’s Ed Pilkington’s report on the whole affair:Rift among Democrats after letter urges Biden to hold talks to end Ukraine warRead moreFrom Capitol Hill to the justice department, people close to former president Donald Trump are talking to investigators looking into the January 6 insurrection and the government secrets found at Mar-a-Lago, according to media reports today. Meanwhile, progressive Democrats are walking back a letter released yesterday in which they asked the Biden administration to pursue dialogue with Russia to end the war in Ukraine.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
      The White House condemned a Russian court’s decision to uphold the nine-year jail sentence of WNBA star Brittney Griner for possessing cannabis vape cartridges.
      Republicans are experiencing a jump in voter enthusiasm ahead of the 8 November midterms, though Democrats have a slight edge in terms of which party Americans prefer to control Congress, a poll showed.
      Former defense secretary Ash Carter died yesterday at the age of 68.
      Joe Biden has made news in Britain, though not for a particularly good reason.Yesterday, Britain’s ruling Conservative party elected former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak as their leader, allowing him to become prime minister today. Biden shared the news in a speech at the White House on Monday – though he might want to check with someone on how to pronounce Sunak’s name.Here’s the clip: More

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      Liz Truss’s elevation and downfall mirrors the American right | Andrew Gawthorpe

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      Liz Truss’s elevation and downfall mirrors the American right Andrew GawthorpeThe British conservative party has lost touch with reality in ways that are reminiscent of how Trump transformed Republican politics in the US After serving for a mere 45 days, Liz Truss has become the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. George Canning, the previous holder of this record, was forced from office because he died of tuberculosis. Truss, by contrast, is entirely the author of her own demise. But even though her short premiership has no doubt left her own political talents utterly discredited, it would be a mistake to stop apportioning blame there. In fact, Truss’s elevation and downfall show how the British Conservative party has lost touch with reality over the past decade in ways which mirror the descent of the American right.Republicans always choose radicalization to energize their electoral base | Thomas ZimmerRead moreTruss was forced from office after unveiling a budget that was profoundly out of touch with the realities of modern Britain. A diehard libertarian, she announced steep tax cuts for the rich, including removing an immensely popular cap on bankers’ annual bonuses. Much like the Trump tax cuts of 2017, these moves were supposed to be paid for by generating trickle-down economic growth – and when that failed to happen, as it inevitably does, public service and welfare cuts would follow. This kamikaze libertarianism was combined with sheer nastiness towards the poor, such as when the chair of the Conservative party told voters worried about rising energy bills to either go and get a better-paid job or “freeze”.So dire were Truss’s plans that even the markets rejected them, causing a financial crisis and ultimately her unceremonious ejection from office. But just getting rid of Truss is not going to solve the Conservative party’s problems. Instead, it must face up to ideological blinders and delusions of grandeur which led it to put Britain in this situation to begin with.The first entry on the charge sheet is the party’s long-running flirtation with an extreme variant of libertarian economics. Far from being some bizarre outlier, Truss was comfortably elected in a party leadership race this summer despite making no secret of her plans. She was also enthusiastically embraced by rightwing talking heads and thinktanks who have long advocated for precisely the measures in Truss’s budget. Truss was not on a lone ideological bender but was seeking to implement the orthodoxy of a key set of conservative elites – precisely the reason they promoted her into a job she was manifestly unfit for in the first place.But a much larger issue is the way that Brexit transformed British political discourse, introducing a fetish for anti-intellectualism and bold, ill-thought-through action which is reminiscent of how Trump transformed Republican politics in the United States. The party has become addicted to elevating cranks who promise an impossible return to Britain’s former heyday and to sneering at the policy and economics experts who point out the reasons why this is impossible. For a party that has long cast its critics as unpatriotic and over-educated, it was a small step from the fairytale of Brexit to the fairytale of Truss’s economic program.Another way in which the party is culpable is its refusal to face up to the contradictions of Brexit, which was always animated by two very different impulses. The first, most important to the average Brexit voter, was to reduce immigration and embrace the culture wars which went along with that goal. The second, embraced mostly by Tory party elites, was to turn Britain into a libertarian economic paradise, which by contrast would require liberal immigration policies to replace the workers shut out by Brexit.Much like their counterparts in the modern Republican party, Tory elites failed to realize how successful their cynical turn against immigration and towards the culture wars would be. What they originally saw as an electoral strategy to get them into office and allow them to move onto their libertarian agenda eventually became the defining characteristic of their whole movement. In America, this process produced Donald Trump. In the UK, it produced Boris Johnson, who pledged to deport unauthorized immigrants – even those fleeing Ukraine – to Rwanda. Truss seems to have entirely failed to notice this change in conservative politics and tried simply to ignore it, setting up a collision with a large chunk of her own party.So completely did Truss’s premiership embody the policies and tendencies of a certain set of Conservative party elites that its implosion seems to herald the final destruction of their project. This might seem like something to celebrate, but it will in fact probably lead to the further Trumpification of her party. Facing the direct repudiation of their libertarian program and unable due to their own ideological blinders to consider realigning with the EU, Conservatives are likely to see only one way forward: rushing into the culture wars and trying to smuggle whatever parts of their plutocratic agenda they can along with them.For America and the rest of the world, this means a Britain that will continue to become more insular, smaller in its ambitions, and weaker in its capabilities. Conservative elites will continue to find many people to blame for this rather than looking in the mirror. But if they really want to repair the damage to their house, they have to begin by looking at the rotting foundations that they themselves laid.
      Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States and host of the podcast America Explained
      TopicsLiz TrussOpinionDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicanscommentReuse this content More

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      Bob Woodward to publish Trump interviews detailing his ‘effort to destroy democracy’

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      Bob Woodward to publish Trump interviews detailing his ‘effort to destroy democracy’The investigative journalist’s new audiobook, The Trump Tapes, digs deep into the threat the former president poses to democracy Explaining his decision to publish tapes of his 20 interviews with Donald Trump, renowned journalist Bob Woodward said he had finally recognized the “unparalleled danger” the former president poses to American democracy.His three books on the Trump presidency, Woodward said, “didn’t go far enough”.The veteran reporter will release an audiobook, The Trump Tapes, on Tuesday. On Sunday, he published excerpts in an essay for the Washington Post, the paper for which he and Carl Bernstein covered the Watergate scandal that brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency in 1974.‘A nutso proposition’: Robert Draper on Trump, Republicans and January 6 Read moreWoodward, 79, has chronicled every president since. His three Trump books – Fear, Rage and Peril, the last written with Robert Costa – were instant bestsellers.But by Woodward’s own admission, those books exercised reportorial caution when it came to passing judgment, even as they chronicled four chaotic years culminating in the January 6 Capitol attack.Woodward’s decision to pass judgment now did not meet with universal praise.Oliver Willis, a writer for the American Independent, a progressive outlet, pointed to recent criticism of reporters including Maggie Haberman of the New York Times, for allegedly holding important reporting for Trump books. Willis said Woodward essentially saying “Guys, I’m kind of feeling Trump might be a fascist” was a “perfect example of how ivory tower journalism fails to inform the public”.Pelosi says Trump not ‘man enough to show up’ to testify on January 6Read moreSeth Abramson, the author of three books on Trump, said: “I don’t know how it happened, but the Trump biographers who knew this for certain because of their research in 2016 and 2017 were outsold by Bob Woodward 10-to-1 despite him only coming to this conclusion now. A failure of media, or of publishing? Or both?”In the Post, Woodward elaborated on his change of mind.“There is no turning back for American politics,” he wrote. “Trump was and still is a huge force and indelible presence, with the most powerful political machine in the country. He has the largest group of followers, loyalists and fundraisers, exceeding that of even President [Joe] Biden.“In 2020, I ended Rage with the following sentence: ‘When his performance as president is taken in its entirety, I can only reach one conclusion: Trump is the wrong man for the job.’“Two years later, I realize I didn’t go far enough. Trump is an unparalleled danger. When you listen to him on the range of issues from foreign policy to the [coronavirus] to racial injustice, it’s clear he did not know what to do. Trump was overwhelmed by the job.”In June 2020, Woodward said, he asked Trump if he had assistance in writing a speech about law and order amid national protests for racial justice.Trump said: “I get people, they come up with ideas. But the ideas are mine, Bob. Want to know something? Everything is mine.”Woodward wrote: “The voice, almost whispering and intimate, is so revealing. I believe that is Trump’s view of the presidency. Everything is mine. The presidency is mine. It is still mine. The only view that matters is mine.“The Trump Tapes leaves no doubt that after four years in the presidency, Trump has learned where the levers of power are, and full control means installing absolute loyalists in key cabinet and White House posts.“The record now shows that Trump has led – and continues to lead – a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which in effect is an effort to destroy democracy.“Trump reminds how easy it is to break things you do not understand – democracy and the presidency.”Leftwing writers were not uniformly skeptical of Woodward’s motives. At the New Republic, Michael Tomasky said he hoped the tapes might influence voters in the looming midterm elections, in which a Republican party firmly in Trump’s grip is poised to take the House and perhaps the Senate.Tomasky wrote: “I hope against hope that the media frenzy that will attend this release will bring Trump back into focus as an issue in this election. There may be nuclear bombshells buried in the tapes that have been held back from the selective leaks.“One wonders whether Woodward is holding some newsy quotes until Tuesday.”Tomasky added: “Let’s hope so, anyway, because what has been striking in these recent weeks is the extent to which Trump has faded from the electoral conversation.”Republicans aiming to take House and Senate seats, governors’ mansions and important state posts will hope things stay that way.Trump is in legal jeopardy on numerous fronts, from investigations of the Capitol attack and attempts to overturn the 2020 election to a legal fight over his retention of White House records, criminal and civil suits concerning his business activities, and a defamation suit from the writer E Jean Carroll, who says Trump raped her.Maggie Haberman on Trump: ‘He’s become a Charles Foster Kane character’Read moreThe former president denies wrongdoing and continues to float a third White House run. On Sunday, Woodward told CBS he regretted not pressing Trump about whether he would leave the White House if he lost in 2020.On the relevant tape, Woodward says: “Everyone says Trump is going to stay in the White House if it’s contested. Have you thought …”Trump interjects: “Well, I’m not – I don’t want to even comment on that, Bob. I don’t want to comment on that at this time. Hey Bob, I got all these people, I’ll talk to you later on tonight!”Woodward said: “It’s the only time he had no comment. And this, of course, was months before his loss. And I kind of slapped myself a little bit: Why didn’t I follow up on that a little bit more?”
      This article was amended on 24 October 2022 to correct a misspelling of Oliver Willis’s surname.
      TopicsBooksBob WoodwardUS press and publishingWashington PostNewspapersUS politicsUS elections 2020newsReuse this content More

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      Democrats’ midterms hurdle: Americans are getting used to eroded democracy | Jill Filipovic

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      Democrats’ midterms hurdle: Americans are getting used to eroded democracyJill FilipovicWhile a whopping 71% of voters said that American democracy is at risk, just 7% named it as the most important issue in this election This much is clear: Democrats are in trouble in the midterms. After an initial bump from the widespread outrage at an extremist supreme court that stripped American women of our nationwide right to safe, legal abortion, voters are recalibrating, and falling into a familiar midterm routine: supporting the opposition party. Republicans, according to new polling, are leading with voters nationwide, and especially in a handful of crucial state races that will determine control of Congress.But there’s something bigger going on here than just the usual political churn, or even the idea that voters are more motivated by pocketbook issues than amorphous ones like a potential future need for abortion. Voters are adapting to authoritarianism. And that doesn’t just portend a bad outcome for Democrats in November; it suggests America’s democratic future is at acute risk.The American reaction to the supreme court’s radical decision on abortion rights is a telling hint of what’s to come. The court summarily taking away a fundamental, long-held, and oft-utilized civil right is incredibly uncommon; it hasn’t happened in my lifetime, or my mother’s lifetime. While most of the rest of the world is moving toward broader respect for human rights, including women’s rights, and expanding abortion alongside a greater embrace of democratic norms, the US is in league with only a tiny handful of nations in making abortions harder to get, and in newly criminalizing them. The nations that are cracking down on abortion rather than expanding abortion rights have one thing in common: a turn from democracy and toward authoritarian governance.When the court overturned Roe v Wade, many Americans were initially incensed. Women registered to vote in astounding numbers. Significant majorities of Americans told pollsters that the court’s decision was flat-out wrong. The legitimacy of the court took such a huge hit that several of its justices made defensive statements about the value of their increasingly devalued institution. Pollsters noted a sharp turn: after dire predictions for Democrats, the party suddenly had an edge, thanks to an overreaching conservative court.And Republicans were set back on their heels. The Dobbs decision was the result of decades of rightwing work and millions of dollars. The Republican party has made overturning Roe a singular goal. So it was interesting to see how they reacted when they finally got what they had always wanted: they went quiet. They avoided the topic. The standard Republican view on abortion – that it should be illegal nationwide – is overwhelmingly unpopular, so Republican politicians spent the summer and early fall trying to change the subject.So what, then, explains this sharp swing back to Republican favorability?Simply put, voters acclimated. The media is still covering the impact of rightwing anti-abortion laws, but not with the overwhelming force we saw in the initial weeks after Roe fell. After all, at some point the litany of horror stories – of women being refused care for miscarriages, of women being forced to carry doomed pregnancies to term, of women traveling thousands of miles for basic health care, of women getting septic infections, of women losing their uteruses, of child rape victims being forced into motherhood – blend into each other, sound like the same story over again, and become old news.Human beings are remarkably adaptable. Often, this serves us well: it means we survive, even through horrifying circumstances. But it also means that we can learn to live in horrifying circumstances. Terrible laws that don’t affect most of us every day simply fade into the background as life ticks on. Terrible governments rarely target majorities of the population immediately and all at once. Instead, authoritarian states tend to start with those who have little power, as well as those who threaten the authoritarian’s power. For many conservative, highly religious authoritarian states, women are both a group with less economic power and political representation and a chief threat.In the US, the women primarily hurt by Dobbs are those living in conservative states, and women with the fewest resources are hit hardest of all. This is not an accident. While all women in the US now live without full rights to our own bodies, and while the anti-abortion movement is coming for all of us, conservative politicians have targeted women with the least economic and political power first. A majority of American women may be angry about anti-abortion laws, but are not yet (or do not yet believe themselves to be) directly affected by them, and that is especially true for the Americans who have the greatest influence in the political and economic spheres – women and men alike.The stripping of abortion rights is one clear indicator of America’s rising authoritarianism. And Americans know that we’re in trouble. Voters – especially Democratic and independent voters – are aware that democracy is under threat, and perhaps even that trust in free and fair elections, women’s rights, and America’s democratic institutions are on the ballot this November. While a whopping 71% of voters said that American democracy is at risk, however, just 7% named it as the most important issue in this election.And that’s perhaps understandable. “Democracy” can feel like a big and nebulous thing, while a more expensive grocery bill is a tangible and immediate concern. And Democrats have been telling voters (correctly) that democracy has been at risk since Donald Trump began undermining it. They weren’t wrong to sound the alarm. But eventually even the loudest siren begins to sound like background noise.There is also the simple fact that threats to American democracy will not be solved in 2022 alone.What the US is experiencing is a pervasive problem with rising authoritarianism all over the world. Often, autocrats use democratic means to rise to power, and their takeover is a slow one, not an overnight coup. And once authoritarianism is entrenched, average citizens carry on – there may be an initial shock, but then life, for many people, evolves into a new normal.We’re seeing this dynamic now when it comes to abortion. Over the next few years, we may see it on an even larger scale, and with democracy itself.Armed with this new data, pundits, consultants and politicians themselves are telling Democrats to revamp their strategy: don’t focus on abortion so much, or focus on the economy more, or simply be prepared to lose in November. The beltway consensus seems to be that this is a messaging problem.And certainly Democratic messaging could be better. But what we’re seeing isn’t just a problem of inadequate sloganeering or a focus on the wrong things. It’s another iteration of a longstanding pattern, forged by a combination of human nature and the canniness (and historical learnedness) of those who seek to use democratic processes for undemocratic aims.How do you convince the frog in the slow-boiling pot not only that he’s in real danger, but that it’s going to take a while for the heat to come down? That’s not a question Democrats can answer with messaging alone – and not one they’re going to solve in a month.
      Jill Filipovic is the author of the The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness
      TopicsUS politicsOpinionRepublicansDemocratsAbortionRoe v WadeUS supreme courtcommentReuse this content More

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      US midterm elections: early voting on track to match 2018 record

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      US midterm elections: early voting on track to match 2018 recordVoters take advantage of in-person and mail-in voting as more than 5.8 million people already cast their vote by Friday Early voting in the midterm elections is on track to match records set in 2018, according to researchers, as voters take advantage of both in-person and mail-in voting in states across the country.More than 5.8 million people had already cast their vote by Friday evening, CNN reported, a similar total to this stage in the 2018 elections, which had the highest turnout of any midterm vote in a generation.States with closely watched elections, including Georgia, Florida and Ohio, are among those seeing high volumes, with Democrats so far casting early votes in greater numbers.Republicans, including Donald Trump, have encouraged their supporters to vote in person, citing a mishmash of debunked conspiracy theories about election security.The New York Times reported that in-person turnout is up 70% in Georgia, where the incumbent Republican governor is facing a tough challenge from Democrat Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock, the Democratic US senator, is competing with Herschel Walker. As of Friday about 520,000 people had already cast their ballots during in-person early voting, according to Fox5 Atlanta.In Ohio more than 943,000 people either voted or requested absentee ballots in the first week of early voting, the Columbus Dispatch reported, an increase of 2.7% over the numbers in 2018.More than 186,000 ballots were cast in North Carolina on Thursday, the day early voting began, up from the 155,000 ballots cast at the same stage in 2018. CNN, citing the North Carolina State Board of Elections, reported that registered Democrats made up the 42% of the vote, and votes cast by Republicans made up about 29%. Voters are not required to declare a party allegiance.More than 122 million people voted in the 2018 midterms, the highest number since 1978. More than half of eligible Americans cast a vote in 2018 – up from just 42% in 2014 – as Donald Trump’s divisive presidency saw people surge to the polls.Democrats have traditionally been more likely to vote early, and Associated Press reported that Republican activists have urged their voters to cast their ballot in-person on the day of the election.That could cause long lines on election day and lead to it taking longer for the vote to be counted, which Republicans could point to as an example of a flawed process.“It’s an opening for people to begin questioning and stoking mistrust and distrust,” Chris Piper, former commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, told Associated Press.In 2020 Republicans pointed to the delayed reporting of absentee and early voting ballots in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania as evidence that the election had been stolen from Trump. These claims have been repeatedly debunked, and are not true, but could resurface in November.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsDemocratsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More