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      Republican Hawley’s attack on supreme court nominee Jackson is wrong, says senator

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      Republican Hawley’s attack on supreme court nominee Jackson is wrong, says senatorSenate judiciary committee chair Dick Durbin says Hawley’s attacks should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week The Missouri Republican Josh Hawley is wrong to attack Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Biden’s supreme court nominee, and should be ignored in confirmation hearings this week, the Senate judiciary chair said.How Ketanji Brown Jackson became Biden’s supreme court nominee – podcastRead moreHawley, the Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin said, is “part of the fringe within the Republican party … a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on 6 January of the last year.“He doesn’t have the credibility he thinks he does.”If confirmed, Jackson will be the first Black woman on the court. If Democrats hold their 50 votes she will be installed, via Kamala Harris’s vote as vice-president.Jackson has attracted Republican support before and some have indicated they may back her this time. Jackson’s confirmation will not affect the balance of a court which conservatives dominate 6-3, as she will replace another liberal, the retiring Stephen Breyer.Hawley is however one of several hard-right members of the judiciary committee, alongside Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, to harbour presidential ambitions. Such senators could see attacking a Biden nominee as a way to appeal to supporters.This week, in tweets echoed by the Republican National Committee, Hawley highlighted a potential line of attack.“I’ve noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children,” Hawley said.He did not raise the issue when he questioned Jackson last year, before voting against her confirmation to an appeals court. The White House said the senator was pushing “toxic and weakly presented misinformation”.Jackson sat on the US Sentencing Commission, an agency meant to reduce disparity in federal prison sentences. The sentencing expert Douglas Berman, an Ohio State law professor, has said her record shows she is skeptical of the range of sentences recommended for child pornography cases, the subject seized upon by Hawley.“But so too were prosecutors in the majority of her cases and so too are district judges nationwide,” Berman wrote.Durbin told ABC’s This Week: “As far as Senator Hawley is concerned, here’s the bottom line – he’s wrong. He’s inaccurate and unfair in his analysis.“Judge Jackson has been scrutinised more than any person I can think of. This is her fourth time before the Senate judiciary committee. In three previous times, she came through with flying colors and bipartisan support, the last time just last year.“And now Senator Hawley is making these charges that came out of nowhere. The independent fact checkers … have discredited his claims already. They should have. There’s no truth to what he says.“And he’s part of the fringe within the Republican party. This was a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on 6 January of last year. He doesn’t have the credibility he thinks he does.”This week, Politico demanded Hawley stop using for fundraising purposes a picture of his famous raised-fist salute to protesters before the deadly attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters. Hawley indicated that he would not stop using the image.12:30PM: Senator Josh Hawley pumps his fist at pro-Trump crowd gathered at the east side of the Capitol before heading into the joint session of Congress. #Jan6NeverAgain #TheBigLie pic.twitter.com/rEFsfLY4x9— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 16, 2021
      On ABC, John Barrasso of Wyoming, a member of Senate Republican leadership, was asked if Hawley was guilty of “character assassination” in his attack on Jackson.“The whole process is going to be fair, respectful and thorough,” Barrasso said, adding that he found Jackson “clearly, very intelligent”.Using a key Republican attack line in an election year, Barrasso added: “Going through the record, there are some concerns that people have about her being perceived as soft on crime. That’s all going to come out with the hearings but they’re going to be respectful, they’re going to be thorough and they’re going to be fair.”Asked if Hawley’s attack was fair, Barrasso said: “Well, he’s going to have his opportunity to question the judge as will all the members of the committee.“The last time we had a hearing with [Brett] Kavanaugh, he was accused of being a serial rapist with no evidence whatsoever. So, I think we’re going to have a fair process and a respectful process, unlike what the Democrats did to Justice Kavanaugh.”In fact Kavanaugh – who denied allegations of sexual assault detailed by an alleged victim in confirmation hearings – was the second of three justices installed by Republicans under Donald Trump. The third, Amy Coney Barrett, was jammed on to the court shortly before the 2020 election, after the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg.Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate minority leader, told CBS’s Face the Nation he and Jackson “had a very good conversation”. He asked her, he said, to “defend the court” against those who say Democrats should expand it beyond nine justices to redress its ideological balance.Mug shot: Republican Josh Hawley told to stop using January 6 fist salute photoRead more“Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Justice Breyer both publicly opposed court packing,” McConnell said, “that is trying to increase the number of members in order to get an outcome you like. That would have been an easy thing for [Jackson] to do, to defend the integrity of the court. She wouldn’t do that.”The man who drastically shifted the balance of the court in part by denying a nomination to Barack Obama in 2016 and swiftly confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett four years later also said: “I haven’t made a final decision as to how I’m gonna vote.”Hearings begin on Monday. Jackson is expected to make a statement and answer questions. Harvard-trained, she spent two years as a federal public defender. That makes her the first nominee with significant criminal defense experience since Thurgood Marshall, the first Black American on the court.The American Bar Association has given Jackson its highest rating, unanimously “well qualified”.Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said she was excited to see a Black woman on the verge of a seat.“Representation matters,” Wallace said. “It’s critical to have diverse experience on the bench. It should reflect the rich cultural diversity of this country.”
      The Associated Press contributed to this report
      TopicsKetanji Brown JacksonUS supreme courtUS constitution and civil libertiesLaw (US)RepublicansDemocratsUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Mosquito in a nudist colony’: Republican Ron Johnson targets Fauci and Hunter Biden

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      ‘Mosquito in a nudist colony’: Republican Ron Johnson targets Fauci and Hunter BidenWisconsin senator says if GOP retakes control it will use committees to move against Democrats and Biden Hunter Biden and Anthony Fauci will be prime targets of Senate Republicans should the party win control in November, a senior senator said.Star Trek makes Stacey Abrams president of United Earth – and stokes conservative angerRead moreAsked by the Hill what he would want to investigate should he control a committee with subpoena power, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said: “Like everything? It’s like a mosquito in a nudist colony, it’s a target-rich environment.”Fauci, 81, has served seven presidents as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. He has played a lead role in the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 970,000 in the US. He has become a hate figure on the political right, even leading to threats against his security.Fauci suggested this week he could soon retire, telling ABC News: “I’d love to spend more time with my wife and family. That would really be good.”But high-profile clashes with Republicans including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky have shown Fauci is likely to remain a prime target for GOP attacks.Paul is in line to chair the Senate health committee. In one headline-making clash with Fauci, in July 2021, Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser told the hectoring senator: “You do not know what you are talking about.”Earlier this year, Paul said: “If we win in November, if I’m chairman of a committee, if I have subpoena power, we’ll go after every one of [Fauci’s] records.”Johnson, who has advanced Covid conspiracy theories and advocated unproven treatments, told the Hill: “There’s so much more in terms of what happened with our federal health agencies that we need to explore.”02:49Hunter Biden, 52, is the president’s surviving son. His business activities, particularly regarding Ukraine, have long been a Republican priority. Donald Trump was impeached for the first time for withholding military aid to Kyiv while seeking dirt on the Bidens.A laptop once belonging to Hunter Biden has re-emerged as the subject of scrutiny, particularly after the New York Times this week reported on his tax affairs.In 2020, Johnson played a prominent role in a Republican investigation which counted Hunter Biden among its subjects. Democrats then won two run-offs in Georgia, to control the 50-50 Senate via the vote of the vice-president, Kamala Harris.Johnson will seek a third term in November but faces a tough fight in Wisconsin.“I’d kind of like to wrap that up,” he told the Hill of his investigation of Hunter Biden. “We’ve been trying to get his travel records for a couple of years now.”Other areas of likely Republican attack, the Hill said, included border security and immigration and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.A spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said Republicans were preparing to pursue a “toxic agenda”.Johnson returned to his nudist camp analogy.“I’ll be that mosquito,” he said. “Hard to tell what targets I might pick. They’ll all be juicy.”TopicsRepublicansUS SenateUS CongressUS politicsBiden administrationJoe BidenAnthony FaucinewsReuse this content More

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      Lessons from the Edge review: Marie Yovanovitch roasts Trump on Putin and Ukraine

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      Lessons from the Edge review: Marie Yovanovitch roasts Trump on Putin and Ukraine The former US ambassador’s memoir is timely and telling, as well as a fine story of a life in national serviceFor nearly a month, Vladimir Putin has delivered a daily masterclass in incompetence and brutality. The ex-KGB spymaster and world-class kleptocrat was the guy Donald Trump wanted to be. Just weeks ago, the former president lavished praise on his idol and derided Nato as “not so smart”.Trump thought US troops were in Ukraine in 2017, ex-ambassador says in bookRead moreHow’s that working out, Donald?The world cheers for Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ukraine, his besieged country. Russia’s economy is on its knees, its stock market shuttered, its shelves bare. The rouble is worth less than a penny. The west is not as decadent or as flaccid as the tyrant-in-the-Kremlin and President Bone-Spurs bet.With impeccable timing, Marie Yovanovitch delivers Lessons from the Edge, her memoir. The author is the former US ambassador to Ukraine who Trump fired during his attempt to withhold aid to Kyiv in return for political dirt, an effort that got him impeached. For the first time.Yovanovitch tells a story of an immigrant’s success. But, of course, her short but momentous stint in the last administration receives particular attention.On the page, Yovanovitch berates Trump for “his obsequiousness to Putin”, which she says was a “frequent and continuing cause for concern” among the diplomatic corps. Trump, she writes, saw “Ukraine as a ‘loser’ country, smaller and weaker than Russia”. If only thousands of dead Russian troops could talk.Trump was commander-in-chief but according to Yovanovitch, he didn’t exactly have the best handle on where his soldiers were deployed.At an Oval Office meeting in 2017 with Petro Poroshenko, then president of Ukraine, Trump asked HR McMaster, his national security adviser, if US troops were deployed in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, territory now invoked by Putin as grounds for his invasion.“An affirmative answer to that question would have meant that the United States was in a shooting war with Russia,” Yovanovitch writes.In the moment, she says, she also pondered if it was “better to interpret Trump’s question as suggesting that the commander-in-chief thought it possible that US troops were fighting Russia-led forces, or instead as an indicator that the president wasn’t clear which country was on the other side of the war against Ukraine”.Let that sink in. And remember this. According to Mary Trump, the former president’s niece, Trump mocked his father as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s.Yovanovitch’s parents fled the Nazis, then the Soviets. She was born in Canada and her family moved to the US when she was three. Later she received an offer from Smith, an all-women’s school in Massachusetts, but opted for Princeton. It had gone co-ed less than a decade earlier but Yovanovitch counted on it being more fun.In her memoir, she devotes particular attention to snubs and put-downs endured on account of gender. One of her professors, a European history specialist, announced that he opposed women being admitted. After that, Yovanovitch stayed silent during discussion. It was only after she received an A, she writes, that the professor noticed her and made sure to include her. She really had something to say.Lessons from the Edge also recalls a sex discrimination lawsuit brought in 1976 by Alison Palmer, a retired foreign service officer, against the US Department of State. The case was settled, but only in 1989 and with an acknowledgment of past wrongs by the department.State had “disproportionately given men the good assignments”, Palmer said. Yovanovitch writes: “I felt – and still feel – tremendous gratitude to [her] for fighting for me and so many other women.”Yovanovitch would serve in Moscow and as US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Ukraine. She worked with political appointees and careerists. She offers particular praise for Republicans of an earlier, saner era.She lauds George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, for professionalism and commitment to country. Shultz reminded new ambassadors that “my” country meant the US, not their place of posting. He also viewed diplomacy as a constant effort, as opposed to a spasmodic intervention.Yovanovitch also singles out James Baker, secretary of state to George HW Bush, for helping the president forge a coalition to win the Gulf war.“Department folks found him cold and aloof,” Yovanovitch recalls. “But it was clear immediately that he was a master of diplomacy.”Baker showed flashes of idealism. The US stood for something. As younger men, both Shultz and Baker were marines.In marked contrast, Yovanovitch gives the Trump administration a thumping. She brands Rex Tillerson’s 14-month tenure as secretary of state as “near-disastrous”. As for Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo, Yovanovitch lambasts his “faux swagger” and his refusal to defend her when she came under attack from Trump and his minions.Amid Trump’s first impeachment, over Ukraine, Yovanovitch testified: “The policy process is visibly unravelling … the state department is being hollowed out.”Loyalty to subordinates was not Pompeo’s thing – or Trump’s. “Lick what’s above you, kick what’s below you” – that was more their mantra. True to form, in 2020 Pompeo screamed at a reporter: “Do you think Americans give a fuck about Ukraine?”Two years later, they do. At the same time, Pompeo nurses presidential ambitions. Good luck with that.Yovanovitch rightly places part of the blame for Putin’s invasion on Trump.“He saw Ukraine as a pawn that could be bullied into doing his bidding,” she said in a recent interview. “I think that made a huge impact on Zelenskiy and I think that Putin and other bad actors around the world saw that our president was acting in his own personal interests.”What comes next for the US, Ukraine and Russia? Pressure mounts on the Biden administration to do more for Ukraine – at the risk of nuclear conflict. Congressional Republicans vote against aid to Zelenskiy but demand a more robust US response.Recently, Trump admitted that he was “surprised” by Putin’s “special military operation”. He “thought he was negotiating”, he said. A very stable genius, indeed.
      Lessons from the Edge is published in the US by Mariner Books
      TopicsBooksUS foreign policyUS national securityDonald TrumpTrump impeachment (2019)UkraineEuropereviewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Champion for Alaska’: Don Young, longest-serving House Republican, dies at 88

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      ‘Champion for Alaska’: Don Young, longest-serving House Republican, dies at 88 Republican known for brusque style said he’d had more than 75 bills signed by a president and he was happy every time he could help a constituent Don Young, a blunt-speaking Republican and the longest-serving member of Congress, has died. He was 88.His office announced Young’s death in a statement on Friday night.“It’s with heavy hearts and deep sadness that we announce Congressman Don Young (R-AK), the dean of the House and revered champion for Alaska, passed away today while traveling home to Alaska to be with the state and people that he loved,” said the statement from his spokesperson, Zach Brown. “His beloved wife Anne was by his side.”Young was first elected to the US House in 1973 and was also the longest-serving Republican lawmaker in congressional history. He was known for his brusque style, and in his later years in office, his off-color comments and gaffes sometimes overshadowed his work. During his 2014 reelection bid, he described himself as intense and less-than-perfect but said he wouldn’t stop fighting for Alaska.US government halts Trump-era plan to approve mining road in AlaskaRead moreBorn on June 9, 1933, in Meridian, California, Young grew up on a family farm. He earned a bachelor’s degree in teaching at Chico State College, now known as California State University, Chico, in 1958. He also served in the US Army, according to his official biography.Young came to Alaska in 1959, the same year Alaska became a state, and credited Jack London’s Call of the Wild, which his father used to read to him, for drawing him north. “I can’t stand heat, and I was working on a ranch and I used to dream of some place cold, and no snakes and no poison oak,” Young told the Associated Press in 2016.After leaving the military and after his father’s death, he told his mother he was going to Alaska. She questioned his decision.“I said, ‘I’m going up [to] drive dogs, catch fur and I want to mine gold.’ And I did that,” he said. In Alaska, he met his first wife, Lu, who convinced him to enter politics, which he said was unfortunate in one sense as it sent him to Washington DC, “a place that’s hotter than hell in the summer. And there’s lots of snakes here – two-legged snakes.”In Alaska, Young settled in Fort Yukon, a small community accessible primarily by air at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine rivers in the state’s rugged, harsh interior. He held jobs in areas like construction, trapping and commercial fishing. He was a tug and barge operator who delivered supplies to villages along the Yukon River, and taught fifth grade at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school, according to his biography. With Lu he had two daughters, Joni and Dawn.He was elected mayor of Fort Yukon in 1964 and elected to the state House two years later. He served two terms before winning election to the state senate, where, he said, he was miserable. Lu said he needed to get out of the job, which he resisted, saying he didn’t quit. He recalled that she encouraged him instead to run for US House, saying he’d never win.The uphill battle to resurrect the US child tax credit that lifted millions from poverty Read moreIn 1972, Young was the Republican challenger to Democratic US representative Nick Begich. Three weeks before the election, Begich’s plane disappeared on a flight from Anchorage to Juneau. Alaskans reelected Begich anyway.Begich was declared dead in December 1972 and Young won a close special election in March 1973. He held the seat until 2022, and was running for reelection in November.In 2013, Young became the longest-serving member of Alaska’s congressional delegation, surpassing the late US senator Ted Stevens, who served for 40 years. That year, he also became the longest-serving Republican in the US House.In 2015, nearly six years after Lu Young’s death, and on his 82nd birthday, Young married Anne Garland Walton in a private ceremony in the US Capitol chapel.“Everybody knows Don Young,” he told the AP in 2016. “They may not like Don Young; they may love Don Young. But they all know Don Young.”Young said he wanted his legacy to be one of working for the people. He counted among his career highlights the passage of legislation in his first year in office that allowed for construction of the trans-Alaska pipeline system, which became the state’s economic lifeline. With that successful pipeline fight, “I found a niche in my life where I enjoy working for the people of Alaska and this nation, primarily the people of Alaska,” Young said in 2016, adding later: “I like the House.”During his career, he unapologetically supported earmarks as a way to bring home projects and build up infrastructure in a geographically huge state where communities range from big cities to tiny villages. Critics deemed earmarks as pork.Young branded himself a conservative and won support with voters for his stances on gun and hunting rights and a strong military. He made a career out of railing against “extreme environmentalists” and a federal bureaucracy that he saw as locking up Alaska’s mineral, timber and petroleum resources. He said his word was a “gold bond”.He said he was happy every time he could help a constituent. “And I try to do that every day, and I’m very good at that,” he said in 2016. At that time, he said he’d had 190 of his bills pass the House and had 77 of them signed by a president.Dam it: beavers head north to the Arctic as tundra continues to heat upRead moreHis career was marred by investigations and criticism about his off-the-cuff and often abrasive style.In 2008, Congress asked the Department of Justice to investigate Young’s role in securing a $10m earmark to widen a Florida highway. The matter was dropped in 2010, and Young denied any wrongdoing.In December 2011, the US House ethics committee said it was revising its rules to impose new contribution limits on owners who ran multiple companies following questions raised by the nonpartisan Office of Congressional Ethics about donations made to Young.In 2014, the ethics committee found that Young had violated House rules by using campaign funds for personal trips and accepting improper gifts. Young was told to repay the value of the trips and gifts, totaling about $59,000, and amend financial disclosure statements to include gifts he hadn’t reported. The committee also issued a “letter of reproval”, or rebuke. Young said he regretted the “oversights” and apologized for failing to exercise “due care” in complying with the House’s code of conduct.Fresh off a reelection win in 2020, Young announced he had tested positive for Covid-19, months after he had referred to the coronavirus as the “beer virus” before an audience that included older Alaskans, also saying the media had contributed to hysteria over Covid.He later called Covid, for which he had been hospitalized, serious and encouraged Alaskans to follow guidelines meant to guard against the illness.Despite the controversies, voters kept sending him back to Washington, something Young said he didn’t take for granted.“Alaskans have been generous with their support for me because they know I get the job done,” he said in 2016. “I’ll defend my state to the dying breath, and I will always do that and they know that.”TopicsUS newsRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican hopes to ride far-right rage into Idaho’s governor’s office

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      Republican hopes to ride far-right rage into Idaho’s governor’s office Lieutenant governor Janice McGeachin is building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells supporters is ‘the fight of our lives’As the far right in America seeks to increase its political influence, including by seeking elected office, one figure is emerging as potentially its most powerful figure: Idaho’s lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin.McGeachin is running for governor of the state and building a coalition including white nationalist and far-right militia backing, in what she tells her supporters is “the fight of our lives”.Last month at the America First Political Action Conference, a white nationalist conference, McGeachin praised attendees: “Keep up the good work fighting for our country,” she said in a pre-taped address.“I need fighters all over this country that are willing stand up and fight,” McGeachin continued, urging attendees to push out moderates in the Republican party. “Even when that means fighting amongst our own ranks because there are too many Republicans who do not exhibit the courage that is needed today for us to fight and protect our freedoms and our liberties. We are literally in the fight for our lives.”Three years after attending the the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, the far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes created the white nationalist conference AFPAC in the hopes of branding it a far-right alternative to the more mainstream conservative gathering CPAC. Fuentes is a well-known white nationalist and notorious antisemite who mocks how Jews were murdered in the Holocaust while also denying the Holocaust occurred.McGeachin has a history of giving speeches and mingling at far-right rallies, often riding the wave of the latest rightwing outrage. Last year at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, McGeachin gave a rousing speech at a mask-burning event on the Idaho capitol steps, where children burned masks in front of their parents.The Guardian reported last year on the growing civil war inside the Republican party in Idaho, when McGeachin imposed a ban on masks while the governor was out of state. McGeachin also created a taskforce to look into claims of “indoctrination” in schools in order to project children from “the scourge of Critical Race Theory, socialism, communism and Marxism” according to documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman newspaper.This month McGeachin also jumped on the cause of the trucker convoy protest, speaking at a locally planned convoy rally in Idaho. According to local TV station KTVB about 500 people showed up to protest against Covid-19 mandates, though Idaho has none. McGeachin told the crowd “Sometimes they refer to us as being ‘extreme’ for our views,” before reading out loud a quote from Barry Goldwater defending extremism in pursuit of liberty. “We are a free nation and it is so important that we stand now and continue to fight for that freedom and that liberty that makes this country so great,” she said.McGeachin has also attended a gathering where she was endorsed by a rightwing militia figure whom she had apparently made political promises too. In a video previously obtained by the Guardian Eric Parker – who was charged over his role in the standoff in 2014 at Bundy Ranch in Nevada where he was pictured pointing an assault rifle at federal agents – reminded McGeachin that she once told “if I get in, you’re going to have a friend in the governor’s office”.Experts who follow the far right in the US believe McGeachin represents a serious threat, especially as more militia-affiliated groups have started to enter local government in the US, such as in California’s Shasta county.“From her recent speech at AFPAC, continued embrace of white nationalism and endorsements from prominent antisemitic leaders to her longstanding ties with paramilitaries, it couldn’t be clearer that McGeachin is a danger to the rule of law, Idaho communities and democratic institutions,” said Amy Herzfeld-Copple, deputy director of programs at Western States Strategies, a non-profit that works for inclusive democracy through nonpartisan education and advocacy.A total of 31 faith leaders in Idaho recently signed an open letter calling for McGeachin to resign. Rabbis, reverends, pastors and others of different faiths across the state warned in the letter of the “staggering consequences of ignoring extremism” and describe a “rising tide of antisemitism here in Idaho”.The letter cited recent acts of vandalism including at the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial in Boise. It said: “By associating with alt-right actors and groups like AFPAC in addition to your ties to militia groups that advocate for political violence and harassment in Idaho, you have proven you are not fit to hold elected office, let alone serve a heartbeat away from becoming Idaho’s next governor.”Rabbi Dan Fink of Ahavath Beth Israel in Boise, who co-signed the letter, said in an interview with KTVB that he was courted by McGeachin earlier this year, to help with a campaign against antisemitism.“The dissonance was so extraordinary. I both hurt and at some level, had to laugh because it was surreal,” Fink said in the interview, appalled that McGeachin would share a stage with a Holocaust denier while trying to enlist a rabbi’s help. “That you have the chutzpah to reach out to me and say ‘help me on antisemitism’ while going out and glorying in the presence of antisemites is extraordinary,” Fink said.Herzfeld-Copple said it was not clear how deep McGeachin’s popular support was in Idaho.“McGeachin is a troubling anti-democracy figure in our region seeking to build a national profile with violent and bigoted social movements that increasingly see her as their access to power. But we know these extremists are a minority and Idahoans have routinely rejected those who court white nationalists,” said Herzfeld-Copple.But far-right controversy is never far away from McGeachin and this week she took the highly unusual step of intervening on behalf of a far-right group in a child welfare case involving a 10-month old baby who is the grandson of a campaign consultant for the militia leader Ammon Bundy, founder of the far-right group People’s Rights.The child had been taken away from the parents after officials determined the child was “suffering from severe malnourishment” and in imminent danger. But the Idaho Statesman obtained text messages between McGeachin and Governor Brad Little showing McGeachin seeking to intervene in the case. “Is this true? Call off this medical tyranny tell the hospital to release the baby to his parents,” she wrote.Bundy himself was subsequently arrested this week for trespassing at St Luke’s hospital, where he went to protest with scores of supporters over what he called a “medical kidnapping”.“Nearly every day, McGeachin’s actions become more dangerous. She contradicted pleas from law enforcement and hospital officials and used her government Facebook page to discuss a confidential child welfare case, contributing to a mob of Ammon Bundy supporters that caused a lockdown at Idaho’s largest hospital, compromising delivery of patient and emergency care,” said Herzfeld-Copple.Experts who monitor the far right note that while there is a growing number of far-right legislators at the state and federal level, such as the Arizona state sentator Wendy Rogers, who has admitted to being a member of the Oath Keepers militia, or the Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who spoke at the same white nationalist conference as McGeachin amid chants of support for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.If McGeachin were to win the race and become governor in Idaho it would be a major victory for far-right politics in America.“There are a lot of implications for having someone in the executive branch giving the stamp of approval to far-right paramilitary groups and white nationalists,” said Devin Burghart, executive director of Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights.“In recent years it is unprecedented to see a lieutenant governor doing things like participating in a white nationalist conference or weighing in on a far-right-driven child endangerment issue, we haven’t seen that high a level of support for the far right since the days of the Council of Conservative Citizens, the lineal descendants of the White Citizens Council in the south.” said Burghart.Burghart warned that state politics and far-right extremism in the sparsely populated west of the US is often forgotten in the national political conversation, but it can have major consequences.“What happens out here in the west becomes a model, a testing ground for far-right activism. And what happens out here in the west doesn’t stay in the west, it migrates around the country, said Burghart.TopicsIdahoUS politicsRepublicansThe far rightAntisemitismfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Mug shot: Republican Josh Hawley told to stop using January 6 fist salute photo

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      Mug shot: Republican Josh Hawley told to stop using January 6 fist salute photoThe mug featured prominently on Hawley’s website on Tuesday despite a cease and desist letter issued by Politico The Republican senator Josh Hawley must stop using an infamous picture of him raising his fist to protesters at the US Capitol on January 6 on campaign merchandise, the news site Politico said.Trump accused of campaign finance violations in FEC complaintRead moreThe shot was taken on 6 January 2021 as Hawley, from Missouri, made his way into the Capitol for the certification of electoral college results in Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.Supporters Trump told to “fight like hell” in defense of his lie about electoral fraud attacked the Capitol. The attempt to stop certification failed but Hawley was one of 147 Republicans to lodge objections regardless.A bipartisan Senate report connected seven deaths to the riot. Trump was impeached.12:30PM: Senator Josh Hawley pumps his fist at pro-Trump crowd gathered at the east side of the Capitol before heading into the joint session of Congress. #Jan6NeverAgain #TheBigLie pic.twitter.com/rEFsfLY4x9— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 16, 2021
      In February, Hawley’s campaign started selling $20 mugs featuring the picture, with the caption “Show-Me Strong”, a play on Missouri’s “Show-Me State” nickname.The picture was taken by E&E News, which Politico bought in December. On Monday, Politico said it had sent a cease and desist letter and said: “We do not authorize [the picture’s] use by the Hawley campaign for the purpose of political fundraising, which the campaign has been put on notice of by legal counsel.“We are eagerly awaiting a response, but in the interim again respectfully ask that the campaign immediately cease and desist unauthorized use of the image.”A spokesperson for Hawley said: “We haven’t received any correspondence from Politico or anyone else, but we are in full compliance with the law. Perhaps Politico can show us the correspondence they sent to the many liberal groups who also used the photo.”Politico has allowed the Associated Press to use the photograph for editorial purposes.On Tuesday morning, the mug featured on the front of Hawley’s website.As reported by E&E News, a fundraising email in February said: “Liberals are so easily triggered, and this new mug is really whipping the left into a frenzy!”It also said the mug was “the perfect way to enjoy coffee, tea, or liberal tears! Check it out below, and order one for yourself or any woke friend or family member that you want to trigger!”Hawley told the Huffington Post: “It is not a pro-riot mug. This was not me encouraging rioters.”He also said he was not condoning violence when he raised his fist.“At the time that we were out there,” he said, “folks were gathered peacefully to protest, and they have a right to do that. They do not have a right to assault cops.”Hawley was widely criticised for the gesture, and in the aftermath of the riot saw Simon & Schuster cancel plans to publish his book.Josh Hawley attacks ‘woke capitalism’ and claims to be victim of cancel cultureRead moreIn the book, The Tyranny of Big Tech, Hawley said he had been “branded a ‘seditionist’ and worse. But like many others attacked by the corporations and the left, my real crime was to have challenged the reign of the woke capitalists”.Responding to a Guardian report, he wrote: “Oh dear. I’ve offended the delicate sensibilities of the Guardian! I didn’t get their approval before I wrote my book. Order a copy today and own the libs.”The book was released by a rightwing imprint distributed by Simon & Schuster.As the Guardian reported, according to public financial disclosure records, Hawley turned out to have “invested potentially tens of thousands of dollars in the very companies he denounces”.TopicsUS Capitol attackRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Critics accuse CPAC of becoming pay-to-play as Trump loyalists gain power

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      Critics accuse CPAC of becoming pay-to-play as Trump loyalists gain powerQuestions also arise about possible violations of a lobbying disclosure law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act Conservative influence powerhouse CPAC and the American Conservative Union that sponsors it, face criticism on multiple fronts over financial and other dealings with foreign backers, and charges their gatherings have become pay-to-play affairs with corporate lobbyists as Donald Trump allies gain power and influence.The Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual meeting is a hugely influential date on the conservative calendar and attracts a wide array of power players in the Republican party and broader conservative movement. CPAC’s “straw poll” is seen as a potential predictor of Republican presidential candidates. Last month it was held in Florida where Trump was the star attraction, and won the straw poll by a healthy margin.The growing salvos aimed at CPAC and the ACU have come as the ACU has expanded fundraising operations and become closely linked to Trump and his large loyalist base, say current and former ACU board members.Critics say that in recent years a “pay-to-play” mentality has become pervasive at CPAC events under the leadership of veteran Washington lobbyist and staunch Trump backer Matt Schlapp, who chairs ACU and whose wife Mercedes worked in the Trump White House as director of strategic communications.The ACU board, which numbers about two dozen and tapped Schlapp to lead the group in 2014, has added some new fundraising muscle and corporate lobbyists including the top lobbyist for Comcast, a former client of Cove Strategies, Schlapp’s consulting and lobbying firm.Moreover, a current ACU board member and lobbying experts have raised red flags about CPAC helping host events overseas in Brazil, South Korea, Japan and elsewhere. Meanwhile, CPAC’s US meetings have accepted funding from some foreign entities that have pushed political lobbying messages, spurring questions about possible violations of a lobbying disclosure law known as the Foreign Agents Registration Act (Fara).Some former and current ACU board members say recent changes have caused worry.“They have become just another Beltway organization, no longer the membership organization – with members across America, derived from direct mail and state-based chapters,” said publisher Jameson Campaigne, who served on the ACU board for about four decades until 2016.A conservative activist and longtime CPAC attendee voiced similar concerns and noted that the “pay-to-play” mentality of ACU and CPAC is evident at the annual meetings. “It is obvious from the agenda and the speakers who now dominate the events that it’s much more a pay-to-play conference than a conservative issue driven one,” he saidNot surprisingly, the new modus operandi at CPAC in some ways mirrors the lobbying background of Schlapp, whose firm Cove Strategies thrived during the Trump years but took a hit last year after he left office.In 2020 Cove Strategies raked in almost $2.4m – including $750,000 from a Georgia executive convicted of securities fraud for whom Schlapp tried but failed to obtain a Trump pardon. But last year after Trump left office, Cove’s revenues plummeted to just under $400,000, according to OpenSecrets, a non-partisan lobbying watchdog.ACU veterans say its board has had a makeover in recent years under Schlapp. “Matt changed the board so it’s more business people and fundraisers who can help Matt,” said one ACU alumnus. “It’s changed from a conservative conference to a Trump conference.”The ACU board now boasts some wealthy conservatives such as Bill Walton, the chairman of a private equity firm who also hosts an eponymous talk radio show which has become a staple at CPAC gatherings such as the recent one in Orlando. Walton served on a Treasury transition team for Trump before he took office.Other board members with Trump ties include KT McFarland, who served for a few months as deputy national security adviser at the start of his administration.Schlapp’s fundraising skills include a stint as the top lobbyist for oil giant Koch Industries and seem to have paid off for CPAC and ACU.A series of CPAC overseas gatherings along with more regional CPAC events in recent years in the US, have helped boost ACU revenues.Overall revenues from CPAC events more than quadrupled from $735,000 in the period April 2020 to Jan 2021 to $3.4m from April 2021 to January 2022, according to an ACU board statement that a current board member shared with the Guardian.Nonetheless, a current ACU board member voiced worries that key decisions about the overseas events that CPAC has helped arrange for the last few years are made without adequate board scrutiny.“The board has become more and more ceremonial,” the current board member said. “We don’t even vote to authorize international CPAC events. Because there are so many potential pitfalls to foreign engagement, including accepting foreign funds, these should be board level decisions.”Some overseas events such as one in Brazil in 2019 have raised eyebrows given the far-right tendencies of some key attendees. Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian rightist politician and policeman who is the son of the country’s authoritarian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has also attended a couple of CPAC’s annual events including the latest one in Orlando.But more ominously, a whistleblower complaint was filed last month stating that “there is sufficient evidence of alleged violations to support a federal criminal or civil investigation”.Specifically, the complaint names Schlapp, his wife Mercedes who has been a key figure at CPAC events, ACU, the ACU Foundation, and Schlapp’s lobbying and consulting firm Cove Strategies.The complaint by the whistleblower, which was first reported by Huffington Post and confirmed by the Guardian, came shortly before the latest CPAC event last month where several foreign groups paid in total almost $200,000 to have exhibit space and other perks at the group’s Orlando meeting.Among the foreign groups that paid five-figure sums to participate at the latest CPAC event were CPAC Korea, a conservative European thinktank called New Direction, and CPAC Hungary which seems to have ties to the party of Hungary’s far-right president, Viktor Orbán, and is slated to help host an event in Budapest in May.CPAC’s sponsorship rates suggest that CPAC Korea paid $75,000 and had an exhibit booth to advertise its messages Other benefits included a three-minute video shown from CPAC’s main stage.A CPAC Korea video urged people to sign a petition opposing a House bill to encourage a peace treaty between South and North Korea. CPAC Korea also handed out literature and displayed signs that urged attendees to “End the #fakepeace on the Korean peninsula act – OPPOSE H.R. 3446.”Brett Kappel, a lawyer with Harmon Curran who has handled FAara work, told the Guardian that the activities of CPAC Korea in Orlando “definitely raises red flags about possible Fara violations by the foreign CPAC’s operations in the United States”.The justice department, he added, would want to know “if foreign governments or political parties are funding these groups, or if foreign governments or political parties are directing their lobbying activities.”Craig Holman, an ethics and lobbying expert, raised related concerns about CPAC allowing the foreign group to push its political message. “If CPAC is facilitating Korea’s interest in influencing public policy on American soil, then CPAC is serving as a foreign agent for Korea,” said Holman, a veteran lobbying expert with the liberal group Public Citizen.“CPAC Korea definitely should register,” Holman added. “ If CPAC Korea is run or accountable to CPAC generally, then CPAC should register.”Neither an ACU spokesperson or Schlapp responded to emails requesting comment about the whistleblower complaint, and possible Fara violations at its latest meeting by CPAC Korea.Some of the controversies now plaguing ACU and CPAC are not all that surprising. When Schlapp was elected chairman in 2014, the ACU board member Ned Ryun told Politico he expected Schlapp to make fundraising a priority, and to make CPAC more of a “training ground for activists”, rather than a policy event dominated by big speeches.Still, for some former ACU board members the spate of controversial changes in recent years have sparked dismay. One ex-board member said an old quip by writer Eric Hoffer seemed apt.“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”TopicsCPACRepublicansUS politicsDonald TrumpnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over Ukraine

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      Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over UkraineRob Portman of Ohio urges US and Nato as US intelligence community says creating no-fly zone risks escalation of conflict

      Russia-Ukraine war: latest news
      A senior Republican senator on Sunday urged the US and Nato to “close the skies” over Ukraine, hours after a logistics hub and training base for foreign fighters 11 miles from the Polish border was struck by Russian forces, killing 35.Russia missile strike on Ukraine base close to Polish border kills 35, governor saysRead more“The message coming loud and clear is close the skies,” said Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio on a visit to Poland. “Because the skies are where the bombs are coming, whether it’s the missile attacks or the airplane attacks or with artillery.”The US intelligence community has assessed that any attempt to create a no-fly zone would risk escalation. The US has also turned down a Polish offer to supply jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany.Asked if supplying Ukraine with Russian-made MiG-29s could trigger a third world war, Portman told CNN’s State of the Union he “didn’t know why that would be true”.“The Russians have complained about everything,” he said. “Vladimir Putin has said that the sanctions are an act of war.”Russia, Portman said, “complained when we provided Stingers directly from the US government, which can knock down an airplane and have been successful in doing that at lower altitudes. We have given [Ukraine] helicopters.“… What we have heard directly from the Ukrainians is they want [the jets] badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies in order to give them a fighting chance. So I don’t understand why we’re not doing it.”Portman welcomed an indication from Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, that anti-aircraft systems could be provided. Sullivan repeated Joe Biden’s opposition to the transfer of “offensive” weapons while underlining commitment to supplying “defensive” arms, telling CBS’s Face the Nation the US and allies “believe in our capacity to continue to flow substantial amounts of military assistance, weapons and supplies to the front in Ukraine.“We have been successful in doing so thus far and we believe we have a system in place that will allow us to continue to do so, notwithstanding Russian threats.”Russia claimed the strike on the Yavoriv base was against foreign fighters and weapons. The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, told ABC’s This Week no Americans were at the facility.US film-maker Brent Renaud killed by Russian forces in UkraineRead moreBut Kirby reiterated that the US and allies would “continue to flow and to move and to reposition forces and capabilities along Nato’s eastern flank to make sure that we can defend every inch of Nato territory if we need to.“We’ve made it very clear to Russia that Nato territory will be defended not just by the United States, but by our allies.”Of calls to supply jets or announce a no-fly zone, Kirby said: “We can all understand the kind of escalatory measure that might be perceived as.”The US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, said Russia showed signs of “willingness to have real, serious negotiations”, despite four sets of talks having failed.Sherman told Fox News Sunday the US had been working to “put enormous pressure on Vladimir Putin to try to change his calculus, to end this war, to get a ceasefire in the first instance, to get humanitarian corridors, and to end this invasion”.“That pressure is beginning to have some effect,” Sherman said, though she added: “It appears that Vladimir Putin is intent on destroying Ukraine.”On Saturday, the White House approved an additional $200m of military assistance.“We are determined and the Ukrainians are determined to ensure that anti-tank, anti-armor, anti-air capabilities, ammunition and other forms of assistance actually do make it to the front to blunt the Russian advance,” Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press. “We’re coordinating the efforts of our allies and partners to do the same thing.”Last week, Biden warned of a “severe price” if Russia used chemical or biological weapons. Sullivan said Russian claims about supposed Ukrainian bio-weapons labs signaled that Moscow could be preparing to do so.“When Russia starts accusing other countries of potentially doing something, it’s a good tell that they may be on the cusp of doing it themselves,” he said.“What we’re here to do is to deny them the capacity to have a false flag operation to blame this on the Ukrainians or on us, to take away their pretext and to make the world understand that if chemical weapons are used in Ukraine, it is the Russians who will have used them. And the response will, as the president said, be severe.”Sullivan will meet China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome next week. Sullivan said the US would respond to any attempts to work around western sanctions on Russia.Ukraine mourns its fallen as Zelenskiy says 1,300 soldiers killedRead more“We have made it clear to not just Beijing but every country in the world that if they think that they can basically bail Russia out, they can give Russia a workaround to the sanctions that we’ve imposed, they should have another thing coming because we will ensure that neither China, nor anyone else, can compensate Russia for these losses,” Sullivan told NBC.He declined to lay out what steps the US might take, saying: “We will communicate that privately to China, as we have already done and will continue to do.”Later, in response to reports Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment, the Chinese embassy in the US said China’s top priority was to prevent the situation in Ukraine from getting out of control.The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine have yet to register heavily in US polls. On CNN, Portman deployed a Republican attack line, blaming Biden for not expanding domestic drilling for oil. Biden has countered that US oil companies have not exploited existing permits.A CBS poll found that 77% of Americans across the political spectrum are willing to pay more for gas as a result of sanctions to punish Russia. According to the poll, 69% said economic pain now might be a wise hedge against bigger problems later.Americans largely believe Russia has designs on invading other countries.TopicsBiden administrationRepublicansUS politicsUS foreign policyRussiaUkraineEuropenewsReuse this content More