US midterm elections 2022

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      Can Latino voters help Democrats hold Arizona in crucial Senate race?

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      Can Latino voters help Democrats hold Arizona in crucial Senate race? The economy with high inflation is a major issue for voters, but Latinos are not a monolithic bloc and shifted slightly right in 2020, a factor that could decide the race this timeIn her back pocket Ana Diaz carries a smooth grey pebble she calls her “knock knocker”. She uses it to get a loud rap on the front doors of the South Phoenix neighborhood where she is canvassing for the Democrats ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.It’s 110F (43C) in the early afternoon sun and Diaz is aiming to knock on 80 doors in this largely Latino neighborhood and speak to at least 20 people, encouraging them to vote. Diaz, a Los Angeles-based bartender and Unite Here union member, is a familiar face to many in this working-class area. In her T-shirt that reads WORKER POWER she has been knocking on these doors since 2018.Voters are all talking about the economy. Diaz too worries about inflation, her grocery bill is so high she thinks she may have to stop buying beef. But, for her, the Democrats and good union jobs are the answer. “When we get together, we can make them change,” she said.“Donald Trump called us ‘the crazies.’ Well we kicked him out,” she said as we walked the block, chugging water and looking for shade. Not many people were in. Diaz and her colleagues will be back. “We’re not going to stop,” she said.Joe Biden narrowly won Arizona in the 2020 election, beating Trump with 49.4% of the vote to Trump’s 49.1%. As in neighboring Nevada, campaigners like Diaz who got out the Latino vote were crucial to that victory. It’s going to take every vote this time too for the Democrats to hold the state – where a crucial Senate seat is up for grabs and with it control of Congress.But Democrats enter election season with two major handicaps: the incumbent party historically loses seats in the midterms and the economy – the top issue for voters – is a mess.For the first time since 1980, when Ronald Reagan defeated Jimmy Carter in a landslide, inflation is a major electoral issue. For decades the specter of inflation had seemed vanquished – hovering around 2% in the US. Now the shadow of soaring prices hangs over everything. In Phoenix the inflation rate hit an annual rate of 13% in August, a record for any US city in data going back 20 years. The national average is 8.3%.chartHistory tells us that the economy is usually the deciding factor in US elections. But whose economy? If there is one word that economists are using to describe the current state of the US economy, it is “weird”. Inflation is at a 40-year high and yet unemployment is at a 50-year low. There were more than 10m job openings in July in the US, over one and half jobs for every person currently looking for work. Interest rates are rising sharply, the once white-hot housing market looks like it could fall, loan rates are rising, and yet consumers are still spending.Phoenix maps all the contradictory signals the economy is sending. The city’s long economic boom continues. About 200 new residents have moved there every day in recent years, attracted by a lower cost of living and by businesses moving for less regulation and lower taxes. It’s not enough. The construction industry alone needs to add 265,000 qualified workers. Healthcare, financial services, all are struggling to fill vacancies.That pressure cooker environment has led to soaring rents in the city – up 46% over the year – but still lower than many other US cities. The situation is particularly hard for lower wage workers and long-term residents now competing with more moneyed migrants from nearby California and elsewhere. For many, wages are failing to keep up with the cost of living crisis as inflation pushes up the price of everything from gas and food to construction costs.“As cross currents buffet the Arizona economy, it looks different depending on the lens used to view it,” University of Arizona professor George Hammond wrote in his latest report on the state of the state. Hammond is expecting slower growth in 2022 and 2023, which could help with costs but also cost people their jobs. Over the long term, he expects Arizona’s economy will still outpace the rest of the country.Diaz believes the Democrats are best placed to navigate these strange seas. “People are like ‘I really don’t care who gets in.’ But you should. Your streets need cleaning, you have no lights, your alleys are full of trash, we have a problem with homelessness. If we don’t choose the right people to snake these changes, it’s not going to happen,” she says.In Scottsdale, Phoenix’s affluent neighbor that is rapidly being absorbed by Phoenix’s sprawl, others have different views. “Biden is a nut,” says Jim Baumann, 60, shopping in Whole Food in his orange Harley Davidson T-shirt. “He screwed this up.” The retiree’s grocery bill now averages $300 to $350 a month he says, up from $200 before inflation bit. “I didn’t like Trump’s mouth but he was better than Biden.”Like so many other issues in the US, views on the economy are fractured, filtered by political and personal views and not always in line with today’s party doctrine.Immigration is a major issue for Republicans, and one that has big economic consequences in the area. Kari Lake, the Trump-backed candidate for governor, has said the Central American migrants now entering the US “could be terrorists, they could be murderers and they are most likely hardcore criminals”. Blake Masters, running for Senate, has accused Democrats of being pro-immigration to “change the demographics of our country”. Privately some local, Republican-leaning, business leaders are embarrassed by the rhetoric and see immigration reform as essential to solving their worker shortages. At the same time Latino voters are not a monolithic bloc and shifted slightly right in 2020, a factor that could decide the race this time.Then there is abortion. Few decisions have greater economic consequences than the decision whether or not to have a child. In recent elections Republicans have paid the price for the supreme court’s decision to end the constitutional protection of abortion even in deep red states like Kansas. Last month an Arizona judge revived a highly restrictive law, that dates back to 1864, banning almost all abortions. Polls show the majority of Arizonans (Republicans and independents included) are in favor of keeping abortion legal in the state in most cases.All this complexity is exacerbated by the weirding of the economy. “Strange would be an understatement,” said Greg Ayres, president of Corbins and chief operating officer of Nox Group, construction companies that specialise in water and waste management, data centers and work for the semi conductor industry.Prices have soared for the construction industry, talent is in short supply, wages are rising and pandemic-related supply chain issues are still rippling through and causing delays. “Everything is so volatile,” he said. “Almost every project is over budget.” And yet business is good. His biggest immediate issue is finding enough people for all the projects he has on the go.The company employs 750 people at present, up from 650 before the pandemic. He wouldd like to be at 1,000 within the year. “But it’s really competitive,” Ayres said.To attract workers Corbin has upped its training programs, benefits and wages. Across the street from his office is a cavernous gym, recreation and health center with a full-time trainer on staff, added to attract and retain talent. Salaries are rising too. With overtime, Ayres said, a mid-twenties journeyman could make over $104,000 a year. The company will train up as many competent workers as it can get its hands on, he says.It’s the same story across the Valley of the Sun, said Todd Sanders, president of business lobby group the Greater Phoenix Chamber in 2009. “It’s almost like we are defying the laws of physics,” he said. The area is suffering from high inflation like the rest of the county but companies are still moving there in large numbers, he said. “By and large we are seeing an economy that is still very strong. It’s an interesting time.”For some low-wage workers buffeted by these economic riptides “interesting” doesn’t even begin to describe it.People know Jarvis Johnson in Phoenix. He went viral for his high-octane audition on reality show So You Think You Can Dance and again for his dedication to Black Friday bargain shopping. His friends describe him as a “ball of energy” and an “eternal optimist”. But when I caught up with him between jobs he seemed tired. It’s not surprising.Johnson, 32, has been working three jobs in order to support his wife and his three young children. His day starts at 3.30am at a Covid testing center, at 11am he starts his shift at a senior living center. Often he isn’t home before at 8pm. He also puts in shifts at a local gas station and is hoping to increase his hours there now that the Covid work is tapering off.All of the jobs pay better than Arizona’s minimum wage of $12,80 an hour. The testing job paid $25 an hour during the worst of the pandemic and at one point Johnson was working there 40 hours a week. But even then, his wages were barely keeping up with the cost of living.Two years ago when he moved into his apartment, he was paying $960 a month in rent. Now it’s close to $1,500. Gas prices have fallen in Arizona, as they have across the US, but are still about $4.90 a gallon, up from just over $3 a year ago. The couple have two cars and it costs $160 to fill them. Food is more expensive. His wife could go to work but daycare costs would wipe out her wages. “It’s crazy. Everything has got more expensive,” he said.“It’s hard. It’s hard right now. I’m just trying to keep my head up and not let my kids see I’m struggling,” he said. “I have to work my butt off to make it. I’m getting by but it’s still not enough.”Biden has promised a fairer, more equitable economy. His administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act which will increase taxes on the US’s largest companies and cut prescription drug prices. He’s also pouring money into solar energy and silicon chip production – both of which will benefit Arizonans. But will it be enough to persuade voters he really has a plan to steer them through this strange economic landscape?Johnson says he will vote Democrat but he doesn’t believe either party has the solution. “They can’t do nothing for me, these employers, they need to pay their people,” he says. “People are struggling.”He wants to start his own business, a hot dog food truck. “I think I’d make more money working for myself, to be honest,” he said. At the moment he has about $1,000 saved but it’s not enough and he’s worried that an incident, a broken car or worse, could wipe out his savings. “Anything can happen,” he said.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022ArizonaUS politicsUS economyInflationEconomicsJoe BidenfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Abrams denies accusation she refused to recognize Kemp as winner in 2018

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      Abrams denies accusation she refused to recognize Kemp as winner in 2018‘I acknowledged it repeatedly,’ says Georgia gubernatorial nominee who faces Kemp rematch, but insists voter suppression is an issue Democratic organizer Stacey Abrams on Sunday pushed back on the accusation that she refused to acknowledge Brian Kemp as the winner of Georgia’s 2018 gubernatorial election, the same politician she is once again competing with for the governor’s mansion.On Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream played a 2019 speech in which Abrams said “we won”, but Abrams said the clip was taken out of context.“I acknowledged that Brian Kemp won – I acknowledged it repeatedly in that speech,” she said. “I very clearly say I know I’m not the governor, but what I will not do is allow the lack of nuance in our conversations to dull and obfuscate the challenges faced by our citizens.”Abrams also pushed back on Bream’s claims that voter suppression is not a huge issue in Georgia after the Fox News host pointed to increased voter registration and a decision from a federal court earlier this month dismissing a challenge to the state’s new voting restrictions.“Voter suppression is not about turnout. It’s about the barriers and obstacles to access,” Abrams said. “Voter suppression is when there’s difficulty registering things on the road, being able to cast a ballot and having that ballot counted.”Abrams’s remarks came two days after she told the GOP-friendly Fox News digital that she would welcome both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on the campaign trail as she enters the final stretch of her bid to oust Kemp, a Republican.“Yes. We’ve reached out to – we’ve been in conversations with the Biden administration, and we look forward to having folks from the Biden administration, including the president himself if he can make it,” the former Georgia state house minority leader said.Biden, whose approval rating is at 42.5%, has focused more on fundraising in the lead-up to the midterm elections, and has not yet appeared much at political rallies with candidates. Abrams raised eyebrows earlier this year when she declined to attend a Biden speech in Atlanta focused on voting rights, an issue she has spent her career elevating.Abrams has consistently trailed Kemp in polling in the race ahead of next month’s election, which is one of the most closely watched in the US. The contest is a rematch from 2018, when Abrams lost to Kemp by 55,000 votes but said the race was tainted by voter suppression. It is also seen as the latest test of the influence of Georgia’s growing non-white and Democratic electorate.TopicsGeorgiaUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRepublicansnewsReuse this content More

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      Republican Chuck Grassley vows to vote against a national abortion ban

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      Republican Chuck Grassley vows to vote against a national abortion banThe longest-tenured US senator joins a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to such a restriction The longest-tenured Republican in the US Senate has pledged to vote against a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy which a prominent fellow party member and chamber colleague proposed last month, joining a growing chorus of conservative lawmakers opposed to that idea.Chuck Grassley, who’s been one of Iowa’s senators since 1980 and is seeking an eighth term in his seat during November’s midterms, expressed his opposition to such a ban during a televised debate Thursday night with his Democratic challenger Mike Franken.Anti-abortion Republican man says: I wish women could decide on lawRead more“I would vote ‘no,’” the 89-year-old lawmaker said in the verbal faceoff with Franken, a retired Navy admiral who’s thought to be more than 9 percentage points behind Grassley in the polls, according to the website FiveThirtyEight.Grassley’s remark during the recent debate is by no means an indication that he’s softening an anti-abortion stance that is typical among Republicans. He was among 43 GOP co-sponsors of a federal ban on aborting pregnancies beyond 20 weeks that was pitched last year by Lindsey Graham, the Republican senator from South Carolina.Graham last month introduced a bill aiming to ban abortions after 15 weeks with few exceptions, and just nine Republican senators co-sponsored the measure. Grassley was not among those nine.Graham’s fellow Republicans likely have met Graham’s bill with a cold reception because polling data show many voters disapproved of the US supreme court’s decision in June to eliminate the nationwide abortion rights that had been established by the landmark 1973 case Roe v Wade. In fact, one poll found that as many as 60% of voters support abortion rights in most are all cases.The Hill reported on its website that Grassley may have adopted his position on Graham’s more recently proposed ban out of fear for motivating opposition among Democratic voters in Des Moines and Iowa City, areas that are significantly more liberal than the rest of the strongly conservative state.Donald Trump won Iowa when the Republican captured the Oval Office in 2016 and then lost it to Joe Biden in 2020. The state had gone to Biden’s fellow Democratic president Barack Obama in the previous two elections.During the midterms, the Democrats are trying to preserve their advantage in a Senate that is evenly divided but which they control because of a tiebreaker vote in Biden’s vice-president Kamala Harris.Nonetheless, even if they lose the chamber to the Republicans, the party’s Senate leader Mitch McConnell has said that he doesn’t envision bringing Graham’s 15-week ban up for a vote in 2023. McConnell, of Kentucky, has said he believes each state should determine the legality of abortion in their jurisdiction.Since the supreme court’s controversial abortion ruling in June, the legislatures of 26 states have prohibited, severely limited or were expected to impede access to the termination of pregnancies, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Meanwhile, just 21 American states had laws protecting abortion access.The co-sponsors of Graham’s proposed 15-week ban are Steve Daines of Montana, Marco Rubio of Florida, Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven of North Dakota, John Thune of South Dakota, Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022AbortionRepublicansIowaUS SenateUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Woman tells New York Times that Herschel Walker urged her to have second abortion

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      Woman tells New York Times that Herschel Walker urged her to have second abortionThe Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat has insisted that he does not know the woman’s identity Herschel Walker, the Republican candidate for a Georgia US Senate seat, has maintained he does not know the identity of a woman who claims that in 2009 she terminated a pregnancy that was the result of her and Walker’s relationship.But on Friday, the woman at the center of a political storm that threatens to undo the former Dallas Cowboys running back’s campaign told the New York Times that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later and that their relationship ended when she declined.Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreThe woman, a former girlfriend whom Walker has referred to as “some alleged woman”, said the Senate hopeful backed by former president Donald Trump had scarcely been involved in their son’s life other than child support and gifts.But she offered a perspective on a candidate who has appealed to the state’s social conservatives as an opponent of abortion – even in cases of rape and incest.“As a father, he’s done nothing,” she told the Times, insisting on anonymity to protect her son. “He does exactly what the courts say, and that’s it.“He has to be held responsible, just like the rest of us. And if you’re going to run for office, you need to own your life.”She provided the paper with a $575 receipt from an Atlanta women’s clinic where the 2009 procedure was performed, as well as a check deposit slip showing a copy of a $700 check she claims Walker gave her as reimbursement.But Walker said Thursday on conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show: “I know this is untrue. I know it’s untrue. I know nothing about any woman having an abortion.”Walker’s wife, Julie Blanchard, disclosed to the Daily Beast on Friday that she had been in touch with the woman who had told her it was “cruel” that Walker “continues to claim he doesn’t know me or the abortion he paid for”.“He brought all of this on himself when he decided to get on a platform and denounce abortion and make a mockery of his children who have done NOTHING to deserve this,” the anonymous woman reportedly also said.Blanchard said that “this makes me incredibly sad”, adding that she “witnessed everyday Herschel pray for you and [your son] & everyone in our family”.She told the outlet that Walker calls and texts the 10-year-old child “regularly” and feels “sadness” when he gets no response – to which the woman replied, “Are you kidding me?”The woman has said that Walker has never missed any of his $3,500 monthly child-support payments, but the complex drama has nonetheless focused attention on the Republican candidate that his campaign did not want.Besides his opposition to abortion, he has four children with four different women after openly criticizing absentee dads in the Black community.Walker has disputed that he does not acknowledge his children. “I just chose not to use them as props to win a political campaign,” he said in June. “What parent would want their child involved in garbage, gutter politics like this?”But some criticism has come from close to home. “You’re not a ‘family man’ when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence,” Walker’s adult son and conservative social-media influencer Christian Walker said on Twitter.Herschel Walker responded with his own tweet: “I LOVE my son no matter what.”But the revelations have challenged Walker’s conservative political positions as he faces off with Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock for the US senate seat that could determine control of the evenly divided legislative body.A Fox News poll conducted after reports emerged last week that Walker had paid for the former girlfriend to have an abortion showed Warnock at 47% and Walker at 44%.Warnock’s campaign recently reported having $13.7m in cash on hand.Walker’s campaign said it has more than $7m. Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise said the candidate had his best fundraising days immediately after the abortion revelation, contained in a Daily Beast article on 3 October.Nonetheless, there’s apparently been an atmosphere of chaos in the Walker campaign since the bombshell Daily Beast report. Two days after the report, the campaign cut ties with its political director, Taylor Crowe, CNN reported, citing multiple sources.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022GeorgiaAbortionUS SenateUS politicsReuse this content More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene: can Democrats unseat the far-right extremist?

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene: can Democrats unseat the far-right extremist?Georgia in focus: A Democratic challenger who raised $10.8m is facing an uphill battle against the Maga congresswoman In cowboy hat and square-toed boots, Marcus Flowers steps on to another porch, knocks on another front door and introduces himself as the Democrat trying to unseat congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. But Chip Freeman will take some persuading. He usually votes Republican and admires Greene’s “backbone”.“She puts her foot down and stands on a situation,” says Freeman, 51, a self-employed delivery man and handyman in suburban Rome, Georgia. “Not backbone because she’s accomplished anything but backbone because she’ll stand up face to face with people.”Flowers understands but is not ready to give up. “I’m not one that pulls punches either,” he says. “I’ll talk about what’s important. I’m standing on principle as well. The principle that we are a community and we’re better than the vision of those who have us be divided. There’s no us, and them, there’s only we here.”Freeman takes the candidate’s campaign leaflet and promises to read it. It is a micro victory for Flowers, a 47-year-old African American who, door by door, vote by vote, is attempting to turn back a tide that swept Georgia’s 14th congressional district two years ago.There is no better example of the rise of far-right conspiracy theory politics in the U.S. than Greene, a provocateur who has made racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic statements, signalled support for political violence – including the execution of Democrats – and promoted bizarre claims. One of them is that a Jewish-controlled space laser started a California wildfire.Despite it all, Greene, 48, looks set to retain her northwestern Georgia seat in the House of Representatives against Flowers next month. Her ascent here illustrates the Republican party’s drift to the right, the tendency of primary elections to reward the loudest, wealthiest and Trumpiest candidate and what happens when good men and women do nothing.What are the US midterm elections and who’s running?Read moreThe 14th district sprawls across 11 counties and is mostly blue collar. Three in four people are white and three in four voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Trump signs and Confederate flags can be spotted in rural areas. Despite a wild start to her career in the House of Representatives that saw her ejected from committees for spreading ugly conspiracy theories, many Republicans here intend to stick with Greene.Cookie Wozniak, 77, said: “She’s a fighter. I believe in her, I have a lot of respect for her. She’s a real bulldog and a true patriot. I worry about our country being so divisive and they’re using the race card on everything. People want to destroy our history.”Carla McFarland, 65, an air force veteran and retired nurse practitioner, added: “I have always been impressed from the first that I heard she was running. Nothing has changed my core belief in not only Marjorie Taylor Greene but the Maga [Make America great again] America First thought process.”The district’s biggest city, Rome (population 36,000), was founded in 1834 in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains and named after the Italian capital because it was also built on seven hills. The city played its part for the slave-owning south in the civil war; last year a statue of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest was removed to a local museum that still uses the outdated term “war between the states”.Rome has a pretty main street with Italian, Mexican, sushi and Thai restaurants, baby clothing boutiques, wine bars and a cinema built in 1929 to show the talkies. It is reminiscent of main streets all over small-town America – an ominous sign that what happened here can happen anywhere.The street also features a Republican campaign office in a former furniture shop. A sign in the window says: “Flood the polls! Marjorie Taylor Greene. Save America, stop communism!”But Rome did not produce Greene. She grew up near Atlanta and planned to run for election in the 6th congressional district in Atlanta’s northern suburbs, where her chances would have been slim. When Republican congressman Tom Graves suddenly announced his retirement, however, she switched to the ruby red 14th district in what critics saw as carpetbagging.For local party officials and voters, there should have warning signs flashing red. In 2017, Greene had posted a video praising the QAnon conspiracy movement, which baselessly asserts that Democrats are a cabal of Satan worshippers who traffic children for sex (last year she expressed regret and sought to distance herself from QAnon).A year later, in another video, she asserted that President Barack Obama was Muslim, suggested that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were a hoax and sought to blame Hillary Clinton for the death of John F Kennedy Jr in a 1999 plane crash.Yet in a crowded Republican primary in which she was the only woman, Greene stood out and gained the most votes. She brought “all the authority, anger and everything of a metro Atlanta soccer mom”, recalled one local political observer, who did not wish to be named.Having become wealthy from a construction business and CrossFit gym, she was also able to outspend her rivals. Flowers, her Democratic challenger this time, recalled: “She ran against a field of guys who hadn’t really raised any money and couldn’t do the same things she was doing: just blanket the airwaves, put out a lot of mail. So I look at it as she bought the primary.”There was one more chance for Republicans to stop her. Greene faced a runoff against John Cowan, a neurosurgeon. While a handful of party leaders and conservative groups intervened to endorse Cowan, many remained neutral. Greene earned national support from members of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus, including congressman Jim Jordan, the group’s founder.Wendy Davis, 57, a political consultant and two-term city commissioner, said: “The runoff was basically who loves Trump more? Although the media and some people had dug into this QAnon mess that she was a part of, none of the other Republicans made that an issue in their primary. Nobody had said, ‘She’s a little out there’. Nobody had said, ‘What do you mean September 11 was a fake inside job?’.“Nobody challenged her on that and so she was able to win. If you’ve got eight people saying the same thing, who are you going to pick? You’re going to pick the person who says what you feel like is most authentically. She was very believable. Like I sleep with my dog, I think she sleeps with her gun. She gives you this feeling that gun is very important to her.”Greene won the runoff then beat her Democratic opponent, IT specialist Kevin Van Ausdal, who stopped campaigning early for “personal and family reasons”, by nearly 50 percentage points in the general election. In short, Davis contends, Greene represents the 14th district because of arbitrary circumstance rather than an abrupt outbreak of mass delusion among the electorate.“How we get here wasn’t because everybody around here went QAnon cuckoo. We got here because she loved Trump, she loved guns, she hated socialism, she hated abortion and that won that primary and it’s a Republican district.”Local Republican officials here are said to be privately dismayed by Greene’s antics since she took her seat in Congress, which have included calling for Joe Biden’s impeachment and prison visits to rioters arrested after the January 6 insurrection. Mirroring their national counterparts’ deference to Trump, however, they mostly remain silent in public.As for the people, some turn a blind eye or take little interest in politics. Others are appalled by Greene’s conduct and want to be rid of her.Julie Svardh, 49, an insurance agent, said: “I’m embarrassed to be from her district. She’s a national laughing stock. The things that she says, she doesn’t know basic words. She couples off with the worst people in Washington and is very annoying. She’s not bright and she’s a bully. She’s definitely not somebody you want representing where you live.”How did Greene get elected in the first place? Svardh replied: “People blindly supported Trump in this area and so anyone who supported that person just got lumped in. People didn’t read a lot or really look at the details and see what people stand for.”Like many districts all over the country, a significant chunk of voters here consume a diet of Fox News, the conservative cable network, and social media where conspiracy theories such as QAnon thrive. The daily Rome News-Tribune newspaper, which covers Floyd County, a market of about 100,000 people, now has about 7,000 print and 2,000 digital subscribers – a steep decline from its heyday.John Bailey, 49, its executive editor, shares Davis’s view that the district did not become a hotbed of extremism overnight. “Do you have that? Yes. Is that the minority? I think so. Do you have reasonable people who don’t consume good information? A lot. I’m not saying these are dumb people, I’m just saying their information consumption is habitually bad.“I have friends who are intelligent people but their information consumption habits have been bad for a long time. They don’t intelligently consume media. Top that on decades of ‘those politicians don’t care about us’, top that on ‘the media is looking for an angle’.”Like Trump, Greene taps into white grievance, anger among the “left behind” and desire for an outsider to “drain the swamp” of Washington. Her lack of polish and frequent gaffes – in February she referred to “gazpacho police” when she meant “Gestapo” – merely add to supporters’ perception that she is “one of them” rather than a manufactured politician.Bailey added: “They’re very forgiving of gaffes and other things that they may not like because this person kind of speaks for them. The problem that you’re dealing with is rooted in apathy and rooted in this feeling of not being connected or not being important or not being represented.”Like Trump, Greene exploits a social media ecosystem in which outrageous behaviour aimed at “owning the libs” is rewarded, and breaking taboos offers her followers a vicarious thrill of transgression. This has enabled her to build a national profile and raise money way beyond what a freshman member of Congress could have managed in the pre-digital era. In a recent campaign ad, she is seen flying in a helicopter and shooting a wild hog in Texas while comparing the animals’ destruction of farmers’ crops to Democrats’ destructive policies.Peter Montgomery, a senior fellow at the non-profit group Right Wing Watch, said via email: “In the social media age, someone like Marjorie Taylor Greene can become a folk hero to, and raise money from, extremists from around the country. So she has a national constituency, not just a local one.”Greene remains a prominent Republican figure on Capitol Hill. When Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader, last month unveiled a “Commitment to America” policy agenda at an event near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she could be seen sitting beyond his shoulder in the audience.It was a clue that Greene, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona, all of whom would have been extreme fringe figures in the old Republican party, now find its centre of gravity moving towards them and could wield huge influence over McCarthy if he becomes House speaker. In a sense, they are all Trump’s children.Tara Setmayer, a senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, said: “It’s clear that there is a large contingent of voters in places like Georgia who feel who have felt ignored for a long time, who may have had political views that were not considered mainstream, that were now given a voice because of the extremist and unconventional viewpoints of Donald Trump.“He’s emboldened the underbelly of American politics. We cannot underestimate what the QAnon election-denying, rightwing extremist, white Christian nationalist wing of the Republican party has become and how many people subscribe to this. We should be very alarmed because what they stand for is antithetical to our constitutional and democratic norms and institutions.”Back on the campaign trail last week, Flowers, an army veteran and defence contractor who decided to run for office after the January 6 insurrection, was beating the streets of suburban Rome. Running against Greene has ensured a fundraising windfall of $10.8m from Democratic donors across the country who are disturbed by her rise. Even then, he remains a very long shot.He still has faith in the people of the 14th district: “I get why people think, ‘They voted her in office and that’s got to be who they are’. Why wouldn’t people think that? We did send her to Congress. That ain’t who we are. People were misled, misinformed.“The way she ran that campaign and didn’t have any pushback because no one else could afford to do the same things she did led some people to vote for her. A lot of those people come to me now and say, ‘I voted for her last time but she’s embarrassed us. I’m not voting for her again.’”Trump expected to launch dozens of TV ads boosting Republicans in key racesRead moreFlowers’ last house call of the day was to Jose Herran, 67, whose dogs barked loudly in a scrappy front garden and whose first question was sharp: “Do you believe in killing unborn babies?” But Flowers listened to him patiently and emphasized his career of service and religious faith while describing Greene as an absent voice who has left her own constituents in the lurch.By the end of the lengthy and meandering conversation, which Flowers described as a job interview, Herran had been won over. He told the candidate: “I’d give you the job. If you’re going to take care of veterans, that’s it for me.” Herran added: “You’ve got my vote. You talked me into it.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022GeorgiaUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Help or hindrance? Biden takes a back seat as Trump goes all in on midterms

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      Help or hindrance? Biden takes a back seat as Trump goes all in on midterms The president, beset by low poll ratings, has been focusing on fundraising, while his predecessor swoops in for campaign rallies, whether Republican candidates like it or notRaucous music will be played, bellicose speeches will be given and big lies will be told. Donald Trump will hold his 20th and 21st campaign rallies of the year in Nevada and Arizona this weekend, urging voters to support Republican candidates in the midterm elections.Joe Biden will be relaxing at home in Delaware.What are the US midterm elections and who’s running?Read moreThe 45th and 46th US presidents have always been like chalk and cheese and those differences extend to how they approach next month’s crucial vote to determine control of Congress as well as three dozen state governorships.Trump is pressing on with the travelling circus of mass rallies – featuring merchandise, “Make America great again” (Maga) caps and communal grievance – in small towns or rural areas that have been a hallmark of his political career since 2015.Biden is likely to hold rallies of his own as election day approaches but for now has focused on smaller, more intimate fundraising receptions in conference centres, back gardens or ritzy New York apartments with the help of alcohol and celebrities.Underpinning both is the calculation that, although both Biden, who turns 80 next month, and 76-year-old Trump are the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties respectively, there are plenty of situations in which they might be seen as more of a liability than an asset.“They are both a help and hindrance at different points,” said Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington. “Biden is a help raising money; he’s a hindrance with the broader public at large. Trump is a help with the base voter to help gin them up and turn them out; he is a hindrance with the same sort of voters who turned against him and who Republicans need.”The Axios website reported this week that Biden had flown less for domestic political purposes, and hosted fewer out-of-town fundraisers, than either Trump or former president Barack Obama in their corresponding midterm cycles.The coronavirus pandemic partly explains his slimmer travel schedule. But so too does Biden’s approval rating, which has hovered in the 30s or low 40s all year, meaning that he could be a potential drag on some midterm candidates seeking to focus on issues such as abortion rights rather than inflation and the threat of petrol prices rising again.Tim Ryan, a Democratic congressman running for the Senate in Ohio, a state that Trump won twice, does not appear enthusiastic about Biden coming to stump for him. He told the conservative Fox News channel: “I want to be the face of this campaign. I don’t want any distractions.”Progressives on the left of the Democratic party also have misgivings about joint appearances with a president who campaigned as a moderate and, despite some significant legislative achievements, also has fallen short of some key objectives in their view.Chris Scott, chief political officer of the political action committee Democracy for America – which this week endorsed Senate candidates Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin, Cheri Beasley in North Carolina, Alex Padilla in California and Charles Booker in Kentucky – said: “There are parts, especially even in the midwest, are still very endeared to him but also you have a lot of the base of the party that still wanted to see more done by him and felt like he wasn’t pushing hard enough.“You are not necessarily the best asset for us to put out there in every place with you being a little bit more cautious at times. We’ve been vocal about the Biden administration in that, yes, you’ve accomplished some things but you should have pushed harder. You should have been more proactive versus reactive on some things.”But Scott added: “Him being the top for Democrats is still a much stronger position than everything former president Trump has been in the news for and is going to continue snowballing with. Trump is going to continue to be a liability but nobody in the party can check him. When you’ve created this monster and you wanted him to go so far, and as far as the extremism has gone, it’s hard to put the monster back in the box now.”Trump has inserted himself into the midterms whether Republican candidates and leaders like it or not. Last month the New York Times reported that the former president had invited himself to rally in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Ohio, forcing hopefuls Mehmet Oz and JD Vance to make the best of it.Some candidates, such as Kari Lake and Tudor Dixon, running for governor of Arizona and Michigan respectively, have enthusiastically embraced the ex-president as a way of firing up turnout from the Republican base.John Zogby, an author and pollster, said: “Whereas it may be difficult for many inside-the-Beltway and for dyed-in-the-wool Democrats to to accept, Trump seems to be magical on the stump on behalf of candidates, many of whom, as we’ve seen, are Maga candidates.“These are people that are ready to vote solidly Republican and he brings that out. What it does for independence remains to be seen.”But other Republican candidates have adopted a more traditional approach: adopt extreme positions in the primary election, then pivot to moderation in the general so as not to scare away swing voters. For example, Don Bolduc, running for the Senate in New Hampshire, reversed his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump two days after winning a primary.In these cases, joint campaign appearances with Trump, who is likely to repeat his “big lie” and make other polarising statements, could be politically toxic. But turning him away could risk his wrath and verbal abuse.Bob Shrum, a veteran Democratic election campaign strategist, said: “I don’t think Trump is helping his candidates because he’s going to drive away suburban voters, swing voters, women, but he insists on doing it.“A lot of his candidates, I think, would prefer that he not show up. He did his thing in the primaries and they’d like to pretend in the general that they’re a little different than they were in the primaries.”It looks like a replay of the 2020 presidential election in which Trump barnstormed the country while Biden, mindful of pandemic restrictions, rarely ventured out of his basement and won by 7m votes. This time Biden also has a consuming day job – the presidency – and some believe that he should stay focused on that.Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster and strategist, said: “The best thing that Joe Biden can do for the Democrats is to keep doing his job and laying out the issues and laying out the choice here, which is what he’s doing.“The best thing that Trump could do for his party is to be quiet but what he’s doing is great for the Democrats because he’s constantly talking about himself, Trump Republicans, overturning the election and running for office and that really energises Democrats and unnerves independent women.”Biden is also quietly proving an effective fundraiser. As of 1 October, he had headlined 11 receptions to raise money directly for the Democratic National Committee at venues ranging from mansions in southern California to a yacht club in Portland, Oregon, and bringing in more than $19.6m. On Thursday night he was in New York for a reception for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.Such events play to his strengths with one-on-one interactions. At a fundraiser in the Washington suburbs this summer, Biden first focused his attention on a little girl near the front. “Honey, what’s your name?” he asked a little girl, sitting through what he joked had to be the most “boring” event. “Well, let me tell you something. Is that your daddy? He owes you big for having to sit here.”The fundraisers have also featured celebrities such as the actor Robert De Niro and film-maker Ken Burns and enable Biden to cut loose from the formality of a scripted White House speech.Biden will be hoping that he fares better than Democratic predecessors Bill Clinton and Obama, both of whom have suffered huge losses in their first midterms – though both bounced back to win re-election to the White House two years later. For Trump, also, the stakes are unusually high – sweeping defeats for his endorsed candidates could raise fresh questions about his viability in 2024.Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington, said: “Trump is responsible for the nomination of at least four Senate candidates who will make the difference in control of the Senate. He also knows that if they all go down to defeat this will be a very significant blow to him nationally. So he’s all in.“It’s pretty clear since so many of these people [are] in closely run contests in swing states that, if they lose, establishment Republicans are going to debit it to Mr Trump’s account.”Galston, a former policy adviser to Clinton at the White House, added: “To the extent that the president is not sure that appearing with many of the candidates in closely run contests would be helpful to those candidates, he’s making a wise and humble calculation as to where he could do the most good.“I have the sense that Mr Biden, who is a political professional of the highest order, understands that this can’t be about him, that he has to do what’s useful and not what’s gratifying to one’s ego. The contrast with the other fellow couldn’t be sharper. I’m not sure that that Donald Trump is capable of imagining that he might not be an asset everywhere and, even if he could imagine it, the desire to be in the spotlight would simply override everything else.”TopicsUS midterm elections 2022Joe BidenDonald TrumpUS politicsRepublicansDemocratsfeaturesReuse this content More

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      I wish women could decide abortion law, says Republican man who backs ban

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      I wish women could decide abortion law, says Republican man who backs banCongressman John Curtis of Utah laments lack of women in state legislatures drafting laws – ‘if you’re a woman, it stinks’ Despite his party’s staunch opposition to terminating pregnancies, Congressman John Curtis, a Utah Republican, has raised eyebrows after saying at a debate this week that he wished women could decide whether abortion should be legal.“I wish, as a man, I didn’t have to make this decision,” John Curtis said, referring to how the state legislatures which are now empowered to decide the legality of abortion are dominated by men. “I wish women could make this decision.”Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreCurtis’s remarks came during a debate on Thursday night while seeking re-election as the US House representative for Utah’s third congressional district, a seat he has held since 2017.The non-partisan Cook Political Report considers Curtis to be solidly Republican, representing an area that includes Provo, a city of more than 100,000 people. Nonetheless, at Thursday’s debate hosted by Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, he expressed a position that prompted a reaction of surprise from his Democratic challenger Glen Wright.Curtis alluded to the June ruling by the US supreme court’s conservative majority which eliminated the federal abortion rights which the landmark case Roe v Wade established in 1973. Roe’s reversal made each state’s government responsible for determining if getting an abortion was legal in their jurisdiction.Since the ruling, only 21 American states had laws protecting abortion access, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Meanwhile, 26 states had prohibited, severely limited or were expected to impede access to abortion.Curtis, 62, on Friday acknowledged men held most of the seats in the legislatures determining whether pregnant people could legally obtain abortions in their state and that, “if you’re a woman, it stinks”.“I wish it were other than that,” Curtis added. “I wish, as a man, I didn’t have to make this decision. I wish women could make this decision.”Nonetheless, Curtis made it a point to clarify that he was “unapologetically pro-life”, a label preferred by those who oppose abortion rights.Wright glanced upward and moved his head to the side as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing Curtis say. The vast majority of Republicans and their conservative supporters hailed the supreme court’s decision to eliminate federal abortion rights. The South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, one of the GOP’s pre-eminent figures, even proposed that Republicans push for a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.Republicans were split over Graham’s proposal as November’s midterm elections loomed after some polling has found that as many as 60% of voters support abortion rights in most or all cases.The Democrats are trying to emerge from the midterms with their razor-thin advantages in both congressional chambers still intact.Curtis is not expected to have trouble winning another congressional term in his district, according to the Cook Political Report.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022US politicsRepublicansUtahAbortionnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,’ says White House after Biden’s ‘Armageddon’ warning – as it happened

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      Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would cause “unintended consequences” for Moscow, the White House press secretary said, while noting there’s no evidence yet that president Vladimir Putin intends to use his atomic arsenal.“Russia’s talk of using nuclear weapons is irresponsible, and there’s no way to use to use them without unintended consequences. It cannot happen… We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,” Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One during president Joe Biden’s short flight to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is to speak about the economy.She downplayed the possibility that the first use of a nuclear weapon in war since 1945 was imminent.“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are preparing to use them, but Putin can de-escalate this at any time and there is no reason to escalate.”She did not comment directly on Biden’s prediction last night that Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would cause “Armageddon”.Joe Biden has issued a dire warning about Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and warned that if such weapons are deployed, “armageddon” would follow. The White House said the president’s comments weren’t based on any new intelligence or signs that such an attack might happen soon, but rather an indication of how seriously the administration takes such threats.Here’s what else happened today:
      September was another decent month of job growth, though there were signs of weakness in the US labor market, according to new government data.
      The White House press secretary declined to comment on reports that prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge the president’s son Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a firearm purchase background check and not reporting all his income.
      Biden’s student debt relief plan survived another court challenge.
      Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, fired a top staffer amid revelations Walker paid for an abortion despite his hardline stance against the procedure.
      President Joe Biden has issued a statement of congratulations to the winners of this year’s Nobel Peace prize, which went to rights activists in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.The decision was seen as a repudiation of Russian president Vladimir Putin. Here’s what Biden’s had to say:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}This year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners remind us that, even in dark days of war, in the face of intimidation and oppression, the common human desire for rights and dignity cannot be extinguished. On behalf of the American people, I congratulate Ales Bialiatski of Belarus, Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, and the Russian organization Memorial on this deserved honor. For years, they have tirelessly fought for human rights and fundamental freedoms—including the right to speak freely and criticize openly. They have pursued their mission with passion and persistence. Throughout its history, Memorial has revealed the truth about the abuse of Soviet and Russian citizens, despite intense intimidation. Ales Bialiatski has never backed down from demanding the democratic freedoms the Belarusian people deserve, even while imprisoned. And, in the midst of Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war against Ukraine, the Center for Civil Liberties is documenting in real time the war crimes and atrocities Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people. Above all, the brave souls who do this work have pursued the truth and documented for the world the political repression of their fellow citizens—speaking out, standing up, and staying the course while being threatened by those who seek their silence. In doing so, they have made our world stronger. Ales Bialiatski, the Center for Civil Liberties, and Memorial deserve to be recognized for the work they have done, the example they have set, and the hope they inspire for a better future through their unwavering dedication to fundamental freedoms.Nobel peace prize given to human rights activists in Belarus, Russia and UkraineRead moreIn other Senate news, Marco Rubio, a Republican representing Florida who is up for re-election this year, has found himself in a feud with a drag queen, Coral Murphy Marcos reports:A drag queen called the Florida senator Marco Rubio a bigot, after the Republican included her in a campaign ad in which he attacked “the radical left”.Lil Miss Hot Mess, who performs in Los Angeles, responded to Rubio in a video after he used footage of her reading to children during Drag Queen Story Hour, a children’s program that started in 2015.“I have one question for Marco Rubio,” Lil Miss Hot Mess said in the video released by Glaad, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.“Why are you so obsessed with me and Drag Story Hour? We’re simply out here reading books to children, encouraging them to use their imagination to envision a more just and fabulous world.Drag queen featured in Marco Rubio campaign ad calls him a bigotRead moreHerschel Walker, the Republican senate candidate in Georgia, has fired his campaign’s political director, according to CNN. The decision came after The Daily Beast reported Walker, who backs banning abortion nationwide without exceptions, paid for the abortion of a woman who he later had another child with. The Georgia senate race in which Walker is trying to unseat Democrat Raphael Warnock is seen as crucial to controlling Congress’s upper chamber, but many high-profile Republicans continue to support Walker, despite the revelations.Here’s more from CNN:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The departure of Taylor Crowe, who previously held the same role on ex-GOP Sen. David Perdue’s failed bid for Georgia governor this year, comes just weeks before Election Day in the crucial Senate contest against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock. With an evenly split Senate, Republicans are hoping to flip the Georgia seat as they look to take control of the chamber.
      Two people familiar with the matter said Crowe was fired after suspected leaking to members of the media. It is unclear if there were any other factors at play.
      Walker campaign manager Scott Paradise declined to comment when reached by CNN on Friday. Crowe himself did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
      CNN has not been able to independently verify the allegation against Walker, who has repeatedly denied that he ever paid for an abortion.Republicans throw support behind Herschel Walker after abortion denialRead moreThe White House has hit out at a bill proposed by Republican senators to roll back provisions of an August spending measure that are projected to reduce both the US budget deficit and prescription drug prices for people who receive health insurance through the government.The ability for the Medicare and Medicaid programs to negotiate drug prices was a change long sought by Democrats, and included in the Inflation Reduction Act spending bill Joe Biden signed in August. Yesterday, Republican senators James Lankford and Mike Lee introduced a bill to repeal that ability, arguing it “creates even more barriers to effectively bringing down the cost of prescriptions, particularly for senior adults on Medicare.”Here’s what White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had to say about that:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Today, MAGA Congressional Republicans introduced legislation that puts special interests before working families. Their new bill is a giveaway to big pharma at the expense of seniors by ending Medicare’s new ability to negotiate lower drug prices. Their vision for the country is extreme and out of touch with working families across the country.Julian Borger, our world affairs editor, writes from Washington…The past week has seen a rapid escalation in nuclear rhetoric, beginning with Vladimir Putin’s threat to use “all forces and means” to defend newly seized territory in Ukraine and ending with Joe Biden’s warning of “Armageddon” if Russia crosses the nuclear Rubicon.However, the realities underlying the menacing vocabulary are a far greyer area than the bluster suggests. It is far from certain that Putin would be prepared to be the first leader to use nuclear weapons in wartime since 1945, over his territorial ambitions in Ukraine. If his primary goal is to stay in power, that could be exactly the wrong way of going about it.Even if he did issue the launch order, he has no guarantee it would be carried out. Nor can he be absolutely sure that the weapons and their delivery systems would work.On the US side, despite Joe Biden’s apocalyptic language at a private fundraiser on Thursday night, it is not at all inevitable that Washington would respond to Putin’s nuclear use with nuclear retaliation. Past wargaming suggests there would be vigorous debate within the administration to say the least.Full story:Are Putin’s nuclear threats really likely to lead to Armageddon?Read moreNBC News reports that the Republican Nebraska senator Ben Sasse’s imminent departure from Congress to be president of the University of the Florida, first reported on Thursday, is the result of high-level Republican rivalries.Quoting “a top Republican insider”, NBC says the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, was behind the move, which was meant as one in the eye for Donald Trump.Marc Caputo, an NBC reporter, writes: “In May, Trump said he regretted supporting Ben Sasse. Now, DeSantis’s man at UF has engineered Sasse’s hiring. ‘Everyone knows what this is about: Ron and Don,’ a top Republican insider tells me, echoing others.”As the only Republican who polls even close to Trump, DeSantis is widely thought to be planning a presidential run of his own.There could be another angle to Sasse’s move.Pete Ricketts, the Republican Nebraska governor, will appoint a replacement for Sasse, should he join UF as expected and resign before January, when a new governor will be in place.On Friday, in messages viewed by the Guardian, a Trump insider said the Sasse move was “about Ricketts money to DeSantis. This is what Pete wanted so he can appoint himself to the Senate.”A spokesperson for Ricketts did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Full story:Ben Sasse, Republican who voted to convict Trump, to depart CongressRead moreIn Hagerstown, Maryland, Joe Biden has delivered a long attack on Republican policies on taxation, spending, healthcare, drugs prices and benefits including social security and Medicare. The midterm elections are just a month away, after all. He singles out Paul Gosar, a far-right Arizona Republican who has slammed Biden’s agenda as “socialist” but, Biden says, has asked for federal spending in his district. Biden asks, who’s the socialist there? “I was surprised to see so many socialists in the Republican caucus,” he adds.Biden says: “When it comes to the next Congress, it’s not a referendum. It’s a choice, a choice between two very different ways of looking at the economy.”He repeatedly decries “trickle-down economics”, the notion that tax cuts for the rich will benefit everyone else, so central to the current British government under Liz Truss, of course. Biden also decries Republican election denial, among those who claim he stole the 2020 election from Donald Trump, but says he has “never been more optimistic about America’s prospects”.Raising his voice, he insists there is “nothing, nothing we’ve ever set our mind to that we have not been able to do”.Music, applause … and scene.In Hagerstown, Maryland, Joe Biden has hailed this morning’s jobs numbers.“We’re proving that our best days are ahead of us, not behind us. Just look at today’s jobs report. Our economy created 263,000 jobs last month – that’s 10 million jobs since I’ve come into office. That’s the fastest job growth at any point of any president in American history. Historic progress. “The unemployment rate remains at historic lows: 3.5% unemployment. That includes the lowest unemployment among Hispanic Americans ever in the history of this country, the second-lowest employment among Black teenagers.”The president does adds a nod to expectations of a slowdown in jobs numbers soon: “Our jobs recovery will cool while still powering our recovery.”Our business editor, Dominic Rushe, has more on such concerns:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}According to career services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, it was the fifth month this year that job cuts were higher than the corresponding month in 2021. Challenger also reported a sharp slowdown in hiring intentions, with employers announcing in September that they planned to take on 380,014 workers, the lowest September total since 2011.
      “Some cracks are beginning to appear in the labor market. Hiring is slowing and downsizing events are beginning to occur,” senior vice-president Andrew Challenger said in a statement.
      “The cooling housing market and Fed’s rate hikes are leading to job cuts among mortgage staff at banks and lenders. The recession concerns are leading to increased uncertainty, and companies across sectors are beginning to reassess staffing needs.”US employers added 263,000 new jobs in September as ‘cracks’ appear in labor marketRead moreJoe Biden is now speaking in Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is visiting Volvo Group Powertrain Operations to talk about unions, jobs and other pressing pre-midterms priorities. Of course, a lot of minds are on what he said yesterday in New York, about Russia, the threat of nuclear war and the possibility of “Armageddon”.“I’m a union guy,” he says in Hagerstown, also branding himself the most “pro-union president American history”, dedicated to the “single best workers in the world”.We’ll keep listening, of course.Joe Biden has issued a dire warning about Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, and warned that if such weapons are deployed, “armageddon” would follow. The White House said the president’s comments weren’t based on any new intelligence or signs that such an attack might happen soon, but rather an indication of how seriously the administration takes such threats.Here’s what else is going on today:
      September was another decent month of job growth, though there were signs of weakness in the US labor market, according to new government data.
      The White House press secretary declined to comment on reports that prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge the president’s son Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a firearm purchase background check and not reporting all his income.
      Biden’s student debt relief plan survived another court challenge.
      The White House press secretary had less to say about the reports published yesterday and today revealing that federal investigators believe they have enough evidence to bring charges against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.“This is an ongoing investigation being handled independently by the department of justice so I would refer you to the department of justice,” Karine Jean-Pierre replied when asked about the reports.Republicans have long tried to use the allegations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden to paint the president as corrupt. During his administration, Donald Trump pressured Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate both Joe and Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country to hurt the former’s presidential prospects, leading Democrats to impeach Trump in 2020. Hunter Biden has been under investigation since 2018, and The Washington Post along with CNN and The Wall Street Journal say that prosectors believe they have the evidence to charge Hunter Biden with crimes related to lying on a background check for purchasing a firearm, and for not reporting all of his foreign income. A Trump-appointed US attorney in Delaware will ultimately make a decision on whether or not to bring a case against the president’s son.Biden’s remarks last night weren’t based on any new intelligence, but rather a reinforcement of what Washington officials have been saying publicly in response to Putin’s threats using nuclear weapons, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.“The president… has been a very consistent. He was reinforcing what we have been saying, which is how seriously… we take these threats about nuclear weapons as we have done when the Russians have made these threats throughout the conflict,” Jean-Pierre said aboard Air Force One. “So the kind of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen is no way for the leader of a nuclear-armed state to speak, and that’s what the President was making very clear.”As Biden did in remarks to Democratic donors last night, Jean-Pierre also brought up the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Soviet Union and the United States came perilously close to nuclear conflict in 1962. “If the Cuban missile crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing it,” she said.Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon in Ukraine would cause “unintended consequences” for Moscow, the White House press secretary said, while noting there’s no evidence yet that president Vladimir Putin intends to use his atomic arsenal.“Russia’s talk of using nuclear weapons is irresponsible, and there’s no way to use to use them without unintended consequences. It cannot happen… We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric,” Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One during president Joe Biden’s short flight to Hagerstown, Maryland, where he is to speak about the economy.She downplayed the possibility that the first use of a nuclear weapon in war since 1945 was imminent.“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are preparing to use them, but Putin can de-escalate this at any time and there is no reason to escalate.”She did not comment directly on Biden’s prediction last night that Russia’s use of a nuclear weapon would cause “Armageddon”.Biden isn’t the only leader whose comments about Russia are grabbing headlines today.Here’s Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin wasting no words on how the war in Ukraine should end:Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin was asked about a potential off-ramp for Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Her reply: pic.twitter.com/VblWxkMuFc— Rikhard Husu (@RikhardHusu) October 7, 2022 More