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      Student loan forgiveness: Biden hails plan for ‘generation saddled with unsustainable debt’ – as it happened

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      Declaring “education is a ticket to a better life”, Biden is outlining his plan to relieve student debt in a speech at the White House.“Over time, that ticket has become too expensive for too many Americans. All this means is the entire an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt,” Biden said, speaking alongside education secretary Miguel Cardona. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate you may not have access to middle-class life that the college degree was” meant to provide.President Joe Biden announced his long-awaited plan to provide student loan relief, which he said would allow tens of millions of Americans to “finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt”. Meanwhile, Democrats are celebrating after their candidate prevailed in a politically finicky House district’s special election last night, a sign that the party may be more popular than expected.Here’s more about what happened today:
      A Republican lawmaker who had his phone seized as part of the justice department’s probe into 2020 election meddling by Donald Trump’s allies is suing to stop them from accessing its data.
      The White House decried a Texas court ruling that blocked a requirement hospitals carry out abortions in emergencies.
      Trump appeared to concede that he illegally kept official documents at Mar-a-Lago.
      Biden said that he was not told in advance about the FBI’s search of Trump’s resort.
      Florida Democrats in a very conservative district have chosen a former health worker who was a fierce critic of governor Ron DeSantis’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic as their House candidate, but her chances of victory appear slim.
      Opponents of Biden’s student debt plan have claimed it is unfair to Americans who already paid off their loans. The president was asked about this as he wrapped up his speech at the White House.In his response, he draws a comparison to the business-friendly cuts that exist across America’s tax code:REPORTER: Is this unfair to people who paid their student loans or chose not to take out loans?BIDEN: Is it fair to people who, in fact, do not own multi-billion-dollar businesses if they see one of these guys getting all the tax breaks? Is that fair? What do you think? pic.twitter.com/HA9LzLBMSC— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) August 24, 2022
      As he spoke at the White House, Biden made special mention of how his plan would give racial minorities some relief from their heavy debt loads.“About a third of the borrowers have debt but no degree, the worst of both worlds, debt and no degree. The burden is especially heavy on Black and Hispanic borrowers, who on average have less family wealth to pay for it… they don’t own their homes to borrow against to be able to pay for college. And the pandemic only made things worse,” Biden said.The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) civil rights group has been vocal in encouraging Biden’s student debt relief efforts. NAACP president Derrick Johnson expressed some support for the White House plan, but added it didn’t go as far as the group hoped.A notably supportive statement from the NAACP, which had been extremely critical of Biden on student debt in recent months: pic.twitter.com/LlrF21Xj3N— Andrew Restuccia (@AndrewRestuccia) August 24, 2022
      Biden has concluded his White House address on student loan relief, but as the president was heading out the door, a reporter asked whether he had any advance knowledge of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.“I didn’t have any advance notice,” Biden answered. “None, zero, not one single bit.”The White House has previously said the president was not told ahead of time of the FBI’s plans to search the south Florida property as part of its investigation into the former president’s alleged retention of government secrets.Biden has compared his measure relieving some student debt to his administration’s efforts to revive the economy following the Covid-19 pandemic.“Our approach is why America’s economic recovery … was faster and stronger than any other advanced nation in the world. And now it’s time to address the burden of student debt the same way,” the president said. His administration’s goal is “to provide more breathing room for people so they have less burdened by student debt.”Biden predicted his plan would provide relief to 43 million people, comprised of two groups: those who received a Pell Grant and will be eligible for $20,000 in relief, and those who received other federal student loans and will be eligible for $10,000 in relief. Both groups will need to make under $125,000 a year to qualify, or $250,000 for families. “All this means people can start finally crawl out from under that mountain of debt,” Biden said, predicting the relief would completely cancel the debts of 20 million people.Among his measures, Biden extended the pause on student debt repayments to the end of the year, but has made clear he won’t do that again. “I’m extending to December 31, 2022. And it’s going to end at that time,” he said.Declaring “education is a ticket to a better life”, Biden is outlining his plan to relieve student debt in a speech at the White House.“Over time, that ticket has become too expensive for too many Americans. All this means is the entire an entire generation is now saddled with unsustainable debt,” Biden said, speaking alongside education secretary Miguel Cardona. “The burden is so heavy that even if you graduate you may not have access to middle-class life that the college degree was” meant to provide.Joe Biden is over 15 minutes late to his planned speech on student loan relief, but the White House just released the below video, in which he explains the plan. Perhaps this is what’s been keeping him:.@POTUS breaks down our student debt relief announcement pic.twitter.com/D1yrpii2Hu— Herbie Ziskend (@HerbieZiskend46) August 24, 2022
      President Joe Biden will soon make an address from the White House, where he’ll detail his plan to relieve student loan debt.You can follow along at the live stream at the top of this page. For those just tuning in, here’s a link to the department of education page explaining how the program will work.Earlier today, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the Texas court decision that blocked hospitals from being required to carry out emergency abortions.“Today’s decision is a blow to Texans,” Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “Texas filed this suit to ensure that it can block medical providers from providing life-saving and health-preserving care. Because of this decision, women in Texas may now be denied this vital care – even for conditions like severe hemorrhaging or life-threatening hypertension. It’s wrong, it’s backwards, and women may die as a result. The fight is not over. The President will continue to push to require hospitals to provide life-saving and health-preserving reproductive care.”The Biden administration’s attempt to preserve abortion access in states with governments hostile to the procedure faced a setback in Texas, as Edwin Rios reports:A federal judge in Texas has blocked a Biden administration guidance that required hospitals to provide emergency abortions, even in states like Texas, which prohibits the practice following the supreme court’s overturning of Roe v Wade.The legal effort by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, a stalwart Republican, represents the latest attempt to stop the federal government from influencing the reproductive access landscape in the aftermath of the supreme court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned longstanding constitutional protections on abortion.Such preventions on abortion access could have devastating financial and health consequences on women, especially Black, Latino and Indigenous women who already disproportionately suffer from deaths during childbirth.Texas judge blocks Biden order requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortionsRead more More

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      New York primaries: Nadler beats Maloney in bitter Democratic fight

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      New York primaries: Nadler beats Maloney in bitter Democratic fightHouse judiciary chair declared the winner over House oversight chair in heavyweight bout as gerrymandered map causes upheaval In an unpleasant end to a bitter New York Democratic primary on Tuesday, allies of two powerful House committee chairs traded nasty barbs – before one saw a long career in Congress brought to an untimely end.Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House oversight committee, said her opponent in New York’s 12th district, Jerrold Nadler, was “half-dead”, possibly senile and unlikely to finish his next term in Washington, CNN reported. Allies of Nadler, the judiciary chair, called Maloney “kooky” and “not entirely sober”.Florida: Charlie Crist wins Democratic primary to challenge Ron DeSantisRead moreIn the end, Nadler’s political career remained wholly alive. With nearly 90% of results in when the race was called, he had taken 56% of the vote to 24% for Maloney. A third candidate, Suraj Patel, brought up the rear.Speaking before the vote, Nadler told CNN: “It’s obviously not true that I’m half-dead, it’s obviously not true that I’m senile … Let them flail away.”In his victory speech, Nadler said he and Maloney “have spent much of our adult lives working together to better both New York and our nation. I speak for everyone in this room tonight when I thank her for her decades of service to our city.”Nadler and Maloney, both septuagenarians with 30-year Washington careers, were forced into their undignified fight to stay in Congress by redistricting, after the New York supreme court said Democrats gerrymandered the map.Nadler, 75, was first elected in 1992. As chair of the House judiciary committee, he led both impeachments of Donald Trump. He was buoyed in the last weeks of the primary campaign by endorsements from the New York Times and Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader.He said he would go back to Congress “with a mandate to fight for the causes so many of us know to be right”, including abortion access and climate change.Maloney, 76, also first elected in 1992, is the first woman to chair the House oversight committee. Known for her advocacy for 9/11 first responders seeking compensation for diseases they attribute to contamination from the destruction of the World Trade Center, she once wore a firefighter’s jacket on Capitol Hill and at the 2019 Met Gala.On Tuesday, Maloney said women in politics still face misogyny, something she said she experienced herself in her primary campaign.“I’m really saddened that we no longer have a woman representing Manhattan in Congress,” Maloney said. “It has been a great, great honor and a joy and a privilege to work for you.”Among other New York Democratic contests teed up by district changes, Sean Patrick Maloney, a senior party figure, saw off Alessandra Biaggi, a progressive backed by the congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, by a comfortable margin, 67% to 33% at the point the race was called.Elsewhere, Daniel Goldman, lead counsel in Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, beat Mondaire Jones, one of the first two gay Black men in Congress, and Yuh-Line Niou, another progressive candidate, in a tightly fought race.In the Republican primaries, Carl Paladino – a far-right former candidate for governor who has praised Hitler, made racist remarks about Barack and Michelle Obama and said the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, should be executed – established an early lead over his opponent in a Buffalo-area seat before being reeled in and defeated by Nick Langworthy, chair of the state party.There was also a key special election for Congress, in which Pat Ryan, the Democrat, established an early lead over Marc Molinaro, his Republican challenger in the 19th district. Molinaro made up ground as the night went on – before the race was called for Ryan, 51% to 49%.Ryan will only sit in Congress until the end of the year, as both men will fight other seats in November. But observers were watching closely for clues as to voter intentions less than three months before the midterms.Republicans are favoured to retake the House, as opposition parties often do in the first midterms of a presidential term. But the win for Ryan will be seized upon by national Democratic leaders hoping that recent domestic legislative successes and the excesses of the conservative-dominated supreme court, particularly on abortion, could tilt the midterms contests their way.The New York seat fell vacant when Antonio Delgado, a Democrat, resigned from Congress to become lieutenant governor to Kathy Hochul. Republicans targeted the district as a possible flip, with heavy campaign spending.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022New YorkDemocratsHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Florida: Charlie Crist wins Democratic primary to challenge Ron DeSantis

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      Florida: Charlie Crist wins Democratic primary to challenge Ron DeSantisFormer Republican governor who became a Democratic congressman edges out Nikki Fried to face the Donald Trump protégé in November Charlie Crist will challenge Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, in November after trouncing Nikki Fried, the state agriculture commissioner, in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.Crist, a former Republican governor of Florida who switched parties and became a Democratic congressman, fought a campaign touting his experience in office and opposition to the 15-week abortion ban signed by DeSantis.Florida governor Ron DeSantis attacks media in ‘Top Gun’ campaign adRead moreIn his victory speech in St Petersburg, Crist promised that if elected he will on his first day in office sign an executive order overturing the abortion law.And he pledged to end the White House hopes of “wannabe dictator” DeSantis, who is tipped as a likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. DeSantis has signed a raft of culture war legislation in Florida, attacking LBGTQ+ rights and “woke” corporations.“Our fundamental freedoms are literally on the ballot,” Crist said. “A woman’s right to choose on the ballot. Democracy on the ballot. Your rights as minorities are on this ballot.“That’s what’s at stake in this election, make no mistake about it, because this guy wants to be president of the United States of America and everybody knows it.“However, when we defeat him on 8 November, that show is over.”With fewer than 15% of votes left to count, Crist held a commanding lead over Fried, a progressive and the only statewide elected Democrat currently in office, by roughly 60% to 35%. But turnout, particularly in central Florida, was far below that of four years ago, a lack of enthusiasm among Democrats one of the main fears of party officials.In his final pre-election press conference, Crist said he planned to appear at a “unity rally” with his beaten opponent in south Florida later in the week.Their focus will switch to ousting DeSantis, whom Crist has branded Florida’s “absentee” governor for constantly attacking Joe Biden’s policies and appearing to concentrate on out-of-state fundraising for a national campaign rather than problems at home.“He’s campaigning this last weekend in New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and I think another state, but he’s been doing that for a year, maybe more,” Crist said.“We have issues here the governor ought to be dealing with, the housing crisis, we pay our teachers 48 or 49 of 50 states, that’s embarrassing.“And the fact he already has taken away a woman’s right to choose with the law that he signed, the 15-week law that has no exceptions for rape or incest, is barbaric.”During her campaign, Fried attacked Crist’s Republican roots and perceived flip-flops over abortion, and painted herself as the only candidate capable of beating DeSantis. Crist, who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2010, has the unenviable distinction of losing statewide races as a Republican, Democrat and independent.But he appears to have been more popular with women voters in this primary, and pointed out that, when he was governor 12 years ago, he vetoed an anti-abortion bill.On Tuesday night, Fried told NBC News she would accept if Crist asked her to be his running mate.“I’ve said to Charlie, both tonight and throughout this entire election, that my No 1 priority is making sure that we make Ron DeSantis a one-term governor and not eligible to run for president of the United States in 2024.“Ron DeSantis is our greatest threat to democracy, so I will do everything in my power, including being on Charlie’s ticket, to make sure that happens in November.“What we did here in this election, is we created a movement for women across the state of Florida. We gave inspiration, we gave motivation, and so whatever it takes to make sure that Ron DeSantis is defeated in November – I’m all in.”DeSantis won the 2018 election against the Democratic challenger, Andrew Gillum, by barely 30,000 votes, or 0.4% of 8.2m cast. But toppling him in November will be a formidable task as Florida has trended increasingly Republican in recent years.The incumbent also has a war chest in excess of $100m, far above what Crist has been able to raise. Even so, Crist remains confident he can win on the issues.“Today the people of Florida clearly sent a message,” he said. “They want a governor who cares about them to solve real problems, who preserves our freedom, not a bully who divides us and takes our freedom away.”In another much-watched Democratic primary, Val Demings, a congresswoman and former Orlando police chief, easily secured the nomination to challenge the Republican US senator Marco Rubio in November.Rubio’s seat is one of several targeted by Democrats as they attempt to build a majority in the 50-50 chamber and negate their reliance on Vice-president Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.A competitive and crowded Democratic primary for the House seat Demings vacated went to Maxwell Frost, a 25-year-old progressive endorsed by the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren and Pramila Jayapal, a leading House progressive from Washington state.In a tight Republican primary for another central Florida House seat, the far-right extremist Laura Loomer, a self-declared Islamophobe, election denier and conspiracy theorist, narrowly lost to the incumbent, Dan Webster.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022FloridaDemocratsRon DeSantisRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Donald Trump reportedly kept hundreds of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago – as it happened

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      Despite rules requiring outgoing presidents to turn their materials over to the National Archives, the US government has retrieved more than 300 classified documents from Donald Trump since he left office, beginning with an initial 150 recovered in January, The New York Times reports.The initial release of documents alarmed the justice department, which feared that the former president may have retained secrets that should have been sent to the government after his departure from the White House. It also laid the groundwork for the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort earlier this month, where they turned up even more sensitive materials.Since he left the White House, the report says government record keepers have been concerned about the whereabouts of the several documents from the Trump administration, including a note Barack Obama left his successor, and letters from North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un. Those concerns eventually grew into the national security investigation that led to the FBI’s search. Here’s more from Times’ report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The extent to which such a large number of highly sensitive documents remained at Mar-a-Lago for months, even as the department sought the return of all material that should have been left in government custody when Mr. Trump left office, suggested to officials that the former president or his aides had been cavalier in handling it, not fully forthcoming with investigators, or both.
      The specific nature of the sensitive material that Mr. Trump took from the White House remains unclear. But the 15 boxes Mr. Trump turned over to the archives in January, nearly a year after he left office, included documents from the C.I.A., the National Security Agency and the F.B.I. spanning a variety of topics of national security interest, a person briefed on the matter said.
      Mr. Trump went through the boxes himself in late 2021, according to multiple people briefed on his efforts, before turning them over.
      The highly sensitive nature of some of the material in the boxes prompted archives officials to refer the matter to the Justice Department, which within months had convened a grand jury investigation.
      Aides to Mr. Trump turned over a few dozen additional sensitive documents during a visit to Mar-a-Lago by Justice Department officials in early June. At the conclusion of the search this month, officials left with 26 boxes, including 11 sets of material marked as classified, comprising scores of additional documents. One set had the highest level of classification, top secret/sensitive compartmented information.New details emerged about the federal government’s alarm over the trove of documents Donald Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago, which allegedly included secret materials that were supposed to be in the custody of the National Archives. Meanwhile, voters in New York and Florida are casting ballots in primary elections, which will set the stage for showdowns in the November midterms.Here’s a rundown of today’s events:
      Two men were found guilty for plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
      The Republican senator in charge of winning the party a majority in Congress’ upper chamber went on vacation even as GOP candidates appeared to be struggling in key races nationwide.
      The January 6 committee interviewed Trump’s former national security adviser, according to a report.
      In Colorado, a Republican state senator left the party for the Democrats, saying he couldn’t abide by its stance on climate change or its embrace of 2020 election denial.
      He may be a rival of Trump but fellow Republican and Florida governor Ron DeSantis joined in on attacking the FBI for searching the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort. He also released an advertisement attacking the news media.
      The Internal Revenue Service is launching a safety review after Republicans attacked the agency during their campaign to derail the Biden administration’s plan for lowering healthcare costs and carbon emissions, the Washington Post reports.The plan, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act and signed into law earlier this month after winning passage in the Democrat-controlled Congress, also allocates $80bn to the IRS over the next 10 years. The tax authority has complained of underfunding, but Republicans seized on the infusion of money to claim that armed agents would soon be going through Americans’ bank accounts. In reality, it’s not yet clear how the funds will be used, and only a minority of the IRS’s employees carry weapons, chiefly those involved in criminal investigations.“We see what’s out there in terms of social media. Our workforce is concerned about their safety,” IRS commissioner Charles Rettig told the Post in an interview. “The comments being made are extremely disrespectful to the agency, to the employees and to the country.” Union officials in the story also say employees are worried about their safety amid the rightwing attacks.Here’s more from the Post’s report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}In a letter to employees sent Tuesday, he wrote that the agency would conduct risk assessments for each of the IRS’s 600 facilities, and evaluate whether to increase security patrols along building exteriors, boost designations for restricted areas, examine security around entrances and assess exterior lighting. It will be the agency’s first such review since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, which killed 168 people.
      “For me this is personal,” Rettig wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Post. “I’ll continue to make every effort to dispel any lingering misperceptions about our work. And I will continue to advocate for your safety in every venue where I have an audience. You go above and beyond every single day, and I am honored to work with each of you.”Armed … auditors? The IRS becomes the latest target of GOP misinformationRead moreThe United States will as soon as Wednesday unveil $3bn in additional military aid for Ukraine intended to help it withstand a longer conflict with Russia, the Associated Press reports.The funds will bring Washington’s total military assistance to the country to $10.6bn since Biden took office, and pay for new weaponry that Ukraine will take longer to get to the battlefield.Here’s more from the AP:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Unlike most previous packages, the new funding is largely aimed at helping Ukraine secure its medium- to long-term defense posture, according to officials familiar with the matter. Earlier shipments, most of them done under Presidential Drawdown Authority, have focused on Ukraine’s more immediate needs for weapons and ammunition and involved materiel that the Pentagon already has in stock that can be shipped in short order.
      In addition to providing longer-term assistance that Ukraine can use for potential future defense needs, the new package is intended to reassure Ukrainian officials that the United States intends to keep up its support, regardless of the day-to-day back and forth of the conflict, the officials said.
      NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted the more extended focus Tuesday as he reaffirmed the alliance’s support for the conflict-torn country.
      “Winter is coming, and it will be hard, and what we see now is a grinding war of attrition. This is a battle of wills, and a battle of logistics. Therefore we must sustain our support for Ukraine for the long term, so that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation,” Stoltenberg said, speaking at a virtual conference about Crimea, organized by Ukraine.Florida senator Rick Scott is the man charged with leading the Republican party’s campaign to win a majority in the chamber, but Axios is reporting today that he’s on vacation in Italy amid mounting signs that GOP candidates are struggling in key races nationwide.That news of the senator’s whereabouts leaked shows just how upset GOP lawmakers are with Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The party’s candidates are struggling in states where they shouldn’t. Consider the situation in Ohio, which has increasingly trended towards the GOP in recent years but where a Republican Super Pac just spent $28m to support JD Vance’s flagging Senate campaign.The Senate’s Republican leader Mitch McConnell has also taken to repeating that if he has a majority in the chamber next year, he expects it will be slim – not exactly a sign of confidence in the party’s chances.“If House Republicans coast to victory while Senate Republicans fail to pick up the one seat necessary to win a majority, Scott is poised to be the GOP’s fall guy. It would be a rare setback for the Florida politician, who has beaten long odds before and boasts an undefeated record in his own campaigns,” as Axios puts it.Last week, Florida governor Ron DeSantis traveled to Ohio to campaign for JD Vance, the Republican candidate for the state’s open Senate seat. Journalists obviously wanted to attend, but there was a catch. In fact, there was more than one.The organizers of the event, Trump-aligned Turning Point Action, put in place a host of restrictions affecting who reporters could talk to and where they could do it. They also required them to share any video shot during the event for promotional use.Normally, the Cleveland Plain Dealer would send its reporters to this sort of event, but in a strongly worded editorial, the newspaper’s editor Chris Quinn pointed to the rules and said none of his reporters would attend. He also warned voters about what DeSantis and Vance’s apparent acceptance of these restrictions said about their approach to press freedom:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely presidential candidate in 2024, scheduled a trip to Ohio Friday to stump for Senate candidate J.D. Vance, and our reporters were not there because of ridiculous restrictions that DeSantis and Vance placed on anyone covering the event.
      The worst of the rules was one prohibiting reporters from interviewing attendees not first approved by the organizers of the event for DeSantis and Vance. When we cover events, we talk to anyone we wish. It’s America, after all, the land of free speech. At least that’s America as it exists today. Maybe not the America that would exist under DeSantis and Vance.
      Think about what they were doing here. They were staging an event to rally people to vote for Vance while instituting the kinds of policies you’d see in a fascist regime. A wannabe U.S. Senator, and maybe a wannabe president.
      Another over-the-top rule was one reserving the right to receive copies of any video shot of the event for promotional use. That’s never okay. News agencies are independent of the political process. We do not provide our work product to anyone for promotional use. To do so would put us in league with people we cover, destroying our credibility.
      Yet another of the rules reserved the right to know in what manner any footage of the event would be used. We are news people. We use footage on news platforms. But this rule set up a situation in which reporters could be grilled on their intentions.
      I’m scratching my head over one other rule, one that prohibited reporters from entering the hotel rooms of any attendees of the event. If someone invites a reporter into a hotel room for an interview, what’s the harm?
      Anyway, we didn’t accept the limitations, because they end up skewing the facts. If we can speak only with attendees chosen by the candidate, we don’t get a true accounting of what people thought of the event. You get spin from the most ardent supporters.The January 6 committee hasn’t held a hearing in a month and Congress is on recess, but NBC News has details of what their investigators are up to.The panel has interviewed Robert O’Brien, Donald Trump’s national security adviser for the final part of his term, including when the Capitol was attacked:SCOOP: The Jan 6 committee interviewed former national security adviser Robert O’Brien TODAY, 2 sources familiar with the panel’s work confirmed to @NBCNewsThe interview was scheduled for 11:00AM remotely W/ @alivitali— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotnbc) August 23, 2022
      The January 6 committee has said it will resume public hearings in September.Speaking of Ron DeSantis, Gloria Oladipo reports that the Florida governor has released a new advertisement attacking the news media:Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday released a campaign advertisement drawing on the movie franchise Top Gun to attack the news media.The ad is the latest stunt by DeSantis to promote far-right talking points before Tuesday’s statewide primary and a possible future run for the Oval Office in 2024.In the parody, posted to Twitter, DeSantis wears a bomber jacket similar to outfits worn by the Top Gun star Tom Cruise in the franchise’s two films and discusses “taking on the corporate media” in an airbase.“The rules of engagement are as follows: number one – don’t fire unless fired upon, but when they fire, you fire back with overwhelming force,” DeSantis says in the video. “Number two – never ever back down from a fight. Number three – don’t accept their narrative.”Florida governor Ron DeSantis attacks media in ‘Top Gun’ campaign adRead moreWhen they choose their governorship candidate, Florida Democrats will find a familiar name on their ballots: Charlie Crist. A former Republican governor turned Democrat who is now a House representative, he could become the party’s choice to take on Ron DeSantis. Crist spoke with the Guardian’s Oliver Laughland ahead of the vote:Charlie Crist exuded a smooth confidence as he bounded into the room, a conference hall at a teachers union building in downtown Tampa, Florida, earlier this month.He may be facing a primary election to be the Democratic candidate in the next gubernatorial election, but Crist’s focus seems already set on the general in November – and the far-right Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, he hopes to unseat.“He’s the most arrogant governor I’ve ever seen in my life,” Crist said to the assembled teachers who nodded in agreement. “It is shocking, it really is. Enough is enough.”As primary voters in the state cast their ballots today, polls forecast that Crist, a Florida political mainstay, is likely to win by a substantial margin against his closest Democratic opponent, the state’s agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried.‘He’s a wannabe dictator’: Democrat has DeSantis in his sights in Florida primaryRead moreDemocratic voters in part of New York City today will be asked to choose a House representative from two ageing lawmakers who have become fierce rivals, as well as a young challenger.CNN has published a well-done look at the contenders in the district representing Manhattan’s upper east and west sides. Carolyn Maloney is the chair of the House oversight committee but, as the network found out, apparently doesn’t appreciate oversight from reporters:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Maloney has dodged questions about her comments and her aides have refused to give almost any information about her whereabouts in the closing days of the campaign, arguing that she changes her mind too much to keep track of her. When a CNN reporter tracked her down on Monday at a campaign stop on the Upper West Side to ask her about her comments, she began running down the sidewalk to a waiting car, while one of her daughters repeatedly positioned herself with her hands and legs out in an attempt to block any further questions.Maloney has lately been in the news for comments suggesting Joe Biden won’t run for a second term. The lawmaker has also leveled several attacks against Jerry Nadler, chair of the House judiciary committee, who is seen as her chief rival for the seat:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Maloney has told people privately that Nadler is “half dead” and insinuated he won’t be healthy enough to finish another term if he wins, and people associated with her campaign have suggested that Nadler secretly briefly lost consciousness at a campaign stop last week. (His campaign has said that rather than losing consciousness, he tripped on a subway grate.) She’s also urged voters to read a New York Post editorial that called Nadler “senile” and questioned his grip on reality.She didn’t want to answer questions about that, either:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}When asked why she called Nadler “half dead,” Maloney closed the door of the car and waved goodbye. An hour earlier, finishing her only announced campaign stop of the day before the primary, she also closed the door when another reporter asked if she thinks Nadler is senile.CNN reports that, for a New Yorker, Nadler is running a remarkably low-key campaign:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Nadler has not been seen much lately – he had a single public event on Monday, his first since Saturday morning, which is a remarkably sparse schedule for a dense urban district where standing on a street corner can mean meeting dozens of voters in just a few minutes. He’s developed some trouble walking over the years due to arthritis, and he’s been spotted appearing to fall asleep. Commentators noted his lethargic performance at one of the candidate debates.
      On Monday, Nadler stood in suspenders in front of the famous Fairway supermarket, in the heart of the Upper West Side, handing out campaign flyers and somewhat sheepishly trying to get shoppers’ attention, saying, “Hi, I’m Congressman Nadler,” to each.The third Democrat in the race is Suraj Patel, who has twice challenged Maloney unsuccessfully, and at 38 years old, presents quite a contrast to the two sitting representatives, who are both in their 70s. Here’s what he has to say:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}“The time is different. People feel like the status quo in Washington is broken. And what I’ve learned over the course of the race is people feel like the status quo in New York is broken,” Patel said Sunday afternoon, sipping a beer at a standing table in the Chelsea neighborhood between a full day of campaign stops. “It’s given us the license to both be the serious campaign with policy positions for the future, but also to be the light at the end of the tunnel.”Whitmer responds to guilty verdicts in kidnap plotMichigan governor Gretchen Whitmer has responded to the guilty verdicts for two men now convicted of a kidnapping plot against her.She said: “I ran for office because I love my fellow Michiganders and my home state with all my heart. I always will. I will not let extremists get in the way of the work we do. They will never break my unwavering faith in the goodness and decency of our people.”And added: “Today’s verdicts prove that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable. They will not succeed. But we must also take a hard look at the status of our politics.”Kristi Noem in ethics fightSouth Dakota governor Kristi Noem is often touted as a rising star of the Republican party as a staunch Trumpist who governs her huge and rural state with a firm rightwing hand.But she has some serious ethics issues to deal with, the Associated Press reports.The AP says: “A South Dakota ethics board on Monday said it found sufficient information that Gov. Kristi Noem may have “engaged in misconduct” when she intervened in her daughter’s application for a real estate appraiser license, and it referred a separate complaint over her state airplane use to the state’s attorney general for investigation.”In a possibly worrying development for Noem (a close ally of Trump sometimes touted as his potential running mate if a 2024 bid emerges) the agency adds: “The three retired judges on the Government Accountability Board determined that “appropriate action” could be taken against Noem for her role in her daughter’s appraiser licensure, though it didn’t specify the action.”More details follow: “The AP first reported that the governor took a hands-on role in a state agency soon after it had moved to deny her daughter’s application for an appraiser license in 2020. Noem had called a meeting with her daughter, the labor secretary and the then-director of the appraiser certification program where a plan was discussed to give the governor’s daughter, Kassidy Peters, another chance to show she could meet federal standards in her appraiser work.”Trump portrait at Smithsonian funded by own PacPolitico reports that Donald Trump’s presidential portrait at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC will be mostly funded by his own Super Pac – a situation unique in the annals of the institution.The news website says:“The $650,000 donation last month from the Save America PAC – an organization controlled by Trump himself – was unprecedented, as no other political action committee has funded a presidential portrait in the past, Smithsonian spokesperson Linda St Thomas said.”It adds:“The Smithsonian has been raising money for commissions of outgoing presidential portraits since George H.W. Bush’s portrait. All presidential portraits in the National Portrait Gallery were paid for by private money through the museum, St Thomas said.”Student loan announcement now imminentAn announcement on forgiving some student loan debt appears to be set for Wednesday, according to the Washington Post political team.Earlier the paper had reported there was a White House “feud” over the issue, saying: “The White House’s close allies are feuding over whether the administration should cancel up to $10,000 in student debt for millions of American borrowers.”It added: “Internal White House discussions have centered on temporarily extending that pause and simultaneously canceling $10,000 per borrower for those below an income threshold, but the president has not yet communicated a decision, according to two people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect private conversations. Another person familiar with the talks said $10,000 is among the options being considered.”But according to a tweet from WashPo reporter Jeff Stein, Biden has now made his mind up. Stein says: “UPDATE: President Biden’s long-awaited student loan announcement IS coming tomorrow, ppl tell me & @DaniDougPost Parameters TBD but WH has been looking at $10K in cancelation per borrower under $125K/yr”New details emerged about the federal government’s alarm over the trove of documents Donald Trump apparently kept at Mar-a-Lago, which allegedly included secret materials that were supposed to be in the custody of the National Archives. Meanwhile, voters in New York and Florida are casting ballots in primary elections that will set the stage for general election showdowns in the November midterms.Here’s a rundown of the day’s events:
      Two men were found guilty for plotting to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020.
      In Colorado, a Republican state senator left the party for the Democrats, saying he couldn’t abide by its stance on climate change or its embrace of 2020 election denial.
      He may be a rival of Trump but fellow Republican and Florida governor Ron DeSantis joined in on attacking the FBI for searching the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
      Ron DeSantis may be a possible contender against Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, but that hasn’t stopped him from joining in on criticizing the FBI for its search of Mar-a-Lago.He was on Fox News claiming that the bureau has become politicized, but declined to say whether he’d spoken to Trump recently:Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) baselessly attacks the FBI as the “enforcement arm of one particular faction of our country” after the lawful search of Mar-a-Lago:“I haven’t read the motion in terms of what was going on, but clearly federal agencies … have been weaponized.” pic.twitter.com/jsP1Ot2MZF— The Recount (@therecount) August 23, 2022
      A jury has found two men guilty of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, according to the Associated Press.Here’s more from their report:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The jury also found Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr. guilty of conspiring to obtain a weapon of mass destruction, namely a bomb to blow up a bridge and stymie police if the kidnapping could be pulled off at Whitmer’s vacation home.
      Croft, 46, a trucker from Bear, Delaware, was also convicted of another explosives charge.
      It was the second trial for the pair after a jury in April couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Two other men were acquitted and two more pleaded guilty and testified for prosecutors.
      The result was a victory for the government following the shocking mixed outcome last spring.
      “You can’t just strap on an AR-15 and body armor and go snatch the governor,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler told jurors.
      “But that wasn’t the defendants’ ultimate goal,” Kessler said. “They wanted to set off a second American civil war, a second American Revolution, something that they call the boogaloo. And they wanted to do it for a long time before they settled on Gov. Whitmer.”
      The investigation began when Army veteran Dan Chappel joined a Michigan paramilitary group and became alarmed when he heard talk about killing police. He agreed to become an FBI informant and spent summer 2020 getting close to Fox and others, secretly recording conversations and participating in drills at “shoot houses” in Wisconsin and Michigan.
      The FBI turned it into a major domestic terrorism case with two more informants and two undercover agents embedded in the group.
      Fox, Croft and others, accompanied by the government operatives, traveled to northern Michigan to see Whitmer’s vacation home at night and a bridge that could be destroyed.
      Defense attorneys tried to put the FBI on trial, repeatedly emphasizing through cross-examination of witnesses and during closing remarks that federal players were present at every crucial event and had entrapped the men.
      Fox and Croft, they said, were “big talkers” who liked to smoke marijuana and were guilty of nothing but exercising their right to say vile things about Whitmer and government. More

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      ‘He’s a wannabe dictator’: Democrat has DeSantis in his sights in Florida primary

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      ‘He’s a wannabe dictator’: Democrat has DeSantis in his sights in Florida primaryCharlie Crist, a former Republican, is campaigning for governor by warning about the dangers of Ron DeSantis and the far right Charlie Crist exuded a smooth confidence as he bounded into the room, a conference hall at a teachers union building in downtown Tampa, Florida, earlier this month.He may be facing a primary election to be the Democratic candidate in the next gubernatorial election, but Crist’s focus seems already set on the general in November – and the far-right Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, he hopes to unseat.“He’s the most arrogant governor I’ve ever seen in my life,” Crist said to the assembled teachers who nodded in agreement. “It is shocking, it really is. Enough is enough.”As primary voters in the state cast their ballots today, polls forecast that Crist, a Florida political mainstay, is likely to win by a substantial margin against his closest Democratic opponent, the state’s agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried.The 66-year-old has run the gamut of political office in the state, from Republican governor and attorney general, to an incumbent Democratic congressman. Crist memorably joined the Democratic party in 2012, citing an extremist takeover of the Republican party.Now a political centrist and one of the first in Congress to endorse Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy in 2020, he finds himself increasingly taken aback at the state of his former party.“The leadership of today’s Republican party is gone. There is no leadership,” he said. “It’s lurching from one culture war to another, attacking the LGBTQ community, attacking African American voters, attacking women and the right to choose.”A day before Crist sat down with the Guardian, DeSantis suspended and effectively fired a Democratic prosecutor in the state for refusing to enforce Florida’s new abortion law that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The move was described as extremist overreach of executive power, and Crist, a mild-mannered man who chooses his words carefully, compared DeSantis to a dictator.“I’m not one to use those sort of strong words, unless they’re true. And in this case, it’s true,” Crist said. “We need to realize what this guy is doing. He wants to be president of the United States, and he’s using Florida as his proving ground to do it.“He’s a barbaric, wannabe dictator.”DeSantis is widely believed to be considering a run for the 2024 presidency, and has fundraised over $160m since 2019. Meanwhile, his tenure has ushered in a wave of extreme rightwing legislation in the state – from laws drastically limiting the discussion of gender and sexual identity in classrooms, to banning the teaching of critical race theory to a sweeping voter suppression law.DeSantis’s tenure and Donald Trump’s 2020 election victory in Florida, in which he increased his margin from 2016 – point to an increasing lurch to the right in Florida, which has long been viewed as America’s most significant swing state.No Democratic presidential candidate has won Florida since 2012, leading many observers to argue the state is losing its purple status – a term that signifies a swing state, one that can move from Republican to Democrat, and vice versa.Crist, predictably, argues the opposite, pointing to the election which saw DeSantis take the governor’s mansion in 2018 on a razor-thin 0.4 margin.But whatever the state’s current political disposition, whoever receives the nod to face DeSantis in November is likely to endure a ferocious election cycle. Although Crist’s status as a veteran Florida political operator seems likely to win him the party’s nomination, it has also been used by Fried as a tool to attack.In particular, Fried characterizes his record on abortion as inconsistent, pointing to his appointment of three state supreme court judges who are set to rule on Florida’s new law. Crist appointed the state’s chief justice, a formerly anti-abortion politician named Charles Canady, and acknowledges it’s a decision he will regret if the law is upheld.When asked why a candidate who has already occupied the governor’s mansion once as a Republican, who has been such a familiar face for so long, could stand a chance of success against a rising star of the Republican party, Crist reverts to values.“I think we need relief, and a better future. My parents raised me the way they did, and I’m offering that decency to my state,” he said. “I know that most Floridians are good, decent people.”TopicsUS politicsFloridaUS midterm elections 2022newsReuse this content More

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      Colorado Republican turns Democrat over ‘existential threat’ from GOP

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      Colorado Republican turns Democrat over ‘existential threat’ from GOPIn letter announcing defection, state senator Kevin Priola cites political and environmental threat from his erstwhile party Announcing his switch to the Democrats, a Colorado state senator said Republican attacks on democracy were not the only “existential threat” posed by his former party.Jared Polis becomes first sitting governor to marry in same-sex weddingRead more“I have become increasingly worried about our planet and the climate crisis we are facing,” Kevin Priola said, in a letter posted to social media on Monday.“The Republican party I joined decades ago created national parks, preserved federal lands and protected wildlife. President Nixon signed the legislation that created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Today, my Republican colleagues would rather deny the existence of human-caused climate change than take action.”Priola said such inaction would affect Coloradans already subject to “a near year-round wildfire season” and “a seemingly never-ending drought”.Republican attempts to block “reasonable climate measures”, meant he could not stay silent, he said.Priola was last elected in 2020, when he won a narrow race in the 25th senate district, in the Denver suburbs. He is due to serve until 2025.Once a Republican bastion, Colorado has been trending left. Democrats already control the state senate, by 20-15 before Priola’s switch.In his letter, Priola discussed dissatisfaction with the direction of the Republican party under Donald Trump, the former president who refuses to accept his defeat in 2020 while indicating he will run again in two years’ time.“Like many Coloradans,” Priola wrote, “I watched the events on January 6 [2021] with horror. I felt that clearly this would be the last straw and that my party would now finally distance itself from Donald Trump and the political environment he created.“Week after week and month after month, I waited for that response. It never came.”Priola commended “brave and honorable” Republicans who stood against Trump after the Capitol attack, including the Utah senator Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, the Wyoming congresswoman who last week lost her primary after taking a leading role on the House January 6 committee.“Fear-mongering to raise money or motivate voters is nothing new,” Priola wrote, “but it has been taken to a dangerous and destabilising level.“I cannot continue to be part of a political party that is OK with a violent attempt to overturn a free and fair election and continues to peddle claims that the 2020 election was stolen.”Priola said he became a Republican thanks to the examples of Richard Nixon – the only president to resign in disgrace – and Ronald Reagan, but would now caucus with Democrats despite not sharing many of their positions.“Our affiliations have become too tribal,” he wrote. “I’ve always been an independent thinker and … I don’t plan to change that. I do not believe either party has a monopoly on the truth.“For instance, my pro-life position, school choice [support] and pro-second amendment stance often run counter to the Democratic party platform.”But, he said, looking towards November elections in which Republicans on the national stage will seek to take back Congress, “we are in the midst of an election that will determine which party controls the [Colorado] senate chamber.“Even if there continue to be issues that I disagree with the Democratic party on, there is too much at stake right now for Republicans to be in charge.”Saying he had decided to “align with truth over conspiracy”, Priola concluded: “We need Democrats in charge because our planet and our democracy depend on it.”TopicsColoradoRepublicansDemocratsUS politicsUS midterm elections 2022US domestic policynewsReuse this content More

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      Florida voters head to primary polls as Democrats look to break losing streak

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      Florida voters head to primary polls as Democrats look to break losing streakLong considered a swing state, Republicans have a considerable edge heading into this election season Florida voters will head to the polls on Tuesday to determine which candidates will have the chance to face off in this November’s general election. Voters will cast ballots in races for the governorship and Congress, all the way down to circuit courts and local school boards.Democrats are competing to run against the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and US senator Marco Rubio, both of whom are considered potential Republican presidential candidates for 2024. On the House side, a new congressional map drawn by DeSantis is expected to give Republicans a hefty advantage in the November midterms.Although Florida has long been considered a swing state, Republicans have a considerable edge heading into this election season. Republicans last year overtook Democrats in Florida’s voter registration rolls. And Donald Trump carried the state by three points in the 2020 presidential race, although Joe Biden defeated him in the electoral college while also winning the national popular vote by four points.Since then, DeSantis has approved new voting restrictions to limit access to voting by mail and ballot drop boxes in Florida, sparking allegations from the justice department of racial discrimination. Those methods were more likely to be used by Biden supporters in 2020 than voting at a polling place on election day, according to the Pew Research Center.With the new House map in place, Republicans are expected to win 20 of Florida’s 28 congressional seats, up from the party’s current control of 16 of the state’s 27 seats. The state’s additional House seat resulted from the latest round of redistricting.Republicans’ severe gerrymandering, which will severely curtail Black political power in Florida, has made many of the state’s congressional races a foregone conclusion this fall. Not a single one of Florida’s House races is considered a toss-up for the general election, according to the Cook Political Report. That means that the winners of the Tuesday primaries are very likely to be elected to Congress this fall.The anticlimactic forecast for Florida’s House races has many election watchers turning their attention to statewide races. All eyes will be on Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, with Charlie Crist, a Democratic congressman and former governor, running against Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner.Crist and Fried have attacked DeSantis over his aggressive approach to culture war issues in Florida, which may preview the governor’s 2024 presidential campaign. Just this month, DeSantis drew a lawsuit from a state prosecutor whom the governor suspended after the attorney said he would not enforce a 15-week abortion ban.DeSantis last week also announced charges against 20 people for illegally voting, a move meant to highlight the work of a new office aimed at uncovering voter fraud. The governor provided few details about the charges, and voting rights advocates have denounced the arrests as voter intimidation.“Quite frankly, he is anti-democracy,” Crist told MSNBC on Sunday. “I am a Democrat running to protect democracy, to protect a woman’s right to choose, and I’m running against an autocrat who wants to be dictator of America.”But DeSantis is not backing away from his far-right agenda, instead choosing to double down on the political strategy. DeSantis has issued endorsements in dozens of non-partisan school board races, and he has campaigned alongside candidates who have backed his calls for more “parents’ rights” in the classroom.DeSantis has made education a central part of his platform after signing multiple laws aimed at limiting what can be taught to Florida children. Earlier this year, DeSantis signed a bill restricting the discussion of race and racism in the classroom and the workplace. DeSantis in March approved a bill forbidding instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for students in kindergarten through third grade, a measure that has been attacked by critics as a “don’t say gay” law. More recently, DeSantis put his signature on a bill requiring students be taught about the “victims of communism” each November.Despite those controversial policies, DeSantis heads into the general election with a clear advantage over his Democratic challengers. DeSantis has amassed a campaign war chest of more than $100m, and he has consistently led his potential opponents in recent polls.Florida’s Senate race has provided Democrats with more optimism, as Rubio – a former and potentially future Republican presidential candidate – seeks a third term in office. Congresswoman Val Demings has led the pack of Democratic candidates seeking to defeat Rubio, and polls indicate she may have an opportunity to do so.A University of North Florida poll taken this month found that Demings had the support of 48% of likely general election voters, compared with 44% for Rubio.But Democrats know to take nothing for granted because they have previously been on the losing end of heartbreakingly close races in Florida. The state proved to be an exception to Democrats’ “wave” of victories in 2018, when the incumbent senator Bill Nelson and gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum were both narrowly defeated by their Republican opponents.Tuesday could provide some key clues as to whether Democrats will finally be able to break their Florida losing streak.TopicsFloridaUS midterm elections 2022US politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘The world flipped upside down’: Will end of Roe galvanize Democrats’ base in midterms?

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      ‘The world flipped upside down’: Will end of Roe galvanize Democrats’ base in midterms? Democrats believe that signs of a brewing backlash after the loss of reproduction choice will reshape the battle for control of Congress and and statehouses this fallFor years, Democrats warned that abortion rights were under grave threat. Across the US, antiabortion activists in red states chipped away at access and pushed for conservative judges to secure their gains. Yet for many Americans, the prospect of losing the constitutional right to abortion that had existed since 1973 remained worrying but remote.That all changed in June, when in Dobbs v Jackson, the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, the 49-year-old ruling which had established the right.Since then, bans have taken effect in at least 10 states. Republicans are rushing ahead with new restrictions and stirring fears that other rights, including same-sex marriage and access to contraception, could be vulnerable too.And yet, from rural Minnesota to ruby red Kansas and a conservative corner of Nebraska, there are signs of a brewing backlash that Democrats believe will reshape the battle for control of Congress and statehouses this fall.Republicans are “the dog that caught the bus”, said Cecile Richards, a former head of Planned Parenthood. “This is what they’ve been wanting for years. Now they own it.”White House officials, Democratic candidates and party strategists say the loss of reproductive choice has not only galvanized their once-disillusioned base but is strengthening Democrats’ appeal among independent and Republican-leaning women in suburbs who were key to the party’s recent victories.The landslide vote to protect abortion rights in conservative Kansas earlier this month further emboldened Democrats – and emphasized that Republicans risk overreaching on one of the most emotionally charged issues in American life.“The world just completely flipped upside down after the Dobbs decision,” said Richards, now co-chair at American Bridge 21st Century, a liberal super Pac. “We’re no longer defending a right. We now actually have to fight to get a right back.”‘A top-tier issue’Republicans doubt abortion will be a decisive factor in a midterm election shaped by anxiety over high gas prices and inflation and an unpopular Democratic president.“Every public and private poll shows inflation and the economy are the top issues headed into the midterms,” said Mike Berg, a spokesman for the Republican National Congressional Committee. “Democrats are desperate to talk about anything else because they have a disastrous record on both of those issues.”But Democrats are forging ahead, lashing Republicans over their uncompromising stances and sometimes bizarre rhetoric on abortion.Underscoring their confidence in the salience of abortion this election cycle, Democrats are spending heavily on television ads on the subject. One particularly searing ad from Stacey Abrams, the nominee for governor in Georgia, features a somber montage of women warning that women could be “criminalized” for seeking abortions if Brian Kemp, the Republican governor, is re-elected.“The only way to stop this attack on the women of Georgia,” the women say, “is to stop Brian Kemp.”Many of their ads aim to use Republicans’ words against them, as part of a broader effort by Democrats to cast the GOP as too extreme.In Michigan, where voters may decide to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution in November, the Democratic Governors Association launched an ad attacking the Republican nominee, Tudor Dixon, over her opposition to abortion, without exception for rape or incest.In a similar vein, an ad from the the Democratic nominee for governor in Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, features his far-right opponent, Doug Mastriano, saying “I don’t give a way for exceptions”, including when the life of the mother is at risk. Polling has shown that most Americans support at least some abortion rights. According to the Pew Research Center, around 60% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases while just 8% say it should be illegal with no exceptions.The aggressive messaging from Democrats is a reminder of how rapidly the politics of abortion have shifted.Molly Murphy, a Democratic pollster and strategist who has studied public opinion on abortion, said: “Six months ago, if you asked voters, ‘What’s the top priority that you want elected leaders to focus on,’ abortion might get 3%, 4%, 5% at most. Now it really is a top-tier issue, only behind inflation and the economy.”Murphy said anti-abortion’s resounding defeat in the Kansas referendum showed voters were motivated by the opportunity “to stop something bad from happening”. To channel that fury, she said, Democrats must convince voters Republicans are not just opposed to abortion but a threat to it.Some Democrats are adopting Republican language about government overreach on issues like masking to accuse their opponents of infringing on individual rights and freedoms when it comes to women’s reproductive health. It is all part of a broader strategy to cast Republicans as extremists determined to strip Americans of a right they have come to rely.The pitch is similar to Democrats’ messaging in 2018, when they stormed to victory in the House after lashing Republicans over attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, said Camille Rivera, a Democratic strategist.“As we learned with Obamacare, once you have a right, you don’t want really don’t want that right taken away,” she said.Another key question for this November is just how much abortion rights will resonate among independent women in battleground suburbs who have deep concerns about the economy. Sarah Longwell, a moderate Republican strategist, said abortion was usually not the first issue raised in focus groups with swing voters. But when prompted, the discussion around abortion often became personal.“The thing that happens when you start talking to a group of women about abortion is they immediately start telling stories about complications and the things that can go wrong during a pregnancy,” she said in a recent interview.What is clear, Longwell said, is that women, even those who call themselves “pro-life”, are “deeply uncomfortable with the idea of getting between women and their doctors on decisions that could put their lives at risk”.‘We are living it’Republicans are largely shying away from the issue on the campaign trail. With total bans proving deeply unpopular, some candidates are softening their rhetoric, emphasizing support for exceptions and for the health and well-being of women. In Nevada, a battleground state, the Republican candidate for Senate, Adam Laxalt, has argued that his personal opposition to abortion would not change protections already in place.“My views have not shifted the policy in Nevada, nor has the ruling in the Dobbs case,” Laxalt wrote earlier this month. “Voters in 1990 determined that Nevada is and will remain a pro-choice state.”But the issue is hard to ignore. Harrowing stories have spread. A 10-year-old girl who was raped had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion. Weeks later, Indiana became the first state in the post-Roe era to adopt a near-total ban. This week, a judge in Florida told a 16-year-old she was not “not sufficiently mature” to decide whether to have an abortion.“We are no longer speaking about this as a hypothetical,” Murphy said. “We are living it.”Among Kansans who registered to vote in the wake of the Dobbs ruling, Democrats held an eight-point advantage, according to data from TargetSmart. Among those newly registered voters, 70% were women.Elsewhere, in a pair of post-Roe special House elections, Democrats outperformed expectations, boosted by strong turnout in suburban areas.In Minnesota’s first district, the Democrat lost by just four points. Donald Trump won there by more than 10 in 2020. The trend was more pronounced in a June election in Nebraska’s first district. Two years ago, Trump won there by nearly 15 points. This year, the Republican won by six.Analysts caution against drawing firm conclusions from such a small sampling. Republicans only need to win a handful of seats to gain control of the House, as they are favored to do, while the 50-50 Senate remains agenuine toss-up.A special election in New York on Tuesday may offer more clues. In the most competitive House race since Roe fell, the Democrat, Pat Ryan, has made abortion central to his campaign. The Republican, Marc Molinaro, has focused on the economy and inflation.Urging New Yorkers to vote, Ryan said “choice” and “freedom” were both “on the ballot”.TopicsUS midterm elections 2022Roe v WadeUS politicsAbortionHealthDemocratsfeaturesReuse this content More