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      America, how long will you sacrifice your children on the altar of gun worship? | Jonathan Freedland

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      America, how long will you sacrifice your children on the altar of gun worship?Jonathan FreedlandThis devotion to the right to bear arms is horrifyingly outdated. It brought terror to Texas – and it will happen again and again America’s great appeal to the world was its promise of possibility. It presented itself as virgin territory, a tabula rasa where a society could form anew, free of the past, and where individuals might do the same, reinventing themselves, renewing themselves, starting over. It was a myth, of course: it took no account of those people who were already there, and whose lives and lands were taken, or of those who had been brought to America in shackles. But it was a powerful myth all the same, one whose grip on the global imagination lives on: witness the success of the stage show Hamilton in seducing yet another generation into the romance of a new world and its revolutionary creation.But now we see something else: a country uniquely burdened with the dead weight of its past, and therefore powerless either to deal with a danger in its present or to make a better future. The land of possibility stands paralysed, apparently unable to make even the smallest change that might save the lives of its young.The evidence came again this week in the Texan town of Uvalde, where an 18-year-old walked into an elementary school and killed 19 children, aged between eight and 10, and two of their teachers. It was the 27th school shooting in the US this year, and it’s not yet June.There are so many stats like that. In the US, 109 people die of gun violence every day. There have been more mass shootings in the US in 2022 than days of the year. There are more guns in America than there are people. It was Uvalde this week, but last week it was Buffalo, where another 18-year-old walked into a supermarket and killed 10: his animus was directed at black people rather than children, but his method was the same.Each time, the satirists at the Onion bring out the same headline: “‘No way to prevent this,’ says only nation where this regularly happens”. The joke gets at something critical and curiously un-American: a debilitating form of fatalism.After Uvalde, I spoke to several seasoned Washington hands, asking if the horror of this latest massacre might at last prompt action. No, was the reply. Of course, each side makes the same ritual moves. Democrats deliver stirring, even heartbreaking speeches. Republicans then accuse Democrats of “politicising” tragedy, preferring instead to offer “thoughts and prayers” to the victims, before suggesting every possible remedy except the obvious one: this week we had Republican senator Ted Cruz of Texas demand an end to the menace of unlocked back doors in schools. Not one of them will so much as entertain the idea of, you know, making it a tiny bit harder for a disturbed teenager to get hold of a military grade assault weapon.The easy explanation for this refusal to act is money, specifically the cash put in the hands of pro-gun politicians by the National Rifle Association (whose annual convention, addressed by Donald Trump, is going ahead this weekend in Houston, Texas, with the massacre in Uvalde deemed no reason to reschedule). But that is too pat. The NRA has been weakened by a slew of recent scandals, yet Republican politicians still refuse to pass even the mildest gun safety measures. The glum truth is that it’s not a lobby organisation that has a hold on them so much as pro-gun voters, who have concluded that if a politician dares suggest, say, the massively popular move of requiring universal background checks – looking for a record of instability or past violence – before selling someone an AR-15, they have taken the first step towards government confiscation of citizens’ guns.That, of course, is seen as an unconscionable violation of the constitution’s second amendment, which enshrines the right to bear arms. Never mind that no Democrat is advocating anything like the action Britain or Australia took after mass shootings, all but banning guns, and never mind that it’s hard to believe that the framers of the constitution were intent on allowing unhinged teenagers access to weapons that could kill en masse and in seconds. That slippery slope argument, combined with the sacred status accorded to the second amendment and the constitution itself, has immobilised Republican politicians.Their opposition matters because they have far more say than the number of votes that they win might suggest. Under the US system, every state gets two senators, no matter how many or how few people live in that state. It means mainly white, mainly rural states with few voters – but strong views on guns – exercise an effective veto on more populous, more diverse, more urban states, whose tens of millions of voters are desperate for gun safety measures. That’s why even the modest proposals that followed the Sandy Hook school massacre of 2012 died in the Senate. And that’s why so many feel fatalistic about the prospects of change, resigning themselves to another massacre and then another.Some try to keep the fatalism at bay, insisting that with the NRA weak, now is the time to strike. They propose a march on Washington of a million parents and their children. Or a consumer push to demand the Republicans’ corporate donors withhold their cash until the party acts on guns. Or maybe even international pressure, with foreign leaders raising gun violence with their US counterparts the way they’d raise human rights abuses when meeting representatives of China. The US Senate banned assault weapons back in 1994 (before allowing the ban to expire a decade later): if they did it once, they can do it again.But those defiant voices are in the minority. Most believe that the state of America’s politics has condemned the US to suffer a fate the rest of the democratic world has avoided. Beyond the mortal threat that represents to Americans, that despair, that sense that political effort is futile and that change is impossible, endangers US democracy and the country’s very sense of self.That it arises out of the constitution – its second amendment and its design of the Senate – is a bitter irony. The whole point of the American revolution enshrined in that document was to forge a society that could make the world anew, able to adapt to the present unbound by the strictures of the past. In the words of the great English-born revolutionary Thomas Paine, who argued that circumstances always changed from one generation to the next: “As government is for the living, and not for the dead, it is the living only that has any right in it.” Today’s America is sacrificing the living in the name of the dead of two centuries ago. It is betraying its founding ideal. It is offering up its young to placate ghosts from a time long gone.
      Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist
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      Texas school shooting overshadows primaries: Politics Weekly America – podcast

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      The killing of at least 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in the town of Uvalde on Tuesday has reignited the gun control debate in the US. Jonathan Freedland speaks to the chief correspondent for the Washington Post, Dan Balz, about why, after yet another tragedy involving firearms, the Republican party is still unwilling to talk gun reform

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know

      Archive: CNN, NBC, Channel 4 Listen to the Guardian’s Weekend podcast Listen to Today in Focus Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

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      Texas officials deflect questions on ‘missing hour’ when gunman was in school – latest updates

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      A briefing Thursday afternoon by the Texas Department of Public Safety created more questions than answers about a “missing” hour during which the Uvalde gunman was in the school but not confronted by law enforcement officers.Victor Escalon, the department’s regional director, deflected reporters’ questions about why officers did not attempt to stop the gunman in that time.During the short, and sometimes chaotic briefing, Escalon appeared defensive when challenged about the delay. Parents of victims have expressed distress at the apparent hesitation of law enforcement to storm the school, and some begged officers to move in.“There’s lot of possibilities,” Escalon said, insisting that investigators needed time to interview officers from multiple jurisdictions who were eventually present.“At the end of the day our job is to report the facts. We don’t have all the answers. We’re not there yet”.But in laying out a preliminary timeline of the shooting, he did indicate that the gunman appeared to have been able to gain entry to the school through an unlocked back door, and that, contrary to earlier reports, there was no armed police officer on duty at the campus when the shooter walked in and began Tuesday’s deadly rampage that killed 19 students and two teachers.“The majority of the gunfire was in the beginning,” Escalon said, adding that officers first on the scene prioritized calling for back up and trying to evacuate students and children. “He did not respond [to officers trying to speak to him],” Escalon said.Escalon ended the briefing by promising to get back to the media when he had more information to give.‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shootingRead moreWe have more details on Joe Garcia, who died of an apparent heart attack two days after the Robb elementary school gunman killed his wife, 46-year-old Irma Garcia, a teacher who was sheltering with her students. Guadalupe “Joe” Garcia – the husband of 46-year-old Irma Garcia, who was shot and killed while sheltering children in her classroom – died two days after the mass killing that shattered his family, a cousin of his wife confirmed on a verified GoFundMe page.The Garcias had been together for more than 30 years. They were high school sweethearts before marrying and having four children, the cousin, Debra Austin, wrote.“I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life … was too much to bear,” Austin wrote.The Garcias’ nephew, John Martinez, said via Twitter that the couple’s children – ages 13, 15, 19 and 23 – had now lost both parents.Irma Garcia taught fourth grade at Robb. On her profile on the school’s website, she wrote that she and Joe, 48, enjoyed barbecuing, listening to music, and vacationing at the nearby community of Concan, which sits along Texas’ Frio River.The couple’s first child – one of two boys – was completing boot camp with the Marines, and their second, another son, was attending Texas State University, according to the profile. The two youngest children, both daughters, are a high school sophomore and a seventh grader.Husband of teacher killed in Texas school shooting dies of heart attackRead moreA dispatch from the Guardian’s Dani Anguiano who is reporting from Uvalde: The tears started before anyone even spoke. Inside a Uvalde county building that usually hosts the rodeo in this part of south-west Texas, young children and parents cried and held each other. Together, they waited for a group of pastors to offer some words of comfort for their unfathomable loss.This week in Uvalde began with a mood of celebration. The high school graduation was to be held on Friday – giant senior portraits lined the lawn outside city hall. Younger children were wrapping up the school year as well, attending classroom parties and awards ceremonies. But on Tuesday, life in this largely Latino town was upended when a gunman barricaded himself in an elementary school classroom and slaughtered 19 children and two teachers.With all schools in the district cancelled for the remainder of the year and the town mourning for those it lost, hundreds of people came to a vigil at the Uvalde County Fairplex arena on Wednesday. There, pastors, seated on a stage on the dirt normally reserved for horses, tried to offer solace to their community.“Pray for those children that saw what happened to their friends … pray for each of us as we help them,” said Pastor Tony Grubin, feeling nervous as he addressed the crowd of adults and children, many of them wearing red school shirts. “Evil will not win.”‘Evil will not win’: sorrow and disbelief as Uvalde mourns its childrenRead moreThe AP has more details on Jacklyn Cazares, a nine-year-old girl who was killed in the shooting alongside her cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Jacklyn Cazares hadn’t yet reached her 10th birthday, but she was already a tough-minded “firecracker” always looking to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb elementary school.
      “They are all gone now,” Javier Cazares said. “All her little best friends were killed too.”
      Jacklyn would have turned ten on 10 June. Despite her young age, she was equal parts tough-minded and compassionate.
      “She had a voice,” her father said. “She didn’t like bullies, she didn’t like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart.”More about the victims here: ‘He was just a loving little boy’: the victims of the Texas school shootingRead moreAs criticisms mount over the police response to the massacre, one mother who was outside of the school as the attack was unfolding says that officers handcuffed her after she urged police to enter.Angeli Rose Gomez, who has children in the second and third grade in the school, told the Wall Street Journal she drove 40 miles to the school when she heard there was a shooting and that when she arrived, “The police were doing nothing. They were just standing outside the fence. They weren’t going in there or running anywhere.”She told the paper that after a few minutes of her urging officers to act, federal marshals approached and put her in handcuffs, alleging that she was being arrested for interfering in an active investigation. She said she was released after she talked to Uvalde police officers she personally knew who convinced the marshals to let her go. At that point, she said she entered the school and got her two children. Gomez also told the Journal that after the gunman was killed, she saw police use a Taser on a local father who was approaching a bus to find his child. Gomez described it this way: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}They didn’t do that to the shooter, but they did that to us. That’s how it felt.”A mom of two children at Uvalde was put in handcuffs after urging police and law enforcement to enter the school.Once freed from her cuffs, she jumped the school fence, ran inside and sprinted out with her kids.New from @WSJ: https://t.co/SYdgysw0gF pic.twitter.com/ZCadllw9aT— Megan Menchaca (@meganmmenchaca) May 26, 2022
      Officials have not offered a clear explanation as to why the gunman was in the school for up to an hour before he was stopped and killed, even while officers were on scene. Authorities admitted that police officers had assembled outside the room where the gunman was located, but did not make any attempt to break through the door during that hour. Instead, they decided to pull back and wait until a specialist tactical unit arrived, while evacuating other children and staff from the building. More on the police response here: ‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shootingRead moreBiden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said the White House was “disappointed” that Republicans in the Senate blocked the domestic terrorism prevention bill that the Democratic-controlled House last week. .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}We need Congress to act. We need Congress to advance commonsense measures that we know will save lives.She later added, “Commonsense gun safety laws work. We know this. They save lives. The public supports this. They are behind this.” A reporter asked whether Biden would be doing anything differently to reflect the urgency of the gun violence crisis, the press secretary responded, “The president has already declared gun violence to be a public health epidemic. This is a president who has been working on gun violence, comprehensive gun reform since he was a senator.” When the reporter followed up and asked whether it was indictment of Biden that he has been involved in the issue for so long and so little has changed, she said, “He understands we need to do more, but Congress also has to act … The president is doing everything that he can to get this done.” The White House is declining to weigh in on the concerns about the Texas law enforcement response to the school shooting. Asked at the briefing whether Joe Biden would call for an investigation into police’s actions at the shooting, Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, responded: “The president has the utmost respect for the men and women of law enforcement … We won’t pre-judge the results from here at this time.”The gunman was in the school for up to an hour before he was killed, even while officers were on scene, and officials have not offered a clear explanation of the timeline or what police were doing during that hour. Asked about the NRA convention scheduled to begin in Texas, Jean-Pierre said: .css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s not about the convention. What is inappropriate is that the leadership of the National Rifle Association has proven time and time again that they are contributing to the problem of gun violence, not trying to solve it … [They are] marketing weapons of war to adults. They don’t represent gun owners who know we need to take action. The NRA and their allies have stood in the way of [gun safety measures]. It is shameful. About the response from some Republicans calling for more armed people, the press secretary said, “If more guns were the solution, we’d be the safest country in the world.”Hi all – Sam Levin here, taking over our live coverage: The White House has announced that Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will be traveling to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday to “grieve with the community”. Officials did not have further details on the visit, though a press briefing is due to start momentarily. Follow along here for updates. Here are today’s developments so far from Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers:
      Investigators at an afternoon media briefing were unable to say why the gunman was not confronted during a “missing hour” between entering the school and being killed by a SWAT team.
      Parents and other locals expressed distress at the apparent hesitation of law enforcement to storm the school, with some having begged officers to move in as the massacre was still ongoing.
      However, US Border Patrol chief Raul Ortiz said agents “didn’t hesitate” when responding to the shooting. “They came up with a plan. They entered that classroom and they took care of the situation as quickly as they possibly could,” he told CNN.
      Democratic senator Chris Murphy called for a “popular uprising of citizens” to pressure Republicans to support gun laws following the shooting.
      Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said he would delay a vote on background checks for weapons buyers while bipartisan talks progressed, but warned Republicans he would move ahead if no deal was reached.
      March for Our Lives, the student-led gun reform activist group set up in the wake of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school shooting in Florida, is planning protest events in several US cities on 11 June.
      Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz confronted a British reporter and angrily left an interview after he was asked why school shootings like the one in Uvalde happen so often in the US.
      Before attacking the school, the gunman, named as Salvador Ramos, shot and wounded his grandmother at her home. Neighbors called police when she staggered outside and they saw she had been shot in the face.
      The gunman sent three online messages in the half-hour before the mass shooting, according to Texas governor Greg Abbott. The messages were sent via Facebook and “discovered after the terrible tragedy,” company spokesman Andy Stone said.
      The gunman had legally bought the rifle and a second one like it last week, just after his birthday, authorities said.
      Thanks for following. My colleague Sam Levin will guide you through the next few hours. Just days after the deadliest mass school shooting in Texas history, the National Rifle Association (NRA) – America’s leading gun lobbyist group – will meet a few hours away in Houston on Friday.Ashton P Woods says they are not welcome in his home town.“These people are coming into our community. The city of Houston needs to kick them out,” said Woods, an activist and founder of Black Lives Matter Houston. “We have to be just as tough about these things as they are.”Woods is helping organize one of several protests planned just outside the George R Brown Convention Center, where NRA members will browse exhibits of firearms and gun paraphernalia and hear speeches from Republican leaders including Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas.The goal of the Black Lives Matter protest, Woods said, is to “get loud” outside while powerful speakers take the podium inside. Woods said the issue of firearms was particularly important to the civil rights group that primarily tackles issues of police brutality in America.“Whether it be death by suicide, death by cop, death by mass shooter, we need to control the access people have to deadly weapons,” Woods said. “These things are interconnected.”Democratic Texas congressman Colin Allred was another on Wednesday to attack the NRA conference, and its prominent attendees.“It’s a disgrace that these Republicans are choosing to attend the NRA convention, when they should be in their respective legislatures doing everything in their power to prevent the next attack like this,” he said in a video address from the Democratic party’s war room.“When it comes to Ted Cruz, let’s just say he’s one of the biggest recipients of gun lobby spending and was the top recipient of campaign donations from so called gun rights backers in the 2018 election cycle.“We know who Ted Cruz is serving, and it’s not Texans.”Full story:Outrage as NRA to gather in Houston just days after Texas school massacreRead morePolice in Toronto shot and injured a man who was walking down a street carrying a gun in a city neighborhood, and five nearby schools were placed on lockdown, officials in Canada said, according to Reuters.The suspect, whose condition was not immediately clear, was described as a male in his late teens or early 20s, the Toronto police department said. The incident occurred in Port Union, a residential area north of Toronto’s city center. Three of the schools remained on lockdown Thursday afternoon, and two others were declared “hold and secure” due to ongoing police work. A briefing Thursday afternoon by the Texas Department of Public Safety created more questions than answers about a “missing” hour during which the Uvalde gunman was in the school but not confronted by law enforcement officers.Victor Escalon, the department’s regional director, deflected reporters’ questions about why officers did not attempt to stop the gunman in that time.During the short, and sometimes chaotic briefing, Escalon appeared defensive when challenged about the delay. Parents of victims have expressed distress at the apparent hesitation of law enforcement to storm the school, and some begged officers to move in.“There’s lot of possibilities,” Escalon said, insisting that investigators needed time to interview officers from multiple jurisdictions who were eventually present.“At the end of the day our job is to report the facts. We don’t have all the answers. We’re not there yet”.But in laying out a preliminary timeline of the shooting, he did indicate that the gunman appeared to have been able to gain entry to the school through an unlocked back door, and that, contrary to earlier reports, there was no armed police officer on duty at the campus when the shooter walked in and began Tuesday’s deadly rampage that killed 19 students and two teachers.“The majority of the gunfire was in the beginning,” Escalon said, adding that officers first on the scene prioritized calling for back up and trying to evacuate students and children. “He did not respond [to officers trying to speak to him],” Escalon said.Escalon ended the briefing by promising to get back to the media when he had more information to give.‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shootingRead moreThe chief question arising from that brief briefing is why law enforcement did not enter the school and try to save children in the hour between the gunman entering the school and his being killed by a SWAT team from Customs and Border Protection.Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety did not discuss what happened in that hour in any detail.He did say “the majority of the gunfire was in the beginning” and said the gunman then fired to keep officers at bay but did not respond to attempts to negotiate. He also said officers made efforts to evacuate other children and teachers.Escalon’s words might suggest that most of the children who were killed were killed shortly after the gunman entered the room. Nonetheless, officers seem not to have attempted to take the gunman down.Escalon answers questions.It appears the door to the school the gunman used was unlocked, he says. “The majority of the gunfire was in the beginning,” Escalon says. The gunman then fired to keep officers at bay but did not respond to attempts to negotiate.There was not a readily available armed officer at the school when the gunman arrived, Escalon says.“At 11.30am the PD got a crash and a man with a gun and you have responding officers.”He can’t say yet what happened in the next 10 minutes with certainty, he says, adding: “There’s a lot of possibilities.”All the officers who were present need to be interviewed, Escalon says, asked about questions about what was done to stop the shooting which are growing with the hour.A British reporter asks: “Is it accurate eyewitnesses were urging police to go in while a SWAT team was awaited, and even asking to borrow police armour to go in and try to rescue their children themselves?” “I’ve heard that information that we have not verified it,” Escalon says.Questions are shouted but Escalon has no answers. He says he needs time.That briefing didn’t clear up much about how police responded to the shooting.Victor Escalon, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, begins the briefing. He says law enforcement are “hurting inside”, as are other officials and of course the victims and family members and describes how an investigation works.He recounts what is known about the shooting.Salvador Ramos’s grandmother is still alive, Escalon says, in stable condition after being shot in the face.The shooter entered Robb elementary school at 11.40am, after shooting at the building and “numerous rounds are discharged inside the school”. Four minutes later, Uvalde police are inside. They take rounds, move back and get cover, and call for additional resources, as the gunman enters a classroom.Escalon says that during the time the calls for help are being made, officers are also evacuating teachers and students. Approximately an hour later, Escalon says, US Border Patrol tactical teams arrive and shoot and kill the suspect.Now it turns into a rescue operation, he says, the officers asking themselves, “How do we save these children?”Escalon says reports the gunman was confronted by an officer on the way into the school are not accurate. He says he will take questions.A briefing has begun in Uvalde. We’ll follow it here.The chief of the Uvalde police department, Daniel Rodriguez, has just issued a statement defending his officers over the response time to the Robb elementary school shooting.Rodriguez said officers “responded within minutes” and that several of them received non-life threating gunshot wounds from the suspect.A press conference in Uvalde is scheduled to begin within the next 15 minutes or so, and you can expect questions about the timeline of the massacre.NEW: The chief of the Uvalde Police Department has a released a statement saying his officers responded “within minutes” along with school officers. “I know answers will not come fast enough,” he said. pic.twitter.com/8m7GvLZQo0— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) May 26, 2022
      Read more:‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shootingRead moreMore desperately sad news from Uvalde, as if things weren’t bad enough already:Joe Garcia, the husband of Irma Garcia, one of two teachers shot and killed in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday, has reportedly suffered a fatal heart attack. Joe and Irma were high school sweethearts and married 24 years. They leave behind four children. pic.twitter.com/Rlk0M2B8nR— Ernie Zuniga (@Ernie_Zuniga) May 26, 2022
      His death was confirmed on Twitter by Garcia’s nephew John Martinez, who asked for prayers for his family:EXTREMELY heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irma’s husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief, i truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling, PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR FAMILY, God have mercy on us, this isn’t easy pic.twitter.com/GlUSOutRVV— john martinez ❤️‍🔥 (@fuhknjo) May 26, 2022
      Here’s more on Joe Garcia and this tragic, apparently deadly case of broken heart syndrome.Republicans in the senate have, as expected, blocked the domestic terrorism prevention bill that passed the Democratic-controlled House last week.Chuck Schumer, the senate majority leader, changed his vote to no in a procedural move so he can bring the measure back again. Senators voted 47-47, well short of the 60 votes needed for it to advance.The bill was seen as the Democrats’ opening attempt to pass some kind of gun restrictions following the massacre of 10 Black people by a white supremacist gunman at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, almost two weeks ago.It would have established a new domestic terrorism office at the homeland security department that would track and analyze domestic terrorist activity, and require regular reporting of threats from white supremacists and neo-Nazis.Republicans argued the bill was partisan and not needed because of existing laws to tackle domestic terrorism.One of the hosts responding to the Texas shooting on late-night TV on Wednesday, Jimmy Kimmel, became visibly upset as he did so. “Once again, we grieve for the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed,” he said.While the right will “warn us not to politicise” the shooting, Kimmel added, it’s important to remember “they know what they’ve done and they know what they haven’t done”.The “very least we can do” is insist upon background checks for those seeking to purchase a gun, a law that has been stalled in Congress. “They won’t pass it because our cowardly leaders just aren’t listening to us, they’re listening to the NRA, they’re listening to those people who write them checks who keep them in power,” Kimmel said.“If your solution to children being massacred is armed guards, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on,” the host said before reminding viewers of the many times armed guards and police officers have not prevented school shootings.Kimmel then zeroed in on the Texas senator Ted Cruz, who is scheduled to speak at an NRA event in Houston this weekend. “I refuse to believe he’s unaffected by this,” he said. “He’s not a monster, he’s a human being.”To Cruz and the many others who refuse to recognise the danger of guns, Kimmel said: “It’s OK to admit you made a mistake, it’s not just OK, it’s necessary.”He continued: “Do I think these men are brave people? No I don’t but man I would love it if these guys surprised me.”Kimmel also said “it isn’t a time for moments of silence, this is a time to be loud”, before reminding viewers there have been 27 US school shootings this year and it’s still only May. “How does this make sense to anyone?” he asked. “These are our children.”Kimmel on gun control: ‘Our cowardly leaders just aren’t listening to us’Read more More

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      Texas school shooting: gunman posted plans on Facebook prior to attack – latest updates

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      Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference moments ago that the shooter posted on Facebook three times before his attack.In the first, posted 30 minutes before going to the school, he said he would shoot his grandmother. The second said, “I shot my grandmother.” And the third, posted about 15 minutes before the attack, said: “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.” Abbott also said the shooter’s grandmother had called the police before he shot her. Texas Gov Abbott says the Uvalde shooter posted 3 times on Facebook ~30 minutes before going to the school. The first was, “I’m going to shoot my grandmother.” Second was, “I shot my grandmother.” The third–roughly 15 min before–was, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 25, 2022
      The retired police officer who was shot and killed while trying to stop the gunman in the racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket on May 14 was awarded the department’s medal of honor at his funeral on Wednesday, as the country processed another massacre at Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two adults, the Associated Press reports.Buffalo police commissioner Joseph Gramaglia also posthumously promoted Aaron Salter to lieutenant, saying his actions — firing multiple times at the shooter, striking his body armor — bought precious time that allowed others in the store to escape..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} “Aaron bravely fought evil that day,” Gramaglia said at The Chapel in Getzville, where law enforcement officers from US and Canadian departments Buffalo being on the US northern border] filled a dozen rows.Services were also held for Pearl Young, a 77-year-old grandmother, great-grandmother and substitute teacher who was devoted to her church.Salter and Young were among the 10 Black people killed when a white gunman wearing body armor and a helmet-mounted camera targeted shoppers and workers at Tops Friendly Market, in a predominantly Black neighborhood, on a Saturday afternoon. Three others were injured in the attack, which federal authorities are investigating as a hate crime.The 18-year-old suspect has been charged with murder and is being held without bail. The gunman in Uvalde, Texas, was also 18 and was shot dead by law enforcement.Salter, 55, of Lockport, was working as a security guard at the store in his retirement, a natural move for the community-minded officer with a loud laugh that “would shock your senses” and who chewed bubble gum just as loudly, said retired deputy police commissioner Kimberly Beaty, who worked with Salter..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Aaron didn’t come to work to be entertainment, he came to do his job, but we enjoyed watching him do it.”Salter retired from the department in 2018 after nearly 30 years. At least one of his bullets struck the suspect’s armor-plated vest but didn’t pierce it, police said.The Buffalo shooting killed 10 Black people from the neighborhood.‘I’m not afraid’: after Buffalo racist attack, Black residents remain unbowed by terrorRead moreHow far government can go in controlling access to firearms has been one of the most divisive issues in the United States, Reuters writes.It pits those who say restricting the availability of guns will save lives against those who maintain that guns themselves are not the root cause of mass shootings and that the right to bear arms is protected by the US Constitution.US president Joe Biden urged the US Senate to quickly confirm Steven Dettelbach, his nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), whose mission includes enforcing US gun laws.”Where’s the backbone? Where’s the courage to stand up to a very powerful lobby?”— President Biden hits at the gun lobby and urges the Senate to confirm his ATF nominee Steve Dettelbach. pic.twitter.com/KW9TlkobY1— The Recount (@therecount) May 25, 2022
      Dettelbach appeared at his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.During testimony earlier today Biden’s pick for @ATFHQ Steven Dettelbach told lawmakers “violent crime is increasing. Firearms violence and mass shootings are increasing. Hate crimes and religious violence are increasing as is violent extremism.” pic.twitter.com/z83poe69A0— Beatrice-Elizabeth Peterson (@MissBeaE) May 25, 2022
      Joe Biden sought to reform federal and local policing with a broad executive order on Wednesday, the second anniversary of the death of George Floyd, while goading a seemingly immovable Congress to act on police and gun reform, Reuters writes.The order directs all federal agencies to revise their use-of-force policies, creates a national registry of officers fired for misconduct and will use grants to encourage state and local police to restrict the use of chokeholds and neck restraints..css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s a measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation, to address the profound fear trauma, exhaustion particularly Black Americans have experienced for generations,” the US president said. He had not signed it earlier, he said, because he was hoping Congress would pass a police reform law named after Floyd. The bill collapsed in the US Senate last September under Republican opposition.The White House police order restricts the use of no-knock entries to a limited set of circumstances, such as when an announced entry would pose an imminent threat of physical violence.Joe Biden is speaking at the White House about gun safety, around 24 hours after the appalling shooting at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.The US president noted that since he spoke at the White House last night, shortly after he arrived back from his trip to Asia, the death toll in the shooting had risen – now standing at 19 children and two teachers.“I’m sick and tired of what is going on,” Biden said of the latest mass murder, just nine days after another 18-year-old opened fire on members of the public in the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in a racist attack that killed 10 Black people.Biden visited Buffalo after the shooting there and announced moments ago that he and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Uvalde “in the coming days” to offer what comfort they can to “a community in shock and grief and trauma.”“As a nation I think we all must be there for them, everyone,” he said. “And we must ask, when in God’s name will we do what needs to be done to, not completely stop, but fundamentally change the amount of carnage that goes on in this country. To state the obvious, I’m sick and tired, I’m just sick and tired of what is going on, what continues to go on,” he added.Biden said he had spent his career, as chairman of the judiciary committee when he was in the US Senate “and as vice president working for common sense gun reforms.”He said certain such reforms would have a significant impact on the number of deaths across the US but would “have no negative impact on the second amendment”, the long and fiercely-debated US constitutional right to “bear arms”.“The second amendment is not absolute, when it was passed you [1789] couldn’t own a cannon, you couldn’t own certain types weapons, there have always been limitations. These actions we have taken before have saved lives and they can do it again.“The idea that an 18-year-old can walk into a store and buy weapons of war designed and marketed to kill is just wrong,” he said.Why can’t America do anything to stop mass shootings?Read moreThe alleged shooters in both the Buffalo and Uvalde killings were 18-year-olds who used US military-style assault rifles, readily available in gun stores. The suspect in the Buffalo killings is in custody, charged with murder. The suspect in Uvalde was shot dead by law enforcement inside the classroom of the elementary school where he was firing at children and their teachers.“It just violates common sense, even the manufacture of them, of that weapon,” he said.“You know, where is the backbone? Where is your courage to stand up to a very powerful lobby,” he said.Presumably, the president is referring to the US Congress, where Republicans repeatedly block legislation mandating greater gun controls (and many bills that Biden wants to advance in other areas have been held up by the fact that he has no more than a wafer-thin majority in that chamber, not enough to overcome the filibuster that requires 60 votes to pass most legislation_.Republicans offer thoughts and prayers – but not gun control to stop the killingsRead moreJoe Biden and Kamala Harris are holding an event at the White House to talk about policing, on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer. But of course the school mass shooting is very present and vice-president Kamala Harris is talking first before she introduces the president. She echoed Biden’s remarks last night, saying: “We must have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws.”“We must work together to create an America where everyone feels safe in their communituy, where children feel safe in their schools,” Harris said.Now she has turned to the issue of police killings, addressing herself to the public but also the families of not just George Floyd who are at the White House today, but also Breonna Taylor, who was killed by police gunfire in Louisville, Kentucky, on 13 May 2020, just days before Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis.Lawmakers are floating the idea of introducing red flag laws as a means of bolstering gun control. House majority leader Steny Hoyer said that he is planning to bring a bill, initially bought forth by Lucy McBath, a representative from Georgia whose 17-year-old son was killed by gun violence, that would establish a national red flag law. Congress must do more to #EndGunViolence. During the first week of the June work period, I will bring @RepLucyMcBath’s bill to the Floor to establish a national “Red Flag” law to prevent those who pose a threat to themselves or others from being able to legally possess a firearm.— Steny Hoyer (@LeaderHoyer) May 25, 2022
      Under red flag laws, courts will have the right to take away guns from people who are deemed a threat to themselves or others. Some Republicans seem to be open to the idea of a red flag law. In 2019, Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal introduced a red flag measure that failed to get the necessary votes. Susan Collins, a Republican senator for Maine, said that she discussed potential legislation with Democrat Chris Murphy, according to Axios. Republicans offer thoughts and prayers – but not gun control to stop the killingsAs the cycle of American gun violence took its latest turn on Tuesday, with at least 19 children and two teachers brutally murdered at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, the response from the Republican right came from an all too familiar playbook.Thoughts and prayers, obfuscation and inaction.Shortly after the shooting, Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who for well over a decade has led his party in vehemently blocking a raft of federal gun control measures, decried the “disgusting violence” in Uvalde and said: “The entire country is praying for the children, families, teachers, and staff and the first responders on the scene.”But prayers aside, there remains little to no hope of commonsense gun control measures making their way into federal law, despite support from the majority of American voters.Within hours of the bloodshed on Tuesday, many of the national Republican Party’s most outspoken voices on gun ownership recited talking points now rote in the aftermath of mass shootings.Texas senator Ted Cruz, who also sent prayers to the community in Uvalde, castigated Democrats and members of the media during a brief interview with CNN. “Inevitably when there’s a murder of this kind you see politicians try to politicize it,” he said. “You see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime.”His remarks were almost identical in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting in Florida back in 2018, which claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers. Despite a grassroots protest movement, in which hundreds of thousands of school children descended on Washington in a March for Our Lives, no federal legislation was passed. Jury selection in the death penalty trial of the Parkland shooter continues this week, a further marker of the trauma these mass shootings leave behind.Meanwhile, Cruz is set to speak at the National Rifle Association leadership summit on Friday, in Houston, just 280 miles from Uvalde, alongside Donald Trump and Texas governor Greg Abbott.Other senior Texas Republicans, who have presided over a series of measures aimed at loosening restrictions on firearm ownership in the state, reiterated calls to arm teachers, despite the fact the shooter engaged a number of armed officers as he successfully stormed the school building.“We can’t stop bad people from doing bad things,” Texas attorney general Ken Paxton told Fox News on Tuesday. “We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly. That, in my opinion, is the best answer.”Republicans offer thoughts and prayers – but not gun control to stop the killingsRead moreSatirical news site the Onion has made all headlines on its front page read: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”. The website first used the headline when writing about the mass shooting at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas in 2017, where 61 people were killed. .@TheOnion homepage right now consists entirely of their “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens” stories they’ve published countless times pic.twitter.com/l1fAIemies— Marina Fang (@marinafang) May 25, 2022
      The NRA just released a statement on its conference this weekend that confirms it will still be held this weekend in Houston.“We recognize this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal. As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to make our schools secure,” the statement reads. Statement from the @NRA regarding this week’s annual meeting in Houston. As of now, Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz are still scheduled to attend the event. @HoustonPubMedia pic.twitter.com/dMYFz8mIrD— Lucio Vasquez (@luciov120) May 25, 2022
      Lawmakers are responding to the Uvalde shooting on Capitol Hill today. Joe Manchin told reporters that the Senate should pass a bipartisan gun control bill, but said that passing gun legislation would not be an impetus for getting rid of the filibuster. With the filibuster, Democrats would need at least 60 votes to pass legislation. On getting rid of the filibuster, Manchin said it amounts to “throwing out the one tool that we have that gets us, that keeps us working — at least talking together. Without that we have nothing. You get no checks and balance.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 25, 2022
      Meanwhile Republican Marco Rubio of Florida is digging into his argument that background checks for gun purchases are ineffective. “The truth of the matter is these people are going to commit these horrifying crimes, whether they have to use another weapon to do it, they’re going to figure out a way to do it,” he told CNN. Asked Rubio why not ban AR-15s, and he said: “The truth of the matter is these people are going to commit these horrifying crimes, whether they have to use another weapon to do it, they’re going to figure out a way to do it.” Also contends more background checks won’t fix problem pic.twitter.com/crfprWZSyQ— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 25, 2022
      The Uvalde shooting was the 27th school shooting this year, according to a tracker maintained by news organization Education Week. The tracker reports 67 people killed or injured in a school shooting, including 27 people who were killed. The shootings took place in states across the country, ranging from Washington state to Massachusetts.At his press conference this afternoon, Greg Abbott said he is “living moment to moment right now” in response to whether he would cancel his appearance at NRA’s conference in Houston this weekend. Gov. Abbott won’t say if he will still speak at NRA meeting in Houston Friday. “I’m living moment to moment right now.”— Rick Klein (@rickklein) May 25, 2022
      Twenty minutes into Greg Abbott’s press conference addressing the Uvalde shooting, Beto O’Rourke, went up to the stage and told Abbott “you are doing nothing”. O’Rourke could be heard telling Abbott that the shooting was “predictable” because of his inaction and mentioned the 2019 shooting in El Paso where 23 people were killed in a Walmart store. “This is on you until you choose to do something,” O’Rourke said. “Sir, you are out of line,” Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin can be heard shouting at O’Rourke trying to get him to leave the auditorium.”This is on you until you choose to do something”: Beto O’Rourke confronts Gov. Abbott at briefing on Texas elementary school shooting. https://t.co/RdYLvfum24 pic.twitter.com/bqbQXTPm6O— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 25, 2022
      O’Rourke is running against Abbott in November for the gubernatorial seat. He was most recently a House representative before his brief run for president in 2020.Texas governor Greg Abbott said at a press conference moments ago that the shooter posted on Facebook three times before his attack.In the first, posted 30 minutes before going to the school, he said he would shoot his grandmother. The second said, “I shot my grandmother.” And the third, posted about 15 minutes before the attack, said: “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.” Abbott also said the shooter’s grandmother had called the police before he shot her. Texas Gov Abbott says the Uvalde shooter posted 3 times on Facebook ~30 minutes before going to the school. The first was, “I’m going to shoot my grandmother.” Second was, “I shot my grandmother.” The third–roughly 15 min before–was, “I’m going to shoot an elementary school.”— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) May 25, 2022
      On Monday, the day before the shooting, Uvdale carried out its annual tradition of having its graduating high school seniors greet the elementary school students, including those who were killed on Tuesday. Here’s a clip of the celebration:Seniors visit Robb Elementary ⁦@Uvalde_CISD⁩ pic.twitter.com/EVI0IyLanx— rharris (@UHSProud) May 23, 2022 More

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      Blow to Madison Cawthorn as appeals court reverses ‘insurrectionist’ ruling

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      Blow to Madison Cawthorn as appeals court reverses ‘insurrectionist’ rulingPeople who take part in insurrections against US government can be barred from office and 1872 act does not apply, court rules People who take part in insurrections against the US government can be barred from office, an appeals court said on Tuesday, reversing a ruling in favor of Madison Cawthorn, an extremist Republican politician from North Carolina.Trump-backed nominees lost in Georgia, but can Republicans escape the specter of Maga?Read moreHailing a “major victory”, Free Speech For People, the group which brought the case, said: “This ruling cements the growing judicial consensus that the 1872 Amnesty Act does not shield the insurrectionists of 6 January 2021 – including Donald Trump – from the consequences of their actions.”Cawthorn lost a primary this month and will not return to Congress in November. But Free Speech For People pursued an appeal.It also brought cases against Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, two Arizona Republicans, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, and an Arizona state representative, Mark Finchem. All have been unsuccessful.The challenges cited the the 14th amendment to the US constitution, passed after the civil war.It says: “No person shall … hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath … to support the constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”Cawthorn and the other Republicans were closely tied to events around the deadly January 6 attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters seeking to stop certification of Joe Biden’s election victory. They have denied knowledge of plans for violence.In answer to Free Speech for People, lawyers argued that an 1872 amnesty law for former Confederates did not only apply retroactively. Judges sided with them.Ruling in the Cawthorn appeal, Toby Heytens, one of a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the US fourth circuit, wrote: “The available evidence suggests that the Congress that enacted the 1872 Amnesty Act was, understandably, laser-focused on the then-pressing problems posed by the hordes of former Confederates seeking forgiveness.”Heytens also said only Congress could decide such matters, writing: “When the district court here tried to determine the effect of the 1872 Amnesty Act on Representative Cawthorn’s qualification for access to the ballot, the attempt amounted to a judging of his qualifications for office. The district court had no jurisdiction to make that call.”Praveen Fernandes, vice-president of the Constitutional Accountability Center, which filed an amicus brief, said: “Although Representative Cawthorn just lost his party’s nomination for his seat in Congress, today’s ruling remains an incredibly important one.“It makes clear that the 1872 Amnesty Act poses no barrier to similar future … challenges of the qualification of candidates to appear on the ballot, thus ensuring that section three of the 14th amendment can continue to serve its purpose as an important mechanism for holding public officials accountable when they violate their oaths of office.”Cawthorn did not immediately comment.TopicsRepublicansUS politicsUS Capitol attacknewsReuse this content More

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      US primary elections: Georgia on track to see record turnout – live

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      Donald Trump’s reputation as the undisputed Republican kingmaker is on the ballot in today’s Georgia primary, where former vice-president Mike Pence showed up last night to twist the knife further in his old boss’s back.As polls opened in the party’s primary for governor this morning, Trump’s preferred candidate and former senator David Perdue trailed incumbent Brian Kemp by a significant margin.Pence, the once loyal deputy tipped for his own White House run in 2024, amplified his divergence from Trump by rallying for Kemp in Kennesaw on Monday night.“When you say yes to Governor Brian Kemp tomorrow, you will send a deafening message all across America that the Republican party is the party of the future,” Pence said in another stinging rebuke for Trump’s backwards-looking obsession with his 2020 election defeat.Trump’s thirst for revenge over Kemp for refusing to block Joe Biden’s win in Georgia, or support the big lie that the election was stolen, became calcified in his backing of Perdue, but if polls prove accurate and his preferred candidate goes down, the value of the once-coveted Trump endorsement will be further eroded.Pence is among a number of senior Republicans who are working to achieve that, however inadvertently. At a conservative conference in Florida in February, Pence said Trump was wrong to think the election could be overturned, and that to try to do so was “un-American”.In Georgia, particularly, and elsewhere, other Republican Trump critics and former and current governors including Chris Christie of New Jersey and Doug Ducey of Arizona have worked to weaken Trump’s influence. According to a New York analysis today, most of the big lie-supporting candidates he endorsed in Republican primaries for this year’s midterms won, but many were running unopposed or against unknown or poorly funded opponents.His record in bigger races is less convincing. Celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz failed to deliver a knockout blow in the Pennsylvania senate primary, and is still locked in a tight race with former treasury department official David McCormick, which is heading for a recount.And the extremist, scandal-plagued congressman Madison Cawthorn was ousted in North Carolina despite Trump’s pleas for voters to give him another chance.My colleagues Sam Levine and Alvin Chang have taken this look at the Trump-backed, big-lie advocates running for office in several states in what many say is an alarming attack on democratic principles in the US:’Big lie’ partisans are running for office in swing states across the USRead moreThe Guardian’s Kari Paul is anchoring our live blog on the shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Governor Greg Abbott has said the gunman shot and killed 14 students and one teacher.Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks on the shooting later tonight, when he returns to Washington from Tokyo. Kari will have the latest updates as we learn more. Follow along: Texas school shooting: 14 students and one teacher killed Read moreFourteen students and one teacher were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, according to the state’s governor, Greg Abbott. Abbott said the gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Romas, had “shot and killed incomprehensibly 14 students and killed the teacher … the shooter, he himself is deceased and it is believed responding officers killed him”.The White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and would speak about the tragedy when he returns to the White House tonight. The president was returning from Tokyo when news of the shooting broke.President Biden has been briefed on the horrific news of the elementary school shooting in Texas and will continue to be briefed regularly as information becomes available.— Karine Jean-Pierre (@PressSec) May 24, 2022
      The shooting comes months before the US is set to mark the 10-year anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school, which resulted in the deaths of 20 children and six adults. In the decade since the Sandy Hook shooting, no major gun control legislation has passed Congress. Thousands of mass shootings have occurred in the years since, including one earlier this month in Buffalo, New York. The Guardian will have a separate live blog to cover the latest news from Uvalde as we continue to provide updates on today’s primaries. Fourteen students and one teacher killed in Texas school shooting, governor saysRead moreTexas is also holding primary runoff races today to determine nominees in a number of key statewide and congressional races.In Texas’ 28th congressional district, Democratic incumbent congressman Henry Cuellar is facing a serious political threat from progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros.Neither of the two candidates finished above 50% in the district’s 1 March primary, forcing them into today’s runoff.The Guardian’s Alexandra Villareal reported on the race this week:.css-knbk2a{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;} Texas-28 is a heavily gerrymandered, predominantly Latino congressional district that rides the US-Mexico border, including the city of Laredo, before sprawling across south-central Texas to reach into San Antonio. During the primary election in March, voters there were so split that barely a thousand votes divided Cuellar from Cisneros, while neither candidate received the majority they needed to win.
      Now, the runoff on 24 May has come to represent not only a race for the coveted congressional seat, but also a referendum on the future of Democratic politics in Texas and nationally.
      The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, House majority whip, James E Clyburn, and House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, have thrown the full-throated support of the Democratic establishment behind Cuellar, while endorsements from progressive icons such as Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have elevated Cisneros as a rising star on the national stage.
      ‘If Cuellar wins, this is a story of how the Democratic machine and the old system is still strong in the district. And if Jessica Cisneros wins, the narrative is this is another successful Latina politician … carrying the community forward,’ said Katsuo Nishikawa Chávez, an associate professor of political science at Trinity University.Progressive v anti-abortion Democrat: Texas faces pivotal primary runoffRead moreThe Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, pointed to the expected record turnout in Georgia to dispute Democratic criticism of the state’s new voting law.That law, which was signed by Governor Brian Kemp last year, imposed significant restrictions on absentee voting in Georgia. Voting rights activists argued that the law was an overt attempt to suppress turnout, particularly among Black voters.Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill, McConnell said the record turnout disproved Democrats’ claims that Republicans are attempting to limit access to the ballot box across the country.“There’s no effort in America, in any state in America, to suppress voting,” McConnell told reporters.According to the Brennan Center for Justice, at least 19 states passed 34 laws restrict­ing access to voting last year, as Donald Trump continued to spread the “big lie” of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.Senate Republicans have also repeatedly blocked Democratic voting rights bills since Joe Biden took office.The polls in Georgia are scheduled to close in less than three hours, and the state is on track to set a new record for voter turnout in a midterm primary election.Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said on Twitter, “We are on a solid path to surpass the record for midterm primary turnout. The previous record was 2018 with approximately 1,162,000.”We are on a solid path to surpass the record for midterm primary turnout. The previous record was 2018 with approximately 1,162,000.— Gabriel Sterling (@GabrielSterling) May 24, 2022
      This year’s Georgia primaries have attracted nationwide interest because of Donald Trump’s endorsements in the gubernatorial and secretary of state races.Trump has endorsed David Perdue, who is challenging incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp, and Jody Hice, who is running against current Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.The two races are being closely watched to determine if the former president’s endorsement has enough sway with Republican primary voters to oust two incumbents. The blog will be closely following the results once polls close in Georgia, so stay tuned.Thanks for joining me today. I’m handing over the blog now to my colleague Joan E Greve, who will guide you through the next few hours as polls close and results begin to come in from the five states holding their primaries today.Here’s some of the races we looked at:
      In Georgia, it’s a day of reckoning for Donald Trump, where his big lie-supporting endorsee David Perdue takes on incumbent Republican governor Brian Kemp. The former president’s power is also being put to the test in the race for secretary of state between incumbent Brad Raffensperger and his pick congressman Jody Hice.
      In Texas, the incumbent Democratic congressman Henry Cuellar faces a stiff challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros.
      In Alabama, congressman Mo Brooks is looking to show that a Republican can not only survive having the endorsement of Trump taken away in his race, but actually thrive without it.
      In Arkansas, former Trump mouthpiece Sarah Huckabee Sanders is expected to win the Republican nomination for governor easily. The former white House press secretary could follow her father Mike Huckabee into the governor’s mansion in November.
      And elsewhere:
      The deadlocked Republican senate primary in Pennsylvania could be heading for the supreme court, with party leaders backing TV doctor Mehmet Oz in a legal fight with challenger David McCormick over mail-in ballots.
      In her new memoir, Kellyanne Conway lavishes abuse on Steve Bannon, calling the former White House strategist a “leaking dirigible” and an “unpaternal, paternalistic bore of a boor” more concerned with his own image than serving Donald Trump.
      A Maryland man who draped himself in a far right-affiliated flag and sprayed a fire extinguisher at police during the deadly Capitol attack on January 6 has been sentenced to nearly three years in prison, according to federal court records.
      Please stick with us through the rest of the afternoon and evening for all the developments in the primary election races.In the battle for control of the Democratic party, progressives are increasingly confident they are winning. That’s how they explain the record sums of Super Pac money targeting their candidates in nominating contests for safely Democratic seats.“There’s a set of people who are uncomfortable with a new brand of politics,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the progressive Working Families party. “They’re trying to set the clock back. But the genie’s outta the bottle.”So far this election cycle, progressives have a mixed record. But a stronger-than-expected showing in last week’s primaries has energized the movement and set the stage, they hope, for even more success this summer.In Pennsylvania, state representative Summer Lee overcame a deluge of outside spending to win her congressional primary. Lee was declared the winner after three days of counting. She tweeted: “$4.5 mill” with a fire and trash can emoji.Oregon progressives cheered the victory of Andrea Salinas, who also went up against a crush of big money in one of the most expensive House Democratic primaries in the country. Meanwhile, the seven-term Oregon congressman Kurt Schrader, whose conservative politics drew the left’s ire, appears to be on the verge of losing his seat to progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner, though results have been delayed by a ballot-printing problem.And in what will be one of the cycle’s most competitive Senate races, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s iconoclastic, liberal lieutenant governor, beat Congressman Conor Lamb, a rising star of the center-left.The next test of progressive political power comes today, in a Texas runoff election between Congressman Henry Cueller, a conservative Democrat backed by party leadership, and Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration lawyer endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. And after that, there are competitive intra-party primaries in Illinois, New York and Michigan.“We’re not doing any victory laps,” Mitchell said. “If anything, those losses and the wins have redoubled our commitment and focus.”Read the full story:US progressives show strength in primaries and predict more wins aheadRead moreThe Wisconsin Republican party says it has recovered all $2.3m stolen by hackers before the 2020 presidential election.A chunk of the money, $600,000, was recovered by the FBI and given back to the party last month, the state party chair Mark Jefferson said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.The party’s bank was able to get back $1.5m through its fraud until, and the rest was reimbursed through insurance payouts and donations, Jefferson said.Officials contacted the FBI two weeks before election day in 2020 after they noticed money intended for suppliers of campaign materials, including Donald Trump hats, was being siphoned to the hackers.Trump lost Wisconsin to Joe Biden by fewer than 21,000 votes.Mallory McMorrow remembers the sting of being slandered by a colleague for wanting to “groom” and “sexualize” young children. “I felt horrible,” she says. But instead of shrugging it off or trying to change the subject, as Democrats are often criticised for doing, the state senator from Michigan decided to fight back.In just four minutes and 40 seconds, McMorrow delivered a fierce, impassioned floor speech at the state capitol that went viral on social media and earned a laudatory phone call from the US president.She also offered a blueprint for how Democrats can combat Republicans intent on making education a wedge issue. The New Yorker magazine described her as “a role model for the midterms”. The New York Times newspaper added: “If Democrats could bottle Mallory McMorrow … they would do it.” It was quite an ovation for a 35-year-old serving her first term in elected office. McMorrow, who previously worked as a car designer and branding and design consultant, is among a generation galvanised by resistance to Donald Trump and his red meat populism.Soon after Trump’s election as president in 2016, she saw a video of middle school students chanting “Build the wall!” at another student; the school happened to be the polling place where she had voted. She felt motivated to go into politics and was elected in 2018 to the state senate for the 13th district, which covers suburbs just north of Detroit.But the Michigan senate has been under Republican control since before McMorrow was born. In a time of acrimony and division, it was never going to be an easy ride.Republican Lana Theis opened the latest senate session with an invocation that was part prayer, part Make America Great Again (Maga) battle cry: “Dear Lord, across the country we’re seeing in the news that our children are under attack. That there are forces that desire things for them other than what their parents would have them see and hear and know.”McMorrow was among three Democrats who walked out in protest at the apparent reference to how schools address sexual orientation, gender identity and critical race theory – the target of Republican laws across the country.She also tweeted criticism of the prayer, prompting Theis to lash out in a fundraising email: “These are the people we are up against. Progressive social media trolls like Senator Mallory McMorrow (D-Snowflake) who are outraged they can’t teach can’t groom and sexualize kindergarteners or that 8-year-olds are responsible for slavery.”Grooming, a term used to describe how sex offenders initiate contact with their victims, has recently become a Republican buzzword and nods to QAnon conspiracy theories that hold Democrats run a pedophile ring. It is no less hurtful for being so preposterous.Read the full story:The ‘straight, white, Christian, suburban mom’ taking on Republicans at their own gameRead moreAn independent commission is recommending new names for nine Army posts that commemorated Confederate officers. If approved, Fort Bragg in North Carolina would become Fort Liberty, and Fort Gordon in Georgia would become Fort Eisenhower.The recommendations are the latest step in a broader effort by the military to confront racial injustice, most recently in the aftermath of the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Associated Press reports.The list recommends naming bases for the first time after women and Black soldiers.Fort Polk, Louisiana, would be renamed Fort Johnson, after Sgt William Henry Johnson, a Black medal of honor recipient who served in the first world war.Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia would be renamed Fort Walker, after Mary Edwards Walker, a doctor who treated soldiers in the Civil War and later received a medal of honor.As recently as 2015 the Army argued that the Confederate names did not honor the rebel cause but were a gesture of reconciliation with the South. But following Floyd’s killing and subsequent racial unrest, the Pentagon and Congress pushed to rename military posts and other federal assets such as roads, buildings, memorials, signs and landmarks that honored rebel leaders. An independent commission is recommending new names for nine Army posts that commemorated Confederate officers.Among the recommendations, Fort Bragg in North Carolina would become Fort Liberty and Fort Gordon in Georgia would become Fort Eisenhower. https://t.co/oghpx3pFSj— The Associated Press (@AP) May 24, 2022
      My colleague Sam Levine has this look at one of the most consequential races of today’s primary elections, for Georgia secretary of state. Incumbent Brad Raffensperger, who famously resisted Donald Trump’s demand to “find” him enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state is facing a tough battle for reelection. Sam has been talking to Georgia voters: Today Georgia voters are casting ballots in what I believe is the most important primary election this year: the Republican primary for secretary of state.Last week, we published a story from reporting I did earlier this month about the race between incumbent Brad Raffensperger, the Republican who became nationally known for refusing to overturn the election results, and his Trump-backed challenger and big lie peddler, Congressman Jody Hice. There has already been record turnout during early voting, and polls show a close race between Hice and Raffensperger.Jay Williams, a Republican strategist in Georgia not affiliated with either campaign, told me Raffensperger had made a strategic error in pushing back on Trump and predicted Hice would win.“He’s branded. And I think it’s gonna be difficult for Republicans to be able to go out and vote for the guy,” he said. “If you don’t have a big stick, don’t go after someone who has a bigger stick than you. He’s the president, he’s just not a big enough guy to go after him.”Several polls over the last year have shown that the vast majority of Republicans believe Joe Biden’s victory was not legitimate. I was curious to see whether that belief was translating into who they were voting for. Would voters kick Raffensperger out of office for saying the election was legitimate?To my surprise, I didn’t find a huge amount of momentum for Hice, who has said the 2020 election was stolen and tried to overturn it. Instead, I found a lot of voters who said they supported Trump, but were also voting for Raffensperger.“I felt that under all that pressure, he did a good job. I know it upset Trump, and I’m a Trump person, but fair is fair,” said Carolee Curti, 82, who voted for Raffensperger in Rome, which is in the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s deeply Republican district in north-west Georgia.“I think something happened, but I don’t know anything like everybody else. I don’t know that Raffensperger did anything bad either,” said Judy C, 80, who declined to give her full name after she cast her vote for Raffensperger in Lawrenceville, an Atlanta suburb. “Trump, excuse me, he should keep his mouth shut.”Another Republican voter, age 78, who only gave only his first name, Bob, said he had automatically ruled out voting for anyone who said the election was stolen. “If you claim the last election was fraudulent, I’m not voting for you,” he told me. “If you asked people to go illegally to try and overthrow the election, I’m not voting for you.” He declined to say whom he voted for, but said it was probably safe to say he didn’t cast a ballot for Hice.Read more:Georgia secretary of state primary will test big lie’s hold on RepublicansRead moreThe FBI claims an Islamic State sympathizer living in Ohio plotted to assassinate George W Bush, but confidential informants helped federal agents foil the plan, according to court records.Details of the alleged scheme to kill the former president are laid out in a warrant that the FBI obtained in March to search the accused operative’s cellphone records, a 43-page document that was only unsealed in recent days.NBC News reported that the man named in the warrant – Shihab Ahmed Shihab – had been arrested.A spokesperson for Bush said in a statement Tuesday that the former president was unworried.“President Bush has all the confidence in the world in the US Secret Service and our law enforcement and intelligence communities,” said the former president’s chief of staff, Freddy Ford.A spokesperson for the FBI declined comment on the investigation, which Forbes was first to report Tuesday. Shihab could not be reached.Read the full story:FBI says it foiled Islamic State sympathizer’s plot to kill George W BushRead moreThe deadlocked Republican senate primary in Pennsylvania could be heading for the supreme court, with party leaders at state and national level throwing in with celebrity TV doctor Mehmet Oz.Officials are opposing a lawsuit that could help Oz’s opponent, former hedge fund chief executive David McCormick, close the gap in votes. One week after last Tuesday’s primary, Oz leads by 997 votes, or 0.07% of 1,341,184 ballots cast. McCormick filed a lawsuit late Monday, the Associated Press said, less than 24 hours before today’s 5pm deadline for counties to report unofficial results to the state. He wants the state Commonwealth Court to require counties to obey a new federal appeals court decision and promptly count mail-in ballots that lack a required handwritten date on the return envelope.Oz, who is endorsed by former president Donald Trump, has pressed counties not to count the ballots and the Republican National Committee and state party officials said they would go to court to oppose McCormick.Trump, meanwhile, has urged Oz to declare victory before counting is completed.RNC chief counsel Matt Raymer said in a statement: “Election laws are meant to be followed, and changing the rules when ballots are already being counted harms the integrity of our elections”.McCormick is doing better than Oz in mail-in ballots and has insisted that “every Republican vote should count”.A recount is virtually certain, which could push the official result as late as 8 June.Donald Trump’s onetime attorney Rudy Giuliani testified to the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack at length on Friday but declined to discuss the involvement of congressional Republicans in efforts to overturn the 2020 election result, according to sources familiar with the matter.The move by Giuliani to refuse to give insight into Republican involvement could mean his appearance only marginally advanced the inquiry into his ploy to have the then vice-president, Mike Pence, unlawfully keep Trump in office after he lost to Joe Biden.However, he did potentially pique the committee’s interest by discussing two notable meetings at the White House involving Trump that took place just weeks before the Capitol insurrection.Giuliani asserted privilege and the work-product doctrine to decline to respond when asked to detail the roles played by House and Senate Republicans in the scheme to stop Congress’s certification of Biden’s victory on 6 January 2021, the sources said.The panel was not expecting Giuliani to divulge damning information against Trump, since committee counsel had agreed with Giuliani in advance that he should not have to violate legitimate claims of privilege he might have as the former president’s attorney.But Giuliani’s refusal to engage with questions about House and Senate Republicans frustrated the select committee, the sources said, not least because Giuliani personally urged them to object to Biden’s victory to delay its certification.Full story:Rudy Giuliani stonewalls Capitol attack investigators during lengthy depositionRead more More

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      US progressives show strength in primaries and predict more wins ahead

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      US progressives show strength in primaries and predict more wins aheadStronger-than-expected showing in elections has energized the movement and set the stage, they hope, for more successes In the battle for control of the Democratic party, progressives are increasingly confident they are winning. That’s how they explain the record sums of Super Pac money targeting their candidates in nominating contests for safely Democratic seats.“There’s a set of people who are uncomfortable with a new brand of politics,” said Maurice Mitchell, national director of the progressive Working Families party. “They’re trying to set the clock back. But the genie’s outta the bottle.”So far this election cycle, progressives have a mixed record. But a stronger-than-expected showing in last week’s primaries has energized the movement and set the stage, they hope, for even more success this summer.In Pennsylvania, state representative Summer Lee overcame a deluge of outside spending to win her congressional primary. Lee was declared the winner after three days of counting. She tweeted: “$4.5 mill” with a fire and trash can emoji.Oregon progressives cheered the victory of Andrea Salinas, who also went up against a crush of big money in one of the most expensive House Democratic primaries in the country. Meanwhile, the seven-term Oregon congressman Kurt Schrader, whose conservative politics drew the left’s ire, appears to be on the verge of losing his seat to progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner, though results have been delayed by a ballot-printing problem.US primary elections: voters to test Trump’s power over Republican party – liveRead moreAnd in what will be one of the cycle’s most competitive Senate races, John Fetterman, Pennsylvania’s iconoclastic, liberal lieutenant governor, beat Congressman Conor Lamb, a rising star of the center-left.The next test of progressive political power comes on Tuesday, in a Texas runoff election between Congressman Henry Cueller, a conservative Democrat backed by party leadership, and Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration lawyer endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders. And after that, there are competitive intra-party primaries in Illinois, New York and Michigan.“We’re not doing any victory laps,” Mitchell said. “If anything, those losses and the wins have redoubled our commitment and focus.”Moderates see the cycle very differently.They point to a trio of House races last week in North Carolina and Kentucky where the more moderate candidate won handily. Those victories came just two weeks after the Democratic congresswoman Shontel Brown won a fiercely contested rematch in Ohio against Nina Turner, a progressive activist who worked on Sanders’ presidential campaigns.“People who are far outside the mainstream of the Democratic conference make it harder for moderates to run in swing districts because their ideas and their rhetoric are used against people like Abigail Spanberger,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center-left thinktank Third Way, referring to the Virginia congresswoman who singled out progressives for costing the party seats in 2020.Bennett said it was important to distinguish between progressives. He argued that candidates who are “liberal but not radical”, such as McLeod-Skinner in Oregon, pose little risk to swing-state Democrats.Instead, “we are worried about the Squad”, Bennett said, the group of progressive congresswomen that includes Ocasio-Cortez, “because the people in that wing of the party do not regard it as part of their duty as Democrats to help ensure that we have majorities”.It’s a charge that angers progressives. Following Sanders’ lead in 2020, they united behind Biden to oust Donald Trump in 2020 and then spent the past year and a half working with congressional leaders and the White House to pass the president’s economic agenda. And yet progressives are the ones being pummeled by outside spending.A number of contentious Democratic contests have been shaped by Super Pacs, like the one formed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as Aipac, another supported by the LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and another backed by a crypto-billionaire.Much – though not all – of the outside money has been spent in support of moderate candidates, including in Texas, where Cuellar, the nine-term congressman, is in the fight of his political life.“This is a David-and-Goliath sort of battle,” Mitchell said.The rash of spending has only exacerbated tensions between the party’s ideological factions. In a sign of progressives’ building resentment, Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ former campaign manager, warned that progressives could launch third-party candidates in swing districts to scuttle centrist Democrats’ chances.The suggestion infuriated Bennett, who called it the “most irresponsible thing I’ve seen a Democrat say … maybe ever, particularly in the face of a Republican party that has lost its ever-loving mind.”Though still early in the primary season, progressives appear poised to expand their numbers in Congress. Still, not every closely fought intra-party battle has fallen neatly along ideological lines.Oregon’s Schrader, a former leader of the conservative Blue Dog coalition, angered Democrats in the state after his vote against a provision that would allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs. Local Democratic leaders voted to endorse his challenger, McLeod-Skinner, sharply breaking with tradition.In Texas, however, the battle lines are clearly drawn.Pundits there think the south Texas runoff between Cuellar and Cisneros will prove to be a bellwether of the Democratic mood in a political landscape that increasingly favors Republicans. Democrats have razor-thin majorities in Congress, and the party in power historically loses in the president’s first midterm election.Democrats are also struggling to outrun Biden’s low approval ratings, weighed down by inflation and widespread frustration with Washington.Since Cisneros forced Cuellar into a runoff earlier this year, the race has been reshaped by a draft supreme court opinion indicating the justices are prepared to overturn a constitutional right to an abortion.Cuellar is one of the only Democrats left in Congress who is against abortion. Cisneros, by contrast, has cast herself as a defender of reproductive rights in a state that has effectively banned abortion.They have also clashed on immigration. Whereas Cuellar staunchly criticizes the Biden administration’s immigration policies, appearing frequently on Fox News to air his grievances with the president’s handling of the border, Cisneros has advocated for a more progressive stance in that sector.No matter what happens on Tuesday in Texas, progressives believe they have made progress elevating candidates they say will excite the party’s base in November.In Kentucky, long a Republican stronghold, Democrats nominated Charles Booker, an unabashedly progressive ex-state lawmaker who would be the state’s first black senator. It’s a shift from two years ago, when he surprised the party establishment by nearly defeating its chosen candidate in the Senate primary that cycle.Booker now faces an uphill battle to unseat the entrenched Republican senator Rand Paul. But he says his progressive Kentucky New Deal agenda is popular with voters of both parties. It’s the partisan labels and political culture wars that get in the way.“The truth of the matter is, the people of Kentucky want real progress,” Booker said. “It’s just that no one listens to us.“The policies that I lift up, the issues that I fight for, they’re not radical and they don’t come from some national consultant. This comes from my lived experience of living the struggle that most Kentuckians know well.”TopicsDemocratsUS politicsTexasPennsylvaniaOregonnewsReuse this content More