Kansas
The best we can expect from Kansas Republicans: ignoring a doomed Trump – Kansas Reflector
Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion items from writers who share our aim of widening the dialog about how public insurance policies have an effect on the day-to-day lives of individuals all through our state. Eric Thomas directs the Kansas Scholastic Press Affiliation and teaches visible journalism and photojournalism on the College of Kansas.
It will likely be an excellent day when many of the Republican Occasion has turned its again on President Trump.
GOP candidates will cease flying all the way down to West Palm Seashore to court docket his endorsement for his or her upcoming elections. Conservative operatives will hunt down different candidates to assist. Voters will pull down the Trump flags draped in opposition to their fences, barns and entrance porches. The Fox Information scroll on the backside of the display screen will cease manufacturing excuses for the most recent Trump misdeed.
And elected Republicans from Kansas will cease defending Trump.
How will that course of occur? How will a political occasion expel the elected president and the cult of persona that motivated it by way of these previous seven years?
Not since President Nixon climbed right into a helicopter to depart the White Home has a president difficult his occasion’s fortunes as Trump does now.
Republicans may merely avert their eyes and fake to not hear the screeching tires from the slow-motion Trump automobile crashes: the Prime Secret paperwork in Mar-a-Lago, the native election investigation in Georgia, the perilous enterprise practices in New York, plus no matter authorized jeopardies lurk across the nook.
Or — a lot much less seemingly — our Kansas Republicans may repudiate Trump. However, let’s be sincere. We’re more likely to listen to their silence than take heed to their earnest apologies from behind Congressional lecterns.
The response of native Republicans to the Aug. 8 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort residence and the authorized developments since then trace at how that is most certainly to play out. The more and more arms-length response predicts a extra remoted Trump.
To survey the reactions of essentially the most outstanding Republicans within the state, I scanned their Twitter accounts (essentially the most prolific platform for a lot of politicians) and web sites.
On Aug. 8, a number of Kansas Republicans responded to the preliminary information of the raid by FBI brokers to get better Secret and Prime Secret paperwork from the seaside membership that doubles as Trump’s residence.
Sen. Roger Marshall posted on Twitter: “The FBI simply raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. Is that this equal software of the legislation? Or is that this a political hit job? #HillaryClinton #WheresHunter”
The tweet scored political factors by digging up Hunter Biden and Clinton’s e-mail server, however was additionally restrained. It was merely asking questions.
Throughout an look on the conservative information outlet Newsmax on Aug. 9, Marshall stated the pinnacle of the FBI and Division of Justice wanted to carry a information convention for “actual reporters” and reply questions, “as does our president.”
“We have to know why they aren’t equally making use of justice,” Marshal stated.
Derek Schmidt, the Republican candidate for Kansas governor, tweeted this on the day of the raid: “In America, the prison legislation must not ever be politicized, so these occasions on their face current severe questions and considerations. These actions should be intently scrutinized within the days and weeks forward.”
Notably absent from the rhetoric of those firebrand Republicans was a direct protection of Trump. Maybe Republicans really feel burned by repeatedly defending Trump, solely to search out that their speculative denials weren’t supported by info. Or maybe Republicans are reacting to polling that reveals Trump at certainly one of his least favorable factors since he left the White Home.
Talking of absent, in accordance the Kansas Metropolis Star, Sen. Jerry Moran joined Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri in not responding when requested to touch upon the raid.
Amanda Adkins, who’s difficult Democratic congressional Rep. Sharice Davids, used her Twitter account to oppose her opponent’s Wall Street investments, tout an endorsement and link Davids to inflation. There was no point out — a lot much less opposition — of the raid as Adkins angles for average voters in a good race.
To be clear, that is progress. The additional that these Kansas candidates and politicians shuffle away from Trump, the higher. Whether or not they’re retreating to keep away from the rain cloud hovering over his affairs, to keep away from being related to him or as a result of they’re forecasting his guilt, we needs to be relieved.
The additional that these Kansas candidates and politicians shuffle away from Trump, the higher.
Because the New York Occasions reported final week, Republicans nationwide have muted their defenses of Trump as extra particulars emerge. Not one of the Kansas Republicans tweeted or created information releases to answer newer developments: the redacted affidavit being launched and Trump’s assertion on his social media platform Wednesday attacking the FBI.
In spite of everything, a lot of what Trump injected into the Republican occasion doesn’t mirror its pre-2016 values. Trump’s coziness with Russia reversed the earlier adversarial stance that candidates like Mitt Romney expressed. The genteel postures of President George W. Bush and his father contrasted with Trump’s bombastic self-promotion. Let’s bear in mind what number of institution Republicans opposed a Trump presidency: conservative columnists, former presidents, senators and political operatives.
For these causes, expelling Trump needs to be straightforward, if not for the electoral penalties. Can Republicans win within the midterms with out the ferocity that Trump brings to the occasion? Can Republicans who received primaries with Trump’s endorsement wash off the stench related to the FBI raid and attainable hoarding of delicate data?
“Individuals may rally round Trump however they may neglect to rally round Donald Trump’s candidate when it comes round to November,” CBS political journalist John Dickerson stated this week on the Slate Political Gabfest.
Self-interest may drive Republicans away from Trump quite than the ethical objections that many people have held since he descended down the escalator as a presidential contender. The president they as soon as enabled is likely to be doomed — not simply legally, but additionally politically.
And it’d should be sufficient for them to disregard him and to look away.
Denouncing him would demand the political energy that Trump Republicans shed way back.
By its opinion part, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who find themselves affected by public insurance policies or excluded from public debate. Discover data, together with how you can submit your individual commentary, right here.
The Kansas coaching staff is assembling a strong junior day group of visitors for Saturday. It starts with committed players like James Dunnigan Jr., Jaylen Mason and Hunter Higgins. Three of the top local players in the state will be there and will help recruit.
The junior day gives several players a chance to be around the staff again for those who have made several visits to KU.
Ottawa wide receiver Nate Sims has been on campus several times and attended two games at Arrowhead last season.
“I love to get on campus and talk with the coaches and build strong connections,” Sims said. “The more I visit the better I get to know the coaches and build a good relationship with them.”
Sims said he was looking forward to watching the basketball game against Kansas State and talk with the other recruits.
Kaden Snyder is in the same position as Sims. Both are local recruits who have been on multiple visits and games to Kansas. This will be Snyder’s seventh trip for an unofficial visit.
“I know the coaches pretty well I’ve been around a lot,” Snyder said. “They are great and they care a lot about the program and the players in it. I am not looking for anything specific just talk more and more.”
Snyder said he has been planning to attend the junior day along with his friend Ian Premer. He said the two talked about going to the event together. Premer, from Great Bend, is one of the top tight end prospects in the country and rated the top recruit in Kansas.
There are going to be players from outside the area as well. Owen Linder, an offensive lineman from Minnesota will be making a return visit to the area. He camped at KU last summer and attended a game last season.
“I love getting the chance to back to KU whenever I can,” Linder said. “Going on these visits now, I know the most important thing for me and my family is getting to know the staff and coaches better and these visits help with doing this.”
He said it gives him and his family a chance to ask questions and get to know the staff. It also helps build a relationship with Daryl Agpalsa, the Jayhawks offensive line coach.
“It’s been great getting to know Coach A,” Linder said. “He’s just a great guy that always makes me laugh. Also has given me great advice when I needed it since I’ve know him. It’s been a privilege to get to know him for sure.”
There is an impressive group of visitors expected to visit on Saturday. The confirmed list of players has reached into the double-digits. To see the latest updated list, visit our Junior Day Recruiting Thread.
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Kansas Republicans are asking agencies to report on what they would cut if they had to reduce their budgets by 7.5% in the upcoming fiscal year.
The Kansas House Appropriations Committee reported that it would distribute the request to state agencies at its meeting on Wednesday. The request comes after the committee submitted its own budget for the first time in decades, rather than tweaking the budget provided by the governor.
“It’s an opportunity for any agency or any department to set their priorities and say, here are some things that, if we needed to make reductions, this is where we would like to see those reductions,” said Rep. Kristy Williams, R-Augusta, and the committee vice chair.
The request isn’t uncommon in budgeting processes, and Gov. Laura Kelly made the same ask from state agencies in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused a bleak revenue forecast. Budget director Adam Proffitt said Thursday that when it has been done in the past, agencies are typically given more time to decide where they would make cuts than they would with Wednesday’s request.
“We send the guidance out in usually June, when budget instructions go out, and we give agencies about three months to work through the process to more accurately and strategically identify where the supports might come from,” Proffitt said. “The exercise itself is not a bad exercise. It just needs to be done appropriately and strategically.”
Profitt said when reducing a budget, you want to use a scalpel and not a sledgehammer because some government programs leverage federal dollars that may be jeopardized if cut too deep.
“You want to make sure that you’re maybe not touching headcount or critical programs. It just takes a lot of time to work through these,” he said.
Not about new tax cuts
Kansas Republicans said the 7.5% isn’t necessarily to make space for tax cuts this session, but rather from a sense the government is wasting money after forming its own budgeting process.
“We’ve been able to see some areas where we really have a lot of work to do. And we also think there’s areas where maybe money is not being spent appropriately,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, R-Wichita, told reporters.
Senate President Ty Masterson, R-Andover, added that it’s important to cut after years of COVID-era stimulus starts to phase out of the state’s budget.
“It’s more about avoiding the cliff. You’re seeing all that massive amount of stimulus money that was in our system start to fade away,” Masterson said. “We ballooned to the cost of the administrative part of our government incredibly high. I mean, just under Laura, I think it’s up 60% on the executive side.”
What’s not facing a 7.5% cut?
There are some exceptions to the reduced resource proposal. The Legislature is only asking for the projection from agencies that are paid for by the State General Fund.
Dylan Dear, a fiscal analyst with the Kansas Legislative Research Department, said the State General Fund accounts for about half of the state’s all-fund budget. In fiscal year 2026, the request is $12 billion to the state general fund and a $24 billion all-fund budget.
That means certain state agencies that fund themselves through fees like the state’s highway fund will go untouched. There is also an exception for the state’s per-pupil funding it provides to school districts.
The 7.5% reduction doesn’t factor in any additional asks any agency might have for the year, which the Legislature can elect to reject or only grant a portion of. It also exempts debt service from the reduction because it’s a contractually required expenditure that can’t be reduced.
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