Politics
Democrats seek to ‘sell’ accomplishments ahead of tough midterms
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Confronted with robust upcoming midterm elections, inflation and excessive fuel costs, Democrats say they should do a greater job promoting the American folks on President Biden’s accomplishments.
Whereas key priorities of Biden’s home agenda have died in Congress – specifically the Construct Again Higher social spending plan and voting rights reforms – members of the Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) are taking inventory of what Biden has gotten executed and pushing a message of monumental accomplishment.
“We’ve got a report — a report to be pleased with, an agenda that addresses the most important considerations right here in America, in folks’s lives, the message that resonates,” President Biden advised the DNC trustworthy Thursday. “And now — now what we now have to do is we now have to promote it with confidence, readability, conviction and repetition.”
Greater than 400 members of the DNC huddled in Washington, D.C., this week for his or her first in-person assembly because the coronavirus pandemic, although masks and vaccinations had been required to attend. The temper was upbeat on the likelihood to reconnect and solidify messaging on how finest to steer Democrats into the November elections.
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“It is simply fantastic to get again and make these connections once more and to see folks you have not seen for some time and get motivated once more,” mentioned Deb Knecht, a DNC nationwide committee member from South Dakota, “as a result of Democrats getting collectively encourage one another. … I really feel like we actually wanted this.”
Whereas Democrats did not get Biden’s agenda totally handed because of opposition in his personal celebration within the 50-50 break up Senate, they sought to reframe the dialog by not wanting again at what wasn’t executed, however by embracing and working on the priorities that made it by means of.
On the prime of the checklist are the American Rescue Plan, the most important coronavirus aid and spending invoice that handed a yr in the past with simply Democratic assist and the bipartisan infrastructure act that can assist communities rebuild roads and bridges and ship broadband entry.
Regardless of the pressures of inflation and excessive fuel costs, which Democrats hope will enhance earlier than November, they’ve honed an financial message of report job progress and low employment.
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“It is a matter of us taking possession of the great work that we’re doing,” mentioned Rion Ramirez, a Seattle space member of the DNC. “We have actually achieved lots of stuff by way of the American Rescue Plan. The financial system is de facto sturdy. We’re turning the nook (on) COVID. I feel there is a super quantity of alternative for us to get out and actually pound the drum on the great work that is gone on.”
If historical past is any indication, Democrats are poised for a troublesome midterm election season when management of the U.S. Home and Senate are at stake. The celebration in energy within the White Home historically loses seats in Congress throughout the first midterm election.
Former President Obama famously suffered a self-described “shellacking” in 2010 after Republicans received in a landslide midterm election and retook the Home. In 2018, Republicans misplaced management of the Home of Representatives throughout former President Trump’s midterm elections when a brand new wave of Democrats had been elected, a lot of them girls, and re-elected Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., because the Home speaker.
Biden can also be slowed down by low approval scores, inflation and an ongoing battle in Ukraine.
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Democrats acknowledged voters again dwelling are grappling with value spikes on all the pieces from fuel to groceries however sought to distance Biden from inflicting inflation. Occasion trustworthy echoed the White Home message that the ache on the pump is the results of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the upper costs are a mandatory sacrifice to face with the folks of Ukraine.
“I do assume that from the Republican aspect there may be going to be blame,” Georgia Democrat Lydia Glaize, a candidate for the state Home of Representatives, mentioned of the GOP blaming Biden for top fuel costs. “However I can inform you from an American perspective that it is not our fault. We all know for positive that this lies within the fingers of Russia.”
Floyd McKissick, Jr., a former state senator who’s energetic within the North Carolina Democratic Occasion, mentioned it is “crucial” that Democrats tie the origin of inflation to the beginning of the pandemic and international provide chain points that occurred on former President Trump’s watch.
WHITE HOUSE BLAMES RUSSIA FOR RECORD-HIGH GAS PRICES, COINING ‘#PUTINPRICEHIKE’
“What Biden inherited was a ship that was adrift at sea that he is needed to sail on a corrective course to get issues again in place,” McKissick mentioned. “And I feel he is executed a wonderful job in doing so.”
McKissick mentioned the fuel value hike is probably not as hostile on Democrats so long as folks establish Putin because the trigger.
“It’s a notion concern,” he mentioned.
Democrats are additionally stressing that Biden has the proper insurance policies to deal with increased costs.
“The president has a plan,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison advised Fox Information Digital when requested about inflation. “Republicans don’t.”
One other message the DNC is pushing is to remind Democrats that what Biden has achieved is much better than the GOP different.
White Home press secretary Jen Psaki spoke to the ladies’s caucus on the DNC and burdened the features females have made underneath Biden’s presidency, together with the historic nomination of Decide Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Courtroom.
“I don’t want to inform a single individual on this room that after the 4 years that preceded President Biden and Vice President Harris the ladies on this nation wanted lots of therapeutic and lots of restore,” Psaki mentioned.
Politics
Appeals court rules Texas has right to build razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration: 'Huge win'
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that Texas has the right to build a razor wire border wall to deter illegal immigration into the Lone Star State.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the ruling on X, saying President Biden was “wrong to cut our razor wire.”
“We continue adding more razor wire border barrier,” the Republican leader wrote.
Wednesday’s 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for Texas to pursue a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of trespassing without having to remove the fencing.
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It also reversed a federal judge’s November 2023 refusal to grant a preliminary injunction to Texas as the state resisted federal efforts to remove fencing along the Rio Grande in the vicinity of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Circuit Judge Kyle Duncan, a Trump appointee during the president-elect’s first term, wrote for Wednesday’s majority that Texas was trying only to safeguard its own property, not “regulate” U.S. Border Patrol, and was likely to succeed in its trespass claims.
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Duncan said the federal government waived its sovereign immunity and rejected its concerns that a ruling by Texas would impede the enforcement of immigration law and undermine the government’s relationship with Mexico.
He said the public interest “supports clear protections for property rights from government intrusion and control” and ensuring that federal immigration law enforcement does not “unnecessarily intrude into the rights of countless property owners.”
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton called the ruling a “huge win for Texas.”
“The Biden Administration has been enjoined from damaging, destroying, or otherwise interfering with Texas’s border fencing,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We sued immediately when the federal government was observed destroying fences to let illegal aliens enter, and we’ve fought every step of the way for Texas sovereignty and security.”
The White House has been locked in legal battles with Texas and other states that have tried to deter illegal immigration.
In May, the full 5th Circuit heard arguments in a separate case between Texas and the White House over whether the state can keep a 1,000-foot floating barrier on the Rio Grande.
The appeals court is also reviewing a judge’s order blocking a Texas law that would allow state officials to arrest, prosecute and order the removal of people in the country illegally.
Politics
Rep. Katie Porter obtains temporary restraining order against ex-boyfriend on harassment allegations
U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) secured a temporary restraining order Tuesday against a former boyfriend, saying in dozens of pages of court filings that he had bombarded her, as well as her family and colleagues, with hundreds of messages that she described as “persistent abuse and harassment.”
Porter, 50, alleged in a filing with Orange County Superior Court that her ex-boyfriend Julian Willis, 55, was contacting her and her family with such frequency that she had a “significant fear” for her “personal safety and emotional well-being.”
Judge Stephen T. Hicklin signed a restraining order Tuesday barring Willis from communicating with Porter and her children until a mid-December court hearing. He also barred Willis from communicating about Porter with her current and former colleagues.
In the court filing, Porter said that Willis had been hospitalized twice since late 2022 on involuntary psychiatric holds and had a history of abusing prescription painkillers and other drugs.
She said in a statement to The Times that Willis’ mental health and struggles with addiction seemed to have gotten worse since she asked him in August to move out of her Irvine home. She said she sought the court order after his threats to her family and colleagues “escalated in both their frequency and intensity.”
“I sincerely hope he gets the help he needs,” Porter said.
Willis declined to comment. He will have an opportunity to file a legal response to the temporary restraining order and challenge Porter’s allegations.
Porter is leaving the House of Representatives in January after losing in California’s U.S. Senate primary in March. She has been discussed as a front-runner in the 2026 governor’s race in California after Gov. Gavin Newsom is termed out, but has not said whether she will launch a campaign.
The 53-page court filing, first reported by Politico, included 22 pages of emails, text messages and other communications among Porter, family members and colleagues who had received messages from Willis, as well as messages that Willis sent to Porter’s attorney and to her political mentor Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The filing also included messages between herself and Willis’ siblings as they discussed trying to help him during his psychiatric holds and while he was staying in a sober-living facility.
Porter said that since she ordered Willis to move out, he had sent her more than 1,000 text messages and emails, including texting her 82 times in one 24-hour period in September, and 55 times on Nov. 12 before she blocked his number.
Porter said in the filing that her ex-boyfriend had “already contacted at least three reporters to disseminate false and damaging information” about her and her children, which she said “poses a serious risk to [her] career and personal reputation.”
The filing includes an email that Porter said Willis sent to her attorney late Monday, in which Willis said he had visited Porter’s son at college in Iowa and told him that he would “bring the hammer down on Katie and smash her and her life into a million pieces.”
Another screenshot shows Willis telling Porter’s attorney that he would file a complaint about Porter, who has children ages 12 and 16, with child protective services.
One of Porter’s congressional staff members received a text message from Willis saying he would “punish the f—” out of him if he did not agree to “cooperate” with a New York Times reporter and Willis’ attorneys, according to a screenshot included in the court document.
Willis previously made the news in 2021, when he was arrested after a fight that broke out at a Porter town hall at a park in Irvine.
Times staff writer Christopher Goffard contributed to this report.
Politics
Homan taking death threats against him ‘more seriously’ after Trump officials targeted with violent threats
Incoming Trump border czar Tom Homan reacted to news of death threats against Trump nominees on Wednesday and said he now takes the death threats he has previously received seriously.
“I have not taken this serious up to this point,” Homan told Fox News anchor Gillian Turner on “The Story” on Wednesday, referring to previous death threats made against him and his family.
“Now that I know what’s happened in the last 24 hours. I will take it a little more serious. But look, I’ve been dealing with this. When I was the ICE director in the first administration, I had numerous death threats. I had a security detail with me all the time. Even after I retired, death threats continued and even after I retired as the ICE Director. I had U.S. Marshals protection for a long time to protect me and my family.”
Homan explained that what “doesn’t help” the situation is the “negative press” around Trump.
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“I’m not in the cabinet, but, you know, I’ve read numerous hit pieces. I mean, you know, I’m a racist and, you know, I’m the father of family separation, all this other stuff. So the hate media doesn’t help at all because there are some nuts out there. They’ll take advantage. So that doesn’t help.”
Homan’s comments come shortly after Fox News Digital first reported that nearly a dozen of President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and other appointees tapped for the incoming administration were targeted Tuesday night with “violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” prompting a “swift” law enforcement response.
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The “attacks ranged from bomb threats to ‘swatting,’” according to Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman and incoming White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” she told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “In response, law enforcement acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted. President Trump and the entire Transition team are grateful for their swift action.”
Sources told Fox News Digital that John Ratcliffe, the nominee to be CIA director, Pete Hegseth, the nominee for secretary of defense, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, the nominee for UN ambassador, were among those targeted. Brooke Rollins, who Trump has tapped to be secretary of agriculture, and Lee Zeldin, Trump’s nominee to be EPA administrator, separately revealed they were also targeted.
Threats were also made against Trump’s Labor Secretary nominee, GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, and former Trump attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz’s family.
Homan told Fox News that he is “not going to be intimidated by these people” and “I’m not going to let them silence me.”
“What I’ve learned today I’ll start taking a little more serious.”
Homan added that he believes “we need to have a strong response once we find out is behind all this.”
“It’s illegal to threaten someone’s life. And we need to follow through with that.”
The threats on Tuesday night came mere months after Trump survived two assassination attempts.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report
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