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Koch Network, Aiming to ‘Turn the Page’ on Trump, Will Play in the G.O.P. Primaries

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Koch Network, Aiming to ‘Turn the Page’ on Trump, Will Play in the G.O.P. Primaries

The donor community created by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles G. and David H. Koch is making ready to get entangled within the presidential primaries in 2024, with the intention of turning “the web page on the previous” in a thinly veiled rebuke of former President Donald J. Trump, in response to an inner memo.

The community, which consists of an array of political and advocacy teams backed by a whole bunch of ultrawealthy conservatives, has been among the many most influential forces in American politics over the previous 15 years, spending practically $500 million supporting Republican candidates and conservative insurance policies within the 2020 election cycle alone. But it surely has by no means earlier than supported candidates in presidential primaries.

The potential transfer in opposition to Mr. Trump might inspire donors to line up behind one other potential candidate. To this point, solely the previous president has entered the race.

The memo is about to exit to the affiliated activists and donors after a weekend convention in Palm Springs, Calif., the place the community’s leaders laid out their objectives for the subsequent presidential election cycle. At numerous classes, they made clear they deliberate to get entangled in primaries for numerous places of work, and early.

“The Republican Celebration is nominating unhealthy candidates who’re advocating for issues that go in opposition to core American ideas,” the memo declares. “And the American individuals are rejecting them.” It asserts that Democrats are responding with “insurance policies that additionally go in opposition to our core American ideas.”

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The memo’s creator is Emily Seidel, chief govt of the lead nonprofit group within the community, People for Prosperity, and an adviser to an affiliated tremendous PAC. However the ideas sketched out within the memo are anticipated to use to another teams within the community, which is now often called “Stand Collectively.”

People for Prosperity’s tremendous PAC spent practically $80 million through the 2022 midterm elections, however that’s probably only a fraction of the community’s general spending, a lot of which was undertaken by nonprofit teams that won’t be required to disclose their funds till this fall.

One of many classes realized from major campaigns within the 2022 midterm election cycle, the memo says, in boldface, “is that the loudest voice in every political social gathering units the tone for the complete election. In a presidential 12 months, that’s the presidential candidate.”

It continues, “And to write down a brand new chapter for our nation, we have to flip the web page on the previous. So the perfect factor for the nation can be to have a president in 2025 who represents a brand new chapter. The American individuals have proven that they’re prepared to maneuver on, and so A.F.P. will assist them try this.”

Although the memo didn’t point out Mr. Trump’s identify, leaving open the chance that the community might fall in behind him if he received the Republican nomination, its references to a “new chapter” and leaving the previous behind had been unmistakable.

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Mr. Trump’s early entry into the race, in November, has largely frozen the sector. The one different candidate anticipated to get into the race quickly is Nikki Haley, the previous governor of South Carolina, whose allies, regardless of her work because the U.N. ambassador beneath Mr. Trump, have forged her as a change from the previous.

The Koch community publicly opposed a few of Mr. Trump’s insurance policies, together with tariffs he imposed as president, although it labored together with his administration on an overhaul of the prison justice system that slashed some sentences.


How Occasions reporters cowl politics. We depend on our journalists to be impartial observers. So whereas Occasions employees members could vote, they aren’t allowed to endorse or marketing campaign for candidates or political causes. This consists of taking part in marches or rallies in help of a motion or giving cash to, or elevating cash for, any political candidate or election trigger.

If the community had been to unite behind an alternative choice to Mr. Trump, it might give that candidate an incredible increase, given the sources at its disposal, which at occasions have rivaled — and even surpassed — these of the Republican Nationwide Committee.

It might even be a dramatic departure for the Koch community, which was launched by the Koch brothers throughout former President George W. Bush’s administration as an effort to reorient the Republican Celebration and American politics round their libertarian-infused conservatism.

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And it comes at a second when quite a lot of the social gathering’s most prolific donors have remained on the sidelines, with a Republican major discipline that has but to take form.

The community has had ties to former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s taking steps that might result in a presidential marketing campaign. And a few main donors have expressed curiosity in Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who can be weighing a possible marketing campaign. But when Mr. DeSantis enters the race, he’s probably months away from doing so, in response to individuals acquainted with his considering.

“It appears just like the Democrats have already chosen their path for the presidential — so there’s no alternative to have a optimistic impression there,” the memo says. People for Prosperity’s tremendous PAC “is ready to help a candidate within the Republican presidential major who can lead our nation ahead, and who can win.”

Plenty of massive donors who backed Mr. Trump in 2016 and 2020 have but to say they are going to accomplish that once more. Different teams of donors, equivalent to these belonging to the hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer’s American Alternative Alliance, which overlaps with the Koch community, are additionally largely on the sidelines to this point.

It might be simpler for the Koch community to resolve to oppose Mr. Trump than to agree on an alternate.

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In previous election cycles, the ideological range of the community’s donors, in addition to the Kochs’ dedication to their very own ideology, have been impediments to uniting behind a single presidential candidate.

Whereas Charles Koch is essentially the most distinguished determine within the community — his brother David started stepping again from it earlier than his demise in 2019 — it attracts its affect partly from its capacity to pool sources from an array of main donors who characterize typically divergent wings of the Republican Celebration, together with noninterventionists, overseas coverage hawks and non secular conservatives.

Maybe the closest the community got here to wading right into a Republican presidential nominating context was in 2016, when it was pressured by some donors and operatives to again an opponent of Mr. Trump, who was seen as anathema to the Kochs’ restricted authorities, free-trade instincts.

However the community wavered. And one in every of its high operatives, Marc Quick, decamped for the presidential marketing campaign of Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who was considered by many Koch-aligned donors as having the perfect probability to defeat Mr. Trump, however whose hawkish instincts ran afoul of the Kochs.

The community remained largely on the sidelines of the 2016 presidential race after Mr. Trump received the Republican nomination: Charles Koch at one level in contrast having to resolve whether or not to help Mr. Trump or Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, to being requested to decide on between most cancers or a coronary heart assault.

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It continued to sit down out presidential politics in 2020, when Mr. Koch expressed remorse over the community’s monetary backing of Republicans and proclaimed that it had “deserted partisanship” in favor of bipartisan efforts like overhauling the prison justice system.

The community rejects the concept that it retreated from politics altogether, nevertheless, noting within the memo that People for Prosperity engaged in additional major elections final 12 months — about 200 on the state and federal stage — than ever earlier than, and that the candidates it supported received in additional than 80 % of these races.

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Video: Biden Calls on Morehouse College Graduates to Defend Democracy

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Video: Biden Calls on Morehouse College Graduates to Defend Democracy

new video loaded: Biden Calls on Morehouse College Graduates to Defend Democracy

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Biden Calls on Morehouse College Graduates to Defend Democracy

In a commencement speech at Morehouse, the historically Black men’s college in Atlanta, President Biden condemned white supremacy and “extremist forces aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse.”

You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you. What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street? What is democracy if the trail of broken promises still leave Black communities behind? What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot? Well that’s my commitment to you. To show you democracy, democracy, democracy, is still the way. That Black men are being killed in the streets, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy. Graduates, this is what we’re up against: extremist forces aligned against the meaning and message of Morehouse. And they peddle a fiction, a caricature, of what being a man is about — tough talk, abusing power, bigotry. But that’s not you. It’s not us. You all know and demonstrate what it really means to be a man. Being a man is about strength of respect and dignity. It’s about showing up because it’s too late, if you have to ask. It’s about giving hate no safe harbor.

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Morehouse defends students, faculty who turned their backs during Biden speech: ‘We are proud’

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Morehouse defends students, faculty who turned their backs during Biden speech: ‘We are proud’

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Morehouse College is praising its students and faculty after at least seven graduates and one faculty member sat with their backs turned to President Biden as he delivered his commencement address at the Atlanta school earlier Sunday.

Morehouse said “peaceful assembly is core” to the school’s “social justice tradition,” and its administration “fully supports and defends the right to peacefully protest and the expression of one’s views openly.” 

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Given its most famous alumni, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse said it was “fitting that a moment of organized, peaceful, activism would occur on our campus while the world is watching to continue a critical conversation.” 

“We are proud of the resilient class of 2024’s unity in silent protest, showing their intentionality in strategy, communication, and coordination as a 412-person unit,” Morehouse said.

PHILADELPHIA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT REACTS AFTER AT LEAST 75 ANTI-ISRAEL PROTESTERS DESCEND ON CAMPUS

A faculty member raises a fist as President Biden speaks during the graduation ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The commencement came after weeks of nationwide campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza that, according to its Health Ministry, has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians. 

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Biden told the graduates of historically Black Morehouse College that he heard the voices of the protesters and that the scenes from Gaza break his heart, too. 

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” he told students at the all-male college, some who wore Palestinian scarves known as keffiyehs around their shoulders on top of their black graduation gowns. “Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.”

ANTI-ISRAEL AGITATORS ARRESTED AT UC IRVINE CLAIM TO BE PROFESSORS: ‘OUT HERE SUPPORTING MY STUDENTS’

Biden said there’s a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, “that’s why I’ve called for an immediate cease-fire to stop the fighting” and bring home hostages still being held by Hamas after its militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The president commented on the Middle East near the end of a commencement address in which he also reflected on American democracy and his role in safeguarding it.

The announcement that Biden would be Morehouse’s commencement speaker drew some backlash among the faculty and those who opposed the president’s handling of the war. Some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter condemning administrators for inviting Biden and solicited signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.

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Biden speaking at Morehouse College

President Biden speaks during the graduation ceremony at Morehouse College in Atlanta on May 19, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In the end, there were no disruptions of the Morehouse commencement, while applause for Biden was mostly subdued. At least seven graduates and one faculty member sat with their backs turned during Biden’s address, and another student draped himself in a Palestinian flag. Protesters near the ceremony carried signs that said “Free Palestine,” “Save the Children” and “Ceasefire Now” as police on bikes kept watch.

On stage behind the president as he spoke, academics unfurled a Congolese flag. The African country has been mired in a civil war, and many racial justice advocates have called for greater attention to the conflict as well as American help in ending the violence.

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CNN mourns death of political commentator Alice Stewart

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CNN mourns death of political commentator Alice Stewart

CNN paid tribute to longtime Republican political commentator Alice Stewart who was found dead Saturday in the Belle View neighborhood in northern Virginia.

Law enforcement told the network they did not suspect foul play in the death of Stewart, 58, whose body was discovered outdoors. CNN said police believe she suffered a medical emergency.

Stewart’s death left her colleagues at CNN stunned and saddened. Anchor Jake Tapper called it “an unspeakable loss” during Sunday’s edition of “State of the Union.”

While Stewart worked for staunchly conservative Republican candidates, Tapper noted she had deep friendships with people on the other side of the political spectrum.

Ashley Allison, a Democratic political commentator on the program, held back tears as she described their off-camera connection. She said the two grew close following a heated exchange on CNN over the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.

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Allison said she reluctantly accepted Stewart’s invitation for a drink after the discussion. They eventually became close friends and trained together for a marathon.

“That night we got to know each other for who we were and it wasn’t about politics,” she said. “She was a good person and I loved her and I’m really going to miss her.”

Stewart was a former local TV anchor who moved into politics when she became communications director for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. She held the same position on Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign and served in a similar capacity for GOP presidential aspirants Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

Stewart often called for civility during the 2016 campaign when Cruz faced harsh attacks from former President Donald Trump.

“That was always Alice,” Tapper said. “She was all about civility and all about kindness.”

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She joined CNN ahead of the 2016 presidential election and had been a regular presence since. Her last appearance was Friday on “The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer.”

“Alice was a friend and colleague to all of us at CNN,” CNN Chairman Mark Thompson said in a statement. “A political veteran and an Emmy Award-winning journalist who brought an incomparable spark to CNN’s coverage, known across our bureaus not only for her political savvy, but for her unwavering kindness. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn such an extraordinary loss.”

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