Connect with us

Politics

Who needs Trump or Harris? In hotly contested states, it was time for football

Published

on

Who needs Trump or Harris? In hotly contested states, it was time for football

A bird beak perched on his nose, a Philadelphia Eagles’ fan expressed his disdain for the day’s opponent by dragging a Jacksonville Jaguars helmet on the ground by a leash.

Nearly 1,000 miles northwest, green and yellow Green Bay Packers flags punctured the otherwise dreary, rainy gray skies, as the Wisconsin faithful replaced their trademark cheesehead hats with ponchos and tried to stay dry under pop-up tents before their contest with the Detroit Lions.

On Sunday, two days before the election, in two of the nation’s most closely divided states that will determine control of the White House, football took center stage for fans who also happen to be voters.

Over cheesesteaks and Yuengling beer in Philadelphia and an inordinate variety of sausages and Miller Lite cans in Green Bay, fans were trying to put their election anxiety on hold for a few hours of tailgating and four quarters of football.

Watching the game in person meant they could escape the nonstop attack ads that have blanketed battleground states for months with increasing intensity ahead of election day on Tuesday.

Advertisement

“I stopped watching TV, and it’s almost impossible to listen to the radio, because you want to try to try to get a moment of peace, and you just can’t get it,” said Tim Ellsworth, 63, who lives in a suburb of Green Bay and was tailgating across from Lambeau Field.

The retiree, who previously ran paper mills, is a supporter of former President Trump, but he’s sick of the politicking by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“It’s just who can lie more? You can’t believe any of it from either side. It’s just pathetic on either side,” he said.

A friend and fellow Packers-Trump fan whom he had been tailgating with since 10 a.m. unsteadily waved a bottle of beer and showed off rounds of spent shotgun shells to a reporter before asking Ellsworth what Trump had lied about.

“It’s all the way through,” Ellsworth replied. “All the way. At the Senate level, down to the local, state levels. They’re lying. So I just look forward to Tuesday.”

Advertisement

Dave Schofield, who wore the Eagle beak on his nose outside Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, said he is anxious that Trump is blowing the election because “he can’t keep his mouth shut.”

“Some of the things he says, it’s all right to say it at a bar with your buddies, but you don’t say that stuff out loud,” said Schofield, a 63-year-old chemical salesman.

But Schofield and his friends weren’t stewing or scanning the latest polling averages on Sunday.

“Everybody’s worried more about the game today,” said his friend Everett Terry, a 65-year-old police officer who posted a “Trump Safety/Kamala Crime” placard on his truck. On Monday, he said, they can get wound up about politics again, then wait like everyone else for Tuesday’s results.

Despite the country’s political polarization, many people in these tailgate groups weren’t even sure who their football friends were supporting.

Advertisement

Mike Warren, a 67-year-old human resources worker from Philadelphia, supports Vice President Kamala Harris.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles times)

“We’re here to talk about the Eagles,” said Mike Warren, a 67–year old supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris in the same tailgate group as Schofield and Terry.

Warren was more eager to show off the green illustrations on the van he bought this year with his brother, with images of LeSean McCoy and other Eagles legends making spectacular catches.

Advertisement

But underneath, Warren is also scared.

Trump “will go against whatever the rules say that he should do,” said Warren, who works in human resources. “The majority says one thing, he disagrees. He finds a way to get around it. That’s what scares me.”

Steve Rostloch, a 41-year-old carpet installer from Mequon near Milwaukee, is a Harris supporter and said he expected to her to win.

“She’s a woman. Women always win,” he said. “I ain’t voting for that idiot.”

But if Eagle and Packers fans shared anything, it’s the recognition that Trump and Harris remain neck and neck.

Advertisement

“I’m hoping Trump wins, but I don’t know. This is tough to say. I mean, it seems like it’s very close in so many places,” Cyle Wanek, 42, said outside Lambeau Field.

Four people standing beside a meat grill under a tent

Cyle Wanek, left, and his family attend a tailgate party outside Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.

(Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times)

Wanek grew up so close to Lambeau that he could hear the crowds roaring as a child. His dad entered the family into the season-ticket lottery more than two decades ago. They finally got their season tickets last year.

Grilling cheddar wieners from Konop Meats near Stangelville — “Go there for meat!” Wanek advised — the aluminum foundry worker said he predicted the Packers would win by 20 but was uncertain who is going to prevail on Tuesday. (His prediction would prove as suspect as some polls.)

Advertisement

Camaraderie among fans of rival teams was also on display Sunday, though with a sharp dose of ribbing.

Mike Kleczka, 60, and his wife, Debbie, a nurse, grew up in Wisconsin. They live in Kansas, but said it was nice to take their mind of politics for a few hours as they tailgated with their daughter Rachel and her husband before the game.

Four people seated in jackets at a tailgate party

Rachel Forgie, left, Debbie Kleczka, Mike Kleczka and Josh Forgie attend a tailgate party outside Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis.

(Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times)

“It is, because we’ll be back at it tomorrow, right?” Kleczka, a direct marketer, said.

Advertisement

While the family largely agrees on politics, the bigger rift is sports. Rachel, 23, married Josh Forgie, 26, a Michigan native who was wearing a blue Lions jersey in the sea of Packer green and yellow. They have had some interesting conversations around the dinner table, they chuckled.

“The Lions have kind of been easy to make fun of,” Kleczka said.

Forgie smiled as he shot back, “The five games we played you guys? We won.”

(This was a few hours before the Lions once again beat the Packers 24-14.)

In Philadelphia and Green Bay, overt political displays were rare, though

Advertisement

Tim Biegalski, a 26-year-old contractor from King of Prussia, Pa., wore the closest thing to a political jersey, a green shirt with a “Hurts/Barkley ’24” logo. For the uninitiated, that’s the team’s quarterback and running back, Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley.

Tim Biegalski, 26, wearing a green shirt that reads "Hurts/Barkley '24"

Tim Biegalski, 26, is a contractor from King of Prussia, Pa. He supports Trump but would rather have an Eagles Super Bowl if he could only have that or a Trump victory.

(Noah Bierman / Los Angeles times)

He’s voting for Trump, after supporting President Biden four years ago and Trump in 2016, but calls this year’s election “a no-win situation.”

Biegalski hopes Trump wins. But unlike most fans asked whether they would prefer a White House or a Super Bowl victory, Biegalski said if he had to choose — in a city so passionate about sports that it was home to the first NFL stadium to have a jail built into in its bowels — he’d rather have another Eagles championship.

Advertisement

“Super Bowl all day,” he said. “That will bring more joy than the election.”

Bierman reported from Philadelphia, Mehta from Green Bay.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Politics

A fateful night in Monterey: Drinking, conservative banter, sexual assault allegations involving Pete Hegseth

Published

on

A fateful night in Monterey: Drinking, conservative banter, sexual assault allegations involving Pete Hegseth

On the afternoon of Oct. 12, 2017, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente called the Monterey Police Department to report that a patient had come in for a sexual assault exam.

The woman, the nurse told police, said she had been sexually assaulted four days earlier while at a Republican women’s conference at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa in the coastal California resort town.

The alleged assailant — though his name wouldn’t be revealed immediately — was a popular Fox News Channel host and the keynote speaker at the conference.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe in police reports, told the nurse she wasn’t sure she wanted to involve authorities and didn’t want to disclose the person’s name at that point. She had been suffering from nightmares and bouts of sobbing after returning home from the conference, but had little memory of the sexual encounter. She feared she had been drugged. The woman, who has not been identified publicly, could not be reached for comment by The Times.

The nurse referred the woman to an emergency room for a sexual assault forensic exam. But the nurse’s call — made as a mandated reporter — triggered a law enforcement investigation that included interviews with hotel staff, a review of surveillance video, discussions with several of the woman’s associates and a conversation with the alleged perpetrator, Pete Hegseth, who assured police the encounter had been consensual.

Advertisement

No charges were ever filed. Monterey County Dist. Atty. Jeannine M. Pacioni said no charges were supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The two parties eventually reached a private settlement, after which Doe signed a nondisclosure agreement.

The story seemed to end there — until Donald Trump nominated Hegseth to be Defense secretary. Now that night in Monterey has become the centerpiece in what could be one of the most contentious Senate confirmation fights in years.

In recent days, a police report on the incident and other details have offered a clearer picture about the allegations. But much remains unknown, including why local prosecutors decided not to file charges against Hegseth.

Shortly after the president-elect’s announcement of Hegseth’s nomination, a friend of the woman wrote a memo to Trump’s transition team saying that Hegseth had raped the then-30-year-old conservative group staffer in his hotel room in the early morning hours after a banquet dinner at the California Federation of Republican Women conference.

In response, Hegseth confirmed the financial settlement, saying through his lawyer that he had agreed to pay the woman to protect his job at Fox. But he vehemently denied committing assault. The woman, Hegseth’s lawyer said in a statement, “was the aggressor in initiating sexual activity.” Hegseth had been “visibly intoxicated” at the after-party in the hotel bar, the lawyer said, and the woman had “led him by the arm to his hotel room.”

Advertisement

“The matter was fully investigated, and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it,” Hegseth told reporters at the Capitol on Thursday.

Revelations of the incident have set off a firestorm, both in Washington and among members of the California Federation of Republican Women.

Pete Hegseth

(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

Advertisement

The federation is a nonprofit advocacy group composed mostly of retirees. Its members gather for luncheons, conferences and fundraisers to hear Republican politicians speak about conservative issues.

Many in the group were horrified that a favored conservative Republican Cabinet pick could be hurt by allegations.

“This thing is so f— bogus,” one of the organization’s officers yelled before hanging up on a Times reporter who called for comment.

This week, the Monterey Police Department released a redacted 22-page report detailing its investigation, including accounts of the recollections of Doe and Hegseth, along with several other attendees. Though police reports are typically not public in California, the document had been released because Hegseth had previously asked for a copy.

The police report offers the most complete picture yet of what occurred at the Monterey hotel on Oct. 7-8, 2017.

Advertisement

On the second day of the three-day gathering, Doe took a break in her hotel room where she was staying with her husband and at least one of her small children before the banquet dinner and keynote speech — the last major scheduled event of the conference — began at 6 p.m., according to text messages and sources with knowledge of the event.

Forty-five minutes later she texted with her husband from the banquet. The conversation turned to Hegseth.

“Our ladies are freaking drooling over him,” she wrote. She sent a photo of Hegseth standing at a podium holding a microphone and gesturing with his hand as he spoke.

“He doesn’t look even remotely familiar,” she said. “But apparently all the women know who he is.”

She continued: “He wears a ring on his pointer finger. It creeps me out.” She lamented that the event was taking so long.

Advertisement

After the banquet, the woman went to an after-party in another federation member’s hotel suite, where she had a glass of champagne. Hegseth was there too. A federation member who was there told police later that the woman “did not seem intoxicated, but had a buzz” at the event.

Around midnight, Doe, Hegseth and a second woman walked toward Knuckles, the sports bar in the hotel. Inside the bar, which has since closed, televisions and football helmets lined the walls. She texted her husband an update, saying that she was headed to the bar with a group of ladies. “Omg I have so much to tell you. This Pete dude is a … toooool,” she wrote.

While they were drinking at the bar, Hegseth allegedly put his hand on another woman’s knee. She told police that she made it clear it was “not acceptable,” but he still invited her to his room. She declined, according to the report.

Monterey's Cannery Row

Monterey’s Cannery Row

(Zen Rial/Getty Images)

Advertisement

The same woman tried to get Doe’s attention so she could act as a “crotch blocker” to deter Hegseth’s sexual advances, according to the report.

Doe told police that her memory started to get “fuzzy” while she was at the bar.

Around 1:30 a.m., Doe argued with Hegseth near the hotel pool about his behavior with women at the conference. He responded that he was a “nice guy,” according to the report. She later told investigators that Hegseth would rub women on their legs and she thought his actions were inappropriate.

A hotel employee who had been working that night told an investigator that guests had called the front desk to complain about two people causing a disturbance by the swimming pool about 1:30 a.m. The employee said that when he approached Hegseth and Doe, Hegseth cursed at him and said that he “had freedom of speech,” the report states. The woman intervened and said that “they were Republicans and apologized for Hegseth’s actions,” it said.

The staffer said the woman was “standing on her own and very coherent,” while Hegseth was “very intoxicated,” according to the report.

Advertisement

Doe placed her hand and arm on Hegseth’s back and escorted him toward the building where his room was, the employee told police. Hegseth later told an investigator he didn’t remember being chastised by the pool.

In the early morning hours, Doe’s husband sent her a text message: “Holy smokes lady…I don’t remember the last time you were socializing at nearly 2:00 a.m.” She responded, “Hahaha I know. I gotta make sure that to” — ending midsentence — and then stopped texting.

Her husband wrote back: “Doing ok? My love? Worried about you.”

Around 2 a.m. her husband went looking for Doe at Knuckles, but no one was there, he told investigators.

Doe next recalled being in a hotel room alone with Hegseth. She had her phone in her hand and Hegseth asked her who she was texting before taking her phone, she told police. She tried to leave the room, according to the report, but Hegseth blocked the door. She remembered saying “no” a lot, she told police.

Advertisement
Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of Defense, speaks with reporters in Washington on Thursday.

Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of Defense, speaks with reporters in Washington on Thursday.

(Rod Lamkey/Associated Press)

Her next memory, she told police, was lying on a bed or couch with Hegseth’s dog tags hovering over her face. She said he ejaculated on her stomach, threw a towel at her and said to “clean it up” before asking her whether she was OK, according to the report.

Hegseth recalled the situation differently in an interview with authorities.

He told police that Doe led him to his hotel room, where things progressed between the two of them, according to the report. There was “always” conversation and “always” consensual contact between himself and Doe, he told police.

Advertisement

Hegseth recalled Doe displaying “early signs of regret” after the incident and said she would tell her husband she fell asleep on a couch in someone else’s room, according to the report.

Around 4 a.m., Doe returned to her hotel room and explained to her husband that she “must have fallen asleep.” She told police she didn’t start remembering what happened between her and Hegseth until she returned home the next day.

Continue Reading

Politics

Ric Grenell under consideration to be Trump's point man on Ukraine: report

Published

on

Ric Grenell under consideration to be Trump's point man on Ukraine: report

Richard “Ric” Grenell, the former acting director of National Intelligence in President-elect Trump’s first administration, is reportedly under consideration to be special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Currently, there is no special envoy responsible for bringing an end to the war in Eastern Europe. Trump is strongly considering whether to create the role, Reuters reported, citing four sources familiar with the president’s deliberations.

If he does create the new position, Grenell is said to be a leading candidate, though Trump may select someone else, the sources told Reuters. There is also no guarantee that Grenell would accept the position if it were offered to him, the sources reportedly said. 

HERE ARE THE MOST TALKED-ABOUT CANDIDATES FOR TOP POSTS IN TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION

Ric Grenell, former acting director of National Intelligence, during the closing campaign event with former US President Donald Trump, not pictured, at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (Sarah Rice/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Advertisement

Fox News Digital was previously told Grenell was under consideration to be U.S. Secretary of State. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was instead named to lead the State Department.

Neither Grenell nor the Trump transition team responded to requests for comment. 

GET TO KNOW DONALD TRUMP’S CABINET: WHO HAS THE PRESIDENT-ELECT PICKED SO FAR?

Richard Grenell participates in roundtable with Sen. Mike Lee, President Trump and radio host Glenn Beck.

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence of the U.S. Richard Grenell, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), U.S. Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump and conservative radio host Glenn Beck participate in a private roundtable discussion during a campaign rally at Findlay Toyota Center on October 13, 2024, in Prescott Valley, Arizona. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)

Trump repeatedly made campaign promises to quickly resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, if elected, although he has never laid out a specific plan to end the war.

Grenell, an outspoken Trump loyalist, has made statements in the past that may be of concern to Ukrainian leadership.

Advertisement

‘NEW’ RUSSIAN MISSILE USED AGAINST UKRAINE NOT HYPERSONIC, DEFENSE OFFICIALS SAY

Richard Grenell

Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell speaks on stage on the third day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum on July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

During a Bloomberg round table in July, he advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” as a means of settling the conflict, which began after Russia invaded Ukrainian sovereign territory. He also suggested he would not be in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the immediate future, a position he shares with many Trump allies.

Grenell’s supporters note he has had a long diplomatic career and has a deep knowledge of European affairs. In addition to serving as ambassador to Germany, Grenell was also a special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Prior to working for the first Trump administration, Grenell was a U.S. State Department spokesman to the United Nations under President George W. Bush. He has advised various Republican candidates and was a foreign policy spokesman for Mitt Romney during the 2012 presidential campaign.

Advertisement

Grenell was previously a Fox News contributor. 

Reuters contributed to this report.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Politics

Column: Trump lied incessantly and still won. Should others do the same?

Published

on

Column: Trump lied incessantly and still won. Should others do the same?

Donald Trump said violent crime was exploding across the U.S.

It wasn’t.

He said Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were “eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats.”

They weren’t.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Agency diverted disaster relief money to fund benefits for people in the country illegally.

Advertisement

It hadn’t.

Trump lied incessantly and extravagantly in his bumptious bid for president, after racking up more than 30,500 false or misleading statements during four years in the White House, according to fact-checkers at the Washington Post.

Trump won anyway. Some voters might even have backed him because of his relentless falsehoods.

Which raises several questions.

Is honesty, as in telling the truth, no longer a requirement for seeking and holding public office? Has veracity become one of those quaint relics of a bygone era, like straw boaters and torchlight parades? Should candidates of any and every persuasion feel free to emulate Trump and lie their heads off?

Advertisement

Maybe.

Not necessarily.

First, before we go on, an obligatory nod to the what-about chorus. Yes, politicians of all stripes have been known to lie, fib or shade the truth. It’s been ever thus. But no one in modern memory has done so with the velocity, shamelessness and torrential outpouring of Trump.

Indeed, there may be some hope and comfort in the notion the 45th and soon-to-be 47th president of these United States is sui generis, a one-off, a fabulist political unicorn.

As Kevin Madden, a veteran Republican communications strategist noted, Trump “was a celebrity first and a politician second” after marinating for decades in New York’s saucy tabloid culture, then residing in America’s living rooms as a make-believe boardroom baron in “The Apprentice.”

Advertisement

Simply put, Trump has never been viewed the same way other office seekers are, which is arguably his greatest strength. Even after nearly a decade in which he’s utterly dominated the nation’s political discourse — four of them in its highest elected office — many still don’t see Trump as a politician.

“He’s a unique figure with a unique set of capabilities that defy gravity,” Madden said, and any imitators would find themselves quickly plummeting to earth. “He blocks out the sun against any of his critics. He controls the media cycle with one click on his phone, with one sound bite every single day.”

Does truth even matter?

“Truth always matters,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster and strategist, who said any client thinking otherwise would be shown the door. “That doesn’t mean it always prevails, but it always matters. Reality matters.”

And yet.

Advertisement

An NBC News survey, taken in mid-October, showed Democrat Kamala Harris holding a 10-point lead over Trump on the question of which candidate was viewed as honest and trustworthy. The findings were consistent with other polls conducted throughout the Trump era.

Even so, Trump didn’t just win a second lease on the White House, sweeping all seven of the decisive battleground states. He is on track to narrowly win the popular vote, something he failed to manage in either of his previous two presidential campaigns.

Christine Matthews, a pollster for center-right campaigns and causes, has researched Trump‘s political appeal.

Although certain facts are objectively true — about the crime rate falling, about Haitians not devouring household pets, and so on — Matthews said those truths weren’t necessarily getting through to Trump supporters who took in their information “through highly siloed, very fractured sources. In some cases it’s social media, or memes. It’s YouTube. It’s TikTok. It’s ‘what people are saying.’ ”

And even if they saw Trump’s deceptions for what they were, Matthews said, those inclined to support the GOP nominee — out of concern for inflation, border security or because they didn’t like Harris’ policies or her laugh — found plenty of reasons to excuse his hyperbole and outright lies. Such as: “He exaggerates. He’s a loudmouth. He says things, but he doesn’t really mean them.”

Advertisement

That sound you hear is a thousand fact-checkers, weeping.

Joe Trippi, who has spent decades managing Democratic campaigns from the local to presidential levels, said the party and its candidates can no longer count on conventional media — the three major broadcast networks, CNN, MSNBC, newspapers such as this one — or most social media to counter the lies and distortions billowing from Fox News, Elon Musk’s execrable X or other assertively pro-Trump outlets.

“Journalism and a party that relies on buying ads to combat the lies doesn’t work,” said Trippi, who has started his own social media platform, Sez Us, in hopes of boosting a media ecosystem that elevates civility, credibility and truth-telling.

Jane Kirtley is a professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota, who’s spent years writing about those subjects.

She said the erosion of truth-telling standards and the rise of what Kellyanne Conway, the Trump advisor, famously called “alternative facts” have been a long time coming. “The issue goes back decades in terms of lack of media literacy, lack of critical thinking, platforms that are now viewed by many as news delivery systems when they’re little more than propaganda,” Kirtley said.

Advertisement

Despite the challenges — shrinking audiences, political antagonism, a dire economic landscape — she said independent media must continue “to call out lies and call them lies, if that’s what they are” and, whenever possible, refute them “with concrete evidence.”

But she has no illusions. Kirtley has a relative, she said, who shuts down any familial fact-checking by stating, “ ‘I have other sources of information than you do.’” And that ends the discussion.

“It may be insurmountable, and if that’s true, we may as well give up,” Kirtley said of efforts to fight truth decay and make politicians pay a price for flagrantly lying. “But I’m not quite ready to give up.”

Neither am I.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Trending