U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

So much for the false propaganda that Biden has "low poll numbers". Biden easily beats Trump in this 2024 Republican poll with even bigger victory than in 2020. 3 new polls show Biden winning by a wide margin, and the so called "liberal media" isn't even talking about it,  but they spent last week hyping a bogus outlier poll that didn't even poll registered or likely voters.   




Biden stretches lead over Trump as independents turn away from former president

Joe Biden has increased his lead over Donald Trump according to a new opinion poll that says the president would expand his 2020 margin of victory over the former president Trump if a rematch were held now.

The poll showed independent voters backing Biden by 14 percentage points, up from the nine percentage points by which the Democrats won independents three years ago.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/1771650/Biden-leads-Trump-independents-snub-former-president

[Rick Plant]

President Biden @POTUS

We've arrived in Japan.
 
I look forward to further strengthening the U.S.-Japan Alliance — the cornerstone of peace and security in the Indo-Pacific and around the world.

It's a pleasure seeing my friend Prime Minister Kishida Fumio again.

Last year in Japan, Prime Minister Kishida said to me: “We are two nations that share fundamental values.”

I couldn’t agree with him more.

These shared Democratic values are the source of our strength, our Alliance, and our ability to deliver for all our people.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1659226086515920897


My thanks to the men and women of the United States Military and the Japan Self-Defense Forces for a warm welcome.






Together with Prime Minister @kishida230, the United States and Japan are working toward a more peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
 
Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your partnership – we’re proud to stand with you.

The United States-Japan partnership will help guarantee a more peaceful and stable world for future generations.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1659243702676488192


It was great to meet with Prime Minister Kishida again to advance cooperation on the challenges facing our nations and globe.

We’re strengthening our partnerships on technology, clean energy, and our supply chains – and our economies and people will be better off for it.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1659325490774134786

[Rick Plant]

Trump always feuded with major American companies. But it was always just for show, a distraction. DeSantis thought he was copying Trump by feuding with Disney. What DeSantis didn't understand is that if you actually draw blood, a major corporation like Disney will bite back.

From day one DeSantis has been trying to copy the Trump playbook without understanding it. The Trump playbook is fairly useless to begin with, given that it led to Trump losing in 2020 by seven million votes. But DeSantis can't even replicate Trump's limited success with it.

It's not that difficult to understand why Trump used the strategies that he did, why those strategies worked to the extent that they did, and why they stopped working for Trump as time went on. But DeSantis doesn't appear to grasp any of that.

Ron DeSantis is a dummy with zero political savvy who can't even figure out how to copy the simplistic moves of his one-trick pony predecessor. This isn't something new; he's been this far over in his head from the start.

The astounding part continues to be that the entire mainstream media (on both sides) spent a couple years excitedly portraying DeSantis as if he were a smarter and more disciplined version of Trump. All you had to do was watch DeSantis to know all along that this was never true.


'No one is afraid of him': Opponents say DeSantis is not considered a serious challenger



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to formally launch his presidential campaign next week, has tried to cast the Republican primary race as a two-man contest between himself and former President Donald Trump — a sentiment backed by national polling that suggests DeSantis is an underdog but the only candidate with double digit numbers consistently against the former president.

But according to Rolling Stone, other Republican presidential hopefuls aren't interested in bowing out to let DeSantis face Trump alone.

"Just Thursday, [DeSantis] told donors ... that 'you have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,' meaning, 'Biden, Trump, and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president: Biden and me,'" wrote Asawin Suebsaeng and Patrick Reis. However, "According to seven GOP operatives and pollsters supporting 2024 contenders other than Trump or DeSantis, the other contenders — including declared and likely candidates such as Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, and Chris Christie — now believe DeSantis is, in their estimations, 'a paper tiger' whose less-than-stellar performance in his 'shadow campaign' has convinced them he can be torn down as the 'only' non-Trump alternative. And that belief, the operatives say, has only grown in recent weeks, as DeSantis’ poll numbers have wavered."

One GOP donor put his opinion on DeSantis bluntly in conversation with Rolling Stone: "No one is afraid of him."

"Despite Team DeSantis’ repeated vows that this is not 2016, it appears the other 2024 Republicans are banking on a primary melee that looks exactly like what the Florida governor wants to avoid," said the report. "'The spring and early summer after [DeSantis’ 2024] announcement will generate some positive headlines and calm down some donor nerves, but the candidate’s retail skills and relatability and organizational issues — which have all been raised to date — probably aren’t going to get fixed in that span,' says one operative linked to a Super PAC backing a different 2024 GOP contender. 'The best-funded, most competent political organization in the world can’t make up for the fundamental limitations of the candidate. That is why a lot of people in this business have been DeSantis skeptics for a long time.'"

This comes amid a number of controversies for DeSantis, including his enactment of an extreme abortion ban that goes further than restrictions that are already torturing women in his state, and a retaliatory war against Disney that has led to the state canceling thousands of jobs and $1 billion in investment.

Read More Here: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/ron-desantis-2024-presidential-campaign-donald-trump-mike-pence-unafraid-1234738569/



Top Budget Democrat slams 'pro-default' House Freedom Caucus as GOP halts debt ceiling talks



Hours after the far-right House Freedom Caucus demanded that Speaker Kevin McCarthy call off debt ceiling talks with President Joe Biden, GOP negotiators did just that on Friday as the two sides remained at an impasse over federal spending—which Republicans want to slash deeply—and other issues.

"It's time to press pause because it's just not productive," Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), McCarthy's handpicked lead negotiator, told reporters Friday without saying when or whether talks would resume.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) echoed Graves, saying, "Yeah, we've got to pause."

An unnamed White House official told the Associated Press Friday that additional talks "will be difficult" given the two sides' "real differences."

The abrupt halt to negotiations, which had yet to yield much if any substantive progress, came at a pivotal moment, with the June 1 "X-date" less than two weeks away.

"The nation is days away from a disastrous default crisis and the extreme MAGA Majority is splintering into camps of the unreasonable and the absurd," said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at the progressive group Accountable US.

"Republicans have made it clear they will hold the world economy hostage unless President Biden gives in to their demands."

Members of the House Freedom Caucus, a faction of dozens of Republicans that nearly denied McCarthy the speakership earlier this year, have signaled that they won't accept anything less than the extreme legislation the House GOP passed late last month.

If approved, that bill would impose devastating cuts to federal spending and kick millions of people off of federal nutrition assistance, Medicaid, rental assistance, and other programs while only raising the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion—or suspending it through March 2024.

"House Republicans did our job on debt ceiling," the Freedom Caucus tweeted Thursday. "It's time for President Biden and Senate Democrats to do theirs and pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act."

But the legislation in its current form has no chance of passing the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats. Progressives in the House and Senate have said they won't support any deal that includes the GOP's regressive spending caps or additional work requirements for federal aid programs.

Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said in response to the Freedom Caucus' statement that the far-right GOP faction is "pro-default," adding that "these MAGA extremists will not rest until they've either turned America into a deadbeat nation or imposed cruel cuts on American families."

"This is exactly why I filed a discharge petition to ensure we can avoid default, pay our bills, and save our economy," Boyle added.

But Boyle's discharge petition, which would force a House floor vote on legislation to raise the debt ceiling, is also a longshot solution to the Republican-induced crisis given that it needs at least five GOP votes.

"Let's be clear: this did not have to happen," Boyle said in a statement earlier this week. "By taking our economy hostage and refusing to address the debt ceiling, MAGA extremists have forced Congress to consider other pathways to meet our constitutional obligation—something Congress has done more than 100 times before on a bipartisan basis, including three times in the previous administration."

As an alternative to legislative action, nearly a dozen senators led by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are imploring Biden to get ready to invoke the 14th Amendment to avert a debt default, warning that Republicans aren't negotiating in good faith and are willing to wreck the global economy in pursuit of punishing austerity.

Biden aides are reportedly concerned about the legal fight that would certainly ensue if the president attempted to use his executive authority to end the standoff.

But Sanders reiterated his 14th Amendment message on Friday, writing on Twitter that "Republicans have made it clear they will hold the world economy hostage unless President Biden gives in to their demands."

"Instead," Sanders added, "he should prepare to use the 14th Amendment to ensure we pay our debts and protect working families who are already struggling."

https://www.rawstory.com/top-budget-democrat-slams-pro-default-house-freedom-caucus-as-gop-halts-debt-ceiling-talks/

[Rick Plant]

President Biden @POTUS

Today, my fellow G7 Leaders and I paid a visit to Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park where we paid our respects.

Watch: https://twitter.com/i/status/1659612416756400143


The G7 Leaders remain resolved to continue to stand with the Ukrainian people in the face of Putin’s war of choice against their sovereign nation.

In lockstep with my fellow G7 Leaders, we’ve placed on Russia the largest set of sanctions and export control actions ever imposed on a major economy.

Today, we're taking more action – disrupting Russia's ability to source inputs for its war, closing evasion loopholes, restricting their access to the international finance system, and reducing reliance on Russian energy.

Over the last fifteen months, the G7 has stood in solidarity with Ukraine – cutting Russia’s war machine off from key technologies and financing around the globe.
 
And today, the G7's solidarity with Ukraine is even stronger now than it was last year.



https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1659684104277729281


The G7 is more united than ever.





https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1659702979614629888

[Rick Plant]

The White House @WhiteHouse

Across the nation, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is replacing lead pipes to ensure access to clean and safe water for every American in every community.

Head over to http://build.gov to learn more.



https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1659604834998255617



The White House @WhiteHouse

Investing in America’s infrastructure investments builds bridges, expands clean energy, and creates good-paying jobs.
 
During Infrastructure Week, President Biden is highlighting the 32,000 specific projects and awards funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.



https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1659695428542115841



The White House @WhiteHouse

This week, the Administration celebrates 18 months of rebuilding our roads and bridges, replacing lead pipes, cleaning up legacy pollution, expanding access to high-speed internet, and ushering in a new era of clean energy – turning infrastructure week into infrastructure decade.



https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1659559540709367808

[Rick Plant]

Republicans still can't bring themselves to expel a criminal from their party. They keep protecting criminals just like they do for Donald Trump. Republicans are not serious about "law and order" or crime.


Effort to expel Santos falters as Republicans vote to send measure to Ethics Committee



WASHINGTON (AP) — A resolution to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from Congress was referred to the House Ethics Committee on Wednesday as Republicans successfully sidestepped an effort to force them into a vote that could have narrowed their already slim four-seat majority.

The House voted along party lines, 221-204, to refer the matter to the ethics panel, with Santos himself joining his GOP colleagues in voting to do so.

The freshman congressman has been charged with embezzling money from his campaign, falsely receiving unemployment funds and lying to Congress about his finances. He has denied the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., introduced a resolution in February to expel Santos, something the House has only done twice in recent decades. He sought to force a vote on that resolution under a process that left three options for Republicans: a vote on the resolution, a move to table, or a referral to committee.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy chose the third option, much to the chagrin of Democrats who described it as a “complete copout.” They noted that the ethics panel is already investigating Santos and that it was time for Republican House members who have called for Santos to resign to back their words with action.

“It is simply an effort for the Republicans to avoid having to take an up-or-down vote on whether or not George Santos belongs here,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y.

Santos made clear to reporters after the vote he has no intention of resigning. As he spoke on the Capitol steps, he was heckled by Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jamaal Bowman. Bowman yelled, “Resign, save yourself, have some dignity.”

“I understand that politics is complicated, but the reality is there is a procedure,” Santos said. “You can’t be judge, jury and executioner. I have a right, a constitutional right, to defend myself and I will do that. And I look forward to doing that. I look forward to seeing the process play out.”

Democrats appealed to Republican lawmakers from New York for support. Many have been highly critical of Santos, and face the prospect of Democrats trying to link them to Santos in next year’s general election.

“I say to you, if you vote for this motion to refer it to the Ethics Committee, you are complicit in George Santos’ fraud and you are voting to make sure that he continues to be a member of Congress,” Goldman said.

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., made the motion to refer the expulsion resolution to the ethics panel. He said he was personally in favor of Santos being expelled, but added that “regrettably,” there were not enough votes to meet the two-thirds threshold necessary.

"I firmly believe this is the quickest way of ridding the House of Representatives of this scourge on government,” D’Esposito said.

Republican leaders have said Santos deserves to have his day in court before Congress weighs in. The position Republican leaders have staked out generally follows the precedent that Congress has set in similar criminal cases over the years. The House has expelled just two members in recent decades, and both votes occurred after the lawmaker had been convicted on federal charges.

The Department of Justice often asks the ethics panel to pause its investigations when a member of Congress has been indicted, but there has been no announcement of that kind from the committee regarding Santos.

https://apnews.com/article/george-santos-congress-vote-expel-ethics-caed2b1fce3ebb86c87929f2de9fc03e



Kyrsten Sinema hammered in FEC complaint over campaign spending on her 'lifestyle of luxury'



The FEC is in receipt of a formal complaint levied against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) accusing of her using campaign donations to finance a lavish lifestyle that has nothing to do with the job voters sent her to Congress to do.

According to a report from AZCentral, the controversial lawmaker who recently abandoned the Democratic Party to become an independent, is being accused of spending campaign donations on "lavish” trips to London and Paris, with the group who filed the complaint calling for an investigation.

The report notes that Change for Arizona 2024, a PAC also known as Replace Sinema, wants the FEC to put the Arizona senator and her campaign expenditures under the microscope.

The complaint accuses her of "living a lifestyle of luxury financed by her special interest donors, to the detriment of her constituents in Arizona.”

According to Luis Avila, a senior adviser with Change for Arizona 2024, "We have been watching with growing concern the instances of Sinema abusing the power of her office, exploiting her campaign and Senate accounts for personal use. We now demand an official investigation into whether Sen. Sinema has broken the law."

The report notes, "Sinema and her allied PACs detailed spending at various luxurious hotels beginning in 2019 and continuing through at least 2022, the complaint notes. In all, there were 51 expenditures totaling nearly $36,000 to 17 hotels the complaint characterizes as 'luxury hotels, resorts and spas' in France, the United Kingdom and ski resorts in Colorado and Utah."

"Beyond Sinema’s travel expenses, the complaint notes nearly $20,000 in wine expenses, $9,000 in meal costs at expensive restaurants and 'an astonishing $45,000 in campaign and PAC Expenditures on chauffeured car services.' Sinema used campaign and official funds on charter air services totaling $70,000 over a 12-month span beginning in 2021,”reports AZCentral's Ronald Hansen.

The filing notes, "The fact that Respondents reported spending more money in Europe on Senator Sinema’s 2022 trip than she concurrently raised from donors strongly suggests that her fundraising was a cover for travel undertaken for personal benefit.”

Read More Here: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2023/05/19/senator-kyrsten-sinema-faces-complaint-of-indulgent-campaign-spending/70236623007/

[Rick Plant]

U.S. elections are changing, and it's benefitting Democrats: analysis



We all know that elections in the United States have changed since Donald Trump arrived on the political scene, but a report shows that those differences are often working to the benefit of Democrats, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

The Post analyzed data provided in a new report by the Democratic data analytics firm Catalist, which purports to provide a comprehensive analysis of the 2022 contest. Some of the findings from the report run counter to "conventional wisdom," according to Dan Balz, chief correspondent for the Post.

"The report finds that there were two elections in 2022: one in the highly contested states and another in states without competitive statewide contests," Balz wrote. "There was no national trend that produced swings across the board as in past elections. Where 2022 broke ranks with past midterm patterns, it favored Democrats."

Balz noted that, while Trump's 2016 victory changed the game, "Republicans have struggled since then."

"The 2018 election produced a century-high turnout for a midterm race along with a Democratic wave that knocked Republicans from power in the House," the reporter added. "The 2020 election produced the biggest vote total in the history of the United States, putting President Biden in the White House and giving Democrats a narrow majority in the Senate."

Then came the 2022 midterms, which served as the basis of the report.

"The 2022 midterm election was another stunner. It produced a sizable turnout again, short of 2018 in total votes but nonetheless substantial and, contrary to historical patterns, did not result in the kind of gains that the party out of power, in this case Republicans, had expected," Balz said. "There was no red wave. Republicans captured the House but with a far narrower majority than anticipated. Meanwhile, Democrats added one seat to their 50-50 Senate majority, defying Republican hopes of taking control of that chamber as well."

AFP



WHAT HAPPENED™ IN 2022

AN ANALYSIS OF THE 2022 MIDTERMS

This is the first in a series of reports on What Happened in the 2022 general election from the perspective of the Catalist voter database, the longest-running outside the two major political parties. This analysis examines national-level election results in the House and state-level results for Senate and gubernatorial races.

The 2022 election defied conventional wisdom and historical trends. In a typical midterm election year with one-party control of the presidency, House and Senate, the incumbent party would expect major losses. Instead, Democrats re-elected every incumbent senator and expanded their Senate majority by a seat, won the overwhelming majority of heavily contested gubernatorial elections, gained control of 4 state legislative chambers, and only narrowly lost the U.S. House.

Democrats won in the majority of heavily contested races, with electorates in these contests looking more like the 2020 and 2018 electorates than a typical midterm. Unlike recent midterms, which were wave elections with across-the-board, national swings, there was less of a national trend in the 2022 midterm. In this analysis we will present national results based on the U.S. House vote, where Republicans outperformed Democrats, as well as analysis from states that had highly contested races, according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report, where Democrats outperformed Republicans. Unlike other recent midterm years, our analysis shows a stark contrast between the electorate in areas with one or more highly contested House, Senate or gubernatorial races versus those with less contested races.

Gen Z and Millennial voters had exceptional levels of turnout, with young voters in heavily contested states exceeding their 2018 turnout by 6% among those who were eligible in both elections.1 Further, 65% of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 supported Democrats, cementing their role as a key part of a winning coalition for the party. While young voters were historically evenly split between the parties, they are increasingly voting for Democrats. Many young voters who showed up in 2018 and 2020 to elect Democrats continued to do the same in 2022.

Extreme “MAGA” Republicans underperformed. Across heavily contested Senate, Gubernatorial, and Congressional races, voters penalized “MAGA” Republicans. Candidates who were outspoken election deniers did 1 to 4 points worse than other Republicans, contributing to their losses in important close races. Of course, election denial is one of many extreme positions associated with “MAGA” Republicans, so this analysis likely reflects relatively extreme stances on other issues, including abortion rights, as well as Republicans such as Kari Lake (Arizona gubernatorial) and Doug Mastriano (Pennsylvania gubernatorial) who ran relatively insular campaigns.

Women voters pushed Democrats over the top in heavily contested races, where abortion rights were often their top issue. After Republican-appointed justices on the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights, a disproportionate number of women voters registered to vote in states with highly contested elections. At the same time, polls showed Democratic women and men indicating they were more engaged in the election. While relative turnout by gender remained largely stable, Democratic performance improved over 2020 among women in highly contested races, going from 55% to 57% support. The biggest improvement was among white non-college women (+4% support).

Democrats largely retained their winning 2020 coalition in heavily contested races, with some exceptions. Turnout and support among voters by race, education, gender, and other demographic factors remained relatively stable in heavily contested races. Such stability does not usually occur between presidential and midterm years, demonstrating how the Democratic coalition blunted a Republican “red wave.” One notable shift includes Black voters. While they continued to play an outsized role in contributing to Democratic victories, Black turnout largely fell in contested races. Meanwhile, Democratic support among Black voters rose in Southern states with heavily contested elections, but fell in less contested states.

Read More Analysis Including Charts And Graphs Here: https://catalist.us/whathappened2022/