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DeSantis tacks further right amid 2024 speculation

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is tacking further to the right as he weighs a 2024 presidential bid, a strategy that could endear him to the GOP’s conservative base and help him outflank rivals — including former President Trump. 

DeSantis has already carved out a reputation as a conservative firebrand, but in recent days he’s ramped up his rhetoric.

This week alone, he called on the state Supreme Court to convene a grand jury to look into “any and all wrongdoing” with respect to the development and promotion of COVID-19 vaccines — getting into a public battle with Anthony Fauci, the White House adviser on COVID-19 and a target of the right, in the process.

He also came out against a recently signed federal law protecting same-sex and interracial marriages. 

The rightward march by DeSantis could help him with conservatives, but it also carries some risks — especially if DeSantis winds up as the party’s nominee in a 2024 general election. 

“He’s got to win the primary before he can run in the general, and the Republican constituency today is still very Trump-ish, so he has to be solid on those conservative issues in order to be a viable alternative to Trump,” Saul Anuzis, a Republican strategist, said. “It makes sense, but the trick is not to go too far.” 

As his political profile has swelled in recent years, DeSantis has emerged as the biggest threat to Trump’s hopes of recapturing the White House and maintaining his grip on the Republican Party.  

A poll from USA Today and Suffolk University released this week found that two-thirds of Republicans and GOP-leaning voters want DeSantis to launch a bid for the presidency in 2024. That same survey showed him overtaking the former president in a primary match-up; 56 percent said they prefer the Florida governor compared to 33 percent who favor Trump. 

DeSantis, who was reelected to a second term in the governor’s mansion last month by a landslide 19-point margin, hasn’t made a final decision on a presidential bid. And if he decides to run, a campaign announcement is likely months away. 

It might be a surprise to some that DeSantis needs to tack to the right at all.

The Florida governor has fostered a reputation as a conservative stalwart by staking out hard-line positions on everything from COVID-19 restrictions to immigration.

Still, some Republicans say he may still have some vulnerabilities when it comes to appealing to the GOP’s base. 

“I think first and foremost, he’s a populist,” one Republican strategist said. “And I think for some of the really hardcore conservatives, that can make him look a little squishy on things like abortion, on the sanctity of marriage. That’s not where you want to be in a Republican primary.” 

While DeSantis signed a bill earlier this year banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Florida, without exceptions for cases of rape or incest, that still fell short of the total abortion bans that several other Republican-controlled states have enacted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case. 

Weighing in this week on the newly signed Respect for Marriage Act, which enshrines into law federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples, DeSantis said there was “certainly no need” for such a measure.

He also raised concerns about what the law could mean for religious institutions opposed to same-sex marriage. 

“They are using the power, I think, of the federal government in ways that will absolutely put religious institutions in difficult spots if you have people that are so inclined to be very aggressive against that,” DeSantis told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Tuesday. 

Anuzis said that while DeSantis is staking out hard-line positions, he’s managed to do so in a “more rational” manner that can appeal to a broader swath of voters. 

“The policy positions of Trump didn’t bother people. The style did,” Anuzis said. “I think DeSantis is able to present those positions in a more rational and calmer way.”  

“A lot of it depends on the rhetoric, the style, the way you say things,” he continued. “You can be rational and collected, or you can be sensational and try to excite the base, and that comes with a political price to pay in the general election.”  

Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said that DeSantis has been careful to choose his battles. While DeSantis is “clearly trying to stake out a place should he decide to run” for president in 2024, he’s largely done so in a way that doesn’t step outside the boundaries of his role as Florida governor. 

“The guy wants to show that he’s an adult and can govern, and he did,” Heye said. “He can be the culture warrior to a lot of the conservative base and he can also demonstrate that he’s a good and competent governor.”  

One Florida Republican strategist also noted that DeSantis’s request that the state Supreme Court convene a grand jury to investigate COVID-19 vaccines is par for the course when it comes to the Florida governor’s agenda. DeSantis first rose to national prominence for his willingness to criticize federal public health officials and their advice in the midst of the pandemic. 

“The real question is: Did we need the mandates? Should we be giving these shots to children? There’s a lot of legitimate questions out there,” the strategist said. “He’s not a conspiracy theorist. He’s addressing issues that are populist — concerns that people have.”  

Source: TEST FEED1

Jan. 6 committee to vote on at least three criminal referrals targeting Trump: reports

The Jan. 6 select committee is reportedly planning to vote on at least three criminal referrals targeting former President Trump on Monday, a significant step from the panel as it nears the end of its year-plus investigation.

Multiple outlets reported on Friday that the committee will vote to recommend the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump for insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding of Congress and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.

A spokesperson for the select committee declined to comment when reached by The Hill.

The committee is working to wrap up its probe and release its findings before the end of this year, when Republicans are slated to take control of the House and dissolve the panel.

The referrals would be a notable step but also largely symbolic, as the Justice Department is not required to consider referrals that come from congressional committees. The agency is also conducting its own, separate investigation into Jan. 6.

Sources told Politico that the committee’s argument for the referral involving the insurrection charge cites a ruling U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta made in February, which says the language Trump used incited the violence that took place on Jan. 6. It also reportedly points to the 57 senators who voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection following the Capitol riot.

Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung criticized the Jan. 6 committee in a statement to The Hill.

“The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history,” he said. “This Kangaroo court has been nothing more than a Hollywood executive’s vanity documentary project that insults Americans’ intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy.”

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the committee, previously said the panel would vote on referrals during its business meeting on Monday, its final public presentation. He told reporters that the committee was considering “five or six categories” for the recommendations.

Those could include the Department of Justice, as well as the House Ethics Committee and professional organizations, including bar associations. The committee has pointed out behavior that would come within the scope of those groups.

“We’re focused on key players and we’re focused on key players where there is sufficient evidence or abundant evidence that they committed crimes, and we’re focused on crimes that go right to the heart of the Constitutional order such that the Congress can’t remain silent,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a Constitutional law expert, said on Monday.

The five Republican lawmakers who ignored subpoenas from the committee could be included in that “key players” description. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) all rebuffed requests they received from the committee.

Raskin also previously indicated five lawmakers who ignored subpoenas from the committee — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Reps. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) — could be referred to the House Ethics Committee, based on a Constitutional statute.

“The Speech or Debate Clause makes it clear that Congress doesn’t hold members of Congress accountable in the judiciary or other places in the government,” Raskin said.

“Members of Congress are only held accountable through Article One in their own chambers for their actions,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Five things to know about the end of Title 42

When a federal judge in November declared Title 42 illegal, “with great reluctance” he allowed the Biden administration to keep implementing the border management policy for five weeks.

Those five weeks end Wednesday, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will no longer have the tool it used to expel 78,477 foreign nationals in October.

Here are five things to know about Title 42:

It was controversial from the get go

Title 42 allows U.S. border officials to quickly expel foreign nationals at the border under the guise of public health protections related to the pandemic, disregarding migrants’ right to claim asylum.

It was first rolled out by the Trump administration, after then-White House advisor Stephen Miller pressured the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to exert its public health authority to impose border restrictions.

The Miller connection alone would render the policy toxic on the left, but immigrant advocates and some Democrats have decried the overtly political use of public health authority and Title 42’s effects on the already weakened asylum system.

Though the Biden administration has publicly pledged to protect the asylum process, it has also fought to keep Title 42 in place, an indication that DHS does not believe it can successfully manage current immigration flows without a draconian tool like Title 42.

“We need to reform our asylum system…The administration has taken steps in that direction, for example, by empowering asylum officers to grant asylum at the interview stage to help clear the backlogs, but what we don’t need and we know for sure is Stephen Miller policies that expel migrants to danger and death and violate international law,” said Lorella Praeli, co-president at Community Change, a major progressive advocacy group.

It gutted the asylum system

U.S. officials have used Title 42 to turn away foreign nationals around 2.5 million times since 2020.

The total number of people affected by the policy is lower, in part because Title 42’s summary expulsions don’t lead to bookings for repeat unauthorized border crossings, leading to recidivism.

Still, Title 42 has made it virtually impossible for nationals of certain countries to claim asylum, while nationals of countries that don’t cut deals with the United States are processed using Title 8, the regular order that allows asylum applications.

That’s made it practically impossible for nationals of countries like Haiti to claim asylum in the United States, despite worsening conditions in that country. The Biden administration has repatriated more Haitians than any previous administration, including around 25,000 individuals in the year following the Haitian migrant crisis in Del Rio, Texas.

Other than Haitians, Title 42 has directly impacted Mexican nationals, as well as Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran migrants, nationalities that Mexico has agreed to admit back into its territory.

While migration from Haiti, Mexico and Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle has remained significant, the big change in regional migration patterns has been a surge in Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans fleeing their countries.

“Those three countries are a little more difficult,” said Rep. Henry Cuéllar (D-Texas) a conservative Democrat from the border who’s pushed for Title 42 or similar measures to remain in place.

“There is no communication with them. I’ve heard from some of the folks that they know Nicaraguans, if they try to escape and they go back, they see them as traitors. So yes, those are difficult countries, but the rest of the countries we can work with,” added Cuéllar.

The Biden administration cut a deal with Mexico to receive up to 24,000 Venezuelan migrants under Title 42, but for the most part the United States has no way to quickly expel migrants back to its regional rivals.

And DHS is also reportedly looking to implement a version of another Miller immigration policy brainchild, a so-called “transit ban” that would unilaterally slash the number of migrants who qualify for asylum at the border. 

Biden has used it more than Trump

Of the 2,426,297 Title 42 encounters between March of 2020 and October of 2022, 1,966,740 were carried out since February 2021, President Biden’s first full month in office.

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy says 5 GOP opponents have not moved

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday said the five Republican lawmakers opposing his Speakership bid have not moved their stances, despite the two sides continuing conversations ahead of next month’s floor vote.

“We’re still continuing to talk, but they have not moved,” McCarthy told conservative talk show host Hugh Hewitt during an interview on his radio show.

The comment comes 18 days before McCarthy’s nomination for Speaker hits the House floor, where he will need support from a majority of those voting for a Speaker candidate on Jan. 3 to win the gavel.

But that task is proving to be a difficult lift because of a contingent of Republicans who have either said or strongly signaled that they will not support McCarthy for the top spot.

The five holdouts are Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) and Bob Good (R-Va.). On Thursday, Axios reported that the coalition plans to vote as a unit when McCarthy’s nomination comes to the floor for a vote next month.

“We all operate as five. … We come as five, so we’re going to agree on all [of the concessions we need],” Norman said on Wednesday, according to the outlet.

That statement spells trouble for McCarthy, who can only afford to lose a few GOP votes next month because of Republicans’ projected 222-212 majority at the time of the floor vote. A number of other GOP lawmakers have not yet said how they plan to vote, but they did lay out a list of demands that they expect from a Speaker.

McCarthy, for his part, is brushing off the opposition. He told Hewitt that “in the end” he believes they will stand down.

“We had a discussion. We had the conference decide. They got to vote in a secret ballot who they wanted to have their designee on the floor that day. I won with 85% of the vote,” he told Hewitt. 

“I just believe this is a win for the Democrats. They’re sitting back, and we can’t allow that to happen. We are the only individuals standing in the way of stopping more Democratic bad policy,” he added.

McCarthy is exuding confidence as centrist lawmakers ramp up their support for the Republican leader. More centrist members of the Republican Governance Group started wearing buttons this week that read “O.K.,” which stands for “Only Kevin.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden signs short-term bill to keep government open

President Biden on Friday signed a short-term funding bill to keep the government open through next week as congressional negotiators haggle over the details of a longer-term spending deal.

Biden signed the bill upon returning to the White House from Delaware, where he’d given remarks about legislation to help veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits.

The Senate on Thursday night voted 71-19 to pass the continuing resolution (CR), sending it to Biden for approval after it passed the House the night before in a 224-201 vote.

The CR freezes funding levels through Dec. 23 to buy time for ongoing spending negotiations, preventing a shutdown that would have otherwise begun on Friday at midnight. 

Leaders on both sides of the aisle have been working to pass an omnibus spending package by the end of the month, with sights set on final passage by Christmas Eve.

But some in the GOP in particular have been reluctant to back a larger government spending deal before the party takes control of the House next month. Those lawmakers have argued the party should hold out until the GOP has more leverage over what is included in an omnibus package.

Former President Trump on Friday weighed in, urging Republicans to hold out until the new year to negotiate over a government spending bill and the debt ceiling.

Source: TEST FEED1

Updated COVID booster prevents majority of hospitalizations, CDC data show

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the bivalent COVID-19 booster shot was effective at reducing the risk of hospitalization and emergency room visits by at least 50 percent.

Two separate reports released by the CDC Friday offer some of the first evidence of the booster’s effectiveness against hospitalizations and medical encounters. 

The reports come as infections are increasing and the Biden administration readies for an expected surge this winter.

One study found a bivalent COVID-19 booster dose reduced the risk of hospitalization by 57 percent in adults over the age of 18 compared with being unvaccinated, and by 45 percent compared with being un-boosted. 

Previous data from the CDC suggested that bivalent boosters provide a modest degree of protection against symptomatic infection among adults compared with receipt of two, three, or four doses of monovalent vaccines only.

Bivalent COVID-19 booster vaccines were developed to improve protection against circulating Omicron subvariants and waning immunity from monovalent vaccine-conferred protection over time.

“With co-circulation of multiple respiratory viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), vaccination against respiratory diseases for which vaccines are available is especially important to prevent illnesses resulting in health care encounters and to reduce strain on the health care system,” the authors wrote.  

The boosters were especially effective in adults over the age of 65, who are at highest risk for severe COVID-19–associated illness. 

A second report showed the bivalent shot was 84 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations compared to people who were unvaccinated, and 74 percent effective compared with people who received at least two doses of the monovalent vaccines.

Everyone, especially those 65 and older “who are at highest risk for severe COVID-19 illness, should receive a bivalent booster dose as soon as they are eligible and to consider masking in indoor public spaces to maximize protection against COVID-19 hospitalization this winter season,” the authors of the second report wrote.

Both analyses were conducted between September and November, during which time multiple omicron subvariants, including BA.5 and the combination of BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, have been the dominant strains.

Administration officials are pushing for more Americans to get the latest shots in an effort to stem a new surge of infections, which would come on top of an early and particularly hard-hitting flu season and high levels of RSV. 

But uptake is still extremely low, even among the most vulnerable. Only about 16 percent of adults over age 18, and 36 percent of people over age 65 have received an updated shot.

Source: TEST FEED1

Griner thanks Biden, says she'll do 'whatever I can' to help bring Whelan and other Americans home

Brittney Griner on Friday expressed her gratitude to members of the Biden administration who helped secure her release from Russia this month and pledged to aid President Biden’s efforts to bring home former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is still imprisoned in Russia.

“President Biden, you brought me home and I know you are committed to bringing Paul Whelan and all Americans home too,” Griner said in a post on Instagram, her longest public comments to date since she returned to the U.S. last week.

“I will use my platform to do whatever I can to help you. I also encourage everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home. Every family deserves to be whole,” she added.

Griner thanked Biden, Vice President Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, other members of the Biden administration, her Russian legal team and others for their work in the months leading up to her release.

In the Instagram post, Griner wrote that she intends to play in the upcoming WNBA season for the Phoenix Mercury, “and in doing so, I look forward to being able to say ‘thank you’ to those of you who advocated, wrote, and posted for me in person soon.”

Griner was freed from Russian prison last week as part of a prisoner swap in which the U.S. gave up convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout. 

Griner was detained in February for bringing vape cartridges with hashish oil into the country. She was sentenced in August to serve nine years in prison and had been recently transferred to a penal colony.

Biden was unable to secure the release of Whelan, who has been held in Russia since 2018 on spying charges that he vehemently denies. He has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. 

Biden administration officials have said Russia is treating Whelan’s case differently because of the espionage charges and that they were unwilling to include him as part of the swap for Bout.

“While we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up,” Biden said in remarks last week announcing Griner’s release.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump's digital cards sell out within a day

Former President Trump’s digital trading cards have sold out less than 24 hours after he first announced they were available.

As of Friday morning, the site selling the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) says they are sold out, and links to purchase the digital cards are no longer available. 

OpenSea Data, which tracks the sales and markets for NFTs, indicated there were 45,000 of the Trump cards initially made available for purchase for $99 each. The Trump digital cards were the top trending item on the site as of Friday morning.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday that he would be making a “major announcement” without providing any details. Some had speculated the announcement would be related to the Speaker race playing out among House Republicans or Trump’s largely inactive 2024 presidential campaign.

Instead, Trump revealed a line of digital trading cards that could be purchased with cryptocurrency or a credit card. Proceeds from the cards — which, among other looks, depict the former president as an astronaut and a cowboy — will not go to Trump’s campaign but to Trump himself through a licensing deal.

The announcement drew mockery and disbelief from liberals and some conservatives. 

President Biden tweeted that he had some “major announcements” of his own, listing off a series of policy wins in recent weeks. Stephen Bannon, a former Trump White House and campaign official, appeared exasperated by the announcement during his radio show on Thursday and suggested whoever was involved with the effort should be fired.

Source: TEST FEED1

Elon Musk defends banning of journalists: 'You dox, you get suspended'

Twitter CEO Elon Musk defended his decision to ban several prominent technology reporters from the platform on Thursday night, claiming they violated Twitter’s policies on “doxxing.”

“You dox, you get suspended,” Musk said on a Twitter spaces conversation with journalists. “End of story.”

Doxxing is the act of sharing information like addresses, phone numbers and emails online in an attempt to allow others to harass the individuals.

The billionaire abruptly suspended the accounts of reporters from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other outlets on Thursday night who had covered Musk’s recent dispute with Jack Sweeney, the creator of @elonjet.

Sweeney, who created the Twitter account that tracked the movements of Musk’s private jet, had his account suspended on Wednesday, despite previous assurances from Musk that he would not be banned.

Musk’s suspension spree on Thursday included the Times’ Ryan Mac, the Post’s Drew Harwell, CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, The Intercept’s Micah Lee, Mashable’s Matt Binder and independent journalists Aaron Rupar and Tony Webster. Political commentator Keith Olbermann also had his account suspended.

“Same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” Musk said said in a tweet on Thursday night, later adding, “Criticizing me all day long is totally fine, but doxxing my real-time location and endangering my family is not.”

Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement that the decision to suspend Harwell and the other reporters “directly undermines Elon Musk’s claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech.”

The New York Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander also denounced the suspensions as “questionable and unfortunate,” while CNN called the decision “concerning but not surprising.”

Musk suggested that the suspensions would not be permanent late Thursday night, opening up a poll to users asking how long the journalists should remain suspended. The billionaire has previously used the same method to determine whether to reinstate other banned accounts, such as that of former President Trump.

Source: TEST FEED1