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GOP gives mixed messages on Paul Pelosi attack

Republicans have responded to the recent attack on Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with a mix of messages, some of which have prompted sharp criticism from Democrats.

Many in the GOP, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former Vice President Pence, have vocally condemned the attack.

Former President Trump has opted, in contrast, to remain silent, while responses from several other Republicans have attracted criticism from Democrats for apparently using the situation to advance a political message.

Paul Pelosi was attacked by an intruder in his and the House Speaker’s San Francisco home early on Friday morning. Before assaulting Pelosi with a hammer, the intruder reportedly shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”

A spokesperson for the Speaker said on Friday that her 82-year-old husband underwent surgery to repair a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands and is expected to make a full recovery from the attack.

McConnell was quick to respond after news broke of the attack, saying he was “horrified and disgusted.”

Pence also came out strongly against the assault, calling it an “outrage.” Other party leaders, including House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who was shot and wounded during an attack at a congressional baseball practice in 2017, have similarly spoken against the violence.

However, Trump has remained notably silent on the issue, even as he has continued to frequently post on his social media platform Truth Social about everything from the midterm elections to the Mar-a-Lago documents lawsuit to the late singer Jerry Lee Lewis. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also avoided making any public statements about the attack in the hours after the news broke, though his spokesman told The Hill on Friday that the congressman had reached out to Pelosi to check on her husband and was praying for his recovery. 

McCarthy’s lack of a public response led Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) to slam him on Twitter on Saturday for doing “nothing.”

Later on Saturday, McCarthy addressed the attack in an interview on Breitbart radio, calling it “wrong” and condemning political violence.

“We’ve watched this with Lee Zeldin, we’ve watched this with Supreme Court Justices, this is wrong — violence should not go. You watch what happened to Steve Scalise and others. This has got to stop,” he said.

Beyond the top rungs of the Republican Party, the response to the attack was varied.

While some Trump allies — like Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) — followed the former president’s lead and remained largely quiet on the incident, others spoke out against the attack and against political violence more broadly.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called the attack on Paul Pelosi “horrific” and said he was praying for the entire Pelosi family.

“We can have our political differences, but violence is always wrong & unacceptable,” Cruz wrote on Twitter.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a tweet that he was “very upset” to hear about the attack.

“This is despicable and we are all grateful that Paul is expected to fully recover,” Graham said. “In America violence is never the answer for any grievance and every American should always be safe in their own home.

Still others, while speaking against the attack, also used the moment to raise criticisms aimed at Democrats or, in Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) case, to bring up a prior dispute with the speaker’s daughter.

When Paul was physically attacked by a neighbor in 2017, Christine Pelosi tweeted that his “neighbor was right.”

“No one deserves to be assaulted. Unlike Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who celebrated my assault, I condemn this attack and wish Mr. Pelosi a speedy recovery,” Paul wrote on Twitter, a remark that was met with fierce backlash.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) was also criticized for his comment on the attack after saying during a campaign rally, “There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send [the speaker] back to be with [Paul Pelosi] in California.”

And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) triggered an irate response from one of her Democratic colleagues after using her response to the attack to hit Democrats on crime.

Greene said she was praying for Pelosi on Friday, but also responded by tweeting that “violence and crime are rampant in Joe Biden’s America.”

“It shouldn’t happen to Paul Pelosi. It shouldn’t happen to innocent Americans. It shouldn’t happen to me,” Greene said.

In response, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) turned the blame back on Greene herself.

“YOU called for Nancy Pelosi to be executed, @RepMTG. YOU said she should be hung for treason,” he tweetd. “And now that someone listened, you’re making Paul Pelosi’s attack about YOU. This is what Republicans stand for, America. It’s sick.”

Other Democrats similarly connected Republican rhetoric with the attack, and a wider environment of political violence.

In a speech to Pennsylvania Democrats on Friday, President Biden tied the “despicable” assault on Pelosi to lies spread by Trump and other Republicans, including the baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen from the former president.

“What makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections, COVID being a hoax, that it’s all a bunch of lies, and it not affect people who may not be so well balanced,” Biden said.

“What makes us think that it’s not going to corrode the political climate? Enough is enough is enough. Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against violence in our politics, no matter what your politics are.”

Condemning the GOP response to the attack, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) pointed back at the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and shared a Los Angeles Times article reporting that Paul Pelosi’s assailant had been involved in spreading far-right conspiracies online.

“A far right white nationalist tried to assassinate the Speaker of the House and almost killed her husband a year after violent insurrectionists tried to find her and kill her in the Capitol,” she said. “And the Republican Party’s response is to either ignore it or belittle it.”

Source: TEST FEED1

The Memo: Republicans gain momentum in midterms’ final stretch

The midterm elections are tilting in Republicans’ favor with just one full week of campaigning left.

Polling in key Senate races has edged toward the GOP, with once-endangered Republican incumbents strengthening their positions and vulnerable Democrats looking more fragile.

Democrats, who believed less than two months ago that they might expand their Senate majority and perhaps even hold onto a razor-thin margin in the House, have grown less sanguine.

“It’s pretty clear that Republicans have the wind at their back,” said Jim Manley, a former aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I thought a few weeks ago that we could keep the losses in the House to single digits. That’s no longer the case. And my big fear is what is going on with the Senate races.”

Those fears look to be well-founded.

In Pennsylvania, where Democrats had seen their best opportunity to pick up a seat, Republican Mehmet Oz has almost eliminated Democrat John Fetterman’s once-sizable polling lead. 

Oz has gotten traction by attacking Fetterman as soft on crime, and was further helped when the Democrat, who is still recovering from a stroke, delivered a halting performance in a debate earlier this week.

In Georgia, allegations that Republican nominee Herschel Walker paid for two women to get abortions, while he now runs on a fervently anti-abortion platform, have not appreciably hurt his standing. 

Two recent polls have shown Walker leading incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), while Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) was caught on a hot mic telling President Biden on Thursday that the party’s hopes were “going downhill” in the state.

Meanwhile, two longer shots for Democrats to pick up seats appear to be slipping away. 

Republican J.D. Vance has edged ahead of Rep. Tim Ryan (D) in Ohio, and Rep. Ted Budd (R) now leads former state Supreme Court chief justice Cheri Beasley (D) by almost 5 points in the RealClearPolitics average in North Carolina.

Data and polling site FiveThirtyEight rates the overall battle for the Senate as a toss-up, having given Democrats a 71 percent chance of maintaining control of the upper chamber as recently as mid-September. The site’s analysis gives the GOP a greater than 80 percent chance of taking the House.

Republicans have a straightforward explanation for why things are moving in their direction: the economy in general and inflation in particular.

Inflation is hovering near a 40-year high, at 8.5 percent in September.

“This is clearly a positive issue environment for Republicans,” said GOP pollster David Winston. “When you are in the seventh month of inflation at 8 percent or higher, and gas prices have basically gone up more than 60 percent since Biden came into office and food prices are going up, inflation is the issue.”

“That doesn’t mean other issues aren’t important,” Winston added. “But inflation is overwhelming.”

Biden and the Democrats are under no illusions that the economy is the central issue of the campaign. 

The president has sought to focus on his job creation record, which has brought unemployment down to 3.5 percent from 6.4 percent when he took office. Earlier this week, Biden proclaimed that the economy was “looking good” and “continuing to power forward” after new data showed the nation’s gross domestic product grew in the third quarter.

The president has also talked up the Inflation Reduction Act and its capacity to curb prescription drug prices.

But polling provides little evidence those efforts have been successful. 

An Economist-YouGov poll this week showed 56 percent of adults disapproving of Biden’s handling of inflation while just 32 percent approved. Ratings on the economy at large were not quite so bad, but still negative for the president, with 48 percent disapproving and 40 percent approving.

Still, it is not as if Democrats have abandoned hope.

Some note that, even if the picture is not as rosy as it appeared around six weeks ago, the party’s nominees are competitive in almost all the major Senate races. 

The potency of abortion rights as an issue remains unquantifiable — but it could mobilize voters in a big way after the Supreme Court’s June decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Democrats also contend that the GOP has nominated some obviously flawed candidates, including Walker, Oz, Vance and Arizona’s Blake Masters. And, they say, the specter of former President Trump, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Trump’s fictitious claims of election fraud could yet haunt Republicans with moderate voters.

“The reality is, with Biden’s approval ratings, with inflation being where it is, none of these Senate races should be close — not one of them,” said Democratic strategist Joe Trippi. “There are reasons they are close, and it’s the extremism, it’s candidate quality.”

Democrats are pulling out all the stops in the campaign’s final stretch, with Biden, Vice President Harris and former President Obama — the most popular figure in the party — hitting the campaign trail.

Friday also brought a reminder that dramatic events could shape the campaign’s closing days, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband Paul was viciously beaten by an intruder. Though much remains unknown about the attack, it was instantly seen by some as a new and shocking example of the nation’s slide into venomous instability.

But, for all that, with Election Day just 10 days away, there is little question that things are moving in the GOP’s direction.

The question now is whether that trajectory will continue until Nov. 8.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump silent on Paul Pelosi attack

Former President Trump has remained silent on the recent attack of Paul Pelosi, the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), even as fellow members of the Republican Party have condemned the assault.

Trump posted frequently on his own social media platform Truth Social over the last 24 hours, but did not acknowledge Friday’s attack that sent Paul Pelosi to the hospital.

A man broke into the couple’s home in San Francisco early on Friday morning, apparently looking for the House Speaker, who was in Washington, D.C., at the time. The intruder then violently assaulted Paul Pelosi with a hammer.

A spokesperson for the speaker, Drew Hamill, said that her husband was admitted to Zuckerberg San Fransisco General Hospital. He underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hands from the assault. Hamill added that he is expected to make a full recovery.

On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social about his endorsements and upcoming rallies for the midterm elections, Brazil’s elections, the Mar-a-Lago case over classified documents and the death of singer Jerry Lee Lewis. However, he never mentioned the attack on Paul Pelosi.

Other leading Republicans voiced their concern for Paul Pelosi and condemned the violence and intrusion.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he was “horrified and disgusted” by the news, while former Vice President Mike Pence called it an “outrage.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has yet to publicly condemn the event, but said a spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill on Friday that he had reached out to the speaker to “check in on Paul” and is praying for his recovery.

The Hill has reached out to Trump for comment.

Source: TEST FEED1

Eight election night surprises to watch for

This year’s midterms have already proven to be among the most unpredictable in recent history—and there could be more surprises in store for the country when results start coming in on Nov. 8.

From a Republican governor looking to avoid an upset in a ruby-red state, to the chair of the House Democrats’ campaign arm fighting for his political life in a relatively friendly district, numerous races across the country are seen as potential wild cards.

Here are eight potential surprise races to watch on election night.

New York 17th Congressional District race

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the House Democrats’ campaign arm, raised eyebrows earlier this year when he said he would run in New York’s 17th Congressional District instead of the 18th, which he currently represents. That forced Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), who currently represents the 17th district, to run in a different district to avoid going head-to-head with the powerful Democrat, though he ended up losing his primary there. 

In an unexpected twist, Maloney is now finding himself on defense against Republican Mike Lawler as the Democrat faces severe headwinds. As the nonpartisan Cook Political Report notes, the House Democrat has to introduce himself to the majority of the new district’s  residents — not an inexpensive feat. And at the state-level, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) has seen her own lead against Republican Lee Zeldin shrink, which could spell bad news for other Democrats down the ballot. 

“New York was supposed to be the saving grace that was gonna potentially save their majority, and yet it’s turned into this living nightmare,” GOP strategist Colin Reed said.

Colorado Senate race

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Co.) is running for his third term in office, and while Colorado has been viewed as trending blue, some Republicans are hoping that the Centennial State could be the site of a potential sleeper race.

That’s because Republican contender Joe O’Dea, a construction company executive, is projecting himself as a more centrist member of his party who is comfortable straying from Trump and members of his party. Still, most Democrats aren’t concerned Colorado will swing red and recent polling still shows O’Dea trailing.

“Michael Bennet is one of the most bipartisan [senators] there is in D.C. So if you’re a Democrat, you’re happy with him. If you’re an independent, you’re happy with him. And if you’re a moderate Republican, you’re probably happy with him,” said Jonathan Kott, former senior adviser to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

Oklahoma gubernatorial race

The Sooner State hasn’t elected a Democrat to the governor’s mansion since 2006, but that scenario has become a very real possibility this November as several recent polls have either found Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) polling within the margin of error or trailing Democrat Joy Hofmeister. 

“I was stunned to find out that Democrats actually had a shot in Oklahoma,” said Kott.

“I think she’s surging, and it’s hard to stop a surge this close to the election,” he added. “You can stop it three or four months out. It’s really hard 10 days out.”

A culmination of factors have forced Stitt to go on defense in the deep-red state, including sheer outside spending being used to tout Hofmeister and attack Stitt, attacks on his record of crime and education in the state, underwater approval ratings and the unusual move by five Native American tribes to issue a joint endorsement for the Democrat. Still, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates it as “likely Republican.”

New Hampshire Senate race

After Republican and retired Army Gen. Don Bolduc won the GOP primary in New Hampshire’s Senate race last month, some Republicans worried their chances to oust Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) had been shot. The Republican’s previous claims that former President Trump won the 2020 election, as well as criticism of Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, were seen as liabilities for the candidate.

But recent polls have shown Bolduc closing the gap with Hassan, fueling GOP optimism that they could in fact flip the seat.

“I think there’s clearly a national Republican trend going on. And I think that’s because if you look at the polling … the undecided voters that are still out there are incredibly sour about the mood of the nation,” Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said.

North Carolina Senate race

Former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley (D) is giving Democrats some reason to be cautiously optimistic as she vies with Republican contender Ted Budd for the Senate seat left open by retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.).

Beasley has branded Budd, who was among close to 150 House Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, an election denier. The Republican, in turn, has sought to tie Beasley to President Biden and target her on issues like inflation. Democrats believe her notoriety in the state as a state Supreme Court justice could aid her.

“I think that people are underestimating the outrage of women, they’re underestimating the engagement of Black voters and young voters, in particular,” noted Christopher Huntley, former speechwriter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 

Ohio Senate race

Ohio has not been kind to Democrats in recent years given that Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is the only current statewide elected member of the party. Ohioans last elected a Democrat to the governorship in 2006. And while Brown has held his seat in Ohio since 2007, he’s won two of his three elections by single digits.

While outside Democratic spending has snubbed Democrat Tim Ryan in the Senate race, the congressman has out-fundraised Republican J.D. Vance and has continued to poll within the margin of error despite the state’s red leanings.

“I haven’t seen anybody run a better race this cycle than Tim Ryan, and there is nobody more authentically Ohio than Tim Ryan,” Kott said.

Utah Senate race

Senate candidate Evan McMullin is hoping to make history as the first independent candidate elected to Utah in his bid to oust two-term Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), an ally of former President Trump. McMullin has sought to paint himself as a unifier, one who’s willing to criticize both parties when necessary.

A recent Deseret News-Hinckley Institute of Politics poll showed Lee only holding a 4-point lead over McMullin at 41 percent and 37 percent, respectively, leading the senator to at one point beg for Sen. Mitt Romney’s (R-Utah) endorsement. Romney, for his part, has stayed out of the race. 

Still, Republicans remain bullish about Lee’s chances.

“One, I think Sen. Lee’s gonna win and two, I don’t think the majority — I think we’re looking more like a 52-, 53 seat-Republican majority come post-election day. So I don’t think it’s gonna matter either way,” said Reed, the GOP strategist.

Washington State Senate race

Many Republicans believe Republican contender Tiffany Smiley is running a good Senate race, perhaps just in the wrong state given Washington’s blue leanings. But that hasn’t stopped some members of the party, such as Senate GOP campaign arm chairman Rick Scott (R-Fla.), from projecting confidence about the race anyway. Still, both sides concede it’s a longshot for the GOP.

“Washington State is really deep blue. Sen. Murray’s been around forever, for better or worse, so she’s a known commodity, she’s a tough out,” Reed said. “If the red wave is reaching Washington State, then … 2022 … is poised to eclipse even 2010 in terms of the size of the Democratic wipeout.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Musk moves quickly to remodel Twitter

Elon Musk wasted no time beginning to remodel Twitter after closing his deal to acquire the company Thursday night, quickly cutting key staff, doubling down on plans to lift lifelong bans and previewing plans for a council to determine content decisions. 

The changes he’s made so far confirmed suspicions critics had about the direction the billionaire space and auto executive, known for being a Twitter troll himself, would take the company in, and are adding fuel to the chorus of critics worried Musk’s reign at Twitter will allow misinformation and hate speech to thrive on the platform.

Musk’s decision to take Twitter private will also allow him to transform the platform — including its content moderation policies and financial priorities — with less oversight from regulators and without having to publicly disclose updates every few months to show how the company is performing. 

Musk made a nod to changes to come at Twitter in his typical style shortly after taking control of the company, tweeting Thursday night “the bird is free.” 

Among the first changes he made were immediate cuts of top Twitter executives.

Musk reportedly fired CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and chief legal counsel Vijaya Gadde, letting them go with a hefty payout of around $187 million, CNN reported.

Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, said he is most concerned about Musk’s decision to fire Gadde, a senior executive Barrett said was “trying, however imperfectly, to keep the platform from spreading even more harmful content than it does.” 

Barrett said he is concerned that “in the name of ‘free speech’” Musk is going to “turn back the clock” to make Twitter into a “more potent engine of hatred, divisiveness, and misinformation about elections, public health policy, and international affairs.” 

“This is not going to be pretty,” Barrett said. 

Musk tweeted Friday afternoon that Twitter will be forming a “content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints.” He said that “no major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”

But Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous source, that Musk doesn’t believe in lifelong bans. Musk previously said he would reverse the permanent ban Twitter imposed on former President Trump’s account last year.

It is not clear yet to what extent the proposed council will factor into decisions of that kind. For example, Meta’s Oversight Board is able to make binding decisions regarding content on the site but the tech giant is able to choose whether to accept its Oversight Board’s recommendations on policy changes. 

Musk hinted that more changes to the status of accounts banned under previous leadership are to come in the early days of his leadership. In response to a right-wing influencer who said they were still “shadowbanned” after one day of Musk owning the site, the new self-described “Chief Twit” said he “will be digging in more today.” 

Trump seems poised to gain access to his account again under Musk’s ownership, as Musk indicated he would earlier this year. At that time, the Tesla CEO called the decision to ban Trump a “morally bad decision” and “foolish.”

Twitter took the unprecedented step to ban a U.S. president after ruling that Trump violated the platform’s policy on incitement of violence with posts he made about the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. 

The former president cheered Musk’s takeover of Twitter, but told Fox News he would be staying on Truth Social.

“I like it better, I like the way it works. I like Elon, but I’m staying on Truth,” Trump said. 

But joining Twitter again, if he is allowed to, would give Trump access to a wider audience ahead of a potential 2024 run. Truth Social received roughly 9 million visits in August, versus Twitter’s 6.8 billion the same month, according to data from SimilarWeb.

Other conservative figures have also welcomed the takeover by Musk, whose plan to run Twitter with a more relaxed approach to content moderation — including by not issuing lifetime bans — is more in line with the vision Republicans have been urging platforms to take.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted, “Free speech. Liberal tears.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has had her personal account banned from the platform for posting COVID-19 misinformation, wrote “FREEDOM OF SPEECH!!!!”

Moves to ease moderation pose a threat of increasing the spread of hate speech and misinformation, however, according to experts and advocacy groups that warned against Musk’s takeover of Twitter. 

Ahead of sealing the deal officially, Musk seemingly tried to quell some of those concerns as they relate to potential drops in advertising revenue, posting a public message to advertisers on Thursday. 

He said Twitter “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said with no consequences!”

Advocacy groups, however, are still sounding the alarm that the changes Musk has started making to the platform could lead to more hate online, especially for marginalized communities. Racist and antisemitic tweets already started to spread quickly on Twitter after Musk’s takeover, including some using slurs in posts celebrating Musk’s ownership, The Washington Post reported.

“By purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk is poised to reopen the floodgates of widespread harassment and threats of violence, especially against Black women, women of color, and transgender people,” Bridget Todd, communications director of the feminist group UltraViolet said in a statement. 

If Musk abandons Twitter’s community standards, it could provide a “slippery slope” and set a precedent for other platforms to follow, Todd said. 

A potential increase in the spread of misinformation, especially if figures previously banned for such action regain access to their accounts — on Twitter or other sites that may follow its lead — could also impact coming election cycles, critics warn.

“With Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter just two weeks from the midterm elections, it’s likely the worst is yet to come,” Todd added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Midterms could cement Florida's status as a red state

ORLANDO, Fla. – Democrats fear that 2022 could be the year Florida cements itself as a red state.

With little more than a week to go before Election Day, Republicans appear poised to once again dominate the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is running well ahead of his Democratic rival, former Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), while Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.) is struggling to break through in her bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). 

Of course, one election isn’t indicative of a trend, in and of itself. But a strong Republican showing next month would add to the GOP’s winning streak in Florida at a time when many Democrats are already questioning their future prospects in a state that was once seen as the nation’s premier battleground.

“I don’t think anyone was expecting us to run away with this in 2022,” one Florida Democrat said. “But we also have to acknowledge that there are some deeper issues here. Florida is an extremely populist state. It’s also a conservative state.”

The outlook is already ominous for Florida Democrats. The number of registered Republican voters surpassed the number of registered Democrats last fall for the first time in the state’s modern political history. And that edge has only expanded since then. 

In November 2021, there were about 6,000 more registered Republican voters than there were Democrats. As of the end of September, that advantage stood at nearly 300,000, according to data collected by the state. By comparison, in 2008, when former President Obama carried Florida by about 200,000 votes, there were nearly 700,000 more registered Democrats in the state than Republicans.

In another worrisome sign for Florida Democrats, Republicans pulled ahead in early voting on Thursday. Democrats have typically relied on building up a strong early vote advantage to make up for shortfalls in Election Day voting, which tends to be dominated by Republicans.

At the same time, the state Democratic Party is facing upheaval once again. Thomas Kennedy, a member of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), called on Thursday for state party Chair Manny Diaz to resign after the midterms, saying that the party needs new leadership if Democrats want to remain a political force in Florida. 

In an interview, Kennedy acknowledged that some of the party’s woes in Florida are outside of its immediate control and that he never expected Democrats to make major gains in Florida in 2022, given the tough political environment facing the party nationally.

But he said that Democrats have also failed to build up the kind of long-term organizing and political structures in Florida that have given Republicans an upper hand in the state.

“There are the external factors — gerrymandering, corporate interests that are stacked against us, population growth,” Kennedy said. “But we have to acknowledge as Democrats, our infrastructure is bad. Our messaging sucks. We neglect Hispanic outreach, Haitian outreach.” 

“We went all in with the abortion issue — which was really important and something we should talk about — but we completely neglected the economic issue and that was a problem with national Democrats overall.” 

While the Republican dominance in Florida isn’t new — the GOP has controlled both the governor’s mansion and the state legislature for more than two decades — the state’s political shift has come into starker relief in the six years since former President Donald Trump first carried the state. 

Former Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a longtime staple of the state’s Democratic politics, narrowly lost reelection in 2018 to then-Gov. Rick Scott. That same year, Democrats missed an opportunity to recapture the governor’s mansion when their candidate Andrew Gillum fell to DeSantis.

The 2020 elections were even more alarming for Democrats. Trump won Florida for a second time, racking up an even-larger 3-point margin of victory — a relative landslide in a state where elections are often decided by 1 point or less. That win also saw him make gains among Hispanic voters, particularly in heavily Democratic South Florida. 

Now, with just over a week to go before Election Day and early voting already underway, Democrats are bracing for another tough outcome.

Florida is set to host the fewest number of competitive House races in years after the Republican-controlled state legislature approved a new congressional map pushed by DeSantis that created four new Republican-leaning seats and slashed the number of highly competitive districts by four. 

In the closely watched race for governor, DeSantis has amassed a sizable lead over Crist, running nearly 10 points ahead of him in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average of the race. His political operation – including his campaign and a state-level political action committee – have raised more than $177 million, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks money in politics. Crist, meanwhile, has pulled in only a small fraction of that.

The state’s U.S. Senate race isn’t looking much brighter for Democrats. Rubio holds a 7-point lead over Demings in FiveThirtyEight’s polling average. In an interview with The Associated Press published earlier this week, Demings acknowledged the challenges her party faces in reaching voters.

“We have to do a better job of telling our stories and clearly demonstrating who’s truly on the side of people who have to go to work every day,” Demings told the wire service.

If the polls paint an accurate picture of what’s to come — and of course there’s no guarantee that they will — the 2022 midterms could mark a stunning end of an era for the state, where margins of victories are no longer measured by a few hundred or thousand votes.

The GOP’s success in Florida, experts and strategists say, is thanks to a long list of factors. Retirees have long flocked to the state to live out their twilight years, and many of those seniors simply tend to be more conservative. 

At the same time, Florida’s population swelled amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the state gained a reputation as a refuge from pandemic-era restrictions and mandates imposed in other states. Republicans say that has swayed many new residents toward the GOP. 

On a stretch of I-95 not far from the Florida-Georgia border, that theory is summed up on a billboard that reads: “Welcome to Florida. Remember why you came. Vote red.”

“Certainly, over time, population growth has been a primary driver of political change in Florida going back decades,” said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “And it certainly has fueled the rise of Republicans in the state.”

“Over time, as more and more people move to Florida — we’ve had 2 to 3 million people a decade move to this state for about five to six decades in a row — that’s absolutely going to change things.”

It’s not yet clear whether Florida’s rightward shift will be a permanent fixture of the state’s politics. Florida is notoriously unpredictable and the political winds could change in Democrats’ favor in the coming years, Kennedy, the DNC member, said. 

“I don’t think that Florida is going to be forever a red state,” Kennedy said. “Things can change. But what we need to focus on is building an infrastructure and a functional and robust state party. We need to prove that we can at least mount a good challenge; that we can still give the Republicans a run for their money.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden appeals for 2022 support in Pennsylvania: 'Everything's at stake'

President Biden and Vice President Harris on Friday made a rare joint appearance on the campaign trail to boost the Democratic ticket in Pennsylvania, where Senate candidate John Fetterman’s race could determine control of the chamber for the next two years.

Biden argued Democrats had delivered on their agenda over the past 20 months, touted a report on gross domestic product and railed against oil companies that he said were failing to use profits to deliver savings to the public.

“It’s been a rough few years for a lot of hardworking Americans. For a lot of families, things are still tough. But there are bright spots where America is re-asserting itself. We made enormous progress in the last 20 months. We have more to do,” Biden said in a keynote address at the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s annual Independence Dinner.

Biden highlighted legislation Democrats passed to lower prescription drug costs and address climate change and a bipartisan infrastructure package that is being used to improve roads, airports and bridges nationwide.

The president argued those gains are at risk in a Republican majority, which he said would also threaten Social Security and Medicare and seek to cut taxes for wealthy Americans.

Biden also cited Pennsylvania’s pivotal role in determining control of the House and Senate, and there is also a closely watched governor’s race on the ballot where former President Trump has endorsed the GOP candidate.

“Everything’s at stake in just 11 days,” Biden said. “It’s not hyperbole to suggest all eyes are on Pennsylvania. So much is at stake for this state, for this country we all love. So I call on Democrats and mainstream Republicans and independents to come together. We can meet this moment. We can meet it together. I truly believe we’re just getting started.”

Biden and Harris rarely make campaign appearances together and this joint event on Friday highlights a strategy to show a united party in the final days of a tough campaign to hold onto the Senate.

Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who spoke before the president, holds a narrow lead in most polls over Republican Mehmet Oz in their race for a seat in the upper chamber. The event follows a rocky debate performance from Fetterman on Tuesday following questions surrounding his health.

Pennsylvania is one of Democrats’ few opportunities to flip a Republican seat after Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) announced his retirement in 2020. A RealClearPolitics average of polls conducted in the past 10 days shows Fetterman leading Oz by less than 1 percentage point.

Harris focused her remarks on the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and Oz’s comments during Tuesday’s debate that decisions over reproductive rights should be made by women, doctors and local leaders. 

“These folks are something else,” Harris said. “These folks apparently believe that government should be making decisions about women’s bodies. Well, we do not. We trust the women of Pennsylvania. We trust the women of America.”

Harris, who has cast more than two dozen tie-breaking votes in the 50-50 Senate, argued that an expanded Democratic majority in the chamber would enable the party to reform the filibuster and codify abortion protections.

Both the president and vice president have picked their travel destinations carefully, as their underwater approval ratings have limited their effectiveness on the campaign trail, and some Democrats have not embraced appearing alongside Biden in particular.

Biden has made Pennsylvania a focus in the final weeks of the midterm campaign. He visited Pittsburgh last week to highlight infrastructure investments at the site of a recently collapsed bridge, followed by a fundraiser in Philadelphia.

The president will be back in Pennsylvania next week to campaign alongside former President Obama for Fetterman and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro (D).

Biden plans to vote on Saturday in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., alongside his 18-year-old granddaughter, Natalie, who will be voting for the first time.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden connects 'despicable' Paul Pelosi attack to Republican talk of stolen elections

President Biden on Friday called the attack on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband at their San Francisco home “despicable” and suggested it was a natural progression from lies Republicans have spread about the 2020 election.

“This is despicable. There’s no place in America. There’s too much violence, political violence, too much hatred, too much vitriol,” Biden said at the start of remarks to Pennsylvania Democrats.

“And what makes us think that one party can talk about stolen elections, COVID being a hoax, that it’s all a bunch of lies, and it not affect people who may not be so well balanced,” Biden continued.

“What makes us think that it’s not going to corrode the political climate? Enough is enough is enough. Every person of good conscience needs to clearly and unambiguously stand up against violence in our politics, no matter what your politics are.”

Biden said he’d spoken with Pelosi and helped arrange for her to get back from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco. Paul Pelosi, 82, underwent surgery for a skull fracture and is expected to make a full recovery.

Police said earlier Friday that the suspect in the case violently assaulted Paul Pelosi around 2:30 a.m. Authorities arrived at the home for a “priority well-being check” and found the two men tussling over a hammer. The suspect then gained control of the hammer and used it to attack Pelosi.

The Speaker was not in San Francisco at the time, according to her spokesman Drew Hammill. U.S. Capitol Police said she was in Washington, D.C., with her protective detail.

Before the assault occurred, the man confronted Paul Pelosi and shouted, “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” according to a source briefed on the attack.

Biden on Friday connected that phrase to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the Capitol and many sought Nancy Pelosi out.

The attack on Paul Pelosi is the latest instance of political violence that has been on the rise in the United States in recent years. 

Hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to try to stop the certification of Biden’s victory after then-President Trump and his allies had claimed for weeks that the 2020 election was rigged and fraudulent.

A man was arrested earlier in June outside of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home while carrying zip ties and weapons. A month later, another gun-toting man was arrested and charged with making death threats outside the Seattle home of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a prominent liberal figure.

Then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot during a district event in Tucson, Ariz., more than a decade ago, while Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the Republican whip, was similarly targeted by a lone gunman on a baseball field in Virginia in 2017. Both almost died.

Biden and White House aides have repeatedly condemned political violence, and several Republicans have condemned the attack on Paul Pelosi, including former Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

Vice President Harris, who was also in Pennsylvania on Friday, told reporters that the attack on Pelosi was “an act of extreme violence” and that elected leaders have a responsibility to condemn such acts.

“There’s absolutely room and it is important to have public discourse when there are disagreements about policy,” Harris said. “But what we’ve been seeing recently is so base in terms of the reducing it down to something that I think is beneath the dignity and the intelligence of the American people.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Paul Pelosi attack highlights era of heightened political violence

Friday’s brutal attack on the husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) shocked Congress and the country, pulling the nation’s gaze away from the looming midterm elections — if only briefly — and placing it squarely on the plague of political violence that’s risen dramatically in recent years.

Paul Pelosi, a wealthy San Francisco investor, is a power broker in his own right. But a source briefed on the confrontation told The Hill the assailant who broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco home was shouting “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?”

The suspect then struck Paul Pelosi with a hammer, according to San Francisco’s chief of police, sending the 82-year-old to the hospital, where the Speaker’s office says he’s expected to make a full recovery after successfully undergoing surgery to repair a skull fracture and serious injuries to his right arm and hands.

The vicious attack marked just the latest in a long string of violent episodes — some physical altercations, some distant threats — targeting members of Congress and other government figures, ranging from justices of the Supreme Court embroiled in controversial rulings, to local school board members caught up in the stormy culture wars. 

The assault has also added new fuel to the simmering debate over the real-life consequences of violent political speech and raised fresh questions about the current levels of security for members of Congress and their families — two topics that have gained outsized attention since last year’s violent mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

“It does highlight an extreme problem that we have in this country with the political violence that’s being threatened over and over again, at all levels, whether it’s school boards [or] members of Congress,” Charles Ramsey, former chief of police in Washington, D.C., said Friday in an interview with CNN. 

“The number of threats have dramatically increased, and it seems like the climate is just continuing to get worse.”

The hard numbers support Ramsey’s concerns. 

The U.S. Capitol Police Department opened roughly 1,820 cases involving concerning statements and threats against lawmakers between Jan. 1 and March 23 of this year. The department said it does not anticipate releasing additional numbers until early next year to allow for “an apples to apples comparison from year to year.”

But if this year follows the same trend as the last half decade, the annual number of cases involving threats and concerning statements targeting lawmakers will likely exceed that of 2021, when 9,625 inquiries were opened.

Last year’s numbers marked a roughly 144 percent increase from cases opened in 2017, a seismic jump that occurred during the Trump administration, when divisive political rhetoric became more common across the country.

The uptick has been accompanied by some changes. Over the summer, the office of the House sergeant-at-arms said it was creating a residential security program that would allocate up to $10,000 for security system equipment and installation costs at the personal residences of House lawmakers.

And on Friday, the Capitol Police began a review of security for top lawmakers following the attack on Paul Pelosi, sources told Punchbowl News.

But the violent incident in San Francisco will likely renew calls for greater security during such a polarizing moment in American politics.

“It really is a huge problem,” said Ramsey. “And I think part of that solution is going to be allowing federal funds to be used for private security, if needed or if wanted, by members.”

The violence has touched members of both parties over the years. Then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) was shot during a district event in Tucson more than a decade ago, while Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), the Republican whip, was similarly targeted by a lone gunman on a baseball field in Virginia in 2017. Both almost died. 

More recently, in June, a man armed with a knife and gun was arrested for threatening the conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh near his home in Maryland. A month later, another gun-toting man was arrested and charged with making death threats outside the Seattle home of Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a prominent liberal figure.

“The fear and hatred that is dividing us, pitting us against each other in this country, is a real and present danger to our democracy,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) told CNN Friday. 

“And it isn’t Democrats that this is just targeted at, it’s targeted at Republicans, Democrats, far-right, far-left and local-level officials,” she continued. “School board members are wearing bulletproof vests to meetings. This is a real danger, and it’s got to stop.”

Speaker Pelosi is accustomed to being targeted for her politics. The long-time Democratic leader has, for decades, come under criticism from Republicans seeking to tie vulnerable swing-district Democrats to their liberal leader from San Francisco, particularly on controversial partisan issues like ObamaCare and climate change. 

In recent years, however, the tenor of those attacks has taken a harsh turn, according to a new analysis by The New York Times, which examined millions of social media messages, campaign emails and other communications promoted by members of both parties. 

The trend is especially pronounced among the 139 House Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election results, the closest allies of former President Trump, the Times found, who are more apt to characterize Democrats — particularly Pelosi — as “America-hating socialists,” in the words of one GOP lawmaker, who are hell-bent on destroying the country’s traditions. 

That change in tone, the critics warn, has repercussions. 

“This incident makes one thing clear: Violent political rhetoric has consequences, and unfortunately, this is not the first time we are seeing those consequences play out,” said Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), a member of the Intelligence Committee. 

William Scott, San Francisco’s police chief, emphasized that the motive in Friday’s attack on Paul Pelosi “is still being determined.” But the suspect, 42-year-old David DePape, appears to have been active in the promotion of right-wing conspiracy theories across a range of hot-button topics, including COVID-19 vaccines, the 2020 election results and the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to CNN.

DePape was arrested on site and faces a series of felony charges, including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and elder abuse, Scott said. 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), one of two Republicans on the Jan. 6 investigative committee, suggested a link between the rise in heated political speech and the spike in political violence. 

“I want to be clear: when you convince people that politicians are rigging elections, drink babies blood, etc, you will get violence,” Kinzinger tweeted. “This must be rejected. This is why the Jan 6th committee is so important.” 

Source: TEST FEED1