Archive by Author

GOP Illinois governor hopeful apologizes after calling for people to 'move on' after shooting

Darren Bailey, an Illinois state senator and the Republican nominee for governor, apologized Monday after saying that people should “move on” from the deadly Highland Park shooting earlier in the day. 

Bailey spoke after a July Fourth parade in the town of Skokie was canceled in the wake of the shooting, which left at least six dead and injured at least 24 others. 

“Let’s pray for justice to prevail, and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation,” he said. 

Bailey said in a statement released after his comments that he apologizes if he “diminished the pain” being felt across Illinois. 

“I am heartbroken by today’s tragic events and the pain and loss felt by so many,” he said. “My intent was to pray for the victims and those affected by today’s tragedy and for the shooter to be caught and prosecuted without further loss.” 

Bailey said he hopes people can come together in prayer and to take action to address “rampant” crime and mental health issues to ensure tragedies like the shooting do not happen again. 

He posted a tweet on Monday afternoon saying he sends his “heartfelt prayers” to the victims of the shooting. 

“July 4th is supposed to be a holiday for families, for parades, for celebrating the American Dream, but when people dont feel safe in their own community, they are deprived of that dream,” he said. 

During his earlier comments, Bailey led a prayer for the families of those affected and law enforcement. He said canceling the parade was the right choice because safety needs to come first.

Police have arrested a person of interest in connection with the shooting.

Source: TEST FEED1

These celebrities are 'canceling' July 4 over the Roe. v Wade repeal

Multiple celebrities are protesting the Fourth of July this year in the wake of the bombshell Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had protected women’s right to abortion for nearly 50 years.

Reality star mogul Kim Kardashian was one of those who took to social media to boycott America’s birthday.

“4th of July has been canceled due to a shortage of Independence. Sincerely, women,” read the post, which she reshared from another user.

Kardashian’s mom and manager, Kris Jenner, and singer/actress Bette Midler also reshared the post to their social accounts.

Braunwyn Windham, a former cast member of the “Real Housewives” franchise, posted a photo in which she is dressed up in a costume from the hit show “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which details a fictional futuristic society in which women lack basic rights.

“It’s July 4th. Not sure what to celebrate this year,” she wrote in the accompanying caption.

In a photo shared to Twitter, actress Jessica Chastain posed with her middle fingers up.

“Happy ‘Independence’ Day from me and my reproductive rights,” Chastain wrote.

Singer Katy Perry quoted her famous hit “Firework” to speak out on Twitter about Roe v. Wade being overturned.

“‘Baby you’re a firework’ is a 10 but women in the US have fewer rights than an actual sparkler smh,” she wrote.

Padma Lakshmi, host of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” also slammed the decision.

“Not much to celebrate this 4th, I’m afraid,” she wrote on Twitter.

She added, “No matter what, we’ll keep fighting for the day where all humans have the same rights, at least of their own person and body, have privacy to make their own choices and to love whom they love and live in peace.”

Protests both for and against abortion rights have broken out around the country since the high court voted to repeal Roe v. Wade last month.

Source: TEST FEED1

Ex-Highland Park residents Rachel Brosnahan, Richard Marx condemn shooting

Actress Rachel Brosnahan and singer-songwriter Richard Marx, both of whom grew up in Highland Park, Ill., each condemned the shooting there that took at least six lives and injured at least two dozen others on Monday. 

Brosnahan, the star of the Amazon Prime series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” said in a tweet that the Fourth of July parade where the shooting occurred is a highlight of the year for many families. 

“I’m sick to my stomach every time news like this comes out, but I don’t wish the pit in your stomach as you call your family and friends to make sure everyone is okay on anyone. No words,” she said. 

Brosnahan also tweeted a link to donate to the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, a nonprofit advocating against gun violence. 

Marx, known for songs including “Right Here Waiting” and “Should’ve Known Better,” tweeted that he is reaching out to people he knows from Highland Park to check on them. 

“My heart is always broken by these constant mass shootings no matter where they occur but today I’m extra heartbroken,” Marx said. “And extra angry at the senselessness.” 

Police have identified 22-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo III as a person of interest in the shooting. He is believed to be driving a 2010 silver Honda Fit and law enforcement considers him armed and dangerous.

Source: TEST FEED1

Police ID person of interest in July 4 Illinois shooting, considered armed and dangerous

Police have identified a person of interest in the shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., which left at least six people dead on Monday.

Highland Park Police Chief Lou Jogman said in a press conference that authorities are searching for 22-year-old Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, who is believed to be driving a 2010 silver Honda Fit with an Illinois license plate, numbered DM80653. 

Jogman said multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are working to apprehend Crimo, and officials are following up on tips they receive as part of the investigation. 

Chris Covelli, a spokesman for the Lake County Major Crime Task Force, said Crimo is considered armed and dangerous, and people should not approach him if they see him.

Covelli said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other federal officials are “heavily” investigating a gun that police recovered at the scene of the shooting. He said the gun is a “high-powered rifle,” and the bureau will provide more details about it at a later time.

Jennifer Banek, the coroner for Lake County, which includes Highland Park, said five adults were killed on the scene of the shooting, and one person died at a hospital.

At least 24 other people were injured.

Source: TEST FEED1

A blunt directive and reminder on FOIA’s 56th birthday

The Freedom of Information Act is a reminder of the obligation of federal officials, including the president, to enforce the laws and the Constitution, even to their detriment or defeat.

The continuing hearings of the Jan. 6 Committee are a message to Americans that we all have a responsibility to uphold the Constitution and laws of our nation. The Freedom of Information Act was in part given to citizens of the US as repayment for the loyalty demanded of our people and officials.

FOIA, signed into law in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson, is celebrating its 56th birthday on July 4 this year. The law, used by millions of American citizens since its enactment, emphasizes the commitment of our government to every citizen to provide for the free flow of all public documents to Americans.

The stunning hearings of the House Jan. 6 Committee have reemphasized the reciprocal duty of federal officials, even a sitting president, to adhere to and enforce the Constitution and laws of the United States.

Over the years, FOIA has been burdened with expanding exemptions that limit its effectiveness. Though the exemptions have been created allegedly to protect national security, internal agency decisional memoranda and business trade secrets, among other issues, they often have blocked or delayed access to important data that citizens and businesses were intended to have under the Act.

FOIA is an important tool for individuals, the press, businesses and public interest groups to monitor or challenge government actions. And it is used extensively. For example, in 2020 there were almost 800,000 requests for information filed under the procedures of FOIA. Many are still pending.

It was through persistent FOIA requests, after all, that the nation learned of the Trump administration’s attempts to bludgeon Ukraine into lying about an investigation of Hunter Biden in an effort to discredit potential presidential candidate Joe Biden.

In 2020, alone, 758 FOIA lawsuits were filed in an effort to force federal agencies to provide timely, requested information that had been denied. During November of that year, 55 new lawsuits were filed to enforce disclosure requests against the Department of Health and Human Services alone.

In an effort to reverse the damage done to the Act over the years and to American citizens’ right to public information, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum in March, as a directive to all federal agencies. It established four new criteria for responding positively to request for government files and stated that the Department of Justice would not defend agencies that failed to follow these directives.

The attorney general’s memorandum restates and expands the “presumption of openness” established by President Bill Clinton and his Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993, but often ignored by succeeding administrations.

The Garland directive also echoes Rep. John E. Moss’s (D-Calif.) original vision for the law he fought for. Moss, who wrote the bill and worked 12 years to push it through a reluctant Congress and an even more reluctant President Lyndon Johnson, saw the law as a way to give ordinary citizens the right to get important information from their government.

In order to pass the bill, Moss and his allies (including Republican Rep. Donald Rumsfeld) had to agree to several important exemptions, such as those relating to national security and other key matters. They have been interpreted over the years to make it more difficult for citizens and the press to access information from the government.

Garland’s memo could reverse FOIA’s downward slide. It states four basic rules that federal agencies must follow: 

1) The memorandum restates a “presumption of openness.” In order to override that presumption, an agency must find that disclosure would harm a specific interest protected by the Act, such as national security or trade secrets. In case of doubt, Garland stated “openness should prevail.”

2)  Agencies are directed to engage in “proactive disclosures.” This would mean that information previously disclosed would automatically be made available to the public in an electronic database.

3) Agencies are told to remove existing barriers to access and reduce backlogs, which have currently reached over 10,000 pending public requests for some agencies.

4) To promote fairer FOIA administration, Garland directed each agency to review its administration of the law, report regularly to the Department of Justice, reduce backlogs and speed decisions.

Will the attorney general’s renewal of the original purpose of open government and of Congress’s intent under FOIA reverse the trend toward delay, denial and ineffectiveness?

Only time will answer this question. But the words of FOIA’s chief author and sponsor, Rep. John Moss, come down to us over the succeeding decades. Years ago when I asked Moss if he was satisfied with the Freedom of Information Act after its 1966 enactment, he answered “Of course not. It’s better than previous law; but am I satisfied? No…. The battle for open government never ends.” 

Michael R. Lemov is an attorney who served as Counsel for the House Commerce Committee under John Moss and is the author of “People’s Warrior:  John Moss and the Fight for Freedom of Information and Consumer Rights”; Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011, and “Car Safety Wars:  100 Years of Technology, Politics and Death”; Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2015.

Source: TEST FEED1

‘There’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy’: Biden marks July 4

President Biden encouraged the public to keep working toward a better America on Monday, saying in an address from the White House lawn that “there’s nothing guaranteed” about the future of democracy on a Fourth of July marred by the latest mass shooting. 

“Each day, we’re reminded there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy, nothing guaranteed about our way of life,” Biden said at an event for the families of members of the military. “We have to fight for it, defend it and earn it by voting.” 

Biden said he remains optimistic for the future of the country despite the difficulties it is currently facing, including economic struggles and liberty “under assault at home and abroad.” 

Six people were killed and more than 20 injured earlier Monday when a gunman struck an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Ill. In a statement, Biden said federal law enforcement would assist in the ongoing manhunt and called for further efforts to rein in the scourge of gun violence.

In his White House address, the president said recent days may make people think that the country is moving in reverse and that certain rights are no longer protected, an apparent reference to the Supreme Court’s decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed a federal right to abortion. 

“I know it can be exhausting and unsettling, but tonight, I want you to know that we’re going to get through all of this,” Biden said. 

He noted reasons to have hope, including that people are “reclaiming” their way of life coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and said that the U.S. economy remains the “strongest” in the world. 

He said more people are starting businesses and graduating high school and college than at any time in America’s history. 

Biden said the Fourth of July reminds the public what brought the country together and continues to unite it, pointing to the phrase “we the people,” the first words of the preamble to the Constitution. 

“On this day, amid the storm and strife, may we commit ourselves to principled patriotism, to the large and complex mission to protect and make more perfect our union,” Biden said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Swipe right (wing): Former Trump aides seek singles for Thiel-backed dating app

At a hip basement bar in Washington’s Shaw neighborhood on a recent Thursday night, singles from conservative nonprofits, GOP Capitol Hill offices and right-leaning media groups sipped craft cocktails from an open bar under the glow of neon lights, part of an effort to build buzz and a user base for a new dating app created by former Trump White House staffers and backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel.

There is a long list of failed or now-defunct dating apps aimed at conservatives that have popped up in recent years, including Righter, Donald Dater, TrumpSingles, Patrio and Conservatives Only. 

Co-founders John McEntee, who was a personal aide to former President Trump and then director of the White House presidential personnel office, and Daniel Huff, a Trump appointee in the Department of Housing and Urban Development and also a White House adviser, say The Right Stuff will be different. 

“What we’re doing has really not been done before. No one has built a high quality, properly funded app with a dedicated team,” Huff said in an interview.

“It’s an important underserved market,” Huff said. “Liberals own the education, media corporations, and we can’t let them control our personal relationships.”

Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal who was also the first outside investor in Facebook, has put around $1.5 million in the dating app, one of many of his investments on the political right. He’s also invested in Rumble, an alternative to YouTube that is popular among conservatives, and this election cycle he’s poured millions into supporting Trump-endorsed GOP Senate candidates J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona.

Some singles at the Shaw event were optimistic The Right Stuff — free from the “woke” features on other platforms — will help them find right-wing love without a barrage of users telling Trump voters, conservatives or unvaccinated people to swipe left.

Jordan Lamb, an intern at a conservative nonprofit, said that she and her friends trudge through a dozen or more liberal men before finding even one conservative on popular dating apps.

“I know a lot of young conservatives who are feeling very frustrated using dating apps because the apps don’t reflect their values,” Lamb said. “They forced you to have pronouns or BLM tags, or vaccinated/unvaccinated … So I think there’s definitely a big need for it.”

But others at the event were skeptical. Some attendees worried whether enough conservative women would sign up for the app, wondered whether people beyond the Beltway would join, and pointed out that some major dating apps already allow users to target conservative matches. Bumble, for example, allows users to filter potential matches based on political views, but that advanced feature requires a subscription. 

With Thiel’s backing, The Right Stuff aims for high quality technologically. Southern California-based app developer and creative agency Naked Development is building the app.

And unlike other dating apps that were for Trump supporters only or encouraged long-term relationships over one-night stands, The Right Stuff is taking a broader approach.

“It’s for all types of conservatives and all types of dating,” Huff said.

Right now, the app is only catering to heterosexual relationships — its “core constituency,” as Huff said — but it is looking at expanding to same-sex relationships “down the road.”

And despite the existence of other right-wing dating apps, Huff said that there is a vast market for a conservative dating company.

Other dating platforms have found success catering to those looking for a partner with certain core values. Numerous businesses cater to Jewish or Christian singles, for instance.

“Politics has become almost a religion for some people,” Huff said.

He countered concerns about the app being successful outside D.C. by arguing that those who consider right-wing views a must in a romantic partner can find it harder in other large metropolitan areas, without the conservative social scene that flourishes on Capitol Hill, in think tank circles and elsewhere.

“You want to be able to find the pool of conservatives. And if you’re just relying on people you run into, statistically the chances aren’t great,” Huff said. 

The app also has an advantage that others did not: Founders and backers with deep connections across the right-wing political ecosystem.

Ryann McEnany, sister of former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, has been sliding into conservative women’s DMs on social media to recruit them to join the app. She also headed to the conservative Turning Point USA’s Young Women’s Leadership Summit in Texas last month, a gathering of thousands of young women, to recruit for The Right Stuff.

A video promotion for the app played at that conference showed dramatizations of bad dates: A man who didn’t want kids due to worries about climate change; a man who didn’t pay for the date because he brought the wrong fanny pack; a man who showed up for a date on a bicycle and invited her to sit on the handlebars on the way to their outing.

“Start going out with normal guys,” the promo closed.

The developers know that recruiting enough women to the app will be key to its success, which is reflected in its business model.

It will use a premium subscription model with a basic free version available for everyone, but a subscription available for men. Women, however, won’t have to pay.

“Obviously, this whole thing doesn’t work if you don’t have the proper ratios,” Huff said.

The Right Stuff team also hopes that new features set it apart from competitors. One feature with the working name “Posted Date” lets users advertise potential dates to encourage in-person interaction.

“Basically, ‘Oh, I got two tickets to a ballgame, who wants to go?’ And then, you know, multiple people can say, ‘Hey, I’m interested,’ and then you wind up in picking one,” Huff said. “It’s an idea of getting people out on fun dates, instead of just sitting on the phone, you know, messaging back and forth.”

“​​Those other platforms are playing catch up. We’re going ahead. We’re making something even better,” Huff said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Putin declares victory in eastern Ukraine region of Luhansk

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared victory in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, one day after Ukrainian forces withdrew from their last remaining bulwark of resistance in the province.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin in a televised meeting Monday that Russian forces had taken control of Luhansk, which together with the neighboring Donetsk province makes up Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas.

Shoigu told Putin that “the operation” was completed on Sunday after Russian troops overran the city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Luhansk.

Putin, in turn, said that the military units “that took part in active hostilities and achieved success, victory” in Luhansk, “should rest, increase their combat capabilities.”

Putin’s declaration came as Russian forces tried to press their offensive deeper into eastern Ukraine after the Ukrainian military confirmed that its forces had withdrawn from Lysychansk on Sunday. Luhansk governor Serhii Haidai said on Monday that Ukrainian forces had retreated from the city to avoid being surrounded.

“There was a risk of Lysychansk encirclement,” Haidai told the Associated Press, adding that Ukrainian troops could have held on for a few more weeks but would have potentially paid too high a price.

“We managed to do centralized withdrawal and evacuate all injured,” Haidai said. “We took back all the equipment, so from this point withdrawal was organized well.”

The Ukrainian General Staff said Russian forces were now focusing their efforts on pushing toward the line of Siversk, Fedorivka and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, about half of which is controlled by Russia. The Russian army has also intensified its shelling of the key Ukrainian strongholds of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, deeper in Donetsk.

On Sunday, six people, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed in the Russian shelling of Sloviansk and another 19 people were wounded, according to local authorities. Kramatorsk also came under fire on Sunday.

An intelligence briefing Monday from the British Defense Ministry supported the Ukrainian military’s assessment, noting that Russian forces will “now almost certainly” switch to capturing Donetsk. The briefing said the conflict in Donbas has been “grinding and attritional,” and is unlikely to change in the coming weeks.

While the Russian army has a massive advantage in firepower, military analysts say that it doesn’t have any significant superiority in the number of troops. That means Moscow lacks resources for quick land gains and can only advance slowly, relying on heavy artillery and rocket barrages to soften Ukrainian defenses.

Putin has made capturing the entire Donbas a key goal in his war in Ukraine, now in its fifth month. Moscow-backed separatists in Donbas have battled Ukrainian forces since 2014 when they declared independence from Kyiv after the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. Russia formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics days before its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

Since failing to take Kyiv and other areas in Ukraine’s northeast early in the war, Russia has focused on Donbas, unleashing fierce shelling and engaging in house-to-house combat that devastated cities in the region.

Russia’s invasion has also devastated Ukraine’s agricultural sector, disrupting supply chains of seed and fertilizer needed by Ukrainian farmers and blocking the export of grain, a key source of revenue for the country.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, called for immediate economic aid to help the country rebuild even as fighting continues.

“The restoration of Ukraine is not only about what needs to be done later after our victory, but also about what needs to be done right now. And we must do this together with our partners, with the entire democratic world,” he said.

“A significant part of the economy has been destroyed by hostilities and Russian strikes. Thousands of enterprises do not work. And this means a high need for jobs, to provide social benefits, despite the decrease in tax revenues,” Zelenskyy said.

In its Monday intelligence report, Britain’s defense ministry pointed to the Russian blockade of the key Ukrainian port of Odesa, which has severely restricted grain exports. They predicted that Ukraine’s agricultural exports would reach only 35% of the 2021 total this year as a result.

As Moscow pushed its offensive across Ukraine’s east, areas in western Russia came under attack Sunday in a revival of sporadic apparent Ukrainian strikes across the border. The governor of the Belgorod region in Western Russia said fragments of an intercepted Ukrainian missile killed four people Sunday. In the Russian city of Kursk, two Ukrainian drones were shot down, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

In other developments:

— Ukrainian soldiers returning from the front lines in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region — where Russia is waging a fierce offensive — describe life during what has turned into a grueling war of attrition as apocalyptic.

— Two Russian airplanes departed Bulgaria on Sunday with scores of Russian diplomatic staff and their families amid a mass expulsion that has sent tensions soaring between the historically close nations, a Russian diplomat said.

___

Associated Press journalists Inna Varenytsia, Maria Grazia Murru and Oleksandr Stashevskyi contributed to this report from Kyiv.

Source: TEST FEED1

Why Kansas will be a bellwether in abortion fight

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, President Biden pointed to the November elections, saying, “This fall, Roe is on the ballot.” 

But in Kansas, abortion rights are on the ballot even sooner.  

Kansans will vote on a state constitutional amendment on abortion on Aug. 2, setting the state up as a key bellwether for how abortion rights resonate as a voting issue ahead of the midterm elections.  

The amendment would overturn a 2019 state Supreme Court ruling finding that the Kansas constitution protects abortion rights, and then leave it up to the GOP-controlled legislature to decide how far to go in adding restrictions or bans on abortion.  

The vote is gaining national attention, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court decision removing federal protections for abortion in late June. 

Progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are posting on social media urging their followers to donate to defeat the amendment. Warren said if it passes it will “leave a huge reproductive health desert in the middle of the country.”  

On the other side, the national anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List announced a $1.3 million investment in supporting the amendment in recent days, and said its canvassers have already visited 100,000 homes in the state.  

Kansas will be the “epicenter of national abortion politics,” until the vote, said Neal Allen, a professor of political science at Wichita State University. 

“It’s going to be a real interesting test of where the American public is after the Supreme Court’s decision,” he added.  

The result in Kansas, the first statewide vote on abortion rights after the Supreme Court ruling, could help shed light on how successful Democrats can be nationally in using abortion to try to energize supporters for the November elections, despite stiff political headwinds given rising inflation, Biden’s lagging approval ratings and the history of a president’s party losing seats in a midterm.  

Kansas is a red state, and Allen said he would be “surprised” if the amendment failed, but the outcome is far from certain.  

“Kansas isn’t as conservative as a lot of people might think,” he said, noting the state currently has a Democratic governor.  

There has not been any recent public polling on the amendment. But a poll last year from Fort Hays State University on abortion rights more generally found that 60 percent of Kansas residents opposed making abortion illegal in all circumstances, including rape.  

A slim majority, 50.5 percent, said “the Kansas government should not place any regulations on the circumstances under which women can get abortions,” compared to 25.4 percent who disagreed.   

In an added challenge for abortion rights supporters, Republican legislators put the measure on the August primary ballot, which generally has much lower turnout than the November general election.  

Given that move by the GOP and the general rightward lean of Kansas, Allen said that even if the amendment passes by a small margin, for national purposes “it’s really a clue that will show that at least at this point in time the pro-choice side is really energized by this issue.” 

Ashley All, a spokesperson for Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, a group fighting the amendment and seeking to protect abortion rights, said the August primary ballot vote makes it “difficult” but that the group is working to make people aware and had seen an increase in attention after the Supreme Court ruling last month. 

“The decision last week was a wake up call for a lot of people across the country and also in Kansas,” she said.  

“They’re pretty angry quite frankly, and we’ve seen a significant increase in just volunteering” in the wake of the decision, she added.  

Both sides are framing the consequences of the amendment in starkly different terms.  

“This amendment gives politicians in Kansas the power to pass any law they want regarding abortion, including a total ban,” All said.  

One ad fighting the amendment notably does not say the word “abortion” at all, instead telling voters to “say no to more government control.” 

On the other side, Danielle Underwood, a spokesperson for the Value Them Both Coalition, a group supporting the amendment, stressed that the amendment itself does not ban abortion, and simply “gives the people back their voice” in “deciding appropriate limits” on abortion.  

Underwood pointed to national progressives like Warren who have called attention to the race as “pitting coastal elites against Kansans.” 

Patrick Miller, a political science professor at the University of Kansas, said he is “very confident” that the Kansas legislature would pass a “total or near-total” abortion ban if the amendment passed and gave them that ability. 

The problem for abortion rights supporters, he said, is they “still have a lot of work to do to make people aware we’re even having a vote.” 

“The lower the turnout, the better it is for amendment supporters,” he said, but that opponents are “showing a lot more signs of life, particularly since the Supreme Court leak.” 

Pointing to the lack of polling on the amendment, he called the result “very hard to predict.” 

“The people who are very confident about where politics goes from here are probably the people who are being paid to tell you a particular thing,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1