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Navy announces 'safety pause' in wake of aircraft crashes

The U.S. Navy will pause all non-deployed aircraft units on Monday to conduct a safety screening in the wake of multiple recent aircraft crashes, according to an announcement over the weekend. 

The “safety pause” announced on Saturday is intended “to review risk-management practices and conduct training on threat and error-management processes.”

“In order to maintain the readiness of our force, we must ensure the safety of our people remains one of our top priorities,” the Navy added. 

The pause comes following three crashes in June, two of which were fatal.

One Navy pilot died in a crash in California roughly 170 miles northeast of Los Angeles during a June 3 training mission involving a F/A-18E Super Hornet.

On June 8, five Marines were killed after another plane, an MV-22B Osprey, crashed in California east of San Diego. 

And on June 9, a crash involving an MH-60S Seahawk crashed during a routine training flight in California. All four crew members survived that crash, the Navy said.

All three crashes are still under investigation. 

Cmdr. Zach Harrell, a San Diego-based Naval Air Forces spokesperson, told The New York Times there has not been evidence connecting the three crashes thus far. 

“If there’s anything that comes out of the investigation that determines there’s a link, that will be addressed immediately,” Harrell told the newspaper.

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2 killed, 4 wounded in shooting at Gary nightclub

GARY, Ind. – Two people were killed and four others wounded in shooting at a nightclub in Gary, Indiana early Sunday morning.

Gary police said officers responded to the Playo’s Nightclub in the 1700 block of Grant Street for reports of shots fired.

One neighbor said she heard 30-50 gunshots and people screaming.

Once there, police said officers found an unresponsive 34-year-old man near the door. He was transported with gunshot wounds to the hospital. He was later pronounced dead. The Lake County Indiana coroner identified the man as Jonte Dorsey of Joliet, Illinois

Police said officers also found an unresponsive 26-year-old woman inside the club. She was also transported to the hospital. She was late pronounced dead, police said. The Lake County Indiana coroner identified her as Jah’Nice Quinn of Merrillville, Indiana.

Police said a third person was shot and taken to the hospital in critical condition.

Three additional people were also shot and appear to have non-life-threatening injuries, according to police. 

The circumstances surrounding the shooting have not been released at this time.

In 2017 police responded to a fatal shooting for a club located at the same address.

Some who live nearby say since then the gunshots ring out regularly on the weekends. They want to see the establishment shut down for good.

Police are investigating.

Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to call 219-755-3855 or the Crime Tip Line at 866-CRIME-GP. 

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Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effective for children under 5: FDA staff

A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) briefing document released Sunday said that Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children under 5. 

The document comes before a meeting scheduled for Wednesday during which the FDA’s independent experts will consider emergency use authorization of the vaccine for young children, which could quickly pave the way for widespread availability.

The FDA documents indicated that the vaccines were 75.6 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 for children ages six to 23 months old and 82.4 percent effective for children between ages 2 and 4.

Overall, they were 80.4 percent effective in a combined analysis of both age groups, the FDA said. 

“Available data support the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine 3-dose primary series (3 µg each dose) in preventing COVID-19 in the age group of 6 months through 4 years,” the document said. 

Agency staff added that “the available safety data from a total database of over 3,000 vaccine recipients do not suggest any new safety concerns compared with the safety profile described in older age groups.”

The FDA will also consider a similar request from Moderna.

Last week, the FDA’s briefing documents similarly said Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is both effective and safe for children under 6 years old.

After the experts issue their guidance following this week’s meeting, the FDA will decide whether or not it will follow the advice. 

Should the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sign off on the shots for younger children, they could be available as early as next week, The Washington Post reported.

Source: TEST FEED1

Here are the 10 Senate Republicans who are backing the bipartisan gun bill

A bipartisan group of senators announced a deal Sunday on framework legislation to address a recent surge in gun violence in the U.S. 

The proposed legislation includes funding for school safety resources, strengthened background checks for buyers under the age of 21, incentives for states to implement their own “red flag’ laws, penalties for straw purchases of firearms, and increased protections for domestic violence victims. 

The bipartisan group was made up of 20 senators, including 10 GOP lawmakers, many of which are strong supporters of gun rights and political allies of the powerful National Rifle Association.

With support from those 10 GOP lawmakers, the legislation likely has the votes to overcome the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.

Here are the Senate Republicans who are backing the bipartisan gun reform legislation. 

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) 

Cornyn was among the initial group of nine lawmakers who began discussing gun legislation after the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas Elementary school last month that left 19 students and two teacher dead.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appointed Cornyn as the GOP’s lead negotiator in the talks.

“The tragedies in Uvalde and elsewhere cried out for action,” Cornyn said in a tweet Sunday amid news of the bipartisan deal.

“I worked closely with my colleagues to find an agreement to protect our communities from violence while also protecting law-abiding Texans’ right to bear arms.”

Cornyn, who has an A+ rating from the NRA, had previously offered assurances that he would not support any legislation that restricted gun rights.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.)

Tillis also played an early role in the gun violence negotiations. He said he was not willing to support raising the age limit of purchasing an AR-15 to 21 years of age, which is high on the Democratic wish-list.

Shortly after the Uvalde shooting, Tillis warned against blaming mass shootings on the proliferation of guns in America.

“It’s horrible. And you know what we need to avoid is the reflexive reaction we have to say this could all be solved by not having guns in anyone’s hands,” he said, according to CNN.

“We can always talk about reasonable measures, but we also have to talk about better situational awareness. I’m almost certain that in the coming days or weeks, we’re going to find out that there were signs that this person was at risk.”

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)

Blunt, who is retiring from his Senate seat at the end of this year, worked with Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) on mental health provisions in the framework package, such as national funding for mental health clinics, which will provide 24/7 mental health crisis responses among other services. 

“We want to be sure that mental health care is not only available, but that we are encouraging people to seek care without the fear of stigmatization. This bipartisan proposal builds on the progress we have made and ensures community-based access points to care will be available over the long term,” Blunt said in a statement on Sunday. 

“It will help keep people safe while protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans, and I urge our colleagues to give it their full consideration.”

Rob Portman (R-Ohio)

Portman recently told NBC affiliate WFMJ-TV that keeping firearms away from dangerous individuals and implementing safety measures at schools were his focuses in the talks.

“We have the opportunity to do something [addressing mental and behavioral health] that we should be doing anyway,” he said.

Portman also noted he doesn’t want to infringe on citizens who abide by gun laws. He also expressed interest in making juvenile records more accessible in systems used to prevent dangerous individuals from obtaining firearms.

Richard Burr (R-N.C.)

Burr, who is also retiring this year, has received nearly $7 million in donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA), according to data from Brady United, placing him second among GOP senators onto to Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah).

Asked about Democratic gun control proposals following the Uvalde shooting, Burr didn’t say specifically what he opposed or supported.

“If somebody’s got a solution to this, by all means, let’s talk about it,” Burr said. “But nobody’s proposed that they’ve got one.” 

Mitt Romney (R-Utah)

Romney, who received over $13 in donations from the NRA, said in a tweet after the Uvalde shooting that “we must find answers” to the issue. 

In a statement on Sunday, he said “Families deserve to feel safe and secure in their communities.”

“Proud to join my colleagues on this commonsense, bipartisan proposal that will save lives while also protecting the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. It deserves broad support.”

Romney has regularly opposed Democrat-proposed gun control measures, though he said in 2018 that he was open to considering “more effective background checks.”

Bill Cassidy (R-La.)

Cassidy said he was open to discussion on gun reform legislation in the aftermath of the Uvalde school massacre.

Among the initial group of nine lawmakers, Cassidy suggested that “red-flag” laws and expanded background checks were not the right solution to the problem.

“Senator Cassidy will always be an advocate for law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights,” Cassidy’s spokesperson Ty Bofferding said in a statement to the Daily Advertiser last month.

“Cassidy is open to conversations about solutions that will actually work to prevent these kinds of mass shootings. Unfortunately, expanded background checks or red flag laws, as Democrats are proposing as a solution, would not have prevented the tragedy in Texas.”

Susan Collins (R-Maine)

Collins previously said she would like to see red-flag laws, which have already been enacted in her state of Maine, be part of the bipartisan proposal.

“I believe that we should look at enacting a red flag law based on the one we have in Maine, which has due process rights and involves a medical professional in the decision,” she said last month. “I don’t know the details of the shooter, but it’s hard to believe he wasn’t mentally ill.”  

Collins also expressed her support for creating a process for keeping firearms away from those who suffer from mental health issues.

“I really think our focus should be on looking at what the states have done, what some states have done on red flag or yellow flag laws,” she added. 

Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

Graham has suggested that retired and former military members should provide armed security at schools, joining a chorus of GOP voices calling to “harden” schools against threats.

“I will be working to create a certification process that allows former military members to go through school security training and become available to school districts throughout the country,” Graham said in a Twitter thread last month. 

“It is time to mobilize our retired and former service members who are willing to help secure our schools. Our schools are soft targets,” Graham added. “They contain our most valuable possession – our children, the future of our country – and must be protected.” 

Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)

Toomey recently told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he wants to ensure background checks on all firearm sales. 

“I certainly remain committed to the idea of the principle of the policy of expanding background checks to cover all commercial sales,” Toomey said last month. “I would also point out that even though we fell short, I think it’s the only measure that had bipartisan support — probably the only one, or one of the few, that would have it now.”

Toomey first introduced an expanded background check legislation alongside Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in 2013 in response to the Sandy Hook massacre, but the bill failed to reach the 60-vote filibuster threshold.

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Harris goes after GOP-led states in speech at DC Pride festival

Vice President Harris criticized Republican-led states that have passed dozens of laws targeting LGBTQ youth during a speech at a Capital Pride Festival in D.C. on Sunday.

“No one should fear going to a nightclub for fear that a terrorist might try to take them down,” Harris said on Sunday, which also marked the sixth anniversary of a mass shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando where a gunman killed 49 people and injured 58 others.

“No one should fear loving who they love,” Harris also said at the festival. “Our children in Texas and Florida should not fear who they are.”

“We should not have to be dealing with 300 laws in states around our country that are attacking our LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters,” she added.

The vice president’s remarks come after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed an order directing the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate the parents or guardians of transgender youth who have received gender-affirming care.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.

Many other GOP-led states have passed bills banning transgender athletes from competing in girls sports.

Last week, three families of transgender children in Texas filed a lawsuit in an effort to block state investigations into them for alleged child abuse.

“Their actions have caused terror and anxiety among transgender youth and their families across the Lone Star State and singled out transgender youth and their families for discrimination and harassment,” the lawsuit said of Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner Jaime Masters and Abbott.

Meanwhile, President Biden has officially declared June to be LGBTQ+ Pride Month and has condemned legislation targeted at the LGBTQ+ community. 

“Members of the LGBTQI+ community — especially people of color and trans people — continue to face discrimination and cruel, persistent efforts to undermine their human rights,” Biden said earlier this month. 

“All of this compounded has been especially difficult on LGBTQI+ youth, 45 percent of whom seriously considered attempting suicide in the last year — a devastating reality that our Nation must work urgently to address,” he also said.

Last year, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke at a D.C. Pride parade, pressing for expanded protections for LGBTQ+ communities.

“We need to pass the Equality Act. We need to make sure that our transgender community and our youth are all protected. We need still protections around employment and housing,” she said last year.

“There is so much more work to do. And I know we are committed and we understand the importance of this movement and our roles of leadership in this ongoing movement,” she added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump's 'Big Lie' takes center stage in second Jan. 6 hearing

A former Trump campaign director and a U.S. attorney the then-president weighed firing are among those who will testify Monday as the Jan. 6 committee works to show how Trump forged ahead with plans to remain in power despite being “told again and again that he didn’t have [the] numbers to win.”

“Tomorrow’s hearing is focused on the big lie: the decision by the former president to ignore the will of the voters, declare victory in an election he lost, spread claims of fraud and then decide to ignore the rulings of courts when the judgment of course didn’t go his way,” a committee aide said on a call with reporters. 

Stepien will be joined on a panel by Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News political editor who was a member of the team at the network that made the decision to call Arizona for now-President Biden on election night 2020.

BJay Pak, once a U.S. Attorney in Georgia, will speak publicly for the first time since resigning as Trump fumed over the Justice Department’s refusal to investigate his baseless allegations of voter fraud. Pak will be joined by conservative election attorney Ben Ginsberg and Al Schmidt, a Republican election official in Philadelphia who drew Trump’s ire after he refused to say the 2020 election was rigged.

Monday’s hearing, the second in a series planned after Thursday’s prime time kickoff, is an important building block in the committee’s plan to show that “Trump oversaw a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election,” as Vice Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) put it.

Its first daytime hearing is entirely dedicated to laying out what Trump was told about his prospects for victory and his election fraud claims and how he bucked the lawful methods for questioning election results.

That point is key to showing Trump’s culpability, and would demonstrate that his actions — from pressuring the Department of Justice to investigate, to energizing his base over concerns of election security, to roping in state and federal officials to aide his cause — were taken knowing his election claims were fraudulent. 

It’s a point that would also likely be of interest to the Department of Justice, should they weigh bringing charges against the former president. 

“The former President didn’t have the numbers to win the election; he was told, he chose to declare victory anyway. The claims of fraud the former president embraced were baseless. He was told that again and again, and he continued to repeat those claims anyway,” the committee aide said.

The committee dedicated much of its energy to this topic in its first hearing. They played clips of video footage from depositions with another Trump campaign staffer saying shortly after the election Trump had been told “in pretty blunt terms that he was going to lose.”

And it twice showed clips from former Attorney General Bill Barr making that same point, saying there was ”absolutely zero basis for the allegations” and that Trump’s claims were “complete nonsense.”

The committee even flashed daughter Ivanka Trump referring to Barr when saying, “I accepted what he was saying”

The committee subpoenaed Stepien in November, noting his involvement in the “Stop the Steal” rallies organized on behalf of Trump, including promoting claims around issues with voting machines “despite an internal memo in which campaign staff determined such claims were false.”

He also helmed a campaign tasked with “asking states to delay or deny certification of electoral votes and by sending multiple slate of electoral votes to the United States Congress,” the committee said in November.

Stepien told several media outlets that he will appear before the panel under subpoena. The committee aide refused to answer questions Sunday about how cooperative Stepien will likely be as a witness. 

However, witnesses often appear before committees or their investigators under “friendly subpoena,” and Stepien has not filed any lawsuits to challenge the committee’s request that he testify.

Stepien is also an advisor to the campaign of Harriet Hageman, a Trump-backed challenger to Cheney in Wyoming’s GOP primary.

In the month after the 2020 election, Pak was at the intersection of Trump’s focus on both “finding” additional votes in Georgia and replacing his DOJ leadership if they would not investigate his alleged fraud there.

“Pak’s office had investigated and debunked various allegations of election fraud in Georgia,” a Senate Judiciary Committee review of Trump’s efforts at the Justice Department concluded last October.

That included allegations from Trump attorney Rudy Guliani that officials there absconded with a suitcase of ballots without oversight from Republicans poll watchers. 

“In reality, the ‘suitcase’ was a secure ballot container, and the ballots were counted in the presence of poll watchers from both parties,” the Senate panel wrote in their report.

But as Trump became increasingly fixated on securing action in Georgia, he mentioned Pak, even after he had been talked down from firing his own Justice Department leadership in favor of someone who would initiate an investigation there. 

“Atlanta, Atlanta, no surprise there. They didn’t find anything. No surprise because we have a never-Trumper there as U.S. Attorney,” Trump reportedly said.

Pak abruptly resigned on Jan. 5, despite plans to stay through Inauguration Day.

Ginsberg, a longtime election lawyer on behalf of Republicans, sounded the alarm on the election fraud claims Trump began to issue ahead of Election Day.

“The truth is that over all those years Republicans found only isolated incidents of fraud. Proof of systematic fraud has become the Loch Ness Monster of the Republican Party. People have spent a lot of time looking for it, but it doesn’t exist,” Ginsberg wrote in an op-ed just days before the 2020 election, warning the GOP “is destroying itself on the altar of Trump.”

“As he confronts losing, Trump has devoted his campaign and the Republican Party to this myth of voter fraud. Absent being able to articulate a cogent plan for a second term or find an attack against Joe Biden that will stick, disenfranchising enough voters has become key to his reelection strategy. Perhaps this was the plan all along,” Ginsberg added.

Schmidt, a former city commissioner of Philadelphia, also saw the impact of Trump’s election fraud claims firsthand. He received death threats in the aftermath of the election due to his role on the city’s election board, including following comments that ​ “bad actors” were “lying” about the vote tabulation process.

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Country star Toby Keith discloses stomach cancer diagnosis

Country music star Toby Keith announced Sunday that he has been undergoing treatment for stomach cancer since last fall.

The multi-platinum-selling singer said on Twitter that he underwent surgery and received chemotherapy and radiation in the past six months.

“So far, so good,” said Keith, an Oklahoma native who turns 61 on July 8. “I need time to breathe, recover and relax.

“I am looking forward to spending this time with my family. But I will see the fans sooner than later. I can’t wait.”

The status of Keith’s performances for the remainder of this year wasn’t immediately clear. His next performance is scheduled for June 17 in Wheaton, Illinois, according to his website. After Keith’s announcement, the Ohio State Fair announced that his July 28 concert in Columbus, Ohio, has been canceled.

Keith’s publicist, Elaine Schock, said in an email Sunday night that some tour dates will be canceled, “but I’m not sure how many at this point.”

Keith’s foundation has assisted children with cancer since 2006.

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Who is BJay Pak, the former US attorney testifying on Jan. 6

Former Atlanta-based U.S. Attorney Byung “BJay” Pak will testify on Monday during the Jan. 6 committee’s second public hearing, the committee announced on Sunday. 

Pak was appointed to his former role by Trump in 2017 before he abruptly left his position in January 2021, just days before the attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Pak called his role “the greatest honor of my professional career,” but in an internal memo said his departure had been the result of “unforeseen circumstances.”

A top Department of Justice official reportedly called Pak on Jan. 3 at the White House’s request and told him Trump was angry at a lack of investigation into voter fraud allegations.

Reports have since indicated that Pak left because he found out Trump intended to fire him amid broader shakeups of the DOJ, CNN reported.

Georgia was central to Trump’s effort to overturn the election results, and Pak’s resignation came just days after Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” him enough votes to overturn the election results. 

“Atlanta, Atlanta, no surprise there. They didn’t find anything. No surprise because we have a never-Trumper there as U.S. Attorney,” Trump reportedly said, referencing Pak.

A Senate Judiciary Committee review of Trump’s efforts at the Justice Department concluded last October that “Pak’s office had investigated and debunked various allegations of election fraud in Georgia.”

Pak was the first Korean American to become a U.S. attorney. Previously, he served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017 and did not seek reelection in 2016.

In addition to Pak, Monday morning’s hearing will include testimony from former Fox News political editor Chris Stirewalt, former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, election attorney Benjamin Ginsberg, and former Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the committee announced on Sunday. 

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Why Clyburn is flexing his political muscles in this year's primaries

After decades in Congress and years in House Democratic leadership, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is flexing what he calls his “political tentacles” ahead of what is expected to be a tough election year for Democrats up and down the ballot.

Tuesday marked another — mostly — successful primary night for Clyburn’s endorsed candidates, with incumbent Rep. Donald Payne Jr. fending off a progressive primary challenger in New Jersey’s 10th District and Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) advancing to a runoff in Los Angeles’ mayoral race.

Clyburn made trips to Newark and Los Angeles to campaign for the two Democrats, the latest example of him serving as an ambassador of sorts for House Democratic leadership on the campaign trail.

“I talk to people all the time,” Clyburn said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill. “I spent last weekend in Detroit, Michigan talking to people…and the day before I was in Detroit on Saturday of last week, I was in Newark, New Jersey.”

Clyburn has repeatedly been dubbed a “kingmaker” in politics. He hosts an annual fish fry, known as his “World Famous Fish Fry” in South Carolina, where candidates up and down the ballot gather to speak with voters. This year, candidates like South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mia McLeod were in attendance. During presidential years, Democrats, like President Biden, are sure to make the pilgrimage to the gathering in the early primary state.

But his biggest splash came in 2020 when he galvanized the Black vote in South Carolina and much of the south to come out and vote for Biden, who had previously suffered losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada. The congressman’s involvement has been viewed as a key factor in propelling Biden to the Democratic nomination.

Since then he’s crisscrossed the country to try to maintain Democrats’ narrow House majority.

Clyburn campaigned for Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) in 2021 and again in 2022 when she faced and defeated progressive Nina Turner in Ohio’s 11^th Congressional District.

And he made headlines last month when he traveled to San Antonio, Texas, to campaign for Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), who at the time was facing a contentious primary challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros. Cuellar defeated Cisneros by just 281 votes in a runoff. Cisneros has called for a recount.

Clyburn and House Democratic leadership’s involvement in the primaries between progressive and establishment candidates has struck a nerve with progressive activists. The Cuellar-Cisneros primary particularly laid those tensions bare.

Progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hit the party establishment’s backing of Cuellar, who opposes abortion and is considered the most conservative Democrat in the House.

“On the day of a mass shooting and weeks after news of Roe, Democratic Party leadership rallied for a pro-NRA, anti-choice incumbent under investigation in a close primary. Robocalls, fundraisers, all of it,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

Cuellar is a rare kind of Democratic lawmaker given his more moderate views on issues like abortion and border security. But Clyburn said lawmakers like Cuellar can be an asset to the party as a whole, especially in a district that is being targeted by Republicans during a cycle in which the national mood appears to be in their favor.

“You don’t allow these differences to define your ability to work together. I work very well with Henry Cuellar,” the majority whip said. “He has experiences that I don’t have. He interacts with people that I don’t particularly interact with, so he brings our discussions an element that I can benefit from, and I guarantee you he benefits from mine as well, which is interesting because I had a cup of coffee with him this morning.”

He added, “Cuellar cannot get elected in my district and I cannot get elected in Cuellar’s district. It’s our job to stay in touch with our constituents, get elected, and then come to this body, sit down around the table, and reconcile whatever differences we bring to the discussion.”

When asked about his secret sauce to galvanizing Democratic voters, Clyburn said it’s all about “maintaining balance” in the democratic process. He referred to the recent visit he has to San Antonio to campaign for Cuellar, as well as his trip to Morehouse College when he met with Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.). Both Cuellar and McBath could face contentious general reelection battles.

“When you’re looking at that balance, Lucy McBath is at one end of the spectrum, Henry Cuellar is on the other end,” he said. “But we as a party, we as a country, will succeed only when we maintain that balance.”

And according to Clyburn, he has worked to do just that with his progressive colleagues, including members of “the Squad.”

Clyburn noted how he and Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) have been working closely together on student loan debt relief. He also noted a conversation with Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

“This doesn’t get reported on and we don’t have press conferences to say that we just had a conversation and we see moving forward on this issue in the same way, but I get along well with [Omar], I get along very well, and I get along with Ayanna,” he continued. “So this whole notion that there’s a gap between us is just not true.”

Clyburn compared the differences between the party’s establishment and progressive flanks to his own marriage, arguing that both take work.

“We raised three healthy daughters and stayed married for 15 years,” Clyburn said. “We didn’t do that by agreeing on everything. We did that by respecting each other and reconciling where there were differences that existed and learning from each other and moving forward.”

House Democratic leadership is very aware that their members will likely face headwinds going up against Republicans in November given the national mood. Clyburn got a taste of this last year in Virginia where he endorsed former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in his bid to win a second term as governor of the commonwealth. McAuliffe ended up losing to now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R ), which Republicans have said was a signal of an approaching red wave in 2022.

The Democratic winner in Texas’ 28^th District will face a formidable opponent in Republican nominee Cassy Garcia. And in Los Angeles, Bass faces a tough opponent in Republican-turned-Democrat Rick Caruso.

“I know that she’s up against a lot of money, as well as some other traditional notions that she has to overcome,” Clyburn said. “I think she did that when she was in the legislature there, rising to become speaker of the House,” he continued. “I think all of that demonstrates her ability to work with people and get things done.”

Caruso has made law and order a centerpiece of his campaign, echoing a campaign message heard from Republicans across the country amid a nationwide rise in violent crime. Critics have said this could leave Bass vulnerable. Clyburn said she has struck the right balance, citing his work with her on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

“She is as tough on these issues as anybody needs to be,” he said. “It is one thing to be tough, it is another thing to be suppressive.”

But Clyburn reiterated his stance against defunding the police, an issue that has divided establishment and progressive Democrats since Floyd’s murder in 2020.

“There is nobody in this country that has spoken out more against ‘defund the police’ than Jim Clyburn has,” he said.

But when it comes to the broader divisions between Democrats, Clyburn said he is hopeful that both sides can come to an understanding. He cited his working relationship with his grandson, who is currently running his reelection campaign in South Carolina’s 6th congressional district.

“I sit down to talk to him all the time, I  had a long talk with him last night, trying to reconcile my experiences with his experiences,” Clyburn said. “And hopefully that will happen with progressives in the party.”

Source: TEST FEED1