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Raffensperger fends off Trump-backed primary challenge in Georgia

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) is projected to survive an aggressive primary challenge on Tuesday, beating Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), who had the endorsement of former President Trump, in his bid to keep his job as the state’s top elections official. 

ABC News and CNN both called the race around 12:20 a.m. ET.

Raffensperger emerged as a vocal critic of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral loss in Georgia, drawing the former president’s ire as well as a field of primary challengers. 

Hice, a staunch Trump ally, centered his campaign on the former president’s false claim that the 2020 election was stolen and that officials like Raffensperger allowed mass voter fraud to go unchecked. In reality, there is no evidence that the election was tainted by fraud. 

In a January 2021 phone call, Trump suggested to Raffensperger that he could “find” enough votes to reverse President Biden’s victory in Georgia. Raffensperger refused to do so, instantly becoming a symbol of Republican resistance to the former president’s efforts to undermine the democratic process.

Trump also targeted Gov. Brian Kemp (R) after he rebuffed his pleas to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. 

Raffensperger never gave into pressure from his primary rivals or Trump, forcefully defending his record as secretary of state. At the same time he has drawn ire from across the aisle by going on offense over a new Georgia election law that Democrats have cast as a GOP effort to suppress voter turnout among people of color. 

Raffensperger’s victory on Tuesday is another blow for Trump and his reputation as a kingmaker among Republican candidates. Trump also endorsed former Sen. David Perdue’s (R-Ga.) primary challenge to Kemp. 

On the Democratic side, five candidates are seeking the nomination to take on Raffensperger in November: state Rep. Bee Nguyen, state Sen. Floyd Griffin, former Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves, former Cobb County Democratic Party Chair Michael Owens and former state Rep. Dee Dawkins-Haigler. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Alabama GOP Senate primary heads to a runoff between Britt, Brooks

Alabama’s GOP Senate primary is projected to head to a runoff after no candidate clinched 50 percent support in the race Tuesday. 

The two candidates reaching the June 21 runoff are Katie Britt, a former top aide to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby (R), whose seat she is running for, and Rep. Mo Brooks (R). 

The Associated Press called the race around 11:45 p.m. ET.

The runoff has been one of the ugliest of the midterm cycle so far, with the candidates calling into question their opponents’ conservative credentials and fealty to former President Trump. 

Brooks, a close Trump ally, started out as the frontrunner in the race and won the former president’s endorsement. However, after lackluster fundraising and dropping poll numbers, Trump rescinded his endorsement in March over Brooks’s past argument that the GOP grassroots should move on from the 2020 election, which Trump and his allies have said was fraudulent. 

Brooks’s decline was quickly followed by a surge for Mike Durant, the former Army helicopter pilot who was shot down in the Black Hawk Down incident in Somalia in 1993. However, his polling numbers later dropped after a flood of attacks from Britt questioning his loyalty to the Second Amendment and ties to Alabama. 

More recently, Britt has consistently held the lead in the polls, but well below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff. Meanwhile, Brooks has risen from the dead and is running neck-and-neck with Durant for the second spot. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Ivey wins Alabama governor GOP primary

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) was projected to win her state’s gubernatorial GOP primary Tuesday, fending off a handful of far-right challengers. 

NBC and CBS News both called the race after 11 p.m. ET.

Ivey defeated Lynda Blanchard, the former ambassador to Slovenia under former President Trump, and Tim James, the son of former Gov. Fob James (R), among others. 

Ivey’s challengers attacked her from the right throughout the primary, slamming her over early business closures at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and once claiming that it was “time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks” for the ongoing pandemic. 

The governor has fought back against the criticism by lurching to the right, advocating for stringent abortion restrictions and protection for Confederate monuments, taking a hardline on immigration, including in an ad saying “we’re all going to have to learn Spanish,” and falsely saying in another ad that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump. 

Ivey first entered the governorship in 2017, when former Gov. Robert Bentley (R) resigned, elevating her from the lieutenant governorship. She was later elected to a full term in 2018 and is the heavy favorite to win reelection this year in deep-red Alabama. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Boozman wins Arkansas GOP Senate primary

Sen. John Boozman was projected to win the Arkansas GOP Senate primary Tuesday, fending off right-wing challengers who tried to unseat the mild-mannered senator. 

The Associated Press called the race at 10:03 p.m. ET.

Boozman’s main opponent in the race was former NFL player Jake Bequette, who ran in former President Trump’s mold and was largely financed by GOP mega-donor Robert Uihlein. Conservative activist Jan Morgan and pastor Heath Loftis were also running in the primary. 

The challenges came despite Boozman’s sterling conservative credentials and support from people such as Trump himself and Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders. 

Boozman’s critics mainly focused on the senator’s vote to affirm the 2020 election results and comment that Trump bore “some responsibility” for last year’s riot on Capitol Hill. 

Source: TEST FEED1

McBath defeats fellow incumbent Bourdeaux in Georgia House primary

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) is projected to defeat fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux (Ga.) in the Democratic primary to represent Georgia’s 7th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called the race for McBath at 10 p.m.

With the Democratic nomination locked up, McBath, a gun control activist who was first elected to Congress in 2018, is expected to coast to another term in the House representing the heavily Democratic suburban Atlanta district. 

McBath and Bourdeaux, a college professor who won her seat in 2020, have similar voting records in the House, though McBath won the backing of high-profile progressives including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). 

Bourdeaux, meanwhile, was seen as the more moderate of the two. She was among a group of House Democrats who opposed advancing President Biden’s sweeping social policy and climate change package last year until an infrastructure bill was approved. 

The two Georgia Democrats were pitted against one another in the wake of the decennial redistricting process. The new congressional map approved by the GOP-controlled state legislature made McBath’s district significantly more Republican-leaning, prompting her to run in Bourdeaux’s district, which was drawn to favor Democrats.

Despite McBath’s support among top progressives and Bourdeaux’s more moderate tilt, the race between the two was not seen as a bellwether of the direction of the Democratic Party. 

Still, McBath’s win is likely to be touted as a victory by some liberal groups and luminaries as the Democratic Party’s left flank looks to extend its winning streak following a handful of high-profile successes in last week’s primaries in Pennsylvania and Oregon.

Source: TEST FEED1

Obama points finger at GOP, gun lobby in wake of Texas shooting

Former President Obama issued a scathing statement in the wake of the shooting at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, pointing a finger at the Republican Party and the gun lobby for their soft response on tougher gun measures. 

“Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies—and in the back of their minds, they’re worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space,” Obama wrote in a Twitter thread on Tuesday, also expressing his condolences to the families who lost loved ones in the incident. 

“Michelle and I grieve with the families in Uvalde, who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear.” 

“We’re also angry for them,” he added. “Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook—and ten days after Buffalo—our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies.”

“It’s long past time for action, any kind of action. And it’s another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day.” 

“May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds,” Obama concluded. 

The shooting in Uvalde, Texas, is the deadliest school shooting since the one that took place in Newtown, Conn., during Obama’s presidency in 2012.

Obama’s remarks come as Texas authorities said Tuesday that 18 school children, along with three teachers, were killed following a shooting at Robb Elementary School. 

Local authorities identified the suspect as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, saying that he entered the local elementary school and opened fire, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) saying at an earlier press conference that Ramos was shot and killed by authorities responding to the incident. 

The massacre at the Robb Elementary School happened a week after the mass shooting at a local Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, N.Y., which resulted in the deaths of ten people and wounded three others. 

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) also ripped into his Senate colleagues who refuse to take meaningful action on gun reform in wake of the school massacre. 

“Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate, why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that, as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing?” he said on the Senate floor Tuesday. 

“What are we doing? Why are you here if not to solve a problem as existential as this. … This isn’t inevitable. The kids weren’t unlucky. It only happens in this country.”

Source: TEST FEED1

NAACP chief to Congress after Texas shooting: 'Don't just post a tweet, pass a bill'

The president of the NAACP on Tuesday called on lawmakers to take legislative action on gun rights in the wake of a shooting that killed 18 children in Texas, saying “Don’t just post a tweet, pass a bill.” 

“There’s no statement. There are no words. I’m shattered for the community and frustrated by the lack of action by the government that should be working for the people,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Johnson also said lawmakers must act immediately.

“Every time it’s just more thoughts and prayers – the only thing this Congress seems to be able to do successfully. Congress, do your job,” Johnson concluded. “Don’t just post a tweet, pass a bill. Kids are dying.”

A gunman shot and killed 18 students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Three adults, including a teacher, were also killed.

Local authorities identified the shooter as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said at an earlier press conference that Ramos was shot and killed by authorities responding to the incident. 

The massacre happened ten days after the mass shooting at a local Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, N.Y., which left 10 people dead and three wounded. 

In response to the Buffalo shooting, the NAACP released a response plan on Thursday in an effort to combat white supremacy and hate crimes in the U.S.

“In our country, social media giants, mainstream media outlets, and traditional corporations should not be allowed to knowingly originate or spread hate and white nationalism messages,” the NAACP said in the response plan. “Any type of corporation that funds or profits from hate – especially white supremacy – should be held accountable for the serious role they play in the spike of hate crimes we are witnessing in communities across the country.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Judge rejects Duggar filing for new trial

Federal Judge Timothy L. Brooks rejected former reality television star Josh Duggar filing for a new trial after he was convicted of possession of child pornography.

The judge ruled on Tuesday he would not allow an acquittal or new trial that the defense lawyers requested, KNWA reported. 

A 29-page ruling was handed down after Duggar’s lawyers tried to argue for an acquittal or new trial due to what they say was the government’s lack of timely disclosure for evidence and a lack of evidence that Duggar actually viewed the child pornography. 

Brooks said in his filing with the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court that neither of the arguments had validity, according to the local outlet. 

“There is ample evidence he viewed the images of child pornography that had been downloaded to his business computer,” the judge said.

The other argument regarding evidence was also tossed out as the judge explained the evidence in question was declined anyway.

“The Court finds the screenshots in question were not material to the defense,” he wrote. 

“Based on the Court’s discussion of the trial evidence above, there is no merit to Mr. Duggar’s argument in favor of acquittal. There was significant evidence presented at trial to convince a reasonable jury that Mr. Duggar was physically present during the offense conduct and that he had the mens to commit these crimes,” the judge wrote. 

The ruling came a day before Duggar is suppose to be sentenced for his child pornography conviction in Dec. 2021, KNWA noted. 

The TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” star was arrested in April 2021.

In March, he requested a delay in his sentencing for time to “to pursue additional information and documentation” and said it was difficult to schedule meetings due to COVID-19.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden: ‘When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?’

President Biden on Tuesday implored Congress to “stand up to the gun lobby” and pass firearm restrictions after a gunman shot and killed at least 18 young children at a Texas elementary school.  

Biden grieved for the victims in an address from the White House and expressed outrage at the failure of lawmakers to enact stricter gun laws he said would prevent school shootings.  

“As a nation, we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said in remarks from the Roosevelt Room. “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.” 

“It’s time to turn this pain into action,” Biden continued. “We have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It’s time to act.” 

The president spoke about an hour after landing in Washington following a trip to Asia, in an intensely somber appearance that was hastily scheduled after news of the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, gripped the nation.  

Very little was known about the 18-year-old gunman or his motivations as of Tuesday night. Police said the shooter was killed after opening fire at Robb Elementary School. Three adults are said to have been killed in the shooting. 

Biden spoke to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) while aboard Air Force One after the president was briefed on the shooting while traveling home. He has also ordered flags at the White House and other federal buildings be flown at half-staff.  

Biden has consistently called for Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and expand background checks for gun sales, including in the wake of mass shootings in Atlanta and Buffalo.  

But it’s unclear and even doubtful that the latest mass shooting will spur concrete action in Congress, where Republicans have long been opposed to enacting gun restrictions. One tragic mass shooting after another has not broken the partisan stalemate around guns. Senate Democrats are unable to pass new gun restrictions strictly along partisan lines because of the legislative filibuster that requires at least 10 votes to advance most bills.  

Biden offered a warning to those who “obstruct” renewed efforts to restrict access to firearms on Tuesday: “We need to let you know that we will not forget.” 

Biden, who often shares his personal experiences with grief after losing two children, has spent much of his young presidency consoling the nation through the COVID-19 pandemic and other tragedies.  

During his speech, Biden recalled the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that occurred during the Obama administration when he served as vice president. He said there have been more than 900 incidents of gun fire since then.

“I had hoped when I became president I would not have to do this again. Another massacre,” Biden said as he began his remarks. “An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders. And how many scores of innocent children who witnessed what happened saw their friends die as if they were on a battlefield, for God’s sake.” 

Just a week ago, Biden was in Buffalo, N.Y., offering support to families impacted by a mass shooting that killed 10 people at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood.  

Vice President Harris briefly commented on the shooting earlier Tuesday during an unrelated event in Washington, calling for action to stop such violence.  

“I would normally say in a moment like this — we would all say, naturally, that our hearts break. But our hearts keep getting broken,” Harris said. “Enough is enough. As a nation we have to have the courage to take action.” 

On Capitol Hill, the events triggered anger among Democrats who demanded action. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a vocal advocate for stricter gun laws, compared the tragedy to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his home state.  

“What are we doing? What are we doing?” Murphy said in emotional remarks on the Senate floor. “This isn’t inevitable. These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.”  

Source: TEST FEED1