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DHS warns immigrants of Title 42 enforcement, border temperatures

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is warning immigrants that the administration is continuing to enforce Title 42, after the Supreme Court this week temporarily halted the expiration of the Trump-era policy.

The agency is also alerting immigrants of dangerously low temperatures at the border, as a winter storm moves through Texas.

“The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues to fully enforce our immigration and public health laws at the border,” DHS wrote in a statement on Saturday. “Individuals and families attempting to enter without authorization are being expelled, as required by court order under the Title 42 public health authority, or placed into removal proceedings.”

“As temperatures remain dangerously low all along the border, no one should put their lives in the hands of smugglers, or risk life and limb attempting to cross only to be returned,” the agency added.

El Paso, Texas this month has been dealing with a surge of migrants coupled with freezing temperatures, exacerbating a humanitarian crisis. The migrants are coming to El Paso for a series of reasons; the planned expiration of Title 42 had been seen as a factor.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday put the brakes on the expiration of Title 42, which was initially scheduled to end on Wednesday. The Trump-era policy allows border officials to turn away asylum seekers because of concerns regarding public health.

The bench’s administrative stay came after a federal judge in November struck down the policy. That decision led 19 Republican state attorneys general to ask the Supreme Court to let the policy remain in place.

The Biden administration on Tuesday requested that Chief Justice John Roberts rule against that coalition of GOP-led states, arguing that the public health rationale holding  up the policy is not valid anymore.

The DHS on Saturday said regardless of an immigrant’s nationality, “anyone attempting to enter without authorization is subject to expulsion under Title 42.”

“Those who cannot be expelled pursuant to Title 42 may be placed in expedited removal and anyone ordered removed subject to a bar on entry for 5 years under Title 8,” the agency added.

The statement said 23,000 agents and officers are “working to secure” the Southwest border, adding that the U.S. government “continues to work closely with our partners in Mexico to reinforce coordinated enforcement operations to target human smuggling organizations and bring them to justice.”

“That collaboration includes migration checkpoints, additional resources and personnel, joint targeting of human smuggling organizations, and expanded information sharing related to transit nodes, hotels, stash houses, and staging locations,” the agency said.

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Busloads of migrants dropped off at vice president's DC home on Christmas Eve

Multiple busloads of migrants were dropped off at Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington, D.C. on Saturday — Christmas Eve — leaving migrants on the streets in below-freezing temperatures, according to multiple reports.

Three busloads of migrants were driven to D.C., ABC 7 reported, and arrived outside the Naval Observatory, which is the vice president’s residence. The migrants were later taken to a church by the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network, a local aid group.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was responsible for Saturday’s incident, according to ABC 7 and Fox News, marking the latest episode in a months-long effort by the governor to send migrants to democratic-run cities as a way to encourage the Biden administration to take steps to control immigration in the U.S.

In September, Abbott sent two buses full of migrants to Harris’s resilience in D.C., sparking criticism among Democrats. Other Republican governors, including Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Arizona’s Doug Ducey, have transported migrants to democratic-run cities across the country in recent months.

“Tonight, on Christmas Eve, Gov Abbott’s buses dropped off migrants at the VP’s house in the freezing cold,” the Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid Network wrote on Twitter early Sunday. “This is not new, it has been happening for 8 months.”

Abbott penned a letter to President Biden last Tuesday demanding that the administration send federal assets to address the situation at the border, especially as temperatures drop and a winter storm approached Texas.

“You and your administration must stop the lie that the border is secure and, instead, immediately deploy federal assets to address the dire problems you have caused,” Abbott wrote. “You must execute the duties that the U.S. Constitution mandates you perform and secure the southern border before more innocent lives are lost.”

In a statement Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it “continues to fully enforce our immigration and public health laws at the border.”

“Individuals and families attempting to enter without authorization are being expelled, as required by court order under the Title 42 public health authority, or placed into removal proceedings. As temperatures remain dangerously low all along the border, no one should put their lives in the hands of smugglers, or risk life and limb attempting to cross only to be returned,” DHS added.

The agency said 23,000 agents and officers are “working to secure the Southwest border and the United States Government continues to work closely with our partners in Mexico to reinforce coordinated enforcement operations to target human smuggling organizations and bring them to justice.”

The Supreme Court last Monday temporarily stopped the expiration of Title 42, the Trump-era policy that allows border officials to turn away asylum seekers because of public health concerns. If it does eventually expire, Abbott said the number of individuals entering Texas illegally “will only increase.”

The Hill reached out to the White House and Abbott for comment.

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GOP senators slam McConnell, Republican colleagues for supporting omnibus

Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Mike Lee (Utah) slammed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and their GOP colleagues on Sunday for supporting the $1.7 trillion omnibus package that Congress sent to President Biden’s desk on Friday.

The GOP senators had argued it would have been better to wait for the GOP to take control of the House in January to pass an omnibus bill, arguing this would have given Republicans more leverage.

Lee denounced the omnibus as “the ugliest spending bill on record,” taking aim at McConnell and the party’s Senate leadership in an interview with radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on Sunday.

“Our party leadership turned on Republican voters, turned on the Republican base, turned on most Republican senators,” Lee said on “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM. “It has happened before, but this is one too many times. For me, this is the final straw.”

“As Republicans scratch their heads over their disappointing midterms, they ought to consider that voters don’t see much of a defining difference with Democrats,” he added.

The Senate easily passed the massive spending bill on Thursday, with 18 Republican senators joining Democrats in supporting the legislation that will fund the federal government through next September. The package is now headed to Biden for his signature, after passing the House on Friday.

Those arguing in favor of the omnibus said it was a way to lock-in increased defense spending for the next year. The bill included $858 billion in defense spending, a 9.7 percent increase over the year before, while non-defense spending was increased at a rate less than inflation.

Johnson, who also joined Catsimatidis on Sunday, criticized his fellow Republican senators for celebrating the omnibus package’s increase in defense spending.

“To declare that a victory, to say that’s a win, that’s like a football team that just lost the game 60 to 0, and they kick a field goal in the waning seconds and say the field goal is a big win,” Johnson said. “No, we just got our you-know-whats handed to us.”

The Wisconsin senator also took aim at the strategy of moving the omnibus before the next Congress, noting that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other House Republicans had requested that package be delayed.

“Unfortunately, the arrogance of our [Senate GOP] leadership who said, ‘We know better than House members. We’re going to pass this.’ … I’m not buying it,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, our supporters aren’t going to buy it either.”

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Black voters, long taken for granted, are being prioritized

Democrats are finally prioritizing Black voters, winning notes or approval from advocacy groups who represent one of the party’s most loyal constituencies — one they say has too often been taken for granted.

The ascension of Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) to lead House Democrats as a successor to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and President Biden’s push to make South Carolina the party’s first primary state illustrate how the party is recognizing the importance of Black voters, advocates say.

“[Democrats] are fully engaging in the way that’s necessary with Black voters,” said Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC. “It matters where Black voters can be the margin of victory. They clearly understand the importance of making an investment and engaging with Black voters.”

During the midterms, Black voters were crucial in some of the most closely-watched races – including Georgia, where Black voters made up almost 32 percent of the turnout in the Senate runoff election that secured Democrats the 51-49 majority. 

Georgia is the state that provided Democrats with their Senate majority in two 2021 runoff elections. It extended their majority to 51 seats this year when Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock defeated Republican Herschel Walker.

Black Democrats were also critical to Biden’s win in the 2020 primary, putting him well over the top in South Carolina and contributing to his victories in a number of “Super Tuesday” contests days later.

In an October poll conducted by theGrio and KFF, 61 percent of registered Black voters identified as Democrats while 13 percent said they lean toward the Democratic Party. Only about 7 percent said they are Republicans. 

According to Pew Research Center, over half of the nation’s Black population lives in the South. Iowa, which for decades held the first contest in the Democratic presidential primary, is a majority white state.

“Joe Biden recognizes this,” Trav Robertson, South Carolina Democratic Party Chair, said in an interview with The Hill.  

“Forty percent of enslaved African Americans came through the port of Charleston, and 90 percent of the African American community in America can trace one relative to the state of South Carolina,” he added. “It means that while we have a troubled past, we recognize the endless possibilities.”

Despite their consistent support of Democrats, however, Black voters often report feeling unheard, disenfranchised and overlooked until election season kicks up. 

That’s in part because many of the steps Democrats take — such as new appointments and even the primary move — are symbolic, said Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. 

In order to prove they’re truly prioritizing Black voters, Albright said, Democrats have to move toward enacting policy that addresses Black voters’ biggest concerns. 

“There’s a range of issues that have not been dealt with, including the issue of voting rights,” said Albright.

Concerns around voter suppression have increased over the last few years. Since 2021, lawmakers have passed at least 42 restrictive voting laws in 21 states, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. 

Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 12 of this year, seven states enacted 10 laws that made voting more difficult. Most voter suppression laws disproportionately negatively affect Black voters. 

“There’s also the issue of police violence and police accountability,” Albright added. “The George Floyd Act famously went up in flames. In fact, as we speak, there’s still efforts to actually increase funding for police departments and the number of police officers on the street.”

Biden has taken steps that show he understands he owes his victory in large part to Black voters.

He promised to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, and did so with his nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Albright acknowledged this sends a positive message, as does Jeffries’s ascension to House Democratic leader and Rep. Lauren Underwood’s (D-Ill.) election to the House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. She’s the first Black female to win an elected position on the DPCC since Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-N.Y.).

To send a louder message, Albright said Democrats need to make sure they are investing in Black communities everywhere. That includes investing money, knocking on doors and creating targeted advertising with community groups. 

Shropshire, who was involved in the effort to move South Carolina to the front of the line in the Democratic primary, said the discussions she took part in focused on how a state with a diverse constituency of Democratic voters should come first.

“I do think that it is a reflection of the ways in which Black voters have shown up in critical places and in critical ways for the Democratic Party,“ Shropshire added. 

“When we think about the influence or the growing political power of Black voters, the shift that’s being made is obviously an indication of that,” she continued. “I think it’s also an indication of the importance Black voters are to the Democrats winning anywhere, but particularly in difficult places and in swing states.”

In places where prominent Black figures were running this midterm cycle, such as Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin and Cheri Beasley in North Carolina, Albright faulted the party for not making the kinds of investments it should have made.

“Black voters could have proved to be the difference,” Albright said. “It’s not enough just to say we care about you as voters but to really fight for and advocate on all of these issues, whether it’s infrastructure or environmental justice or police accountability or voting rights,” said Albright. “There’s a whole agenda of issues that Black folks want to see. At the end of the day, that’s what’s going to determine whether or not we feel like we’re being truly valued and respected.”

Hanna Trudo contributed.

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Four things to know about the massive winter storm hitting this Christmas

A massive winter storm pummeled much of the U.S. on Saturday with freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall on Christmas Eve, resulting in nearly two dozen deaths and leaving hundreds of thousands without power. 

Here’s what to know about the powerful Arctic front:

At least 23 deaths have been attributed to the storm

At least 23 people have died in the storm as of Saturday evening, due to dangerous driving conditions, delayed emergency services and exposure to the freezing weather, according to NBC News.

Four people were killed in a 46-car pileup in Ohio on Friday, in addition to five others who died in separate crashes in Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri earlier in the week.

Three people have also died in Erie County, N.Y., where blizzard conditions prevented emergency services from reaching two of the individuals in time to provide medical care. 

Two more people died from environmental exposure in Denver, while a man in Colorado Springs, Colo., reportedly died while trying to escape the sub-zero temperatures.

Hundreds of thousands in North Carolina lose power

Nearly 340,000 people in the Carolinas lost power on Saturday amid rolling blackouts, The Washington Post reported.

“Due to the extreme cold temperatures and subsequent demand for power around much of the nation, electricity supplies are very tight,” Duke Energy, which serves customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, said in a press release.

As of Saturday night, the energy company had restored power to most North Carolinians, with only about 14,000 remaining without power.

Hochul deploys National Guard to hard-hit Buffalo

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) deployed the National Guard to Erie County on Friday night, as the Buffalo region continued to face blizzard conditions.

“This may turn out to be the worst storm in our community’s history,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on Saturday, per The New York Times.

Buffalo remained under a blizzard warning as of Saturday night, with emergency workers still working to rescue stranded motorists, the Times reported.

Flight cancellations strand travelers on Christmas Eve

More than 3,300 flights were cancelled on Christmas Eve, according to the commercial flight tracker FlightAware.

While the cancellations left thousands more travelers stranded on the holiday weekend, Saturday represented an improvement over the day before. On Friday, more than 20 percent of flights — nearly 6,000 — were cancelled, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

“Impacts continue today but FAA expects that the most extreme disruptions are behind us as airline and airport operations gradually recover,” Buttigieg said on Twitter.

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Trump rails against Jan. 6 committee following final report release

Former President Trump railed against the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Friday following the release of the committee’s final report on the attack. 

Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social that the American people have been “deceived with lies” about the attack from the committee. 

The committee released its report on Thursday with its conclusions on the Capitol riot, including a series of 11 recommendations for actions that Congress should take to prevent efforts similar to those to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election from happening again. It also made referrals for the Justice Department to pursue four criminal charges against Trump. 

Trump said the committee “cut the part” of his speech at the rally at the Ellipse preceding the riot out in which he said protesters will be walking to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.” 

He said in his speech at the Ellipse that he knows people will go to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically” but also said in his speech that people must show “strength” to “take back our country” and called on people to “fight like hell.” 

Trump said Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the committee, “deliberately omitted” in a public committee hearing a part of a tweet he posted on Jan. 6 in which he told protesters to “go home with love and in peace.” 

For the tweet Trump references, Cheney only read the part in which he said, “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long.”

The committee did show a picture of the entirety of the tweet at the hearing. 

Trump also rebutted the committee’s statement that he did not respond to the violence for 187 minutes, when he told rioters to go home and leave the Capitol, saying he posted a tweet after 25 minutes and another 30 minutes after the first tweet. 

The first tweet Trump referenced told people to “support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement,” while the second tweet asked for everyone at the Capitol to “remain peaceful” and for “no violence.” 

But Trump previously slammed Vice President Mike Pence in a tweet before these two, saying that he did not have the “courage” to do what was needed to protect the country and the Constitution. That tweet no longer appears to be on Trump’s Twitter page. 

“USA demands the truth,” he said. 

Trump repeated claims that he urged for the deployment of 10,000 to 20,000 National Guardsmen to keep the event safe. The Associated Press has reported that Trump was involved in discussions in the lead-up to Jan. 6 about a National Guard response, but he never signed an order for the Guardsmen before or during the riot. 

The committee blamed Trump for delays in the deployment of the Washington, D.C., National Guard. 

Trump falsely claimed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser refused his push for deployment of the National Guard. The president serves as commander-in-chief of the D.C. National Guard and has authority to deploy them to a situation. 

Pelosi has repeatedly rejected claims from Republicans that she had the authority to bring in the National Guard and failed to prepare Capitol Police. 

Trump said the committee “barely discussed the catastrophic” security failures that happened at the Capitol. The committee mentioned the security response in an appendix of the report but focused mostly on what led to the riot. 

Trump also said the committee did not mention that the election was a “corrupt disaster,” referring to his false claims that the election was stolen, and did not “produce a single shred of evidence” that he wanted violence at the Capitol.

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Five signs Biden is definitely running for another term 

President Biden is expected to announce another bid for the presidency sometime in the early months of the new year.  

Officially, Biden is still considering whether to run for a second term, and the president’s age and approval ratings — he is 80 and more people in polls generally hold a negative than positive view of his presidency — have led some to privately doubt whether he’ll go forward.  

“I love the guy,” one Democratic strategist said. “But even I have my doubts.”  

Despite such misgivings, most of the signals coming from Biden, the White House and the Democratic Party suggest he is fully planning to run for reelection.  

Here are the reasons why so many people are certain that Biden is running again. 

The Democratic field is quiet 

There’s not much talk of any Democrat other than Biden jumping into the 2024 fray.  

Typically, around this time in a presidential cycle, there would be strong signals from would-be candidates considering White House runs. Such signals would include visits to early primary states testing the waters for a formal campaign launch.  

But there has been very little movement from any prospective Biden challengers, including progressives who might be inclined to challenge the president.  

Democratic donors and fundraisers also say there isn’t much discussion of anyone else other than the president running for the Democratic presidential nomination.  

“There’s zero talk of anyone else right now,” one donor said. “All eyes on Biden.”  

Biden has told allies he’s in 

Biden in recent months has told everyone from former President Obama to close aides and allies that while he’s “a great believer in fate,” as he often puts it, he fully expects to run for the White House again.  

Asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker at a news conference last month about what he would say to the two-thirds of Americans who didn’t think he should run for reelection, he had a simple retort: “Watch me.”  

Biden is known to keep a tight circle of advisers, and they’re also sending signals that another run is more than likely.  

Earlier this month, White House chief of staff Ron Klain told attendees at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council conference that Biden would likely make an announcement following the holiday season and Klain said he believes “the decision will be to do it,” according to a report in The New York Times.   

Details of a Biden campaign are beginning to surface  

A presidential campaign takes considerable work and help, and there are some signs that Biden is already preparing by sounding out candidates for key positions and considering where to locate his campaign headquarters.  

Names of a potential campaign manager and other senior staff are already beginning to appear in print and in closed-door conversations among top Democrats. 

“It’s the natural progression for any imminent campaign,” one strategist said. “Those conversations are happening months before a launch.”

A report in The Washington Post out last week said Biden’s team, together with the Democratic National Committee, is already considering how to fine tune their digital operation, with White House Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty expected to play a similar role on the 2024 campaign. At the same time, as the initial search begins for senior aides, Politico ran a piece listing the top contenders for campaign manager. 

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Biden aides are considering whether their campaign headquarters would be located in Philadelphia — the site of Biden’s 2020 campaign headquarters — or Wilmington.  

“The absolutely number one sign is people starting to complain about the idea of moving to Delaware possibly,” Democratic strategist Eddie Vale quipped when asked if it looked like Biden was running for reelection. 

The White House has a campaign message 

When Biden hit the road for the midterms, he was test driving a message, one that White House allies suggest he’ll likely use for his own reelection bid. 

One ally said Biden will continue to make the choice clear for voters between “extreme MAGA Republicans” — as the president has dubbed them — and Democrats.  

It’s part of an effort to tie all Republicans to former President Trump and his “Make American Great Again” movement. 

“This election is not a referendum,” Biden said last month at Florida Memorial University. “It’s a choice. It’s a choice between two vastly different visions for America.” 

First lady Jill Biden says they’re ready 

Anyone looking for clues about a Biden run was surely intrigued by the reports of the first lady’s conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this month at the White House State Dinner.  

Jill Biden told the French leader that she and her husband are ready for the reelection campaign, The New York Times reported.  

The admission began when the first lady told Macron and others that her fitness routine helps her “clear her head,” particularly on the campaign trail.  

This prompted Macron to ask if she’s ready for the reelection campaign.  

The first lady said yes, which led the French president to make a “playful” toast to Biden’s reelection campaign at their table. (Biden raised his glass of Coca-Cola.)  

“Anyone looking for clues about what the president is doing should follow the signals from Jill Biden,” one strategist said. “She’s key in all of this.”  

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Judge dismisses remainder of Kari Lake’s election lawsuit following two-day trial

An Arizona judge on Saturday ruled against Kari Lake in her challenge of Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs’s (D) victory, dismissing the highest-profile case challenging the midterm election results.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson following a two-day trial found that Lake had not proven that election officials committed intentional misconduct sufficient to change the race’s outcome.

Lake, who lost to Hobbs by about 17,000 votes, had alleged election officials in Maricopa County intentionally sabotaged her victory by causing Election Day printer malfunctions and violating chain of custody procedures.

Lake asked the judge to declare her the rightful winner or order a new election in Maricopa County. Hobbs will be inaugurated on Jan. 2.

Thompson previously dismissed eight other counts alleged in Lake’s lawsuit prior to trial, ruling that they did not constitute proper grounds for an election contest under Arizona law, even if true, but the judge permitted Lake an attempt to prove the two remaining counts in trial. 

The ruling marks a major defeat for Lake, a vocal supporter of former President Trump’s unfounded 2020 election claims who has railed against the conduct of last month’s midterm elections, calling it “botched” and a “sham.” Lake sat in the courtroom during the trial but did not testify.

Her allegations largely focused on Maricopa County, which spans the Phoenix area and about 60 percent of Arizona’s population, the epicenter of voter disenfranchisement allegations in the midterms.

Election officials acknowledged that some of the county’s Election Day vote centers experienced printer malfunctions that prevented tabulators from reading ballots, but they insisted voters could utilize backup options to ultimately have their ballot counted. 

Lake’s campaign noted that Election Day voters tend to support Republicans, leveraging witness testimony and affidavits to argue the issues were intentionally aimed at making Hobbs the winner and disenfranchised enough Lake supporters to cause the Republican’s defeat.

When asked during the trial if he intentionally sabotaged the printers or was aware of anyone who did, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) responded, “absolutely not.”

Lake then called a witness, Clay Parikh, who examined ballots on behalf of her campaign and said he inspected 14 ballots that printed a 19-inch image on 20-inch paper. Parikh suggested the discrepancy would cause the tabulation issues and required intentional printer setting changes.

Maricopa County Co-Elections Director Scott Jarrett testified that the county’s root cause analysis remains ongoing, but officials identified that printer heat settings contributed to the problem.

Jarrett said temporary technicians attempting to fix the malfunctions activated a shrink-to-fit print setting at a three vote centers, creating just under 1,300 ballots with the smaller image, but Jarrett insisted those ballots were ultimately tabulated.

Lake’s campaign also called Richard Baris, who managed exit polling in Arizona for conservative firm Big Data Poll and argued the Election Day issues were enough to change the outcome. He said his firm made the conclusion in part based on historical data and an exit poll question asking voters if they experienced issues while voting. 

Baris during cross-examination acknowledged that the poll could not say whether the issues were related to the printer malfunctions or if they caused them to not vote.

One of Hobbs’s attorneys also noted that Baris’s firm is one of 10 groups banned by prominent pollster aggregator FiveThirtyEight out of nearly 500 pollsters it assesses. Baris contended that FiveThirtyEight was not “an authority” on pollsters.

Lake’s campaign also argued that Maricopa County violated chain of custody procedures for early ballots when they were transferred to Runbeck Election Services, a third-party that scanned images of ballot signatures so the county could verify them.

Heather Honey, who testified on behalf of Lake’s campaign, said Maricopa County’s response to her public records request for chain of custody paperwork did not include documents for early ballots dropped off on Election Day.

Joe Larue, an attorney for Maricopa County, said Honey misunderstood the different types of chain of custody documents and argued they did in fact exist.

Honey also testified that a Runbeck employee told her that employees could bring their families’ ballots directly to the facility to be counted, and the employee saw about 50 ballots brought in that way.

When pressed by Hobbs attorney Andy Gaona if Honey had any further evidence of other ballots being injected into the system, she said it wasn’t an “answerable question.”

Rey Valenzuela, co-elections director for Maricopa County, testified he wasn’t aware of Runbeck allowing its employees to inject ballots.

The judge’s decision marks the fourth dismissal of a GOP challenge to Arizona’s election results.  

One other case challenging Hobbs’s victory and another that contested Arizona Secretary of State-elect Adrian Fontes’s (D) win were also dismissed, although Fontes’s Republican opponent has appealed that ruling.

A judge on Friday dismissed a separate election challenge filed by Arizona Republican attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, who trails his opponent by just 511 votes out of 2.5 million ballots ahead of an automatic recount.

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Emhoff battles antisemitism as historic ‘first’ on White House team 

When Doug Emhoff made history as the first second gentleman, he knew another title — first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president — was just as significant.  

Emhoff has been at the epicenter of the White House response to the recent rise in antisemitism around the country.  

During a Hanukkah party at the vice president’s residence this week — where a Holocaust survivor and rabbis recited the blessing as Emhoff and Vice President Harris lit the candles on the Menorah — the second gentleman used the opportunity to remind those in attendance about the growing threat against the Jewish community.  

“We can’t normalize this. We need to speak up and speak out and call it out as well,” Emhoff said at the party. “And anyone who’s not speaking up and speaking out and not taking action will be called out.” 

Emhoff, 58, a longtime entertainment lawyer, earlier this month hosted a roundtable with Jewish leaders on combating the “rapid rise” in antisemitism. Last month, he visited a kosher deli in Des Moines, Iowa, where he talked to a rabbi about how much it means to them to live proudly and openly as Jewish Americans.  

He wrote an op-Ed in USA Today on Rosh Hashanah about battling antisemitism and posed a question: “What kind of world do we want to live in?”  

At the roundtable — which came on the heels of a news reports revealing that former President Trump had dined at Mar-a-Lago with white nationalist Nick Fuentes and rapper Ye, who has made antisemitic comments — Emhoff acknowledged feeling “pain” because of the uptick in hateful acts and rhetoric against the Jewish community. 

“There is an epidemic of hate facing our country. We’re seeing a rapid rise in antisemitic rhetoric and acts,” said Emhoff. “Let me be clear: Words matter. People are no longer saying the quiet parts out loud. They are literally screaming them.”  

Those close to Emhoff say he has been an advocate for the Jewish community since assuming the role of second gentleman.  

When he moved into the vice president’s residence last year, he and Harris hung a Mezuzah at the door. In September, he met with the National Council of Jewish Women Board at the White House.  

Emhoff also hosted a virtual seder and made matzah with a group of fourth graders in Washington and then talked about the importance of Passover traditions with another class of students. 

“He could have legitimately said, ‘I’m Jewish, I acknowledge I’m Jewish … but don’t expect me to take this up as my issue.’ But instead, he did the exact opposite,” said Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the Department of State. “He’s leaning into it. And he’s leaning into the challenging portions of it. I give him great, great credit for doing this.”   

“I’m very gratified to have him involved so openly and clearly and unequivocally and unashamedly,” Lipstadt added. 

Emhoff’s role also sends the signal that the White House is taking antisemitism seriously, said Katherine Jellison, a professor of U.S. women’s and gender history at Ohio University. 

“The timing of having a Doug Emhoff in the position he’s in is pretty amazing because whoever is in the White House at this time, regardless of their party, would need someone to be the point person on this, and to have someone who is a member of the community who’s facing this heightened discrimination play that role, I think it’s very, very appropriate,” she said. 

Emhoff, during the roundtable, said that he will use his platform to continue the conversation. 

“As long as I have this microphone, I am going to speak out against hate, bigotry and lies,” he said. 

Katherine Sibley, director of the American Studies Program at St. Joseph’s University, said that people are drawn to his comments because of the personal aspect he brings to them. 

“The position of first lady or second gentleman, these kinds of roles have agency. We might call it soft power, but to use this role is so significant,” she said. “He’s talking about, ‘I’m in pain right now.’ So many of these people have spoken out on behalf of others and he’s speaking in his own voice on behalf of others.” 

Apart from his work on combating antisemitism, the second gentleman’s role in general has been coming into view more frequently.  

Emhoff last week visited a crisis services center to highlight the 988 mental health hotline ahead of the holidays. During the appearance, he acknowledged that holidays are “tough” and mentioned the death of Stephen Boss, also known as tWitch, who recently died by suicide at the age of 40. 

Emhoff earlier this month also met with a bipartisan group of 13 newly-elected mayors, along with Labor Secretary Marty Walsh and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. 

As the first second gentleman, he has sought to frame his role as above the political fray.  

“This is not a red state or blue state or a political issue. This issue of mental health and suicide affects everyone,” Emhoff said earlier this month during a visit to the Community Crisis Services Center in Maryland. 

Like antisemitism, Emhoff’s work on mental health helps elevate the significance of the issue for the White House. 

“Since Emhoff has become a pretty high-profile second spouse, if this is an issue he wants to champion it will bring automatic attention in ways that some lower wattage second spouses wouldn’t have been able to do,” Jellison said.  

Emhoff’s high profile began when he made history as the first second gentleman but has risen due to several factors that have made the public interested in him, political observers say. 

“Many people have not been used to, perhaps, a man who boosts his wife so much, who holds her up, who supports her. He’s become very much a draw on the campaign trail, he’s a fundraiser. It’s his manner, his appeal,” Sibley said. 

At the Hanukkah party at the vice president’s residence this month, Emhoff reflected on the time when Harris bought him a menorah during their first Hanukkah together in Los Angeles, a symbolic gesture acknowledging his faith.  

“She knows it’s important to me,” Emhoff said. “It’s important to me as a Jew and all of us as part of our religion and culture.  

“As the first Jewish person married to a president or a vice president, I understand the weight of that responsibility, the obligation that that brings.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

With eyes on DOJ, a complex path for Trump Jan. 6 prosecution

The criminal referrals and report released by the Jan. 6 committee may not provide a clear-cut path to charges for Donald Trump. But they lay a roadmap for an investigative agency with the tools to compel cooperation and gather more evidence from many of those closest to the former president.

The panel’s final two acts effectively accuse Trump of betraying the country, recommending the Justice Department pursue four different criminal charges against him, while encouraging Congress to use the 14th Amendment to bar him from ever serving in office again.

And while it held back on making such recommendations for many in Trump’s orbit, its 845-page report leaves a trail of breadcrumbs on a number of plots and people involved in working to prevent the transfer of power.

“What the committee has done is to refer the former president for criminal prosecution for his role in attempting to foment a rebellion against the United States and or its system of law. That has treason written all over it,” said Jeff Robbins, an attorney who has served as both a federal prosecutor and a Senate investigative counsel.

The criminal referrals, and even the broader package of evidence laid out in the report, are merely suggestions for the Justice Department, which has its own sprawling, if less visible, investigation into what Attorney General Merrick Garland summarized as “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power.”

But the sheer weight of the evidence presented to the public, along with the detailed argument breaking down the illegality of the plots, could put pressure on a Justice Department that has often — at least publicly — lagged behind the committee.

Taken together, the committee said there was enough evidence on hand to charge Trump with inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and — with his lies about winning the election and effort to submit false slates of electors — conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement.

They stopped short, however, of making referrals for the bulk of the names that have become central figures during their 18-month probe, like Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, a slew of Trump attorneys including Rudy Giuliani, and Jeffrey Clark, the DOJ lawyer who was prepared to initiate an investigation into Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud if the former president made him attorney general.

“This is a very delicate balancing test that the committee had to engage in, knowing this is a statement for the American people and for history, and that if they present like a machine gun, simply going after wide swaths of people at the point of making a criminal referral, that would damage their credibility,” Robbins said.

“On the other hand, they want to point out, and they did point out, that there are other people whose conduct should be investigated.”

What comes next?

The report, while trailing the bombshell revelations laid out in its summer hearings, delves much deeper than the initial criminal referrals presented Monday, including offering some new details about the extent of efforts to pressure state officials to overturn the election and submit false slates of electors.

The path ahead will be determined by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed to oversee the Justice Department investigation on the Jan. 6 front as well as its probe into the handling of records at Mar-a-Lago once Trump announced his 2024 bid for the White House.

But the Justice Department has both powers and limitations the committee did not, particularly when it comes to presenting a case that can convince 12 jurors of a former president‘s guilt.

“They have tools available to them that are unavailable to the Jan. 6 committee, like search warrants to obtain phones where they can find encrypted messages, and the grand jury where they can have witnesses testify with subpoenas that actually have some teeth that can result in jail time if you refuse to testify. Or they can grant immunity and compel witness testimony,” said Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney.

“They most certainly have a much more difficult task than the committee does in presenting a case.”

Trump charges face legal hurdles

Any charges against Trump would have to meet a series of legal tests – including, for some of the crimes, demonstrating intent. For others, the department would have to combat defenses from Trump that he was exercising his free speech or relying on the advice of his counsel in pursuing novel legal strategies.

“I do not think that anybody can reasonably say that any of these charges against the former president – these four charges – are a slam dunk,” Robbins said.

The charges for inciting an insurrection – while among the weightiest – could also be the most difficult to prove.

“While there is a very formidable body of evidence pointing to guilt, that doesn’t mean that the former president is naked – and I’m sorry for the imagery – when it comes to a defense,” he said.

“His team will have formidable legal and factual arguments that he is essentially being charged for speech….Politicians use phrases like ‘fight like hell,’ all the time. Politicians urge their supporters to demonstrate all the time,” he said.

A 1969 Supreme Court decision protects speech other than that designed and likely to produce imminent lawless action.

McQuade, however, said the committee framing could pass that bar, focusing not just on his fiery speech directing a mob toward the Capitol, but fanning the flames once violence was underway by firing off a tweet attacking Vice President Mike Pence.

“When he wrote those words, he knew exactly what he was doing. Before President Trump issued the tweet, a White House staffer cautioned him that the statement would imply that he ‘had something to do with the events that happened at the Capitol’—but he tweeted it anyway,” the panel wrote in their report.

“The stroke of genius I thought, in the committee’s referral, was to base it on that speech, but also on the tweet that Donald Trump sent at 2:24 p.m. where he said that Mike Pence lacked ‘the courage’ to do what was right,” McQuade said, noting he sent the tweet after watching the violence unfold at the Capitol.

“I think it’s that tweet – and they frame it not as inciting an insurrection, but as assisting in an insurrection – I think that tweet probably passes that [Supreme Court] bar,” she added.

But she said the Justice Department could hit roadblocks in proving intent, an element necessary for the conspiracy charges.

“It requires that you knew what you were doing was wrong. The old George Costanza line: ‘If you believe it, it’s not a lie.’ To what extent did Donald Trump believe these things and to what extent did he know it was all just a fraud and a lie? So all of those things have to be considered by the prosecutors in a way that the committee didn’t have to deal with,” McQuade said.

But the committee stopped short of recommending seditious conspiracy charges for Trump or those in his orbit, even as DOJ has successfully pursued such charges against members of the far-right Oath Keepers militia and prepares for a similar case against members of the Proud Boys.

The panel failed to fully tease out the ties between Trump, his associates, and members of the two extremist groups, even as some confidants like Roger Stone were connected with their leaders or relied on them for security.

Also outstanding is whether the Justice Department will see fit to pursue any charges against the other Trump associates named in the report.

McQuade said the transcripts alone – some of which have been released, others of which will be released in the coming days – could be a shortcut for the department, helping them determine any outstanding witnesses they may wish to speak with or prod for more information using DOJ leverage.

But the public nature of the release could also inhibit the investigation too.

“Not only can DOJ see that witnesses said, so can the rest of the world, and so it allows people to get their stories straight to say, ‘What are the other witnesses saying about this? Oh, I better say the same thing,’” she said.

“Or it allows Trump and others to frame their messaging in certain ways to or just to discredit some of these witnesses that they knew said damaging things about them…So there’s some downside to having all of this out there in addition to the upside that the Justice Department gets from this.”

Any action from the Justice Department could still be months away, with the agency only just beginning to get much of the information it requested the committee share.

“The department, the special counsel, and their staff are already going very slow on this. The last thing that anybody wants to do in that department, in that special counsel’s office, is to bring a prosecution of the former president and lose,” Robbins said.

Source: TEST FEED1