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Shutdown threat grows as lawmakers struggle to reach final deal

The heat is dialing up on Congress to quickly strike an agreement on government funding as lawmakers stare down a critical deadline to avert a shutdown at week’s end.

Lawmakers on both sides have been pressing for a short-term funding bill, often referred to as a continuing resolution (CR), that would keep the government funded at current levels until after the midterm elections and buy time for a larger deal on government spending for fiscal 2023. 

But Congress has less than a week to pass the stopgap funding measure or risk its first shutdown in years, and lawmakers still have several hurdles to cross before they can clear the finish line. The government will shut down on Oct. 1 without a new spending measure.

One of the biggest holdups to passage is an ongoing push by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key centrist, and Democratic leadership to use the must-pass bill as a vehicle for changes to the country’s permitting process for energy projects.

Manchin previously struck a deal between top Democrats and President Biden to pass the proposal, which is aimed at speeding up the country’s energy infrastructure projects, in exchange for his support for a sweeping tax, climate and health care plan that narrowly passed Congress in a party-line vote earlier this year. 

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Thursday that the proposal “will be on the CR” and that senators are “going to vote next week,” but he wouldn’t say whether he thought the overall package would fetch the 60 votes needed for passage.

“I’m working hard to have it pass,” he said on Thursday afternoon amid increased opposition from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Since its release on Wednesday, Manchin’s proposal has drawn mixed reviews in the Senate, where some Democrats have criticized the plan for going too far, as advocates argue it will undercut environmental reviews.

And although the plan garnered some backing from Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who offered a dueling proposal earlier this month that Republicans have been lining up to support, it has also drawn considerable pushback from her GOP colleagues who say it doesn’t go far enough.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) cast doubt on the chances of it passing as part of a CR while leaving a Senate GOP lunch where members say the topic was discussed.

“I think between Republicans who are not inclined to help Sen. Manchin out of a bind and the Democrats who are going to vote ‘no,’ it doesn’t stand a chance,” Cornyn told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters on Thursday that Republicans discussed potential changes to buy more GOP support, but any further tweaks to the right could hurt its chances of picking up necessary Democratic backing in the House. 

In recent weeks, more than 70 House Democrats have signed a letter urging party leaders to delink the permitting legislation and the larger funding bill, raising concerns about the plan’s shot of passage in the lower chamber.

And though Manchin has expressed optimism about his plan winning GOP support in the upper chamber eventually, a growing number of House Republicans have already threatened to withhold support for the CR for other reasons that run from wanting to preserve leverage if they retake the majority in the midterms to calls for more money for border security. 

The House Freedom Caucus has been helping lead an effort urging their colleagues to reject any stopgap funding bill that comes up this month if it doesn’t extend the funding deadline through at least early January, as GOP hopes swell of taking back control of the lower chamber in the November midterm elections.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also urged his party to vote against the CR earlier this week, while similarly attacking prospects of allowing a Democratic-led Congress another chance to pass its agenda in the fiscal 2023 funding omnibus.   

“President Biden is asking for a government funding bill that simply kicks the can to an unaccountable lame-duck Congress that does nothing to actually address the nation’s problems — especially the crisis at our southern border,” McCarthy said on Tuesday. 

“If Biden & Democrats don’t use this government funding bill to address the border crisis immediately, I’m voting NO on this bill, and I urge my colleagues to do the same,” he added.

Lawmakers are also still wrestling with a White House request from earlier this month for billions in funding to address Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and the country’s COVID-19 and monkeypox response efforts, as well as disaster relief.

The White House wants Congress to approve more than $13.7 billion in funding to provide aid for Ukraine, and while negotiations are ongoing over what assistance should be prioritized, many lawmakers on both sides have come out in support for the cause. 

Members speculate Congress will likely approve a bulk of the funding, adding to the more than $50 billion that has been approved by the body in recent months to address the war. 

However, Congress has struggled to find common ground on remaining components of the White House’s request for supplemental funding amid GOP opposition.

Some Republicans have pushed back on a White House request for disaster relief for more than $6 billion in funding, but GOP appropriators have also indicated leaders haven’t completely ruled out dollars for the aid.

Pressed on if disaster relief was still in play in spending talks, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, told reporters days ago that “it’s out there and there’s a lot of merit to that.”

However, Republicans have been less open to funding for the nation’s monkeypox and coronavirus response efforts — a sentiment that appears to have only further cemented in light of Biden’s recent comments declaring the pandemic “over.”

“If that’s true, I’m glad. And so why does he want tens of billions of dollars for COVID?” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) told reporters this week, while speculating the comments “certainly makes it harder” for more coronavirus funding to be secured.

Source: TEST FEED1

The seven Senate seats most likely to flip

Republicans are looking for opportunities to go on offense in their battle for the Senate majority and stunt the momentum Democrats have built over the course of the summer.

But Democrats, fresh off a season of eyepopping fundraising and legislative wins, aren’t taking their rose-tinted summer for granted as Republicans ramp up spending in key states and tailor their general election messaging.

Seven weeks before Election Day, Senate races in closely watched swing states remain tight, but a clearer picture is beginning to emerge of the landscape heading into the final midterm sprint.

Here’s a look at the seven Senate seats most likely to flip in November:

Pennsylvania

Democrats are growing cautiously optimistic about flipping the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R).

The Cook Political Report last month moved the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat,” and Democratic nominee John Fetterman has since outpaced Republican Mehmet Oz in several polls. A Muhlenberg College-Morning Call poll showed Fetterman receiving 49 percent support while Oz received 44 percent among likely voters in the state, but the polling falls within the margin of error, effectively tying the two.

But Republicans say a lot can still change.

“I think coming out of the primary the polling was pretty stark, obviously Oz had had quite a few negative ads run against him, Fetterman hadn’t,” said GOP strategist Scott Jennings, a former adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) past campaigns. He noted separately, “I think some of the definitional work on Fetterman is currently being done.”

Fetterman has sought to paint Oz as an inauthentic carpetbagger from New Jersey, using a social media campaign and other means to troll the Republican candidate.

But Oz’s campaign has hit back, most recently by focusing on Fetterman’s health and fitness to serve, accusing him of hiding from voters and pressing him to debate.

Fetterman returned to the campaign trail this month after suffering a stroke in May.

Nevada 

Nevada is perhaps Republicans’ best chance at flipping a Senate seat — and the state most likely to cost Democrats their majority.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D), who made history in 2016 as the first Latina to be elected to the Senate, is facing off against Republican Adam Laxalt. 

The Cook Political Report rates the seat as a “toss up” and several polls this month have shown the two statistically tied.

Cortez Masto, a former state attorney general, has leaned into issues like abortion and sought to emphasize her ties to the Latino community while Laxalt, also a former state attorney general, has campaigned on issues like inflation and human trafficking.

“I think that this is one of those races where it’s economy first. Las Vegas especially took a beating during COVID … it’s a tourism industry. And folks are still reeling and they’re still recovering, and so I think that’s first and foremost in folks’ minds,” said Democratic strategist Rodell Mollineau, a former aide to the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), adding the pandemic also made it harder to engage with voters in-person.

Georgia 

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D) made headlines during the 2020 cycle for pulling off a major upset against former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), but he’s now fighting for his first full term against Republican contender Herschel Walker. 

Warnock has outraised Walker, bringing in more than double his GOP opponent’s haul in the second quarter, and has not suffered from the same negative headlines that have plagued the former NFL star.

But recent polling has shown a highly competitive race, with Republicans saying Walker has become more disciplined as a candidate.

Jon Reinish, Democratic strategist and former aide to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), said one factor that could help Walker is the fact that he’s a former football star. Walker, who was endorsed by former President Trump, was a Heisman Trophy-winning running back at the University of Georgia.

“Football is God in that part of the world, and he is a Trump proxy and he could be successful in rallying a lot of the MAGA faithful,” Reinish said.

Wisconsin

Sen. Ron Johnson (R) won his first two elections in 2010 and 2016 by single digits, and this year could be a similar nail-biter as he goes up against Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in November. 

Barnes, the state’s lieutenant governor, became the Democrats’ presumptive nominee after three other serious contenders within his party effectively cleared the primary for him.

Democrats last month cheered a series of polls showing Barnes outpacing Johnson, but that lead has evaporated. A Marquette University poll that showed Barnes leading by 7 points in August showed Johnson up by 1 earlier this month, and Johnson led by 4 points in an Emerson College poll released Tuesday.

While Johnson has a history of controversial and incendiary comments that Democrats hope turn off moderate voters, it’s unclear if Barnes can notch a win running as a progressive in the swing state.

“He has to have sky, sky, sky-high numbers in the two main cities in Madison and in Milwaukee. And if he can turn those people out, you know, then you can show that a progressive with broad appeal can win in a purple state,” Reinish said. 

Ohio 

Sen. Rob Portman (R) announced early last year that he would not be seeking reelection, setting up a frenzy for the open seat that ultimately led to a faceoff between Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. 

Ryan was always expected to face headwinds in the Buckeye State. Former President Obama won the state twice, but, more recently, so did former President Trump. And President Biden’s approval ratings are still underwater.

But some Democrats are feeling cautiously hopeful, given he’s represented his district in Congress for nearly two decades and focused his campaign on himself and his state, only cautiously embracing Biden.

Still, a poll from Emerson College and The Hill earlier this month showed Vance leading by 4 points, and Ohio has only one Democratic statewide elected official.

“I know everyone thinks that Ohio is a red state. Sherrod Brown … has been [in] statewide office for years, so there’s certainly a path for Tim Ryan to win this,” Mollineau said, referring to Ohio’s Democratic senator. “And I think the Republican strategy will likely be to continue to try to pummel Tim Ryan on the airwaves.”

North Carolina 

Republican Senate hopeful Ted Budd and Democrat Cheri Beasley are vying for the open Senate seat in North Carolina after Sen. Richard Burr (R) announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection. 

Budd has the backing of big GOP names like Trump, and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and was among more than 140 House members who voted to overturn the 2020 election results. Beasley is a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court and former public defender.

A Civiqs poll released this week showed Beasley leading Budd 49 percent to 48 percent among likely voters, but it falls within the poll’s margin of error.

Reinish said Beasley could have a pathway to victory if she turns out voters the way Obama did in 2008 when he won the state by less than a percentage point, noting “Democrats have not had that sophisticated of a turnout machine really since then.”

Arizona

Venture capitalist Blake Masters, who received Trump’s endorsement and backing of GOP megadonor Peter Thiel, is the Republican challenger taking on Sen. Mark Kelly (D) in just over seven weeks. 

The race was considered a possible Republican pickup opportunity, but there are signs those hopes might be unraveling with one poll from Ohio Predictive Insights showing Masters trailing Kelly by a 12-percentage point margin.

A super PAC aligned with McConnell slashed spending in the state while other groups have tried to fill the void, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted its rating of the race from “toss up” to “lean Democrat.”

Still, Republicans aren’t giving up on the state just yet.

“I think it’s destined to be a close race, but [a] Democrat incumbent with that kind of fundraising advantage — he’s certainly, I would say, Kelly is in far better shape than most of the other [Democratic] incumbents on the board. Certainly he’s in better shape than Cortez Masto,” Jennings said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

GOP path to Senate majority narrows

Republicans are staring down an increasingly narrow path to reclaiming the Senate majority this year amid Democratic gains in key battleground states that the GOP had once been bullish about. 

The current outlook for the GOP is a much different one than the party saw just a few months ago, when Republicans were favored to win control of the Senate and Democrats faced the prospect of an electoral thrashing. 

But now, with the midterms fewer than 50 days away, Democrats appear increasingly likely to hold their seats in once-foreboding battlegrounds like Arizona and New Hampshire, while Republicans are up against the possibility that their Senate prospects could come down to just a couple states.

“If you look at those core states that we started with, the list has really been cut in half at this point,” one Republican strategist who has worked on Senate campaigns said. “Arizona looks like more of a stretch. Same deal with New Hampshire. I think that leaves Nevada and Georgia as the best options.”

“The problem is, we can’t really afford to lose either one,” the strategist added.

Senators and party strategists on both sides of the aisle say that the battle for control of the upper chamber is still a toss-up. 

Republicans need to net just a single seat in November to regain the majority, and Democratic incumbents, like Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.) and Raphael Warnock (Ga.), appear more vulnerable now than they did just a month ago. 

Likewise, the Senate race in Wisconsin has tightened substantially in recent weeks, pumping the brakes on Democrats’ hopes of ousting Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and adding another seat to their Senate roster. 

Still, Republicans also acknowledge that they have been left with little room for error. 

“It’s 50-50, so there was no room for error to begin with,” Doug Heye, a Republican strategist, said. “And as these races have tightened up, if there’s a way to go from no room for error to even less room for error, that’s where we’re at.” 

A number of factors have contributed to the shrinking battlefield. Democrats benefited from a jolt of momentum over the summer after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark abortion rights case. 

Then there’s former President Trump’s reemergence as a headline-grabbing figure, which has helped Democrats sharpen their argument that the midterms could prove pivotal to the future of American democracy. 

But just as influential is the roster of Republican Senate candidates in battleground states. Many of the party’s nominees are first-time candidates who were elevated by Trump in their primaries but have struggled to find their footing in the general election campaign. That has given Democrats a distinct edge, even in some of the toughest races.

In Arizona, for instance, GOP Senate hopeful Blake Masters has fallen further and further behind Sen. Mark Kelly (D) since clinching the Republican nomination last month. While Kelly has raised more than $54 million for his reelection bid, Masters has pulled in less than $5 million. 

Meanwhile, recent polling has shown Kelly opening up a wide lead in the race. One AARP Arizona survey released this week found Masters trailing by an 8-point margin — 42 percent to Kelly’s 50 percent.  

Masters’s mounting struggles have prompted some Republicans to reevaluate the race. The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), pulled the remainder of its ad spending out of Arizona this week, saying that other “Republican outside forces” were showing up to fill the void.

The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, buoyed Democratic hopes in the state this week when it moved the Arizona Senate contest into its “lean Democrat” column.

Democrats are also more optimistic about Sen. Maggie Hassan’s (D-N.H.) reelection in November after Republican voters tapped Don Bolduc, a hard-right skeptic of the 2020 presidential election, as their nominee. One poll released this week from the University of New Hampshire showed Hassan leading by an 8-point margin.

Then there’s Pennsylvania, where Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has opened up a solid lead over his Republican opponent, celebrity physician Mehmet Oz. A poll from Muhlenberg College and The Morning Call out Thursday found Fetterman with a 5-point edge over Oz. The seat is currently held by retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R). 

Still, Republicans have raised questions about Fetterman’s health and fitness to serve in the Senate since he suffered a stroke earlier this year. Heye, the Republican strategist, said that the fate of the race could come down to Fetterman’s performance in a debate scheduled for next month.

“The stakes for Fetterman in the debate are much higher than they are for anybody else in any other state, so until they do that, it’s really hard to do any prognostication on what will happen,” he said. “For Fetterman, he has to be able to demonstrate that he can go onto the Senate floor and go toe-to-toe with Mitch McConnell.”

For now, at least, Republicans say their best chances to oust Democratic Senate incumbents are in Georgia and Nevada, where polling shows GOP challengers gaining ground. 

In Georgia, former football star Herschel Walker has begun to close the gap with Warnock after trudging through a series of gaffes and controversies over the summer. In Nevada, meanwhile, the most recent polling shows former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt taking the lead over Cortez Masto. Republicans now say Nevada may end up being their best pick-up opportunity.

Senate Republicans, however, say they are still bullish about their chances of capturing the majority this year. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), predicted this week that the GOP would hold at least 52 seats and insisted that the battlefield had actually expanded to include blue states like Colorado and Washington state.

“I think Herschel Walker’s going to win. I think Adam Laxalt’s going to win. Everybody’s going to believe we’re going to win in New Hampshire, Arizona, Colorado and Washington,” Scott said, adding: “I think we’re going to have 52-plus.”

Democrats are also worried that they’re working on borrowed time. The fight over abortion rights has energized the party and its candidates, giving them hope in an otherwise brutal political environment. But Democratic operatives say they’re not sure how long that momentum will hold.

“The question is how much sustained momentum the abortion issue has,” one Democratic operative involved in the midterms said. “Democrats always fear peaking too early, and rightfully so … there’s a lot of time left. We’re running the races we need to be running, but whether Democrats are as fired up in six weeks as they were seven weeks ago, I don’t know.”

In one sign that top Republicans are looking to close the cash deficit with Democrats, a group of Trump allies are launching a new political action committee — dubbed MAGA Inc. — that will pour money into the midterms. 

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), who ousted Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) in 2018, said that issues like abortion rights would ultimately prove inconsequential for Republicans in November, arguing that pocketbook issues like inflation will determine the outcome.

He quoted James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist who helped lead former President Clinton’s campaign to victory in 1992: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

“No matter how much they talk, no matter how much they deny, no matter how much they spin, you cannot pee on people’s backs and convince them it’s raining,” Cramer told The Hill. 

“People are hurting out there. This inflation thing that’s without a question Democrats’ fault — this is hurting people on a real personal level, and I just don’t think they’re going to vote for a party that’s done this to them.”

And there are still clear challenges for Democrats: President Biden’s approval rating, though improving, remains underwater; inflation remains at its highest level in decades at 8.3 percent; and gas prices are still higher than they were a year ago. 

Speaking to reporters this week, Kellyanne Conway, the veteran Republican pollster and former Trump adviser, said that it’s up to the GOP to make the midterms a referendum on Biden and Democratic control of Washington, acknowledging that if voters are focused on the roster of Republican candidates, things become more difficult.

“If the elections are about the Republican candidates, it’s going to be harder to win,” Conway said. “If the election is about John Fetterman and Raphael Warnock or that woman in Nevada who has three names and zero accomplishments … then if it’s about them, easier to beat them.”

Source: TEST FEED1

US military points to Ukraine in warning China against Taiwan attack

U.S. defense officials are looking to leverage Ukraine’s unexpected success in resisting Russia to dissuade China from a potential invasion of Taiwan.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told reporters last week that Chinese leaders “would be making an enormous mistake to invade Taiwan,” pointing to the economic consequences Russia has incurred and warning the tab for such aggression “can be very significant.” 

He also noted Moscow’s miscalculation about the length of the war, the hard resolve of the Ukrainians to fight, and the willingness of the Western world to provide Kyiv with lethal aid and military expertise. 

“The short war you imagine may not be the war you get,” he said, adding that he believes “the Taiwanese people would fight, and I believe that we would assist them in some form.” 

As tension with Beijing remains high following Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan last month, U.S. officials have offered various public warnings to deter Chinese aggression, promising to arm and even send troops to defend Taiwan against an invasion.  

President Biden last week told 60 Minutes that U.S. troops would help defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion, the fourth times he’s made the declaration since becoming president. 

Ukraine’s stunning gains this month, forcing a Russian retreat from occupied areas, has given the Biden administration a chance to tout the power of a US-backed military against an occupying army. 

“I do not think that China wants to put themselves in a position that Russia finds itself in today, which is invading a democratic neighbor — one that I think would generate an enormous amount of global sympathy,” Pentagon policy undersecretary Colin Kahl earlier this month.

“I would hope that they would draw the lesson from Russia’s experience that, ‘Hey, maybe … we shouldn’t do that,'” Kahl said Sept. 7.  

The U.S. has long pressed back against China’s intimidating tactics in the Indo-Pacific, particularly through drills and sending Navy warships through international waters claimed by China. The last such operation took place just last week, when the Pentagon sent a ship through the Taiwan Strait.   

But Beijing’s intensifying military intimidation of Taiwan, which sits fewer than 110 miles off the coast of China, has raised questions about a speed-up timeline for a Beijing-launched military conflict to bring the island under its control.   

Chinese president Xi Jinping has previously said his military could be capable of taking Taiwan by 2027, five years from now. Recent events in the Taiwan Strait, however, particularly a massive Chinese live fire military drill that took place in August, have some worrying an invasion could happen sooner rather than later.  

Those fears were renewed with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s ominous message on Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly, a speech that repeatedly emphasized China’s claim to Taiwan. 

“Any scheme to interfere in China’s internal affairs is bound to meet the strong opposition of all Chinese and any move to obstruct China’s reunification is bound to be crushed by the wheels of history,” Wang said.  

He also repeatedly expressed Chinese commitment to reunification with Taiwan following its split from the mainland in 1949 after the Chinese Civil War. 

“Only when China is fully reunified can there be true peace across the Taiwan Strait,” Wang said. 

Despite Biden’s pledges to defend Taiwan, administration officials have insisted that U.S. policy toward Taiwan had not changed. The U.S. since 1979 has maintained a “one China” policy, which walks a fine line recognizing Beijing as the sole legal Chinese government while maintaining an unofficial relationship with Taiwan. 

The administration in February sent a group of former U.S. defense and national security officials to Taiwan, in a move meant as a signal to China that “war with Taiwan also means a war with the United States,” U.S. Institute of Peace experts Andrew Scobell and Lucy Stevenson-Yang wrote in March. 

That looming U.S. military presence may keep China from moving on Taiwan for the time being, a tactic the Pentagon seemed to bet on when it revealed last week that the Air Force’s new B-21 Raider strategic bomber would be rolled out in early December. 

“By virtue of the B-21 and the capability that it will provide to the United States military and to our allies and partners around the world, it certainly does send a message, in terms of our ability to provide global strike anywhere, anytime,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on Thursday, when asked whether the announcement was a message to China. 

Since Biden’s comments on 60 Minutes, the Pentagon says it has not seen any military shifts by China in the Taiwan Strait. 

Earlier this month Central Intelligence Agency Deputy Director David Cohen said that the U.S. intelligence community does not believe that Xi has made up his mind a over whether or not to attack Taiwan. He added that it’s believed the Chinese leader would rather take control of the island using “nonmilitary means.” 

In the meantime, the CIA and other agencies are keeping an eye on what lessons China could learn from Russia’s attack on Ukraine, which U.S. officials believe has influenced when and how China would go about attacking Taiwan. 

“We are watching very carefully how the Chinese are understanding the situation in Ukraine – how the Russians have performed, how the Ukrainians have performed, and the implications of that for their own plans as they may be in Taiwan,” Cohen said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Migrant flights show how Trump, Stephen Miller reshaped immigration for GOP

While GOP governors are facing an uproar for sending migrants to blue states and cities, it is not the first time a Republican had suggested the tactic.

Years before Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Florida’s Ron DeSantis (R) bused and flew migrants to liberal enclaves, senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller reportedly floated a similar strategy at the federal level, only to have the idea fizzle due to legal concerns.

But the moves by Abbott and DeSantis, which have been cheered by Miller, reflect how the former Trump adviser and the Trump White House more broadly still have their fingerprints all over the Republican Party’s approach to immigration.

“The playbook was established during the Trump administration,” said Robert Law, who served as chief of policy at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Trump administration.

“Those policies resonated with the American people, with border patrol agents and other law enforcement. It’s simply a passing of the baton, and these governors are recognizing this is the path forward to ensure we have a secure border,” added Law, who now works at the America First Policy Institute.

The issue of a surge in migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border was brought to the forefront over the past week as Abbott bused migrants from his state to Washington, D.C., where they were dropped off near Vice President Harris’s residence.

DeSantis, who does not govern a border state, joined in on the effort by organizing a flight to send roughly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a wealthy island near Cape Cod that is home to fewer than 20,000 people and known to be a favored destination for Democrats.

The move caused an uproar at the White House and among liberals who decried it as a political stunt that used human beings as props.

But the strategy was embraced by Miller, who was central in crafting immigration policy in the Trump White House and who reportedly discussed a plan in 2018 to release undocumented immigrants into Democrat-led sanctuary cities. The Washington Post reported the White House did not follow through on the idea because of concerns from agency officials. 

“Until the open border is closed & illegal immigrants swiftly deported, all border-crossers should be sent to the wealthiest Democrat neighborhoods—from Silicon Valley to the Hamptons—so that Biden Megadonors can enjoy the blessings of the policies they have so proudly championed,” Miller tweeted last Friday after the first flight of immigrants arrived at Martha’s Vineyard.

“If you’re upset because rich Democrats had to share their island resort with 50 illegals for 1 day, but not upset by Joe Biden’s policy of letting cartels criminally transport millions of illegals across our border & sell children into sexual slavery, then you have no conscience,” he added days later, doubling down on the idea.

Miller did not respond to a request for comment through his organization, America First Legal.

While some Republican strategists don’t believe DeSantis and Abbott were inspired directly by the idea first proposed during the Trump administration, they agreed that the latest controversy over the border has direct roots in the way Miller and the former president reshaped the conversation around immigration.

Trump ran for the White House in 2016 deploying incendiary rhetoric about the need to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico and warning that other countries were sending rapists and drug dealers into the country. He called for a ban on Muslims entering the country in the wake of a mass shooting in Florida in 2016.

As a senior adviser to the president, Miller sought to enact numerous policies to cut the flow of immigrants into the U.S. He helped formulate the January 2017 executive order barring travelers from seven countries from entering the U.S.; he pushed for the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of migrant families; and he advocated for executive moves during the coronavirus pandemic to drastically limit immigration into the U.S.

“I think the legacy of enforcement of immigration, setting the tone on the debate of immigration, setting the tone of the idea that we should not continually allow the free migration and import of people into this country, that is certainly the legacy of Trump,” said one former Trump campaign adviser. “But I don’t think this is related.” 

Experts say that figures such as Miller, who leaned into nativist immigration policy and rhetoric, have fundamentally reshaped how the majority of Republicans approach immigration.

“It used to be true that Republicans supported legal immigration, at least rhetorically, but that has changed,” said Douglas Rivlin, director of communications for America’s Voice, a progressive immigration group.

“Legal immigration and legal status for immigrants is what they are trying to prevent, and they even label those in the U.S. legally as ‘illegals,’ like the people admitted to seek asylum DeSantis sent to Massachusetts,” Rivlin added.

He argued Republicans also see the decision to send migrants to blue states as part of a political strategy that has echoes of the 2018 midterms.

“In 2018, Republicans made the election all about migrant caravans, and in 2022 they are chartering their own buses and airplanes to recreate the caravans of ‘scary’ dark immigrants narrative to divide and distract,” Rivlin said. “It didn’t work well for Republicans in 2018 or 2020, but they do not have anything else, so they keep coming back to it.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats divided over whether to send Ukraine long-range weapons to use against Russia

Democrats on Capitol Hill are divided on whether it’s time to start providing Ukraine with more advanced weapons systems as Kyiv proves itself capable with its recent counteroffensive.

Kyiv has reclaimed thousands of square miles of land in recent weeks that had been under Russian control since it launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Ukrainian effort has been buttressed by more than $15 billion in security assistance from the Washington.

But the Ukrainians have been asking Washington to provide longer-range systems for months — a call that hasn’t been met because the Biden administration has been cautious about providing weapons that would make longer range attacks on Russia possible.

In a Sept. 15 briefing, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warned that the U.S. would “cross the red line and become a party to the conflict” if it sent longer-range missiles to Ukraine. 

Some Democrats are satisfied with the more cautious approach of the Biden administration, but others think it’s time to meet Kyiv’s demands.

“The Ukrainians now are transitioning their force — they are starting to look more like a NATO military than a former Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact military. And what’s more is they’ve actually shown their ability to do that — to both fight and make that transition, and learn new systems at the same time,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) told The Hill.

“So now it is time to start providing those more advanced systems — which the administration is doing — and continue to push them to do more of, and to do it on a faster timeline,” he continued.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said now is the time to make sure Ukraine can adequately defend itself in the winter months. He didn’t offer support for providing longer-range systems.

“I think that the systems that we’re giving them — and that we need to look at — are the systems that may be able to knock some of the incoming missiles from Russia coming in which is killing innocent Ukrainians … or to try to make sure that they have what they need to defend themselves from those kinds of missiles,” Meeks said.

“I think that, from what I understand thus far, what they have is sufficient to defend themselves,” he said.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) similarly said the administration has been working at the proper pace to give the Ukrainians the weapons systems they need.

“The Ukrainians can only support so many new weapons systems at any given time. The administration has been very careful to give them what they need without giving them systems beyond their operating ability. So, I think we’re working at the right pace when it comes to giving them increasing systems of increasing lethality,” he said.

The Biden administration so far has focused on providing Ukraine with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which has the capability to strike targets about 50 miles away.

The administration has reportedly been deliberating over whether to send Kyiv the Army Tactical Missile System, a surface-to-surface system that can hit targets up to 186 miles away.

Ukrainian officials included the system in a list sent to lawmakers of items they would need to push ahead with the counteroffensive, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. 

A U.S. official told The Hill that the administration primarily looks at what capabilities Ukraine can currently use on the battlefield. At this time, it feels that the Ukrainians don’t need weapons that can strike more than 50 miles away. But the administration is also concern about how Russia might react to an increase in Ukrainian capabilities — which it could see as escalatory.

Meeks said he shared the administration’s concerns about how Russia would respond to an increase in Ukrainian capabilities.

“I don’t want to us to look like we are the aggressors. Clearly the aggressor in this, by his statements, is Vladimir Putin. Clearly the one that’s been violating everything that there is to violate as far as the atrocities that are taking place in war crimes has been Putin. So that should not be us. We’re not them,” he said.

Democrats who want to see longer-range systems going to Ukraine also acknowledge the administration’s concerns, but don’t want a potential response from Russia to get in the way of providing the Ukrainians the capabilities they need.

“The administration has done a very nice job of assessing escalation challenges because that is something they have to take into consideration. They have to make sure that they’re not creating a broader conflict. But at the same time, the Ukrainians are going to be responsible about this,” Crow said.

The Colorado Democrat noted that he and other members spoke via phone on Tuesday morning with Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office. During the call, they were assured longer-range systems wouldn’t be used to strike directly into Russia.

“He said outright they would not use these systems to attack Russian territory. They know that we’re their biggest patron and supporter and they’re not going to jeopardize that,” Crow said.

Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) noted that previous U.S. support has not “caused Putin to do any of the insane things that some people feared that he would.”

“I would not worry as much about the political concerns that I’ve heard expressed in the past. If it’s useful, if it’ll help Ukraine win faster, if they’re able to use it within a reasonable amount of time, we should provide it,” Malinowski said.

“And if they’re not able to use it within a reasonable amount of time, we should also think about starting the process of training them for the future,” he added.

Even then, Democrats who want to see longer-range weapons sent to Ukraine say the U.S. could place conditions on how Ukraine uses the weapons systems it receives.

The Biden administration notably did this when it first sent Ukraine the HIMARS in June. At the time, the administration said it received assurances from Kyiv that the system wouldn’t be used to strike into Russian territory, but rather to hit Russian targets within Ukraine.

“We give advanced sophisticated weapons systems to Egypt, to Saudi Arabia, to countries that don’t share our values. We have end-use restrictions on those weapons such that if those countries use them in a place or manner that we don’t approve of, we can withdraw that support,” Malinowski said. 

“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be applying restrictions to Ukraine, a country that shares our values and is fighting for our freedom as much as its own, that we don’t impose on a bunch of dictatorships in the Middle East,” he added.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) noted that the Ukrainians have been adhering to the U.S.’s conditions on the weapons systems already sent to Ukraine.

“You just saw that Russia is going to go through a mobilization. We also have seen the professionalism of the Ukrainian military and that they can handle these types of weaponry and use them in an effective manner. So, I think longer-range weapons will go a long way,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Arizona outlook turns bleak for Masters, GOP

The hourglass is running low on Blake Masters and his chances to reverse course in the Arizona Senate race as Sen. Mark Kelly (D) keeps up his offensive on the airwaves, leaving Republicans pessimistic and turning their attention elsewhere on the 2022 map.  

Masters, the Peter Thiel protégé-turned-politician, found himself on the wrong side of the multiple developments last week, headlined by the cancellation of $9.6 million worth of ads by the Senate Leadership Fund — a group backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). In addition, a new poll on Thursday commissioned by AARP showed Kelly leading by 8 percentage points. 

The news, coupled with an endless stream of pro-Kelly or anti-Masters ads that are only now starting to be responded to by pro-Masters messages, also left a sour taste in the mouths of Arizona Republicans as a number of key strategists see the race slipping away quickly. 

“He’s just getting massacred,” one Arizona-based GOP operative told The Hill. “You can’t watch a YouTube clip about how to cook a roast chicken without seeing an ad about how he’s the crazy dad at the football game and shows him saying all these crazy things.” 

“He’s kind of in a perilous place where he probably doesn’t have much money to address any of this stuff,” the strategist continued. “He can’t be on offense. He can’t defend himself. He has said a lot of things that are ill-advised and a problem for him. So I don’t see a huge opportunity at this point in the race. He started to build a real team, but it’s kind of too little, too late.” 

Among Masters’s remarks that have drawn scrutiny: floating the idea of privatizing Social Security during a late-June primary debate; his hard-line views on abortion (which he has attempted to walk back); saying that Ted Kaczynski’s writings provided “a lot of insight there that is correct” (though he was quick to denounce Kaczynski’s terrorist actions); and his comment that the U.S.’s military leadership is “totally incompetent.” 

Couple those controversies with the fact that he’s running against one of the most prodigious Democratic fundraisers, and you get a blanketing of ads that have put Masters at a clear disadvantage. 

“Blake wanted to run an unscripted, unconventional campaign, and he has very much succeeded in doing it that way,” a second Arizona-based GOP strategist said. “The problem being unscripted is the Social Security gaffe, the Ted Kaczynski gaffe. You cannot turn on a TV and not see an elderly couple talking about how they’ve paid into Social Security since they were 15 and how Blake wants to take it away. … Now, he is dearly paying for that.” 

Top Democrats aren’t complaining about his propensity for controversy.  

“Quite frankly, the Republican candidate just has to keep talking. That helps us,” Sen. Gary Peters (Mich.), chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, told The Hill regarding the Arizona race.  

If Masters is going to turn things around, it has to happen fast. The lone debate between the two candidates is slated for Oct. 6, with early voting kicking off on Oct. 12 — giving him less than two weeks to turn the tide. In 2018 and 2020, 79 percent and 89 percent of voters, respectively, handed their ballots in early.  

“Masters is definitely behind, but he’s got the momentum. I think Kelly has peaked and America is tired of [President Biden’s] policies,” said Dan Eberhart, a Phoenix-based GOP donor who supports Masters and has contributed to his campaign. “I think there’s a strong chance of a photo finish and a Masters win, but he’s got to execute properly. Masters needs to pitch a shutout, and Kelly can afford to give up a few runs.” 

With McConnell’s group stepping aside and allowing conservative groups to fill those ad slots, many in the GOP are looking to Thiel to step in and provide the needed resources to give Masters a chance. One national GOP strategist speculated that the PayPal founder would need to dump in $60 million for that to happen in order to help counteract Kelly’s spending, because it is roughly three times more expensive for most outside groups to secure airtime than it is for candidates in the state. 

According to AdImpact, an ad tracking firm, Democrats have outspent Republicans by more than a 2-to-1 margin in the state as of last week. As of mid-July, Kelly raised $54 million overall and had $24 million in the bank.  

A Masters spokesperson told The Hill that the campaign continues to see a close race and highlighted multiple polls released in recent weeks, including a survey from GOP polling firm the Trafalgar Group showing Kelly with a 2-point lead.  

Sen. Rick Scott (Fla.), chairman of the Senate GOP campaign arm, also remains bullish about Masters’s chances in November, saying in an interview that the effort to define Kelly has paid off and that his approval ratings have peaked. He also predicted that Masters will win.  

“We’re doing whatever we can,” Scott told The Hill when asked how the party can overcome Kelly’s advertising behemoth. “You’ve just got to explain it. We don’t have to spend as much money.” 

Republicans also believe that any path to victory for Masters has to include a combination of an improved political environment coupled with a sizable win by Kari Lake in the gubernatorial contest against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D). According to the AARP survey, Lake carries 88 percent of Republicans compared to only 80 percent for Masters and trails Hobbs by 1 point overall (49 to 48 percent).  

“Kelly has bombed this guy into the Stone Age. His only path to victory is a mob of low-information voters who are turning out to pick Kari Lake and they just see the ‘R’ next to Masters name and decide to vote Republican,” the national GOP strategist said. “That’s his only hope.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Will GOP’s crime attack line sink Barnes in Wisconsin?

Wisconsin’s Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes finds himself facing a big question ahead of Election Day: Will voters care about his stance on crime?

Democrats from Washington to Wisconsin have taken steps to prioritize policing and public safety ahead of the midterms, distancing themselves from the soft-on-crime profile that Republicans have said defines their liberal opposition. 

But the party’s struggle to do so in unison is playing out in one of the highest-profile races this cycle, where Barnes, a young Black populist candidate, is fending off attacks from Sen. Ron Johnson (R) and aligned Republicans in the battle for the state’s open Senate seat. 

The rift has caused Democrats to wonder about the outcome of conservatives’ favorite critique in the tightening race.

“We know that the GOP is going to run this crime and immigration playbook. We’re seeing it happen already,” said Lanae Erickson, senior vice president for social policy, education and politics at Third Way, a center-left think tank. 

“Every Democrat in the country needs to be prepared to deal with attacks on crime,” she said.

Democrats hope Wisconsin helps secure the Senate for their side. Voters often swing between red and blue in the battleground, keeping onlookers guessing about the mood of the electorate in midterm and presidential cycles. 

In nominating Barnes, Democrats embraced a candidate who, if victorious against Johnson, shares ideology with both progressives and centrists in the upper chamber. While many on the left, like Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), claim Barnes for their wing, so do moderates like Biden and House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.).

Notably, the most prominent line of attack on crime has dogged the entire Democratic Party for years — not just liberals.

This cycle is no exception. In an effort to derail their opponent, Republicans in the state, bolstered by energized national groups, have put out ads calling Barnes “dangerous,” using his own words in prior interviews against him.

Barnes said to a local PBS affiliate after George Floyd was fatally shot by a police officer in 2020 that police budgets were, in his estimation, “over-bloated” and that more money needs to be invested in “neighborhood services and programming for our residents, for our communities on the front end.” Republicans have sought to use those remarks to score political points in the final stretch of the race.

Team Barnes, for its part, has hit back. They dropped an ad Thursday featuring a former law enforcement official speaking broadly about the lieutenant governor’s stance on policing, seeking to clear up new questions that have been raised in recent days.

“I worked on the force for 30 years. I’ve seen plenty of politicians, but Mandela, he’s the real deal,” said the former officer in the narrated segment, which features footage of Barnes smiling with residents. 

“Mandela doesn’t want to defund the police. He’s very supportive of law enforcement, and I know his objective is to make every community in the state of Wisconsin better,” he said.

Another spot featured Barnes spelling things out clearly for voters. “I’ll make sure our police have the resources and training they need to keep our communities safe and that our communities have the resources to stop crime before it happens,” the Democratic nominee said. 

Democrats see the GOP’s strategy as potentially problematic in a neck-and-neck race. The issue is not so much Barnes’s record or ideology, some say, but that Democratic candidates — particularly those who are Black — are especially vulnerable to conservative attacks on crime.

“No matter who the nominee was going to be in Wisconsin, they would have run that ad. The question is: Does it stick?” Erickson said. “The fact that they have a statement of his own rather than someone else in the party is one thing that might make it stick more.”

Barnes has expressed support of more progressive criminal justice policies in the past, including ending the current cash bail system as it exists nationally, a favorite of liberals who say the setup creates an uneven burden for lower income incarcerated individuals. 

National Republicans have also sought to portray Barnes as far-left, even though many Democrats in the state, including some moderates, rebuke that characterization. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has depicted Barnes in campaign materials with “Squad” members in the House, who are often villainized by the GOP as the most ideologically extreme versions of Democrats.

“They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s dog-whistle politics. It’s MAGA Republicans,” said Tiffany Flowers, campaign director of The Frontline, a progressive organization. “It’s racism dressed up a little bit before they try and strip it all the way down as we move to Election Day.”

Barnes has consistently said that he does not support defunding the police in any capacity, a stance that puts him in alignment with President Biden. The phrase started as a way for activists to bring attention to issues around police brutality but has lost popularity in recent cycles as the party has moved away from the harder-line approach. 

“That has not been anything that’s ever been in his purview,” said Tracey Corder, a national organizer with the Action Center on Race and the Economy who has longstanding ties to Wisconsin.

“Defund is a local demand,” she said. “It’s interesting to see it being leveled at him.”

For now, polls of the race show a virtual tie. One recent survey released by Emerson College has Johnson with a 4-percentage point lead over Barnes, 48 percent to 44 percent. Another poll gives Barnes the edge. A Siena College survey places Barnes at 48 percent to Johnson’s 47 percent among registered voters. A polling aggregate by FiveThirtyEight has the two Wisconsin Senate contenders in a dead heat.

Democrats say the Republican impulse to dredge up tactics on crime can be effective, but they’re certainly not new. 

“It’s a very, very old playbook: law and order, and the MAGA Republicans know it,” Flowers said. “Bringing ‘defund’ into the conversation is the best way to derail the conversation because it’s a full-stop way to get people to stop talking about the actual issues.”

Source: TEST FEED1

How Glenn Youngkin became the governor Republicans want to campaign with

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is becoming a growing presence for Republicans on the campaign trail, raising his own national profile amid speculation of a future presidential run. 

On Monday it was reported that Youngkin would hit the trail for Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake as part of a broader effort to boost the GOP in key midterm states. Youngkin is also slated to campaign for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) later this month. 

The Virginia governor has already been to Maine, Nevada, Michigan and Kansas in an effort to advance Republican candidates there. 

Youngkin has also been making the rounds with Republican mega-donors. The Washington Examiner reported that Youngkin took part in a question-and-answer session with the American Opportunity Alliance, which is made up of major GOP donors. 

Youngkin has become a rising star in the GOP and is the latest Republican governor to be floated as a potential 2024 contender — but experts say that’s not the only reason other candidates want to be associated with him. 

“Yes, that’s an obvious part of the story, but also he’s a new governor who’s a fresh face and is in demand,” said veteran Republican strategist Doug Heye. “If you’re a Republican candidate running, he’s at the top of the list of folks you would like to have come campaign for you.” 

Youngkin shot to stardom among Republicans last year when he narrowly defeated former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) in the state’s gubernatorial race. The contest was largely viewed as a litmus test for the 2022 midterms, providing them with a blueprint of what issues to focus on. 

“Everything that the governor is doing you can tie directly back to the campaign,” said Kristen Davison, a political adviser to Youngkin. 

Youngkin last year zeroed in on the issue of parents’ role in education, specifically targeting teachers unions, school boards and critical race theory, and harnessing anger over coronavirus pandemic school closures. The campaign also focused on combating crime and slashing taxes, with Youngkin calling on Virginia’s grocery tax to be eliminated and for suspending a gas tax hike. 

A year later, education and parents’ role in it is a prominent topic for candidates in states like Florida and Texas, and the national GOP platform focuses on inflation and crime.

“The problems that Virginia had been seeing are problems that the country has been facing and the governor got to work on day one,” Davison said. 

While McAuliffe and Democrats worked to paint Youngkin as an extremist with ties to former President Trump, Youngkin appealed to moderate and independent voters even as he was able to turn out the conservative base.

The strategy was enough to put Youngkin over the edge in the purple swing, defeating McAuliffe by 2 points. 

“Youngkin has the unique ability to walk through that eye of the needle and it’s a big part of the reason that folks are looking toward his leadership and want him on the campaign trail,” Heye said.

Lake, a strong backer of Trump’s unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, will be one of the higher-profile candidates Youngkin has campaigned for this cycle. While Youngkin called for an audit on voting machines in Virginia during the gubernatorial race last year, he has repeatedly said that President Biden legitimately won the 2020 election. 

In his statement confirming his Arizona visit, Youngkin praised both Lake and outgoing Gov. Doug Ducey (R), who certified the 2020 election results in Arizona despite objections from Trump. Ducey supported Lake’s primary opponent earlier this year but endorsed Lake following the election. 

“There’s no doubt about it — Republicans make better governors than Democrats,” Youngkin said. “Governor Doug Ducey championed hallmark education reforms and the state’s largest tax cut during his term. Arizona deserves another Republican governor.“ 

Republicans praise Youngkin for being able to walk the fine line between moderate and more conservative candidates, but Democrats say the strategy amounts to the governor talking out of both sides of his mouth. 

“It’s clear that Gov. Youngkin can’t have it both ways,” said Gianni Snidle, a spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Virginia. “He can’t go and campaign for an unabashed racist like [Maine Republican gubernatorial candidate] Paul LePage and a complete MAGA election conspiracy theorist Kari Lake and then come back to Virginia pretending all is well in that ‘I’m a governor for all Virginians.’” 

Snidle was referring to remarks made by LePage, first reported by The Washington Post, in which he said that over 90 percent of people arrested for drug trafficking in Maine were either Black or Hispanic. 

Virginia Democrats quickly tried to tie Youngkin to the comments.

“I don’t agree with the inarticulate things that were said. And oh by the way neither does Governor LePage,” Youngkin told WJLA-TV earlier this month. “I talked with him today. He has apologized and has tried to bring people together. Anyone who knows his story knows he loves people and that he’s worked to bring people together. That’s the campaign he’s running. And that’s the campaigns all Republicans should be running — campaigns that bring people together and move us forward.”

Still, Democrats are pushing back against the notion that Youngkin is a moderate or establishment Republican. 

“Gov. Youngkin for some reason was branded as a country club Republican on the campaign trail, but ever since he’s been in office he hasn’t been that way whatsoever,” Snidle said. 

Youngkin made headlines this week after he issued new guidance that would remove accommodations for transgender students in Virginia public schools and, among other things, require students to use facilities like bathrooms or locker rooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. The new guidance also calls for minors to be called by the name and pronouns seen in their official records unless a parent says otherwise. 

Other Republican governors who are also floated as potential 2024 contenders have made similar moves when it comes to education policy. Earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law the Parental Rights in Education Act, which prohibits public primary school teachers from engaging in classroom instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity.

Polls show DeSantis as the leading potential Republican 2024 contender in the case that Trump does not run. 

In Virginia, a Roanoke College poll released earlier this month showed Youngkin with a 55 percent approval rating, marking a 2-point increase since May. However, when asked whether they thought Youngkin should run for president, 54 percent of Virginians said he should not run for president while 36 percent said he should. 

Youngkin has brushed off questions about whether he will make a run for the White House, saying he is focused on his job as governor and electing other Republicans. 

“The goal of all of the travel and events has been to boost Republican candidates for governor,” Davison, Youngkin’s adviser, said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Chris Wallace looks to go beyond partisan political news

Longtime cable news anchor and pundit Chris Wallace is stepping outside the realm of politics with the debut of a new show that will air for the first time Sunday evening on CNN. 

The first installation of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” features interviews with celebrities Tyler Perry and Shania Twain as well as former Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.  

As part of the new show’s roll out, Wallace also interviewed former professional baseball player turned business mogul Alex Rodriguez, a conversation that which will air in the coming weeks. 

Sunday’s episode, interviews from which are also available via streaming on HBO Max, features Wallace peppering Perry, Twain and Breyer with questions about their lives and careers. 

Known for years as a dogged griller of top political figures, Wallace takes a more conversational approach with interviewees on his new show, while getting to the heart of the open questions surrounding them.  

Wallace pressed Breyer, for example, about his feelings on his last term on the court, during which the liberal justice was on the losing end of a number of votes the high court cast on several consequential issues. 

“Was I happy about it (the Dobbs decision)? Not for an instant,” Beyer told Wallace. “But there we are and now we go on. We try to work together.”

During the interview with Twain, Wallace questioned the country music star about her childhood, divorce and road she has taken to industry fame. 

At one point during the back and forth, Wallace played Twain’s hit song “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” and the two sang the chorus together with Wallace strumming an air guitar as they laughed together. 

“I worked a lot on this question,” Wallace smirked at Rodriguez during his sit down with the former All-Star slugger. 

“Do you think you’re husband material or honestly, that you just like the chase,” he asked in reference to the baseball star’s history of dating leading female celebrities including a high-profile pairing with Jennifer Lopez.

“First of all, I would say I’m glad I’m not ever going to be a presidential candidate ‘cause you would hammer me,” Rodriguez shot back at Wallace about the Lopez question. 

Wallace has said he left traditional cable news to focus more on his personal interests and interview subjects from a wider array of industries. 

He served for years as the host of Fox News Sunday, leaving the network late last year to join CNN as part of its short-lived paid subscriber streaming service CNN+. 

That streaming service was shuttered less than a month after it was launched, and CNN’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, which also owns HBO, subsequently announced Wallace would instead host a show that would be available on HBO Max and air Sunday evenings on CNN. 

“Chris Wallace is a legend in our profession. His unparalleled interviewing expertise has made an impact across industries and changed history,” Chris Licht CNN’s new president said in a statement this week. 

Wallace has remained a fixture of CNN’s political coverage in recent weeks, popping up on cable in recent months to opine on various major news events including the Jan. 6 committee hearings and other topics. 

“And for anybody who asked why I stopped just doing political interviews so I could interview everybody in the world, watch this interview,” Wallace said. 

Source: TEST FEED1