Tag: fox news

Donald Trump to skip Republican presidential primary debates

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Former U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday that he will be skipping Wednesday’s first Republican presidential primary debate — and others as well.

“The public knows who I am & what a successful Presidency I had,” Mr. Trump wrote on his social media site. “I WILL THEREFORE NOT BE DOING THE DEBATES!” His spokesman did not immediately clarify whether he plans to boycott every primary debate or just those that have currently been scheduled.

The former president and early GOP front-runner had said for months that he saw little upside in joining his GOP rivals on stage when they gather for the first time in Milwaukee Wednesday, given his commanding lead in the race. And he had made clear to those he had spoken to in recent days that his opinion had not changed.

“Why would I allow people at 1 or 2% and 0% to be hitting me with questions all night?” he said in an interview in June with Fox News host Bret Baier, who will be serving as a moderator. Mr. Trump has also repeatedly criticised Fox, the host of the August 23 primetime event, insisting it is a “hostile network” that he believes will not treat him fairly.

Mr. Trump had been discussing a number of debate counterprogramming options, according to people familiar with the discussions. He has taped an interview with ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has been hosting a show on the website formerly known as Twitter, according to one person who requested anonymity to discuss private planning. The interview is expected to air Wednesday.

“We cannot confirm or deny — stay tuned,” said Mr. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. Mr. Carlson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The idea had been one of several alternatives Mr. Trump had floated in conversations in recent weeks. They included possibly showing up in Milwaukee at the last minute or attending but sitting in the audience and offering live commentary on his Truth Social site. He had also discussed potentially calling into different networks to draw viewers from the debate, or holding a rally instead.

The decision marks another chapter in Mr. Trump’s ongoing feud with Fox, which was once a staunch defender, but is now perceived to be more favorable to his leading rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Fox executives and hosts had lobbied Mr. Trump to attend, both privately and on the network’s airwaves. But Mr. Trump, according to a person close to him, was unswayed, believing executives would not have been wooing him if they weren’t concerned about their ratings.

A person familiar had said earlier Sunday that Mr. Trump and his team had not notified the Republican National Committee of his plans.

Rivals want him to debate

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s rivals had been goading him to appear and preparing in the hopes that he might, concerned that a no-show might make them appear like second-tier candidates and deny them the opportunity to land a knockout blow against the race’s Goliath that could change the trajectory of the race.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of the few candidates willing to directly take on Mr. Trump, has been accusing the former president of lacking “the guts to show up” and calling him “a coward” if he doesn’t.

A super PAC supporting Mr. DeSantis released an ad in which the narrator says: “We can’t afford a nominee who is too weak to debate.” And the DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo added that, “No one is entitled to this nomination, including Donald Trump. You have to show up and earn it.”

Mr. Trump has pushed back on the attacks, telling Newsmax’s Eric Bolling that he saw little benefit in participating when he’s already leading by a wide margin.

“It’s not a question of guts. It’s a question of intelligence,” he said.

Mr. Trump has also said that he will not sign a pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee if he loses the nomination — a requirement set by the Republican National Committee for appearing on stage.

“Why would I sign it?” he said. “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”

Nonetheless, his advisers insisted for weeks that he had yet to make a final decision, even as they acknowledged it was “pretty clear” from his public and private statements that he was unlikely to appear.

Not the first time

It’s not the first time Mr. Trump has chosen to skip a major GOP debate.

During his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump decided to forgo the final GOP primary face-off before the Iowa caucuses and instead held his own campaign event — a flashy telethon-style gathering in Iowa that was billed as a fundraiser for veterans.

While the event earned him headlines and drew attention away from his rivals, Mr. Trump went on to lose the Iowa caucuses to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas — a loss some former aides have blamed, at least in part, on his decision to skip the debate.

In 2020, Trump pulled out of the second general election debate against now-President Joe Biden after the Commission on Presidential Debates, a nonpartisan group that has hosted general election debates for more than three decades, sought to make it virtual after Mr. Trump tested positive for COVID-19. He refused, saying he would only debate on stage.

Mr. Trump is not the only candidate who will likely be missing Wednesday’s event. Several lesser-known rivals appear unlikely to reach the threshold set by the RNC to participate. To qualify, candidates must have received contributions from at least 40,000 individual donors, with at least 200 unique donors in 20 or more states. They also must poll at at least 1% in three designated national polls, or a mix of national and early-state polls, between July 1 and Aug. 21.

Candidates who have met the qualifications include Mr. DeSantis, Mr. Christie, former vice president Mike Pence, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

Beyond the fundraising and polling requirements, the RNC has said candidates must also sign the pledge agreeing to support the eventual party nominee as well as agreeing not to participate in any non-RNC sanctioned debate for the remainder of the election cycle. The RNC is boycotting events organised by the Commission for Presidential Debates, alleging bias.

“I affirm that if I do not win the 2024 Republican nomination of President of the United States, I will honor the will of the primary voters and support the nominee in order to save our country and beat Joe Biden,” reads the pledge, according to a copy posted by Mr. DeSantis to the social media site X. Candidates also must pledge not to run as an independent, write-in candidate or third-party nominee.

While several candidates, including Mr. Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have taken issue with the requirement, former Texas Rep. Will Hurd so far is the only one who has said definitively that he will not sign the pledge because he refuses to support Mr. Trump if he becomes the eventual nominee. Mr. Christie has said he will sign whatever is needed to get him on the stage.

In addition to voicing opposition to the loyalty pledge, Mr. Trump has suggested he is opposed to boycotting general election debates hosted by the Commission on Presidential Debates. “You have, really, an obligation to do that,” he said in a radio interview this spring.

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US-Mexico Border Quiet. A Little TOO Quiet.

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

On May 11, after seemingly endless court cases and publicity stunts by Republicans, the Biden administration finally ended the Trump-era border policy known as Title 42, which had allowed for the immediate deportation of border crossers even if they were claiming asylum. Wingnut media predictably predicted that America would be quickly overwhelmed by hordes of lawless migrants who’d be sleeping on every sidewalk and Great Replacementing all the hardworking retirees who watch Fox News.

Funny, though, because as the Washington Post reports (gift link), none of that happened. Instead, arrests of illegal border crossers have dropped by more than half, largely because of new procedures rolled out by the Biden administration. Instead of risking their lives crossing the Rio Grande and then requesting asylum when they turn themselves in to the Border Patrol, asylum seekers use a phone app to schedule an initial asylum screening (a “credible fear of persecution” interview) with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). If they pass that, they’re allowed into the US to live and work until they have a formal asylum hearing.

The other side of the new policy is that if migrants don’t use the “CBP One” app and instead cross the border outside a port of entry, they can be deported immediately and barred from applying for entry for five years.

Not surprisingly, this still has anti-immigration Republicans plenty pissed off, because even though the new procedures have led to a 70 percent drop in illegal entries since Title 42 ended, the more orderly process allows people to claim asylum and enter the US, and how dare Joe Biden actually respect the right to asylum? Plus, the relatively small numbers of asylum seekers going through ports of entry on any given day has robbed Fox News of the scary visuals of crowds of people huddling under bridges near the border, and how is that even fair?

As the Post explains,

The recent drop in illegal crossings does not mean fewer than half as many migrants are coming to the United States. President Biden is allowing roughly 43,000 migrants and asylum seekers per month to enter through CBP One appointments and accepting an additional 30,000 through a process called parole. The new legal channels appear to be absorbing many of the border-crossers who for years have entered unlawfully to surrender in large groups, overwhelming U.S. border agents.

U.S. agents made about 100,000 arrests along the Mexico border in June, the first full month that Biden’s new measures were in effect, down from 204,561 in May, according to the latest CBP data. It was the largest one-month decline since Biden took office.

The story notes that the factors in Central America that have driven immigration — gang crime, climate change, poverty, corrupt government and the like — haven’t significantly changed, but the administration’s new approach is far more orderly than the Trump approach of making the US so cruel that migrants would decide instead to stay home and take their chances with the cartels. OK, that’s us editorializing; WaPo instead says that

At the heart of the strategy is a belief that reducing the chaos and illegality of migration is more feasible than trying to stop it.

Since Republicans in Congress seem bent on never ever ever agreeing to an immigration bill — because then how could they cry about an immigration crisis? — trying to be a bit more humane seems like a fairly good approach.

In addition to using the app to make the process more orderly, changes in border facilities have helped, too. Near El Paso, CBP is temporarily holding migrants in a new detention facility built with military-style tents (the big ones with AC that we aren’t using in Iraq anymore). No more cramming hundreds of people into “the icebox,” those freezing cells at Border Patrol facilities that weren’t meant to hold that many people. Instead, some 400 to 500 detainees daily are taken to “the largest and perhaps least harsh CBP facility ever built, with capacity for more than 2,500.”

The Border Patrol supervisor running the facility likened it to a cruise ship — a small self-contained city floating on the desert. With hot showers, on-site laundry and scores of private booths where migrants can videoconference with attorneys, asylum officers and immigration judges, the facility’s operating costs exceed more than $1 million per day.

Border Patrol officials said the facility allows them to manage detainees using far fewer agents. They can reserve the more austere, jail-like detention cells at Border Patrol stations for migrants considered security risks. Family groups, unaccompanied minors and others deemed lower risk can be held at the tent complex, where contractors perform administrative and custodial tasks that have long grated on agents.

Yeah, that “cruise ship” line seemed designed for rightwing media. Still, look at Joe Biden, that sneaky bastard, relieving CBP agents of work they absolutely hated, and now they’re actually patrolling the border. Just don’t hold your breath on the Border Patrol union endorsing him, though.

None of this has made Republicans any happier, because allowing 70,000 migrants per month into the US without even beating them or taking away their kids is still too generous and scary in a nation of 335 million people, there’s simply no room at all and definitely no jobs, so Republican officials in red states are suing to make it stop. And the deportations of people crossing the border without using the app is being challenged in court by immigration advocates who point out, correctly, that there’s no app in US asylum law either, even if it’s more orderly.

So far, Fox News hasn’t yet sued over the lack of terrifying visuals. They’re pretty resourceful, and will no doubt get by with old footage, stock footage from some other country entirely, or maybe that newfangled AI that can whip up a caravan without even having to send a camera crew to Texas.

[WaPo gift link / Photo: US CBP on Flickr, public domain.]

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Here’s Joe Biden’s Student Debt Forgiveness Backup Plan … And His Other Debt Relief Plans, Too!

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Joe Biden went on TV yesterday to say that he thinks the Supreme Court got it wrong when it nuked his plan for up to $20,000 in student loan forgiveness in a very dubious 6-3 ruling. He was obviously pretty cheesed about the decision, especially the fact that so may Republicans are just fine with doling out corporate loans, tax cuts, and subsidies but suddenly care very much about the national debt if a struggling family gets a little help from the government, to give them some breathing room. But it wasn’t just condemnation of the Court and the greedheads; Biden also highlighted what he intends to do now to help families with student debt.

Previously!

Supreme Court: You Owe Your Soul To The Student Debt Store

Joe Biden’s Here With A Few Choice Words About The Supreme Court’s Student Debt Decision

Here’s the video; we have so much to get to in this post that we’re only barely going to mention the assholish question at the end from Jacqui Heinrich — of Fox News, of course — who accused Biden of giving “false hope” to millions with his debt forgiveness plan, because presumably he should have known in advance the Supremes would act lawlessly. Kudos to Joe for not letting that foolishness stand, and for pointing out that “Republicans snatched away the hope” borrowers had been given by the plan. Also, that brief flash of anger in his eyes before his fairly measured reply. I like this guy.

youtu.be

Biden said that since the Court ruled — stupidly, we’ll add — that the loan forgiveness plan wasn’t authorized by the 2003 HEROES Act, his administration would pursue a new path to loan forgiveness, using the Education Department’s authority under the 1965 Higher Education Act (HEA), which established low-interest federal student loans in the first place. It was signed into law by Lyndon Johnson and has been reauthorized nine times, with revisions to update it, like the establishment of Pell grants in 1972.

The law authorizes the secretary of Education to “compromise, waive, or release any right, title, claim, lien, or demand, however acquired, including any equity or any right of redemption,” and that clause was what Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer had in mind when they called on Biden to forgive student debt. Real policy nerds can dive into this 7-page analysis that Sen. Warren requested in 2020 from Harvard Law School’s Legal Service Center, which concludes that the HEA gives the secretary the power to grant “broad or categorical debt cancellation.”

Biden said he had already directed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to start the process of using the HEA to bring back debt forgiveness; because of the lengthy federal rulemaking process, it will likely take months to reach a final rule, which of course would then be subject to challenge in the same Court that decided the HEROES Act’s authorization for the secretary to issue “waivers and modifications” of student loans in national emergencies wasn’t good enough. To be sure, the HEA language is more expansive, but we suspect that still might not be enough for the Roberts Court because it doesn’t also say “including cancelling up to $10,000 of debt for most borrowers, or $20,000 for those who received Pell grants. P.S.: Alito’s a tool.”

In addition to the second try at loan forgiveness, Biden also said that when the pandemic loan payback and interest pause ends on October 1 and loan payments are again due, the Education Department will allow a 12-month “ramp up” period through September 30, 2024. That’s to make sure that

financially vulnerable borrowers who miss monthly payments during this period are not considered delinquent, reported to credit bureaus, placed in default, or referred to debt collection agencies.

In addition, Biden called attention to the Education Department’s proposed revisions to the Income Driven Repayment (IDR) plan for student loans, which were announced in January and are still moving through the federal rulemaking process. Once that revision goes into effect, many borrowers in the most popular income-based repayment plan will qualify for far lower monthly payments, and many financially challenged borrowers will actually see their monthly payments go to zero. At the end of 20 to 25 years, depending on the type of loan, their remaining debt will be discharged. Folks who initially borrowed $12,000 or less will have their loans forgiven after 10 years of payments. More on that program here.

More! Here!

Did Joe Biden Just Fix Student Loan Debt Going Forward? Mayyyyybe!

I Got My Student Loans Ready For Joe Biden’s Big Income-Based Forgive-A-Thon And You Should Too

Also too, while Biden didn’t mention it in his remarks yesterday, keep in mind that, in another administrative action the Education Department announced last year, millions of borrowers in IDR plans of all sorts will qualify for a special, one-time adjustment that could dramatically reduce the number of payments they need to get their loans discharged. More on that here; I still plan on doing an update to that next week, too.

Finally, Biden also touted other measures his administration has taken, like increasing the size of Pell Grants; fixing processing roadblocks that had kept participants in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program from actually getting their loans forgiven (Biden too-graciously didn’t name Trump’s Ed Secretary, Betsy DeVos, who made the problem worse); and cancelling more than $66 billion in student debt for those eligible public service workers, as well as for students who were defrauded by the grifty for-profit colleges that were DeVos’s very special darlings.

The more I look at how the Education Department is fixing what’s been wrong with student loans, the more impressed I am.

Now, if we could just tackle the many factors that have made college so expensive in the first place — first among them states’ abandonment of adequate tax support — we’d really have something to crow about.

[CBS News / NYT / Harvard Law School / Income Driven Repayment at Studentaid.gov / One-Time IDR Adjustment at Studentaid.gov]

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We’ve Reached The ‘Fox News Accuses White House Of Flying Pedophile Flag’ Phase Of Trump News Cycle

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday, Fox News sent a tweet that, even by its vile, low-class standards, was a real doozy:

The tweet and the headline blasted: “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that promotes grooming and pedophilia, critics say.” That “critics say” was doing a lot of hard work, considering how the only “critics” saying that are America’s unhinged anti-LGBTQ+ Nazis. We also love how they stuffed that “critics say” down at the end, so most people would simply see them accusing the White House of promoting grooming and pedophilia. Hitler’s ad guys would be impressed.

The tweet has been deleted, of course, and the headline has been changed. Now it says, “White House flew controversial new transgender flag that troubles some critics in the gay community,” which is still incredibly misleading. First of all it’s not a “transgender flag.” Basic fact-checking continues not to be a trend running rampant in Fox News HQ, obviously.

Also, the “critics in the gay community” it references are the deranged Gays Against Groomers freakshows, which is not a real gay group, but rather a QAnon-promoting far-right MAGA trash group created to make it look like there are even people in the LGBTQ+ community who are joining the American Nazi crusade against trans people and so-called “groomers.” It’s similar to when right-wingers trot out their Black friends who conveniently also excuse white supremacy. It’s one of the oldest right-wing tricks in the book.

“The flag represents to us an ideology, a political statement of indoctrinating kids and trans kids and pushing kids to sterilize and mutilate themselves,” Jaimee Michell, the lesbian founder of Gays Against Groomers, told Fox News Digital.

So that there is some fascist garbage wrapped up in a pack of easily disproven lies.

The article says “some [are] even saying that in their opinion, it appears to reference a cult of pedophilia.” It calls the flag a “mysterious and divisive new symbol of pride.” (It’s called the Progress Pride flag and it was created in 2018. Not that “new.”)

The article says, “Some critics charge that the new design actually glorifies pedophilia at a time when children are being sexualized in public schools and elsewhere against the wishes of their parents.” Of course it’s a Christian fascist propaganda lie that “children are being sexualized in public schools … against the wishes of their parents.” What they’re really saying is that kids are finding out that LGBTQ+ people exist at school and that if they are LGBTQ+ themselves, it’s OK. This interferes with the hate indoctrination and grooming fundamentalist Christian parents are doing at home.

Obviously this is all part of the coordinated right-wing attack on Pride celebrations at the White House.

Is The Pride Flag Dividing The US Or Are Conservatives Just Awful, Hateful Human Beings?

It was quickly pointed out that this very same flag, which Fox News claimed promoted pedophilia and grooming, critics say, is featured in Fox News’s 2022 corporate responsibility report, linked in the tweet below:

But that’s the Fox News they try to keep under wraps from their viewers, who are mostly clueless that Fox is a real company in a real city, which brags about its inclusivity efforts and environmental initiatives and even stands with Ukraine.

Cynical bastards.

The White House is pissed, quite rightly. First of all, this comes just after Fox News referred to President Joe Biden as a “wannabe dictator” who had his “political rival arrested” in a chyron, something Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre responded to yesterday. (Oh boy, Fox News did not seem to like that!) White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates has taken the lead on this one, going off on Fox for the flag story yesterday in response to the original deleted tweet.

Text:

.@FoxNews is characteristically lying through their teeth. Please see Dominion Voting Systems v. Fox News Network. Fox never even communicated the malicious and discredited foundation of this article to the White House. Then they lie about whether we responded at all.

Now the headline is changed, but it’s all still garbage, and people are paying attention. And the White House is still pissed. Bates this morning:

Text:

Will @FoxNews retract their dishonest story, or will they release a statement condemning themselves for using the same flag last year? @CNN: “Fox Corporation’s own logo had been wrapped in the very same pride flag last year.”

Fox News has been gay- and trans-bashing this administration like a closet case scared somebody will find out its secret from the get-go, especially with its bizarro-world attacks on Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. They also have a weird kink for taking random stories about the Biden administration and digging for any weird anti-LGBTQ+ angle they can push to their bigoted viewers and readers.

New HIV council members? Did you know some of them worked for Planned Parenthood and other WOKE places? (Should they be hiring from far-right Christian supremacist hate groups instead?)

Biden helping homeless people? Did you know they were doing TRANSGENDER THINGS TO THEM?

You get the idea.

But this is really vile and disgusting and feels like a new low. Literally accusing the Biden administration of promoting pedophilia and “grooming,” and inciting anti-LGBTQ+ hatred in the process.

Tucker Carlson may be fired, but he casts a shadow.

Fox News Hosts Have Kink, It Is Secretary Mayor Pete Kicking Them In Dick

Secretary Mayor Pete Shoves Fox News A-Hole Into Locker, You Love To Watch!

[Fox News]

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Fox News Says Four Out Of Five Doctors Prefer Mellow Taste Of Wildfire Smoke

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Unless you have been under a rock, you know that some bad Canadian wildfires have sent smoke clouds to hover over American cities, mostly on the East Coast, and that New York in particular has broken all kinds of records for worst air quality ever. It’s nasty. It’s dangerous. The entire world looks orange. It looks like something out of Blade Runner. Major League Baseball postponed Yankees and Phillies games.

You know, unless none of that is true because you watch Fox News and Fox News says everything is fine.

If you watched Sean Hannity last night — and face it, some of y’all’s Nanas did — you heard that the skies over New York weren’t so bad, no big deal, nothing to worry about. Sean Hannity works out a lot and he’s fine, so why aren’t you fine, you snowflakes? Did you hear about how Sean Hannity works out a lot? He works out a lot. That’s why he has those muscles.

“I keep reading and hearing reports and people being interviewed, ‘I had a hard time breathing,’ and I’m like I’m walking in the same place you’re walking in and I don’t feel a thing! And I’m trying to understand, I work out regularly, so I think I’m relatively in tune with my body, I think if it was difficult, if I was having difficulty breathing, I would notice? But these are young people saying this! Are they all snowflakes?”

Sean Hannity loves to talk about working out. He is an MMA fighter guy! He’s very in tune with his muscle man body. And because of his working out skills and his muscles, he has the expertise to know if he’s having a hard time breathing. Why is everybody else such a snowflake?

Sean Hannity Knows What He’d Do If He Was Poland, He’d Be Like BAM! BAM! And Russia’d Be Like OH SH*T, YO!

In response, his halfwit guest Charly Arnolt just wanted to know if there was a correlation between the crackpipes she was reporting on the day before and the smoke in the air today. They agreed people just like to have things to complain about.

Hannity and Arnolt also spent time making fun of New Yorkers wearing masks to protect themselves from the smoke-filled air, because of course they did.

This is the flavor of Fox News right now. Protecting your lungs from orange hell fumes is woke, we guess. And admitting that forest fires are getting worse because of climate change is woke, although as Media Matters reports, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is fine with admitting that.

Not Fox News.

They made fun of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for bringing up the climate crisis. They made fun of people wearing masks. Judge Boxwine declared that “mask insanity” is back. Jesse Watters did his Little Man Syndrome dance about “our stupid neighbors up north,” made fun of Joe Biden, and got mad because the government is telling people to wear masks again.

Laura Ingraham brought on a cigarette and coal lobbyist named Steve Milloy, a climate change denierwho’s notorious for arguing on behalf of Philip Morris hat secondhand smoke isn’t so bad, to tell viewers there’s “no health risk” from this smoke.

This is the message Secondhand Smokey the Climate-Denying Bear wanted viewers to hear:

“Steve, no one’s denying it is unpleasant. My eyes are pretty itchy and watery, yesterday and a little bit today, and it might go on for a couple more days,” Ingraham said after introducing her guest. “But is this wholly out of the ordinary?”

“No. This happens anytime there’s a wildfire in the West. I mean, it’s unusual in the East. Look, the air is ugly, it’s unpleasant to breathe, and for a lot of people, they get anxiety over it. But the reality is there’s no health risk,” Milloy replied. “We have this kind of air in India and China all the time — no public health emergency.” (Both countries reportedlysee more than 1 million premature deaths a year from air pollution.)

“This doesn’t kill anybody, this doesn’t make anybody cough, this is not a health event,” he further explained.

“Particulate matter is very fine soot. It’s just carbon particles — they’re innocuous,” Milloy later added. “There’s nothing in them. They have no effect.”

If you want a two-minute demonstration of just how much Fox News hates its viewers and doesn’t care if they live or die, that’s a good clip to save.

So all that shit was weird. These people are so goddamned fucking weird.

And for REALLY REALLY weird, we close with Greg Kelly over on Newsmax, who seemed positively charmed by all the pretty orange smoke in his eyes. It’s a “beautiful, interesting aura,” he said. He of course allowed that “Our woke friends to the north in Canada, their forest fires got out of hand and, well, this is what we’re dealing with.” But it wasn’t so bad!

“I’ll tell you, it actually smells like wood smoke. It’s not an unpleasant odor, to be honest. It’s kind of weird when it seeps into the building, but outdoors, I can deal with it. Folks with respiratory issues though, that’s a real thing, a real complication.

“The White House is trying to exploit this, saying it’s all because of global warming and the normal talking points that go with that. I don’t think that’s the case. I think it’s a forest fire. This actually has happened a couple of times before in history. And for the time being, we can live with it. But it is pretty, it actually is pretty. It’s a beautiful, interesting aura the city has right now.”

American right-wing media is a pretty good indication that humanity is wrapping up as a species, don’t you think?

We were probably never meant to make it this far.

[Media Matters / Media Matters]

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Huzzay! Debt Ceiling Raised, Catastrophe Averted, Republicans And Joe Manchin :(

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Senate passed the debt limit bill last night, raising the ceiling on how much the government can borrow to pay for spending it’s already done, and thereby avoiding a default on the federal debt and the attendant economic disaster that would follow. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden, who will sign it today and is scheduled to address the nation this evening at 7 p.m. Eastern. We expect the speech will say something along the lines of, “Now look, for cryin’ out loud, we need to pay our bills, I mean it! None of this was necessary, and that’s why I’m invoking the 14th Amendment, I’m not joking, to make the Supreme Court rule on whether the debt limit law is even constitutional. What a load of malarkey, goodnight.”

Following the Senate vote last night, Biden actually said in a statement, “No one gets everything they want in a negotiation, but make no mistake: This bipartisan agreement is a big win for our economy and the American people,” which was far nicer.

The bill passed in the Senate on a 63 to 36 vote, enough to avoid a filibuster. Five members of the Democratic caucus — John Fetterman (Pennsylvania), Ed Markey (Massachusetts), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) voted nay. (They presumably would have voted for it if necessary.) The majority of Republicans, 31 of ’em, also voted against the bill albeit for very different reasons. Only 17 Republican senators voted for the bill. I’ll note that it was a rare thing for me to see both of Idaho’s senators, Mike Crapo and the other one, voting with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

Before the vote, the Senate debated and rejected 11 amendments to the bill, including Virginia Democrat Tim Kaine’s amendment to yeet Joe Manchin’s pet methane pipeline project out of the bill (which Manchin had somehow sneaked into the House version) and into the sun. That was the only amendment offered by a Democrat; the others were Republican attempts to demand deeper cuts to domestic spending programs than in the House bill, to increase military spending even more than the House bill did, to Git Tougher on the border, and the like.

During floor debate, several Republicans fretted that without unlimited Pentagon spending, the Russians, Chinese, or Martians might try something sneaky, or that the US would be unable to support Ukraine’s defense against Russian invasion (as far as we can tell, no Republicans rose to shout, “That’s the point!”). Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said that the defense hawks needn’t worry, and that the debt ceiling bill

does nothing to limit the Senate’s ability to appropriate emergency supplemental funds to ensure our military capabilities are sufficient to deter China, Russia and our other adversaries, and respond to ongoing and growing national security threats, including Russia’s evil ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.

Schumer added that the bill wouldn’t limit Congress’s ability to pass emergency funding for disaster relief or other needs, either, although he failed to note that Republicans would certainly whine about such expenditures unless their own states were affected.

All told, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the spending caps in the bill would reduce federal spending by $1.5 trillion over the next decade. Reuters rather cheekily adds, “That is below the $3 trillion in deficit reduction, mainly through new taxes, that Biden proposed,” and we say good on you, Reuters.

Also, in a coda that gives us at least a satisfied smirk, Fox News reports that in an interview, Joe Manchin (D?-Methane) complained that Republicans were getting too much credit for his personal boondoggle in the bill, the fast-tracking of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The debt limit agreement forces an end to all regulatory and court challenges to Manchin’s pet project, which he has pushed since it was proposed in 2014, and by golly, Joe Manchin isn’t about to have any Republicans take the focus away from him and the ginormous favor he’s doing for the fossil-fuel industries (of which he’s not only the president, he’s also a client).

What’s the problem here? They’re afraid of who gets credit for it?” Manchin told Fox News Digital. “You know, what we said before — success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Well, I guarantee you, I was an orphan there for a long time because I was the only one on the front taking all the spears and everything, taking point on this.”

“But I’m happy to — everyone is happy — to share the success. I think everybody knows how this happened,” the West Virginia senator added. “I mean, my God, for the whole year I’ve had the living crap beat out of me, back and forth and everything.”

Now there’s a man who loves sharing the spotlight, as long as nobody else is right in the center. Manchin also whined that it really pissed him off something fierce that Republicans might get any credit (which he’s happy to share, but not) since it was his hard work and stubborn assholishness that won over or exhausted the White House in negotiations, and where were Republicans the other times he tried to ram through a bunch of fossil fuel projects, huh?

“It’s bulls— because they knew there was not going to be a problem on the Democratic Senate side or the Democrat president and his staff because they were the ones who supported it and got us 40 votes in the Senate when we voted,” Manchin said.

“It was the Republicans that killed us when we voted last time — only got seven votes. And the Republicans have always supported permitting. The only reason they wouldn’t support that is because of the Republicans being upset about the [Inflation Reduction Act]. That’s it. So it got caught in the politics.”

Still, you have to be impressed by the bipartisan outreach, calling Joe Biden a “Democrat president” just like the Fox News analyst he’s destined to become following his Senate career.

[CNBC / The Hill / Reuters / Fox News]

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Has James Comer Just Been Begging FBI To Let Him Sniff Rudy’s Russian Spy Farts This Whole Time?

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Peruse if you will a few video clips.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is “not interested in whether the allegations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not.”

He’s not interested in whether the allegations are accurate or not.

But isn’t there a document at the FBI? Hasn’t Chuck Grassley seen it? Doesn’t it say Joe Biden did a buncha bads? “Let’s put it this way, there are accusations in it,” said Grassley on Fox News this morning.

YOU BETCHA.

But what about the FORMMMMMMM? Haven’t Grassley and House Oversight Committee Banjo Deliverance Moron Dumbfuck Pork-Brained Idiot James Comer been saying the FBI has a FORRMMMMMMMMMMM? And doesn’t FORRRRRRMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM say that Joe Biden did a stinky in a place with a people and a thing?

Comer has been presenting pretty hard evidence that Joe Biden did a stinky in a place with a people and a thing! (Jingle jangle dingle dangle banjo banjo STRUM!) And as soon as he finds some a-them whistleblower informant thingies he’s lost, he’s gonna blow this Biden scandal wide open! (Time for singin’, time for jokes! Gather ’round and join us, folks! Hee-hee! Hee-haw-haw! Hee-hee! Hee-haw-haw!)

James Comer Knows What Joe Biden Did! Party’s Over, Joe! Resign Before He Tells Everybody What You Did!

James Comer NAILS! Biden For Maybe Knowing About Possible Schemes His Family Coulda Done With Perhaps China?

Oh No, What Is Joe Biden Doing To James Comer’s Informants Who Are Definitely Real And Not Imaginary?

Well, Comer explained yesterday that he had a call with FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Comer said Wray told him there is a form, and the form says a thing, but Wray won’t give him the form, the form what says the thing. And NOOOOOW? Now Comer gonna have to do CONTEMPTS to Chris Wray! (Yeeeee HAW! It’s time for a hoedown!)

Wray offered to let him see the form, though.

We have been making fun of James Comer and Chuck Grassley, but mostly James Comer, for quite a while about his pathetic investigations. He’s just a devastatingly stupid man. And he cannot seem to keep himself from standing in front of TV cameras and telling us how stupid he is. We can’t even keep up with it. Every five seconds it seems like he’s on TV, admitting accidentally that his loser clown probes into Hunter Biden’s penis are simply meant to hurt Joe Biden. (Remember when Kevin McCarthy did thatvis à vis Hillary and Benghazi? Guess who’s stupider than Kevin McCarthy.)

Well listen.

We have a surprise, and it is that the document that James Comer is huffing paint about, the one he’s just been pretty sure the FBI has, is one of the paint-huffing documents Rudy Giuliani gave the FBI back in 2020. Remember that? Back when Rudy would go to Ukraine, get some documents from Russian spies, and then come back to America and pull them out of his underpants and try to get then-attorney general Bill Barr to smell them? Yeah those.

Bill Barr was so impressed with Rudy Giuliani’s “evidence” that he got a US attorney in western Pennsylvania named Scott Brady to handle the very important task of sifting through the “Ukraine evidence” on the Bidens provided by Giuliani. Literally everything Rudy had to share about the Bidens was a bath salts-grade conspiracy theory, and yes, some it came from the Kremlin, and it had all been roundly debunked.

In other words, Barr stuffed this shit in Pittsburgh because it was too stupid even for him to deal with.

That’s apparently where this document came from that Comer’s got his farm dog lipstick out about. Does this mean Rudy’s wet farts are James Comer’s “informant” and/or “whistleblower”? LMAO. Kinda sounds like it.

More from Zachary Cohen’s reporting:

In short, the document is probably almost certainly not true, could very well be Russian disinformation, but James Comer doesn’t care. He’s just trying to hurt the Bidens, as he’s accidentally admitted.

Rudy didn’t care if he was colluding with Russian spies before the 2020 election, but he was pretty sure his dirt on the Bidens was true anyway, because obviously. Rudy and GOP Senator Ron Johnson blew off defensive briefings from the FBI trying to tell them that there were Russian spies crawling up their pantlegs. They didn’t care.

Rudy And Ron Johnson Blew Off FBI Warnings About Russian Spies Because PFFFFFFFT DEEP STATE!

Rudy Giuliani: Americans Deserve To Hear My Easily Debunked Russian Spy Lies!

This is all the same goddamned fucking story, over and over and over and over again. it’s the same story Donald Trump was impeached for, when he tried to force Ukraine to help him steal the election. It’s the same story, ever since Russian spies started shoving this shit down Trump people’s pants back in 2018 or so. And that story connects to the story of Russia helping Trump “win” the 2016 election.

And now James Comer is back at the same trough, seeing what he can slurp out of it.

Here, piggy piggy.

Follow Evan Hurst on Twitter right here.

Just got to BlueSky!

I have profiles those other places but I think I forgot how to log on.

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Cool TN Lady Gonna Fill The Social Studies Standards With Awesome Stuff Like ‘Barack Obama Did The Tornados’

Post By Politics , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Education Wars just never go away, and in today’s dispatch from the front lines we’ll look at Tennessee, where a rightwing conspiracy theory fan and anti-Muslim bigot has just been appointed to the committee that sets standards for the state’s social studies curricula.

Yr Wonkette already introduced you last year to Laurie Cardoza-Moore, the nutball Tennessee bigot lady, when she was a member of the state textbook commission that was tasked with making sure only “age appropriate” materials were in them. You may recall that Tennessee was considering a measure that would have required state approval of every last item in the collections of school libraries; the bill’s sponsor charmingly said that any materials not approved by the commission should be burned. Ultimately, the Lege settled for a different plan that gave the textbook commission the power to hear appeals of book challenges brought by parents, so the state could ban library books even after a local school board had gone through a challenge process and approved them. Hooray for compromise.

We guess that Ms. Cardoza-Moore must have either done a bang-up job on that commission, or at the very least that she has powerful friends in Tennessee, because clearly it’s the latter thing. She was chosen for the Tennessee Standards Recommendation Committee by Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R), the slimebooger we came to know and loathe during the kangaroo court proceedings that expelled Democratic state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson in April. Sexton also appointed her to the textbook commission in 2021, which is quite the coincidence.

In her new job, Cardoza-Moore will have a say in setting state standards for social studies classes, although we suspect she’ll just photocopy the course offerings at Hillsdale College and say “Done!” As Judd Legum points out in his Popular Information newsletter, Cardoza-Moore doesn’t actually believe in public schools; she’s homeschooled her own five kids, and she’s simply horrified that US history texts teach historical facts that make America look bad, such as the fact that the Constitution provided a framework for oppression of African Americans. In a 2020 Fox News interview, she blamed Common Core, because why not? She claimed, falsely, that schools no longer teach about the founding of the US, but instead skip ahead to the Civil War and Reconstruction so they can harp on all the slavery, those monsters.

“This is an outrage,” Cardoza-Moore exclaimed. “It poses the greatest national security threat to our constitutional republic.”

So yeah, she’s a real peach. She somehow also took issue with a textbook’s factual statement that the Republican Party was originally founded to fight the spread of slavery beyond the states where it was already allowed, complaining that it was “disinformation” because Lincoln was anti-slavery, which, yeah, that’s what the book said. She was mostly upset the book didn’t say that Democrats were pro-slavery and KKK, and also what about that Klansman Robert Byrd, huh?

Cardoza-Moore initially made her name in Tennessee politics by fearmongering about Islam, back when that was the thing the Right was certain would destroy America, because Barack Obama was president. She led some of the most paranoid opposition to a mosque being built in Murfreesboro, claiming that fully 30 percent of Muslims are terrorists and that the mosque would be a base for “radical Islamic extremists” bent on destroying Nashville’s Christian music industry.

During her 2021 confirmation hearing for her seat on the textbook commission, she explained that bad school textbooks are directly responsible for wrecking America and of course the riots that burned all cities in America to the ground in 2020, several of them more than once.

While America slept, the hearts, minds and souls of our students were being influenced by disinformation. Tragically we have seen the result over the past few months; our streets have been filled with rioting destructive American young people who have not been taught the values entrusted to us by our nation’s founders … nor have they been taught our nation’s history — history which many seem intent to destroy

See, if only kids been made to memorize more facts about how George Washington was a Christian and God wrote the Constitution, there might be a few more cities still standing in our great land.

As Legum details, Cardoza-Moore doesn’t seem to have met a conspiracy theory she didn’t glom on to. She’s said that 9/11 was an “inside job,” that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election, and that January 6 was a false flag attack by “Antifa.” I’m just disappointed that she doesn’t appear to have said anything about chemtrails. But she came kind of close in 2011, as Legum explains, when she

claimed that former President Barack Obama was causing “horrific tornadoes” because he made a speech that discussed the plight of Palestinians. Asked if she still held these views, Cardoza-Moore did not respond.

She also runs her very own “Christian Zionist” nonprofit called “Proclaiming Justice to the Nations,” which recently ran a press release on her appointment to the social studies standards job. In it, we learn that she has previously helped the Florida Department of Education screen textbooks, “a successful review effort that ‘caught and corrected dozens of books to prevent political indoctrination of Florida’s children,’ a spokesperson for Governor Ron DeSantis noted.”

In the press release, Cardoza-Moore reflected on the important task ahead of her, because

“The materials we will be reviewing can only accomplish the mission of educating good American citizens if our Tennessee textbooks are devoid of left-aligned historic revisionism and the toxic material found in the antisemitic Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Social-Emotional Learning and Ethnic Studies.”

Impressive how she got all the rightwing shibboleths in there!

The statement also emphasized that Muslim groups opposed her appointment to the textbook commission, presumably because if she has the right enemies, that just shows what a great job she’ll do for Tennessee students.

We can hardly wait to see what happens to Tennessee social studies standards. Haha, we kid, of course, because we read the history standards that Donald Trump’s “1776 Commission” came up with, so we have a pretty good idea. Good luck, kids!

[Popular Information]

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2024 U.S. presidential campaign | Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launches bid to challenge Donald Trump

Post By World , , , , , , , , , , ,

Florida Guv. Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race on May 24, stepping into a crowded Republican primary contest that will test both his national appeal as an outspoken cultural conservative and the GOP’s willingness to move on from former President Donald Trump.

The 44-year-old Republican revealed his decision in a Federal Election Commission filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

It marks a new chapter in his extraordinary rise from little-known congressman to two-term Governor to a leading figure in the nation’s bitter fights over race, gender, abortion and other divisive issues. Mr. DeSantis is considered to be Mr. Trump’s strongest Republican rival even as the Governor faces questions about his readiness for the national stage.

Mr. DeSantis’ audio-only announcement was to be streamed on Twitter Spaces beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. He was following up with prime-time appearances on conservative programs, including Fox News and Mark Levin’s radio show.


Editorial | Second innings hopes: On Biden announcement and repeat U.S. presidential candidates

Mr. DeSantis’ entry into the Republican field has been rumoured for months and he is considered one of the party’s strongest candidates in the quest to retake the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden. The 80-year-old incumbent, Republicans say, has pushed the nation too far left while failing to address inflation, immigration and crime.

The Republican nominee will face Biden on the general election ballot in November 2024.

He joins a field that already includes: Mr. Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considered a likely presidential candidate but has not yet announced a bid.

Mr. DeSantis begins his campaign in the top tier of two alongside Mr. Trump based on early public polling, fundraising and campaign infrastructure.

The two GOP powerhouses have much in common.

Mr. DeSantis, who likely would not have become the Florida governor without Mr. Trump’s endorsement, has adopted the former President’s fiery personality, his populist policies and even some of his rhetoric and mannerisms.

Yet Mr. DeSantis has one thing Mr. Trump does not: a credible claim that he may be more electable in a general election than Mr. Trump, who faces multiple legal threats and presided over Republican losses in three consecutive national elections.

Mr. DeSantis, just six months ago, won his reelection in Florida by a stunning 19 percentage points— even as Republicans in many other states struggled. He also scored several major policy victories during the Republican-controlled Legislature’s spring session.

Aware of Mr. DeSantis’ draw, Mr. Trump has been almost singularly focused on undermining Mr. DeSantis’ political appeal for months. Mr. Trump and his team believe that Mr. DeSantis may be Trump’s only legitimate threat for the nomination.

Hours before the announcement, Mr. Trump argued in a social media post that “Ron DeSanctus” cannot win the general election or the GOP primary because of his previous votes in Congress on Social Security and Medicare.

“He was and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!” “RINO” stands for Republican In Name Only.

Mr. Trump’s kitchen-sink attacks and nicknames won’t be Mr. DeSantis’s only hurdle.

Mr. DeSantis may be a political heavyweight in Florida and a regular on Fox News, but allies acknowledge that most primary voters in other States don’t know him well.

A Florida native with family roots in the Midwest, Mr. DeSantis studied at Yale University, where he played baseball. He would go on to Harvard Law School and become a Navy Judge Advocate General officer, a position that took him to Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

He ran for Congress in 2012 and won an Orlando-area district, becoming a founding member of the far-right Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill.

Despite his lengthy resume, friends and foes alike note that Mr. DeSantis struggles to display the campaign-trail charisma and quick-on-your-feet thinking that often defines successful candidates at the national level. He has gone to great lengths to avoid unscripted public appearances and media scrutiny while governor, which is difficult, if not impossible, as a presidential contender.

Would-be supporters also worry that Mr. DeSantis has refused to invest in relationships with party leaders or fellow elected officials, raising questions about his ability to build the coalition he will ultimately need to beat Trump. By contrast, the more personable Mr. Trump has already scooped up an army of endorsements in key states, including Florida.

Beyond the primary, Mr. DeSantis’ greatest longer-term challenge may rest with the far-right policies he enacted as governor as an unapologetic leader in what he calls his war on “woke.”

The Florida Governor sent dozens of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast to draw attention to the influx of Latin American immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. He signed and then expanded the Parental Rights in Education bill— known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction or classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues in Florida public schools for all grades.

More recently, he signed a law banning abortions at six weeks, which is before most women realize they’re pregnant. And he single-handedly removed an elected prosecutor who vowed not to charge people under Florida’s new abortion restrictions or doctors who provide gender-affirming care.

Mr. DeSantis also signed a law this year allowing Florida residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. He pushed new measures that experts warn would weaken press freedoms. He also took control of a liberal arts college that he believed was indoctrinating students with leftist ideology.

The Governor’s highest-profile political fight, however, has come against the beloved Florida-based entertainment giant Disney, which publicly opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” law. In retaliation, Mr. DeSantis seized control of Disney World’s governing body and installed loyalists who are threatening to take over park planning, among other extraordinary measures.

Mr. DeSantis himself has threatened to build a State prison on park property.

The dispute has drawn condemnation from business leaders and his Republican rivals, who said the moves are at odds with small-government conservatism.

Mr. DeSantis delayed his announcement until Florida’s legislative session was over. But for much of the year, he has been courting primary voters in key States and using an allied super political action committee to build out a large political organization that is essentially a campaign in waiting and already claims at least $30 million in the bank.

More than any of his opponents, except perhaps Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis is positioned to hit the ground running thanks to the super PAC’s months-long efforts to install campaign infrastructure across Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which will host the first four contests on the GOP’s primary calendar early next year.

The super PAC also established more than 30 Students for Mr. DeSantis chapters across at least 18 States.

Mr. DeSantis gave no hint as to his plans during a meeting of the State clemency board in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning, where he granted several pardons to former prisoners charged mostly with drug-related crimes decades ago.

“You are what the country needs,” one man said after getting his pardon.

A smiling Mr. DeSantis chuckled and thanked him.

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2024 U.S. presidential campaign | Florida Governor Ron DeSantis launches bid to challenge Donald Trump

Post By World , , , , , , , ,

Florida Guv. Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 presidential race on May 24, stepping into a crowded Republican primary contest that will test both his national appeal as an outspoken cultural conservative and the GOP’s willingness to move on from former President Donald Trump.

The 44-year-old Republican revealed his decision in a Federal Election Commission filing before an online conversation with Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

It marks a new chapter in his extraordinary rise from little-known congressman to two-term Governor to a leading figure in the nation’s bitter fights over race, gender, abortion and other divisive issues. Mr. DeSantis is considered to be Mr. Trump’s strongest Republican rival even as the Governor faces questions about his readiness for the national stage.

Mr. DeSantis’ audio-only announcement was to be streamed on Twitter Spaces beginning at 6 p.m. EDT. He was following up with prime-time appearances on conservative programs, including Fox News and Mark Levin’s radio show.

Mr. DeSantis’ entry into the Republican field has been rumoured for months and he is considered one of the party’s strongest candidates in the quest to retake the White House from Democratic President Joe Biden. The 80-year-old incumbent, Republicans say, has pushed the nation too far left while failing to address inflation, immigration and crime.

The Republican nominee will face Biden on the general election ballot in November 2024.

He joins a field that already includes: Mr. Trump, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considered a likely presidential candidate but has not yet announced a bid.

Mr. DeSantis begins his campaign in the top tier of two alongside Mr. Trump based on early public polling, fundraising and campaign infrastructure.

The two GOP powerhouses have much in common.

Mr. DeSantis, who likely would not have become the Florida governor without Mr. Trump’s endorsement, has adopted the former President’s fiery personality, his populist policies and even some of his rhetoric and mannerisms.

Yet Mr. DeSantis has one thing Mr. Trump does not: a credible claim that he may be more electable in a general election than Mr. Trump, who faces multiple legal threats and presided over Republican losses in three consecutive national elections.

Mr. DeSantis, just six months ago, won his reelection in Florida by a stunning 19 percentage points— even as Republicans in many other states struggled. He also scored several major policy victories during the Republican-controlled Legislature’s spring session.

Aware of Mr. DeSantis’ draw, Mr. Trump has been almost singularly focused on undermining Mr. DeSantis’ political appeal for months. Mr. Trump and his team believe that Mr. DeSantis may be Trump’s only legitimate threat for the nomination.

Hours before the announcement, Mr. Trump argued in a social media post that “Ron DeSanctus” cannot win the general election or the GOP primary because of his previous votes in Congress on Social Security and Medicare.

“He was and is, a disciple of horrible RINO Paul Ryan, and others too many to mention,” Mr. Trump wrote. “Also, he desperately needs a personality transplant and, to the best of my knowledge, they are not medically available yet. A disloyal person!” “RINO” stands for Republican In Name Only.

Mr. Trump’s kitchen-sink attacks and nicknames won’t be Mr. DeSantis’s only hurdle.

Mr. DeSantis may be a political heavyweight in Florida and a regular on Fox News, but allies acknowledge that most primary voters in other States don’t know him well.

A Florida native with family roots in the Midwest, Mr. DeSantis studied at Yale University, where he played baseball. He would go on to Harvard Law School and become a Navy Judge Advocate General officer, a position that took him to Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

He ran for Congress in 2012 and won an Orlando-area district, becoming a founding member of the far-right Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill.

Despite his lengthy resume, friends and foes alike note that Mr. DeSantis struggles to display the campaign-trail charisma and quick-on-your-feet thinking that often defines successful candidates at the national level. He has gone to great lengths to avoid unscripted public appearances and media scrutiny while governor, which is difficult, if not impossible, as a presidential contender.

Would-be supporters also worry that Mr. DeSantis has refused to invest in relationships with party leaders or fellow elected officials, raising questions about his ability to build the coalition he will ultimately need to beat Trump. By contrast, the more personable Mr. Trump has already scooped up an army of endorsements in key states, including Florida.

Beyond the primary, Mr. DeSantis’ greatest longer-term challenge may rest with the far-right policies he enacted as governor as an unapologetic leader in what he calls his war on “woke.”

The Florida Governor sent dozens of immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast to draw attention to the influx of Latin American immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. He signed and then expanded the Parental Rights in Education bill— known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans instruction or classroom discussion of LGBTQ issues in Florida public schools for all grades.

More recently, he signed a law banning abortions at six weeks, which is before most women realize they’re pregnant. And he single-handedly removed an elected prosecutor who vowed not to charge people under Florida’s new abortion restrictions or doctors who provide gender-affirming care.

Mr. DeSantis also signed a law this year allowing Florida residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit. He pushed new measures that experts warn would weaken press freedoms. He also took control of a liberal arts college that he believed was indoctrinating students with leftist ideology.

The Governor’s highest-profile political fight, however, has come against the beloved Florida-based entertainment giant Disney, which publicly opposed his “Don’t Say Gay” law. In retaliation, Mr. DeSantis seized control of Disney World’s governing body and installed loyalists who are threatening to take over park planning, among other extraordinary measures.

Mr. DeSantis himself has threatened to build a State prison on park property.

The dispute has drawn condemnation from business leaders and his Republican rivals, who said the moves are at odds with small-government conservatism.

Mr. DeSantis delayed his announcement until Florida’s legislative session was over. But for much of the year, he has been courting primary voters in key States and using an allied super political action committee to build out a large political organization that is essentially a campaign in waiting and already claims at least $30 million in the bank.

More than any of his opponents, except perhaps Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis is positioned to hit the ground running thanks to the super PAC’s months-long efforts to install campaign infrastructure across Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, which will host the first four contests on the GOP’s primary calendar early next year.

The super PAC also established more than 30 Students for Mr. DeSantis chapters across at least 18 States.

Mr. DeSantis gave no hint as to his plans during a meeting of the State clemency board in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning, where he granted several pardons to former prisoners charged mostly with drug-related crimes decades ago.

“You are what the country needs,” one man said after getting his pardon.

A smiling Mr. DeSantis chuckled and thanked him.

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#presidential #campaign #Florida #Governor #Ron #DeSantis #launches #bid #challenge #Donald #Trump