Month: March 2021
Democrats leaned on false WaPo ‘find the fraud’ quote in impeachment hearings
Gretchen Whitmer Defends Cuomo – Whines About ‘Different Standard’ Compared To Trump
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) just spoke out to defend New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) after he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, whining that he was being held to a “different standard” than former President Donald Trump.
Whitmer Appears To Defend Cuomo
“Is there a different standard for different sides of the aisle? We just had a president who lasted all four years with numerous allegations against him, so far as rape,” Whitmer told Politico.
“No one on his own side of the aisle was making observations about whether or not he should stay in office,” she added. “So is there a different standard? I guess one could conclude that.”
Cuomo has been accused of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace by multiple female former aides. Whitmer’s latest comments on his situation appear to be her backtracking from prior comments that she made, as she previously called for Cuomo to be investigated.
Related: Gretchen Whitmer Turns On Cuomo – Demands ‘Thorough Investigation’ Into Sexual Misconduct Claims
Whitmer’s Previous Comments On Cuomo
“I think the allegations here are very serious and need to be taken seriously and I do think that an impartial, thorough, independent investigation is merited and appropriate,” Whitmer said earlier this month.
CNN host Jake Tapper then asked the Michigan governor if she thinks Cuomo “sexually harassed (former aide) Charlotte Bennett.”
“These are serious allegations and if accurate and true, and um, I think we have to take action,” she responded, noticeably not elaborating on what “action” she wants to see be taken.
Tapper went on to ask Whitmer about her “emotional reaction” to the allegation, at which time she said that she had a “gut-wrenching” response that she thought “a lot of women in America did.”
Related: AOC Turns On Cuomo – Says He ‘Must Resign’
Democrats Turn On Cuomo
Numerous Democrats have turned on Cuomo in the wake of this scandal and called on him to resign. As of this writing, Cuomo has stubbornly refused to resign, defiantly telling lawmakers that they will need to impeach him if they want him gone.
This seems like a real possibility, as New York lawmakers have already begun the initial part of the lengthy impeachment process against him.
This piece was written by James Samson on March 15, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Meghan McCain Confronts Schumer On His Hypocrisy About Biden’s Border Policies Compared To Trump’s
HR 1 Could Depend on Manchin and Sinema
Pelosi Refuses To Demand Cuomo Resign – Says He ‘Should Look Inside His Heart’ To See If He Can Lead Effectively
The post Gretchen Whitmer Defends Cuomo – Whines About ‘Different Standard’ Compared To Trump appeared first on The Political Insider.
An unlikely Trump turncoat shows the GOP way to resist his influence
Jaime Herrera Beutler is not one to make waves on Capitol Hill. But during Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, she almost created a tsunami.
After she publicly revealed damaging details about Trump’s phone call with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Herrera Beutler was nearly ensnared in the Senate trial herself — an episode that later landed her in the GOP leader's office.
There, during a previously unreported interaction, she got a chance to explain her thinking behind divulging the Trump-McCarthy exchange to reporters, constituents and local officials. And while Herrera Beutler wouldn’t discuss their private conversation, she did emphasize in a 30-minute interview she is no stranger to bucking her own party or having uncomfortable talks with leadership.
In Herrera Beutler’s view, a member of Congress' toughest challenge is "when your own team does something you don't like, and you have to step out and oppose them."

Herrera Beutler's stint in the national spotlight hasn't faded yet. After a 12-year House career spent steering clear of controversy, her high-profile moment of rebellion against a former president who's still molding the GOP in his image made her into a potential prototype for how to cross Trump and survive in the party. Though Republicans are already lining up to primary her, she may be more suited than ever for a suburban and rural district that became increasingly competitive under Trump.
Still, Herrera Beutler became one of 10 Republicans to vote for impeachment knowing that she might lose her seat over it.
“It would be easy to do this job if everything was hunky-dory and you had total control and it wasn't so messy,” Herrera Beutler said. “But if I'm going to do this ... I want it to count for something.”
And if that means “making sure that our party thrives and continues to defend those ideals that I think are enshrined in the Constitution,” she added, “then it's worth it. It's so worth it.”
It remains to be seen whether her impeachment vote and public disclosure of the Trump-McCarthy call — in which, as she relayed it, McCarthy unsuccessfully implored Trump to urge the violent mob to stand down — will hurt Herrera Beutler’s hyper-local brand back home. Herrera Beutler didn’t consider herself a so-called Never Trumper, and in fact voted for him in 2020 after writing in former Speaker Paul Ryan in 2016.
Her response to Jan. 6 may simply further reinforce the independent streak she has become known for on Capitol Hill. The 42-year-old mother of three came to Congress amid the 2010 Tea Party wave that put House Republicans back in power. But unlike some of the flame-throwers in her freshman class, her nature ran toward publicity deflection, and she came to occupy a moderate lane in the Republican conference.
While she preferred to operate behind the scenes, notching bipartisan victories on issues such as maternity care, Herrera Beutler faced pressure to take on a more prominent role in party messaging. Even when she was the only Latina member of the House GOP, though, she didn’t try to climb the leadership ladder.
“I knew there were times I was gonna have to kind of chart my own course,” she said.
That course often ran alongside Trump. Herrera Beutler hailed his tax law as one of the “single biggest benefits” for her district and voted against his first impeachment, when Democrats said Trump abused his power in a phone call to the president of Ukraine.
Yet Herrera Beutler was hardly an unquestioning Trump supporter. Over the course of her career, the congresswoman has voted with Trump just 80 percent of the time, which puts her at the bottom of the pack in the GOP. She never liked Trump’s abrasive style and grew increasingly comfortable speaking out against some of his most controversial policies, including separating migrant families at the border.
That’s why Herrera Beutler’s evolution from low-key to line-crosser on impeachment wasn’t exactly a surprise to many of her colleagues.
“She has a remarkable backbone, and she always tries to do the right thing,” said Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), who also voted to impeach. “And I respect the hell out of her.”
Herrera Beutler isn’t worried about whether her actions after the Capitol siege — culminating in a Democratic flirtation with forcing her to testify at Trump's trial before agreeing to submit her written statement into the record — will define her legacy.
But it certainly could define her next campaign: Trump has already vowed to exact revenge on each of the 10 Republicans who voted to remove him from office, while members of the Clark County Republican Party voted to censure her.
“The number one thing they made the [2020] campaign about, which is ironic to me ... was about my willingness to vote for Trump,” Herrera Beutler said. “Fast forward to today and the folks stepping up to run, they're like, ‘She's not Trump enough.’”
The blowback she must contend with isn't limited to Trump and voters in her district. Some GOP colleagues were incensed that she publicly relayed what McCarthy told her about his phone call with Trump during the Capitol siege, where the then-president allegedly sided with rioters.
Then, after a CNN report dredged up some of those details near the end of the Senate trial, Herrera Beutler called on anyone with more information about Trump’s state of mind on Jan. 6 to come forward. Conspiracy theorist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) promptly dubbed Herrera Beutler “the gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats.”
“It wasn't something that I had a choice over. … I definitely wasn't thinking, ‘Oh, here's a way to get my name in the news,’” Herrera Beutler said. “But, you know, sometimes the truth also hurts and you can't run from it."
Despite that tension, Herrera Beutler has earned praise from other corners of the GOP and is still considered a valuable asset to the party, which has made electing women and minorities a top priority. Not to mention, Washington’s “jungle” primary system sends the top two candidates to the general election regardless of party, making her path to reelection easier.
Some even think Herrera Beutler's handling of impeachment could help in her increasingly purple district nestled between Seattle and Portland.
Herrera Beutler "has a unique opportunity to continue to draw more women into the Republican Party,” said Olivia Perez-Cubas, a spokesperson for the Winning For Women Action Fund, which aims to boost female GOP candidates.
But she won't do that by taking the route of Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who has become a mainstay on cable news and launched an entire PAC dedicated to taking on the Trump wing of the party. “I am not going to camp here forever,” Herrera Beutler said of the anti-Trump lane.
What she is doing with the profile she gained during the impeachment trial is gauging how to make progress on "things that benefit this district and this nation," as she put it.
“Maybe part of my role is to help us return to who we are,” Herrera Beutler said. “Right now, when you talk with millennials and younger, I don't know that they want to join this club. Like, it doesn't seem like a fun party, right? There's no room for individual thought.”
Her prescription for how to steer the party away from its obsession with Trump and back toward its conservative roots doesn’t include calling for a shake-up in GOP leadership. Herrera Beutler said she stands by the entire Republican leadership team and would back McCarthy for speaker or minority leader in the next Congress. It’s OK for her leaders to have different views than her, she argued.
But she added: “That's a two-way street. I'm not going to embrace someone who is dividing the party. And they have to be OK with that, too.”
Andrew Cuomo’s favorability drops to lowest level amid harassment claims, probes
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s job-approval rating among New Yorkers has dropped to 43%, matching his lowest ever, as he faces an impeachment investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, according to a new poll released Monday.
The Siena College poll found that Mr. Cuomo's favorability is down from 56% in February, and ...
Joe Biden Finally Breaks Silence On Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Andrew Cuomo
On Sunday, President Joe Biden personally weighed in on the controversies surrounding embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, saying that he would wait until the end of the investigation to give his opinion on the proper response.
As the president returned to the White House after spending the weekend in his home state of Delaware, a reporter asked Biden if he believed Cuomo should resign.
Biden refuses to say if Cuomo should resign. “An investigation is underway”. pic.twitter.com/FC4ecpjFTI
—
Maggie VandenBerghe
(@FogCityMidge) March 15, 2021
Biden: ‘I Think The Investigation Is Underway And We Should See What It Brings Us’
Biden replied, “I think the investigation is underway and we should see what it brings us.”
For weeks, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have remained silent on scandals that have engulfed New York’s governor even as more women have come forward to accuse Cuomo of sexual harassment.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the president and vice president believe “every woman who has come forward deserves to have her voice heard” and should “be treated with respect.”
"The president believes that every woman who's come forward … deserves to have her voice heard, should be treated with respect and should be able to tell her story." – White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on allegations against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo pic.twitter.com/DGH4bat7RP
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 12, 2021
Prominent Democrats Calling For Cuomo’s Resignation
Yet, other high profile Democrats have begun to speak out, including asking Cuomo to step down.
On Friday, Democratic Sens. Kristen Gillibrand and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined many New York Congressional Democrats in calling for Cuomo’s resignation.
NEW: New York Senators Schumer and Gillibrand call for Cuomo to resign pic.twitter.com/fMykGBT225
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) March 12, 2021
Cuomo: ‘I’m Not Going To Resign’
But Cuomo says he’s not going anywhere.
“I’m not going to resign,” Cuomo said, adding, “I also want to be clear: There is still a question of the truth.”
“I did not do what has been alleged,” Cuomo insisted. “Period.”
I call on @NYGovCuomo to resign.
If he refuses, I call for impeachment. https://t.co/sgZHXKGwnD
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) February 17, 2021
RELATED: CNN Reporter Praises Biden Speech – ‘All Americans Have Been Missing’ A President That Has Empathy
Cuomo sexual harassment controversy comes in the wake of nursing home scandal
The sexual harassment accusations against Cuomo come in the wake of his office being accused of hiding the actual number of deaths in New York nursing homes due to the governor’s COVID-19 policies, which required seniors who tested positive for the virus to be allowed to enter these facilities filled with the elderly.
Now is the time to support and share the sources you trust.
The Political Insider ranks #16 on Feedspot’s “Top 70 Conservative Political Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2021.”
The post Joe Biden Finally Breaks Silence On Sexual Harassment Accusations Against Andrew Cuomo appeared first on The Political Insider.
Morning Digest: Ann Kirkpatrick, who served in the House three different times, announces retirement
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Matt Booker, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
● AZ-02: Democratic Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick announced Friday that she would not seek re-election in Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, a once swingy Tucson-area seat that has trended hard to the left over the last few years but could look quite different next year.
Kirkpatrick is the first House member from either party to announce her retirement this cycle; Texas Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson said in 2019 that she was running for "one last term" in 2020 but hasn’t confirmed those plans since her most recent victory in November. For now, Kirkpatrick is the first name on the 2022 Daily Kos Elections open seat tracker, a bookmark-worthy resource that we'll be updating throughout the cycle as new seats open up.
Kirkpatrick's departure will set off an open-seat race for the new district that emerges from her southern Arizona district turf, which, in its current form, started the decade as competitive but is now decidedly blue.
Campaign ActionThe 2nd District, which includes about 60% of Tucson's Pima County and all of conservative Cochise County to the east, backed Mitt Romney 50-48 in 2012 and hosted incredibly tight House races that year and in 2014. Things started to change in 2016, however, when Hillary Clinton carried the seat 50-44, but Republican Rep. Martha McSally, who had narrowly prevailed two years before, was nonetheless decisively re-elected that year. Kirkpatrick, though, convincingly flipped the 2nd in 2018 when McSally left to run for the Senate, and she had little trouble holding it in 2020 as Joe Biden was romping to a 55-44 victory here.
Redistricting is an especially unpredictable affair in Arizona, though, and no one knows what the map will look like next year, since the Grand Canyon State’s congressional and legislative maps are drawn by an independent commission. However, Republicans have done everything they can to sabotage the commission and have stacked the board that appoints its members with GOP partisans.
There’s even a danger the commission could vanish altogether: In 2016, the Supreme Court upheld the body's constitutionality by just a 5-4 margin, and since then, the court has moved to the right. If the commission is struck down, Arizona’s Republican-controlled state government would control the mapmaking process, and they’d be inclined to try to make the 2nd District red again.
But while the district's future shape is unknown, it didn't take long for Politico's Ally Mutnick to put together a list of potential Kirkpatrick successors. On the Democratic side, an unnamed source says that state Rep. Randy Friese is "likely" to run. Friese was a trauma surgeon who operated on then-Rep. Gabby Giffords and others after a gunman sought to assassinate the congresswoman in 2011. Friese got into politics soon after and narrowly unseated a GOP incumbent to win a Tucson-area state House seat in 2014, convincingly winning re-election ever since. Mutnick also mentions Pima County Supervisor Matt Heinz, who has unsuccessfully run here in the past, and state Reps. Andrés Cano and Daniel Hernández as possibilities.
For the Republicans, Mutnick says that state Sen. T.J. Shope "has been in contact with House Republicans about a 2022 bid." Shope's 8th Legislative District, as she notes, doesn't overlap at all with the 2nd Congressional District, though that could change under the new map. Mutnick also name-drops Corporation Commissioner Lea Márquez Peterson, who was the GOP’s 2018 nominee here and lost 55-45 to Kirkpatrick.
Kirkpatrick's departure ends a long career that, in a rarity, included three non-consecutive stints in Congress, including in two different congressional districts under the current map. Kirkpatrick, who grew up on the White Mountain Apache Nation reservation, got an early start in politics, campaigning for her uncle's successful bids for the state legislature, and she later sought a state House seat herself in 2004. Though Kirkpatrick is white, she ran in a northern Arizona seat that had long been represented by Native Americans and prevailed despite initial skepticism about her prospects, bolstered in part by her ability to speak Apache.
She soon sought a promotion in 2007 when Rep. Rick Renzi, a Republican who would be indicted for public corruption months later, announced that he would retire from the sprawling 1st Congressional District in the northern part of the state. The 1st had supported George W. Bush 54-46 in 2004, but Republicans struggled to recruit a strong candidate in what was rapidly turning into an ugly election for the party nationwide.
The eventual GOP nominee, Arizona Mining Association president Sydney Hay, had a hard-right record that made her unappealing to many swing voters. National Republicans abandoned Hayes to her fate in September and Kirkpatrick won 56-39 even as home state Sen. John McCain was carrying the 1st by a 54-44 margin.
The new congresswoman was in for a far more difficult campaign two years later, though, in the face of a political climate that was the reverse of the one she’d enjoyed two years earlier. Dentist Paul Gosar, a tea partier who had not yet become the nationally infamous figure he is now, thwarted a Hayes comeback in the 2010 primary and focused his general election campaign on healthcare and immigration. This time, outside groups on both sides spent heavily throughout the race, but Gosar unseated the incumbent 50-44.
Kirkpatrick's time away from Congress would be brief, though. Arizona’s redistricting commission drew up a new 1st District that, at 51-48 McCain, was considerably less conservative than the version Kirkpatrick had just lost. Gosar opted to run in the safely red 4th District while Kirkpatrick campaigned in the open 1st against former Republican state Sen. Jonathan Paton. The campaign proved to be very competitive, but Kirkpatrick, who again benefited from her long ties to American Indian communities in a seat that was more than 20% Native American, won 49-45 as Romney was taking the district 50-48.
Kirkpatrick would have to defend herself again in 2014 in the midst of what turned out to be another GOP wave year, but things worked out very differently for her than they had in 2010. National Republicans anticipated that state House Speaker Andy Tobin would be a formidable candidate, but it was Kirkpatrick who ran the stronger race. In part, she was once more buoyed by her ties to Native communities, enjoying a turnout boost thanks to a simultaneous race for president of the Navajo Nation (she even recorded radio ads in the Navajo language). Kirkpatrick ended up prevailing 53-47, making her one of just five Democrats left in a Romney seat after the dust settled.
Kirkpatrick's win under difficult conditions for her party made her a sought-out Senate candidate, and Democrats were delighted when she launched a campaign to unseat McCain in 2016. However, while Team Blue hoped that McCain could lose to a far-right primary foe, the race became less appealing after he won renomination against state Sen. Kelli Ward. Prominent outside organizations on both sides largely directed their resources towards other contests, and McCain beat Kirkpatrick 54-41 even though Donald Trumps’ 48-45 win was the weakest for a GOP presidential candidate in two decades.
At that point, Kirkpatrick's congressional career seemed to be over, especially since fellow Democrat Tom O'Halleran had held on to the 1st District, but she soon began talking about challenging Republican Rep. Martha McSally in the neighboring 2nd District. Kirkpatrick, who’d said in 2017 that she was moving to Tucson for family reasons, received public encouragement from former Rep. Ron Barber, who had lost to McSally in 2014, and launched a bid that July. She didn't get the chance to take on McSally, though, as the congresswoman decided to mount an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the Senate the next year.
Heading into 2018, both parties initially saw the 2nd as a major battleground, though in a break from the past, Kirkpatrick had to first get through a crowded primary. Her main opponent was the party's 2016 nominee, former state Rep. Matt Heinz, who tried to portray Kirkpatrick as an outsider and drew unfavorable headlines when he compared her to a meth addict.
Kirkpatrick won that ugly race 42-30, but she had an easier time in the general election. National Republicans had touted their eventual nominee, Lea Márquez Peterson, but she ended up winning her own primary with an unimpressive 34% of the vote against weak opposition. GOP groups initially aired ads against Kirkpatrick but triaged the race in mid-October as the political climate worsened for them, and Kirkpatrick won her new seat 55-45.
In 2020, for once, Kirkpatrick did not face any serious opposition either from her own party or the GOP. The congresswoman spent six weeks on a leave of absence from Congress that winter as she underwent treatment for alcoholism, but she made it clear she would continue to run for re-election. Kirkpatrick won what would be her final term by the same 55-45 margin she’d earned two years earlier.
Senate
● GA-Sen: While acknowledging skepticism among the political class that Donald Trump favorite Herschel Walker might actually run for Senate in Georgia, the Washington Examiner's David Drucker reports that the former NFL running back "appears interested" and has been "making calls into the state." That preposition is the key word there, though: While Walker was raised in the Peach State and was a star on the University of Georgia's football team, he's resided in Texas for many years.
Trump's fulsome support for Walker—he not-tweeted "Run Herschel, run!" in a Wednesday press release—is also causing another issue. One unnamed Republican operative says that other candidates are avoiding the race "because they heard about the Trump-Herschel combo," and Drucker even suggests that Trump's obsession with Walker played a role in former Sen. David Perdue's decision not to wage a comeback bid.
A Walker candidacy still remains highly speculative, however, particularly since the one thing no one has managed to acquire so far is any sort of statement about his interest directly from him.
Governors
● NY-Gov: In a flurry of coordinated announcements, almost every Democrat in New York's congressional delegation called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign on Friday morning, with the state's two senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, joining in later that evening. Cuomo has steadfastly insisted he will not leave office, even though the Democratic-run Assembly has begun an impeachment investigation into allegations of misconduct.
With Cuomo's political future in grave peril, more of his fellow Democrats are hinting that they might run for governor themselves, though it's not clear whether anyone actually wants to challenge Cuomo in a primary—he has yet to abandon his re-election bid—or if folks are just hoping for an open-seat race. Either way, CNBC's Brian Schwartz reports that state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Rep. Tom Suozzi have both been discussing bids with supporters and, through spokespeople, have not denied doing so. DiNapoli has unambiguously said that Cuomo should step down, while Suozzi stopped just short, saying Cuomo should resign "[i]f he cannot effectively govern."
On the GOP side, former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said in a new interview that he's thinking about a second bid for governor, though he added that it "likely would be several months" until he announces a decision. Astorino was the Republican nominee against Cuomo in 2014 and lost 54-40. He also tried to unseat Democratic state Sen. Pete Harckham last year but fell short by a 52-48 margin.
● VA-Gov: The GOP nomination for Virginia's gubernatorial election this year will be decided by just a few thousand party delegates, but two wealthy businessmen are nonetheless taking the blunderbuss approach to winning support. According to the Republican media tracking firm Medium Buying, private equity mogul Glenn Youngkin has spent just shy of $1 million to air TV and radio ads while "angel investor" Pete Snyder has forked out over three quarters of a mil. And what kind of ads are they running? The usual racist and xenophobic crap.
House
● OH-11: SEIU 1199, which represents 30,000 healthcare and public sector workers in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, has endorsed former state Sen. Nina Turner in the Democratic primary for the special election in Ohio's 11th Congressional District.
● SC-01, SC-07: Former Fox talking head Eric Bolling, a vocal Trump supporter who left the network in 2017 after his show was cancelled when sexual misconduct allegations were levied against him, is reportedly weighing a bid for Congress in South Carolina, though exactly where is unclear. Politico's Alex Isenstadt says that Bolling could run in the GOP primary in the 7th District against Rep. Tom Rice, who voted to impeach Trump in January, or in the 1st District against Rep. Nancy Mace, who opposed impeachment but offered a few remarks critical of Trump following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Bolling himself wouldn't confirm or deny the report, saying only, "South Carolina is conservative, and South Carolinians deserve conservative representation in D.C." Bolling only moved to South Carolina in 2018 and lives in Charleston, which might put him in Mace's district, or it might not—and definitely not in Rice's. Angry MAGA primary voters, however, are liable to care far more about loyalty to Trump than geographic ties.
● TX-06: Republican Brian Harrison, a former Trump HHS official, is the first candidate to go on the airwaves in the May special election for Texas' 6th Congressional District. The spot is devoted to scurrilous lies about Planned Parenthood. There's no word on the size of the buy.
Prosecutors
● Manhattan, NY District Attorney: Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced Friday that he would not seek a fourth term this year, a decision that New York’s political world has been expecting for some time. Vance had raised very little money over the last year, and eight different Democrats have been running for months to succeed him in this extremely blue borough.
Vance’s replacement will take over as head of one of the most prominent prosecutor's offices in America—one that’s frequently made headlines, both positive and negative. One such occasion (on the plus side of the ledger) came last month, when, after a lengthy legal battle that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Vance finally received Donald Trump's tax returns as part of his long-running investigation into Trump's financial dealings.
Vance’s 12-year tenure, while relatively long by many standards, turned out to be quite short compared to his predecessors’. When Vance won the race to succeed Robert Morgenthau in 2009, he was replacing a venerated prosecutor who took over the office all the way back in 1975 after beating appointed Republican incumbent Richard Kuh. The last person elected before Morgenthau was fellow Democrat Frank Hogan, who served from 1942 until he resigned in 1973, just months before his death.
Hogan's predecessor was the last Republican to win this post, Tom Dewey, who was elected to a single term in 1937. Dewey went on to become governor of New York and serve as the GOP's presidential nominee in both 1944 and 1948 (you may recall a certain newspaper headline about that).
The Democratic primary for this office will be held June 22, and the winner should have little trouble in November. Note, though, that while New York City voters backed a 2019 referendum to institute instant-runoff voting in primaries for many local offices, the measure does not apply to state-level posts like this one. Instead, it will just take a simple plurality to win the nod.
The field currently consists of:
- Civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi
- Former State Chief Deputy Attorney General Alvin Bragg
- Attorney and former prosecutor Liz Crotty
- Former prosecutor Diana Florence
- Former prosecutor Lucy Lang
- Public defender Eliza Orlins
- Assemblyman Dan Quart
- Former prosecutor Tali Farhadian Weinstein
There is no clear frontrunner at this point. Most of the contenders have pitched themselves as progressives who will bring much needed changes to the post. The exception is Crotty, who calls herself a centrist and is the one candidate who has not refused to take donations from police unions.
Grab Bag
● Demographics: The Texas Democratic Party released an an in-house analysis at the end of February looking at why Democrats fell short in the state in 2020, inspiring Daily Kos Elections contributing editor David Beard to take a deep dive into the report’s findings and what its implications might be for Democrats going forward.
The first part includes a summary of the report, a look at why field work isn't necessarily the answer to every problem in politics, and why the task of persuading voters is so difficult to talk about and analyze. The second part looks specifically at the shifts in the Rio Grande Valley and examines three potential explanations: a focus on unpopular social issues, a lack of investment and voter contact, and the fact of Donald Trump’s status as an incumbent seeking re-election.
You can sign up for Beard’s free weekly newsletter, The Roaring 2020s, for more analysis on this and other topics.
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Insurrection and politics are a flammable mix
Leigh Ann Caldwell/NBC:
House Democrats draw the line: No bipartisan cooperation with Republicans who questioned the election
After the Jan. 6 riot, some Democrats say they simply can't work with anyone who voted against certifying the election.Democratic lawmakers are each drawing their own lines, and some are finding that it means there are colleagues whom they once worked with to craft bipartisan legislation but with whom they now are unable, or unwilling, to collaborate.
Tim Miller/Bulwark:
Leadership Lessons From A Scandal-Ridden Governor
Dems show how the GOP should have treated Trump. Plus: Q-A-Mom?
A popular leader massively botches a crisis and covers up his mistakes. He is credibly accused by multiple women of inappropriate behavior. And yet the voters stick with him.
Sound familiar?
Well here is where the story changes a bit.
The party leaders rebuff their voters. They declare that no matter the level of popular support, someone who has committed such unacceptable acts has lost the ability to govern and should be removed from office.
What a concept!
I can understand if this series of events might be disorienting. After-all this is what a properly functioning democratic republic—one with properly functioning political parties—looks like. The GOP should take note.
Rebecca Traister/New York:
Andrew Cuomo’s governorship has been defined by cruelty that disguised chronic mismanagement. Why was that celebrated for so long?
Four years later, and one year after he began his star turn as “America’s Governor,” steering his state through COVID via daily, reassuringly matter-of-fact press briefings, Andrew Cuomo’s third term as governor of New York is suddenly deeply imperiled. In January, State Attorney General Letitia James released a report showing that his administration had underreported COVID deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. In February, liberal State Assembly member Ron Kim, who had criticized the governor in the wake of that report, spoke publicly about how Cuomo called him at home and threatened his career. Then the floodgates opened: His adversary Mayor Bill de Blasio called the bullying “classic Andrew Cuomo”; state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Yuh-Line Niou began openly suggesting that the governor’s hard-knuckled approach to politics is simply abusive. And since last month, when Cuomo’s former aide and candidate for Manhattan borough president, Lindsey Boylan, published an article on Medium accusing him of sexually harassing and kissing her against her will, five more women have come forward with tales of harassment, objectification, and inappropriate touching. As of publication, dozens of Democratic members of the State Assembly and Senate, and 11 Democratic members of Congress, have called for his resignation.
Joyce White Vance/WaPo:
Civil suits may pry out the information we need to hold Trump accountable
The former president faces at least 10 lawsuits, and procedural rules he can’t dodge
Civil cases differ from criminal cases in obvious ways: They seek money damages; no one goes to prison; and plaintiffs establish their claims by a preponderance of the evidence, not “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” But civil cases differ in another way, too. They have extensive pretrial discovery. Nothing in a criminal case — or impeachment, for that matter — compares to civil discovery, the process of scooping up evidence from depositions of parties and witnesses, requests for documents, and written questions answered under oath. Discovery is more regimented in criminal cases; it primarily involves the prosecution sharing with the defense the evidence it will use at trial, as well as exculpatory evidence. Civil discovery, in short, can lead to the mother lode.
Trump is a defendant in at least 10 civil cases, including his niece’s. A reckoning awaits — one that will require his personal participation in instances where he has no Fifth Amendment privilege to assert, and it is likely to be speedier and more direct than any criminal reckoning.
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
Online harassment of female journalists is real, and it’s increasingly hard to endure
Julia Carrie Wong remembers a time, years ago, when she felt that being a part of digital culture was fun.
“I used to really enjoy online spaces, having a personality and a voice,” recalled the 37-year-old technology reporter for the Guardian.
That changed radically several years ago after she wrote on Twitter in support of a journalist who had been targeted by a white-nationalist site.
The trolling began. Wong had once described herself, in a first-person story, as half-Chinese American and half-Jewish, so her online attackers blasted vicious slurs against both parts of her heritage. They circulated photos doctored to show horns on her head. They talked about where she lived.
It has only gotten worse since then. In 2019, Wong wrote a story about the man accused of killing 23 people at an El Paso Walmart after allegedly penning a missive posted to 8chan, an anonymous discussion board. Swarms of toxic online denizens of that site and others came after her, bombarding her with death and rape threats.
Salone Dattani/New Statesman:
Where will the next pandemic come from and how can we prevent it?
From factory farming to climate change, the connections between humanity and nature carry increasing risk.
Over a hundred thousand people have now died of Covid-19 in the UK alone; people around the world have been separated from their family and friends, and entire economies have come to a standstill. All of which raises an important question: how can the world prevent another pandemic?
The obvious place to start is at the beginning – before a pathogen has been seeded around the world and serious damage has been caused. If we can predict where the next pandemic will come from, perhaps we can stop it at its source.
John Harwood/CNN:
Biden's toughest test on economic inequality will be reinvigorating the labor movement
For the Democratic left, President Joe Biden's mammoth victory on Covid relief has inspired new hope of rebalancing America's increasingly unequal economy.
Nothing will test that hope more severely than Biden's goal of reinvigorating the labor movement as a way to do it.His aspiration to be "the most pro-union president you've ever seen" stems from his upbringing in post-World War II Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he witnessed the early stage of Rust Belt decline. Labor movement experts see early evidence of commitment in a recent video he recorded affirming the right to organize as Amazon workers in Alabama vote on whether to form a union.
"Arguably the most pro-union public statement by a president...in the entirety of American history," tweeted Erik Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island.
Andrew Cuomo Faces a Rapidly Growing Impeachment Threat

More Democrats pressure Andrew Cuomo to resign from office
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday said Gov. Andrew Cuomo "doesn't have any credibility" and will probably face impeachment over the burgeoning sexual harassment scandal that's prompted Democrats to abandon Mr. Cuomo in droves.
The wasn't much love between Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo to begin ...