Month: April 2024
Morning Digest: Trump targets one of last two pro-impeachment House Republicans
The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team.
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Leading Off
● WA-04: Donald Trump on Friday endorsed former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler's intra-party bid against Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is one of the two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 riot.
Trump's backing makes Sessler, who waged an unheralded campaign two years ago, Newhouse's only notable foe in what had been a quiet Aug. 6 top-two primary for Washington's conservative 4th District. However, it remains to be seen whether Democrats will once again consolidate behind a single candidate as they did in 2022, a development that could make it tougher for one of the two Republicans to reach the November general election.
Newhouse's own plans are also uncertain. Two months ago, the Seattle Times' Jim Brunner relayed that there had been "rampant speculation in state Republican circles that Newhouse may be the next to announce his retirement." The incumbent doesn't appear to have confirmed his 2024 plans yet, though he tweeted out an endorsement from the National Federation of Independent Business on Monday. The candidate filing deadline isn't until May 10, so it may still be a few weeks before the roster is set here.
Newhouse, who was elected to represent central Washington in 2014, attracted little attention during his first three terms in Congress, but all of that changed early in 2021 when he responded to the Jan. 6 attack riot by voting to impeach Trump.
"A vote against this impeachment is a vote to validate the unacceptable violence we witnessed in our nation's capital," he said in a statement. "It is also a vote to condone President Trump's inaction."
Sessler, who had raced in local NASCAR competitions that could be considered the equivalent of baseball's minor leagues (his name does not come up when searching the auto sports database Racing-Reference.info), was one of several hard-right politicians who reacted by launching campaigns against the congressman. Trump, however, was far more impressed by 2020 gubernatorial nominee Loren Culp, a former cop who refused to recognize his decisive loss to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee.
Trump's endorsement, though, didn't do much to help Culp augment his weak fundraising numbers hauls. Newhouse's allies at Defending Main Street, which is aligned with the GOP leadership, also spent over $1 million to boost the incumbent while the challenger received no major outside help. Sessler, who self-funded about $400,000 but raised little from donors, attracted comparatively little attention.
The 4th District had favored Trump 57-40 in 2020, but businessman Doug White benefited from being the only Democrat on the ballot in a top-two primary that featured seven Republicans. Newhouse and White took 25% apiece, while Culp and Sessler respectively grabbed 22% and 12%. That victory made Newhouse and California Rep. David Valadao the only two pro-impeachment Republicans to win renomination in a cycle that saw their eight fellow travelers either opt to retire or lose their own primaries.
Newhouse went on to easily beat White 66-31 in the general election (Valadao narrowly won in a more competitive seat), and he resumed his former role as a quiet conservative vote. The congressman even made it clear earlier this month that, despite saying three years ago that Trump "failed to fulfill his oath of office," he'd support his return to the White House. Trump repaid him Friday with a Truth Social missive branding Newhouse "a weak and pathetic RINO named Newhouse, who voted to, for no reason, Impeach me."
Trump, as he almost always does, also extolled his newest endorsee as someone who will "stand for the Rule of Law," though Sessler had a recent run-in with authorities. In September of 2022, a month after Sessler's first congressional campaign came to an end, a code enforcement officer in Benton County named Dale Wilson said that he'd investigated a complaint that someone was living on Sessler's property without the proper permits. Wilson said that Sessler confronted him and threatened to retrieve a gun and "deal with him" if Wilson returned.
County commissioners sent the once and future candidate a letter a few months later telling him that the actions described by Wilson constituted a felony, adding, "If you continue to threaten Benton County employees, the county will involve law enforcement to conduct a full investigation." There do not appear to have been any public developments since then.
Another Washington Republican who voted to impeach Trump, former Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, will also be on the Aug. 6 top-two primary ballot as she campaigns for the open post of state lands commissioner. Herrera Beutler's career representing the 3rd District came to an end two years ago when her Trump-backed foe, Joe Kent, edged her out in the first round, though Kent went on to suffer an upset general election loss to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.
Herrera Beutler faces one fellow Republican, Sue Kuehl Pederson, who badly lost the 2020 general election for lands commissioner, along with several Democrats. Kent, meanwhile, needs to get past Camas City Councilmember Leslie Lewallen to set up a rematch with Gluesenkamp Perez. Trump has not yet endorsed in either contest.
Election Night
● AL-02: The downballot primary season picks back up on Tuesday in Alabama's revamped 2nd District, which is the only place in America that's hosting a congressional nominating contest this week. Whoever wins the Democratic primary runoff will be favored in November to claim a constituency that, under the new map drawn by a federal court, is now a plurality Black district that would have backed Joe Biden 56-43.
Former Justice Department official Shomari Figures led state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels 43-22 in the first round of voting on March 5. While Figures' share of the vote was below the majority needed to win the Democratic nod outright, his performance established him as the frontrunner for the runoff.
Subsequent developments have only underscored the perception that Figures is the one to beat. State Rep. Napoleon Bracy, who took third place with 16%, went on to endorse him, and a late March Impact Research poll for an unknown client showed Figures beating Daniels 59-24.
Figures has once again gotten a major assist from Protect Progress, a super PAC with ties to the cryptocurrency industry that spent heavily on him ahead of the primary and has poured in another $900,000 for the runoff. The only pro-Daniels outside spending, by contrast, is about $50,000 from Progress for Alabama, a super PAC that Politico reports is run by Republican operative David Driscoll. Driscoll did not comment when Politico asked him about his interest in the race.
Each Democrat is arguing that the other has weak ties to this district, which now takes in Mobile, Montgomery, and the eastern Black Belt. Figures, who hails from a prominent political family in Mobile, has highlighted the fact that Daniels represents a legislative seat in Huntsville, far off in the northern part of the state.
Daniels, however, has emphasized his roots in the Montgomery area and pointed out that Figures only recently returned to Alabama after spending his career in and around the nation's capital.
The GOP runoff pits former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker and attorney Caroleene Dobson. Brewbaker led Dobson 40-26 on March 5.
● MI State House: Two special elections taking place in the Detroit suburbs on Tuesday would allow Democrats to regain the majority they earned in the state House in 2022 if they prevail in both. The contests are being held to succeed a pair of Democrats who resigned to become mayor of their respective communities, Kevin Coleman of Westland and Lori Stone of Warren.
The election to replace Coleman in the 25th District pits his cousin and fellow Democrat, Westland City Councilman Peter Herzberg, against Republican businessman Josh Powell. Joe Biden, according to data from Dave's Redistricting App, carried this seat 59-40 in 2020.
The race to succeed Stone, meanwhile, is between Democrat Mai Xiong, a member of the Macomb County Commission, and Republican Ronald Singer, a perennial candidate. Xiong, who would be the first Hmong American elected to the state House, should have little trouble Tuesday in a seat that favored the president 64-35
However, November's contest for a full term would likely be more difficult. That's because, under the replacement map that Michigan's independent redistricting commission recently passed pursuant to a court order, the redrawn 13th would have backed Biden just 50-48.
Senate
● KY-Sen & Louisville, KY Mayor: Kentucky's Republican-dominated legislature overrode vetoes by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of two election-related bills, one that will have an impact statewide and one more local.
The first bill prohibits the governor from appointing anyone to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat. This legislation replaces a 2021 law that required the governor to pick from a three-person list submitted by the party of the person who last held the Senate seat.
The new bill's sponsor, state House Majority Floor Leader Steven Rudy, denied that these new changes have anything to do with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's health. McConnell himself expressed support for the legislation even as he once again reiterated that he'd serve out the remainder of his term, which ends in early 2027.
The legislature, which only requires a simple majority in each chamber to override vetoes, also defied Beshear by approving a new law that, among other things, makes elections for Louisville's local government officially nonpartisan starting next year. All the candidates would face off on one ballot, and the top two vote-getters would advance to the general election.
Kentucky's largest city, which was consolidated with the rest of Jefferson County in 2003, favored Joe Biden 59-39 in 2020, so this switch could make it easier for Republicans to win races now that party affiliation won't be included on the ballot.
State Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, however, told Louisville Public Media last month he was supporting the legislation "out of respect for" Mayor Craig Greenberg, a Democrat whom he says was involved in discussions about the law. Greenberg, who is up for reelection in 2026, didn't answer when LPM asked him about the bill when it was first introduced earlier this year.
● MD-Sen: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has publicized an internal from Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group that shows her trailing Rep. David Trone by a small 43-40 spread ahead of the May 14 Democratic primary. It's the first data that Alsobrooks has shared since launching her campaign, and it's also the first internal poll of the race we've seen since Trone shared a Hickman Analytics internal two months ago that had him up 49-32.
In between, two March polls conducted by Braun Research for separate clients found Trone ahead by larger margins: An early March poll for the Washington Post and the University of Maryland gave the congressman a 34-27 edge, while its subsequent numbers for Goucher College and the Baltimore Banner showed him leading 42-33.
● NJ-Sen: Fairleigh Dickinson University shows Democratic Rep. Andy Kim posting 9-point leads over his two most notable Republican rivals, developer Curtis Bashaw and Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner. Were Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez to run as an independent, Kim would still defeat both Republicans by a 6-point margin:
- Kim (D): 48, Bashaw (R): 39
- Kim (D): 47, Glassner (R): 38
- Kim (D): 44, Bashaw (R): 38, Menendez (I-inc), 6
- Kim (D): 45, Glassner (R): 39, Menendez (I-inc): 7
Presidential numbers were not included in this release.
Governors
● WV-Gov: The Club for Growth, which supports Attorney General Patrick Morrisey in the May 14 Republican primary, has launched what appears to be the first TV ad from anyone attacking former Del. Moore Capito. Morrisey and his allies until now had focused on tearing down businessman Chris Miller, but this shift in strategy suggests they think Capito has now emerged as a threat as well.
The Club's ad declares that Capito, who is the son and namesake of Sen. Shelly Moore Capito, was "born with a silver spoon in his mouth," though the commercial doesn't reference the senator by name. Instead, it features several animations of Capito accompanied by spoons (maybe the ad maker is a fan of "The Room") as the narrator accuses him of repeatedly voting to raise taxes.
Capito, meanwhile, has launched a spot in which his narrator declares, "Moore Capito wrote the bill blocking puberty blockers for children while Morrisey got rich lobbying for the puberty blocker companies." Miller recently used a similar line of attack against Morrisey, who has run his own transphobic ad campaign.
Capito ends his ad by portraying Morrisey as an outsider, though strangely, he doesn't actually bring up the state the attorney general is originally from. "California's that way," Capito tells the New Jersey-reared attorney general, who ran for Congress in the Garden State back in 2000 only to finish last in a four-way primary.
House
● CA-16: Election officials in California's 16th Congressional District began the process for a machine recount of the March 5 top-two primary on Monday, but there are still big questions over just what will happen next in this wild race.
The Mercury News reports that Jonathan Padilla, who was a 2020 Biden delegate, paid the county a $12,000 deposit to start the recount. However, election administrators in Santa Clara County, which makes up over 80% of this Silicon Valley-based seat, tell KQED's Guy Marzorati that it will cost $16,800 per day for what they estimate will be a five-day undertaking.
Their counterparts in San Mateo, which forms the balance of the 16th District, say it will take another $4,550 per day to recount its ballots, though they told Marzorati they hadn't received a deposit as of Monday morning.
Marzorati writes that if Padilla misses a day's payment, the recount would end and the results certified by the state earlier this month would stand. A second voter, Dan Stegink, had sought a recount as well, but he withdrew his request and did not put down the requisite deposit.
Padilla's own plans have also changed somewhat, as he said he originally intended to seek a manual recount before opting for a machine recount. A manual recount is more likely to catch errors, but it's also far more expensive.
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, whom Padilla worked for in 2014, is guaranteed a spot in the November general election, while two other Democrats, Assemblyman Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, would both advance if they remain tied for second. Should a recount shift the results even a single vote for either runner-up, however, then Liccardo would face the second-place finisher in a one-on-one matchup.
● FL-15: Far-right social media troll Rogan O'Handley told the conservative site The Floridian over the weekend that he's decided not to challenge freshman Rep. Laurel Lee in the Aug. 20 Republican primary. The candidate filing deadline is April 26.
● IN-03: Winning for Women, a conservative super PAC largely funded by megadonor Ken Griffin, has launched a commercial accusing former Rep. Marlin Stutzman of being weak on border security. The spot does not mention former Judge Wendy Davis, whom Politico says the group supports in the May 7 Republican primary for this safely red seat in northeastern Indiana. According to reports filed with the FEC, WFW has spent $414,000 so far.
The offensive comes at a time when another super PAC, America Leads Action, is spending a similar amount to derail Stutzman's comeback campaign. The former congressman's allies at the far-right House Freedom Caucus have deployed $110,000 to return him to Congress after an eight-year absence, but most of that spending came last year.
● IN-05: State Rep. Chuck Goodrich's new commercial for next month's GOP primary utilizes material from a 2022 Politico article to argue that Rep. Victoria Spartz is an abusive boss. "Manic behavior," says the narrator, continuing, "She yells and curses, calling them morons and idiots." The spot goes on, "Victoria Spartz's behavior is embarrassing. We don't need politicians who lie and disrespect employees and lack the temperament for public service."
● IN-08: Former Rep. John Hostettler is getting some welcome outside support from Protect Freedom PAC, which is airing commercials starring Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. There is no word yet as to how much the PAC is spending to promote Hostettler, who has been on the receiving end of at least $1.75 million in attacks from a trio of super PACs. Hostettler's campaign, according to AdImpact data from Howey Politics, had not run any TV ads for the May 7 GOP primary as of April 5.
Paul uses the ad to tout Hostettler as someone who will resist "the politicians that are destroying America," a crowd that, according to footage shown on-screen, includes Paul's home state colleague, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Paul was elected to the upper chamber four years after Hostettler lost reelection in the 2006 blue wave, but his father, then-Texas Rep. Ron Paul, and Hostettler were part of a small group of House Republicans who opposed the Iraq War. The elder Paul went on to endorse Hostettler's failed 2010 Senate primary campaign.
● NH-02: State Sen. Becky Whitley announced Sunday that she would run to succeed retiring Rep. Annie Kuster, a fellow Democrat. Whitley says she's raised $100,000 for her bid in her first week since forming an exploratory committee earlier this month.
Whitley, who has worked as a disability rights lawyer, joined the legislature in 2020 after winning a safely blue Senate seat, but she first had to get past a familiar name in the primary. To earn the nomination, she scored a 41-33 victory over former Rep. Paul Hodes, who was seeking a comeback a decade after his failed bid for the U.S. Senate.
WMUR wrote earlier this month that Whitley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee, has since "been on the legislative front lines" in battles to safeguard abortion rights. She joins a September primary that includes former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who has Kuster's endorsement.
But two would-be Democratic candidates, state Reps. Angela Brennan and Rebecca McWilliams, each said this week they'd seek to replace Whitley in the state Senate rather than run for Congress.
Mayors & County Leaders
● Baltimore, MD Mayor: OpinionWorks shows incumbent Brandon Scott edging out former Mayor Sheila Dixon 38-35 in the May 14 Democratic primary, with former federal prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah far back at 10%. The survey was conducted for FOX45 News, the Baltimore Sun, and the University of Baltimore.
The only other independent poll we've seen of Baltimore's mayoral race this year was a Braun Research survey released last week on behalf of Goucher College and The Baltimore Banner, which gave Scott a larger 40-32 edge over Dixon. (Vignarajah was similarly situated at 11%.) It only takes a plurality to secure the Democratic nomination, which is tantamount to election in this dark blue city.
Ad Roundup
- MD-Sen: David Trone (D) (here and here)
- MT-Sen: Jon Tester (D-inc) - anti-Tim Sheehy (R); NRSC and Sheehy (R) - anti-Tester (D-inc)
- UT-Sen: Conservative Values for Utah - pro-John Curtis (R); Conservative Outsider PAC - pro-Brent Orrin Hatch (R)
- IN-Gov: Suzanne Crouch (R); Brad Chambers (R); American Advancement Inc. - anti-Mike Braun (R)
- IN-03: America Leads Action - anti-Marlin Stutzman (R)
- IN-08: America Leads Action - anti-John Hostettler (R) (here and here)
- WV-01: Carol Miller (R-inc)
House to send Mayorkas impeachment articles to Senate as clash over trial looms
DHS is monitoring 617,000 illegal immigrants with criminal records
Border Patrol busts illegal Mexican immigrant child sex offender they say carried guns in schools
Border Patrol agents in California this week busted an illegal immigrant child sex offender in California who officials said had previously carried guns in schools – the latest example of dangerous criminals entering the U.S. illegally.
The unnamed Mexican man’s arrest was announced by El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino.
Bovino said in a statement that the man was arrested in the U.S. illegally and had a "troubling history."
CBP REPORT REVEALS LOWEST MARCH FOR MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS; TEXAS CRACKDOWN CONTINUES
"He’s a convicted sex offender against children & has been known to carry firearms in public schools," he said.
He added that the community of Fresno in California "no longer has to worry about this threat."
CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
So far, there have been over 8,700 arrests of criminal noncitizens this fiscal year, compared to more than 15,000 in fiscal 2023 and more than 12,000 in fiscal 2022. Among them this year were 119 sex offenders. There has been continued concern among some law enforcement and lawmakers that the ongoing crisis at the southern border has led to more criminals attempting to enter, including sneaking past Border Patrol agents as "gotaways."
Meanwhile, there were 189,372 encounters at the border in March, slightly lower than the same time last year.
While it was the lowest March for encounters under the Biden administration, CBP records show the first six months of fiscal 2024 had 1,340,801 total encounters, exceeding the first six months of fiscal 2023, which set a record of 1,226,254 total encounters.
"CBP – in coordination with our partners across the Federal government as well as foreign partners – continues to take significant actions to disrupt criminal networks amidst unprecedented hemispheric migration activity," Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. "Encounters at our southern border are lower right now, but we remain prepared for changes, continually managing operations to respond to ever-shifting transnational criminal activities and migration patterns."
Meanwhile, Republicans have blamed the Biden administration for the crisis. This week, Republicans in the House will deliver articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate – U.S. Customs and Border Protection is a DHS law enforcement agency.
Fox News’ Stephany Price contributed to this report.
Senate prepares for Mayorkas impeachment articles while GOP braces for possible dismissal motion
The Senate is preparing to receive articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The looming question remains over what Democrats – who are in the majority in the upper chamber – will look to do after being sworn in as jurors on Wednesday.
Senate Republicans are turning up the pressure on their Democrat counterparts as they warn that Democrats will look to use a procedural maneuver to quickly table a trial against Mayorkas, effectively killing it.
Impeachment managers for the House are going to physically walk the House-passed articles over to the Senate and deliver them to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson's office told Fox News Digital.
BIDEN'S REPORT ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME OF $619,976 IN 2023
Following the article delivery, several Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will hold a press conference with some of the selected House impeachment managers.
The process was initially planned to begin with delivery on Wednesday last week, but GOP senators convinced Johnson to hold off on sending the articles in order to set a trial in motion earlier in the week and not ahead of a weekend when lawmakers would be eager to fly home.
The articles passed through the House in February, and as Republican senators waited for their arrival in the upper chamber, it's given them time to pressure their Democrat colleagues, particularly those up for reelection who face competitive races in November. With the border becoming a top issue in states across the country, several vulnerable Democrats find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to entertaining a full impeachment trial against Mayorkas.
BIDEN SILENT AFTER BEING PRESSED ABOUT IRANIAN STRIKE AGAINST ISRAEL: 'WHAT NOW?'
All eyes are on Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., ahead of any potential motions to table or otherwise dismiss the impeachment trial after senators are sworn in on Wednesday. Aside from Rosen, who said she would like to see the articles dismissed, the other Democrats didn't say what they would do if such a motion was under consideration.
It's also unclear whether Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, will go along with the largely united GOP's quest to see a full trial through. Most recently, Romney questioned whether there were any high crimes or misdemeanors committed, suggesting a policy difference didn't warrant impeachment.
These few senators will ultimately decide what happens upon swearing in, as the Senate's party split is narrow at 49-51.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? TRUMP'S FORMER OPPONENTS LINING UP NEW JOBS AFTER FAILED 2024 PRESIDENTIAL BIDS
In an effort to force senators to allow a full trial, a number of Senate Republicans are planning to potentially halt all legislative business in the upper chamber by objecting to regular proceedings. With many noting that unanimous consent is necessary to keep the Senate moving, Republicans are preparing to object to traditionally uncontested actions that are taken to expedite Senate action and avoid wasting time.
In a floor speech on Monday, Senate Democrat Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged dismissal of the impeachment articles.
"Instead of doing their job and working to find legislative solutions to complex, challenging problems, too many Republicans have decided that impeachment of a Cabinet official for actually doing his job is a better exercise of time," he said.
He pleaded with his fellow senators to "quickly dispose of these unjustifiable articles of impeachment."
Senate prepares for Mayorkas impeachment articles while GOP braces for possible dismissal motion
The Senate is preparing to receive articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The looming question remains over what Democrats – who are in the majority in the upper chamber – will look to do after being sworn in as jurors on Wednesday.
Senate Republicans are turning up the pressure on their Democrat counterparts as they warn that Democrats will look to use a procedural maneuver to quickly table a trial against Mayorkas, effectively killing it.
Impeachment managers for the House are going to physically walk the House-passed articles over to the Senate and deliver them to Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Speaker Mike Johnson's office told Fox News Digital.
BIDEN'S REPORT ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME OF $619,976 IN 2023
Following the article delivery, several Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, will hold a press conference with some of the selected House impeachment managers.
The process was initially planned to begin with delivery on Wednesday last week, but GOP senators convinced Johnson to hold off on sending the articles in order to set a trial in motion earlier in the week and not ahead of a weekend when lawmakers would be eager to fly home.
The articles passed through the House in February, and as Republican senators waited for their arrival in the upper chamber, it's given them time to pressure their Democrat colleagues, particularly those up for reelection who face competitive races in November. With the border becoming a top issue in states across the country, several vulnerable Democrats find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to entertaining a full impeachment trial against Mayorkas.
BIDEN SILENT AFTER BEING PRESSED ABOUT IRANIAN STRIKE AGAINST ISRAEL: 'WHAT NOW?'
All eyes are on Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jon Tester, D-Mont., ahead of any potential motions to table or otherwise dismiss the impeachment trial after senators are sworn in on Wednesday. Aside from Rosen, who said she would like to see the articles dismissed, the other Democrats didn't say what they would do if such a motion was under consideration.
It's also unclear whether Sens. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, will go along with the largely united GOP's quest to see a full trial through. Most recently, Romney questioned whether there were any high crimes or misdemeanors committed, suggesting a policy difference didn't warrant impeachment.
These few senators will ultimately decide what happens upon swearing in, as the Senate's party split is narrow at 49-51.
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? TRUMP'S FORMER OPPONENTS LINING UP NEW JOBS AFTER FAILED 2024 PRESIDENTIAL BIDS
In an effort to force senators to allow a full trial, a number of Senate Republicans are planning to potentially halt all legislative business in the upper chamber by objecting to regular proceedings. With many noting that unanimous consent is necessary to keep the Senate moving, Republicans are preparing to object to traditionally uncontested actions that are taken to expedite Senate action and avoid wasting time.
In a floor speech on Monday, Senate Democrat Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., urged dismissal of the impeachment articles.
"Instead of doing their job and working to find legislative solutions to complex, challenging problems, too many Republicans have decided that impeachment of a Cabinet official for actually doing his job is a better exercise of time," he said.
He pleaded with his fellow senators to "quickly dispose of these unjustifiable articles of impeachment."
White House rejects long-shot House Republican effort to get Biden to testify
Biden hosts Czech leader at White House to promote Ukraine aid amid holdup in Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden urged the U.S. House to immediately take up Senate-passed supplemental funding for Ukraine and Israel on Monday as he hosted Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala in the Oval Office.
The visit came as Biden aimed to highlight the efforts other nations are making to support Ukraine. It followed the Czech government’s announcement that it is sending 1 million rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, which Kyiv says is badly needed on the battlefield against Russia's invasion.
"As the Czech Republic remembers, Russia won’t stop at Ukraine," Biden said. He appealed to Congress to pass the supplemental funding so the U.S. could do its part to help Ukraine. "They have to do it now," Biden said.
Fiala praised the U.S. president for his leadership in support of Ukraine, adding, "We are also doing our best."
He said, "In 1968 I saw Russian tanks in the streets of my town, and I don’t want to see this again."
Biden called the Czech Republican a "great ally" in NATO, as Fiala said his country's decision to purchase F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. will "make our cooperation and security much stronger."
Fiala told reporters following his sit-down with Biden that he will meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to further discuss Ukraine aid.
"The support from U.S., the help from U.S. is very important," Fiala said.
Other democracies prosecute their ex-leaders. Trump should be no exception
Donald Trump believes he shouldn’t be held accountable for any crimes he’s been accused of before, during, or after his presidency. But on Monday, he found himself sitting in a courtroom as the first former U.S. president ever to go on trial for criminal charges. It’s the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accusing Trump of falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.
But while this might be unprecedented in U.S. history, other democracies, including France, South Korea, and Israel have charged, convicted, and even jailed former presidents and prime ministers. So why are we having such a hard time wrapping our head around this as a country?
RELATED STORY: Donald Trump's first criminal trial, Day One
Two previous U.S. presidents were in danger of facing criminal charges. President Warren G. Harding died in office in August 1923 and thus avoided being implicated in the notorious Teapot Dome oil lease bribery scandal and other corruption cases involving top administration officials.
Harding was also a notorious womanizer who had a child born out of wedlock. During the 1920 presidential campaign, the Republican National Committee gave Harding’s long-time mistress a monthly $2,000 stipend as hush money and paid $25,000 to send her on a cruise to Japan and China before the election.
President Richard Nixon came very close to being indicted for his role in the Watergate scandal that led to his resignation in August 1974. Nixon could have faced charges of bribery, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and obstruction of a criminal investigation, CNN reported. But Nixon’s successor and vice president, Gerald Ford, granted Nixon a full pardon, justifying his decision by claiming that long drawn-out litigation would arouse “ugly passions” and “our people would again be polarized in their opinions.”
As The Washington Post wrote last week:
In the half-century since Ford announced that pardon, other nations have charted a different path, prosecuting former presidents or prime minsters in France, Brazil, South Korea, Israel and elsewhere for numerous alleged crimes, among them embezzlement, corruption, election interference and bribery.
Some cases have illustrated the virtues of trying to hold the most powerful political officials accountable under the rule of law — as well as the formidable challenges that arise when prosecuting such figures. These former leaders can rely on ample bully pulpits to assail the process, maintain influence, shore up support and, in some cases, reclaim power.
Trump has certainly used his “bully” pulpit to assail the process by attacking judges, prosecutors, and witnesses and claiming that putting him on trial would be ruinous for the country. Here’s what Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the eve of the start of his trial in which prosecutors claim Trump paid hush money to Daniels to avoid a scandal that could have hurt his 2016 campaign:
Tomorrow morning I’ll be in Criminal Court, before a totally conflicted Judge, a Corrupt Prosecutor, a Legal System in CHAOS, a State being overrun by violent crime and corruption, and Crooked Joe Biden’s henchmen “Rigging the System” against his Political Opponent, ME! I will be fighting for myself but, much more importantly, I will be fighting for our Country. Election Interference like this has never happened in the USA before and, hopefully, will never happen again. We are now a Nation in serious Decline, a Failing Nation, but we will soon be a Great Nation Again. November 5th will be the most important day in the History of the United States. MAGA2024! SEE YOU TOMORROW.
Republicans seem to be in a certain state of denial regarding the upcoming trial. The Daily Beast conducted interviews with more than 20 Republican lawmakers over the past week. They made clear that they were supporting Trump even if he is a convicted felon.
“I don’t think that it matters to the American people, because they don’t believe it to be a fair trial,” North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, a strong MAGA acolyte, told the Daily Beast. “They believe that all these trials are completely unfair against him to drain him of his resources and it’s completely done the opposite thing, it’s rallied the American people behind him.”
And Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a more establishment Republican who recently became chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said he will continue to support Trump even if he’s convicted.
“First of all, I don't think that’s going to happen,” Cole said. “But second, I think some of these prosecutions are simply ridiculous on their face, and some of them are clearly harassment.”
Trump is also trying to rebrand himself as the victim of political persecution, even having the temerity to compare himself to former South African President Nelson Mandela. Trump somehow connected the anti-apartheid icon’s 27 years spent in prison to the possibility that he could be jailed by Judge Juan Merchan for violating a gag order in the hush money case.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela—It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Mandela’s grandson told the Times of London that Trump is “definitely delusional.”
Trump probably wishes that he could be like Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2020, Putin signed legislation that grants former presidents immunity from prosecution for any crimes committed during their lifetime. Trump has argued for presidential immunity repeatedly without success.
RELATED STORY: Make America like Russia: Trump wants same presidential immunity as Putin
Trump also shares much in common with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has used a similar strategy of “delay, deny, deflect” after he was charged in 2019 with fraud, breach of trust, and bribery while still in office. Netanyahu has also accused prosecutors of waging a “witch hunt” against him.
Netanyahu left office in 2021 after losing a vote of confidence in the parliament, but returned to power in December 2022 as the head of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history. Netanyahu and his allies then tried to overhaul the judicial system to give ruling parties more power to override Supreme Court decisions and select judges. Under the proposed legislation, courts would no longer have been allowed to bar politicians convicted of crimes from holding top government posts. These proposals triggered mass protests, and may have helped distract the government from warning signs about Hamas’s plans for a major attack.
But two other Israeli leaders ended up serving prison sentences. Former President Moshe Katsav was sentenced in 2011 after being convicted of rape and other sexual offenses against subordinates, and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was convicted in 2015 of fraud, breach of trust, and tax evasion.
In France, two former presidents were convicted of criminal charges. Jacques Chirac was convicted in 2011 of influence peddling, breach of trust, and embezzlement during his time as the mayor of Paris and received a two-year suspended jail sentence. In 2021, former President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted of corruption and influence peddling. An appeals court spared him from serving any time in prison. In a separate case, Sarkozy is to go on trial in 2025 on charges or corruption and illegal financing related to alleged Libyan funding of his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
South Korea remains one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies even though four ex-presidents have been jailed for corruption since the 1980s. Another ex-president committed suicide in 2009 while under investigation. Most recently, President Park Geun-hye was impeached in 2017, and convicted of abuse of power, bribery, and coercion the following year. She was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but received a presidential pardon in 2021 due to poor health.
South Koreans ousted a military dictatorship in the 1980s. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2023, South Korea is a top-tier democracy, ranked 22nd in the world—seven spots ahead of the United States, which was labeled a “flawed democracy.”
Trump has been charged with 88 criminal offenses in four criminal cases. But former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who died last year, also had quite the rap sheet. Berlusconi faced 35 criminal court cases since entering politics in 1994, but only one of his trials resulted in a conviction, Reuters reported. Berlusconi was convicted in 2013 for tax fraud, false accounting, and embezzlement related to his media empire, but what was originally a four-year prison sentence ended up being reduced to a year of community service.
And that brings us to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing populist known as the “Trump of the Tropics.” Bolsonaro cast doubts over the results of the 2022 presidential election which he narrowly lost to left-wing former leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, claiming without evidence that the country’s electronic voting machines were prone to fraud.
Then on Jan. 8, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed the Congress and other government buildings in the capital Brasilia in a scene mirroring that of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Security forces regained control and arrested several hundred people.
Bolsonaro has been charged by Brazilian authorities with forging a coronavirus vaccine card before he traveled to Florida in late 2022 after his election loss. Authorities are also investigating whether Bolsonaro was involved in plotting a coup to remove Lula from power.
But last July, judges on Brazil’s highest electoral court barred Bolsonaro from running for office again until 2030, making it unlikely that he will ever return to the presidency.
That’s something the U.S. Senate could have done by convicting Trump in his second impeachment trial. At the time, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Trump was “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but it was more appropriate for the former president to be held accountable by the criminal justice system and civil litigation. Maybe some GOP senators thought Trump would just go away, but he’s now their presumptive presidential nominee, and McConnell and most other GOP senators have bent the knee and endorsed Trump.
So now as Trump’s first trial begins, our country is rated a “flawed democracy.” Trump and his MAGA cultists have tried to undermine our justice system, the rule of law, and the public’s faith in democracy. The Washington Post reports:
“The notion that not just charges would be brought, but that a former president and possibly future president might be convicted and sent to jail is truly extraordinary,” said William Howell, an American politics professor at the University of Chicago. “How the system and how the American public will respond is going to be really revealing about the nature of our democratic commitments.”