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Lara Trump is quickly changing the Republican National Committee (RNC) to match her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump's style, and to show her own tough and bold approach. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, she spoke about her famous family, the upcoming election, and her plans for the party.

When Lara Trump and Chairman Michael Whatley took over in March, they promised big revamps. They merged the GOP with the Trump campaign into one operation.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said this was crucial to winning in November.

"By joining the two organisations together we are all working towards getting President Trump re-elected and increasing our majority in the House and the Senate," he said.

Lara Trump explained that both party and campaign staff are now working together on daily tasks. Critics worry this focus on the presidential race might neglect state and local elections, but Lara Trump dismissed these concerns, saying their goal is to support candidates at all levels.

“It would be very silly of me to assume that only having the presidency would achieve the goals of the Republican Party,” she said adding, “We need majorities in Congress, and that’s our goal.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nikki-haley-says-she-will-vote-for-donald-trump-724423">Also read | Nikki Haley says she will vote for Donald Trump</a>

<h2>Taking centre stage</h2>

Unlike some previous co-chairs, Lara Trump is very public, doing TV interviews and speaking on right-wing media to support her father-in-law's re-election.

This public role hasn't been without mistakes; for example, she wrongly said on Newsmax that the RNC had filed lawsuits in “81 states.” Lara Trump admitted there is a lot to learn but stressed her political experience from working on Trump’s past campaigns.

“You’d be hard pressed&nbsp;to find someone with as much political experience as I have in any campaign right now," she said.

Lara Trump has greatly improved the RNC’s fundraising. In April, the committee raised $76 million, after $65.6 million in March, compared to just $10.6 million in February. This increase is partly due to new donation limits after Trump became the presumptive nominee.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-deletes-unified-reich-post-after-backlash-biden-slams-former-prez-for-using-hitlers-language-724062">Also read | Trump deletes ‘unified Reich’ post after backlash; Biden slams former prez for using ‘Hitler’s language’</a>

By contrast, the Democratic National Committee raised $51 million in April, down from $72 million in March. The RNC’s fundraising is important because Trump is spending campaign funds on legal fees due to various criminal charges. His organisations have spent over $76.7 million on legal fees in the last two years.

Lara Trump wants Republicans to use mail-in voting, a method Trump and his supporters have criticised. She sees the benefit of making it easy for Trump supporters to vote by mail.
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<div class="flex">(With inputs from agencies)</div>

Lara Trump is quickly changing the Republican National Committee (RNC) to match her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump's style, and to show her own tough and bold approach.

Lara Trump is quickly changing the Republican National Committee (RNC) to match her father-in-law, former President Donald Trump's style, and to show her own tough and bold approach. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, she spoke about her famous family, the upcoming election, and her plans for the party. When Lara Trump and Chairman Michael Whatley took over in March, they promised big revamps. They merged the GOP with the Trump campaign into one operation. Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said this was crucial to winning in November. "By joining the two organisations together we are all working towards getting President Trump re-elected and increasing our majority in the House and the Senate," he said. Lara Trump explained that both party and campaign staff are now working together on daily tasks. Critics worry this focus on the presidential race might neglect state and local elections, but Lara Trump dismissed these concerns, saying their goal is to support candidates at all levels. “It would be very silly of me to assume that only having the presidency would achieve the goals of the Republican Party,” she said adding, “We need majorities in Congress, and that’s our goal.” Also read | Nikki Haley says she will vote for Donald Trump Taking centre stage Unlike some previous co-chairs, Lara Trump is very public, doing TV interviews and speaking on right-wing media to support her father-in-law's re-election. This public role hasn't been without mistakes; for example, she wrongly said on Newsmax that the RNC had filed lawsuits in “81 states.” Lara Trump admitted there is a lot to learn but stressed her political experience from working on Trump’s past campaigns. “You’d be hard pressed to find someone with as much political experience as I have in any campaign right now," she said. Lara Trump has greatly improved the RNC’s fundraising. In April, the committee raised $76 million, after $65.6 million in March, compared to just $10.6 million in February. This increase is partly due to new donation limits after Trump became the presumptive nominee. Also read | Trump deletes ‘unified Reich’ post after backlash; Biden slams former prez for using ‘Hitler’s language’ By contrast, the Democratic National Committee raised $51 million in April, down from $72 million in March. The RNC’s fundraising is important because Trump is spending campaign funds on legal fees due to various criminal charges. His organisations have spent over $76.7 million on legal fees in the last two years. Lara Trump wants Republicans to use mail-in voting, a method Trump and his supporters have criticised. She sees the benefit of making it easy for Trump supporters to vote by mail. (With inputs from agencies)

Lara Trump is redefining RNC in her father-in-law's image. Here's how she is revamping the party

The Republican National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, United States was briefly evacuated and put on lockdown, on Wednesday (May 22) morning after it received two vials of blood after former US President Donald Trump took over the national party apparatus in March. The Associated Press citing sources said that the vials had been addressed to the presumptive presidential nominee.&nbsp;

<h2>What we know about the incident</h2>

A report by the Guardian citing eyewitnesses said that several hazmat trucks that are equipped with tools to handle hazardous materials were seen outside the RNC building which is near the US Capitol at around 8:00 am (local time).&nbsp;

The RNC office received a package containing two vials of blood, a Chinese philosophy text, and two ice packs and they are currently investigating the source of the package, said the Capitol Police spokeswoman Brianna Burch.&nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-opposes-recognition-of-palestinian-state-israel-calls-it-reward-for-terror-724381">US opposes recognition of Palestinian state, Israel calls it ‘reward for terror’</a>

Earlier on Wednesday, Burch had incorrectly described the text that was in the package as a “Korean bible.” It was also unclear if anyone came into contact with the blood and to whom it belonged.

A report by AP citing an anonymous source said that the vials were addressed to Trump.&nbsp;

The substance was cleared, but the area around the building remained cordoned off which has led to road closures on nearby streets, reported NBC news.&nbsp;

Earlier on Wednesday, the police had issued a statement advising people to avoid the block where the RNC’s headquarters is located “due to law enforcement activity.”

The lockdown notice came when House Republicans were due to meet in the building for their weekly conference. It was not immediately clear if any lawmaker was present when the incident was reported.&nbsp;

<h2>‘Revolting attack’</h2>

RNC chair Michael Whatley decried the “revolting attack” while blaming the “fringe-left” and US President Joe Biden’s supporters and said that the party remains “unintimidated and undeterred” without offering any more details about the incident.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the incident “concerning” and said that the Biden administration condemns any political violence, threats, or intimidation.&nbsp;

“That has no place in any community or certainly in our political discourse, and it is important that we continue to repeat that,” she added.&nbsp;

Also Read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/three-indian-origin-students-killed-two-injured-in-road-accident-in-us-724357">Three Indian-origin students killed, two injured in road accident in US</a>

The incident comes months after Trump handpicked the leadership and completed his takeover of the national party as he closes in on a third GOP presidential nomination.

The former president appointed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the party’s national vice chair and ex-GOP chairman of North Carolina Whatley as RNC chairman.&nbsp;

The incident also took place less than two months from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is slated to become the party’s official 2024 nominee.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

The Republican National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, United States was briefly evacuated and put on lockdown, on Wednesday (May 22) morning after it received two vials of blood after former US President Donald Trump took over the national party apparatus in March.

The Republican National Committee’s headquarters in Washington, United States was briefly evacuated and put on lockdown, on Wednesday (May 22) morning after it received two vials of blood after former US President Donald Trump took over the national party apparatus in March. The Associated Press citing sources said that the vials had been addressed to the presumptive presidential nominee. What we know about the incident A report by the Guardian citing eyewitnesses said that several hazmat trucks that are equipped with tools to handle hazardous materials were seen outside the RNC building which is near the US Capitol at around 8:00 am (local time). The RNC office received a package containing two vials of blood, a Chinese philosophy text, and two ice packs and they are currently investigating the source of the package, said the Capitol Police spokeswoman Brianna Burch. Also Read | US opposes recognition of Palestinian state, Israel calls it ‘reward for terror’ Earlier on Wednesday, Burch had incorrectly described the text that was in the package as a “Korean bible.” It was also unclear if anyone came into contact with the blood and to whom it belonged. A report by AP citing an anonymous source said that the vials were addressed to Trump. The substance was cleared, but the area around the building remained cordoned off which has led to road closures on nearby streets, reported NBC news. Earlier on Wednesday, the police had issued a statement advising people to avoid the block where the RNC’s headquarters is located “due to law enforcement activity.” The lockdown notice came when House Republicans were due to meet in the building for their weekly conference. It was not immediately clear if any lawmaker was present when the incident was reported. ‘Revolting attack’ RNC chair Michael Whatley decried the “revolting attack” while blaming the “fringe-left” and US President Joe Biden’s supporters and said that the party remains “unintimidated and undeterred” without offering any more details about the incident. Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the incident “concerning” and said that the Biden administration condemns any political violence, threats, or intimidation. “That has no place in any community or certainly in our political discourse, and it is important that we continue to repeat that,” she added. Also Read | Three Indian-origin students killed, two injured in road accident in US The incident comes months after Trump handpicked the leadership and completed his takeover of the national party as he closes in on a third GOP presidential nomination. The former president appointed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the party’s national vice chair and ex-GOP chairman of North Carolina Whatley as RNC chairman. The incident also took place less than two months from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is slated to become the party’s official 2024 nominee. (With inputs from agencies)

Republican National Committee HQ evacuated after receiving vials of blood addressed to Trump

Former US President Donald Trump is making his presence felt in the Republican party after a string of victories in the party primaries. A longtime leader of the Republican party's National Committee has confirmed that she is leaving her post. Report suggest that people close to the former president are looking to take control of the organization. Ronna McDaniel who was elected as the chair in 2017 after running Trump's successful 2016 campaign in Michigan will step down on March 8th that is 3 days after super Tuesday. Watch to know more!

US: Ronna McDaniel to resign as Republican National Committee chair | US Elections 2024

Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire Republican primary edging closer to be the primary challenger to Joe Biden in the upcoming U.S. polls. Who will Trump pick as VP if he wins the nomination? Priyanka Sharma brings you a report.

Gravitas: Trump wins New Hampshire Republican Primary

Former President Donald Trump won the New Hampshire primary, dealing a blow to his only remaining major rival Nikki Haley and solidifying his status as the Republican party’s likely nominee.

Race to White House: New Hampshire showdown concludes, Trump wins with over 50%

In a Republican debate that featured insults mixed with policy, US presidential hopefuls Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley repeatedly accused each other of lying. On Wednesday, in the final&nbsp; debate before the nominating process known as primaries begins, the Florida governor and former US Ambassador to UN&nbsp;pitched their bids to Republicans, battling to emerge as the top alternative to favourite Donald Trump.

Days before the campaign's first votes are to be cast, the two battled to be the GOP's candidate in the 2024 US presidential election.

&nbsp;

<h2>Verbal ammunition flies thick and fast</h2>

Former US president Donald Trump was once again absent from the debate held in Iowa's capital, Des Moines. The two present at the debate, DeSantis and Haley, bombarded each other with a slew of insults, engaging in an increasingly rancorous battle.

At one point, DeSantis referred to Haley as a "mealy-mouthed politician".

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/creme-de-la-creme-these-are-the-worlds-most-powerful-passports-india-pakistan-rank-at-these-positions-678821">Crème de la crème: These are the world's most powerful passports; India, Pakistan rank at these positions</a>

"We don't need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to try to get your vote, then to get an office and to do her donors' bidding," he said.

"Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors' issues. I'm running to pursue your issues and your family's issues and to turn this country around," he added.

Haley also made it obvious that the gloves were off. Hitting out at rival DeSantis' runaway campaign, she, as per AFP, repeatedly directed the audience to a website dedicated to documenting his "lies".

"Every time he lies… don't turn this into a drinking game because you will be over-served by the end of the night," said Haley.

<h2>Donald Trump absent, Chris Christie drops out</h2>

Trump, the clear frontrunner, was noticeably absent from the head-to-head showdown just five days before Iowa's pivotal opening vote in the primary season.

Chris Christie, Trump's most vocal critic in the Republican Party, dropped out just hours earlier. With no other candidates qualifying, Haley and DeSantis were expected to take potshots at Trump. However, the two mainly were seen competing to be his closest runner-up.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-elections-trump-critic-chris-christie-drops-out-of-2024-white-house-race-678791">US elections: Trump critic Chris Christie drops out of 2024 presidential race</a>

Haley, for the most part, stuck to her campaign line that Trump was "the right president at the right time" but that "his way is not my way."

At one point, she did criticise Trump over his bogus claims of a stolen election in 2020.&nbsp;

DeSantis was tougher on Trump and briefly hit out at his 'poor record' on curbing public disorder, broken promises on border security and failure to attack Washington's corruption.

(With inputs from agencies)

In a Republican debate that featured insults mixed with policy, US presidential hopefuls Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley repeatedly accused each other of lying. On Wednesday, in the final debate before the nominating process known as primaries begins, the Florida governor and former US Ambassador to UN pitched their bids to Republicans, battling to emerge as the top alternative to favourite Donald Trump.

In a Republican debate that featured insults mixed with policy, US presidential hopefuls Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley repeatedly accused each other of lying. On Wednesday, in the final debate before the nominating process known as primaries begins, the Florida governor and former US Ambassador to UN pitched their bids to Republicans, battling to emerge as the top alternative to favourite Donald Trump. Days before the campaign's first votes are to be cast, the two battled to be the GOP's candidate in the 2024 US presidential election. Verbal ammunition flies thick and fast Former US president Donald Trump was once again absent from the debate held in Iowa's capital, Des Moines. The two present at the debate, DeSantis and Haley, bombarded each other with a slew of insults, engaging in an increasingly rancorous battle. At one point, DeSantis referred to Haley as a "mealy-mouthed politician". Also read | Crème de la crème: These are the world's most powerful passports; India, Pakistan rank at these positions "We don't need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear just to try to get your vote, then to get an office and to do her donors' bidding," he said. "Donald Trump is running to pursue his issues. Nikki Haley is running to pursue her donors' issues. I'm running to pursue your issues and your family's issues and to turn this country around," he added. Haley also made it obvious that the gloves were off. Hitting out at rival DeSantis' runaway campaign, she, as per AFP, repeatedly directed the audience to a website dedicated to documenting his "lies". "Every time he lies… don't turn this into a drinking game because you will be over-served by the end of the night," said Haley. Donald Trump absent, Chris Christie drops out Trump, the clear frontrunner, was noticeably absent from the head-to-head showdown just five days before Iowa's pivotal opening vote in the primary season. Chris Christie, Trump's most vocal critic in the Republican Party, dropped out just hours earlier. With no other candidates qualifying, Haley and DeSantis were expected to take potshots at Trump. However, the two mainly were seen competing to be his closest runner-up. Also read | US elections: Trump critic Chris Christie drops out of 2024 presidential race Haley, for the most part, stuck to her campaign line that Trump was "the right president at the right time" but that "his way is not my way." At one point, she did criticise Trump over his bogus claims of a stolen election in 2020. DeSantis was tougher on Trump and briefly hit out at his 'poor record' on curbing public disorder, broken promises on border security and failure to attack Washington's corruption. (With inputs from agencies)

'Mealy-mouth politician', 'lies' and more: DeSantis and Haley engage in verbal battle at pre-Iowa debate

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy were among five Republican presidential candidates who clashed on the debate stage Wednesday (Nov 8) over the Russia-Ukraine war, China, abortion and more. Donald Trump was absent once again.

During the debate, Ramaswamy and Haley had several fierce verbal exchanges.&nbsp;

Haley called him "scum" during an intense moment when Ramaswamy mentioned former United Nations Ambassador Haley's daughter while discussing banning the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.&nbsp;

Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/israel-hamas-war-desantis-claims-he-saved-americans-stuck-in-conflict-when-biden-left-them-stranded-656789">DeSantis claims he saved Americans stuck in conflict, when Biden 'left them stranded'</a>&nbsp;

He said that Haley's daughter had been using the app for a long time, saying, "So you might want to take care of your family first."

Ramaswamy said, "In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first."&nbsp;

Haley interjected, saying: "Leave my family out of your voice."&nbsp;

However, Ramaswamy kept on going as he said that the "next generation of Americans are using it, and that's actually the point".&nbsp;

In response, Haley whispered into the microphone: "You're just scum."&nbsp;

Then, Haley told him, "Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say."

Also read: <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/your-whole-world-stops-israel-vs-hamas-war-claims-42-members-of-family-youngest-victim-three-month-old-653823">Israel vs Hamas war claims 42 members of a family; youngest victim three-month-old</a>

Not just Haley, Ramaswamy also attacked Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and NBC News' Kristen Welker, who was one of the debate moderators.&nbsp;

He referenced the 2016 election and also "the corrupt media establishment". He also accused her of taking part in a "Trump Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years. Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation? Answer the question. Go."&nbsp;

WATCH: Qatar works for release of hostages in exchange for pause in fighting: Report

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<h2>Ramaswamy on foreign conflicts</h2>

Ramaswamy said that he will make his non-interventionist foreign policy a central plank of his pitch to voters in the coming weeks, he told the news agency Reuters.&nbsp;

He said during an interview that he would formally introduce a pledge on Tuesday in Miami, on the eve of the third Republican primary date.&nbsp;

He aims to lay out non-interventionist foreign policy principles.&nbsp;

In case he does win the Republican nomination and later the 2024 general election against Democratic President Joe Biden, he said that he would require all political appointees to sign the pledge.&nbsp;

The entrepreneur would eventually ask other elected officials to sign on as well.&nbsp;

Ramaswamy said: "This will be specifically I will call a litmus test for anybody who is an appointee in my administration and a clear signal to our own supporters."&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy were among five Republican presidential candidates who clashed on the debate stage Wednesday (Nov 8) over the Russia-Ukraine war, China, abortion and more.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy were among five Republican presidential candidates who clashed on the debate stage Wednesday (Nov 8) over the Russia-Ukraine war, China, abortion and more. Donald Trump was absent once again. During the debate, Ramaswamy and Haley had several fierce verbal exchanges. Haley called him "scum" during an intense moment when Ramaswamy mentioned former United Nations Ambassador Haley's daughter while discussing banning the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok. Also read: DeSantis claims he saved Americans stuck in conflict, when Biden 'left them stranded' He said that Haley's daughter had been using the app for a long time, saying, "So you might want to take care of your family first." Ramaswamy said, "In the last debate, she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first." Haley interjected, saying: "Leave my family out of your voice." However, Ramaswamy kept on going as he said that the "next generation of Americans are using it, and that's actually the point". In response, Haley whispered into the microphone: "You're just scum." Then, Haley told him, "Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say." Also read: Israel vs Hamas war claims 42 members of a family; youngest victim three-month-old Not just Haley, Ramaswamy also attacked Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and NBC News' Kristen Welker, who was one of the debate moderators. He referenced the 2016 election and also "the corrupt media establishment". He also accused her of taking part in a "Trump Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years. Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made-up disinformation? Answer the question. Go." WATCH: Qatar works for release of hostages in exchange for pause in fighting: Report × Ramaswamy on foreign conflicts Ramaswamy said that he will make his non-interventionist foreign policy a central plank of his pitch to voters in the coming weeks, he told the news agency Reuters. He said during an interview that he would formally introduce a pledge on Tuesday in Miami, on the eve of the third Republican primary date. He aims to lay out non-interventionist foreign policy principles. In case he does win the Republican nomination and later the 2024 general election against Democratic President Joe Biden, he said that he would require all political appointees to sign the pledge. The entrepreneur would eventually ask other elected officials to sign on as well. Ramaswamy said: "This will be specifically I will call a litmus test for anybody who is an appointee in my administration and a clear signal to our own supporters." (With inputs from agencies)

Republican presidential debate: Nikki Haley clashes with Vivek Ramaswamy, calls him 'scum'

The recently concluded debate of presidential hopefuls from Republican Party didn't have the participation of the GoP frontrunner — former US president Donald Trump. But it did not stop the other hopefuls from trying to project themselves as best as they could to win the Republican Party nomination for the US Presidential Elections in 2024.

The hopefuls sparred with each other over issues like immigration, economy, climate change and abortion during the debate.

Usually one would expect the debate to remain limited to issues facing the US, but the Republican hopefuls made reference to many other things and even people to score brownie points against their intra-party rivals.&nbsp;

It is important on such a stage to make no mistakes as all your supporters and opponents closely watch you.&nbsp;

When it came to Vivek Ramaswamy, the 37-year-old Indian-American who is in the Republican fray, allegations of him ripping a line from former US president Barack Obama's speech were made.

Did Vivek Ramaswamy steal Barack Obama's lines? Or didn't he? Let's take a look.

<h2>The allegation</h2>

After the Republican debate, many news outlets in US media have accused Ramaswamy of lifting Obama's words. Fox News has even gone to the length of saying that Ramaswamy 'stole' one of Obama's opening lines.&nbsp;

Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and one of presidential hopefuls immediately poked Ramaswamy right in the middle of the debate&nbsp;and said that the words were lifted from Obama's speech in the past.

"The last person who wanted these debates who stood in the middle of the stage who said 'what's a skinny guy with odd last name doing up here'&nbsp;was Barack Obama and I think we are dealing with same type of amateur," said Christie targetting Ramaswamy.

<h2>What did Ramaswamy say during the debate?</h2>

These were Ramaswamy's words.

"First let me just address the question that is on everybody's minds at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with funny last name and what the heck is doing in the middle of this debate stage," he said.

<h2>Which speech of Obama is being mentioned?</h2>

Ramaswamy's words are being likened to those from a speech Obama made in the year 2004, much before he was a president. Obama was speaking at Democratic National Convention. It was a keynote speech.

During his speech back then Obama had spoken about "...The hope of a skinny kid, with funny name, who believes America has a place for him too."&nbsp;

<h2>Did Ramaswamy steal Obama's words?</h2>

There does appear a thematic similarity in words in both speeches. Barack Obama was a near-unknown figure before his success in 2008 US presidential elections. At the time, it was almost taken for granted that Hillary Clinton would be the next US president.

Vivek Ramaswamy finds himself in a somewhat similar position right now. The Republican field is full of names who are regulars in news headlines or generally in internal political affairs of the US. Ramaswamy is a new entrant to the field of hopefuls and has a task of carving a public image of himself.

Words in both speeches are a joking reference to their relative lack of fame. A sort of self-deprecation. So thematically they do appear to serve the same purpose.

Has Ramaswamy 'stolen' or 'plagiarised' Obama's speech? A word-to-word comparison between the quotes above would suggest a 'no'. But when strategy is considered, it does seem Ramaswamy may have taken a cue from Obama's speech.

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&nbsp;

The recently concluded debate of presidential hopefuls from Republican Party didn't have the participation of the GoP frontrunner — former US president Donald Trump.

The recently concluded debate of presidential hopefuls from Republican Party didn't have the participation of the GoP frontrunner — former US president Donald Trump. But it did not stop the other hopefuls from trying to project themselves as best as they could to win the Republican Party nomination for the US Presidential Elections in 2024. The hopefuls sparred with each other over issues like immigration, economy, climate change and abortion during the debate. Usually one would expect the debate to remain limited to issues facing the US, but the Republican hopefuls made reference to many other things and even people to score brownie points against their intra-party rivals. It is important on such a stage to make no mistakes as all your supporters and opponents closely watch you. When it came to Vivek Ramaswamy, the 37-year-old Indian-American who is in the Republican fray, allegations of him ripping a line from former US president Barack Obama's speech were made. Did Vivek Ramaswamy steal Barack Obama's lines? Or didn't he? Let's take a look. The allegation After the Republican debate, many news outlets in US media have accused Ramaswamy of lifting Obama's words. Fox News has even gone to the length of saying that Ramaswamy 'stole' one of Obama's opening lines. Chris Christie, former governor of New Jersey and one of presidential hopefuls immediately poked Ramaswamy right in the middle of the debate and said that the words were lifted from Obama's speech in the past. "The last person who wanted these debates who stood in the middle of the stage who said 'what's a skinny guy with odd last name doing up here' was Barack Obama and I think we are dealing with same type of amateur," said Christie targetting Ramaswamy. What did Ramaswamy say during the debate? These were Ramaswamy's words. "First let me just address the question that is on everybody's minds at home tonight. Who the heck is this skinny guy with funny last name and what the heck is doing in the middle of this debate stage," he said. Which speech of Obama is being mentioned? Ramaswamy's words are being likened to those from a speech Obama made in the year 2004, much before he was a president. Obama was speaking at Democratic National Convention. It was a keynote speech. During his speech back then Obama had spoken about "...The hope of a skinny kid, with funny name, who believes America has a place for him too." Did Ramaswamy steal Obama's words? There does appear a thematic similarity in words in both speeches. Barack Obama was a near-unknown figure before his success in 2008 US presidential elections. At the time, it was almost taken for granted that Hillary Clinton would be the next US president. Vivek Ramaswamy finds himself in a somewhat similar position right now. The Republican field is full of names who are regulars in news headlines or generally in internal political affairs of the US. Ramaswamy is a new entrant to the field of hopefuls and has a task of carving a public image of himself. Words in both speeches are a joking reference to their relative lack of fame. A sort of self-deprecation. So thematically they do appear to serve the same purpose. Has Ramaswamy 'stolen' or 'plagiarised' Obama's speech? A word-to-word comparison between the quotes above would suggest a 'no'. But when strategy is considered, it does seem Ramaswamy may have taken a cue from Obama's speech. You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here. WATCH WION LIVE HERE ×

Fact Check: Did Vivek Ramaswamy 'steal' Barack Obama's words for Republican debate?

Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire former biotech executive, called the climate change a 'hoax' as GOP candidates on Thursday (August 24) argued over global warming and other climate-related issues during the first Republican debate.&nbsp;

Ramaswamy said, "I'm the only candidate on stage who isn't bought and paid for, so I can say this. Climate change is a hoax… The reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change."&nbsp;

Climate change is evident in the form of long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels.&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/first-republican-presidential-debate-live-8-gop-biggies-take-centrestae-while-trump-skips-primary-628516">First Republican presidential debate LIVE</a>

Amid urgent calls for global support to tackle the issues, the crowd booed Ramaswamy's remarks. He was slammed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who compared the entrepreneur to ChatGPT and former President Obama.&nbsp;

The 38-year-old Ramaswamy was born in Ohio to immigrant parents from southern India. He was raised in the Hindu faith by his parents but went to a Catholic high school. He earned a biology degree at Harvard University before moving on to Yale Law School.&nbsp;

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/trump-tucker-carlson-interview-former-prez-justifies-skipping-republican-debate-628548">Trump-Tucker Carlson interview: Former prez justifies skipping Republican debate</a>&nbsp;

He has been criticised also as he has become a fierce conservative. In his 2021 bestseller 'Woke, Inc.', Ramaswamy decries&nbsp;decisions by some big companies to base business strategy around social justice and climate change concerns and lambasts&nbsp;"wokeism" as an insidious influence on hard work, capitalism, religious faith and patriotism.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina Gov. called for China and India to cut emissions. She said, "First of all, we do care about clean air, clean water. We want to see that taken care of, but there is a right way to do it. The right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions."&nbsp;

Watch this report&nbsp;

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<h2>Ramaswamy on the Ukraine war&nbsp;</h2>

Ramaswamy also said that if he was elected president, he would not support an increase in aid to Ukraine and called US support of Ukraine "disastrous". He added that the resources that are going to Kyiv should instead be used domestically.&nbsp;

He said: "This is disastrous we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion across our southern border here in the United States of America."&nbsp;

His comments were slammed by Haley, who said she would support more funding for the war in Ukraine. "He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don't do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends," she said.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

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You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us <a href="https://www.wionews.com/content-contribution-registration-form">here</a>.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire former biotech executive, called the climate change a 'hoax' as GOP candidates on Thursday (August 24) argued over global warming and other climate-related issues during the first Republican debate.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire former biotech executive, called the climate change a 'hoax' as GOP candidates on Thursday (August 24) argued over global warming and other climate-related issues during the first Republican debate. Ramaswamy said, "I'm the only candidate on stage who isn't bought and paid for, so I can say this. Climate change is a hoax… The reality is more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change." Climate change is evident in the form of long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns, mainly caused by human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels. First Republican presidential debate LIVE Amid urgent calls for global support to tackle the issues, the crowd booed Ramaswamy's remarks. He was slammed by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who compared the entrepreneur to ChatGPT and former President Obama. The 38-year-old Ramaswamy was born in Ohio to immigrant parents from southern India. He was raised in the Hindu faith by his parents but went to a Catholic high school. He earned a biology degree at Harvard University before moving on to Yale Law School. Also read: Trump-Tucker Carlson interview: Former prez justifies skipping Republican debate He has been criticised also as he has become a fierce conservative. In his 2021 bestseller 'Woke, Inc.', Ramaswamy decries decisions by some big companies to base business strategy around social justice and climate change concerns and lambasts "wokeism" as an insidious influence on hard work, capitalism, religious faith and patriotism. Meanwhile, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina Gov. called for China and India to cut emissions. She said, "First of all, we do care about clean air, clean water. We want to see that taken care of, but there is a right way to do it. The right way is first of all, yes, is climate change real? Yes, it is. But if you want to go and really change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions." Watch this report × Ramaswamy on the Ukraine war Ramaswamy also said that if he was elected president, he would not support an increase in aid to Ukraine and called US support of Ukraine "disastrous". He added that the resources that are going to Kyiv should instead be used domestically. He said: "This is disastrous we are protecting against an invasion across somebody else's border when we should use those same military resources to prevent the invasion across our southern border here in the United States of America." His comments were slammed by Haley, who said she would support more funding for the war in Ukraine. "He wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don't do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends," she said. (With inputs from agencies) WATCH WION LIVE HERE You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.

GOP debate: Vivek Ramaswamy calls climate change a 'hoax', aid to Ukraine 'disastrous'

The race for US Presidency is definitely on with a string of Republicans already officially in the race with many ready to jump in to challenge the Democrats' incumbent Joe Biden. The latest to join the race on the Republican side is former New Jersey governor Chris Christie. He formally launched his bid for the Republican Presidential candidate in 2024 on June 6th. He was also an advisor during Trump's 2016 campaign.

Challenges to Donald Trump growing

Next year's election will mark America's 60th presidential contest. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, is seeking re-election and launched his campaign last month but, the question which still remains unanswered is who will be the Republican candidate to challenge the incumbent President for the White House race? As the race for the White House heats up former Vice President Mike Pence has also filed his paperwork.

How's the grand old party presidential race playing out?

Former vice president Mike Pence plans to announce his 2024 White House candidacy next week, challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, US media reported on Wednesday.

Race for grand old party's nomination: Who will challenge Biden for White House?

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has officially entered the Presidential race as the party's first African-American Presidential candidate. 57-year-old Scott has been travelling across states to gain momentum in the race for the hot seat. He brings an interesting mix to the table for the grand old party as he is the only black Republican in the US Senate.

South Carolina's Republican Senator Tim Scott announces his Presidential bid

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially enter the 2024 US Presidential race. As per a Reuters report quoting a source close to DeSantis, he is expected to make the announcement next week on May 25th. DeSantis will pose as Donald Trump's biggest rival for the Republican ticket.

Ron DeSantis to be Trump's biggest rival for the Republican ticket

Former United States President Donald Trump has already announced his intention to run for the office once again in 2024 but he may not have an easy road ahead of him. According to the latest poll conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University, Trump is not the favourite to win the Republican Party primaries and is trailing Florida governor Ron DeSantis by almost 23 points.

DeSantis has gained a lot of political mileage after a resounding victory in the midterm elections but the situation was not similar for Trump. With the Republicans losing the Senate race once again, a lot of blame was put on the former President as several of his endorsements failed to win.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-slams-chinas-lac-intrusion-attempt-lauds-indias-de-escalation-efforts-542868">US slams China's LAC intrusion attempt, lauds India's de-escalation efforts</a>

“Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told USA Today.

DeSantis was a candidate endorsed by Trump while he was president and thanks to his handling of several natural disasters and conservative stance, the Florida governor has created his own base.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/three-explosions-reported-from-kyiv-following-drone-attack-says-mayor-542893">Ukraine has shot down 13 kamikaze drones following Kyiv attack, says Zelensky</a>

“In July, 60% of Republicans wanted Trump to run again. In October, that number had dipped to 56%. Now it has fallen to 47%, an almost-even split with the 45% who don’t want him to run for a third time,” Paleologos explained when asked about Trump’s current dip in popularity.

The situation does not get any better when Trump was pitted against the incumbent President Joe Biden. The poll shows that Biden holds a 47%-40% lead over his predecessor. However, when it comes to DeSantis, Biden loses ground considerably with the Republican leading 47%-43%.

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Former United States President Donald Trump has already announced his intention to run for the office once again in 2024 but he may not have an easy road ahead of him.

Former United States President Donald Trump has already announced his intention to run for the office once again in 2024 but he may not have an easy road ahead of him. According to the latest poll conducted by USA Today and Suffolk University, Trump is not the favourite to win the Republican Party primaries and is trailing Florida governor Ron DeSantis by almost 23 points. DeSantis has gained a lot of political mileage after a resounding victory in the midterm elections but the situation was not similar for Trump. With the Republicans losing the Senate race once again, a lot of blame was put on the former President as several of his endorsements failed to win. Also read | US slams China's LAC intrusion attempt, lauds India's de-escalation efforts “Republicans and conservative independents increasingly want Trumpism without Trump,” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, told USA Today. DeSantis was a candidate endorsed by Trump while he was president and thanks to his handling of several natural disasters and conservative stance, the Florida governor has created his own base. Also read | Ukraine has shot down 13 kamikaze drones following Kyiv attack, says Zelensky “In July, 60% of Republicans wanted Trump to run again. In October, that number had dipped to 56%. Now it has fallen to 47%, an almost-even split with the 45% who don’t want him to run for a third time,” Paleologos explained when asked about Trump’s current dip in popularity. The situation does not get any better when Trump was pitted against the incumbent President Joe Biden. The poll shows that Biden holds a 47%-40% lead over his predecessor. However, when it comes to DeSantis, Biden loses ground considerably with the Republican leading 47%-43%.

Donald Trump not the favourite to win Republican primaries, trails Ron DeSantis by 23 points

The Republican Party went into the United States midterm elections full of confidence and with the dream of controlling both branches of the Congress – House and Senate. With President Joe Biden’s popularity going down and the country going through one of the worst inflations in recent times, it looked like an easy path for them, but the results have been less than satisfactory till now.

When it comes to the House, the Republicans were projected to cross the necessary 218-mark, but the lead was far less than predicted. Without a comfortable cushion of at least 10 seats, the Republicans will once again be forced to look for bipartisan support on certain key promises.

Also read |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-midterm-elections-2022-live-updates-voting-begins-with-experts-favouring-republicans-532269" hreflang="en">US midterms LIVE | No Republican 'red wave', Democrats do better than expected</a>

The story is even worse when it comes to the Senate race as the battle seemed for a close finish with Democratic candidate John Fetterman pulling off a sensational win over Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. The loss means that once again, the Senate can be headed for a 50-50 split and that means that the Vice President Kamala Harris will continue to tilt the scale in the Democrats’ favour.

The defeat of Dr Oz was also a signal of a bigger concern – the performance of the candidates handpicked by former President Donald Trump. The scene was not much different in Arizona where Kari Lake, a vocal denier of the 2020 election results, seemed all set to lose to Katie Hobbs in the governor’s race while in Michigan, Trump-endorsed Republican Tudor Dixon faced a similar fate.

WATCH |&nbsp;Donald Trump eyes 2024 Presidential race, touts large voter turnout

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The other Trump-backed candidate in Arizona – Blake Masters – was also trailing in the Senate race and while JD Vance successfully defeated Democratic candidate Tim Ryan in a much-publicised senate race in Ohio, the numbers are not looking good to justify Trump’s endorsements.

With the Republican Party not performing as well as the projections, a dark shadow has currently settled over Trump’s expected presidential campaign announcement. With a slim lead in the House and a potential loss in the Senate, the Republican Party has placed themselves in a tricky situation and with Trump’s endorsements under the scanner, the Democrats will have a lot to take from the polls.

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The Republican Party went into the United States midterm elections full of confidence and with the dream of controlling both branches of the Congress – House and Senate.

The Republican Party went into the United States midterm elections full of confidence and with the dream of controlling both branches of the Congress – House and Senate. With President Joe Biden’s popularity going down and the country going through one of the worst inflations in recent times, it looked like an easy path for them, but the results have been less than satisfactory till now. When it comes to the House, the Republicans were projected to cross the necessary 218-mark, but the lead was far less than predicted. Without a comfortable cushion of at least 10 seats, the Republicans will once again be forced to look for bipartisan support on certain key promises. Also read | US midterms LIVE | No Republican 'red wave', Democrats do better than expected The story is even worse when it comes to the Senate race as the battle seemed for a close finish with Democratic candidate John Fetterman pulling off a sensational win over Dr Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania. The loss means that once again, the Senate can be headed for a 50-50 split and that means that the Vice President Kamala Harris will continue to tilt the scale in the Democrats’ favour. The defeat of Dr Oz was also a signal of a bigger concern – the performance of the candidates handpicked by former President Donald Trump. The scene was not much different in Arizona where Kari Lake, a vocal denier of the 2020 election results, seemed all set to lose to Katie Hobbs in the governor’s race while in Michigan, Trump-endorsed Republican Tudor Dixon faced a similar fate. WATCH | Donald Trump eyes 2024 Presidential race, touts large voter turnout The other Trump-backed candidate in Arizona – Blake Masters – was also trailing in the Senate race and while JD Vance successfully defeated Democratic candidate Tim Ryan in a much-publicised senate race in Ohio, the numbers are not looking good to justify Trump’s endorsements. With the Republican Party not performing as well as the projections, a dark shadow has currently settled over Trump’s expected presidential campaign announcement. With a slim lead in the House and a potential loss in the Senate, the Republican Party has placed themselves in a tricky situation and with Trump’s endorsements under the scanner, the Democrats will have a lot to take from the polls.

US midterm elections: Tight race makes life uncomfortable for Republicans and Donald Trump

Donald Trump-endorsed candidates won big in Tuesday's primaries, the latest proof that the former president remains the most influential and still holds his immense grip over the Republican Party.

Former President Donald Trump-backed candidates prevail in US midterm primaries

Signing a second executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the Supreme Court and Republicans are clueless about the power of American women.

Asking the federal health department to consider allowing Medicaid funds to be used to help facilitate out-of-state travel for abortions, the order is meant to address the recent Supreme Court decision to ban abortion across the US.

As Republicans in US states push a wave of laws restricting abortion the executive order is expected to have a limited impact.

Ahead of November's midterm elections, voters rejected a measure that would have made it easier to restrict abortion rights in red-state Kansas.

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Since the Supreme Court's decision to rescind the 1973 Roe v. Wade verdict that made abortion legal throughout the country, this was the first major test of voter sentiment.

With an unusually heavy turnout, a bid to remove abortion rights from the Kansas constitution was rejected by 59 to 41 percent despite being a Republican stronghold.

Calling on voters to keep up the momentum into the midterms, Planned Parenthood said the Kansas vote "a clear warning to anti-abortion politicians."

Democrats are forecast to lose at least the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate in the November midterms due to soaring inflation and widespread pessimism in the messy aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The midterms are shaping up as rough for Democrats, who even now only control the legislature by a few votes, as it will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Biden's first term.

(With inputs from agencies)

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&nbsp;

Signing a second executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the Supreme Court and Republicans are clueless about the power of American women.

Signing a second executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the Supreme Court and Republicans are clueless about the power of American women. Asking the federal health department to consider allowing Medicaid funds to be used to help facilitate out-of-state travel for abortions, the order is meant to address the recent Supreme Court decision to ban abortion across the US. As Republicans in US states push a wave of laws restricting abortion the executive order is expected to have a limited impact. Ahead of November's midterm elections, voters rejected a measure that would have made it easier to restrict abortion rights in red-state Kansas. × Since the Supreme Court's decision to rescind the 1973 Roe v. Wade verdict that made abortion legal throughout the country, this was the first major test of voter sentiment. With an unusually heavy turnout, a bid to remove abortion rights from the Kansas constitution was rejected by 59 to 41 percent despite being a Republican stronghold. Calling on voters to keep up the momentum into the midterms, Planned Parenthood said the Kansas vote "a clear warning to anti-abortion politicians." Democrats are forecast to lose at least the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate in the November midterms due to soaring inflation and widespread pessimism in the messy aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. The midterms are shaping up as rough for Democrats, who even now only control the legislature by a few votes, as it will decide which party controls Congress for the last two years of Biden's first term. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here: ×

'Republicans are clueless about the power of American women': Biden signs second abortion order

From story so far what's next: Key takeaways from the US Capitol riot hearings

Republican Missouri US Senate candidate Eric Greitens' campaign video, which shows him brandishing a shotgun and declaring that he’s hunting 'Republicans In Name Only' (RINOs), has been removed by Facebook.

In the ad, an armed tactical team breaks through the front door and throws what appear to be flash-bang grenades inside, following which Greitens enters an empty living room through the smoke.

Using a term popularised by former President Donald Trump and his allies to deride moderate or establishment Republicans, Greitens says “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice.”

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“Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” he added.

“For violating our policies prohibiting violence and incitement” Facebook removed the video after which Twitter mirrored its statement and said Greitens’ post violated its rules about abusive behavior.

Following fatal mass shootings and threats to government officials, the video comes at a time of renewed focus on violence in politics.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/in-us-gun-violence-kills-more-children-than-vehicular-accidents-causes-109-deaths-everyday-473362">Also read |&nbsp;In US, gun violence kills more children than vehicular accidents, causes 109 deaths everyday</a>

After threatening to kill the justice, a man carrying a gun was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house two weeks ago.

Confessing that he recently received a letter at his home threatening “to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child” Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, said this has got to stop.

To fill the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Senator Roy Blunt, Greitens, a former Missouri governor who resigned in disgrace in 2018, is among the Republican candidates in a highly competitive August 2 primary.

(With inputs from agencies)

Watch WION's live TV here:

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Republican Missouri US Senate candidate Eric Greitens' campaign video, which shows him brandishing a shotgun and declaring that he’s hunting 'Republicans In Name Only' (RINOs), has been removed by Facebook.

Republican Missouri US Senate candidate Eric Greitens' campaign video, which shows him brandishing a shotgun and declaring that he’s hunting 'Republicans In Name Only' (RINOs), has been removed by Facebook. In the ad, an armed tactical team breaks through the front door and throws what appear to be flash-bang grenades inside, following which Greitens enters an empty living room through the smoke. Using a term popularised by former President Donald Trump and his allies to deride moderate or establishment Republicans, Greitens says “The RINO feeds on corruption and is marked by the stripes of cowardice.” × “Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country,” he added. “For violating our policies prohibiting violence and incitement” Facebook removed the video after which Twitter mirrored its statement and said Greitens’ post violated its rules about abusive behavior. Following fatal mass shootings and threats to government officials, the video comes at a time of renewed focus on violence in politics. Also read | In US, gun violence kills more children than vehicular accidents, causes 109 deaths everyday After threatening to kill the justice, a man carrying a gun was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house two weeks ago. Confessing that he recently received a letter at his home threatening “to execute me, as well as my wife and 5-month-old child” Republican Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, said this has got to stop. To fill the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Senator Roy Blunt, Greitens, a former Missouri governor who resigned in disgrace in 2018, is among the Republican candidates in a highly competitive August 2 primary. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here:

GOP Senate candidate’s ‘RINO hunting’ video removed by Facebook

Former US President Donald Trump has said that the 'evil' massacre in Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman, is a reason to arm, not to disarm.

While addressing the National Rifle Association's (NRA) annual meeting, Trump said decent Americans should be allowed the firearms they need to defend themselves.

"The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens," he said during an event in Houston attended by almost two thousand people.

Suggesting ways to improve security in schools, Trump said that every school should have a single point of entry, strong fencing, and metal detectors, adding there should also be a police official or an armed guard at all times in every school.

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According to Trump, "This is not a matter of money. This is a matter of will. If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we can do this."

"The various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing," he said.

Calling for a "drastic" change to the United States' approach to mental health issues and a security overhaul at schools, Trump said that efforts at gun control were "grotesque."&nbsp;

"As the age-old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Trump added.

Also see |&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/photos/americas-love-for-military-style-weapons-and-ar-15-the-assault-rifle-used-in-texas-school-shooting-482652" hreflang="en">America's love for military style weapons and AR-15, the assault rifle used in Texas school shooting</a>

His remarks came three days after a gun massacre at a Texas elementary school, in which an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle shot dead 21 people, again focused attention on the NRA, a major donor to Congress members, mostly Republicans.

Although NRA's influence has waned as it has become mired in legal battles linked to a corruption scandal, it is still considered the most powerful gun rights organisation in the country that has rejected most initiatives to prevent mass shootings, including expanded background checks on gun purchases.

The Texas shooting has reignited the tinderbox debate about US gun control with Democrats calling for harsh control laws to prevent such incidents.

Instead of passing laws to tighten gun control, Republicans in Washington have suggested "hardening" schools with beefed up security.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 214 mass shootings this year in just five months in the United States, with a racist massacre at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo just 10 days before the Texas killings.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Former US President Donald Trump has said that the 'evil' massacre in Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman, is a reason to arm, not to disarm.

Former US President Donald Trump has said that the 'evil' massacre in Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed by a gunman, is a reason to arm, not to disarm. While addressing the National Rifle Association's (NRA) annual meeting, Trump said decent Americans should be allowed the firearms they need to defend themselves. "The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens," he said during an event in Houston attended by almost two thousand people. Suggesting ways to improve security in schools, Trump said that every school should have a single point of entry, strong fencing, and metal detectors, adding there should also be a police official or an armed guard at all times in every school. According to Trump, "This is not a matter of money. This is a matter of will. If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we can do this." "The various gun control policies being pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing," he said. Calling for a "drastic" change to the United States' approach to mental health issues and a security overhaul at schools, Trump said that efforts at gun control were "grotesque." "As the age-old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Trump added. Also see | America's love for military style weapons and AR-15, the assault rifle used in Texas school shooting His remarks came three days after a gun massacre at a Texas elementary school, in which an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle shot dead 21 people, again focused attention on the NRA, a major donor to Congress members, mostly Republicans. Although NRA's influence has waned as it has become mired in legal battles linked to a corruption scandal, it is still considered the most powerful gun rights organisation in the country that has rejected most initiatives to prevent mass shootings, including expanded background checks on gun purchases. The Texas shooting has reignited the tinderbox debate about US gun control with Democrats calling for harsh control laws to prevent such incidents. Instead of passing laws to tighten gun control, Republicans in Washington have suggested "hardening" schools with beefed up security. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 214 mass shootings this year in just five months in the United States, with a racist massacre at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo just 10 days before the Texas killings. (With inputs from agencies) Watch WION's live TV here:

Texas shooting: Donald Trump says 'evil' massacre a reason to arm, not disarm

Rick Scott, a senior Republican senator on Tuesday said US President Joe Biden was mentally "incapacitated" to perform duties of his job and that he should resign. This is being considered to be first taste of the expected brutal campaigning ahead of the midterm elections.

Senator Rick Scott, who heads the Republican senators' campaign organization and has become a key target for Biden's own election message that his opponents are extremists, issued a statement calling the president "unfit."

"Let's be honest here. Joe Biden is unwell. He's unfit for office. He's incoherent, incapacitated and confused. He doesn't know where he is half the time. He's incapable of leading and he's incapable of carrying out his duties," Scott said.

"Everyone knows it. No one is willing to say it. But we have to, for the sake of the country. Joe Biden can't do the job," he said.

Republican Party has maintained that Joe Biden (79) is too old to be an effective US President.

It is echoed regularly on Fox News and by Trump, who despite his defeat and unprecedented attempt to overturn the results of the election continues to remain the party's most influential force.

"I think the man has a problem," said Biden when he was asked about Scott's statement.

(With inputs from agencies)

Decode the geostrategy, diplomacy, and ideologies of the world’s unending wars. Catch our special series ‘World at War’ every Saturday at 8:30 PM IST and Sunday at 10:30 PM IST only on WION.

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Rick Scott, a senior Republican senator on Tuesday said US President Joe Biden was mentally "incapacitated" to perform duties of his job and that he should resign.

Rick Scott, a senior Republican senator on Tuesday said US President Joe Biden was mentally "incapacitated" to perform duties of his job and that he should resign. This is being considered to be first taste of the expected brutal campaigning ahead of the midterm elections. Senator Rick Scott, who heads the Republican senators' campaign organization and has become a key target for Biden's own election message that his opponents are extremists, issued a statement calling the president "unfit." "Let's be honest here. Joe Biden is unwell. He's unfit for office. He's incoherent, incapacitated and confused. He doesn't know where he is half the time. He's incapable of leading and he's incapable of carrying out his duties," Scott said. "Everyone knows it. No one is willing to say it. But we have to, for the sake of the country. Joe Biden can't do the job," he said. Republican Party has maintained that Joe Biden (79) is too old to be an effective US President. It is echoed regularly on Fox News and by Trump, who despite his defeat and unprecedented attempt to overturn the results of the election continues to remain the party's most influential force. "I think the man has a problem," said Biden when he was asked about Scott's statement. (With inputs from agencies) Decode the geostrategy, diplomacy, and ideologies of the world’s unending wars. Catch our special series ‘World at War’ every Saturday at 8:30 PM IST and Sunday at 10:30 PM IST only on WION. WATCH WION LIVE HERE ×

Biden is 'incapacitated', says senior Republican senator

With billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, experts believe that the exile of anti-vaxxers, QAnon loyalists, neo-Nazis, and former US President Donald Trump can come to an end.

Jaime Longoria, manager of research and training at the Disinfo Defence League, said “There’s no reason why these folks wouldn’t want to be in this space.”

The league is a non-profit that works with local organisations to combat the effects of misinformation.

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“Ultimately I think Elon’s promise to save the public square is going to create a square that nobody wants to be in.”&nbsp;

Both Musk and Trump refer to themselves as ''free speech absolutists'' but they chose a different approach.

After being banned from Twitter, Trump started Truth Social. Meanwhile, Musk, who has criticised the microblogging platform for its bots and content policy, presented an offer of $44 billion to buy it.

Republican lawmakers, who have accused the social media platform of bias against right-leaning views, had welcomed the news that Musk was purchasing Twitter Inc.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/house-republicans-send-letter-to-twitters-board-members-to-preserve-all-records-about-musks-offer-473047">Also read |&nbsp;House Republicans send letter to Twitter's board members to preserve all records about Musk's offer</a>

Representative Jim Jordan, a member of the Freedom Caucus of conservative House Republicans, tweeted "Free speech is making a comeback."

However, shortly afterwards Trump announced his return on Truth Social with a post saying "I'M BACK!"

In an interview with Fox News, he said “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth.”

When questioned about Musk's buyout of Twitter, he said “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man.”

But experts believe that if the Republican Party announces Trump as their candidate for the presidential election in 2024, his return to Twitter is in inevitable.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/after-musk-buyout-progressive-twitter-accounts-lost-followers-and-conservatives-gain-474325">Also read |&nbsp;After Musk buyout, progressive Twitter&nbsp;accounts&nbsp;lost&nbsp;followers and conservatives gain</a>

According to Emerson Brooking, resident fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, “If Donald Trump is the presidential nominee for the Republican Party in 2024, it’s almost unthinkable that he won’t return to Twitter the moment he has the opportunity to do so.”

In what could be its last quarter as a public company after agreeing to a buyout, Twitter reported stronger than expected user growth.

A group of 18 US House Republicans sent Twitter board members a letter asking them to preserve all records and materials relating to Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter, laying the groundwork for a potential investigation.

The order to save records strongly suggests Jordan plans to probe Twitter if the Musk offer is rejected and Republicans take back the House in midterm elections in November.&nbsp;

Watch WION's live TV:

<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/live-tv/embed?autoplay=1&amp;mute=1" width="100%"></iframe>

(With inputs from agencies)

With billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, experts believe that the exile of anti-vaxxers, QAnon loyalists, neo-Nazis, and former US President Donald Trump can come to an end.

With billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter, experts believe that the exile of anti-vaxxers, QAnon loyalists, neo-Nazis, and former US President Donald Trump can come to an end. Jaime Longoria, manager of research and training at the Disinfo Defence League, said “There’s no reason why these folks wouldn’t want to be in this space.” The league is a non-profit that works with local organisations to combat the effects of misinformation. “Ultimately I think Elon’s promise to save the public square is going to create a square that nobody wants to be in.” Both Musk and Trump refer to themselves as ''free speech absolutists'' but they chose a different approach. After being banned from Twitter, Trump started Truth Social. Meanwhile, Musk, who has criticised the microblogging platform for its bots and content policy, presented an offer of $44 billion to buy it. Republican lawmakers, who have accused the social media platform of bias against right-leaning views, had welcomed the news that Musk was purchasing Twitter Inc. Also read | House Republicans send letter to Twitter's board members to preserve all records about Musk's offer Representative Jim Jordan, a member of the Freedom Caucus of conservative House Republicans, tweeted "Free speech is making a comeback." However, shortly afterwards Trump announced his return on Truth Social with a post saying "I'M BACK!" In an interview with Fox News, he said “I am not going on Twitter. I am going to stay on Truth.” When questioned about Musk's buyout of Twitter, he said “I hope Elon buys Twitter because he’ll make improvements to it and he is a good man.” But experts believe that if the Republican Party announces Trump as their candidate for the presidential election in 2024, his return to Twitter is in inevitable. Also read | After Musk buyout, progressive Twitter accounts lost followers and conservatives gain According to Emerson Brooking, resident fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, “If Donald Trump is the presidential nominee for the Republican Party in 2024, it’s almost unthinkable that he won’t return to Twitter the moment he has the opportunity to do so.” In what could be its last quarter as a public company after agreeing to a buyout, Twitter reported stronger than expected user growth. A group of 18 US House Republicans sent Twitter board members a letter asking them to preserve all records and materials relating to Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk’s offer to purchase Twitter, laying the groundwork for a potential investigation. The order to save records strongly suggests Jordan plans to probe Twitter if the Musk offer is rejected and Republicans take back the House in midterm elections in November. Watch WION's live TV: (With inputs from agencies)

Exile of anti-vaxxers, QAnon loyalists can end with Musk's takeover of Twitter

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has criticised Disney for being ''woke'' and claimed it has cozy&nbsp;ties with communist China.

“Disney is in far too deep with the communist party of China and has lost any moral authority to tell you what to do,” he said.

“Companies that have made a fortune catering to families should understand that parents don’t want this injected into their kid’s kindergarten classroom,” DeSantis said.&nbsp;

“Our policies will be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not the musing of woke corporations.”

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/a-bill-based-on-hate-discrimination-florida-passes-archaic-dont-say-gay-school-bill-460434">Also read |&nbsp;A bill 'based on hate &amp; discrimination': Florida passes archaic 'Don't Say Gay' school bill</a>

Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative now part of the Lincoln Project, said “The weird hypocrisy of Florida politics right now is DeSantis has been happy to take Disney’s money but to pass a bill that’s anathema to the values of their customers and their institution.”

It comes after Walt Disney Co paused all political donations in Florida due to facing employee outcry over "anti-gay" legislation called 'Don't say gay' bill.

The Florida Senate passed the legislation Tuesday which would prohibit classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state's primary schools, but also prohibits teachings "not age appropriate" for other grades.

The measure, which its opponents labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill, passed the state House last month and is headed to Governor Ron DeSantis for approval. DeSantis has indicated his support for the measure.&nbsp;

Opponents and LGBTQ rights activists lobbied against what they call the "Don't Say Gay" law, which will affect kids in kindergarten through third grade, when they are eight or nine years old.

<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/disney-faces-backlash-after-emerging-as-fund-donor-for-dont-say-gay-bill-461676">Also read |&nbsp;Disney faces backlash after emerging as fund donor for 'Don't Say Gay' bill</a>

On Friday chief executive Bob Chapek told them he was sorry the company had let them down.

"It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights," he wrote in an email, published by Variety.

"You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry."

Chapek said Disney would be bolstering its support for campaigns aimed at preventing similar legislation in other states as part of an effort to "ensure our advocacy better reflects our values."

Disney, which has a huge presence in the southern state in the form of its Walt Disney World resort, had faced weeks of criticism both internally and externally over its lack of public response.

Disney pledged to increase support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states. It also is re-examining its political contributions.

The Florida legislation, championed by possible presidential nominee DeSantis, is part of nationwide effort by Republicans who feel they are wresting back control from liberal policies they say undermine traditional family values.

Similar moves are afoot in other Republican-led or Republican-leaning states, chiefly in the south.

They include a plan by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to label as "child abuse" medical treatments considered in progressive states to be standard care for transgender teenagers.

The political fight leaves businesses in the often-uncomfortable position of having to take sides on an issue that may pit one group of customers or staff against another.

(With inputs from agencies)

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has criticised Disney for being ''woke'' and claimed it has cozy ties with communist China. “Disney is in far too deep with the communist party of China and has lost any moral authority to tell you what to do,” he said.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has criticised Disney for being ''woke'' and claimed it has cozy ties with communist China. “Disney is in far too deep with the communist party of China and has lost any moral authority to tell you what to do,” he said. “Companies that have made a fortune catering to families should understand that parents don’t want this injected into their kid’s kindergarten classroom,” DeSantis said. “Our policies will be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not the musing of woke corporations.” Also read | A bill 'based on hate & discrimination': Florida passes archaic 'Don't Say Gay' school bill Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative now part of the Lincoln Project, said “The weird hypocrisy of Florida politics right now is DeSantis has been happy to take Disney’s money but to pass a bill that’s anathema to the values of their customers and their institution.” It comes after Walt Disney Co paused all political donations in Florida due to facing employee outcry over "anti-gay" legislation called 'Don't say gay' bill. The Florida Senate passed the legislation Tuesday which would prohibit classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state's primary schools, but also prohibits teachings "not age appropriate" for other grades. The measure, which its opponents labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill, passed the state House last month and is headed to Governor Ron DeSantis for approval. DeSantis has indicated his support for the measure. Opponents and LGBTQ rights activists lobbied against what they call the "Don't Say Gay" law, which will affect kids in kindergarten through third grade, when they are eight or nine years old. Also read | Disney faces backlash after emerging as fund donor for 'Don't Say Gay' bill On Friday chief executive Bob Chapek told them he was sorry the company had let them down. "It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights," he wrote in an email, published by Variety. "You needed me to be a stronger ally in the fight for equal rights and I let you down. I am sorry." Chapek said Disney would be bolstering its support for campaigns aimed at preventing similar legislation in other states as part of an effort to "ensure our advocacy better reflects our values." Disney, which has a huge presence in the southern state in the form of its Walt Disney World resort, had faced weeks of criticism both internally and externally over its lack of public response. Disney pledged to increase support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states. It also is re-examining its political contributions. The Florida legislation, championed by possible presidential nominee DeSantis, is part of nationwide effort by Republicans who feel they are wresting back control from liberal policies they say undermine traditional family values. Similar moves are afoot in other Republican-led or Republican-leaning states, chiefly in the south. They include a plan by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to label as "child abuse" medical treatments considered in progressive states to be standard care for transgender teenagers. The political fight leaves businesses in the often-uncomfortable position of having to take sides on an issue that may pit one group of customers or staff against another. (With inputs from agencies)

Florida governor DeSantis criticises 'woke' Disney, claims it has cozy ties with China

Republican leader Mitch McConnell has rebuked Republican Party officials for censuring two Republican legislators who have criticised former president Donald Trump and pursued an investigation of the January 6, 2021 US Capitol riot.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell criticises RNC censure of Jan 6 probe panel

When Jane Timken kicked off an eight-week advertising campaign on the Fox News Channel in her bid for the Republican nomination for Senate, she did not focus on immigration, health care or the economy. Her first ad was titled “Fire Fauci.”

Its subject — Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus — is also under attack in Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz, a television doctor who has entered the Republican Senate primary there, calls him a “petty tyrant.” In Nebraska, an ad shows Jim Pillen, a Republican running for governor, dressed in hunting gear and cocking his gun after saying, “And Fauci? Don’t get me started.”

Republican attacks on Fauci are not new; former President Donald Trump, irked that the doctor publicly corrected his falsehoods about the virus, called him “a disaster” and repeatedly threatened to fire him. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has grilled Fauci in nationally televised hearings, and Fauci — true to his fighter-from-Brooklyn roots — has punched back.

But as the 2022 midterm elections approach, the attacks have spread across the nation, intensifying as Fauci draws outsize attention in some of the most important state and local races on the ballot in November.

The Republican war on Fauci is partly a sign of Trump’s strong grip on the party. But Fauci, both his friends and detractors agree, has also become a symbol of something deeper — the deep schism in the country, mistrust in government and a brewing populist resentment of the elites, all made worse by the pandemic.

And Fauci, whose perpetual television appearances have made him the face of the COVID-19 response — and who is viewed by his critics as a high-and-mighty know-it-all who enjoys his celebrity — seems an obvious person to blame.

“Populism is essentially anti: anti-establishment, anti-expertise, anti-intellectual and anti-media,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist, adding that Fauci “is an establishment expert intellectual who is in the media.”

For the 81-year-old immunologist, a venerated figure in the world of science, it is a jarring last chapter of a government career that has spanned half a century. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he has held since 1984, he has helped lead the response to various public health crises, including AIDS and Ebola, and advised eight presidents. He has never revealed a party affiliation. President George H.W. Bush once cited him as a hero.

Now, though, some voters are parroting right-wing commentators who compare Fauci to the brutal Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Candidates in hotly contested Republican primaries like Ohio’s are trying to out-Trump one another by supplanting Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Fauci as a political boogeyman.

In Pennsylvania, Oz recently ran a Twitter ad calling for a debate — not between candidates, but between him and Fauci. In Wisconsin, Kevin Nicholson, a onetime Democrat running for governor as a conservative outsider, said Fauci “should be fired and referred to prosecutors.”

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has released an advertisement last month telling Fauci to “pound sand” via the beach sandals the governor’s reelection campaign is now selling: “Freedom Over Fauci Flip-Flops.” DeSantis has coined a new term: “Faucism.” In Washington, lawmakers are taking aim at Fauci’s salary, finances and influence.

“I didn’t make myself a polarizing figure,” Fauci declared in an interview. “I’ve been demonized by people who are running away from the truth.”

The anti-Fauci fervor has taken its toll on his personal life; he has received death threats, his family has been harassed and his home in Washington is guarded by a security detail. His standing with the public has also suffered. In a recent NBC News Poll, just 40% of respondents said they trusted Fauci, down from 60% in April 2020.

Still, Ayres said, Fauci remains for many Americans “one of the most trusted voices regarding the pandemic.” In a Gallup poll at the end of 2021, his job approval rating was 52%. On a list of 10 officials, including Biden and congressional leaders, only two scored higher: Chief Justice John Roberts and Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Republican strategists are split on whether attacking Fauci is a smart strategy. Ayres said it could help rev up the base in a primary but backfire in a general election, especially in a swing state like Ohio. But John Feehery, another strategist, said many pandemic-weary Americans viewed Fauci as “Mr. Lockdown,” and it made sense for Republicans “to run against both Fauci and lockdowns.”

Here in Ohio, Timken, a Harvard graduate and former chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party who promises to “advance the Trump agenda without fear or hesitation,” is doing just that. Her ad shows a parent struggling to put a mask on a screaming toddler, which she brands “child abuse.”

The spot, she said in an interview, was prompted by what she hears from voters who are resentful of vaccine mandates, confused by shifting public health advice and tired of being told what to do.

“It taps into the real frustration they feel,” Timken said, “that Fauci claims to be the bastion of science, but I think he’s playing God.”

She is one of three candidates with elite academic credentials who are going after Fauci in a crowded primary for the seat that Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, is giving up. The others are J.D. Vance, a lawyer with a Yale degree and the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” and Josh Mandel, the former Ohio state treasurer, whose law degree is from Case Western Reserve University.

Vance called Fauci “a ridiculous tyrant” during a rally with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Republican banned from Twitter for spreading COVID misinformation. Mandel has railed against Fauci for months on Facebook and Twitter, calling him a liar and “one of the biggest frauds in American history.”

Ohio Republicans are split between the Trump wing and centrists in the mold of John Kasich, the former governor. Those tensions were on display last week at Tommy’s Diner, a Columbus institution, and at a meeting of the Franklin County Republican Committee, which convened to vote on endorsements. Sentiments seemed to track with vaccination status.

At the diner, Republicans like Mike Matthews, a retired state worker, and George Wolf, a retired firefighter, both of whom voted for Trump, found no fault with Fauci. Both are vaccinated. “I’ve never heard of anyone that I would trust more,” Wolf said.

But at the next table, Andy Watkinson, a remodeling contractor who is unvaccinated, said he was a fan of Joe Rogan, the podcaster, provocateur and Fauci critic. “I think he’s done the same thing for 50 years and he’s in bed with all the pharma companies,” Watkinson said of Fauci, though there is no evidence of that. “He needs to retire.”

At the committee meeting, views about Fauci were more strident.

“He needs to be brought up on charges,” declared Lisadiana Bates, a former business owner who is home-schooling her children. Echoing Dr. Robert Malone, who has become a conservative celebrity by arguing that COVID vaccine mandates are unethical experiments, she asserted that Fauci had “violated the Nuremberg Code,” the set of research ethics developed after the Holocaust.

“This whole thing is nothing but an experiment!” Bates exclaimed.

The roots of anti-Fauci campaign rhetoric can be traced to Washington, where Fauci has clashed repeatedly with two Republican senators who are also doctors: Paul, an ophthalmologist, and Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, an obstetrician.

Paul has fueled speculation that COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak produced by federally funded “gain-of-function” research — high-risk studies aimed at making viruses more infectious — in Wuhan, China. Fauci and other National Institutes of Health officials have said that the Wuhan research did not meet the criteria for gain-of-function studies, and that it is genetically impossible for viruses studied there to have produced the pandemic.

The nuances of that dispute, however, have gotten lost in the increasingly hostile exchanges between the two men. In July, after Paul accused him of lying to Congress, Fauci shot back, “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.” Last month, Fauci arrived at a Senate hearing brandishing a fundraising webpage for Paul that included a “Fire Dr. Fauci” graphic, and accused Paul of exploiting the pandemic for political gain.

Later in that same hearing, Fauci muttered under his breath that Marshall was “a moron” — a comment caught on an open microphone — after the senator posted Fauci’s salary on a placard and demanded his financial disclosure forms, suggesting he might be engaged in financial “shenanigans” with the pharmaceutical industry.

(Fauci’s financial disclosure forms, which Marshall has since posted on the internet, show investments in bonds and mutual funds, not drug companies. He is paid an annual salary of $434,312 under a provision that allows government doctors and scientists to be highly compensated, akin to what they could earn in the private sector.)

Fauci said he did not regret the “moron” remark, or the pushback against Paul. But Timken said calling Marshall a moron was “beyond the pale.”

Even some Fauci fans in academia and government say he might have been better off keeping his cool to avoid amplifying his Republican critics and alienating voters who need to hear his public health message. Some suggest he lower his profile; he says the White House asks him to go on TV.

“He’s been pushing back in a way that is not common for us to see for American scientists, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

If Democrats lose seats in the midterm elections, as many expect, Fauci may have a Republican-controlled Congress to contend with. Another Republican from Ohio, Rep. Jim Jordan, who claims that Fauci knew the coronavirus “came from a lab,” has vowed that Republicans will investigate him if they win control of the House.

Some of Fauci’s friends are urging him to avoid that possibility by retiring. He has been working on a memoir, but cannot look for a publisher while he is still a federal employee. Fauci says Republicans will not dictate the terms of his retirement, and he has no plans at the moment to step down. And, he said, he is not worried about any investigation.

“I can’t think of what they would want to investigate except this whole pile of lies that they’re throwing around,” he said. 
&nbsp;

When Jane Timken kicked off an eight-week advertising campaign on the Fox News Channel in her bid for the Republican nomination for Senate, she did not focus on immigration, health care or the economy.

When Jane Timken kicked off an eight-week advertising campaign on the Fox News Channel in her bid for the Republican nomination for Senate, she did not focus on immigration, health care or the economy. Her first ad was titled “Fire Fauci.” Its subject — Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus — is also under attack in Pennsylvania, where Mehmet Oz, a television doctor who has entered the Republican Senate primary there, calls him a “petty tyrant.” In Nebraska, an ad shows Jim Pillen, a Republican running for governor, dressed in hunting gear and cocking his gun after saying, “And Fauci? Don’t get me started.” Republican attacks on Fauci are not new; former President Donald Trump, irked that the doctor publicly corrected his falsehoods about the virus, called him “a disaster” and repeatedly threatened to fire him. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has grilled Fauci in nationally televised hearings, and Fauci — true to his fighter-from-Brooklyn roots — has punched back. But as the 2022 midterm elections approach, the attacks have spread across the nation, intensifying as Fauci draws outsize attention in some of the most important state and local races on the ballot in November. The Republican war on Fauci is partly a sign of Trump’s strong grip on the party. But Fauci, both his friends and detractors agree, has also become a symbol of something deeper — the deep schism in the country, mistrust in government and a brewing populist resentment of the elites, all made worse by the pandemic. And Fauci, whose perpetual television appearances have made him the face of the COVID-19 response — and who is viewed by his critics as a high-and-mighty know-it-all who enjoys his celebrity — seems an obvious person to blame. “Populism is essentially anti: anti-establishment, anti-expertise, anti-intellectual and anti-media,” said Whit Ayres, a Republican strategist, adding that Fauci “is an establishment expert intellectual who is in the media.” For the 81-year-old immunologist, a venerated figure in the world of science, it is a jarring last chapter of a government career that has spanned half a century. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a post he has held since 1984, he has helped lead the response to various public health crises, including AIDS and Ebola, and advised eight presidents. He has never revealed a party affiliation. President George H.W. Bush once cited him as a hero. Now, though, some voters are parroting right-wing commentators who compare Fauci to the brutal Nazi doctor Josef Mengele. Candidates in hotly contested Republican primaries like Ohio’s are trying to out-Trump one another by supplanting Speaker Nancy Pelosi with Fauci as a political boogeyman. In Pennsylvania, Oz recently ran a Twitter ad calling for a debate — not between candidates, but between him and Fauci. In Wisconsin, Kevin Nicholson, a onetime Democrat running for governor as a conservative outsider, said Fauci “should be fired and referred to prosecutors.” In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has released an advertisement last month telling Fauci to “pound sand” via the beach sandals the governor’s reelection campaign is now selling: “Freedom Over Fauci Flip-Flops.” DeSantis has coined a new term: “Faucism.” In Washington, lawmakers are taking aim at Fauci’s salary, finances and influence. “I didn’t make myself a polarizing figure,” Fauci declared in an interview. “I’ve been demonized by people who are running away from the truth.” The anti-Fauci fervor has taken its toll on his personal life; he has received death threats, his family has been harassed and his home in Washington is guarded by a security detail. His standing with the public has also suffered. In a recent NBC News Poll, just 40% of respondents said they trusted Fauci, down from 60% in April 2020. Still, Ayres said, Fauci remains for many Americans “one of the most trusted voices regarding the pandemic.” In a Gallup poll at the end of 2021, his job approval rating was 52%. On a list of 10 officials, including Biden and congressional leaders, only two scored higher: Chief Justice John Roberts and Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Republican strategists are split on whether attacking Fauci is a smart strategy. Ayres said it could help rev up the base in a primary but backfire in a general election, especially in a swing state like Ohio. But John Feehery, another strategist, said many pandemic-weary Americans viewed Fauci as “Mr. Lockdown,” and it made sense for Republicans “to run against both Fauci and lockdowns.” Here in Ohio, Timken, a Harvard graduate and former chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party who promises to “advance the Trump agenda without fear or hesitation,” is doing just that. Her ad shows a parent struggling to put a mask on a screaming toddler, which she brands “child abuse.” The spot, she said in an interview, was prompted by what she hears from voters who are resentful of vaccine mandates, confused by shifting public health advice and tired of being told what to do. “It taps into the real frustration they feel,” Timken said, “that Fauci claims to be the bastion of science, but I think he’s playing God.” She is one of three candidates with elite academic credentials who are going after Fauci in a crowded primary for the seat that Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican, is giving up. The others are J.D. Vance, a lawyer with a Yale degree and the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” and Josh Mandel, the former Ohio state treasurer, whose law degree is from Case Western Reserve University. Vance called Fauci “a ridiculous tyrant” during a rally with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Republican banned from Twitter for spreading COVID misinformation. Mandel has railed against Fauci for months on Facebook and Twitter, calling him a liar and “one of the biggest frauds in American history.” Ohio Republicans are split between the Trump wing and centrists in the mold of John Kasich, the former governor. Those tensions were on display last week at Tommy’s Diner, a Columbus institution, and at a meeting of the Franklin County Republican Committee, which convened to vote on endorsements. Sentiments seemed to track with vaccination status. At the diner, Republicans like Mike Matthews, a retired state worker, and George Wolf, a retired firefighter, both of whom voted for Trump, found no fault with Fauci. Both are vaccinated. “I’ve never heard of anyone that I would trust more,” Wolf said. But at the next table, Andy Watkinson, a remodeling contractor who is unvaccinated, said he was a fan of Joe Rogan, the podcaster, provocateur and Fauci critic. “I think he’s done the same thing for 50 years and he’s in bed with all the pharma companies,” Watkinson said of Fauci, though there is no evidence of that. “He needs to retire.” At the committee meeting, views about Fauci were more strident. “He needs to be brought up on charges,” declared Lisadiana Bates, a former business owner who is home-schooling her children. Echoing Dr. Robert Malone, who has become a conservative celebrity by arguing that COVID vaccine mandates are unethical experiments, she asserted that Fauci had “violated the Nuremberg Code,” the set of research ethics developed after the Holocaust. “This whole thing is nothing but an experiment!” Bates exclaimed. The roots of anti-Fauci campaign rhetoric can be traced to Washington, where Fauci has clashed repeatedly with two Republican senators who are also doctors: Paul, an ophthalmologist, and Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, an obstetrician. Paul has fueled speculation that COVID-19 was the result of a lab leak produced by federally funded “gain-of-function” research — high-risk studies aimed at making viruses more infectious — in Wuhan, China. Fauci and other National Institutes of Health officials have said that the Wuhan research did not meet the criteria for gain-of-function studies, and that it is genetically impossible for viruses studied there to have produced the pandemic. The nuances of that dispute, however, have gotten lost in the increasingly hostile exchanges between the two men. In July, after Paul accused him of lying to Congress, Fauci shot back, “If anybody is lying here, senator, it is you.” Last month, Fauci arrived at a Senate hearing brandishing a fundraising webpage for Paul that included a “Fire Dr. Fauci” graphic, and accused Paul of exploiting the pandemic for political gain. Later in that same hearing, Fauci muttered under his breath that Marshall was “a moron” — a comment caught on an open microphone — after the senator posted Fauci’s salary on a placard and demanded his financial disclosure forms, suggesting he might be engaged in financial “shenanigans” with the pharmaceutical industry. (Fauci’s financial disclosure forms, which Marshall has since posted on the internet, show investments in bonds and mutual funds, not drug companies. He is paid an annual salary of $434,312 under a provision that allows government doctors and scientists to be highly compensated, akin to what they could earn in the private sector.) Fauci said he did not regret the “moron” remark, or the pushback against Paul. But Timken said calling Marshall a moron was “beyond the pale.” Even some Fauci fans in academia and government say he might have been better off keeping his cool to avoid amplifying his Republican critics and alienating voters who need to hear his public health message. Some suggest he lower his profile; he says the White House asks him to go on TV. “He’s been pushing back in a way that is not common for us to see for American scientists, and I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. If Democrats lose seats in the midterm elections, as many expect, Fauci may have a Republican-controlled Congress to contend with. Another Republican from Ohio, Rep. Jim Jordan, who claims that Fauci knew the coronavirus “came from a lab,” has vowed that Republicans will investigate him if they win control of the House. Some of Fauci’s friends are urging him to avoid that possibility by retiring. He has been working on a memoir, but cannot look for a publisher while he is still a federal employee. Fauci says Republicans will not dictate the terms of his retirement, and he has no plans at the moment to step down. And, he said, he is not worried about any investigation. “I can’t think of what they would want to investigate except this whole pile of lies that they’re throwing around,” he said.

Republicans wooing Trump voters, make Fauci their boogeyman

The number of competitive congressional districts is on track to dive near — and possibly below — the lowest level in at least three decades, as Republicans and Democrats draw new political maps designed to ensure that the vast majority of House races are over before the general election starts.

With two-thirds of the new boundaries set, mapmakers are on pace to draw fewer than 40 seats — out of 435 — that are considered competitive based on the 2020 presidential election results, according to a New York Times analysis of election data. Ten years ago that number was 73.

While the exact size of the battlefield is still emerging, the sharp decline of competition for House seats is the latest worrying sign of dysfunction in the U.S. political system, which is already struggling with a scourge of misinformation and rising distrust in elections. Lack of competition in general elections can widen the ideological gulf between the parties, leading to hardened stalemates on legislation and voters’ alienation from the political process.

“The reduction of competitive seats is a tragedy,” said former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “We end up with gridlock, we end up with no progress, and we end up with a population looking at our legislatures and having this feeling that nothing gets done.” He added: “This gridlock leads to cynicism about this whole process.”

Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for adding to the tally of safe seats. Over decades, the parties have deftly used the redistricting process to create districts dominated by voters from one party or to bolster incumbents.

It’s not yet clear which party will ultimately benefit more from this year’s bumper crop of safe seats, or whether President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings might endanger Democrats whose districts haven’t been considered competitive. Republicans control the mapmaking for more than twice as many districts as Democrats, leaving many in the GOP to believe that the party can take back the House majority after four years of Democratic control largely by drawing favorable seats.

But Democrats have used their power to gerrymander more aggressively than expected. In New York, for example, the Democratic-controlled Legislature on Wednesday approved a map that gives the party a strong chance of flipping as many as three House seats currently held by Republicans.

That has left Republicans and Democrats essentially at a draw, with two big outstanding unknowns: Florida’s 28 seats, increasingly the subject of Republican infighting, are still unsettled, and several court cases in other states could send lawmakers back to the drawing board.

“Democrats in New York are gerrymandering like the House depends on it,” said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the party’s main mapmaking organization. “Republican legislators shouldn’t be afraid to legally press their political advantage where they have control.”

New York’s new map doesn’t just set Democrats up to win more seats, it also eliminates competitive districts. In 2020, there were four districts where Biden and former President Donald Trump were within 5 percentage points. There are none in the new map. Even the reconfigured district that stretches from Republican-dominated Staten Island to Democratic neighborhoods in Brooklyn is now, at least on paper, friendly territory for Democrats.

Without that competition from outside the party, many politicians are beginning to see the biggest threat to their careers as coming from within.

“When I was a member of Congress, most members woke up concerned about a general election,” said former Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who led the House Democrats’ campaign committee during the last redistricting cycle. “Now they wake up worried about a primary opponent.”

Israel, who left Congress in 2017 and now owns a bookstore on Long Island, recalled Republicans telling him they would like to vote for Democratic priorities like gun control but feared a backlash from their party’s base. House Democrats, Israel said, would like to address issues such as Social Security and Medicare reform, but understand that doing so would draw a robust primary challenge from the party’s left wing.

Republicans argue that redistricting isn’t destiny: The political climate matters, and more races will become competitive if inflation, the lingering pandemic or other issues continue to sour voters on Democratic leadership.

But the far greater number of districts drawn to be overwhelmingly safe for one party is likely to limit how many seats will flip — even in a so-called wave election.

“The parties are contributing to more and more single-party districts and taking the voters out of the equation,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, who led the House Republicans’ campaign arm during the 2001 redistricting cycle. “November becomes a constitutional formality.”

In the 29 states where maps have been completed and not thrown out by courts, there are just 22 districts that either Biden or Trump won by 5 percentage points or less, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice, a research institute.

By this point in the 2012 redistricting cycle, there were 44 districts defined as competitive based on the previous presidential election results. In the 1992 election, the margin between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush was within 5 points in 108 congressional districts.

The phenomenon of parties using redistricting to gain an edge is as old as the republic itself, but it has escalated in recent decades with more sophisticated technology and more detailed data about voter behavior. Americans with similar political views have clustered in distinct areas — Republicans in rural and exurban areas, Democrats in cities and inner suburbs. It’s a pattern that can make it difficult to draw cohesive, competitive districts.

No state has quashed competition ahead of the midterm elections like Texas. In the 2020 election, there were 12 competitive districts in the state. After redistricting, there is only one.

Though Trump won 52% of the vote in Texas in 2020, Republicans are expected to win roughly 65% — 24 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. (Texas gained two seats in the reapportionment after the 2020 census.)

The Texas state legislators who control redistricting shored up Republican incumbents including Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Beth Van Duyne and Michael McCaul, but in doing so also drew safer districts for Democrats such as Reps. Colin Allred and Lizzie Fletcher.

“The fact that it’s going to be harder for us to pick up congressional seats is a big concern,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party. “That doesn’t mean that we think that it’s not important to mount challengers; it’s just a reality that it’s going to be harder.”

Democrats did the same where they could. Oregon legislators took the state’s competitive 4th District and turned it into a seat that strongly favors their party.

The change was so dramatic that Rep. Peter DeFazio, an 18-term Democrat, told reporters last year that he chose to retire because the district is now “winnable by another Democrat.”

Redrawing DeFazio’s district enraged Oregon Republicans.

“Competitive districts benefit all of us,” said Shelly Boshart Davis, an Oregon state representative who was the former Republican co-chairwoman of the state House’s redistricting committee. “We hear voters that feel marginalized all the time, that say, ‘I don’t feel my voice gets heard.’ ”

A lack of competition has unintended consequences. Without a competitive race at the congressional level, local parties are deprived of an infusion of money and organizing. Candidates for governor or Senate don’t benefit from being able to piggyback on the energy and activity at the local level.

“Anybody running statewide has to pull the wagon entirely themselves because you don’t have competitive races going on locally,” said Matt Angle, a Democratic activist in Texas.

It can sometimes take years to see the full effect of eliminating a competitive district.

Ten years ago, North Carolina Republicans took a battleground district in the state’s western tip and, by slicing off a piece of the liberal city of Asheville, turned it into a district that John McCain would have carried by 18 points in the 2008 presidential election. The incumbent centrist Democrat, Heath Shuler, retired rather than seek reelection in a district he had little shot at winning.

He was replaced by Mark Meadows, who went on to be a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus before becoming the last White House chief of staff for Trump and a central figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

The number of competitive congressional districts is on track to dive near — and possibly below — the lowest level in at least three decades, as Republicans and Democrats draw new political maps designed to ensure that the vast majority of House races are over before the general election starts.

The number of competitive congressional districts is on track to dive near — and possibly below — the lowest level in at least three decades, as Republicans and Democrats draw new political maps designed to ensure that the vast majority of House races are over before the general election starts. With two-thirds of the new boundaries set, mapmakers are on pace to draw fewer than 40 seats — out of 435 — that are considered competitive based on the 2020 presidential election results, according to a New York Times analysis of election data. Ten years ago that number was 73. While the exact size of the battlefield is still emerging, the sharp decline of competition for House seats is the latest worrying sign of dysfunction in the U.S. political system, which is already struggling with a scourge of misinformation and rising distrust in elections. Lack of competition in general elections can widen the ideological gulf between the parties, leading to hardened stalemates on legislation and voters’ alienation from the political process. “The reduction of competitive seats is a tragedy,” said former Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who is chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee. “We end up with gridlock, we end up with no progress, and we end up with a population looking at our legislatures and having this feeling that nothing gets done.” He added: “This gridlock leads to cynicism about this whole process.” Both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for adding to the tally of safe seats. Over decades, the parties have deftly used the redistricting process to create districts dominated by voters from one party or to bolster incumbents. It’s not yet clear which party will ultimately benefit more from this year’s bumper crop of safe seats, or whether President Joe Biden’s sagging approval ratings might endanger Democrats whose districts haven’t been considered competitive. Republicans control the mapmaking for more than twice as many districts as Democrats, leaving many in the GOP to believe that the party can take back the House majority after four years of Democratic control largely by drawing favorable seats. But Democrats have used their power to gerrymander more aggressively than expected. In New York, for example, the Democratic-controlled Legislature on Wednesday approved a map that gives the party a strong chance of flipping as many as three House seats currently held by Republicans. That has left Republicans and Democrats essentially at a draw, with two big outstanding unknowns: Florida’s 28 seats, increasingly the subject of Republican infighting, are still unsettled, and several court cases in other states could send lawmakers back to the drawing board. “Democrats in New York are gerrymandering like the House depends on it,” said Adam Kincaid, executive director of the National Republican Redistricting Trust, the party’s main mapmaking organization. “Republican legislators shouldn’t be afraid to legally press their political advantage where they have control.” New York’s new map doesn’t just set Democrats up to win more seats, it also eliminates competitive districts. In 2020, there were four districts where Biden and former President Donald Trump were within 5 percentage points. There are none in the new map. Even the reconfigured district that stretches from Republican-dominated Staten Island to Democratic neighborhoods in Brooklyn is now, at least on paper, friendly territory for Democrats. Without that competition from outside the party, many politicians are beginning to see the biggest threat to their careers as coming from within. “When I was a member of Congress, most members woke up concerned about a general election,” said former Rep. Steve Israel of New York, who led the House Democrats’ campaign committee during the last redistricting cycle. “Now they wake up worried about a primary opponent.” Israel, who left Congress in 2017 and now owns a bookstore on Long Island, recalled Republicans telling him they would like to vote for Democratic priorities like gun control but feared a backlash from their party’s base. House Democrats, Israel said, would like to address issues such as Social Security and Medicare reform, but understand that doing so would draw a robust primary challenge from the party’s left wing. Republicans argue that redistricting isn’t destiny: The political climate matters, and more races will become competitive if inflation, the lingering pandemic or other issues continue to sour voters on Democratic leadership. But the far greater number of districts drawn to be overwhelmingly safe for one party is likely to limit how many seats will flip — even in a so-called wave election. “The parties are contributing to more and more single-party districts and taking the voters out of the equation,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, who led the House Republicans’ campaign arm during the 2001 redistricting cycle. “November becomes a constitutional formality.” In the 29 states where maps have been completed and not thrown out by courts, there are just 22 districts that either Biden or Trump won by 5 percentage points or less, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice, a research institute. By this point in the 2012 redistricting cycle, there were 44 districts defined as competitive based on the previous presidential election results. In the 1992 election, the margin between Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush was within 5 points in 108 congressional districts. The phenomenon of parties using redistricting to gain an edge is as old as the republic itself, but it has escalated in recent decades with more sophisticated technology and more detailed data about voter behavior. Americans with similar political views have clustered in distinct areas — Republicans in rural and exurban areas, Democrats in cities and inner suburbs. It’s a pattern that can make it difficult to draw cohesive, competitive districts. No state has quashed competition ahead of the midterm elections like Texas. In the 2020 election, there were 12 competitive districts in the state. After redistricting, there is only one. Though Trump won 52% of the vote in Texas in 2020, Republicans are expected to win roughly 65% — 24 of the state’s 38 congressional seats. (Texas gained two seats in the reapportionment after the 2020 census.) The Texas state legislators who control redistricting shored up Republican incumbents including Reps. Dan Crenshaw, Beth Van Duyne and Michael McCaul, but in doing so also drew safer districts for Democrats such as Reps. Colin Allred and Lizzie Fletcher. “The fact that it’s going to be harder for us to pick up congressional seats is a big concern,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party. “That doesn’t mean that we think that it’s not important to mount challengers; it’s just a reality that it’s going to be harder.” Democrats did the same where they could. Oregon legislators took the state’s competitive 4th District and turned it into a seat that strongly favors their party. The change was so dramatic that Rep. Peter DeFazio, an 18-term Democrat, told reporters last year that he chose to retire because the district is now “winnable by another Democrat.” Redrawing DeFazio’s district enraged Oregon Republicans. “Competitive districts benefit all of us,” said Shelly Boshart Davis, an Oregon state representative who was the former Republican co-chairwoman of the state House’s redistricting committee. “We hear voters that feel marginalized all the time, that say, ‘I don’t feel my voice gets heard.’ ” A lack of competition has unintended consequences. Without a competitive race at the congressional level, local parties are deprived of an infusion of money and organizing. Candidates for governor or Senate don’t benefit from being able to piggyback on the energy and activity at the local level. “Anybody running statewide has to pull the wagon entirely themselves because you don’t have competitive races going on locally,” said Matt Angle, a Democratic activist in Texas. It can sometimes take years to see the full effect of eliminating a competitive district. Ten years ago, North Carolina Republicans took a battleground district in the state’s western tip and, by slicing off a piece of the liberal city of Asheville, turned it into a district that John McCain would have carried by 18 points in the 2008 presidential election. The incumbent centrist Democrat, Heath Shuler, retired rather than seek reelection in a district he had little shot at winning. He was replaced by Mark Meadows, who went on to be a founding member of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus before becoming the last White House chief of staff for Trump and a central figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

‘Taking the voters out of the equation’: How the parties are killing competition in US

In a shocking move, the Republican party of the United States has officially termed former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and the attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”. &nbsp;

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is holding its winter meetings in Salt Lake City as part of the formal censure of Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who are the only Republicans on the January 6 committee. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/covid-19-death-toll-crosses-900000-mark-in-us-450593">COVID-19: Death toll crosses 9,00,000 mark in US</a>

The resolution, which was approved unanimously, said that Cheney and Kinzinger were engaged in the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse”. &nbsp;

The historians would be “aghast”, said a leading Democrat on the House committee investigating the January 6 incident. &nbsp;

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/security-breach-reported-near-pentagon-in-us-but-no-need-to-worry-450329" hreflang="en">Security breach reported near Pentagon in US. But no need to worry</a>

Some Republicans have also stood up to Trump. At a Florida event staged by the conservative Federalist Society, former vice president Mike Pence, who faced a difficult time in doing the balancing act, said on Friday, “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.” &nbsp;

Pence added, “The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes. If we lose faith in the constitution, we won’t just lose elections – we’ll lose our country.” &nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)&nbsp;

In a shocking move, the Republican party of the United States has officially termed former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and the attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”.

In a shocking move, the Republican party of the United States has officially termed former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and the attack on the Capitol as “legitimate political discourse”. The Republican National Committee (RNC) is holding its winter meetings in Salt Lake City as part of the formal censure of Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who are the only Republicans on the January 6 committee. Also Read: COVID-19: Death toll crosses 9,00,000 mark in US The resolution, which was approved unanimously, said that Cheney and Kinzinger were engaged in the “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse”. The historians would be “aghast”, said a leading Democrat on the House committee investigating the January 6 incident. Also Read: Security breach reported near Pentagon in US. But no need to worry Some Republicans have also stood up to Trump. At a Florida event staged by the conservative Federalist Society, former vice president Mike Pence, who faced a difficult time in doing the balancing act, said on Friday, “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election.” Pence added, “The truth is there’s more at stake than our party or our political fortunes. If we lose faith in the constitution, we won’t just lose elections – we’ll lose our country.” (With inputs from agencies)

Republican party in US terms Capitol attack as 'legitimate political discourse'

President Joe Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights protections during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, the most significant step he will have taken to pressure lawmakers to act on an issue he has called the biggest test of America’s democracy since the Civil War.

Biden will not go so far as to call for full-scale elimination of the filibuster, a Senate tradition that allows the minority party to kill legislation that fails to garner 60 votes, according to a senior administration official who previewed the speech. But Biden will say he supports a filibuster “carve-out” in the case of voting rights, the official said.

Citing “repeated obstruction” by Republicans, Biden will endorse changing the Senate rules, the official said. The president will contend that the filibuster has protected “extreme attacks on the most basic constitutional right.”

“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden will say Tuesday, according to a preview of his remarks provided by the White House. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand.”

Biden’s visit to Georgia is intended to invigorate a Democratic-led effort to pass new voting rights protections in the 50-50 Senate in the coming days, although chances are slim that he will be able to rally the necessary votes. And even with his new call for a filibuster carve-out, changing the Senate rules would require the support of all 50 Democrats and the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie. Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats, have expressed strong public opposition to changing filibuster rules.

The president is taking a gamble by elevating an issue that he may not be able to deliver on. But having exhausted his political capital on other efforts, including a bipartisan infrastructure deal and a stalled social spending plan, he faces mounting frustration from allies who say he has not done enough as restrictive voting measures pass through Republican-led statehouses around the country. Biden’s advisers have promised that he will be forceful about his support for two voting rights bills that could beat back those efforts.

One bill introduced by Democrats, the Freedom to Vote Act, would, among other provisions, take the teeth out of state-led efforts to restrict mail-in or absentee voting, make Election Day a holiday, and stop state legislators from redrawing districts in a way that advocates say denies representation to minority voters. Another, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore crucial anti-discrimination components of the Voting Rights Act that were stripped away by the Supreme Court in 2013.

Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that expectations around the speech were high.

“He wouldn’t be going to Georgia tomorrow if he wasn’t ready and prepared to elevate this issue and continue to fight for it,” she told reporters Monday.

But the president’s advisers have been far less specific about what solutions he might offer, and a bipartisan path forward is all but impossible. Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate and sees himself as a consensus builder, has faced resistance from Republicans on voting rights legislation.

Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said Republicans could have until Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to drop their opposition to debate and votes on the issue, or face the prospect of overhauling filibuster rules.

Many Democrats say such a carve-out would apply only to issues grounded in constitutional rights such as voting. But Republicans and others say it would inevitably be extended to other legislation, diminishing the overall power of the filibuster.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., promised a scorched-earth response should Democrats go that route.

“Since Senator Schumer is hellbent on trying to break the Senate, Republicans will show how this reckless action would have immediate consequences,” McConnell said in a statement Monday.

Republicans have argued that Democrats are using the voting rights legislation to try to gain partisan advantage by seeking to impose their preferred rules on states that have long regulated their own elections. But activists say that critique ignores glaring examples of voter suppression. Voting rights groups in Georgia have already filed a federal lawsuit that accuses legislators of redrawing a congressional district to benefit Republican candidates and deny representation to Black voters.

On Tuesday, Biden will lean on the power of symbolism when he travels to Georgia. He and Harris will visit the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. They will visit the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where both King and Lewis, the Georgia congressman and civil rights icon for whom the legislation is named, were eulogized. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the state's first Black senator and a Democrat who is seeking a full term this year after a runoff victory, is a senior pastor there.

In the afternoon, Biden and Harris will speak at the Atlanta University Center Consortium, a consortium of four historically Black colleges and universities. On Monday evening, the vice president’s office said that Harris, whom Biden had asked to lead on voting rights, “will reaffirm that securing the right to vote is essential to safeguarding and strengthening our democracy” in her remarks.

Georgia, a state Biden won by only 11,779 votes, has also seen some of the most sweeping attempts by Republicans to assert partisan power in elections, particularly through restricting mail-in, absentee or early voting. Critics say similar laws have spread around the country in response to false claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was rigged.

Last week, observing the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Biden denounced those theories: “You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.”

Some prominent activists are offering tempered support before the president’s speech, angered by what they said was a lack of attention as state-level restrictions go into effect.

Rep. Terri A. Sewell, D-Ala., who in August introduced the bill named for Lewis, said that she was “pretty clear” what her expectations were before she agreed to travel to Atlanta with Biden and Harris. She said she had been assured that the president would not only talk about the need for voting rights, but outline a plan for getting it done that would embrace a change of Senate rules.

“It was Georgia voters that gave him the presidency and gave us the slim majority that we have in the Senate,” Sewell said. “I know that he knows that we may have to walk this alone.”

Others are declining to attend. Stacey Abrams, the voting rights advocate and Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, will not be able to attend the speech because of a conflict, an aide to Abrams said. The person declined to elaborate on the conflict.

One prominent family will attend. Martin Luther King III, the oldest living son of the civil rights leader, and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, will meet with Biden in Atlanta. King said that he would meet with the president and tell him that his visit to Georgia could not be just a formality.

“We’ve seen what’s possible when President Biden uses the full weight of his office to deliver for bridges,” King said in a statement. “And now we need to see him do the same for voting rights.” 
&nbsp;

President Joe Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights protections during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, the most significant step he will have taken to pressure lawmakers to act on an issue he has called the biggest test of America’s democracy since the Civil War.

President Joe Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights protections during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, the most significant step he will have taken to pressure lawmakers to act on an issue he has called the biggest test of America’s democracy since the Civil War. Biden will not go so far as to call for full-scale elimination of the filibuster, a Senate tradition that allows the minority party to kill legislation that fails to garner 60 votes, according to a senior administration official who previewed the speech. But Biden will say he supports a filibuster “carve-out” in the case of voting rights, the official said. Citing “repeated obstruction” by Republicans, Biden will endorse changing the Senate rules, the official said. The president will contend that the filibuster has protected “extreme attacks on the most basic constitutional right.” “The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation,” Biden will say Tuesday, according to a preview of his remarks provided by the White House. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice? I know where I stand.” Biden’s visit to Georgia is intended to invigorate a Democratic-led effort to pass new voting rights protections in the 50-50 Senate in the coming days, although chances are slim that he will be able to rally the necessary votes. And even with his new call for a filibuster carve-out, changing the Senate rules would require the support of all 50 Democrats and the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie. Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats, have expressed strong public opposition to changing filibuster rules. The president is taking a gamble by elevating an issue that he may not be able to deliver on. But having exhausted his political capital on other efforts, including a bipartisan infrastructure deal and a stalled social spending plan, he faces mounting frustration from allies who say he has not done enough as restrictive voting measures pass through Republican-led statehouses around the country. Biden’s advisers have promised that he will be forceful about his support for two voting rights bills that could beat back those efforts. One bill introduced by Democrats, the Freedom to Vote Act, would, among other provisions, take the teeth out of state-led efforts to restrict mail-in or absentee voting, make Election Day a holiday, and stop state legislators from redrawing districts in a way that advocates say denies representation to minority voters. Another, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, would restore crucial anti-discrimination components of the Voting Rights Act that were stripped away by the Supreme Court in 2013. Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, acknowledged that expectations around the speech were high. “He wouldn’t be going to Georgia tomorrow if he wasn’t ready and prepared to elevate this issue and continue to fight for it,” she told reporters Monday. But the president’s advisers have been far less specific about what solutions he might offer, and a bipartisan path forward is all but impossible. Biden, who spent 36 years in the Senate and sees himself as a consensus builder, has faced resistance from Republicans on voting rights legislation. Last week, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, said Republicans could have until Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to drop their opposition to debate and votes on the issue, or face the prospect of overhauling filibuster rules. Many Democrats say such a carve-out would apply only to issues grounded in constitutional rights such as voting. But Republicans and others say it would inevitably be extended to other legislation, diminishing the overall power of the filibuster. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., promised a scorched-earth response should Democrats go that route. “Since Senator Schumer is hellbent on trying to break the Senate, Republicans will show how this reckless action would have immediate consequences,” McConnell said in a statement Monday. Republicans have argued that Democrats are using the voting rights legislation to try to gain partisan advantage by seeking to impose their preferred rules on states that have long regulated their own elections. But activists say that critique ignores glaring examples of voter suppression. Voting rights groups in Georgia have already filed a federal lawsuit that accuses legislators of redrawing a congressional district to benefit Republican candidates and deny representation to Black voters. On Tuesday, Biden will lean on the power of symbolism when he travels to Georgia. He and Harris will visit the crypt of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. They will visit the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where both King and Lewis, the Georgia congressman and civil rights icon for whom the legislation is named, were eulogized. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the state's first Black senator and a Democrat who is seeking a full term this year after a runoff victory, is a senior pastor there. In the afternoon, Biden and Harris will speak at the Atlanta University Center Consortium, a consortium of four historically Black colleges and universities. On Monday evening, the vice president’s office said that Harris, whom Biden had asked to lead on voting rights, “will reaffirm that securing the right to vote is essential to safeguarding and strengthening our democracy” in her remarks. Georgia, a state Biden won by only 11,779 votes, has also seen some of the most sweeping attempts by Republicans to assert partisan power in elections, particularly through restricting mail-in, absentee or early voting. Critics say similar laws have spread around the country in response to false claims by former President Donald Trump and his supporters that the 2020 election was rigged. Last week, observing the anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Biden denounced those theories: “You can’t be patriotic when you embrace and enable lies.” Some prominent activists are offering tempered support before the president’s speech, angered by what they said was a lack of attention as state-level restrictions go into effect. Rep. Terri A. Sewell, D-Ala., who in August introduced the bill named for Lewis, said that she was “pretty clear” what her expectations were before she agreed to travel to Atlanta with Biden and Harris. She said she had been assured that the president would not only talk about the need for voting rights, but outline a plan for getting it done that would embrace a change of Senate rules. “It was Georgia voters that gave him the presidency and gave us the slim majority that we have in the Senate,” Sewell said. “I know that he knows that we may have to walk this alone.” Others are declining to attend. Stacey Abrams, the voting rights advocate and Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, will not be able to attend the speech because of a conflict, an aide to Abrams said. The person declined to elaborate on the conflict. One prominent family will attend. Martin Luther King III, the oldest living son of the civil rights leader, and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, will meet with Biden in Atlanta. King said that he would meet with the president and tell him that his visit to Georgia could not be just a formality. “We’ve seen what’s possible when President Biden uses the full weight of his office to deliver for bridges,” King said in a statement. “And now we need to see him do the same for voting rights.”

Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass voting rights legislation

Harry Reid, the Democrat who rose from childhood poverty in the rural Nevada desert to the heights of power in Washington, where he steered the Affordable Care Act to passage as Senate majority leader, died Tuesday in Henderson, Nevada. He was 82.

Reid had been treated for pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in 2018, but lived to see the Las Vegas airport renamed for him this month. His death was confirmed in statements from Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader.

Even by the standards of the political profession, where against-the-odds biographies are common and modest roots an asset, what Reid overcame was extraordinary. He was raised in almost Dickensian circumstances in tiny Searchlight, Nevada: His home had no indoor plumbing, his father was an alcoholic miner who eventually committed suicide, and his mother helped the family survive by taking in laundry from local brothels.

After two decades of campaigns in Nevada marked by success, setback and recovery, Reid was elected to the Senate in 1986. He became the chamber’s Democratic leader after the 2004 election.

But it was not until his colleague Barack Obama was elected president four years later that Reid was able to meld his deep knowledge of congressional rules, his facility with horse-trading and his cussed determination to unify his 60-seat majority and pass landmark legislation.

“If Harry said he would do something, he did it,” President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, said in a statement Tuesday evening. “If he gave you his word, you could bank on it. That’s how he got things done for the good of the country for decades.”

Pushing through a sweeping economic stimulus after the Great Recession, a new set of rules governing Wall Street, and the most significant expansion of health care coverage since the Great Society of the 1960s — all with scant Republican support — Reid became, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the indispensable lawmakers of the Obama era.

“The records will be written about the eight years of Obama and Reid,” Reid boasted shortly after he announced in 2015 that he would not seek reelection the following year.

Yet the three-decade Senate tenure of this soft-spoken yet ferociously combative Nevadan, a middleweight boxer in his youth, also traced the chamber’s evolution from a collegial and consensus-oriented institution to the partisan and fractured body it has become. Republicans placed some of the blame on Reid for this change, pointing to his 2013 decision to upend Senate rules by doing away with the filibuster on most nominations by a president.

Reid, though, reflected the broader leftward shift of his party and his state. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1982, when Nevada finally grew large enough to require a second seat, he arrived in the capital as a moderate western Democrat: opposed to abortion rights, largely supportive of gun rights and uneasy about immigration.

But as Nevada grew from an overwhelmingly rural, white redoubt of ranches and mines to a polyglot gambling mecca in which 70% of voters live in the Las Vegas area, Reid adapted as a matter of necessity. He won his final reelection in 2010, a dismal year for Democrats nationally, thanks in part to an outpouring of support from his state’s rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian communities after his popularity among many other Nevadans had plummeted in the economic collapse.

“I may have won without them, but I doubt it,” Reid said in a later interview about his support among immigrants in his 2010 campaign.

But after Democrats lost the Senate majority in 2014, and after he had lost nearly all the sight in his right eye the next year in a serious accident in his home during a workout, Reid decided not to run for a sixth term. He said he did not want to be one of those senators who served well into old age.

While he was willing to adjust with the times politically, he remained a stylistic throwback. A Mormon who neither drank nor smoked, he also shunned his state’s principal industry, claiming with his characteristic bluntness that “the only people who make money from gambling are the joints and government.”

Prone to ‘Reidisms’

Reid was a meandering and awkward public speaker, far more comfortable plotting strategy beneath the imposing portrait of Mark Twain in his Capitol office than he was making the case for his party on a Sunday news show, much less at a political rally.

In private, he wielded an irreverent sense of humour, but could be brusque, often not even saying goodbye to colleagues at the end of a phone call. When he did speak publicly or to the press, he was often given to verbal miscues that came to be known as “Reidisms.”

He deemed President George W. Bush “a loser” while addressing a group of high school juniors in Nevada in 2005, mused about the body odour of Washington’s tourists a few years later and, when Obama first ran for president, in 2008, said the country’s first Black president could be elected because he spoke “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” (Reid telephoned Obama to apologize after the comments were made public; Obama issued a statement calling the remarks “unfortunate,” but added, “I know what’s in his heart.”)

It was Reid who saw Obama’s potential for a successful run at the White House when many Democrats were rallying behind Hillary Clinton. Recognizing that the young Illinois senator had little affection for the Senate’s byzantine ways, Reid in 2006 privately urged him to mount a bid for the Democratic nomination. “I am one of the reasons he’s president,” Reid told The Washington Post after announcing his retirement.

Obama confirmed as much Tuesday evening, when he posted on Twitter a letter he had recently written to Reid.

“I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination,” Obama wrote.

Reid was as shrewd a tactician as he was poor a communicator, and nowhere was that more evident than in Nevada, where he became the state’s dominant political figure for the final two decades of his life — “a Machiavelli with malaprops,” as the Las Vegas-based journalist Jon Ralston called him.

Reid used his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee and his eventual majority leadership to block nuclear waste from being deposited in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a decades-long fight, while relentlessly earmarking spending for his state, where 85% of the land was federally owned when he left office. He also helped create Nevada’s Great Basin National Park, ensured that millions of acres in the state were protected as national parks or monuments, and made sure that federal funds were directed to cleaning and preserving Lake Tahoe, which straddles Nevada’s border with California.

Reid ran Nevada’s Democratic Party in the manner of an old-style political boss, determining which candidates would run up and down the ballot, arranging his own succession and even remaining in charge after his cancer diagnosis and through the 2018 midterm elections, nearly two years after his retirement from the Senate.

He also used his clout to elevate his state’s role in the presidential nominating process, moving Nevada’s caucuses up to become one of the early voting states in the Democratic primaries, and in 2016 he quietly helped Hillary Clinton salvage her nomination there.

A Difficult Start

Harry Mason Reid Jr. was born on Dec. 2, 1939, in Searchlight, a mining outpost that had about 200 residents in his youth. One of four sons of Harry Sr. and Inez (Jaynes) Reid, he grew up in privation. His father suffered from depression and was often unemployed. Harry worked at a gas station in high school, earning enough money to purchase his mother a new set of false teeth.

Boxing metaphors about Reid would eventually become clichéd — he even named his memoir “The Good Fight” — but he was quite the pugilist. He got into physical altercations with his father (when his father would become violent toward his mother) and with his future father-in-law (who was uneasy about his daughter marrying Reid).

To attend high school, he would hitchhike 40 miles to Henderson, near Las Vegas, where he had relatives. And it was there that his political career effectively began. He had a teacher and boxing coach named Mike O’Callaghan, who would be elected governor in 1970 with Reid as his running mate.

With financial assistance from Nevada businessmen, Reid graduated from Utah State University, where he converted to Mormonism. He then attended law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., moonlighting as a Capitol Police officer to pay his way through.

With his law degree, he returned to Nevada and became the local prosecutor in Henderson. He was elected to the Nevada state Assembly in 1968. Two years later, he and O’Callaghan were elected statewide.

Then, unexpectedly, Sen. Alan Bible, a Democrat, announced in 1974 that he would not run for reelection. Reid won his party’s nomination but lost in the general election to Paul Laxalt, a popular former Republican governor, by fewer than 700 votes. It was the only Democratic Senate seat in the country that year that Republicans picked up.

In an early demonstration of his political pugnacity, Reid had demanded during the campaign that Laxalt release his family’s financial interests.

“One problem,” Reid recalled with a chuckle years later. “His sister was a nun. I got killed on that.”

After an ill-fated bid for the Las Vegas mayoralty in 1975, Reid’s career was floundering. But O’Callaghan again came to his aid, making Reid chair of the Nevada Gaming Commission at a moment when state officials were trying to root out the mob from Las Vegas’ casinos.

It was only then that Reid realized how entrenched the mob still was on the city’s famous Strip. “That was a real eye-opener for me,” he said later, “because I thought I knew the state very well, but I didn’t.”

As gaming commissioner he was offered bribes and participated in FBI stings. Near the end of his tenure his wife, Landra Reid, came out of their house one day to find a bomb attached to the family’s station wagon.

Landra Reid, who was his closest adviser, survives him, as do his children, Rory, Lana Reid Barringer, Leif, Josh and Key, and 19 grandchildren.

Following the 1980 census, Nevada, for the first time in its history, had a large enough population to merit a second House seat, representing the Las Vegas area. Reid won the new district, but after two terms a Senate seat again opened up, thanks to Laxalt’s retirement.

Reid again benefited from running in a good Democratic year, in 1986, and this time his bare-knuckled tactics paid off as he handily defeated Laxalt’s handpicked successor, former Rep. Jim Santini.

He won a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee in his first term and spent much of the first part of his career looking out for the needs of Nevada, which was beginning to boom as a global hospitality capital.

After another agonizingly close race in 1998 — he won by fewer than 500 votes following a recount — Reid was elected minority whip, the second-ranking Senate Democrat. Though still not a prominent figure in Washington, he was pivotal in wooing Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont to leave the Republican Party in 2001 and caucus with the Democrats, a move that gave Reid’s party control of the narrowly divided Senate.

After Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, was defeated in 2004, Reid effectively secured the commitments he needed to take over the caucus by the next day.

The Majority Leader

A fierce critic of George W. Bush — he called him “a liar” as well as a loser — Reid became a beneficiary of the president’s unpopularity in 2006, when Democrats took back control of the Senate and Reid became majority leader. He played a key role in passing the bank bailout after the stock market collapsed in the fall of 2008. Later that year, when Obama was elected, Democrats made even more gains, giving Reid a filibuster-proof majority.

But the Democratic caucus included senators across the ideological spectrum and, with few moderate Republicans left, it took all of Reid’s legislative acumen, doggedness and even shamelessness to win some close votes. On the health law, for example, he offered Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska a generous expansion of Medicaid funding in his state, a deal that critics called “the Cornhusker Kickback.”

Reid’s hard-nosed tactics handed Democrats a series of major achievements, but he enraged Republicans and was vulnerable to defeat entering what would be his final reelection campaign in 2010.

He overcame his own unpopularity by meddling in the Republican primary, as his allies undermined a potentially strong candidate and helped lift a far-right conservative, Sharron Angle, who was herself as gaffe-prone as Reid. He won the general election comfortably even as the rise of the Tea Party movement propelled Republicans to victory across the country.

That same single-mindedness and indifference to criticism, however, embarrassed even some of his allies two years later when he sought to undermine Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy in 2012 by repeatedly, and without evidence, claiming that Romney had gone a decade without paying income tax.

Reid was even more contemptuous of former President Donald Trump, calling him “a racist” and “sexual predator” who achieved prominence only because of the fortune he had inherited.

Being born into wealth was, of course, alien to Reid. At the end of his career — after great financial and political success and raising five children, one of whom became an elected official in Las Vegas — he relished showing visitors his dusty hometown. But he recalled that it was not until he saw Alex Haley give a talk about his book “Roots” that he stopped feeling ashamed by his impoverished background.

“He said be proud of who you are, you can’t escape who you are,” Reid said in his Senate farewell speech, adding that at that point he proudly became “Harry Reid, the guy from Searchlight.”

Harry Reid, the Democrat who rose from childhood poverty in the rural Nevada desert to the heights of power in Washington, where he steered the Affordable Care Act to passage as Senate majority leader, died Tuesday in Henderson, Nevada.

Harry Reid, the Democrat who rose from childhood poverty in the rural Nevada desert to the heights of power in Washington, where he steered the Affordable Care Act to passage as Senate majority leader, died Tuesday in Henderson, Nevada. He was 82. Reid had been treated for pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in 2018, but lived to see the Las Vegas airport renamed for him this month. His death was confirmed in statements from Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader. Even by the standards of the political profession, where against-the-odds biographies are common and modest roots an asset, what Reid overcame was extraordinary. He was raised in almost Dickensian circumstances in tiny Searchlight, Nevada: His home had no indoor plumbing, his father was an alcoholic miner who eventually committed suicide, and his mother helped the family survive by taking in laundry from local brothels. After two decades of campaigns in Nevada marked by success, setback and recovery, Reid was elected to the Senate in 1986. He became the chamber’s Democratic leader after the 2004 election. But it was not until his colleague Barack Obama was elected president four years later that Reid was able to meld his deep knowledge of congressional rules, his facility with horse-trading and his cussed determination to unify his 60-seat majority and pass landmark legislation. “If Harry said he would do something, he did it,” President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, said in a statement Tuesday evening. “If he gave you his word, you could bank on it. That’s how he got things done for the good of the country for decades.” Pushing through a sweeping economic stimulus after the Great Recession, a new set of rules governing Wall Street, and the most significant expansion of health care coverage since the Great Society of the 1960s — all with scant Republican support — Reid became, along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the indispensable lawmakers of the Obama era. “The records will be written about the eight years of Obama and Reid,” Reid boasted shortly after he announced in 2015 that he would not seek reelection the following year. Yet the three-decade Senate tenure of this soft-spoken yet ferociously combative Nevadan, a middleweight boxer in his youth, also traced the chamber’s evolution from a collegial and consensus-oriented institution to the partisan and fractured body it has become. Republicans placed some of the blame on Reid for this change, pointing to his 2013 decision to upend Senate rules by doing away with the filibuster on most nominations by a president. Reid, though, reflected the broader leftward shift of his party and his state. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1982, when Nevada finally grew large enough to require a second seat, he arrived in the capital as a moderate western Democrat: opposed to abortion rights, largely supportive of gun rights and uneasy about immigration. But as Nevada grew from an overwhelmingly rural, white redoubt of ranches and mines to a polyglot gambling mecca in which 70% of voters live in the Las Vegas area, Reid adapted as a matter of necessity. He won his final reelection in 2010, a dismal year for Democrats nationally, thanks in part to an outpouring of support from his state’s rapidly growing Hispanic and Asian communities after his popularity among many other Nevadans had plummeted in the economic collapse. “I may have won without them, but I doubt it,” Reid said in a later interview about his support among immigrants in his 2010 campaign. But after Democrats lost the Senate majority in 2014, and after he had lost nearly all the sight in his right eye the next year in a serious accident in his home during a workout, Reid decided not to run for a sixth term. He said he did not want to be one of those senators who served well into old age. While he was willing to adjust with the times politically, he remained a stylistic throwback. A Mormon who neither drank nor smoked, he also shunned his state’s principal industry, claiming with his characteristic bluntness that “the only people who make money from gambling are the joints and government.” Prone to ‘Reidisms’ Reid was a meandering and awkward public speaker, far more comfortable plotting strategy beneath the imposing portrait of Mark Twain in his Capitol office than he was making the case for his party on a Sunday news show, much less at a political rally. In private, he wielded an irreverent sense of humour, but could be brusque, often not even saying goodbye to colleagues at the end of a phone call. When he did speak publicly or to the press, he was often given to verbal miscues that came to be known as “Reidisms.” He deemed President George W. Bush “a loser” while addressing a group of high school juniors in Nevada in 2005, mused about the body odour of Washington’s tourists a few years later and, when Obama first ran for president, in 2008, said the country’s first Black president could be elected because he spoke “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” (Reid telephoned Obama to apologize after the comments were made public; Obama issued a statement calling the remarks “unfortunate,” but added, “I know what’s in his heart.”) It was Reid who saw Obama’s potential for a successful run at the White House when many Democrats were rallying behind Hillary Clinton. Recognizing that the young Illinois senator had little affection for the Senate’s byzantine ways, Reid in 2006 privately urged him to mount a bid for the Democratic nomination. “I am one of the reasons he’s president,” Reid told The Washington Post after announcing his retirement. Obama confirmed as much Tuesday evening, when he posted on Twitter a letter he had recently written to Reid. “I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination,” Obama wrote. Reid was as shrewd a tactician as he was poor a communicator, and nowhere was that more evident than in Nevada, where he became the state’s dominant political figure for the final two decades of his life — “a Machiavelli with malaprops,” as the Las Vegas-based journalist Jon Ralston called him. Reid used his position on the Senate Appropriations Committee and his eventual majority leadership to block nuclear waste from being deposited in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, a decades-long fight, while relentlessly earmarking spending for his state, where 85% of the land was federally owned when he left office. He also helped create Nevada’s Great Basin National Park, ensured that millions of acres in the state were protected as national parks or monuments, and made sure that federal funds were directed to cleaning and preserving Lake Tahoe, which straddles Nevada’s border with California. Reid ran Nevada’s Democratic Party in the manner of an old-style political boss, determining which candidates would run up and down the ballot, arranging his own succession and even remaining in charge after his cancer diagnosis and through the 2018 midterm elections, nearly two years after his retirement from the Senate. He also used his clout to elevate his state’s role in the presidential nominating process, moving Nevada’s caucuses up to become one of the early voting states in the Democratic primaries, and in 2016 he quietly helped Hillary Clinton salvage her nomination there. A Difficult Start Harry Mason Reid Jr. was born on Dec. 2, 1939, in Searchlight, a mining outpost that had about 200 residents in his youth. One of four sons of Harry Sr. and Inez (Jaynes) Reid, he grew up in privation. His father suffered from depression and was often unemployed. Harry worked at a gas station in high school, earning enough money to purchase his mother a new set of false teeth. Boxing metaphors about Reid would eventually become clichéd — he even named his memoir “The Good Fight” — but he was quite the pugilist. He got into physical altercations with his father (when his father would become violent toward his mother) and with his future father-in-law (who was uneasy about his daughter marrying Reid). To attend high school, he would hitchhike 40 miles to Henderson, near Las Vegas, where he had relatives. And it was there that his political career effectively began. He had a teacher and boxing coach named Mike O’Callaghan, who would be elected governor in 1970 with Reid as his running mate. With financial assistance from Nevada businessmen, Reid graduated from Utah State University, where he converted to Mormonism. He then attended law school at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., moonlighting as a Capitol Police officer to pay his way through. With his law degree, he returned to Nevada and became the local prosecutor in Henderson. He was elected to the Nevada state Assembly in 1968. Two years later, he and O’Callaghan were elected statewide. Then, unexpectedly, Sen. Alan Bible, a Democrat, announced in 1974 that he would not run for reelection. Reid won his party’s nomination but lost in the general election to Paul Laxalt, a popular former Republican governor, by fewer than 700 votes. It was the only Democratic Senate seat in the country that year that Republicans picked up. In an early demonstration of his political pugnacity, Reid had demanded during the campaign that Laxalt release his family’s financial interests. “One problem,” Reid recalled with a chuckle years later. “His sister was a nun. I got killed on that.” After an ill-fated bid for the Las Vegas mayoralty in 1975, Reid’s career was floundering. But O’Callaghan again came to his aid, making Reid chair of the Nevada Gaming Commission at a moment when state officials were trying to root out the mob from Las Vegas’ casinos. It was only then that Reid realized how entrenched the mob still was on the city’s famous Strip. “That was a real eye-opener for me,” he said later, “because I thought I knew the state very well, but I didn’t.” As gaming commissioner he was offered bribes and participated in FBI stings. Near the end of his tenure his wife, Landra Reid, came out of their house one day to find a bomb attached to the family’s station wagon. Landra Reid, who was his closest adviser, survives him, as do his children, Rory, Lana Reid Barringer, Leif, Josh and Key, and 19 grandchildren. Following the 1980 census, Nevada, for the first time in its history, had a large enough population to merit a second House seat, representing the Las Vegas area. Reid won the new district, but after two terms a Senate seat again opened up, thanks to Laxalt’s retirement. Reid again benefited from running in a good Democratic year, in 1986, and this time his bare-knuckled tactics paid off as he handily defeated Laxalt’s handpicked successor, former Rep. Jim Santini. He won a coveted seat on the Appropriations Committee in his first term and spent much of the first part of his career looking out for the needs of Nevada, which was beginning to boom as a global hospitality capital. After another agonizingly close race in 1998 — he won by fewer than 500 votes following a recount — Reid was elected minority whip, the second-ranking Senate Democrat. Though still not a prominent figure in Washington, he was pivotal in wooing Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont to leave the Republican Party in 2001 and caucus with the Democrats, a move that gave Reid’s party control of the narrowly divided Senate. After Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, was defeated in 2004, Reid effectively secured the commitments he needed to take over the caucus by the next day. The Majority Leader A fierce critic of George W. Bush — he called him “a liar” as well as a loser — Reid became a beneficiary of the president’s unpopularity in 2006, when Democrats took back control of the Senate and Reid became majority leader. He played a key role in passing the bank bailout after the stock market collapsed in the fall of 2008. Later that year, when Obama was elected, Democrats made even more gains, giving Reid a filibuster-proof majority. But the Democratic caucus included senators across the ideological spectrum and, with few moderate Republicans left, it took all of Reid’s legislative acumen, doggedness and even shamelessness to win some close votes. On the health law, for example, he offered Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska a generous expansion of Medicaid funding in his state, a deal that critics called “the Cornhusker Kickback.” Reid’s hard-nosed tactics handed Democrats a series of major achievements, but he enraged Republicans and was vulnerable to defeat entering what would be his final reelection campaign in 2010. He overcame his own unpopularity by meddling in the Republican primary, as his allies undermined a potentially strong candidate and helped lift a far-right conservative, Sharron Angle, who was herself as gaffe-prone as Reid. He won the general election comfortably even as the rise of the Tea Party movement propelled Republicans to victory across the country. That same single-mindedness and indifference to criticism, however, embarrassed even some of his allies two years later when he sought to undermine Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy in 2012 by repeatedly, and without evidence, claiming that Romney had gone a decade without paying income tax. Reid was even more contemptuous of former President Donald Trump, calling him “a racist” and “sexual predator” who achieved prominence only because of the fortune he had inherited. Being born into wealth was, of course, alien to Reid. At the end of his career — after great financial and political success and raising five children, one of whom became an elected official in Las Vegas — he relished showing visitors his dusty hometown. But he recalled that it was not until he saw Alex Haley give a talk about his book “Roots” that he stopped feeling ashamed by his impoverished background. “He said be proud of who you are, you can’t escape who you are,” Reid said in his Senate farewell speech, adding that at that point he proudly became “Harry Reid, the guy from Searchlight.”

Harry M Reid, a power in the Senate, dies at 82

Former Senator David Perdue knows how to crash a party. When he announced that he would seek the 2022 Republican nomination for governor in Georgia, challenging the incumbent, Brian Kemp, he did more than enter a primary race. He illustrated the dangers facing the G.O.P. in the coming year.

Georgia Republicans are divided over former President Donald Trump and torn between mainstream credibility and the conspiratorial fringe. Mr. Perdue — an ally of Mr. Trump — has made these divisions worse. The beneficiary? The Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Republicans worry about internal strife and outlandish messages that turn off swing voters because everything else is going their way. The party did well in last month’s elections. President Biden’s low approval ratings endanger Democrats in Congress, where Republicans must net only five seats in the House and one in the Senate to seize control.

Republican strength at the state level gives the party an advantage in drawing new maps of congressional districts, which will amplify their slim lead in the FiveThirtyEight estimate of the congressional generic ballot.

Yet history shows how expectations can be thwarted. Republicans have experienced hopeful times before — only to have the moment pass. They believed that disapproval of President Bill Clinton’s conduct would expand their majorities in 1998. They ended up losing five House seats. They believed that Mr. Trump would rally the base to support two incumbent senators during runoffs in Georgia last January. They lost both seats and Senate control.

Time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasn’t been the Democratic Party. It’s been the Republican Party.

Republican victories in the midterms next year are far from preordained. Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia looks much harder to replicate elsewhere than it did on election night. Republican leaders continue to fear Mr. Trump and his supporters, and they are divided over candidate selection, message and agenda. The result is a unique combination of external strength and internal rot: An enthusiastic and combative Republican Party that despite its best efforts may soon acquire power it has done nothing to deserve.

It will be hard for the party to appeal to the suburban independents who decide elections, though Mr. Youngkin’s success suggests a path. He is the first Republican elected governor of Virginia in over a decade because of his emphasis on kitchen-table issues like rising prices and school closures. He ignored immigration, encouraged vaccination while opposing government mandates and stayed clear of Mr. Trump during the general election. He focused on parental involvement in education and planted himself firmly in the center-right of the political mainstream. When asked about a Trump rally where the Pledge of Allegiance was recited to a flag supposedly connected to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Youngkin called it “weird and wrong.” One Republican senator joked in private that Mr. Youngkin had figured out how to hold Mr. Trump’s hand — under the table and in the dark.

Other candidates won’t be as skilled or as lucky as Mr. Youngkin. Republicans lost winnable Senate seats in 2010 and 2012 because of flawed nominees like Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Past may be prologue if Republicans nominate Trump allies whose record or rhetoric are questionable and extreme. Last month, one Trump-endorsed candidate for Senate, Sean Parnell of Pennsylvania, suspended his campaign after he lost a custody battle against his estranged wife. The Trump endorsees Kelly Tshibaka of Alaska and Herschel Walker of Georgia are untested on the campaign trail. In races where Mr. Trump hasn’t yet endorsed, Blake Masters of Arizona, Eric Greitens of Missouri and J.D. Vance of Ohio may secure the MAGA base by forfeiting viability in the general election.

Mr. Trump remains the central figure in the G.O.P. Party elites try to ignore him as he spends many days fighting Republicans rather than Democrats and plotting his revenge against the 10 Republican House members who voted for his second impeachment, the seven Republican senators who voted to convict him and the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Mr. Trump targets his enemies with primary challenges, calls for “audits” and “decertification” of the 2020 presidential results and howls at Mitch McConnell for not being “tough.” His imitators within the party are a font of endless infighting and controversy and undermine the authority of the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Trump would have it no other way.

The former president was content to keep a distance for this year’s races for governor. He won’t be so quiet next year — especially if he concludes that a successful midterm is a key step to his restoration to power in 2024. A more visible and vocal Trump has the potential to help Republicans in solid red states but doom them in purple or blue ones. Yet control of the Senate hinges on the results in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire — states Mr. Trump lost in 2020.

Mr. Youngkin showed that a positive message attuned to middle-class priorities repels Democratic attacks. If Republicans campaign on a unified message that applies conservative principles to inflation, the border, crime, education and health care, they might be able to avoid being tagged as the party of extremism, conspiracy and loyalty to Mr. Trump. Their problem is they have no such message.

Mr. McConnell has reportedly told Senate Republicans that they won’t release an agenda before the midterms. He’s worried that specific proposals are nothing but fodder for Democratic attacks. What should worry him more are rudderless Republican candidates who allow their Democratic opponents to define them negatively — and then, if they still win, take office in January 2023 with no idea what to do.

In an ideal world, more Republicans would think seriously about how best to provide individuals and families the resources necessary to flourish in today’s America. They would spend less time attacking one another and more time offering constructive approaches to inflation and dangerous streets. They would experiment with a ranked-choice primary system that played a role in Mr. Youngkin’s nomination in Virginia and in the law-and-order Democrat Eric Adams’s win in New York City’s mayor’s race. Interested Republicans would declare today that Mr. Trump won’t deter them from seeking the presidency — reminding him that renomination is not guaranteed.

But that’s not the world we live in. Republicans appear either unwilling or unable to treat the former president as a figure from the past whose behavior has done the party more harm than good. They take false comfort in the idea that midterm elections are “thermostatic,” the inevitable repudiation of the governing party that is climatic in nature. They assume they will win next year without doing anything of significance. And they may be right.

Former Senator David Perdue knows how to crash a party. When he announced that he would seek the 2022 Republican nomination for governor in Georgia, challenging the incumbent, Brian Kemp, he did more than enter a primary race.

Former Senator David Perdue knows how to crash a party. When he announced that he would seek the 2022 Republican nomination for governor in Georgia, challenging the incumbent, Brian Kemp, he did more than enter a primary race. He illustrated the dangers facing the G.O.P. in the coming year. Georgia Republicans are divided over former President Donald Trump and torn between mainstream credibility and the conspiratorial fringe. Mr. Perdue — an ally of Mr. Trump — has made these divisions worse. The beneficiary? The Democrat Stacey Abrams. Republicans worry about internal strife and outlandish messages that turn off swing voters because everything else is going their way. The party did well in last month’s elections. President Biden’s low approval ratings endanger Democrats in Congress, where Republicans must net only five seats in the House and one in the Senate to seize control. Republican strength at the state level gives the party an advantage in drawing new maps of congressional districts, which will amplify their slim lead in the FiveThirtyEight estimate of the congressional generic ballot. Yet history shows how expectations can be thwarted. Republicans have experienced hopeful times before — only to have the moment pass. They believed that disapproval of President Bill Clinton’s conduct would expand their majorities in 1998. They ended up losing five House seats. They believed that Mr. Trump would rally the base to support two incumbent senators during runoffs in Georgia last January. They lost both seats and Senate control. Time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasn’t been the Democratic Party. It’s been the Republican Party. Republican victories in the midterms next year are far from preordained. Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia looks much harder to replicate elsewhere than it did on election night. Republican leaders continue to fear Mr. Trump and his supporters, and they are divided over candidate selection, message and agenda. The result is a unique combination of external strength and internal rot: An enthusiastic and combative Republican Party that despite its best efforts may soon acquire power it has done nothing to deserve. It will be hard for the party to appeal to the suburban independents who decide elections, though Mr. Youngkin’s success suggests a path. He is the first Republican elected governor of Virginia in over a decade because of his emphasis on kitchen-table issues like rising prices and school closures. He ignored immigration, encouraged vaccination while opposing government mandates and stayed clear of Mr. Trump during the general election. He focused on parental involvement in education and planted himself firmly in the center-right of the political mainstream. When asked about a Trump rally where the Pledge of Allegiance was recited to a flag supposedly connected to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Mr. Youngkin called it “weird and wrong.” One Republican senator joked in private that Mr. Youngkin had figured out how to hold Mr. Trump’s hand — under the table and in the dark. Other candidates won’t be as skilled or as lucky as Mr. Youngkin. Republicans lost winnable Senate seats in 2010 and 2012 because of flawed nominees like Sharron Angle in Nevada, Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Todd Akin in Missouri and Richard Mourdock in Indiana. Past may be prologue if Republicans nominate Trump allies whose record or rhetoric are questionable and extreme. Last month, one Trump-endorsed candidate for Senate, Sean Parnell of Pennsylvania, suspended his campaign after he lost a custody battle against his estranged wife. The Trump endorsees Kelly Tshibaka of Alaska and Herschel Walker of Georgia are untested on the campaign trail. In races where Mr. Trump hasn’t yet endorsed, Blake Masters of Arizona, Eric Greitens of Missouri and J.D. Vance of Ohio may secure the MAGA base by forfeiting viability in the general election. Mr. Trump remains the central figure in the G.O.P. Party elites try to ignore him as he spends many days fighting Republicans rather than Democrats and plotting his revenge against the 10 Republican House members who voted for his second impeachment, the seven Republican senators who voted to convict him and the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Mr. Trump targets his enemies with primary challenges, calls for “audits” and “decertification” of the 2020 presidential results and howls at Mitch McConnell for not being “tough.” His imitators within the party are a font of endless infighting and controversy and undermine the authority of the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Trump would have it no other way. The former president was content to keep a distance for this year’s races for governor. He won’t be so quiet next year — especially if he concludes that a successful midterm is a key step to his restoration to power in 2024. A more visible and vocal Trump has the potential to help Republicans in solid red states but doom them in purple or blue ones. Yet control of the Senate hinges on the results in Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire — states Mr. Trump lost in 2020. Mr. Youngkin showed that a positive message attuned to middle-class priorities repels Democratic attacks. If Republicans campaign on a unified message that applies conservative principles to inflation, the border, crime, education and health care, they might be able to avoid being tagged as the party of extremism, conspiracy and loyalty to Mr. Trump. Their problem is they have no such message. Mr. McConnell has reportedly told Senate Republicans that they won’t release an agenda before the midterms. He’s worried that specific proposals are nothing but fodder for Democratic attacks. What should worry him more are rudderless Republican candidates who allow their Democratic opponents to define them negatively — and then, if they still win, take office in January 2023 with no idea what to do. In an ideal world, more Republicans would think seriously about how best to provide individuals and families the resources necessary to flourish in today’s America. They would spend less time attacking one another and more time offering constructive approaches to inflation and dangerous streets. They would experiment with a ranked-choice primary system that played a role in Mr. Youngkin’s nomination in Virginia and in the law-and-order Democrat Eric Adams’s win in New York City’s mayor’s race. Interested Republicans would declare today that Mr. Trump won’t deter them from seeking the presidency — reminding him that renomination is not guaranteed. But that’s not the world we live in. Republicans appear either unwilling or unable to treat the former president as a figure from the past whose behavior has done the party more harm than good. They take false comfort in the idea that midterm elections are “thermostatic,” the inevitable repudiation of the governing party that is climatic in nature. They assume they will win next year without doing anything of significance. And they may be right.

Will Trump Ruin a Red Wave in 2022?

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