POLITICS

Republican voters of Kentucky choose a candidate for governor. Andy Beshear

Published

4 hours ago

May 17, 2023

CNN
—

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron will win his party’s nomination for governor in Tuesday’s primary, CNN projects, setting up a long-awaited showdown this fall with a Democratic governor. Andy Beshear.

Cameron, backed by Donald Trump, will beat former diplomat Kelly Craft in a race seen as a test of the former president’s influence on Republican primary voters as the 2024 presidential race takes shape.

Cameron’s victory marks one of the most important elections of 2023, with implications for 2024.

CNN forecast Tuesday night that Beshear will win the Democratic renomination. His bid for a second term could be an important landmark for next year, when his party defends Senate seats in other red states like Montana, Ohio and West Virginia.

Beshear, whose father served two terms as governor, defeated the Republican governor. Matt Bevin is an unpopular incumbent who angered many in his party in 2019. As expected, he fended off nominal Democratic opposition in Tuesday’s primary.

Republicans, though, argue that despite Beshear’s popularity, the November general election is likely to be competitive in the dark red state. In recent years, Republicans have eroded the Democratic lead in voter registration, and the Democratic presidential nominee has not won Kentucky since former President Bill Clinton was re-elected in 1996. Beshear is the only remaining member of the party elected at the state level.

Cameron said “thank you very much” to Trump at his campaign party on Tuesday.

“Let me just say that Trump’s victory culture is alive and well in Kentucky,” Cameron said.

Cameron nodded at his potential historic status: if he defeats Beshear in November, he will become Kentucky’s first black governor and the first black Republican elected governor in the United States.

“To all who are like me, know that you can achieve anything. Know that in this country and in Kentucky, all that matters is your values,” Cameron said.

He also recounted his attacks on Beshear in the upcoming election, accusing the first Democrat of crime, low labor force participation, fentanyl, and schools that he said “are on the verge of becoming a hotbed of liberal and progressive ideals.” ”

He said the Republican-controlled legislature deserved the most credit for Beshear’s accomplishments.

“The governor can’t pretend to be in the top three when everyone knows he was born on third base,” Cameron said.

He added: “The governor, who will not speak out on these issues and will not defend your interests, has relinquished his duties to the commonwealth and is no longer in a position to lead it.”

Kraft, in tearful comments at a pre-election party, did not use Cameron’s name but complained about his campaign tactics.

But she also urged Republican voters to unite against Beshear.

“While I’m disappointed with today’s result, we must now unite as one Republican party to defeat Andy Beshear in November,” she said.

Of a dozen candidates in the Kentucky GOP gubernatorial primary, Cameron, Commissioner of Crafts and Agriculture Ryan Quarles emerged as the top contenders.

The competition was fierce, with Cameron and Kraft shooting each other for months.

Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backed Cameron, a former McConnell staffer.

But Kraft, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada and later to the United Nations under the Trump administration, poured millions of dollars of her family’s money into the race.

On Monday, she received a late approval from Florida’s governor. Ron DeSantis turning the primary into a proxy war of sorts ahead of DeSantis’ likely looming showdown with Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. Meanwhile, Trump spoke at a televised rally in support of Cameron on Sunday night.

Kraft downplayed Trump’s support for Cameron, noting that it came when she was not officially in the race.

Cameron, in a debate earlier this month, responded by pointing out that the former president attended the Kentucky Derby with Kraft last year and backed Cameron a few weeks later.

“Kelly, you’ve been telling people for six months that you’re going to get Donald Trump’s approval. You saw him at the Derby last year. And then I got approval. And your team has been climbing ever since,” Cameron said at a debate hosted by Kentucky Educational Television.

Kraft has leaned towards attacking transgender rights, criticizing what she calls “awakening ideology” in schools.

“We won’t have transgender people in our school system,” she said Monday during a phone call with City Hall, a remark that drew criticism from LGBTQ rights advocates in Kentucky.

For his part, Quarles sought to win over voters who might be repelled by the publicity battle between Cameron and Kraft.

“It’s important that the Republicans come up with a candidate who can unite the party,” he said during a debate in early May.

While the gubernatorial race is Kentucky’s top contest in 2023, Republican Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, a vocal advocate for the state’s electoral practices, will win the GOP primary, CNN predicts.

Adams fended off a challenge from Steven Knipper, an IT project manager who made false allegations of voter fraud in the state of Bluegrass, and former state legislator Allen Marikle.

Adams will be the clear favorite as he takes on former Democratic Rep. Buddy Whitley in November, whose party’s nomination is unopposed.

This story and title has been updated with additional events.

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Australian PM rules out Sydney ‘Quad’ summit after Biden cuts trip to Asia

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POLITICS

Australian PM rules out Sydney ‘Quad’ summit after Biden cuts trip to Asia

Published

7 hours ago

May 17, 2023

Charles Williams

CANBERRA, Australia – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ruled out holding a so-called G-4 summit in Sydney without US President Joe Biden, saying the four leaders will speak at a G-7 meeting this weekend in Japan.

Albanese said Wednesday he understands why Biden pulled out of the summit to focus on debt-limit talks in Washington because they are critical to the economy. A summit between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was scheduled for May 24.

“The lockdown and disruptions that are happening in domestic politics in the United States, with the issue of the debt ceiling, mean that since this must be resolved before June 1 – otherwise there will be quite drastic consequences for the US economy that will be on the global economy – he, understandably, had to make that decision,” Albanese told reporters.

Albanese said Biden was “very disappointed” at not being able to make it to the summit in Sydney and the nation’s capital, Canberra, the day before to address parliament.

The four leaders will soon gather in Japan for the G-7 summit in Hiroshima and plan to meet there, he said.

“The square is an important body, and we want to make sure that this happens at the leadership level, and we will have this discussion over the weekend,” Albanese said.

He suggested that Modi could still visit Sydney next week, noting that Modi was scheduled to deliver an address to the Indian diaspora on Tuesday at a sold-out 20,000-seat stadium.

“We will make additional announcements about this, but Prime Minister Modi will certainly be a very welcome guest here next week,” Albanese said.

POLITICS

Democrat to force vote to expel George Santos from Con: NPR

Published

8 hours ago

May 17, 2023

Charles Williams

Rep. George Santos leaves the US Capitol after the May 11, 2023 vote.

Vin McNamee/Getty Images

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Vin McNamee/Getty Images

Rep. George Santos leaves the US Capitol after the May 11, 2023 vote.

Vin McNamee/Getty Images

The House Democrat announced plans today to vote on a resolution to expel scandal-ridden Rep. George Santos from Congress, less than a week after the first-term Republican congressman pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.

One offer permission represented by California Representative Robert Garcia is symbolic; The measure is expected to fail but force Republicans in the House of Representatives to make their New York counterpart official.

“George Santos is a fraud and a liar and the House of Representatives should expel him,” Garcia said in a statement. “Republicans now have a chance to demonstrate to Americans that a convicted felon should not serve in the House of Representatives.”

The motion is a favored resolution that, when proposed by an ordinary member of the House of Representatives, triggers a procedural vote within the next two days, though Republicans can still block the measure. Any proposal for exclusion requires a two-thirds vote. But any attempt by the Republican Party to block or introduce the resolution would still mean that the House of Representatives would vote.

Santos, whose office did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for his reaction to the resolution, had previously pleaded not guilty and insisted he would remain in Congress.

Santos, who was urged by members of his own party to resign, pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges last week. Hey faces 13 counts of a criminal offenseincluding wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds, and making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.

“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and blatant misrepresentation,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.

“Together, the allegations in the indictment accuse Santos of relying on repeated dishonesty and deceit to climb the halls of Congress and enrich himself,” he added. “He used political contributions to line his pockets, illegally filed for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives.”

Santos was released on $500,000 bail.

A day after Santos pleaded not guilty, he remotely appeared in criminal court in a separate case in Brazil. New York Times first reported that the congressman signed an agreement with Brazilian prosecutors that he confess to stealing receipts for the purchase of clothes and other goods in 2008 and pay nearly $5,000 in fines.

In January, Santos voluntarily resigned from his committee amid protests over his fabricated background and persistent questions regarding his personal finances and campaign funding.

At the time, Santos told his GOP colleagues in a closed-door conference that Speaker McCarthy did not force him to do so, but felt that being on committees distracted his colleagues.

In March, the House Ethics Committee announced it was launching a formal investigation to find out if Santos “engaged in illegal activities” during his 2022 campaign. Democrats are pushing for a vote before the ethics commission completes its investigation. Generally, recommendations for exclusion come from the House Ethics Committee Investigation Team and are for serious misconduct. The last MP to be expelled from the House was Rep. Jim Trafficant, D-Ohio, in 2002, and his ouster came after he was convicted of several crimes and the ethics committee made a formal recommendation to do so.

Last week, McCarthy said he would not support Santos’ bid for re-election and said he would call for him to step down pending the outcome of an ongoing ethics investigation.

On Tuesday, McCarthy said he wants the Ethics Committee to “get to it quickly.”

“Everyone in America can have due process,” McCarthy told reporters after meeting at the White House with President Biden and other top congressional leaders on the issue of debt limitation. “I don’t want to wait for the courts to take action. I would like the House of Representatives to take action and process here.”

POLITICS

The Mystery of the Intermediate Perspective: What Happened to the Red Wave?

Published

11 hours ago

May 17, 2023

Charles Williams

It was shocking, but even more perplexing. The consensus of commentators, pundits, pollsters, handicappers, and election predictors (myself included) was that Republicans were expecting strong results in the 2022 mid-term—a jump of 20 to over 40 seats in the House of Representatives, and even modest gains in the Senate and governorships. , despite the protection of the majority of seats for these positions (21 out of 35 seats in the Senate and 20 out of 36 gubernatorial posts).