House censures Rep. Adam Schiff over Trump-Russia investigations
The House voted Wednesday to censure California Rep. Adam Schiff for comments he made several years ago about investigations into Donald Trump’s ties to Russia, rebuking the Democrat and frequent critic of the former president along party lines. Schiff, who will stand in front of the House while the resolution is read, becomes the 25th House lawmaker to be censured. He was defiant ahead of the vote, saying he will wear the formal disapproval as a “badge of honor” and charged his GOP colleagues of doing the former president’s bidding. “I will not yield,” Schiff, who is running for the Senate in his home state, said during debate over the measure. “Not one inch.” More than 20 Republicans voted with Democrats last week to block the censure resolution, but they changed their votes this week after the measure’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, removed a provision that could have fined Schiff $16 million if the House Ethics Committee determined he lied. Several of the Republicans who opposed the resolution last week said they opposed fining a member of Congress in that manner. The final vote was 213-209. The revised resolution says Schiff held positions of power during Trump’s presidency and “abused this trust by saying there was evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.” Schiff was one of the most outspoken critics of the former president as both the Justice Department and the Republican-led House launched investigations into Trump’s ties to Russia in 2017. Both investigations concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election but neither found evidence of a criminal conspiracy. “Representative Schiff purposely deceived his Committee, Congress, and the American people,” the resolution said. Schiff, the former Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the lead prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial, has long been a top Republican political target. Soon after taking back the majority this year, Republicans blocked him from sitting on the intelligence panel. The House has only censured two other lawmakers in the last 20 years. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona was censured in 2021 for tweeting an animated video that depicted him striking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., with a sword. Former Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel of New York was censured in 2010 for serious financial and campaign misconduct. The censure itself carries no practical effect, except to provide a historic footnote that marks a lawmaker’s career. But the GOP resolution would also launch an ethics investigation into Schiff’s conduct. While Schiff did not initiate the 2017 congressional investigation into Trump’s Russia ties — then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican who later became one of Trump’s most ardent defenders, started it — Republicans arguing in favor of his censure Wednesday blamed him for what they said was the fallout of that probe, and of the separate investigation started that same year by Trump’s own Justice Department. Luna said that Schiff’s comments that there was evidence against Trump “ripped apart American families across the country” and that he was “permanently destroying family relationships.” Several blamed him for the more than $30 million spent by then-special counsel Robert Mueller, who led the Justice Department probe. Schiff said the censure resolution “would accuse me of omnipotence, the leader of some a vast Deep State conspiracy, and of course, it is nonsense.” Democrats aggressively defended their colleague. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led Trump’s second impeachment, called the effort an “embarrassing revenge tour on behalf of Donald Trump.” Mueller, who led the two-year Justice Department investigation, determined that Russia intervened on the campaign’s behalf and that Trump’s campaign welcomed the help. But Mueller’s team did not find that the campaign conspired to sway the election, and the Justice Department did not recommend any criminal charges. The House intelligence committee probe launched by Nunes similarly found that Russia intervened in the election but that there was no evidence of a criminal conspiracy. Schiff was the top Democrat on the panel at the time. Schiff said last week that the censure resolution was “red meat” that Speaker Kevin McCarthy was throwing to his conference amid squabbles over government spending. Republicans are trying to show their fealty to Trump, Schiff said. He said he warned the country during impeachment proceedings three years ago that Trump “would go on to do worse. And, of course, he did worse in the form of a violent attack on the Capitol.” After Democrats won the House majority in 2018, the House impeached Trump for abuse of power after he threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine and urged the country’s president to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden. Schiff was the lead House prosecutor making the case for conviction to the Senate, arguing repeatedly that “right matters.” The Republican-led chamber ultimately acquitted him. Trump was impeached a second time a year later, after he had left office, for his role in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol. The Senate again acquitted Trump. In the censure resolution against Schiff, Luna also cited a report released in May from special counsel John Durham that found that the FBI rushed into its investigation of Trump’s campaign and relied too much on raw and unconfirmed intelligence. Durham said investigators repeatedly relied on “confirmation bias,” ignoring or rationalizing away evidence that undercut their premise of a Trump-Russia conspiracy as they pushed the probe forward. But he did not allege that political bias or partisanship were guiding factors for the FBI’s actions. Trump had claimed that Durham’s report would reveal the “crime of the century” and expose a “deep state conspiracy” by high-ranking government officials to derail his candidacy and later his presidency. But the investigation yielded only one conviction — a guilty plea from a little-known FBI employee — and the only two other cases that were brought both ended in acquittals at trial. On Wednesday, just before the vote, Schiff’s campaign sent out a fundraising email that said Luna had introduced “yet ANOTHER resolution to censure me.” “The vote and debate will happen imminently,” the email read,
House GOP votes to oust Democrat Ilhan Omar from major committee
The Republican-led House voted after raucous debate Thursday to oust Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar from the chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, citing her anti-Israel comments, in a dramatic response to Democrats last session booting far-right GOP lawmakers over incendiary remarks. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was able to solidify Republicans to take action against the Somali-born Muslim in the new Congress, although some GOP lawmakers had expressed reservations. Removal of lawmakers from House committees was essentially unprecedented until the Democratic ousters two years ago of hard-right Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona. The 218-211 vote, along party lines, came after a heated, voices-raised debate in which Democrats accused the GOP of going after Omar based on her race. Omar, who has apologized for 2019 remarks widely seen as antisemitic, defended herself on the House floor, asking if anyone was surprised she was being targeted. Democratic colleagues hugged her during the vote. “My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world, as it has been,” Omar said in a closing speech. House Republicans focused on six statements she has made that “under the totality of the circumstances, disqualify her from serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs,” said Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi, the incoming chairman of the House Ethics Committee. “All members, both Republicans and Democrats alike who seek to serve on Foreign Affairs, should be held to the highest standard of conduct due to the international sensitivity and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee,” Guest said. Republicans have clashed with Omar since she arrived in Congress, and former President Donald Trump frequently taunted her at his rallies in ways that appealed to his supporters. The resolution proposed by Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a former official in the Trump administration, declared, “Omar’s comments have brought dishonor to the House of Representatives.” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Omar has at times “made mistakes” and used antisemitic tropes that were condemned by House Democrats four years ago. But that’s not what Thursday’s vote was about, he said. “It’s about political revenge,” Jeffries said. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went further, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attack as she called the GOP’s action part of one of the “disgusting legacies after 9/11, the targeting and racism against Muslim-Americans throughout the United States of America. And this is an extension of that legacy.” She added, “This is about targeting women of color.” McCarthy denied the Republican decision to oust Omar was a tit-for-tat after the Greene and Gosar removals under Democrats, though he had warned in late 2021 that such a response might be expected if Republicans won back the House majority. “This is nothing like the last Congress,” he said Thursday. He noted that Omar can remain on other panels, just not Foreign Affairs, after her anti-Israel comments. Omar is one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress. She is also the first to wear a hijab in the House chamber after floor rules were changed to allow members to wear head coverings for religious reasons. She quickly generated controversy after joining Congress in 2019 with a pair of tweets that suggested lawmakers who supported Israel were motivated by money. In the first, she criticized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. “It’s all about the Benjamins, baby,” she wrote, invoking slang about $100 bills. Asked on Twitter who she thought was paying members of Congress to support Israel, Omar responded, “AIPAC!” Omar’s remarks sparked a public rebuke from then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats who made clear that she had overstepped. She soon apologized. “We have to always be willing to step back and think through criticism, just as I expect people to hear me when others attack me about my identity,” Omar tweeted. “This is why I unequivocally apologize.” Also, in a May 2021 tweet, she made reference to Israel as “an apartheid state” over its treatment of Palestinians. Democrats rallied Thursday in a fiery defense of Omar and the experiences she brings to Congress. “This clearly isn’t about what Ilhan Omar said as much as who she is — being a smart, outspoken Black woman of the Muslim faith is apparently the issue,” said Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis. Black, Latino, and progressive lawmakers, in particular, spoke of her unique voice in the House and criticized Republicans for what they called a racist attack. “Racist gaslighting,” said Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo. A “revenge resolution,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chair of the progressive caucus. “It’s so painful to watch,” said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who joined Congress with Omar as the first two female Muslims elected to the House. “To Congresswoman Omar, I am so sorry that our country is failing you today through this chamber,” Tlaib said through tears. “You belong on that committee.” In the weeks leading up to the vote, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, argued for excluding Omar from the panel during a recent closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans. “It’s just that her worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee’s,” McCaul told reporters in describing his stance. “I don’t mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that.” At the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the ouster, “It’s a political stunt.” McCarthy has already blocked Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both California Democrats, from rejoining the House Intelligence Committee once the GOP took control of the chamber in January. While appointments to the intelligence panel are the prerogative of the speaker, the action on Omar required a House vote. Several Republicans skeptical of removing Omar wanted “due process” for lawmakers who face removal. McCarthy said he told them he would work with Democrats on creating a due process system, but acknowledged it’s still a work in progress. One Republican, Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, voted present. In the last Congress, several Republicans had joined Democrats in removing Greene and Gosar from
Kevin McCarthy fails to win House Speakership after 11 votes
On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to choose its next Speaker of the House. Ninety percent of House Republicans, including all of the Congressional Republicans from Alabama, voted to make longtime House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy the Speaker, but that was still far short of the 218 votes needed to elect McCarthy Speaker. The 11:00 am CST Speaker of the House vote was followed by four more votes before the House adjourned until Friday. The four failed Speaker votes on Thursday, followed three votes on Wednesday and three on Tuesday, for a total of 11 failed Speaker elections to this point. The small group of ultra-conservative Republicans in the House that oppose McCarthy are led by Reps. Andy Biggs, Matt Gaetz, and Bob Good. They insist that they can hold out indefinitely and will not be swayed by critics to soften their stand against McCarthy, whom they view as too moderate. Democrats, on the other hand, have voted unanimously for their new leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries. Congresswoman Terri Sewell has voted for Jeffries. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has told reporters that House Democrats will not help elect McCarthy. Alabama’s Republican Congressmen Jerry Carl, Barry Moore, Mike Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Dale Strong, and Gary Palmer have all steadfastly supported McCarthy throughout this process. “I am supporting Kevin McCarthy in the House the entire time,” said Barry Moore in a video statement on Facebook. “We have been working on trying to get a consensus on who the Speaker will be.” “I have been with Kevin because I said I would be with Kevin,” Moore said. “I have told Kevin that he has my support.” The House cannot conduct business until it has a Speaker in place, so essentially, the first, second, and third days of the 118th Congress accomplished nothing. House committee staff may not get paid if the House does not pass rules for the 118th Congress – something that it can’t do until after the House has a Speaker. According to a memo released Thursday, the deadline for passing the rules package is next Friday. “Committees need to be aware that should a House Rules package not be adopted by end of business on January 13, no committee will be able to process payroll since the committee’s authority for the new Congress is not yet confirmed,” the memo said. Without a Speaker of the House, House Republicans’ expansive agenda can’t move forward. New members, including Alabama’s Dale Strong, have been unable to even be sworn in. The incoming chairs for the Intelligence, Armed Services, and Foreign Affairs committees are blocked from attending classified national security briefings until the rules are adopted for the 118th Congress, and committee chairs are formally appointed by the Speaker. McCarthy’s inability to even get a vote of support from the squabbling members of his own caucus has called into question whether or not he will be able to effectively lead the majority party moving forward – even if he is chosen as the next Speaker of the House. McCarthy and his allies have shown no sign of bringing forward a new candidate. McCarthy was previously passed over for Speaker in 2015 after ultraconservatives objected. Congressman Paul Ryan was chosen as Speaker then. This is the first time since 1923 that the Speaker of the House was not chosen on the first vote. There has not been this many failed votes on the Speaker since the Civil War. The House of Representatives will convene on Friday at 11:00 am CST to vote for a twelfth time. “I guarantee this much – it will be better than Nancy Pelosi,” Moore said, acknowledging that he was not sure who would ultimately get the Speakership. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Terri Sewell votes in favor of Puerto Rico Status Act
On Thursday, Congresswoman Terri Sewell voted in favor of H.R. 8393, the Puerto Rico Status Act. It would allow the residents of Puerto Rico to vote for their political status moving forward. The Puerto Rico Status Act is a compromise between the sponsors of two bills seeking to resolve Puerto Rico’s territorial status: the Puerto Rico Statehood Admissions Act and the Puerto Rico Self-Determination Act. It would provide residents an opportunity to select from three non-territorial, fully self-governing political status options: Statehood, Independence, and Sovereignty in Free Association with the United States. The bill passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 233 to 191. “I’m proud to stand in support of self-determination for the people of Puerto Rico in voting for the Puerto Rico Status Act,” Rep. Sewell stated. “For too long, the residents of Puerto Rico have been denied the opportunity to freely determine their own political status. This bill is about righting that wrong and placing the future of Puerto Rico back into the hands of Puerto Ricans where it belongs.” The Puerto Rico Status Act would: · Authorize a federally sponsored plebiscite to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status. · Specify and define Puerto Rico’s non-territorial status options: Independence, Sovereignty in Free Association with the United States, and Statehood. · Provide for an objective, nonpartisan, federally funded voter education campaign leading up to the vote. · Establish a process and timeline for the U.S. Department of Justice to review the plebiscite voter education materials and plebiscite ballot design. · Authorize necessary funds to carry out an initial plebiscite and, if necessary, a runoff plebiscite. · Describe the transition to and implementation of each status option in sufficient detail for eligible voters in Puerto Rico to make an informed choice about Puerto Rico’s future political status. · Ensure the result of the plebiscite is binding and implement the option that is chosen by a majority of eligible voters in Puerto Rico. Ending what they see as America’s colonial occupation of Puerto Rico is a goal of Progressive Democrats in Congress. “Today, for the first time in our nation’s history, the United States will acknowledge its role as a colonizing force and Puerto Rico’s status as an extended colony,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on the House floor. Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez was born and raised in Puerto Rico. “Congress’ unlimited plenary powers over Puerto Rico is reminiscent of the monarchical powers enjoyed by King George III, against which the founders of the American Republic so bravely fought,” Velazquez said. “If [Alexander] Hamilton and [James]Madison were alive today, they would be shocked to see how the anti-colonial Constitution they drafted in 1787 is currently used to legitimize colonialism in Puerto Rico even 300 years later.” The legislation now moves on to the Senate for its consideration. Sewell was recently re-elected to her seventh term representing Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Bill Chitwood: A MAGA call to action following Joe Biden’s Red Speech
It’s being called the Red Speech, the Bloody Speech, and even Bloody Thursday. The White House calls it “Remarks…On the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation”. Time will tell what label it ultimately carries down in history, but one thing is certain. Thursday, September 1, 2022, was THE speech that will define Joe Biden’s presidency. The iconic picture has been seared into the national consciousness: Joe Biden, arms outstretched behind the Presidential podium, Independence Hall bathed in blood-red with white wings above and uniformed troops below. If you’re a fan of WWII documentaries on the History Channel, it was all too familiar in a nightmarish, I-can’t-believe-they-did-that kind of way. The staging was calculated to convey a message of strength and authority in support of a President with dismal ratings, an abysmal performance in office, and lingering (and steadily growing) concerns about the legitimacy of his election. What it did was invoke images of Nuremberg rallies, and the very Nazis Biden and his cronies accuse MAGA Republicans of being. The rhetoric started with the usual platitudes. Biden invoked the Declaration and the Constitution. He spoke about ‘We, the People.’ And then, he called his main political rival and all those who support him “an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” What’s more, Biden didn’t stop there. “But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country,” he said. The huge grinding sound just then was millions of brains stripping their mental gears. Threat to the country? Did he just say that we’re threats to democracy? Enemies of the State? No, he couldn’t; he wouldn’t…yeah, he did. As the shock set in, the rest of what Biden said just slid by. It was the most un-Presidential thing many of us can ever remember, even during the most vicious of elections. This wasn’t merely campaign rhetoric–it came across to many, on both sides of the aisle, as tantamount to a declaration of war against Biden’s opponents. President of all the people, Joe? Seriously? When you’ve just called 70+ million of Americans “threats to democracy”? The rest of the Red Speech was pretty standard Democrat pre-election fare: Big Lies about the election, economy, what evil things the Right does (basically, a laundry list of the Left’s playbook, projected on those across the aisle), and how awesome a future fueled by trans-empowered unicorn flatulence and pixie dust is going to be. As an exercise in primitive, infantile defense mechanisms thinly disguised as political rhetoric, the transcript is worth reading. Otherwise, now that the shock has worn off, it’s hardly worth the time. What will make the Red Speech remembered is just how far over the line it went, and how it perfectly laid out the mindset of the Democratic Party and its radical Leftist controllers in the 2022 election cycle. Old Joe said the country was at an “inflection point”. The Red Speech made sure of it. Biden’s handlers obviously realized they’d gone too far when the very next day, Biden repudiated his own statements about MAGA Republicans being “threats”. Of course, there are still the comments about MAGA Patriots being semi-fascists, and needing f-15s, and all the rest, but hey! Joe backtracked himself, so it’s okay, right? Sorry, no. What’s said is said. The country has been polarized for years, and it’s only been increasing since Biden took office. A YouGov.com poll done August 20-23 and released less than a week before the Red Speech showed that 66% of Americans thought political divisions had gotten worse since 2021, and 60% anticipate an increase in political violence in the next few years. Worryingly, 14% of Americans think a civil war is “very likely in the next decade”, and 43% say it’s “at least somewhat likely.” If you’re a “strong Republican”–one of those who Biden calls a “threat to this country”, those numbers are 22% and 33%, respectively. A poll by the Southern Poverty Law Center earlier this year found much the same. After the Red Speech? Five days later, the Trafalgar Group released a reaction poll, and 56.8% of all respondents asked about the Red Speech agreed that “It represents a dangerous escalation in rhetoric and is designed to incite conflict among Americans.” This wasn’t just a bunch of extreme Ultra MAGA semi-fascists. 18.7% of Democrats and 62.4% of Independents agreed with 89.1% of Republicans on this issue. YouGov’s trackers show that 52% of respondents think the economy is “getting worse,” and 63% think the country is going in the “wrong direction” isn’t helping, either. History’s verdict will be a long time coming, but right now, the Red Speech is shaping up to be the biggest Presidential event screw-up since Richard Nixon tried to cover up his 5 o’clock shadow with pancake makeup before his first debate with JFK. It was Barack Obama’s “bitter clingers” and Hillary Clinton’s “basket of Deplorables” on steroids, staged by Leni Riefenstahl and delivered by the Hair Sniffer in Chief. The Red Speech portends what we can expect if MAGA candidates lose in 2022. The Left believes it successfully won (or “reinforced”, without any real consequences) the election of 2020. With their Hopium Dreams of a Happy No-Carbon Climate, Diverse, Inclusive, Equitable Utopia so close at hand, they have no incentive NOT to do the same thing in this cycle, and again in 2024. The only thing standing in their way are those evil extremist semi-fascist Ultra MAGA Republicans and the Orange Man Bad who leads them. And so, the Red Speech was given, the gauntlet thrown, and the stakes made plain. If the denizens of the Left are allowed to continue unchecked, the full force of the Regime will be unleashed on the MAGA Movement. Lois Lerner’s IRS persecution of Tea Party members will be a fond memory compared to what Biden’s 87K “lethal force” IRS agents will do to every MAGA supporter
Donald Trump endorses Paul Gosar one day after House censure
Former President Donald Trump is endorsing Rep. Paul Gosar one day after the Arizona Republican was censured by the House of Representatives for posting a violent cartoon video that depicted a character with his face killing one with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s. Trump, in a statement, hailed Gosar as “a loyal supporter of our America First agenda” and “highly respected in Arizona,” and said he “has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” The statement made no mention of the House’s rare rebuke — just the fourth in nearly 40 years — which also stripped Gosar of his two committee assignments on the Natural Resources and the Oversight and Reform panels. Gosar has said the video, which was produced by his taxpayer-funded office, had been mischaracterized and was not intended to be a threat. In addition to Ocasio-Cortez, the video also depicted Gosar’s character attacking President Joe Biden with swords. Gosar is no stranger to controversy. He’s made appearances at fringe right-wing events, including a gathering in Florida last February hosted by a man who has promoted white supremacist beliefs, and earlier this year looked to form an America First Caucus with other hard-line Republican House members that aimed to promote “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.” Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, has called the censure an “abuse of power” by Democrats and signaled payback should Republicans retake the House majority next year. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Beyond D.C. partisanship, Raphael Warnock makes broad pitch in Georgia
On Capitol Hill, Sen. Raphael Warnock assails Republicans’ push for tighter voting rules as “Jim Crow in new clothes,” while his campaign operation blasts emails bemoaning dire risks to democracy. Back home, Georgia’s first Black senator is more subtle, pitching a “comprehensive view of infrastructure” and avoiding talk of his reelection fight already looming just months after he won a January special election runoff with Senate control at stake. “I’m busy being Georgia’s United States senator,” Warnock said, smiling, as he brushed aside a question recently about famed football hero Herschel Walker potentially running for his seat as a Republican. Indeed, the preacher-turned-politician spent the Independence Day recess hopscotching from an inland port in the conservative Appalachian foothills to liberal Atlanta’s urban microbreweries and sprawling public hospital, then the suburban defense contractors in between. At each stop, he highlighted the federal money he’s routed — or is trying to route — to his state for health care, national security research, rural broadband and urban walking paths, among other projects. “We as Georgians should be proud of all that happens in the state,” Warnock said at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, cheerleading ongoing projects and arguing for more federal spending. “I had some sense of it before becoming a senator. But what I have been able to see firsthand is impressive.” The high-wire act will test whether Warnock, who will seek his first full Senate term next year, can again stitch together a diverse, philosophically splintered coalition that tilted Georgia to Democrats in 2020. He’s still the high-profile freshman whose election gave Democrats unified control in Washington, but now he’s angling to be seen as a “senator for all Georgians” delivering for the state with nuts-and-bolts legislative work. The approach is part necessity given Georgia’s toss-up status: Warnock and Sen. Jon Ossoff, also a freshman, each won their seats by less than 100,000 votes out of 4.5 million runoff ballots; Democrat Joe Biden topped Republican Donald Trump in the presidential contest by less than 13,000 votes out of 5 million last November. Warnock’s gambling that he can be an unapologetic advocate for Democrats’ agenda, including on voting laws, yet still prove to Georgians beyond the left’s base that he is a net-benefit for them. Come November 2022, that would mean maintaining enthusiasm among the diverse Democratic base in metro areas and Black voters in rural and small-town pockets, while again attracting enough suburban white voters, especially women, who’ve drifted away from Republicans in the Trump era. The senator doesn’t disclose such bald-faced election strategy. His office declined a one-on-one interview for Warnock to discuss his tenure and his argument for a full six-year term. Still, his public maneuvering illuminates a preferred reelection path. “Georgia is such an asset to our national security infrastructure,” Warnock said at the Georgia Tech outpost adjacent to Dobbins Air Reserve Base. He praised public and private sector researchers who develop technology for the Pentagon, U.S. intelligence and other agencies, saying they “keep our national defense strong and protect our service members.” He held up the installation as a beneficiary of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, a $250 billion package that cleared the Senate on a rare bipartisan vote, 68-32, eight more than the 60-vote filibuster threshold that’s held up Democrats’ plans on election law and infrastructure. As Warnock visited the Appalachian Regional Port, an inland container port in north Georgia, he highlighted the proposed RURAL Act, which he’s co-sponsoring with Republican Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana. It would speed upgrades of rural railway crossings. Afterward, Warnock’s office announced a $47 million grant for port expansion. The surrounding Murray County delivered 84% of its presidential vote to Trump last November. Warnock won just 18% there on Jan. 5. In Atlanta, where Warnock resides and still serves as senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, which Martin Luther King Jr. once led, the senator lined up more squarely with Democrats’ priorities. Yet even then, Warnock was deliberate when discussing Republicans. “It’s ridiculous that we haven’t expanded Medicaid,” he declared outside Grady Memorial Hospital, a vast public complex in downtown Atlanta. He noted that Georgia, still run by Republicans at the state level, remains one of a dozen states not to expand eligibility under Congress’ 2010 health insurance overhaul. Warnock accused state politicians of “playing games,” though he never mentioned Gov. Brian Kemp by name. Warnock said he’d soon introduce a measure allowing citizens in non-expansion states to be covered. That aligns with one of Biden’s key presidential campaign pledges. The senator later stood along the Atlanta Beltline, an old railroad path redeveloped into a pedestrian and cycling thoroughfare around the city’s perimeter. He touted a $5 million federal investment, billing it as an example of Democrats’ wide interpretation of infrastructure, and alluding to the GOP’s narrower “hard infrastructure” definition. “America needs a home improvement plan,” Warnock said. He endorsed a pending bipartisan infrastructure deal negotiated at the Biden White House but said Democrats should use Senate rules to pass an even larger package over Republican objections in the 50-50 chamber. To be sure, even with his emphasis on infrastructure, Warnock didn’t shy away from the voting rights debate when asked. As on infrastructure, Warnock said Democrats should use Senate rules — or rewrite them, in the case of the filibuster — to counter the spate of Republican state laws tightening access to absentee and early voting. Yet in all those arguments, Warnock tried to frame his case as something beyond party. “I’m making a jobs-and-economic viability argument,” he said on Medicaid expansion. “Once you have basic health care, you can pursue employment, and with a kind of freedom that you can work knowing that you’re covered.” He added that “rural hospitals are closing” under the financial strain of treating the uninsured and underinsured. Warnock extended that analysis to rural broadband and the urban Beltline. Both, he said, connect individuals to economic opportunities around them. Housing and child care, he argued, are “basic infrastructure” for the same reasons. As for voting rights, Warnock stood beside his
Joe Biden taking bipartisan infrastructure deal on the road
President Joe Biden will look to sell voters on the economic benefits of the $973 billion infrastructure package while in Wisconsin on Tuesday, hoping to boost the bipartisan agreement that is held together in large part by the promise of millions of new jobs. Biden will travel to La Crosse, population 52,000, and tour its public transit center, followed by a speech about the infrastructure package announced last week. The president presented his message to Democratic donors on Monday that the agreement was a way for the United States to assert the principles of democracy and the economic might that can come from dramatic investments in the country’s economic future. “This infrastructure bill signals to the world that we can function, we can deliver,” Biden said. “We can do significant things, show that America is back.” White House officials issued an internal memo that highlights how the largest investment in transportation, water systems, and services in nearly a century would boost growth. The memo notes that the total package is four times the size of the infrastructure investment made a dozen years ago in response to the Great Recession and the biggest since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s. It also emphasizes an analysis suggesting that 90% of the jobs generated by the spending could go to workers without college degrees, a key shift as a majority of net job gains before the pandemic went to college graduates. “This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” the memo says. Potential economic gains were a shared incentive for the group of Democratic and Republican senators who agreed to the deal on Thursday. But the process briefly fell into disarray late last week as Biden suggested the deal would be held up until he also received a separate package for infrastructure, jobs, and education that would be determined solely by Democrats through the budget reconciliation process. Biden said Saturday that this was not a veto threat, and by Sunday, the package appeared back on track. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden is “eager” for both bills to be approved by Congress and that the president is going to “work his heart out” to make it happen. White House press secretary Jen Psaki listens to a question during a press briefing at the White House Monday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) “The president intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law,” Psaki said at her daily briefing. Approval of both bills by Congress remains a long haul, with this summer’s initial votes expected in July. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell questioned the legislative process ahead and mounted fresh obstacles while speaking Monday in Kentucky. McConnell said he has not yet decided whether he will support the bipartisan package, but he wants Biden to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to say they will allow the bipartisan arrangement to pass without mandating that the much larger and broader follow-up bill be in place. “I appreciate the president saying that he’s willing to deal with infrastructure separately, But he doesn’t control the Congress,” McConnell said at a press conference in Louisville. The two bills had always been expected to move in tandem, and that is likely to continue as Biden drops his veto threat but reaches across the aisle for the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan package as well as his own broader package. The Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on the broader bill, which includes Biden’s families and climate change proposals, as well as their own investments in Medicare, swelling to some $6 trillion. The prospect of additional economic gains might be a way to garner public support and soothe partisan tensions. Biden also faces pressure from Democrats such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the spending isn’t as huge as it might seem because the sums are spread out over multiple years. The eight-page White House memo comes from Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and senior adviser Anita Dunn. It indicates that the $110 billion for roads and bridges would help relieve traffic and congestion that costs the economy over $160 billion annually. The memo justifies the $48.5 billion planned for public transit by citing studies that link light rail and buses to increased earnings and employment for workers. It defends the $66 billion for repairs and upgrades for rail lines by saying that current delays and disruptions weigh on growth. The bipartisan agreement also would help nurture the market for electric vehicles, improve broadband access, repair water lines and create resilience against damage from extreme weather events. Meanwhile, the White House and Congress are pushing ahead on separate infrastructure legislation, a top priority of the administration that is shared by many lawmakers interested in securing federal funds for long-sought road, highway, bridge, and other construction projects back home. This week, the House is scheduled to vote on a highway, transit, and water infrastructure bill that would invest up to $715 billion over five years. It overlaps parts of the bipartisan agreement and could become a building block toward the Democrats’ broader package coming later this summer or fall. The bill contains many of the priorities that Biden has set, including $45 billion to replace lead water service lines throughout the nation and $4 billion for electric vehicle charging stations, as well as a big boost in spending for transportation programs focusing on repairing existing roads and bridges. It also opens the door to nearly 1,500 requests from lawmakers that would fund specific projects back in their congressional districts, moving Congress a step closer toward a return to earmarked spending. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Will Ainsworth: Amazon workers recognize union’s threat to Alabama economy
For the last few decades, our state has proudly led both the southeast and the nation in economic development, industrial recruitment, and job creation, and closets at the Alabama Department of Commerce are overflowing with awards recognizing our successes and shovels commemorating groundbreakings. Even today, as the U.S. continues to struggle with the economic fallout from the global COVID-19 pandemic, Alabama is faring better than most other states with regards to incoming tax revenues, and our employment rate ranks in the Top Ten in the nation. Though some of our citizens remain jobless and in obvious need of help, Alabama’s economic blessings are abundant. Much of our success in attracting industries and promoting economic expansion can be attributed to the fact that Alabama is a “right to work” state that protects every citizen’s ability to hold a job without being forced to join a union. Because the right to work is so deeply ingrained in Alabama’s social fabric and DNA, voters in 2016 approved a constitutional amendment that shields workers from having labor unions forced upon them, and it passed with 70 percent of the statewide vote. Given the choice between locating in an open, free-market state like Alabama or one that embraces the high costs and Orwellian employment mandates of labor unionism, most businesses, regardless of size or industry, will choose to locate here. Certainly, the explosive growth of Alabama’s automotive manufacturing sector and aerospace industry offer both strong and irrefutable evidence of that fact. One of our state’s newest and fast-growing corporate citizens is Amazon, which announced, built, and opened a massive order fulfillment center in Bessemer just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck with full force. Employing just shy of 6,000 full-time and seasonal Alabama employees who earn average pay eclipsing $15.00 an hour along with generous health benefits, Amazon is already expanding its presence and workforce with the construction of two additional Birmingham-area delivery stations. But much of that rapid expansion and the jobs and opportunities would have come to a quick and sudden halt if the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU) had been successful in organizing workers in Amazon’s Alabama facilities. The fact that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-avowed “democratic socialist,” and radical Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez repeatedly voiced strong public support for the unionization efforts in Alabama indicate that it was not in the best interest of our conservative, Pro-Trump state, its economy, or the workers who reside here. Keep in mind that in 2019, RWDSU, Sanders, AOC, and other members of the furthest fringes of the left formed a coalition that forced Amazon to abandon plans for a $1.7 billion facility in New York that would have employed 25,000 workers. Organizing the labor force in Bessemer could have prompted Amazon to swiftly reverse course, relocate its expansion, and re-examine its current presence and investment in Alabama. Moreover, policies advocated by unions like RWDSU often work against the interests of many of the employees it claims to represent. Labor unions, for example, often demand pay be based upon longevity of employment rather than the quality and merit of the work that is accomplished. Under that scenario, an employee who works hard, excels, proves especially productive, and separates themselves from the rest of the pack cannot be paid more than a previously hired worker who simply shows up and punches the time clock. Such a system stifles incentive, blocks promotion, and prevents the best and most eager employees from moving ahead and providing a better life for their families. Younger workers with bright futures are especially held back by those policies. Keeping Alabama economically healthy during a public health crisis is an incredibly difficult task, and unionizing a major employer as it works to create even more jobs and further invest in our state is not the way to accomplish that goal. Luckily, Amazon’s workers in Alabama voted overwhelmingly last week to reject the organized labor effort and refused to surrender their jobs to the labor union bosses and liberal leaders who wished to control them. Because of the wise choice made by Amazon’s employees, Alabama will continue to be fertile ground for growing jobs and opportunities, and our best days still remain ahead of us. Will Ainsworth is the Lieutenant Governor of Alabama.
‘Obviously a mistake’: Ted Cruz returns from Cancun after uproar
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said his family vacation to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” as he returned stateside Thursday following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm. The Republican senator said he began second-guessing the trip since the moment he first got on the plane Wednesday. “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he told reporters. The Associated Press and other media outlets reported that he had traveled out of the country with his family as hundreds of thousands of Texans were still grappling with the fallout of a winter storm that crippled the state’s power grid. The trip drew criticism from leaders in both parties and was seen as potentially damaging to his future political ambitions. Cruz said in an earlier statement Thursday that he accompanied his family to Cancun a day earlier after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week. “Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,” Cruz wrote. “My staff and I are in constant communication with state and local leaders to get to the bottom of what happened in Texas,” he continued. “We want our power back, our water on, and our homes warm.” Cruz told reporters Thursday night that he returned to the U.S. because he realized he needed to be in Texas. He said he had originally been scheduled to stay in Mexico through the weekend. “I didn’t want all the screaming and yelling about this trip to distract even one moment from the real issues that I think Texans care about, which is keeping all of our families safe,” Cruz said. “It was obviously a mistake, and in hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said. The fierce political backlash comes as Cruz eyes a second presidential run in 2024. He was already one of the most villainized Republicans in Congress, having created adversaries across the political spectrum in a career defined by far-right policies and fights with the establishment. More recently, he emerged as a leader in former President Donald Trump’s push to overturn the results of the November election. Billboards calling for his resignation stood along Texas highways earlier in the month. Even the state Republican Party chair declined to come to Cruz’s defense on Thursday. “That’s something that he has to answer to his constituents about,” Texas GOP Chair Allen West said when asked whether Cruz’s travel was appropriate while Texans are without power and water. “I’m here trying to take care of my family and look after my friends and others that are still without power,” West said. “That’s my focus.” Hundreds of thousands of people in Texas woke up Thursday to a fourth day without power, and a water crisis was unfolding after winter storms wreaked havoc on the state’s power grid and utilities. Texas officials ordered 7 million people — one-quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state — to boil tap water before drinking the water, after days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes. In Austin, some hospitals faced a loss in water pressure and, in some cases, heat. News of Cruz’s absence quickly rippled across the state. Livia Trevino, a 24-year-old whose Austin home was still without water Thursday, said she felt abandoned by government leaders. “They are taking vacations and leaving the country, so they don’t have to deal with this, and we are freezing to death. We don’t have water and we don’t have food,” she said. In his statement, Cruz said that his family had lost heat and power as well. “This has been an infuriating week for Texans,” he said. While the situation will not help Cruz’s political future, the two-term senator is not in any immediate political danger. His current term expires in early 2025, and the unofficial beginning of the next Republican presidential primary election is two years away. Still, Democrats across Washington were eager to talk about the controversy. One of Cruz’s most aggressive critics on the left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, encouraged her supporters on Thursday to volunteer for a “welfare check phone bank” to help Texans affected by the storm. “So many elected leaders in Texas have failed their constituents,” the New York Democrat wrote in an email. “Instead of focusing on relief, they’ve chosen to go on Fox News to spread lies or to board a plane to Cancun.” Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Jen Psaki leaned into a question about Cruz’s “whereabouts.” “I don’t have any updates on the exact location of Sen. Ted Cruz nor does anyone at the White House,” Psaki said, adding that President Joe Biden’s administration is focused on “working directly with leadership in Texas and surrounding states on addressing the winter storm and the crisis at hand.” Cruz’s office declined to answer specific questions about the family vacation, but his staff reached out to the Houston Police Department on Wednesday afternoon to say the senator would be arriving at the airport, according to department spokesperson Jodi Silva. She said officers “monitored his movements” while Cruz was at the airport. Silva could not say whether such requests are typical for Cruz’s travel or whether his staff had made a similar request for his return flight. U.S. Capitol Police officials and the Senate sergeant-at-arms have encouraged lawmakers and their staff to be conscious of potential threats and to consider advising law enforcement about their travel at airports and other transportation hubs. Cruz’s office did not immediately say whether the senator would self-quarantine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises people who have traveled during the pandemic to get a coronavirus test three to five days after their return and to quarantine for a full week, regardless of the test results. Cruz checked in for his return flight Thursday afternoon in Cancun and walked briskly through the terminal pulling a roller bag to security. He wore a
What mandate? Joe Biden’s agenda faces a divided Congress
President-elect Joe Biden wants to “restore the soul of America.” First, he’ll need to fix a broken and divided Congress. Biden is rushing headlong into a legislative branch ground down by partisanship, name-calling and, now, a refusal by some to acknowledge his win over President Donald Trump. Democratic allies, struggling to regroup after their own election losses, harbor deep divisions between progressive and moderate voices. Republicans, rather than graciously congratulating the incoming president, are, intentionally or not, delegitimizing Biden’s presidency while catering to Trump’s refusal to accept the election results. At a time when the country needs a functioning government perhaps more than ever to confront the crises of COVID-19, a teetering economy and racial injustice, Washington is being challenged by the president-elect to do better than it has. It’s going to be a hard opening. “The country used to want gridlock because they saw gridlock as a way to protect them. Now the country’s actually hungry for action and progress,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist. “That’s a mandate to flip the switch.” The idea of a Biden mandate, though, is relative, certainly embraced by Democrats who want to push ahead with his agenda. Emboldened Republicans, though, who didn’t lose a single House seat, but in fact expanded their ranks and brushed back many Senate Democratic challengers, see their own mandate to serve as a block on a Biden agenda. California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the House’s Republican leader, said the election “was a mandate against socialism,” stepping up the relentless GOP attacks, even though Biden is a centrist Democrat. Biden comes to the presidency like few in recent history, with a rare mix of experience but also a potentially divided Congress. Not since President George H.W. Bush has the White House had an executive with such a deep Washington resume. Rarely in modern times has a Democrat started an administration without a full Democratic Congress. While the House is in Democratic hands, the Senate remains undecided, a 50-48 lead for Republicans heading into a Jan. 5 runoff for two seats in Georgia that will determine party control. Asked this past week how he will be able to work with Republicans if they aren’t acknowledging his victory, Biden said, “They will.” What Biden is presenting is a new normal in Washington that he said voters demanded from the election. “If we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate,” he said at his election victory speech. Much has been made of Biden’s relationship with Capitol Hill, where he served as a senator for 36 years, particularly his deal-making as Barack Obama’s vice president with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Yet McConnell has not revived that approach as he enables Trump to delve into a legal battle rooted in unfounded allegations of voter fraud, even as state officials say the elections ran smoothly and there is no widespread evidence of fraudulent voting. McConnell won his own reelection in Kentucky. Whether McConnell emerges in the new Congress as majority or minority leader with a narrowly divided Senate, the longest serving Republican leader in history will have great leverage over legislation that arrives on Biden’s desk. Biden could seek a repeat of Newt Gingrich’s era when the Republican House speaker served up legislative victories for President Bill Clinton, infuriating Democrats with conservative budget and welfare bills but helping Clinton win a second term. Or Biden could find McConnell rerunning his politically charged GOP blockade of Obama’s agenda. Hopes of overcoming McConnell by ending the Senate filibuster, which would allow bills to advance on a simple majority rather than a 60-vote threshold, are slipping out of reach without Democratic control. “Gingrich insisted the American people wanted it,” said Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich top aide who left the Republican Party in the Trump era. He said McConnell will move on Biden’s agenda when Biden has the nation behind him. “That’s how you do it. Let’s see if Biden can do it,” he said. But it’s not just McConnell. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and even McCarthy will have oversize roles because of the changed makeup of the new Congress. Biden faces a restive liberal flank, powered by a new generation of high-profile progressives including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., They helped deliver his victory and may not be so eager to compromise over health care, climate change, income inequality and racial justice issues that have growing popular support. At the same time, while Pelosi and Schumer have long histories with Biden, McCarthy is close to Trump, who is expected to hold a heavy influence on Republicans even after he leaves office. With a slimmer majority in the House, McCarthy’s ability to wrangle votes suddenly matters. “They can, but will they?” said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide and executive vice president at the center-left Third Way think tank. “This is a real veteran group of people. They know how to get things done. They know how to stop things from getting done.” An early test for Biden will be the Cabinet nominations, which can be approved by a slim 51 votes in the Senate. Republicans can also block nominees with time-consuming procedural hurdles that could quickly stall the new administration if top positions go unfilled. Democrats did as much to Trump, in some ways as payback after McConnell blocked Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. “I think there’s a likelihood that Mitch McConnell will Merrick Garland every single Cabinet nominee and will force Joe Biden to negotiate on every single one,” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “Trump is still going to be running the Republican Party. And so, in reality, Joe Biden may have to negotiate every Cabinet pick with Donald Trump.” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Tommy Tuberville: Doug Jones does disservice to Alabamians with his opposition to Judge Amy Coney Barrett
By Coach Tommy Tuberville My father, Charles, served in the U.S. Army, so I often heard the joke about the young recruit who was participating in his first military parade, looked around at his fellow soldiers, and smugly thought, “I’m the only one who’s marching in step.” That story sums up the way that Doug Jones has approached his job in Washington. Rather than representing the conservative beliefs and values of the millions of Alabamians he swore an oath to serve, Jones has, instead, voted the liberal, left-wing convictions that make up his core. As the hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court begin, Jones has once again turned his back on his constituents and pledged to vote against her confirmation. Jones would not even extend the traditional courtesy of meeting with Judge Barrett and letting her outline her judicial philosophy. When it comes to giving fair consideration to President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Doug Jones is a lost ball in high cotton. But that comes as no surprise. Jones voted against the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and said he would have opposed Neil Gorsuch if he had been in the Senate at the time. Democrat Doug even voted twice to remove Donald J. Trump from office. Since becoming our placeholder senator, Doug Jones has opposed everything most Alabamians support and supported everything most Alabamians oppose. While liberal jurists manufacture law from the bench based upon the trending cultural touchstones of the day, Judge Barrett understands that her job is to interpret the Constitution as our founding father’s intended – a doctrine known as “Originalism” that she learned while clerking for Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon who passed away far too soon. Her confirmation to the court will open the door to overturning the abomination known as Roe v. Wade, a decision that has no foundation in constitutional principles and invented from thin air a right to abortion that appears nowhere in our nation’s governing document. Judge Barrett’s record also indicates that she stands ready to protect our Second Amendment gun rights, preserve religious freedoms, shield conservative speech from the liberals who wish to silence it, and defend the basic liberties that make our nation the envy of freedom-loving people across the globe. Several liberal legal scholars who know Judge Barrett, her abilities, and her temperament have publicly supported her confirmation to the court despite their opposition to her conservative views and philosophy. They stand willing to put the good of the court and the needs of their country ahead of their own political beliefs. Yet Doug Jones refuses to even consider Judge Barrett. Despite the fact that he was elected to represent the deepest red of the nation’s Republican states, Jones has allied himself with fringe liberals like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ilhan Omar. During President Trump’s last State of the Union Address, Jones joined the most liberal elements in Congress and sat on his hands throughout the speech, even when a Tuskegee Airman was promoted to Brigadier General and a veteran from Montgomery, Alabama was honored before the international audience. Unwilling to limit the false, negative attacks from his Senate campaign to my candidacy, Jones has spent thousands of dollars airing television ads that dishonestly accuse President Trump of disrespecting military veterans, a group that every Alabamian knows our commander-in-chief holds in the highest esteem. And despite the fact that Donald Trump carried Alabama with 62% of the vote in 2016, every action taken by Jones has indicated he believes that Hillary Clinton won the state. Perhaps it is the influence of the Hollywood and New York donors that funnel millions into his campaign war chest, or maybe it is his own deeply liberal philosophy that causes Doug Jones to demonstrate such disdain toward Alabama’s traditional values and tightly-woven moral fabric. Doug Jones’s refusal to represent their desires of Alabamians and support the confirmation of Judge Barrett to the high court tells you all you need to know about how he views us. Like the young recruit I mentioned at the beginning of this column, Jones thinks we are the ones who are out of step while he awkwardly marches forward to his own liberal cadence. On November 3, Alabamians have the opportunity to correct that mistake. Tommy Tuberville is a retired football coach. He lives in Auburn with his wife and is running against Democrat Doug Jones for U.S. Senate.
