Past U.S. presidents, VPs asked to recheck for classified docs
The National Archives has asked former U.S. presidents and vice presidents to recheck their personal records for any classified documents following the news that President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence had such documents in their possession, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday. The Archives sent a letter Thursday to representatives of former presidents and vice presidents extending back to Ronald Reagan to ensure compliance with the Presidential Records Act, according to the two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about investigations. The act states that any records created or received by the president are the property of the U.S. government and will be managed by the archives at the end of the administration. The Archives sent the letter to representatives of former Presidents Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, and former Vice Presidents Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, and Dan Quayle, they said. The letter was first reported by CNN. Spokespeople for former presidents Trump, Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton and former vice presidents Pence, Dick Cheney, Al Gore, and Dan Quayle did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Biden’s lawyers came across classified documents from his time as vice president in a locked cabinet as they were packing up an office he no longer uses in November. Since then, subsequent searches by the FBI and Biden’s lawyers have turned up more documents. Former Vice President Pence, too, this week, discovered documents and turned them in after saying previously he did not believe he had any. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the searches by Biden’s attorneys and the FBI appear to fulfill the Archives’ request. The Archives had no comment. Handling of classified documents has been a problem off and on for decades, from presidents to Cabinet members and staff across multiple administrations stretching as far back as Jimmy Carter. But the issue has taken on greater significance since former President Donald Trump willfully retained classified material at his Florida estate, prompting the unprecedented FBI seizure of thousands of pages of records last year. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to investigate Trump’s handling of the documents and also Biden’s. It turns out that officials from all levels of government discover they are in possession of classified material and turn it over to authorities at least several times a year, according to another person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of classified documents. Current and former officials involved in the handling of classified information say that while there are clear policies for how such information should be reviewed and stored, those policies are sometimes pushed aside at the highest levels. Teams of national security officials, secretaries, and military aides who share responsibility for keeping top-level executives informed — and the executives themselves — may bend the rules for convenience, expediency or sometimes simple carelessness. While much of the attention has been on classified information, the Presidential Records Act actually requires that, from the Reagan administration onward, all records must be transferred to the Archives regardless of classification. It’s against federal law to have classified documents at an unauthorized location, but it’s only a crime if it was done intentionally. Speaking Thursday at an unrelated news conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that though he could not discuss any specific ongoing investigation, “We have had for quite a number of years any number of mishandling investigations. That is, unfortunately, a regular part of our counterintelligence division’s and counterintelligence program’s work.” He said there was a need for people to be conscious of laws and rules governing the handling of classified information. “Those rules,” he said, “are there for a reason.” Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Joe Biden walks stretch of U.S.-Mexico border, amid GOP criticism
President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans try to blame him for the record numbers of migrants crossing into the country. At his first stop, the president observed as border officers in El Paso demonstrated how they search vehicles for drugs, money, and other contraband. Next, he traveled to a dusty street with abandoned buildings and a small playground. Near the street was a metal border fence that separated the U.S. city from Ciudad Juarez. Biden walked slowly along the border wall, initially joined by two Border Patrol agents. In a sign of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter upon his arrival in the state that said the “chaos” at the border was a “direct result” of the president’s failure to enforce federal laws. Biden later took the letter out of his jacket pocket during his tour, telling reporters, “I haven’t read it yet.” Asked what he’s learned by seeing the border firsthand and speaking with the officers who work along it, Biden said: “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.” Immigration for years has been a serious point of conflict, exposing both the dysfunction of the U.S. system as well as the turmoil within migrants’ home countries that has pushed many to flee. Administration officials have tried to counter Republican criticism by saying Congress should work with them to increase border security funding and overhaul immigration policy. Biden was spending just a few hours in the city, which is currently the biggest corridor for illegal crossings, in large part due to Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime, and poverty in their country. They are among migrants from four countries who are now subject to quick expulsion under new rules enacted by the Biden administration in the past week that drew strong criticism from immigration advocates. The president also was to visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support migrants arriving to the U.S. It was not clear whether he would talk to any migrants. Biden’s announcement on border security and his visit to the border are aimed in part at quelling the political noise and blunting the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any enduring solution will require action by the sharply divided Congress, where multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years. From El Paso, Biden was to continue south to Mexico City, where he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will gather on Monday and Tuesday for a North American leaders summit. Immigration is among the items on the agenda. In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and in parks before traveling on, border patrol agents stepped up security before Biden’s visit. “I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to more consistently check people’s documented status, and if you have not been processed they are going to pick you up,” said Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation House aid group in El Paso. Migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing violence and persecution have increasingly found that protections in the United States are available primarily to those with money or the savvy to find someone to vouch for them financially. Venezuelan migrant Jose Castillo, who said he traveled without family members for five months from his home on Margarita Island to arrive in El Paso on December 29, said he hoped Biden “will take us into consideration as the human beings we are.” Castillo was among a group of about 30 migrants who gathered for prayers Sunday morning outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church where many of the newcomers have been camping. “We have suffered a lot since entering the jungle of the Darien Gap and passing through Mexico. It has all been a battle, battle, battle,” he said. “I know that we are here illegally, but please give us a chance.” The numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically during Biden’s first two years in office. There were more than 2.38 million stops during the year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of former President Donald Trump’s administration. The policy changes announced this past week are Biden’s biggest move yet to contain illegal border crossings and will turn away tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the border. At the same time, 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Venezuela will get the chance to come to the U.S. legally as long as they travel by plane, get a sponsor and pass background checks. The U.S. will also turn away migrants who do not seek asylum first in a country they traveled through en route to the U.S. Migrants are being asked to complete a form on a phone app so that they can go to a port of entry at a pre-scheduled date and time. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration is trying to “incentivize a safe and orderly way and cut out the smuggling organizations,” saying the policies are “not a ban at all” but an attempt to protect migrants from the trauma that smuggling can create. The changes were welcomed by some, particularly leaders in cities where migrants have been massing. But Biden was excoriated by immigrant advocate groups, which accused him of taking measures modeled after those of the former president. Administration officials disputed that characterization. For all of his international travel over his 50 years in public service, Biden has not spent much time at the U.S.-Mexico border. The only visit that the White House could point to was Biden’s drive
Joe Biden outpacing Donald Trump, Barack Obama with diverse judicial nominees
For the Biden White House, a quartet of four female judges in Colorado encapsulates its mission when it comes to the federal judiciary. Charlotte Sweeney is the first openly LGBT woman to serve on the federal bench west of the Mississippi River and has a background in workers’ rights. Nina Wang, an immigrant from Taiwan, is the first magistrate judge in the state to be elevated to a federal district seat. Regina Rodriguez, who is Latina and Asian American, served in a U.S. attorney’s office. Veronica Rossman, who came from the former Soviet Union with her family as refugees, is the first former federal public defender to be a judge on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. With these four women, who were confirmed during the first two years of President Joe Biden’s term, there is a breadth of personal and professional diversity that the White House and Democratic senators have promoted in their push to transform the judiciary. “The nominations send a powerful message to the legal community that this kind of public service is open to a lot of people it wasn’t open to before,” Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, told The Associated Press. “What it says to the public at large is that if you wind up in federal court for whatever reason, you’re much more likely to have a judge who understands where you came from, who you are, and what you’ve been through.” Klain said that “having a more diverse federal bench in every single respect shows more respect for the American people.” The White House and Democratic senators are closing out the first two years of Biden’s presidency having installed more federal judges than did Biden’s two immediate predecessors. The rapid clip reflects a zeal to offset Donald Trump’s legacy of stacking the judiciary with young conservatives who often lacked in racial diversity. So far, 97 lifetime federal judges have been confirmed under Biden, a figure that outpaces both Trump (85) and Barack Obama (62) at this point in their presidencies, according to data from the White House and the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. D-N.Y. The 97 from the Biden presidency includes Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, that court’s first Black woman, as well as 28 circuit court judges and 68 district court judges. Three out of every four judges tapped by Biden and confirmed by the Senate in the past two years were women. About two-thirds were people of color. The Biden list includes 11 Black women to the powerful circuit courts, more than those installed under all previous presidents combined. There were also 11 former public defenders named to the circuit courts, also more than all of Biden’s predecessors combined. “It’s a story of writing a new chapter for the federal judiciary, with truly extraordinary folks representing the broadest possible types of diversity,” said Paige Herwig, a senior White House counsel. The White House prioritized judicial nominations from the start, with Biden transition officials soliciting names of potential picks from Democratic senators in late 2020. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, swiftly moved nominees through hearings and Schumer set aside floor time for votes. Particular focus was placed on nominees for the appellate courts, where the vast majority of federal cases end, and those coming from states with two Democratic senators, who could find easier consensus in a process where there’s still significant deference given to home-state officials. Democrats hope to speed up the tempo of confirmations next year, a goal more easily accomplished by a 51-49 Senate that will give them a slim majority on committees. In the past two years, votes on some of Biden’s more contested judicial nominees would deadlock in committee votes, requiring more procedural steps that ate up valuable Senate floor time. Republicans had also picked up the confirmation pace considerably in Trump’s final two years in office, after GOP senators put in place a rule change — now being used by Democrats — that significantly shortened the time required to process district court nominees. Schumer said he also hopes to install more judges in appeals courts that shifted rightward under Trump, an effort that the majority leader described as rebalancing those courts. “Trump loaded up the bench with hard right ‘MAGA’ type judges who are not only out of step with the American people, they were even out of step with the Republican Party,” Schumer said in an interview, using shorthand for Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Schumer added: “We had a mission, it’s not just a predilection. It was a mission to try and redress that balance.” Despite their limited power to actually derail Biden’s judicial picks, some Republicans have fought ferociously against many of them, arguing that their views were out of the legal mainstream despite Democratic arguments otherwise. The precarious 50-50 Senate, where Schumer’s plans were often thwarted by ailments or absences, meant several Biden nominees languished for months and were never confirmed before the Senate wrapped up its work this year. Democrats also say certain judicial nominees, particularly women of color, were unfairly targeted by their GOP critics, leading to tense fights in the Judiciary Committee. “The Republicans have just got a problem with this. Not all of them, some do,” Durbin said in an interview. “And when you call them out on it … ‘Why is it consistently women of color that are the object of your wrath?’ and they can’t answer.” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., a committee member, said Biden’s picks were “very, very left, but unapologetically so.” He said Durbin’s assertions about Republicans were “absurd.” “I think the president made a commitment to his base that he was going to put people who shared a very left-wing worldview, who are generally quite critical of, for instance, the criminal justice system, think that it is systemically racist,” Hawley said. Despite the strengthened Democratic majority, the White House could nonetheless confront some challenges when it comes to nominating and confirming judges over the next two
Nathaniel Ledbetter announces fourth and final round of committee chair appointments
On Wednesday, State Rep. Nathaniel Ledbetter, the House Republican Caucus nominee for Speaker of the Alabama House, announced the final seven representatives he plans to appoint as committee chairs if elected as the next Speaker. “These committee chairs will handle some of the most important issues that affect the daily lives of Alabamians – health, public education, election integrity, veterans affairs, accountability to taxpayers, and local measures,” Ledbetter said in a statement. “And because the ability to easily transport goods plays such a vital role in Alabama’s economic development efforts, the new House committee on ports and waterways will be especially important in keeping our state growing.” Ledbetter created the new House Ports, Waterways, and Intermodal Transit Committee. State Rep. Chip Brown will be the inaugural chair of this new committee. Brown was elected to the Alabama House in 2018. He previously held a seat on the agenda-setting Rules Committee and served on the body’s Economic Development and Tourism, Urban and Rural Development, Insurance, and Mobile County Legislation committees. Brown is a commercial realtor and entrepreneur and served in the Alabama Army National Guard. He was deployed with the U.S. Army at the Central Command Forward Operations Headquarters in Southwest Asia during Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was also twice deployed as a military advisor in Afghanistan. Ledbetter said he created the new House committee because Alabama possesses more than ten percent of our nation’s freshwater. When combined with the expansion of the State Docks in Mobile, the Tennessee/Tombigbee Waterway, the ports of Huntsville and Birmingham, and the port being constructed in Montgomery, that transportation hub can be leveraged into one of the state’s strongest economic assets. State Rep. Phillip Pettus will remain as the House Fiscal Responsibility Committee Chair. Pettus also held seats on the Judiciary Committee, the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, and the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee in the previous quadrennium. Pettus is a retired Alabama State Trooper Captain. Following 25 years of service, he retired from the Alabama Department of Public Safety in 2013. State Rep. Bob Fincher will return as the House Constitution, Campaigns, and Elections Committee chair. Fincher was elected to the Alabama House in 2014. He previously held seats on the House Education Policy, Agriculture and Policy, and Local Legislation Committees. Fincher is a retired educator who taught at Woodland High School and New Hope Christian School and twice served as one of Alabama’s presidential electors. State Rep. Ed Oliver will chair the House Military and Veterans Affairs Committee. Oliver joined the Alabama House in 2018 and previously held seats on the Agriculture and Forestry Committee, the Fiscal Responsibility Committee, and the Health Committee. The former Chair of the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee –Rep. Dickie Drake was defeated in the May Republican primary. Oliver is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He served as a military helicopter pilot and inspector general and devoted 31 total years to active duty, reserve, and National Guard service. He was employed for 15 years as a civilian helicopter air ambulance pilot. State Rep. Alan Baker will return as the chair of the House Local Legislation Committee. During the prior quadrennium, Baker also served as vice chair of the House Education Policy and the agenda-setting House Rules Committee. Before his election to the Alabama House in 2006, Baker worked for 27 years as an educator and football coach in Alabama public schools. While coaching at T.R. Miller High School, he won five state championships in football and five in track. State Rep. Terri Collins will return as chair of the House Education Policy Committee. Collins sponsored and passed the landmark Alabama Literacy Act in 2019. Throughout the prior quadrennium, she held a seat on the House Ways and Means Education Committee and chaired the Alabama School Safety and Student Security Task Force. Elected to the House in 2010, Collins is a retired marketing executive and businesswoman who enjoyed a 16-year career in the banking industry in Decatur. Retaining Collins is by far the most controversial committee chair choice by presumed Speaker Ledbetter, as Collins has often incurred the anger of social conservatives for her defense of the controversial Alabama College and Career Ready Standards – which many on the ultra-right feel are too tightly aligned with the Barack Obama era Common Core educational standards. State Rep. Paul Lee will return as the chair of the House Health Committee. He has served as a member of the committee since first winning election to the Alabama House in 2010. Lee is a former Dothan city commissioner. He retired from Sony’s Magnetic Tape Division as a senior production specialist following 31 years of service. He is currently the executive director of Wiregrass Rehabilitation Center in Dothan. It is highly likely that Ledbetter will be elected as the Speaker of the House during the organizational session in January, as he is the choice of the House Republican Caucus, which holds a 77 to 28 supermajority in the Alabama House of Representatives. Ledbetter defeated State Rep. Steve Clouse for the open Speaker position in a vote by the Caucus during a November meeting. Ledbetter is the former mayor of Rainsville. He follows Rep. Mac McCutcheon as Speaker. McCutcheon chose not to run for the legislature again. If elected, Ledbetter will be the third Republican Speaker of the House since the GOP’s takeover of the state Legislature in the historic red wave election of 2010 following 135 years of uninterrupted Alabama Democratic Party legislature control. Ledbetter is part of a new generation of Republican lawmakers who have never experienced being in the minority. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Alabama Democrats praise Nancy Pelosi’s leadership
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi announced on Thursday that she will step down next year from her position leading the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Pelosi made the announcement the day after election results showing that Republicans will control the lower House of Congress once the new Congress convenes on January 3. Pelosi is stepping down from her top leadership role but will remain in Congress next year. “I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she said. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.” Alabama Democrats praised Pelosi’s leadership. Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Randy Kelley said that the move by Pelosi surprised him. “It really hit me hard,” Kelley told Alabama Today in a phone interview. “She has done a fantastic job. Whomever succeeds her will have big shoes to fill.” Congresswoman Terri Sewell praised Pelosi in a press release. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is a true public servant whose tenure as Speaker of the House will be remembered as one of the most effective examples of leadership in modern history. For two decades, she has led the Democratic Caucus with dignity and grace, breaking down barriers for women and girls and putting the needs of the American people above all,” stated Sewell. “I have been honored to partner with Speaker Pelosi to advance the needs of Alabama’s 7th Congressional District, including our work to pass H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act,” Sewell continued. “While she will no longer lead our caucus, I have no doubt that Speaker Pelosi will remain a powerful force for good in our party and our nation. I look forward to continuing to serve alongside her.” Pelosi became Speaker of the House for the first time following the 2006 election. 2008 saw the election of Barack Obama to the presidency – giving Democrats control of both branches of Congress and the Presidency for the first time since 1994. Pelosi helped pass the Obama agenda, including the Affordable Care Act of 2010 – Obamacare. The Tea Party movement that arose to oppose Obamacare gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives in a massive “red wave” election in 2010. Despite the setback, Pelosi remained as the leader of the diminished House Democrats. In 2016 New York City billionaire Donald Trump won the Whitehouse, giving Republicans control of the government again. In 2018 Americans voted blue in large numbers giving Democrats control of the House again. Pelosi made history during the next two and a half years by impeaching Trump, not once but twice. In 2020 voters gave Democrats control of the Senate and elected Joe Biden over Trump. Pelosi helped Biden pass the CARES Act, the infrastructure bill, and the Inflation Reduction act. Despite this, or perhaps because of this legislative success, voters gave the GOP narrow control of the House of Representatives on November 8. Election results by November 16 showed that Republicans would indeed lead the House going forward and that a Republican – likely Rep. Kevin McCarthy – would be the next Speaker of the House. “She has done an exemplary job,” Kelley said. “She helped pass the infrastructure bill and the CARES Act.” The number two Democrat in the House – Rep. Steny Hoyer, is also stepping down from his leadership position, meaning there could be a wide-open contest on who will lead the Democrats moving forward. “I really have not gotten any idea who should fill that role,” Kelley said when asked who he felt should be the Democratic leader going forward. “I won’t get into trouble by naming somebody.” With Republicans now in control of the House, there is speculation that it might become more difficult for Biden to advance his agenda. “I think there is some (Republicans) who have done everything they could to stop his agenda,” Kelly said. “He has been very effective at passing his agenda, though.” Kelly said that the next two years will become essentially one long presidential campaign. “This is basically two years of campaigning for the President’s race in 2024,” Kelly said. “The Republicans will do everything they can to sabotage his presidency. The good news is that the Democrats held onto control of the Senate, and there certainly was no “red wave” as many of the prognosticators had predicted.” Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, is still recovering from a beating by an assailant with a hammer. Stepping down from leadership will allow her to spend more time with him as his recovery continues. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
Nancy Pelosi to step aside from Dem leadership, remain in Congress
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she will not seek a leadership position in the new Congress, making way for a new generation to steer the party after Democrats lost control of the House to Republicans in the midterm elections. Pelosi announced in a spirited speech on the House floor that she will step aside after leading Democrats for nearly 20 years and in the aftermath of the brutal attack on her husband, Paul, last month in their San Francisco home. The California Democrat, who rose to become the nation’s only woman to wield the speaker’s gavel, said she would remain in Congress as the representative from San Francisco, a position she has held for 35 years when the new Congress convenes in January. “I will not seek reelection to Democratic leadership in the next Congress,” she said. “For me, the hour has come for a new generation to lead the Democratic caucus that I so deeply respect.” Now, she said, “we must move boldly into the future.” Pelosi received a standing ovation after her remarks, and lawmakers and guests, one by one, went up to offer her hugs, many taking selfies of a moment in history. President Joe Biden spoke with Pelosi in the morning and congratulated her on her historic tenure as speaker of the House. “History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history,” Biden said in a statement, noting her ability to win unity from her caucus and her “absolute dignity.” It’s an unusual choice for a party leader to stay on after withdrawing from congressional leadership, but Pelosi has long defied convention in pursuing power in Washington. In an interview with reporters after her announcement, Pelosi said she won’t endorse anyone in the race to succeed her, and she won’t sit on any committees as a rank-and-file lawmaker. She said the attack on her husband “made me think again about staying.” But in the end, after the election, she decided to step down. “I quite frankly, personally, have been ready to leave for a while,” she said. “Because there are things I want to do. I like to dance, I like to sing. There’s a life out there, right?” During her remarks on the House floor, Pelosi recapped her career, from seeing the Capitol the first time as a young girl with her father — a former congressman and mayor — to serving as speaker alongside U.S. presidents and doing “the people’s work.” “Every day, I am in awe of the majestic miracle that is American democracy,” she said. Democrats cheered Pelosi as she arrived in the chamber at noon. On short notice, lawmakers filled the House, at least on the Democratic side, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined. He later joined a throng of lawmakers and hugged and kissed Pelosi on the cheek. The Speaker’s Gallery filled with Pelosi staff and guests. Some Republicans, including some newly elected members, also attended, though House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, who’s seeking the speakership in the new Congress, did not, telling reporters afterward that he was “busy, unfortunately.” Earlier, Pelosi noted in a statement after The Associated Press called control of the chamber that, in the next Congress, House Democrats will have “strong leverage over a scant Republican majority.” Pelosi was twice elected to the speakership and has led Democrats through consequential moments, including the passage of the Affordable Care Act with President Barack Obama and the impeachments of President Donald Trump. Her decision Thursday paves the way for House Democratic leadership elections next month when Democrats reorganize as the minority party for the new Congress. Pelosi’s leadership team, with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland and Democratic Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, has long moved as a triumvirate. All now in their 80s, the three House Democratic leaders have faced restless colleagues eager for them to step aside and allow a new generation to take charge. Hoyer said after Pelosi’s remarks that “it is the time for a new generation of leaders” and that he will also step down from leadership but stay in Congress. Clyburn, the highest-ranking Black American in Congress, has said he expects to stay in Congress next year and hopes to remain at the leadership table. Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and Pete Aguilar of California have similarly moved as a trio, all working toward becoming the next generation of leaders. Jeffries could make history if he enters the race to become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House. After Pelosi spoke, Clyburn released a statement saying he looks forward “to doing whatever I can to assist our new generation of Democratic Leaders, which I hope to be Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, and Pete Aguilar.” One idea circulating on Capitol Hill was that Pelosi and the others could emerge as emeritus leaders as they pass the baton to new Democrats. First elected in 1987, Pelosi has been a pivotal figure in American politics, long ridiculed by Republicans as a San Francisco liberal while steadily rising as a skilled legislator and fundraising powerhouse. Her own Democratic colleagues have intermittently appreciated but also feared her powerful brand of leadership. Pelosi first became speaker in 2007, saying she had cracked the “marble ceiling” after Democrats swept to power in the 2006 midterm elections in a backlash to then-President George W. Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When she was poised in 2018 to return as speaker in the Trump era, she vowed: “to show the power of the gavel.” Pelosi has repeatedly withstood leadership challenges over the years and had suggested in 2018 she would serve four more years as leader. But she had not discussed those plans more recently. Typically unsentimental, Pelosi let show a rare moment of emotion on the eve of the midterm elections as she held back tears discussing the grave assault on her husband of nearly 60 years. Paul Pelosi suffered a fractured skull after an intruder broke into their home
GOP nudges closer to House win; Senate could hinge on runoff
Republicans inched closer to a narrow House majority Wednesday, while control of the Senate hinged on a few tight races in a midterm election that defied expectations of sweeping conservative victories driven by frustration over inflation and President Joe Biden’s leadership. Either party could secure a Senate majority with wins in both Nevada and Arizona — where the races were too early to call. But there was a strong possibility that, for the second time in two years, the Senate majority could come down to a runoff in Georgia next month, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker failing to earn enough votes to win outright. In the House, Republicans on Wednesday night were within a dozen seats of the 218 needed to take control, while Democrats kept seats in districts from Virginia to Pennsylvania to Kansas, and many West Coast contests were still too early to call. In a particularly symbolic victory for the GOP, Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the House Democratic campaign chief, lost his bid for a sixth term. Control of Congress will decide how the next two years of Biden’s term play out and whether he is able to achieve more of his agenda or will see it blocked by a new GOP majority. Republicans are likely to launch a spate of investigations into Biden, his family, and his administration if they take power, while a GOP takeover of the Senate would hobble the president’s ability to appoint judges. “Regardless of what the final tally of these elections show, and there’s still some counting going on, I’m prepared to work with my Republican colleagues,” Biden said Wednesday in his first public remarks since the polls closed. “The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well.” Democrats did better than history suggested they would. The party in power almost always suffers losses in the president’s first midterm elections, though even if the GOP ultimately wins the House, it won’t be by a margin as large as during other midterm cycles. Democrats gained a net of 41 House seats under then-President Donald Trump in 2018, President Barack Obama saw the GOP gain 63 in 2010, and Republicans gained 54 seats during President Bill Clinton’s first midterm. A small majority in the House would pose a great challenge for the GOP and especially California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to be House speaker and would have little room for error in navigating a chamber of members eager to leverage their votes to advance their own agenda. In the fight for Senate control, Pennsylvania was a bright spot for Democrats. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke five months ago, flipped a Republican-controlled Senate seat, topping Trump-endorsed Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz. Georgia, meanwhile, was set for yet another runoff on December 6. In 2021, Warnock used a runoff to win his seat, as did Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff — which gave Democrats control of the Senate. Both Warnock and Walker were already fundraising off the race, stretching into a second round. Both Republican and Democratic incumbents maintained key Senate seats. In Wisconsin, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson prevailed over Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, while in New Hampshire, Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan beat Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who had initially promoted Trump’s lies about the 2020 election but tried to shift away those views closer to Election Day. AP VoteCast, a broad survey of the national electorate, showed that high inflation and concerns about the fragility of democracy were heavily influencing voters. Half of voters said inflation factored significantly, with groceries, gasoline, housing, and other costs that have shot up in the past year. Slightly fewer — 44% — said the future of democracy was their primary consideration. Biden didn’t entirely shoulder the blame for inflation, with close to half of voters saying the higher-than-usual prices were more because of factors outside of his control. And despite the president bearing criticism from a pessimistic electorate, some of those voters backed Democratic candidates. Democrats counted on a midterm boost from the Supreme Court’s decision to gut abortion rights, which they thought might energize their voters, and the bet paid off. In four states where the issue was on the ballot, voters backed abortion rights. VoteCast showed that 7 in 10 national voters said overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was an important factor in their midterm decisions. It also showed the reversal was broadly unpopular. And roughly 6 in 10 said they favor a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide. In the first national election since the January 6 insurrection, some who participated in or were in the vicinity of the attack on the U.S. Capitol were poised to win elected office. One of those Republican candidates, Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin — who was outside the Capitol during the deadly riot — won a House seat. Another, J.R. Majewski, lost to Ohio Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Republicans had sought to make inroads in liberal New England but were shut out of House contests, with one Maine race still set to be determined by ranked-choice voting. Governors’ races took on outsized significance this year, particularly in battleground states that could help decide the results of the 2024 presidential election. Democrats held on to governors’ mansions in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, defeating Republicans who promoted Trump’s lies about a stolen 2020 election. Republicans held on to governors’ mansions in Florida, Texas, and Georgia, another battleground state Biden narrowly won two years ago. Trump found some success as well. He lifted Republican Senate candidates to victory in Ohio and North Carolina. JD Vance, the bestselling author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” defeated 10-term congressman Tim Ryan, while Rep. Ted Budd beat Cheri Beasley, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court. Trump had endorsed more than 300 candidates across the country, hoping the night would end in a red wave he could ride to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. After summoning reporters
Republicans are hoping for another sweep in 2022 election
On Tuesday, Alabama voters are going to the polls to elect new leaders for the state. The Alabama Republican Party is hoping to see history repeat itself again in this election, and they will maintain their dominant position in Alabama politics. “Just a reminder that if you are tired of sky-high gas prices, out-of-control inflation, and rising crime, you have a choice. Vote Republican tomorrow on Election Day,” the Alabama Republican Party wrote on Facebook Monday. Alabama Republicans hope that this election follows the script of recent Alabama elections. In 2010, the Alabama Republican Party won every statewide office on the ballot. U.S. Senator Richard Shelby was easily re-elected to another term. Republican nominee for Governor, State Rep. Robert Bentley, defeated his Democratic opponent Ag Commissioner Ron Sparks. Then Treasurer Kay Ivey defeated incumbent Lieutenant Governor Jim Folsom in a race that even most Republicans at the time thought was a long shot. The people of Alabama, however, had grown tired of Alabama Education Association-dominated Democrats and found President Barack Obama’s policies too liberal for Alabama. National voters agreed, and 2010 was a massive “red wave” election that gave Republicans control of both Houses of Congress. In Alabama, Republicans won supermajorities in both Houses of the Alabama Legislature after 135 years of Democratic domination of the state legislature. In 2014 Bentley, Ivey, and the rest of the Alabama GOP were back. Bentley faced former Congressman Parker Griffith, and Ivey faced former State Rep. James Fields. Democrats viewed the 2014 election as so hopeless that they did not even find a candidate to run against popular U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions. The Alabama voters once again rewarded Republicans with every statewide office on the ballot, and they grew their supermajorities in both Houses of the Legislature. In 2018, Bentley was gone, and Ivey had been elevated to Governor. Shelby was reelected to a sixth term in 2016. Democrats, however, were optimistic because their nominee for U.S. Senate, Doug Jones, had just defeated the Republican nominee, former Chief Justice Roy Moore in a special election. It had been the first win for an Alabama Democrat in a statewide race since 2008. Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, who had masterminded the Republican campaigns in 2010 and 2014, had been convicted of corruption in 2016 (he is still in prison to this day). None of that mattered. Ivey easily bested her Democratic opponent, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox. In the Lieutenant Governor’s race, State Rep. Will Ainsworth defeated his Democratic opponent, Florence Pastor Dr. Will Boyd. The Republicans also grew their supermajorities in the state legislature. Former Auburn head football coach Tommy Tuberville beat Sen. Jones in a landslide in 2020, so once again, there is no statewide Democratic officeholder in Alabama. On Tuesday, Ivey is seeking her second full term as governor. This time she faces political newcomer Yolanda Flowers and a Libertarian – Dr. James “Jimmy” Blake. Ainsworth faces Libertarian Ruth Page Nelson. Democrats failed to run a Lt. Gov. candidate. Shelby is retiring after 36 years in the Senate and 52 total years in office. His former Chief of Staff, Katie Britt, is the Republican nominee for Senate. She faces Boyd and Libertarian John Sophocleus. This is the first election since 2002 where there are Libertarians on the Alabama ballot. There are a lot of parallels between the 2022 election and the 2010 election. Once again, Democrats control both Houses of Congress and an unpopular Democratic Presidential incumbent, former Obama VP Joe Biden, is in the second year of his presidency. Many political analysts are predicting that Tuesday will be a second “red wave” election, like 2010, that will sweep Democrats out of office and give Republicans control of both Houses of Congress again. Alabama Republicans are hoping this is true of Alabama as well, and the GOP will retain its almost total mastery of Alabama politics. That is for the voters of Alabama to decide. Polls will open at 7:00 am and close at 7:00 am. Voters need to bring a valid photo ID with them to the polls. Various forms of photo ID are acceptable. To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com.
U.S. Senate is focus of politicos across the country
In Alabama, with hours left in the 2022 election cycle, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, Katie Britt, appears to be a prohibitive favorite over Democratic nominee Dr. Will Boyd and Libertarian nominee John Sophocleus for the open U.S. Senate seat, currently held by the retiring Richard Shelby. Nationally, though, there is intense speculation over what could happen on election day on Tuesday and which party will control the next Congress. Polling shows Republicans with growing momentum, and it appears almost a certainty that the GOP will take control of the U.S. House of Representatives after four years of Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, and it does not appear to even be close. Real Clear Politics does not see any of Alabama’s Seven Congressional Districts as even being in play in this election. With the House effectively lost to them, Democrats have focused their efforts on maintaining their narrow control of the U.S. Senate, which for the past two years has been tied 50 to 50; but Vice President Kamala Harris gives the Democrats control of the body. Democrats had staked their hopes on the Select Committee on January 6, and the abortion issue to energize their base. That has not happened. Instead, Republicans are running on inflation, crime, the border, and economic issues, and that strategy appears to be playing well with voters. It is too close to call who will control the Senate before the votes are counted, but clearly, the trend has been moving in favor of the GOP in the last three weeks. The best opportunity for a Republican pickup appears to be Nevada. There, the Republican challenger, former state Attorney General Adam Laxalt, is leading Democratic incumbent Sen. Catharine Masto in recent polling. The latest Real Clear Politics rolling poll average has Laxalt leading Masto by 1.9 points. The best opportunity for a Democratic pickup appears to be Pennsylvania, where Republican incumbent Sen. Pat Toomey is retiring even though he is only 60 years old. Toomey’s controversial vote in 2021 to convict former President Donald Trump of inciting the January 6 insurrection made his ability to win a Republican primary unlikely. Democratic lieutenant Governor John Fetterman had appeared to have an insurmountable lead over Republican nominee television host Dr. Mehmet Oz, but that lead has evaporated. The race is now a tossup, but Oz has the momentum after clearly besting Fetterman in the debate. Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden are both campaigning hard for Fetterman, and Trump is campaigning for Oz. Both parties recognize that there is little chance of the Democrats holding on to the Senate if Pennsylvania falls to the GOP. Georgia is a tossup between Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock and college football star Republican challenger Hershel Walker, but Walker clearly has the momentum in this race. Due to Georgia’s election rules, however, this race will likely go to a December runoff. Warnock is being dragged down in the general election by the terrible performance of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. Brian Kemp is sure to best Abrams on Tuesday. If Walker faces Warnock again on December 6, however, will those Kemp voters come out to help the Republicans lift Walker over Warnock? The trifecta of Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Georgia likely decide the Senate, but there are other races where Democratic incumbents are fighting for their political lives. In New Hampshire, Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan is leading Republican challenger Dan Bolduc, but this race is much closer at this point than politicos expected this summer. If there really is a Republican “red wave” where GOP voters come out to the polls on Tuesday with more enthusiasm than Democrats, then the Granite state could easily swing to the GOP. According to the latest Real Clear Politics rolling poll average, Hassan has a lead of just .8 – well inside the margin of error and trending in the wrong direction for Hassan. Another state where a “red wave” could unseat a Democratic incumbent is Arizona. This summer, it appeared that incumbent former astronaut and the husband of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Sen. Mark Kelly, would win easy reelection by more than ten points. Now this race is much closer than even the most enthusiastic GOP supporters thought possible. Republican nominee Blake Masters has won over a lot of voters. If the GOP candidate for Governor wins and wins big, Arizona could be a surprise U.S. Senate pickup for the GOP. This race has been a tie in two of the last 5 polls, with Kelly’s best performance being plus three in a Marist poll. Both Remington and Fox News have Kelly leading by just one point. If Republicans flip Arizona, there is little likelihood of the Democrats holding on to the Senate. In the summer, the Democrats believed that Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in Wisconsin was very vulnerable. Those hopes are fading fast as Johnson is surging in the polls over Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes. Senate colleague Bernie Sanders is on the ground campaigning for Barnes this weekend. Johnson leads Barnes by 3.2 points in the most recent Real Clear Politics rolling average. If there is no GOP wave, this could be closer than the polls indicate, and a Barnes upset win is still not outside the realm of possibility. In Washington state, even Republicans were expecting incumbent Sen. Patty Murray to coast to another easy re-election. That race is now much closer than anyone had previously thought possible. Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley has pushed Murray far harder than anyone could have anticipated in this blue state. Murray was consistently polling nine points or more in September, but recent polling has shown her lead shrink to just 1 to 4 points. The Real Clear Politics still has Murray up by 3.0 points in their most recent polling average, but that has dropped from 9 points just four weeks ago. This would still be an unlikely pickup for Republicans in a state that Biden won by 19.2 points just two years ago. That said, a Smiley victory is now within the margin of error in some recent polling. Murray holding on to her seat remains the most likely outcome, but that is now far from certain. In North Carolina, Republican incumbent Sen. Richard Burr is retiring. This seemed to be an opportunity for Democrats to flip this red seat blue, and Civitas/Cygnal had the race between Republican Ted Budd and Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley tied as recently as September 26, but Budd appears to
A swing state no more? GOP confidence grows in Florida
Democrats are increasingly concerned that Florida, once the nation’s premier swing state, may slip away this fall and beyond as emboldened Republicans capitalize on divisive cultural issues and population shifts in crucial contests for governor and the U.S. Senate. The anxiety was apparent last week during a golf cart parade of Democrats featuring Senate candidate Val Demings at The Villages, a retirement community just north of the Interstate 4 corridor. It was once a politically mixed part of the state where elections were often decided, but now some Democrats now say they feel increasingly isolated. “I am terrified,” said 77-year-old Sue Sullivan, lamenting the state’s rightward shift. “There are very few Democrats around here.” In an interview, Demings, a congresswoman and former Orlando police chief challenging Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, conceded that her party’s midterm message isn’t resonating as she had hoped. “We have to do a better job of telling our stories and clearly demonstrating who’s truly on the side of people who have to go to work every day,” she said. The frustration is the culmination of nearly a decade of Republican inroads in Florida, where candidates have honed deeply conservative social and economic messages to build something of a coalition that includes rural voters and Latinos, particularly Cuban Americans. Donald Trump’s win here in 2016 signaled the evolution after the state twice backed Barack Obama. And while he lost the White House in 2020, Trump carried Florida by more than 3 percentage points, a remarkable margin in a state where elections were regularly decided by less than a percentage point. President Joe Biden will visit the state on November 1, exactly one week before Election Day, to rally Democrats. Demings said she’s had two conversations with the president about campaigning together, but she could not confirm any joint appearances. And Charlie Crist, the Democratic nominee for governor, said he would attend a private fundraiser with Biden on the day of the rally, but he wasn’t sure whether they would appear together in public. “If we could squeeze in a little public airtime, that’d be a wonderful thing I would welcome,” Crist said in an interview. Still, the GOP is bullish that it can keep notching victories, even in longtime Democratic strongholds. Some Republicans are optimistic the party could carry Miami-Dade County, a once unthinkable prospect that would virtually eliminate the Democrats’ path to victory in statewide contests, including presidential elections. And in southwest Florida’s Lee County, a major Republican stronghold, not even a devastating hurricane appears to have dented the GOP’s momentum. In fact, Republicans and Democrats privately agree that Hurricane Ian, which left more than 100 dead, may have helped Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis broaden his appeal. On Monday, he’ll participate in a debate against Crist in which he’ll likely highlight his stewardship of the state during a searing crisis. But the 44-year-old Republican governor has spent much of his first term focused on sensitive social issues. He’s signed new laws banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest, along with blocking critical race theory and LGBTQ issues from many Florida schools. He has also stripped millions of dollars from a major league baseball team that spoke out against gun violence and led efforts to eliminate Disney’s special tax status for condemning his so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill. On the eve of the hurricane, DeSantis shipped dozens of Venezuelan immigrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard to call attention to illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Crist, a former congressman and onetime governor himself, acknowledged some voters “dig” DeSantis’ focus on cultural issues, “but most Floridians are good, decent people.” He noted that at least one Hispanic radio host has compared DeSantis to former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. “Customarily, when you come out of a primary, people will move to the middle. He’s clearly not doing that, to say the least,” Crist said of his Republican rival. But to the horror of many Democrats, DeSantis could become the first Floridian to win a governor’s race by more than 1 point since 2006. That kind of showing might lift Rubio in the U.S. Senate election while helping the GOP win as many as 20 of the state’s 28 U.S. House seats. Should DeSantis win big as expected, his allies believe he would have the political capital to launch a successful presidential campaign in 2024 — whether Trump runs or not. “It’s shocking, and it’s scary,” state Democratic Party Chair Manny Diaz said about DeSantis’ repeated willingness to use the power of his office to attack political rivals, whether individual opponents or iconic corporations like Disney. DeSantis, who declined an interview request, has found success by bucking the conventional wisdom before. He beat Democrat Andrew Gillum four years ago by 32,436 votes out of more than 8.2 million cast, a margin so narrow that it required a recount. But in the four years since then, Republicans have erased a voter registration advantage that Florida Democrats had guarded for decades. When registration closed for the 2018 election, Democrats enjoyed a 263,269-vote advantage. As of September 30, Republicans had a lead of 292,533 voters — a swing of nearly 556,000 registered voters over DeSantis’ first term. “We’re no longer a swing state. We’re actually annihilating the Democrats,” said Florida GOP Chairman Joe Gruters, a leading DeSantis ally. And while he says his party has focused on traditional kitchen-table issues, such as gas prices and inflation, Gruters leaned into cultural fights — especially the Florida GOP’s opposition to sexual education and LGBTQ issues in elementary schools — that have defined DeSantis’ tenure. “I don’t want anyone else teaching my kids about the birds and the bees and gender fluidity issues,” Gruters said. Strategists in both parties believe Florida’s political shift is due to multiple factors, but there is general agreement that Republicans have benefited from an influx of new voters since DeSantis emerged as the leader of the GOP resistance to the pandemic-related public health measures. Every day on average over the year between 2020 and 2021, 667 more people
Black representation in Alabama tested before Supreme Court
The invisible line dividing two of Alabama’s congressional districts slices through Montgomery, near iconic sites from the civil rights movement as well as ones more personal to Evan Milligan. There’s the house where his grandfather loaded people into his station wagon and drove them to their jobs during the Montgomery Bus Boycott as Black residents spurned city buses to protest segregation. It’s the same home where his mother lived as a child, just yards from a whites-only park and zoo she was not allowed to enter. The spot downtown where Rosa Parks was arrested, igniting the boycott, sits on one side of the dividing line, while the church pastored by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the protests, sits on the other. The lines are at the center of a high-stakes redistricting case bearing Milligan’s name that will go before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, setting up a new test of the Voting Rights Act and the role of race in drawing congressional boundaries. At the center of the case is a challenge by various groups arguing that the state violated the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting the political power of Black voters when it failed to create a second district in which they make up a majority, or close to it. African Americans account for about 27% of the state’s population but are the majority in just one of the state’s seven congressional districts. “Our congressional map is not reflective of the population that lives in Alabama,” said Milligan, 41, one of several voters who joined interest groups in filing the lawsuit. The case the Supreme Court will take up Tuesday centers on whether congressional districts in Alabama were drawn to reduce the political influence of Black voters, but it’s also part of a much broader problem that undermines representative government in the U.S. Both major political parties have practiced gerrymandering — drawing congressional and state legislative boundaries to cement their hold on power — but Republicans have been in control of the process in far more states since after the 2010 elections. That has allowed them to win an outsized share of statehouse and U.S. House seats and means GOP policies — including on abortion restrictions — often don’t reflect the will of most voters. An Associated Press analysis from 2017 showed that Alabama had one of the most gerrymandered congressional maps in the country. Republicans dominate elected office in Alabama and are in charge of redistricting. They have been resistant to creating a second district with a Democratic-leaning Black majority that could send another Democrat to Congress. A three-judge panel that included two appointees of President Donald Trump ruled unanimously in January that the Alabama Legislature likely violated the Voting Rights Act with the map. “Black voters have less opportunity than other Alabamians to elect candidates of their choice to Congress,” the panel said. The judges ordered state lawmakers to draw new lines for this year’s election and create a second district where Black voters either made up a majority or near majority of the population. But on a 5-4 vote in February, the Supreme Court sided with Alabama to allow this year’s congressional elections to take place without adding a second predominantly Black district. Two justices suggested it was too close to spring primaries to make a change. The lawsuit claims the Alabama congressional map dilutes the voting strength of Black residents by packing a large number of them into a single district — the 7th, where 55% of voters are Black — while fragmenting other communities. That includes the state’s Black Belt region and the city of Montgomery. The current districts leave the vast majority of Black voters with no realistic chance to elect their preferred congressional candidates anywhere outside the 7th district, the lawsuit contends. “This is just about getting Black voters, finally, in Alabama, the opportunity to elect their candidates of choice. It’s not necessarily guaranteeing that they will have their candidate elected,” said Deuel Ross, senior counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which is representing the plaintiffs. The groups contend that the state’s Black population is large enough and geographically compact enough to create a second district. Milligan, who is six generations removed from enslaved ancestors who lived in the Black Belt, ticked off the consequences for Black residents who are not able to have representation that aligns with their needs: addressing generational poverty, the lack of adequate internet service, Medicaid expansion and the desire for a broader array of health care services. “In choosing not to do that, you’re denying the people of the Black Belt the opportunity to elect an additional person that can really go to the mat on their interests,” said Ross, who is one of the attorneys who will argue the case in a challenge backed by the Biden administration. African Americans served in Alabama’s congressional delegation following the Civil War in the period known as Reconstruction. They did not return until 1993, a year after the courts ordered the state to reconfigure the 7th Congressional District into a majority-Black one, which has since been held by a succession of Black Democrats. That 1992 map remains the basis for the one in use today. “Under numerous court challenges, the courts have approved this basic plan. All we did is adjust it for population deviation,” said state Rep. Chris Pringle, a Republican and chairman of the legislative committee that drew the new lines. Alabama argued in court filings that the state’s Black population is too spread out to be able to create a second majority district without abandoning core redistricting principles such as keeping districts compact and keeping communities of interest together. Drawing such a district, the state argued, would require mapping acrobatics, such as connecting coastal areas in southwest Alabama to peanut farms in the east. In a statement to The Associated Press, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said the map is “based on race-neutral redistricting principles that were approved by a bipartisan group of legislators.” He said it looks similar to
Court lifts hold on Mar-a-Lago records
In a stark repudiation of Donald Trump’s legal arguments, a federal appeals court on Wednesday permitted the Justice Department to resume its use of classified records seized from the former president’s Florida estate as part of its ongoing criminal investigation. The ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit amounts to an overwhelming victory for the Justice Department, clearing the way for investigators to continue scrutinizing the documents as they consider whether to bring criminal charges over the storage of top-secret records at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left the White House. In lifting a hold on a core aspect of the department’s probe, the court removed an obstacle that could have delayed the investigation by weeks. The appeals court also pointedly noted that Trump had presented no evidence that he had declassified the sensitive records, as he maintained as recently as Wednesday, and rejected the possibility that Trump could have an “individual interest in or need for” the roughly 100 documents with classification markings that were seized by the FBI in its August 8 search of the Palm Beach property. “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying, ‘It’s declassified.’ Even by thinking about it…You’re the president; you make that decision,” Trump claimed in a Fox News Channel interview recorded Wednesday before the appeals court ruling. The government had argued that its investigation had been impeded, and national security concerns swept aside, by an order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon that temporarily barred investigators from continuing to use the documents in its inquiry. Cannon, a Trump appointee, had said the hold would remain in place pending a separate review by an independent arbiter she had appointed at the Trump team’s request to review the records. The appeals panel agreed with the Justice Department’s concerns. “It is self-evident that the public has a strong interest in ensuring that the storage of the classified records did not result in ‘exceptionally grave damage to the national security,’” they wrote. “Ascertaining that,” they added, “necessarily involves reviewing the documents, determining who had access to them and when, and deciding which (if any) sources or methods are compromised.” An injunction that delayed or prevented the criminal investigation “from using classified materials risks imposing real and significant harm on the United States and the public,” they wrote. Two of the three judges who issued Wednesday’s ruling — Britt Grant and Andrew Brasher — were nominated to the 11th Circuit by Trump. Judge Robin Rosenbaum was nominated by former President Barack Obama. Lawyers for Trump did not return an email seeking comment on whether they would appeal the ruling. The Justice Department did not have an immediate comment. The FBI last month seized roughly 11,000 documents, including about 100 with classification markings, during a court-authorized search of the Palm Beach club. It has launched a criminal investigation into whether the records were mishandled or compromised, though is not clear whether Trump or anyone else will be charged. Cannon ruled on September 5 that she would name an independent arbiter, or special master, to do an independent review of those records and segregate any that may be covered by claims of attorney-client privilege or executive privilege, and to determine whether any of the materials should be returned to Trump. Raymond Dearie, the former chief judge of the federal court based in Brooklyn, has been named to the role and held his first meeting on Tuesday with lawyers for both sides. The appeals court ruling appears to substantially narrow the special master’s job description, enabling the Justice Department to avoid providing him with classified documents to review. Instead, Dearie would review the much larger tranche of non-classified government documents. The Justice Department had argued that a special master review of the classified documents was not necessary. It said Trump had no plausible basis to invoke executive privilege over the documents, nor could the records be covered by attorney-client privilege because they do not involve communications between Trump and his lawyers. It had also contested Cannon’s order requiring it to provide Dearie and Trump’s lawyers with access to the classified material. The court sided with the Justice Department on Wednesday, saying “courts should order review of such materials in only the most extraordinary circumstances. The record does not allow for the conclusion that this is such a circumstance.” Though Trump’s lawyers have said a president has absolute authority to declassify information, they have notably stopped short of asserting that the records were declassified. The Trump team this week resisted providing Dearie with any information to support the idea that the records might have been declassified, saying the issue could be part of their defense in the event of an indictment. The Justice Department has said there is no indication that Trump took any steps to declassify the documents and even included a photo in one court filing of some of the seized documents with colored cover sheets indicating their classified status. The appeals court, too, made the same point. “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified,” the judges wrote. “In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal.” Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
