Former US President Donald Trump is using a strategy that targets Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor and potential Republican presidential candidate, with a policy-heavy campaign. Trump is attempting to damage DeSantis’s chances in the presidential race by targeting issues including Social Security, Medicare, foreign policy and DeSantis’s history in office. The Trump campaign has accused DeSantis of wanting to “destroy” the federal pension system and Medicare, and many of Trump’s attacks have focused on the cuts to entitlement spending that DeSantis voted for when he was a congressman from 2013 to 2018. Trump’s new approach is different from his first foray into politics in 2016, when he relied on chaotic tactics and personal insults to secure the Republican nomination. Reuters found that Trump had launched 242 attacks against declared and potential rivals for the party’s nomination since announcing his own candidacy in November 2021. Of those attacks, 216 have been aimed at DeSantis although he has yet to confirm his candidacy.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is stretched between negotiating the debt limit deal with President Joe Biden and satisfying Republican party members' demands. McCarthy has secured direct negotiations with the president and his senior staff, while framing discussions around key points from the Republican bill. Spending cuts, work requirements, and permitting reform particularly interest McCarthy. However, he continues to face challenges with policy, as his proposed spending cuts may be too high for Democrat negotiators to accept. Additionally, Republicans have rebuffed the idea of closing some tax loopholes. McCarthy's second challenge is persuading enough of his party to back any compromises he can forge successfully in the negotiations. The speaker remains optimistic. Meanwhile, House Democrats will start collecting the 218 signatures needed to move the discharge petition forward, which aims to lift the debt limit, if the talks’ progress stalls.
The US Capitol Police want to set up more field offices around the country to investigate threats to members of the US Congress after a man with a baseball bat attacked staff members of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly in the Democrat’s Fairfax City, Va., district office. The chief of the Capitol Police, J. Thomas Manger, also said his agency needs more officers to its dignitary protection division, which he said is currently 30% short of full staffing. They also have received increased funding after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, where most of the money was used for hiring officers and buying equipment for the protection of the main Capitol campus, not for members’ security away from Washington, Manger said.
Manger said: “These events demonstrate how the Capitol Police need to transform into a more protective agency. One that concentrates on protecting members and their families throughout the country, not merely in Washington D.C. … The old approach of member protection has been replaced by the need to protect the members’ environment as well as the members’ family. Keeping you and your families safe must be a top priority.” U.S. Congress members faced an increased number of threats; this is demonstrated by their threat assessment section rising from about 4,000 in 2017 to more than 9,600 in 2021.
Capitol Police reportedly said that most of the threats did not meet the legal definition of threats and they were monitored but not actively prosecuted. The number of threats that have been prosecuted in recent years has steadily decreased, with federal prosecutors declining charges in 93% of cases presented by the police last year. It is expected that five or six Capitol Police field offices will be set up around the country, adding offices in the Northeast, Midwest and Southwest to existing offices in Florida and California, all located in cities near where many threats originate.
The number of large US cities with Republican mayors has dwindled to almost none. A century ago, only half of the 10 most populous US cities had Democratic mayors. By the year 2000, four of the top 10 cities had Republican mayors, whereas today, none do. The shift has been driven by the trend of US urban areas moving left in national elections, while rural areas move farther to the right. According to a study by The Washington Post, the gap between the two areas is mainly due to differing attitudes toward race.
Penguin Random House is suing Florida's Escambia County School Board, claiming the removal of books on LGBTQ+ themes and race was illegal, in a further battle against US political conservatives’ “anti-woke” actions. Penguin joined forces with a group of authors and PEN America after Escambia withdrew a series of books, including works by Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut and Khaled Hosseini. The district, in the west of the state and bordering Alabama, is among those in Florida that have imposed measures limiting teaching in schools, colleges and other workplaces aimed at supporting diversity.
On election night in America this week, the biggest news was the Republican defeat in mayoral races in Jacksonville, Florida and Colorado Springs, where the Republicans have long been the dominant party. Democrats were upbeat elsewhere in special elections, having begun to over-perform since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade 11 months ago, and this most recent election has confirmed that trend. There were also several state legislative races whose outcomes closely mirrored the results of the 2020 elections when the Democrats had a good year.
Republicans appeared to have been over-performing in special elections prior to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but the trend flipped quickly on a dime. Since that moment, Democrats overperformed their 2020 margins in all five special congressional elections and they have continued to do so as these recent elections have confirmed.
Although this is still a relatively small quantity of races, the 2023 results thus far indicate that Republicans have failed to correct their issues, while the Democrats have maintained a consistent level of performance. In the 2018 and 2020 elections, and now in 2023, the Democrats have secured some of the best results for a president’s party in the last century, leaving the Republicans with much work to do if they wish to regain lost ground.
DeSantis signs bills targeting drag shows, pronouns, bathroom use and transgender children
The Toronto Star
23-05-17 15:10
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed bills that ban gender affirming care for minors, restrict pronoun use in schools, and require people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex in some cases. This is part of the governor's efforts to legislate against LGBTQ+ issues as he is building his presidential campaign as a Republican candidate. DeSantis signed the bills in front of a Christian school in Tampa, with a banner reading "Let Kids Be Kids" behind him, while lawmakers said that this legislation protects children from "sexually explicit" content while invoking their religious beliefs to defend the state's actions. Democrats opposed the bills, however, Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, and the bills passed easily.
A super PAC supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's 2024 presidential efforts obtained a hand padded with more than fifty endorsements from members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. However, four of the lawmakers on the list were also endorsing the opposing Donald Trump account. While NBC News reported that one of the legislators signed a commitment to DeSantis after retracting their endorsement, the details don't significantly affect either campaign's chances, with voters unlikely to be swayed heavily by a local politician's backing. Instead, their squabbles highlight the huge volume of representatives the state has such that they became pawns in high-level political games.
Florida's new immigration law risks triggering a shortage of workers on farms and construction sites, critics have warned. The legislation, signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, mandates that firms employing more than 25 workers must verify employees' legal right to work in the US. While truck drivers have called for a boycott of deliveries to the state, videos purporting to show empty supermarkets due to the measures are unrelated, with one video having been recorded during Hurricane Ian in 2022, and the other showing a refrigerator malfunction at a single Walmart store.
Mississippi sends National Guard to US-Mexico border, GOP governor says
The Toronto Star
23-05-17 23:00
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves has mobilized a National Guard unit to support Customs and Border Protection officers and agents in Texas. Reeves blamed US President Joe Biden's administration for the influx of migrants and drugs crossing the border without authorization and said "what happens at the border doesn’t stay there. Drugs and people are trafficked to every state in the nation, including Mississippi". On Tuesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he would be sending over 1,100 National Guard soldiers and other law enforcement officers to assist with securing the border.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has demanded Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine charged with killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway, be pardoned. Neely, who was homeless, had reportedly complained to passengers on the subway on 1 May about hunger and dehydration, and had not physically attacked anyone on the train or shown any kind of weapon before being choked by Penny. Many US conservatives see the killing as a result of the unaddressed issue of homelessness and mental health in American cities. Haley has called on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to pardon Mr Penny.
Penguin Random House and the writers' organization PEN America have filed a lawsuit against the Escambia County School Board for removing 10 books including those by Toni Morrison and Alice Sebold. The parents' rights legislation at the centre of the row, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" law, was signed into state law by governor Ron DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential candidate. The bill prevents teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with primary school children. The lawsuit argues that the Parental Rights in Education Act only applies to "classroom instruction", not library materials. The suit states that the school violated parents' and students' First Amendment rights. "Books have the capacity to change lives for the better, and students in particular deserve equitable access to a wide range of perspectives. Censorship, in the form of book bans like those enacted by Escambia County, is a direct threat to democracy and our Constitutional rights," said Nihar Malaviya, CEO of Penguin Random House.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is set to officially announce his 2024 presidential bid next week. Two sources claim DeSantis has gathered top Republican fundraisers in Miami, Florida, for the event. DeSantis has spent time constructing his campaign, boasting of his re-election victory and the legislative agenda in Florida passed by GOP supermajorities. In competing with former president Donald Trump for GOP nominations, doubt has arisen, but a small group of fundraisers met with him in Tallahassee over recent weeks to garner support for a DeSantis campaign.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed bills into law that prohibit gender-affirming care for under-18s, restrict school pronoun use and force people to use bathrooms corresponding with the sex they were assigned at birth. Drag show restrictions were also signed into law, allowing the revocation of food and drink licences of businesses hosting adult performances while admitting children. The legislation takes effect immediately. A total of at least 17 states have now passed laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors, despite opposition from medical groups and LGBTQ+ advocates, with judges blocking proposed laws in Alabama and Arkansas.
Ron DeSantis, the Republican Governor of Florida, is expected to announce his candidacy for the 2024 US presidential elections next week. The announcement will mark DeSantis' run as a leading contender for the Republican nomination, directly pitting him against former president Donald Trump, who is also expected to stand. Some high-profile Republican donors had hoped that DeSantis would enter the race earlier to rebut attacks from Trump, which have taken a toll on DeSantis’ standing in some national polls. The Republican party field also includes Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson and Tim Scott.
Anti-abortion campaigners and pro-life religious groups are moving to the forefront of the battle over abortion, hoping that the new wave of laws in Republican states will trump state laws. Activists who sway legal opinions warn that any effort to retreat from national abortion restrictions would be a serious mistake, and Kellyanne Conway believes a 15-week limit on abortion is an effective way to put Democrats on defense on the issue. Two-thirds of Americans say they oppose the decision to eliminate the constitutional right to an abortion, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll, and despite abortion restrictions becoming more prevalent, the pro-choice lobby is seen as powerful and a key issue for many voters in the Democratic party. Trump, as a candidate, has not yet given his opinion on where he will draw the line on federal legislation concerning abortion since the Supreme Court ruling overturning the right to an abortion.
Former US President Donald Trump has used his social media platform Truth Social to attack Florida governor Ron DeSantis, his biggest rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Trump posted stories from The New York Times and Newsweek to undermine DeSantis after two of the latter's endorsements lost in key races in Kentucky and Jacksonville on Tuesday evening. Trump said that "Ron's magic is GONE!" Trump also took "credit" for the US Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade, claiming that without his three nominees to the court, abortion bans would not be possible, and questioned DeSantis's six-week ban on abortions, claiming it was too harsh and was damaging his image among women voters.
Key attorney Timothy Paraltore, who was in charge of the legal team representing Trump in the investigation by Jack Smith, the special counsel of the Justice Department, into classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate, announced that he would be leaving the team. The investigation shows signs of nearing its conclusion. A Republican poll suggests that President Joe Biden would, if Donald Trump faces further criminal charges from the federal and state criminal investigations into his conduct, be vaulted to a massive lead over Trump.
The US is struggling with a shortage of major drug treatments, with some cancer patients struggling to get chemotherapy and many ADHD patients struggling to obtain medications for their condition. Some parents have also been struggling to find children's Tylenol as supplies have been low. Experts have called the ADHD shortage a "public health emergency." The shortages reflect generic drug supply chain issues, where drug companies are often under pressure to offer the lowest prices possible, leading them to cut corners to reduce costs and keep prices low, endangering supply chains. The shortages also hit some brand-name products, leading even more people to be without the drugs they depend on. Demand for ADHD medication has surged in recent years as more people accept the importance of mental health issues and policy changes due to COVID-19 that increased the use of telemedicine.
Joe Biden's re-election 2024 campaign is planning to retain the key battleground states he won in 2020, while also trying to make gains in states he lost including North Carolina and Florida. Re-election campaign chief, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, emailed interested parties to say the Democrats will plan early investments to keep Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada and New Hampshire, while also targeting Georgia and Arizona. The email did not specifically address former president Donald Trump, but referred to Democrats "prevailing over the MAGA extremist agenda once again". Biden's presidential campaign strategy generally focused on painting former president Trump and his supporters as a direct threat to American political values. National Democrats remain firmly behind Biden, who will face only token opposition in the party's presidential primary from self-help author Marianne Williamson and anti-vaccine activist Robert Kennedy Jr.
President Joe Biden's reelection campaign plans to hold the states that won him the White House in 2020 but also compete in places it lost like North Carolina and increasingly Republican-dominated Florida. Biden’s political advisers have long argued that Biden beat Trump once and can do so again. The campaign aims to spread its message online and through in-person contacts with voters, but will rely heavily on leveraging voters' existing social circles as "trust in people’s personal networks has never been stronger". The president faces only token opposition in the party's primary.
