A new political action committee is taking aim at Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), established only with the goal of removing him from the U.S. House of Representatives, the Asheville Citizen Times reports.
Laxalt Expected to Challenge Cortez-Masto
The head of the Senate Republican campaign arm says he expects former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt (R) to challenge Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NV) next year, the Associated Press reports.
Laxalt lost in 2018 to now Gov. Steve Sisolak (D), 49% to 45%.
Anthony Weiner Mulls Selling Underpants Photo as NFT
Disgraced former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) told the New York Times that he’s considered selling the photo of his erect penis inside his grey boxer shorts as a nonfungible token or NFT.
The accidentally-tweeted photo marked the beginning of the end of his political career and ultimately landed him in prison.
Said Weiner: “Cashing in would be nice.”
New Audio Reveals How Giuliani Pressured Ukraine
Never-before-heard audio shows how Rudy Giuliani “relentlessly pressured and coaxed the Ukrainian government in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Joe Biden,” CNN reports.
“The new audio demonstrates how Giuliani aggressively cajoled the Ukrainians to do Trump’s bidding. And it undermines Trump’s oft-repeated assertion that ‘there was no quid pro quo’ where Zelensky could secure US government support if he did political favors for Trump.”
It’s not clear any amount of new evidence would have changed the outcome of Trump’s first impeachment trial.
Georgia’s Ballots Can’t Be ‘Forensically Audited’
Georgia Public Broadcasting: “An ongoing lawsuit in Fulton County seeks to unseal more than 145,000 absentee ballots only and inspect them for evidence of counterfeit or fraudulent ballots, but that is currently on hold after all of the defendants in the case filed motions to dismiss.”
“But based on a GPB News analysis of Georgia election rules and practices, extensive reporting on Georgia’s new election system and interviews with elections experts, there is no way to ‘forensically audit’ absentee ballots or votes printed out by ballot-marking devices, and numerous safeguards are in place to verify only legal votes are counted.”
Nicaragua’s Democracy Hangs by Thread
New York Times: “Just months before seeking re-election, Nicaragua’s president, Daniel Ortega, has brought his country a step away from becoming a one-party state, clamping down on the opposition to an extent not seen since the brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2018.”
“The aggressive moves by Mr. Ortega present an unexpected challenge to the Biden administration, which has made strengthening democracy in Central America one of the pillars of its policy toward the region.”
Peru Presidential Vote Too Close to Call
Early results show Peru’s presidential runoff is too close to call, increasing the chances of a disputed election and calls for a recount, Bloomberg reports.
Justice Department Recovers Ransom Paid to Hackers
“The Justice Department said on Monday that it had recovered much of the ransom paid to hackers last month who shut down the computer systems of Colonial Pipeline,” the New York Times reports.
“Colonial had paid a ransom worth roughly $4.4 million in Bitcoin to the Russian hacking group DarkSide after it used ransomware… The seizure on Monday marked a first-of-its-kind effort by the Justice Department to hijack a cybercriminal group’s profits through a hack of its Bitcoin wallet.”
“The Justice Department said that it had seized 63.7 Bitcoins, currently valued at about $2.3 million. (The value of a Bitcoin has dropped over the past month.)”
Polls Misfire in Key German Election
“German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union will remain the largest party in Saxony-Anhalt’s parliament, fending off a challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany,” Deutsche Welle reports.
“The state election was seen as a major political test for the CDU, as the AfD was originally projected to land an upset victory.”
Politico: “In the run-up to Sunday’s election in Saxony-Anhalt, polls had put Merkel’s CDU and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) neck and neck. Yet the final result was not remotely close. The CDU’s result was nearly 10 percentage points higher than its score in the polls just a few days before the vote.”
Oregon Speaker Moves to Expel GOP Lawmaker
Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D) “wants to expel a lawmaker who allowed violent protesters into the state Capitol in December. The House could vote as early as Monday on her resolution,” the Associated Press reports.
“As lawmakers met in emergency session on Dec. 21 to deal with economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, far-right rioters entered the building. They sprayed chemical irritants at police who finally expelled them.”
Levels of Carbon Dioxide In Atmosphere Hit Historic Highs
Washington Post: “Scientists from Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said on Monday that levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked in May, reaching a monthly average of nearly 419 parts per million.”
Iran Steps Up Efforts to Sow Discord Inside the U.S.
“Iranian state actors are intensifying their disinformation campaign on social media to spread discord and anti-Semitic tropes inside the U.S.,” Time reports.
“Social media accounts tracked to troll farms run by the Iranian government have ramped up disinformation after several major events this year, including Biden’s effort to return the U.S. to the Iran nuclear deal, the April 14 announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin on April 20, and the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas that started on May 10.”
Justices Rule Against Immigrants with Temporary Status
“A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents,” the AP reports.
Democratic Senator Sounds the Alarm on Climate
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) on Twitter : “OK, I’m now officially very anxious about climate legislation. I’ll admit I’m sensitive from the Obama climate abandonment, but I sense trouble. Climate has fallen out of the infrastructure discussion, as it took its bipartisanship detour. It may not return. So then what? I don’t see the preparatory work for a close Senate climate vote taking place in the administration. Why not marshal business support?”
He adds: “Corporate America is still completely AWOL if not worse on climate in Congress. All the major corporate trade associations suck — all of them. Groups and advocates are quarreling — My way! No, my way! We need everything, not ‘my thing.’ Oy. Oceans are a big part of climate and so far no significant oceans/coasts effort apparent in administration. Trying to repair that in Senate. We need planning, organizing and momentum. It’s not going to be easy. And it has to work. We are running out of time.”
Georgia’s Stunning GOP Gerrymander
Daily Kos: “Despite his statewide loss, Donald Trump carried 31 Senate seats to Biden’s 25, as well as 94 House districts compared to 86 for Biden.”
“Diving deeper, we can sort each district in each chamber by Biden’s margin of victory over Trump to see how the seat in the middle—known as the median seat—voted. Because both chambers have an even number of seats, we average the two middle seats to come up with the median point in each chamber.”
“Taking this approach, we find that the median Senate seat backed Trump 57% to 42%, a full 15 points to the right of his statewide margin.”
Twitter Suspends Florida Whistleblower
“Twitter on Monday suspended Rebekah Jones, a former Department of Health data curator who made national headlines after being fired from the department for insubordination, from its platform,” Florida Politics reports.
Manchin Asked If His Negotiation Strategy Is Flawed
During an interview with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace asked: “If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn’t that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate? Because ‘Old Joe Manchin’s out there and who knows what he’s gonna do.’ By taking it off the table, haven’t you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?”
Manchin replied: “I don’t think so,” and pointed to the seven “brave” Senate Republicans who voted for a bipartisan Jan. 6 commission as evidence.
Assassinations Plague Mexico’s Elections
Arizona Republic: “On Sunday, the largest elections in the history of Mexico will be held. But this electoral process has been tainted by the murder of at least 91 politicians — 36 of them candidates and aspiring candidates — from different parties, taking place since campaigning began in September 2020.”
“These homicides make this election the second most violent in the country’s history since 2000.”
