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Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker

Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker


Stickleyville, Virginia
CNN
 — 

Again in the late 1980s, when Beau James begun professional wrestling, the crowds came for a demonstrate concerning fantastic and evil, to see a tale about heroes and villains, to enjoy the bouts and then go residence.

James relished remaining the hero but it was very little when compared to actively playing the poor dude.

“They released me and the individuals booed me for virtually two straight minutes. … It’s a significant. … And I’ve been there in the exact situation in which they like me – I really don’t consider it compares to the large of the hatred.”

Wrestlers make a persona with a backstory so the viewers feels the stakes are higher when they get punched in the face. While they frequently get themes from information and pop lifestyle, they are not commonly overtly political. But the 2016 presidential race in between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton sparked an notion involving James and wrestler Dan Harnsberger.

Alongside one another they designed “The Progressive Liberal” Dan Richards, typically the poor male at the matches in the Republican-voting mining cities of Appalachia and some southern states. The Liberal would get a listening to and even some cheers as crowds look at the staged violence at a night time of pro wrestling.

Over the past five decades, nevertheless, that ambiance has turned much darker, James and Harnsberger said this thirty day period.

Soon after this month’s midterm elections introduced defeat for a lot of Trump-backed candidates, even some election deniers conceded their races. It proposed at the very least some ended up ready to move earlier Trump’s refusal to acknowledge his 2020 loss and the mob of supporters he incited who violently stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

But in the mountain cities of Appalachia, that rhetoric has had a long lasting effect, Harnsberger explained, even amid admirers who know wrestling is enjoyment.

“The group has taken on a extra violent technique in direction of me,” stated Harnsberger, who performs the Progressive Liberal in the ring. “I experienced rocks thrown at me. A girl pulled out a lighter, tried out to gentle my trunks on fireplace even though they are on me. And experienced someone else pull out a switchblade.”

A pro wrester life or dies by the involvement of the group, which is extra important even than the techniques of individuals within the ring.

So when he noticed forests of Trump flags across West Virginia throughout the 2016 presidential election, James questioned how he could faucet in to that enthusiasm – regarded as “heat” in wrestling parlance.

“My God,” he remembers indicating to a buddy. “If we experienced a person that was the anti-Trump, and we could mail him to the ring in these cities, how considerably warmth would we get?”

They tried using wearing a Hillary Clinton flag in the ring, and received a pretty robust response. The next weekend, James ran into Harnsberger for the to start with time in a though. They’d wrestled jointly years before. Separately, Harnsberger experienced been tests how his politics would enjoy.

The two came collectively to develop and advertise the Progressive Liberal. James aided Harnsberger sharpen his views into traces that would rile up the crowd, and how to rate them – like when to say, “We’re coming for your guns.”

And matters went very well. They entertained. Just one time a admirer flashed a 9mm handgun on his hip and told Harnsberger to appear just take it, James stated. Often Harnsberger would have 50 percent the group on his aspect, like at a match in the Arkansas Ozarks.

When a athletics web site discovered Harnsberger’s gimmick in 2017, a wave of reporters, which include me, arrived to see how his Hillary trunks were being playing in the counties that showed the most assist for Trump.

“The heat you want is the heat where people are upset at what you stand for … and they want to see you get your ass kicked,” Harnsberger said.

That’s when crowds get invested and will observe you gain or eliminate and come back again the upcoming time.

In 2022, the Hillary trunks have been changed by a pair saying, “Riding with Biden.”

The Progressive Liberal is still the poor person, but Harnsberger and James said the audiences have transformed.

“The final 5 a long time, it is just bought out of hand,” James reported. People today have develop into more discouraged, much more divided, he stated. And the Progressive Liberal delivers an outlet for that created-up strength.

“So, now here’s this person in our city, indicating this stuff that we see on television that we never agree with. We simply cannot get people individuals [on TV], we cannot get the politicians. Let’s get him,” James mentioned, describing the attitude.

“Dan gets to go and unleash what he thinks, what he feels, his frustrations to an audience that he’s upset [and] that they get to give it correct again to him because he’s the closest issue to what they are mad at, that they can actually interact with,” he mentioned.

And though most politicians are not coming to these little towns, the Progressive Liberal does. “You can cuss him. You can boo him, you can slap him, or attempt. You can throw anything at him. He’s right there,” James claimed.

Harnsberger is a liberal and James a conservative. They really do not agree much on politics and don’t talk about it outside the ring, besides to operate on their act.

“We’re full opposites,” James said. “I’m a gun-proudly owning, tobacco-chewing, Bible-believing mountain person Dan is not. But Dan and I can get along. And if we have arguments, we have a luxury that most people today do not have – we know someplace in the following couple of days, we’ll be in the ring with each other so we can just punch the other a person in the back again of the head.”

But that is stagecraft. And which is not what is been going on with the audience.

James lays down some principles to try out to retain the group from turning unappealing – there’s no criticism or banter about the Bible or the opioid crisis in these cities.

But on a modern evening in Stickleyville, Virginia, the place Trump’s share of the vote rose from an presently too much to handle 78{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in 2016 to 84{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} in 2020, it did switch unpleasant, and fast.

As Harnsberger tried using to have interaction with the people who’d paid to observe, he was drowned out by boos.

A lot of that was expected. A gentleman in the viewers, Alex Adkins, instructed CNN the Progressive Liberal’s viewpoints would not go down nicely: “Everybody wishes to punch him in the deal with!”

And a gentleman with a Trump flag who didn’t want to give his name explained he preferred to see Harnsberger overwhelmed up. “We adore wrestling, initially of all,” he mentioned as to why he was there. “But to arrive and show the liberal like, hey, we know what we stand for. Yeah, and unquestionably not the remaining facet.”

When some in the audience advised their neighbors to allow Harnsberger discuss, it boiled in excess of. Punches ended up thrown. Anyone was hit with a chair.

“It obtained outside of the point of heat to it’s hazardous,” James reported, outlining why they slice the bout limited.

Far more fights broke out and the brawling spilled into the parking ton.

As James and Harnsberger sat backstage, waiting for it to be quiet adequate to let them to leave safely and securely, they the two agreed they could have dealt with the situation far better.

But neither mentioned they established the difficulty.

“I assume if I had hardly ever existed they would experience the exact same point,” Harnsberger mentioned. “But I have a distinctive potential to convey that reaction out of them when I’m in entrance of them given that I am listed here.”

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US progressives reject Republican push against Ilhan Omar | Politics News

US progressives reject Republican push against Ilhan Omar | Politics News

Washington, DC – When Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy mentioned the name of Muslim-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar at a Republican Jewish Coalition conference at the weekend, boos erupted from the crowd.

“That’s a rightful boo,” the congressman responded, before promising to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee because of her criticism of Israel.

The top Republican’s pledge has sparked an outcry from progressive and Muslim-American advocates who say the attack on Omar was unjustified. Some also warned it may be the tip of the iceberg in a campaign that House Republicans are preparing against Democrats when they take control of the congressional chamber in January.

“Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress should come together to reject this cynical political attack on Rep. Omar,” Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a statement.

“Members of Congress should not be silenced for daring to consistently speak out against human rights violations, whether committed by our nation’s adversaries, allies or even our own government,” McCaw said on Monday.

After Republicans won a slim House majority in this month’s midterm elections, McCarthy will likely become House speaker in the new Congress, which will convene on January 3, 2023.

But even before stepping into the majority, top House Republicans said they will investigate the business dealings by President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden — an issue that Democrats say is unfounded.

McCarthy also told Fox News on Sunday that he would prevent Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from joining the intelligence committee.

‘Hypocritical’

But McCarthy’s attack on Omar, which follows years of incessant Republican criticism of the congresswoman, was especially pronounced.

“Last year, I promised that when I became Speaker, I would remove Rep. Ilhan Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee based on her repeated anti-semitic and anti-American remarks,” he wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “I’m keeping that promise.”

McCaw at CAIR described McCarthy’s pledge as “beyond hypocritical”, noting he had said he would reinstate the committee assignments of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene was kicked off congressional panels last year over anti-Semitic and Islamophobic comments.

In a blistering statement on Monday, Omar rebuked McCarthy and accused Republicans of using “fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia and racism” to target her since she was elected in 2018.

“McCarthy’s effort to repeatedly single me out for scorn and hatred — including threatening to strip me from my committee — does nothing to address the issues our constituents deal with. It does nothing to address inflation, healthcare, or solve the climate crisis,” she said.

Omar is one of three Muslims serving in Congress and one of the few vocal supporters of Palestinian rights on Capitol Hill.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which helps push forward legislation and undertakes oversight of members of the US executive branch, she also has been a rare voice calling for diplomacy and against hawkish policies.

Omar has previously been accused of using anti-Semitic tropes after she suggested that political donations from pro-Israel lobby groups, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), drive support for Israel in Washington.

She later apologised for that comment, but Palestinian rights advocates say accusations of anti-Semitism against Omar and others over their criticism of Israel aim to stifle the debate around Israeli government policies.

Progressives defend Omar

This week, several prominent progressives rushed to Omar’s defence after McCarthy’s remarks.

Congresswoman Cori Bush urged McCarthy to “do better” and expressed support for Omar. “Islamophobia, racism, religious discrimination & hate have no place in the People’s House or our society,” she wrote on Twitter.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, described Omar as a “dedicated” legislator and accused Republicans of weaponising “xenophobia and racism to undermine her voice”.

Many also rejected attempts to draw an equivalence between Omar and Greene or Paul Gosar, another far-right Republican who was formally rebuked last year for sharing an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

“There’s been such a coordinated effort to convince you that progressive Black & brown women in office – who serve & lead from lived experiences – are the Democratic equivalent of white supremacist right-wingers who persecute, marginalize & incite violence on the rest of us. Stop it,” Congresswoman-elect Summer Lee wrote on Twitter on Monday.

McCarthy, who as minority leader rejected the Democratic push against Greene and Gosar, had promised payback last year if Republicans were to regain control of the House.

“You’ll regret this. And you may regret this a lot sooner than you think,” he said after Democrats removed Greene from her committee assignments.

Beyond the Omar issue, many critics have slammed Republicans’ stated priorities for the next Congress, particularly investigating the Biden administration.

But Republicans say they will be fulfilling one of the duties of Congress by ensuring oversight over the government.

Republicans also say their Democratic rivals launched various investigations into former President Donald Trump when he was in office — including over reports of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, which they dismiss as a “hoax”.

McCarthy said on Sunday that he would push to remove Schiff off the intelligence committee, which the Democrat currently chairs, over lying to the American public, without providing details.

Schiff shot back, calling McCarthy a “very weak leader” catering to “the lowest common denominator” in his caucus. “I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do,” Schiff told ABC News.

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Paul Ryan invents a new category of anti-Trumpism

Paul Ryan invents a new category of anti-Trumpism



CNN
 — 

You know all about the “Never Trumpers” – that rump team of Republicans who have loudly spoken out versus former President Donald Trump and what he has carried out to the GOP.

Now meet the “Never-Once more Trumpers.”

That is how former Dwelling Speaker Paul Ryan described himself in an interview with ABC Information that aired above the weekend. Here’s what he mentioned:

“I’m happy of the achievements [during the Trump administration] – of the tax reform, the deregulation and prison justice reform – I’m actually energized about the judges we acquired on the bench, not just the Supreme Court, but in the course of the judiciary. But I am a In no way-Yet again Trumper. Why? Since I want to get, and we eliminate with Trump. It was really distinct to us in ’18, in ‘20 and now in 2022.”

Ryan, who still left Congress in 2019, has grown progressively outspoken about his feelings about Trump and the long term of the Republican Party.

In late October, he told Fox Small business Network that the “new swing voter in American politics is the suburban voter, and it is truly distinct the suburban voter doesn’t like Trump, but they like Republicans.” And he extra: “So I believe any one not named Trump, I assume is so significantly more likely to get the White Property for us.”

(Truly worth noting: Trump won suburban voters in excess of Hillary Clinton in 2016 and missing them narrowly to Joe Biden in 2020, according to the nationwide exit polls. In the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans won suburban voters 52{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}-46{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}.)

And again in June at an occasion for South Carolina GOP Rep. Tom Rice, who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, Ryan was deeply crucial of these in just the GOP who did not vote that way. “There are a ton of men and women who say they’re heading to vote their conscience, they’re heading to vote for the Structure, they’re going to vote for their convictions but when it receives challenging to do that they don’t do it,” he claimed at the time. (Rice went on to eliminate the Republican key in his district to a Trump-backed challenger.)

Trump, as he does, has attacked Ryan in the earlier too. “As a Republican, acquiring Paul Ryan on your side pretty much guarantees a decline, for both you, the Bash, and The usa alone,” Trump wrote in a assertion final calendar year just after Ryan gave a speech suggesting the bash desired to go on from the previous president.

Assaults apart, Ryan’s situation on Trump is an exciting a single. It offers the former president credit score for what he completed in business office though suggesting he is neither the current nor the long run of the GOP.

Which is where by, I assume, some of the extra significant challengers to Trump in 2024 will land. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for illustration, would do very well to echo Ryan’s viewpoint – give Trump credit history for what he did as president although earning crystal clear that his political attractiveness has shrunk to the stage the place it would be a mistake for Republicans to nominate him again.

At the main of Ryan’s place as a “Never-Once more Trumper” is a thing that I have normally puzzled doesn’t get much more awareness: Trump’s get-loss history.

Trump famously bragged that “we are going to start winning all over again and we are going to acquire so much,” but the reality is that because the 2016 election, he has been substantially more closely recognized with dropping. In Trump’s time in office, Republicans lost management of the Home and Senate. Republicans did retake the Property vast majority in 2022, but their victory was significantly narrower than anticipated. And Democrats managed to hold on to their narrow Senate the greater part, with various Trump-backed candidates falling shorter in important races.

That resolved lack of successful would seem to be a very clear weak place for Trump as he appears to be to rally guidance for his 3rd presidential bid. And DeSantis by now seems to be going to exploit it. Adhering to a crushing reelection victory this thirty day period, DeSantis reported of his critics: “I would just notify people today to go verify out the scoreboard from very last Tuesday evening.”

Possibly DeSantis is section of the “Never Yet again Trump” motion way too?

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Donald Trump is at his weakest political position in years

Donald Trump is at his weakest political position in years



CNN
 — 

Former President Donald Trump is providing it a further go. He announced last week that he’s striving to turn out to be only the next guy (right after Grover Cleveland) to be elected to non-consecutive conditions as US president.

Trump’s move arrives at a time when his political brand is at its weakest place because his very first presidential bid in 2015-2016. He does continue being a power to be reckoned with in GOP circles, and the news that the Justice Section has appointed a exclusive counsel to oversee investigations relevant to the former president could elicit a rally-all around-Trump impact among the Republicans. However, it’s distinct his energy in the social gathering has diminished following the 2022 midterm elections.

The least difficult way to convey to that Trump’s standing isn’t what it after was is to seem at the reaction to his 2024 presidential announcement. A lot of Republican elected officers and conservative media personalities gave it a massive yawn.

Trump’s announcement attained him the help of incredibly couple of elected officials on Capitol Hill. It was a great deal a lot more reminiscent of his initially bid in 2015-2016, when Trump in the beginning drew minimal support from lawmakers in Congress. The difference this time, of course, is that Trump is the former leader of the bash whom most Republican users of Congress experienced endorsed in 2020 in its place of a political neophyte like he was 7 many years ago.

Rather, there appears to be to be about as quite a few senators (one) now backing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as there are for Trump. This is essential due to the fact endorsements from bash officials have traditionally been correlated with presidential principal achievements.

TAMPA, FLORIDA - JULY 22: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit held at the Tampa Convention Center on July 22, 2022 in Tampa, Florida. The event features student activism and leadership training, and a chance to participate in a series of networking events with political leaders. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Will DeSantis operate in 2024? Politico reporter goes over some elements

I ought to be aware that the lack of endorsements did not stop Trump in 2016, and it may perhaps not this time possibly.

Trump’s initially bid may possibly have been an aberration, even though. He was facing off towards more than a dozen opponents who break up assistance among the conservative political class. This is in particular a issue in Republican primaries, which are inclined to be winner-just take-all (or most) affairs, as opposed to Democratic primaries, which award delegates proportionally. Trump desired properly less than half of the GOP vote to accumulate a large amount of delegates promptly in 2016.

He may perhaps not get the exact divided opposition in the 2024 cycle. The only apparent competitor to Trump at this place is DeSantis.

The Florida governor’s increase is potentially the most significant improvement in the 2024 Republican area. Trump is continue to forward in a amount of countrywide principal polls, but DeSantis is polling better in early national polls than any non-Trump candidate did for substantially of the 2016 key cycle.

In his house condition of Florida, DeSantis is outright beating Trump in just about each and every poll. In CNN’s exit poll of 2022 midterm voters in Florida, additional Republicans wished DeSantis to run in 2024 than they did Trump.

DeSantis’ Florida gain is noteworthy for a range of reasons, apart from the truth that the point out consists of a boatload of Republican delegates, who will possible be allocated winner-just take-all.

First, Florida is Trump’s property point out too, and it is the only put where by the two adult men are on equivalent footing in phrases of title recognition. DeSantis’ direct is a sign that as Republicans nationwide get to know him greater, they could shift towards him. (DeSantis tends to have a increased favorable ranking than Trump nationally amongst Republicans who are common with both of those adult males.)

2nd, Trump won Florida in the 2016 primaries from residence-state Sen. Marco Rubio. The reality that DeSantis is now besting him there in the polls is arguably an indicator that Trump is in a weaker placement than he had been in 2016.

But Trump’s difficulties go past just celebration officials and polls. Trump was in a position to defy conventional wisdom in 2016 because he received an outsize amount of money of media interest. He generally crowded out the opposition.

This time, it will not be so straightforward. I have pointed out earlier that DeSantis has demonstrated a knack for producing a whole lot of media awareness on Fox Information. Trump’s identify wasn’t described until web site 26 of the Rupert Murdoch-run New York Put up (whose editorial site leans to the proper) on the day following his 2024 announcement. Murdoch leads the corporation that owns Fox Information as effectively.

And if Trump wins the main, he’ll even now have to earn a normal election. That won’t be quick, as the 2022 midterms confirmed.

I famous previous 7 days that Trump’s presence was one particular of the significant causes that Democrats did surprisingly very well in the midterm elections. By remaining in the headlines so significantly and acting like a quasi-incumbent, Trump assisted to nullify what is generally a big advantage for the opposition party in midterm elections with an unpopular incumbent in the White Household.

Now, you could have envisioned a universe in which Trump’s greater-than-lifestyle character may perhaps have been useful if he were being preferred.

Instead, Trump’s favorable ranking is at one of its cheapest factors in the previous 5 many years: 39{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, according to the 2022 exit poll. That compares with a 46{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} favorable ranking in the 2020 exit poll and a 45{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} career approval rating in the 2018 exit poll.

In a presidential election in which Trump’s title is basically on the ballot, you could consider his unpopularity remaining even extra of a factor.

We currently know from history that it won’t be simple for Trump. Though incumbent presidents (like Joe Biden) are at a drawback in midterms, they advantage from their incumbency in presidential elections. Elected incumbents acquire extra than 60{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the time when they operate for one more term.

The base line is that Trump’s received an uphill climb ahead of him for 2024 – equally in a GOP primary and in a typical election. He can undoubtedly get a next expression, but the odds are at present versus him.

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Analysis: What would politics look like without Twitter?

Analysis: What would politics look like without Twitter?



CNN
 — 

Twitter looks to be in a slow-movement collapse. New owner Elon Musk has presently laid off 50 {515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} the company’s team and even extra resignations strike Thursday in response to Musk’s ultimatum that personnel will have to pledge to be “extremely hardcore” in their do the job ethic likely forward.

It is not fully very clear who is still left at Twitter to, you know, run the social media internet site.

All of which raises a extremely exciting question: What would politics – and political journalism – search like if Twitter disappeared?

Short solution: Really, quite distinct.

My possess knowledge with Twitter is instructive. I initial used the web-site at the 2008 Democratic Countrywide Convention in Denver. I labored at the Washington Post at the time and we were being wanting for ways to offer dwell commentary on the speeches being presented at the DNC. Although the service was nevertheless in its infancy, plenty of people were being on it – and reside-tweeting the speeches gave me a way to interact quickly with other people today who were being also viewing.

It was, to be straightforward, a little bit of a revelation. And it was entertaining.

Twitter – and how I use it – has modified a complete large amount in the intervening decade and a fifty percent. The fun aspect of the site has been appreciably lessened as each individual tweet has the probable to inflame some corner of the Twitterverse, and send out your working day spiraling in a lousy direction. But, the assistance that Twitter gives to somebody like me is also a must have. I follow hundreds of reporters and sources on Twitter my feed keeps me apprised of the hottest information superior than something else that’s out there.

Imagine of previous week’s election. Twitter helped me remain abreast of which races had been termed (and why other races hadn’t been named). Twitter end users offered vote counts from essential counties. Candidates conceded and celebrated on Twitter. It was, in a term, indispensable.

Want additional proof of the centrality of Twitter to the political dialogue? Go again to the 2016 presidential marketing campaign of Donald Trump.

By now popular for his actuality Tv successes, Trump employed Twitter like no politician before him had. Instead than posting quotidian statements by means of tweet – like most politicians at the time – Trump used the assistance as his personal private diary. He raged. He joked. He mocked. He drove information cycle following information cycle with tweets.

“Without the tweets, I wouldn’t be here . . . I have above 100 million followers concerning Fb, Twitter (and) Instagram,” Trump informed the Fiscal Occasions in 2017. “Over 100 million. I do not have to go to the phony media.”

As The New York Moments wrote in 2019:

“When Mr. Trump entered business office, Twitter was a political device that had aided get him elected and a electronic howitzer that he relished firing. In the years considering that, he has thoroughly built-in Twitter into the really fabric of his administration, reshaping the mother nature of the presidency and presidential power.”

The banning of Trump from Twitter – in the wake of the January 6, 2021, assault at the US Capitol – was (and is) found as a main minute in the program of his political career, robbing him of the megaphone that he applied to these types of great effect for the duration of his increase. So important was Twitter to Trump that he made a copycat web page – TruthSocial – created to mimic Twitter.

Now, it’s essential to take note right here that Twitter use is considerably from ubiquitous. Fewer than just one in 4 folks (23{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}) say they use Twitter – far below the use premiums for YouTube (81{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), Fb (69{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}) and Instagram (40{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}). And, even amid the group that does use Twitter, a tiny subset drives the large vast majority of the dialogue. This, from Pew, is instructive: “The best 25{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of customers by tweet quantity develop 97{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of all tweets, though the bottom 75{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of buyers create just 3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}, in accordance to an evaluation carried out in excess of a a few-month period of time in 2021.”

But, in the political earth, Twitter usage is significantly, far bigger. You can depend on a solitary hand how lots of notable politicians and/or popular journalists never have a Twitter account. It capabilities now as a sort of common message board for politics – each individual 1 is on there and, as a result, all kinds of information is made there.

If all that goes away – and points undoubtedly really do not seem superior at Twitter at the second – it would be a significant blow for how the political globe does business. May well anything rise to substitute it? Of training course – that is the way of the world. But, it would go away a gaping void.

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Former January 6 committee staffer says texts show evidence of ‘attempted coup’ – as it happened | US politics

Former January 6 committee staffer says texts show evidence of ‘attempted coup’ – as it happened | US politics

Denver Riggleman’s interview with 60 Minutes is a rare breach in the carefully stage managed presentation the January 6 committee has given Americans over the past months about what happened during the insurrection at the Capitol.

A former Republican congressman who was ousted by a more conservative opponent in 2020 and now considers himself independent, Riggleman acted as a technical adviser for the committee, poring through evidence such as text messages and emails obtained from people thought to have knowledge of the attack. His interview provided a behind-the-scenes look at the investigation, most details about which have come from lawmakers’ comments or the public hearings themselves.

Perhaps his most startling admission is his belief that text messages then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows voluntarily turned over the committee amounted to a “roadmap to an attempted coup.” But Riggleman shared other disquieting details in the interview, such as that a White House number called one of the rioters who had stormed the Capitol as it was happening.

Then there were the text messages Meadows received containing an array of far-right conspiracy theories from Ginni Thomas, wife of rightwing supreme court justice Clarence Thomas.

“What really shook me was the fact that if Clarence agreed with or was even aware of his wife’s efforts, all three branches of government would be tied to the stop the steal movement,” Riggleman said on 60 Minutes.

Ginni Thomas’s involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results has been well documented in recent months, leading to calls for the January 6 committee to compel her testimony – efforts Riggleman said he supported. Last week, a deal was reached for Thomas to speak to investigators.

Key events

Closing summary

A former staffer for the January 6 committee went public with a claim that someone at the White House called a Capitol rioter on the day of the attack, while warning that evidence obtained from Donald Trump’s chief of staff looked like an “attempted coup”. The committee’s lawmakers downplayed Denver Riggleman’s interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program, and have been busy themselves, sending a subpoena to the Republican speaker of Wisconsin’s assembly.

Here’s what else happened today:

  • Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic senator known for bucking the party’s priorities, offered few reasons for her mysterious politics in a speech alongside the chamber’s top Republican.

  • Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan will cost $400 billion, if not more, the independent Congressional Budget Office said, prompting criticism from budget hawks as well as defense from Democrats.

  • Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed 2020 election denier standing as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, appears to be lagging on the campaign trail.

  • Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows exchanged texts with another conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier.

Democratic senators hit back at claims student debt relief too expensive

The Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer along with Wall Street foe Elizabeth Warren have issued a joint statement underlining their support of president Joe Biden’s student debt relief plan, and drawing a contrast with Republican policies that slash taxes for the rich.

The statement came after the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found the plan announced last month would cost a sizable $400 billion or more. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget seized on that estimate to say the plan was too expensive, and could push inflation higher.

“Today’s CBO estimate makes clear that millions of middle class Americans have more breathing room thanks to President Biden’s historic decision to cancel student debt,” Schumer, who represents New York, and Warren, who represents Massachusetts, said in their statement.

“In contrast to President Trump and Republicans who gave giant corporations $2 trillion in tax breaks, President Biden delivered transformative middle class relief by cancelling student debt for working people who need it most — nearly 90{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of relief dollars will go to those earning less than $75,000 a year. We don’t agree with all of CBO’s assumptions that underlie this analysis, but it is clear the pandemic payment pause and student debt cancellation are policies that demonstrate how government can and should invest in working people, not the wealthy and billionaire corporations.”

Idaho’s abortion law is being challenged in federal court, but The Washington Post reports that the impact of the strict measure is already being felt by the state’s universities.

The University of Idaho has advised employees that because the law is not written clearly, it may prohibit employees from offering birth control, and thus they should refrain from doing so:

University of Idaho employees were warned Friday that they could be charged with a felony for talking about abortion, because of the state’s new abortion law.

They were also told *they could no longer provide birth control.*

Not just Plan B, but regular birth control. pic.twitter.com/qHJoDRzMc2

— Caroline Kitchener (@CAKitchener) September 26, 2022

The fiscal hawks at the independent Congressional Budget Office have released their cost estimate for the student loan relief plan president Joe Biden announced last month, and found it comes in at $400 billion, but could vary.

The plan partially satisfied Biden’s campaign pledge to provide relief for Americans struggling with loans from higher education, but was criticized both for not being generous enough, and for adding on to the country’s already mammoth federal budget deficit:

CBO estimates that the cost of outstanding student loans to the federal government will increase by about $400 billion because of an executive action canceling some debt. https://t.co/FgEHBn2XP6

— U.S. CBO (@USCBO) September 26, 2022

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which advocates for restraint in federal spending, criticized the plan as simply too expensive:

“.@USCBO’s new estimate confirms the outrageous cost of the White House plan to cancel large amounts of student debt, by executive order, to nearly all borrowers almost regardless of need.” https://t.co/KFs9DQ8KYp

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“The debt cancellation and pause alone will cost $420 billion – a bit more than we previously thought – and costs could reach $510 to $610 billion with their IDR changes. The Biden Administration’s failure to release their own cost estimate should have been a red flag.”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“As @USCBO’s estimates help confirm, the President’s student debt plan would wipe out the ten-year savings from the #InflationReductionAct twice over, worsen inflationary pressures, and deliver benefits to millions of Americans with advanced degrees in upper-income households.”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

“This might be the most costly executive action in history. It’s unacceptable that the President would implement it without offsets and without Congressional approval. Including these actions, the President has now added nearly $4.9 trillion to ten-year federal deficits…”

— CRFB.org (@BudgetHawks) September 26, 2022

The Biden administration is generally keeping mum about Russia’s decision to grant citizenship to Edward Snowden, who leaked National Security Agency documents and fled the United States.

Here’s the little state department spokesman Ned Price had to say about it:

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price reacts to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden being granted Russian citizenship:

“Perhaps the only thing that has changed is … apparently now he may well be conscripted to fight in the reckless war in Ukraine.” pic.twitter.com/ZemSN8CVur

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

January 6 committee member says DoJ investigation proceeding, but slowly

A Democratic member of the January 6 committee revealed details of the department of justice’s investigation into the attack and its interaction with the congressional inquiry, describing the government’s effort as plodding, thorough and bolstered by evidence the lawmakers had uncovered.

“They have been very slow, though, on the much more comprehensive, and I believe, even more significant investigation of January 6,” California congressman Adam Schiff said of the justice department during an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival, according to CNN. However, he thought it was a mistake for the justice department to start their investigation with the individual rioters and proceed from there.

“That works when you have one plot, one conspiracy. It doesn’t work when there are multiple lines of effort to overturn an election, multiple plots, that may be all part of the same whole, but nonetheless each operating independently,” Schiff said.

The Democrat acknowledged federal investigators are matching the work of the January 6 committee, saying, “It does appear now that they have interviewed many of the same significant witnesses that we have.” He did note that the justice department had requested much of the committee’s materials, which he found “breathtaking”.

“My first reaction when we got the request – ‘Turn over all your files to us’ – was: ‘Why don’t you have your own damn files? Why haven’t you been conducting your own investigation? Why do you need us to do it?” Schiff said.

The lawmaker also found it strange that a district attorney in Georgia had been left to singlehandedly investigate Donald Trump and his allies’ involvement in trying to overturn the election there, but noted that situation might not last much longer. “That may be changing too, but it’s a long time coming,” Schiff said.

The day so far

A former staffer for the January 6 committee went public with a claim that someone at the White House called a Capitol rioter on the day of the attack, while warning that evidence obtained from Donald Trump’s chief of staff looked like an “attempted coup”. The committee’s lawmakers downplayed Denver Riggleman’s interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes program, and have been busy themselves, sending a subpoena to the Republican speaker of Wisconsin’s assembly.

Here’s what else happened today:

  • Kyrsten Sinema, a Democratic senator known for bucking the party’s priorities, offered few reasons for her mysterious politics in a speech alongside the chamber’s top Republican.

  • Doug Mastriano, a Trump-backed 2020 election denier standing as the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, appears to be trailing on the campaign trail.

  • Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows exchanged texts with another conspiracy theorist and 2020 election denier.

There are few mysteries in Congress bigger than Kyrsten Sinema.

Once a member of the Green Party, the Democratic senator from Arizona has seized on the party’s one-vote majority in the Senate to act a spoiler for progressive proposals, including changing the filibuster to get voting rights legislation passed, raising the national minimum wage to $15 per-hour and closing a tax loophole that benefited private equity firms. Unlike with Joe Manchin, the fellow Democratic senator and frequent holdout vote who already had a reputation for conservatism and support for the fossil fuel industry, Sinema’s reasons for acting this way aren’t quite clear, and somewhat inexplicable given her left-wing activism earlier in her career. The tactic doesn’t appear to have paid off, either. An AARP poll released last week showed that independents, Republicans and, most of all, Democrats in Arizona viewed Sinema unfavorably.

The senator appeared today alongside the chamber’s top Republican Mitch McConnell for a speech in Kentucky, where she extolled the virtues of bipartisanship. While it certainly does not clear up the senator’s mysterious approach to politics, her comments here may give some hints as to why she does what she does in Washington:

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), speaking at the McConnell Center, describes her “friendship” with Senate Minority Leader McConnell (R-KY):

“While we may not agree on every issue, we do share the same values.” pic.twitter.com/2vz5ioNFeA

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

“Not everyone likes me.”

— Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) jokes with the audience at the McConnell Center, after saying Democrats will “likely” lose some control of Congress after the midterms. pic.twitter.com/naEjHhKO5D

— The Recount (@therecount) September 26, 2022

“I signed a permission slip for a College and Career Day. What I got was indoctrination and trauma.” That sums up the experience of some of the more than 2,100 high school seniors bussed to a church in Louisiana last week on what was billed as a college fair but, as Maya Yang reports, turned into something else:

More than 2,000 public school students in Louisiana were told earlier this week that they were going to a college fair. They were then shuttled to what parents later deemed a sexist and transphobic church event which left many of the students traumatized.

On Tuesday, more than 2,100 high school seniors from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System – which serves residents of Louisiana’s capital – were taken to the local Living Faith Christian Center under the promise that they would receive college and career advice, as well as free food.

The Christian nonprofit organization 29:11 Mentoring Program organized the event, calling it “Day of Hope,” the Baton Rouge Advocate reported. The permission slips distributed to students promised “free food”, “fun and games”, “college fair” and “special guest”.

The New York Times sent a reporter to Pennsylvania to check on how the Republican candidate for governor is doing, and the verdict seems to be: not that well.

Doug Mastriano is a Donald Trump-endorsed, 2020 election denier who chartered busses to Washington on January 6 and has pledged to completely ban abortion in the state if elected. However, he’s well behind in the polls, and as the Times reports, has shunned much of what amounts to modern campaign tactics.

Here’s more from their report:

There is little indication that he has built a campaign infrastructure beyond the Facebook videos that propelled him to stardom in right-wing circles and to the vanguard of Christian nationalist politics.

“I can’t even assess things because I don’t see a campaign,” said Matt Brouillette, the president of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, an advocacy group that is a major player in Pennsylvania Republican politics. “I’ve not seen anything that is even a semblance of a campaign.”

Mr. Brouillette, who backed one of Mr. Mastriano’s rivals in the G.O.P. primary, added: “Now, maybe he knows something we don’t on how you can win in the fifth-largest state without doing TV or mail. But I guess we’re going to have to wait until Nov. 8 to see whether you can pull something like that off.”

“The New York from which Trump emerged was its own morass of corruption and dysfunction, stretching from seats of executive power to portions of the media to the real-estate industry in which his family found its wealth,” writes Maggie Haberman in The Atlantic. “But Trump nevertheless stood out to the journalists covering him as particularly brazen.”

Haberman, a reporter for The New York Times and longtime watcher of Donald Trump, is one of the best-known chroniclers of his presidency, and the Atlantic article is a good read for those who want to better understand what drives Trump. Adapted from her soon-to-be-released book “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”, the piece touches on some of the drivers of his inexplicable behavior, such as his insistence that the election was stolen, and that he could even return to office in August 2021.

It also shows how Trump viewed the people around him, particularly his supporters, whose ardency appeared to take him by surprise. For more on that, take a look at how the piece starts:

Can you believe these are my customers?” Donald Trump once asked while surveying the crowd in the Taj Mahal casino’s poker room. “Look at those losers,” he said to his consultant Tom O’Neil, of people spending money on the floor of the Trump Plaza casino. Visiting the Iowa State Fair as a presidential candidate in 2015, he was astounded that locals fell in line to support him because of a few free rides in his branded helicopter. In the White House, he was sometimes stunned at his own backers’ fervor, telling aides, “They’re fucking crazy.” Yet they loved him and wanted to own a piece of him, and that was what mattered most.