tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59352306801683797982024-03-13T08:01:27.330-07:00U.S. Historical FictionHarold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.comBlogger584125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-88720774684745621802022-06-12T12:53:00.006-07:002022-06-12T12:53:39.497-07:00The Radical Right Supreme Court, Part Two, Clarence Thomas<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Thomas
was born in 1948 in </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Pin
Point, Georgia</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
a small, predominantly black community near </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Savannah
founded by freedmen after the Civil War</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
He was the second of three children born to M. C. Thomas, a farm
worker, and Leola "Pigeon" Williams, a domestic worker.
They were descendants of American </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">slaves,
and the family spoke Gullah as a first language. </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Thomas's
earliest known ancestors were slaves named Sandy and Peggy, who were
born in the late 18th century and owned by wealthy planter Josiah
Wilson of </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">L</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">iberty
County, Georgia. </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Thomas's
father left the family when Thomas was two years old. Though Thomas's
mother worked hard, she was sometimes paid only pennies per day and
struggled to earn enough money to feed the family, and was sometimes
forced to rely on charity. After a house fire left them </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">homeless</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Thomas and his younger brother Myers were taken to live in Savannah
with his maternal grandparents, Myers and Christine (</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i>née
</i></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Hargrove)
Anderson.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Thomas
then experienced amenities such as indoor plumbing and regular meals
for the first time. Myers Anderson had little formal education, but
built a thriving </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">fuel
oil </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">business
that also sold ice. Thomas has called Anderson "the greatest man
I have ever known." When Thomas was 10, Anderson started taking
the family to help at a farm every day from sunrise to sunset.
Anderson believed in hard work and self-reliance, and counseled the
children to "never let the sun catch you in bed." He also
impressed upon his grandsons the importance of a good education
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Wikipedia
2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the fall of 1967, Clarence Thomas and 64 other young Catholic men
entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in the northwestern Missouri
town of Conception with the goal of becoming priests. Half the
students, including Mr. Thomas, left the seminary after the first
year.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Thomas later told several black friends about the incident that many
believe prompted him to leave. On April 4, 1968, the day the Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, a group of
students were watching television coverage of the event. Mr. Thomas
heard one white student remark, "That's what they should do to
all the niggers."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jerry
M. Hunter, general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board,
said of Mr. Thomas: "He remembers thinking, 'We're supposed to
be people of God. If people have that view here, then this is not a
place for me to be.' "</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Thomas transferred to Holy Cross. He and most of the college's few
dozen black students were housed together in Healey Dormitory, named
for a black Roman Catholic bishop, said the Rev. Joseph J. LaBran,
who is still a residence counselor at the college.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Administrators
thought that placing the students together would help them find
support in the overwhelmingly white school, he said. But the
dormitory has since been integrated.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
1969, several students protested the campus recruitment of students
by General Electric because of its military work. The administration
expelled some protesters, but while most of the protesters had been
white, about half of those expelled were black.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Almost
every black student, including Mr. Thomas, walked off campus until
the administration reinstated those expelled, Father LaBran said.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Stanley
E. Grayson, a former deputy mayor of New York City, was a friend of
Mr. Thomas at Holy Cross, where they were both active in the black
student union.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"Clarence
was always an independent thinker," Mr. Grayson said. "He
was the type who was going to look at a set of circumstances and
reach his own conclusions. And I think that probably exists today"
(Margolick 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Just
about every evening, a few minutes after 11, there Clarence would be
coming through the door from the library, every single evening,”
recalled Edward P. Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer
known for his work chronicling Black lives in Washington, who lived
down the hall from Thomas as a sophomore. “There was a fierce
determination I sensed from him, that he was going to get as much as
he could and get as far, ultimately, as he could.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thomas
got his law degree from Yale but stuck a 15-cent cigar sticker to the
frame of his diploma after failing to get a big law job — such
firms, he would write, attributed his academic pedigree to
preferential treatment. Instead, he took the only job offer he
received and went to work for Missouri’s Republican attorney
general, John Danforth, and discovered the writings of the Black
conservative Thomas Sowell, who assailed affirmative action as
undercutting self-reliance; Thomas wrote that he “felt like a
thirsty man gulping down a glass of cool water” to see his own
beliefs articulated. A few years later, after he was appointed by
Reagan to head the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, he would
complain that Black civil rights leaders “bitch, bitch, bitch, moan
and moan, whine and whine” (Hakim and Becker 12).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Thomas
was the only African-American member of Danforth's staff. He worked
first in the criminal appeals division of Danforth's office and later
in the revenue and taxation division. He has said he considers
Assistant Attorney General the best job he ever had. When Danforth
was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, Thomas left to become an
attorney with the Monsanto Chemical Company, in St. Louis, Missouri<span style="text-decoration: none;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Thomas
moved to Washington, D.C., and again worked for Danforth from 1979 to
1981 as a legislative assistant handling energy issues for the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Senate
Commerce Committee</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Thomas and Danforth had both studied to be ordained, although in
different denominations</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Danforth championed Thomas for the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">President
Ronald Reagan nominated Thomas as </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Assistant
Secretary of Education for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of
Education </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
May 1, 1981. Thomas's nomination was received by the Senate on May
28, 1981, and he was confirmed to the position on June 26 …
Journalis</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Evan
Thomas </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">once
opined that Thomas was "openly ambitious for higher office"
during his tenure at the EEOC. As chairman, he promoted a doctrine of
self-reliance, and halted the usual EEOC approach of filing
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">class-action
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">discrimination
lawsuits, instead pursuing acts of individual discrimination. He also
asserted in 1984 that black leaders were "watching the
destruction of our race" as they "bitch, bitch, bitch"
about Reagan instead of working with the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Reagan
admi</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ni</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">stration
to alleviate teenage pregnancy, unemployment and illiteracy
(Wikipedia 4).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Clarence
and Ginni [Virginia Lamp] met in 1986 at a conference on affirmative
action, which they both opposed. After a stint at the civil rights
office of the Education Department, he was running the E.E.O.C.; she
was an attorney at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and mused that year
to Good Housekeeping about someday running for Congress. She had
extracted herself from a New Age-y self-help group called Lifespring,
which she would denounce as a cult, but was still attending meetings
held by a cult-deprogramming organization, and she took him along to
one. He would describe her as a “gift from God,” and they married
in 1987 at a Methodist church in Omaha; it was her first marriage,
his second. “There’s no other way to politely say this, but the
fact she married a Black man must’ve caused an uproar in that
family, I can’t even imagine,” said Scott Bange, who dated Ginni
in high school. In 1991, one of Ginni Thomas’s aunts told The
Washington Post that the future justice “was so nice, we forgot he
was Black,” adding, “He treated her so well, all of his other
qualities made up for his being Black” (Hakim and Becker 12).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
June 1989, President Bush announced he would nominate Thomas to the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
his meetings with white Democratic staffers in the Senate, Thomas
wrote, he was met with ill-concealed hostility." He says he was
"struck by how easy it had become for sanctimonious whites to
accuse a black man of not caring about civil rights." But his
confirmation hearing to the federal appeals court would prove
uneventful, and he got the support of a number of influential African
Americans …</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thomas
had been on the appeals court mere months when Justice William
Brennan stepped down, and rumors circulated that Thomas was on the
short list to replace him. Bush actually wanted to nominate Thomas
for that seat. He was worried about the "optics" of
nominating him to replace Justice Thurgood Marshall, if he were to
retire, because he didn't want Thomas to be perceived as a quota
pick.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
Bush's advisers, including White House Counsel Boyden Gray, believed
it was too soon for Thomas, so Bush tapped another new appeals court
appointee, David Souter of New Hampshire. Souter had spent seven
years on the New Hampshire Supreme Court and had worked in state
government before that. But he had yet to write a federal court
opinion or grapple with hard federal constitutional law questions —
as the Bush Administration would realize soon enough when the
inexperienced Souter, once on the Court, proved to be less
conservative than they had ever expected.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
next year, Marshall — a civil rights icon — announced his
retirement. Thomas heard he was the leading candidate and wrote that
he "felt sick" at the prospect of being a Supreme Court
nominee. He worried about spending the rest of his life as a judge,
and he worried about the battle it would take to get him confirmed
because of his outspoken views.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
on the last day of June, President Bush phoned Thomas in his chambers
in Washington. He asked him to come to Kennebunkport to discuss it
with him, so Thomas flew up alone, not sure if he was being
interviewed or selected. Virginia suggested he write a statement just
in case. At her suggestion, he inserted in the statement that it was
"only in America" that someone with his humble background —
a poor black child from the segregated South — could grow up to
become a Supreme Court nominee.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
Bush introduced Thomas to the nation, Thomas heard the clicking of
the cameras, which he wrote "sounded like summer rain falling on
the tin roof of our hand-built house in Liberty County, the
individual drops blurring together in a steady pitter-patter."
Standing beside the President, Thomas thought of his grandparents,
and he suggests he had a sense of foreboding. He wrote that he
recalled the ants he had watched as a child on the farm, building
hills one grain of sand at a time, "only to have them
senselessly destroyed in an instant by a passing foot."</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I'd
pieced my life together the same way, slowly and agonizingly,"
he wrote. "Would it, too, be kicked callously into the dust"
(Greenburg 1)?</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">TV
viewers, both male and female, watched in increasing discomfort as
the senators asked [Anita] Hill about large-breasted women, a porn
star named Long Dong Silver and pubic hair on a Coke can, among other
previously unthinkable subjects for a Senate committee hearing.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But
for women, Hill’s testimony would have special significance, as it
was the first time someone had so publicly shared her account of
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">workplace
harassment</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">—something
that so many of them had experienced.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though
the committee would eventually confirm Thomas, making him only the
second Black man to serve on the Supreme Court, the impact of Hill’s
televised testimony would reverberate dramatically across the nation,
with lasting consequences that endure today.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
think women saw play out, in the most human terms, Anita
Hill—credible and very much reflecting the experiences of so many
other women—being demeaned, being dismissed and being mistreated by
an array of male senators,” says Marcia Greenberger, founder and
co-president emerita of the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">National
Women’s Law Center</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
“And when they reflected upon it at the end of the hearings, their
anger began to rise, and their determination to do something about it
began to increase.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Both
Thomas and Hill had risen from poor rural childhoods in segregated
America, graduated from Yale Law School and launched promising legal
careers in Washington, D.C. Their paths converged at the U.S.
Department of Education in 1981, when Thomas hired Hill to be his
special assistant in the department’s Office of Civil Rights.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Shortly
after that, according to Hill, Thomas began harassing her, a pattern
that would continue after Thomas left his post to become chairman of
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and Hill moved
with him to continue as his assistant.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hill,
who left Washington in 1983 and became a law professor in her native
Oklahoma, was initially reluctant to come forward with her
allegations against Thomas. But in the late summer of 1991, she was
contacted by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee who had heard
rumors of possible misconduct by Thomas against at least one female
employee in his past. After a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">three-day
FBI investigation </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">led
the White House to determine the allegations were “unfounded,”
the reporter Nina Totenberg of NPR learned of the FBI report and
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">revealed
Hill’s accusations to the public for the first time.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
October 11, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Hill
testified before the committee </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
Thomas had asked her out repeatedly and that even after she refused,
often talked to her in graphic detail about sex. Throughout the
brutally uncomfortable questioning by senators, Hill retained her
composure, even when forced to repeat again and again the most
disturbing and embarrassing parts of Thomas' alleged harassment.
Years later, the committee’s Democratic chairman, Joe Biden, would
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">publicly
apologize to Hill for not protecting her from his fellow senators’
grilling</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thomas
vehemently denied Hill’s allegations and invoked racial
discrimination, calling the hearing “a national disgrace...a
high-tech lynching for uppity Blacks who in any way deign to think
for themselves,” imagining Thomas’ harassment, or of committing
“flat-out perjury,” in the words of Senator Arlen Specter of
Pennsylvania. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah even accused her of
borrowing the Coke can incident from the 1971 novel </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><em><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Exorcist</span></span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Despite Hill’s testimony, and that of four corroborating witnesses
who said she talked with them about Thomas’ behavior at the time,
the Senate voted to confirm Thomas 52-48, the narrowest margin in
nearly a century. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Pruitt
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Clarence
Thomas.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wikipedia.
</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Childhood"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Thomas#Childhood</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Greenburg,
Jan Crawford. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“Clarence
Thomas: A Silent Justice Speaks Out” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>ABC
News, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
1, 2007. Net. </span></span></span></span><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3664944&page=1"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3664944&page=1</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Hakim,
Danny and Becker, Jo. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times Magazine, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
23, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Margolick,
David. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Judge
Portrayed as a Product </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">f
Ideals Clashing </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">w</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ith
Life.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">July
3, 1991. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/us/judge-portrayed-as-a-product-of-ideals-clashing-with-life.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/us/judge-portrayed-as-a-product-of-ideals-clashing-with-life.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pruitt,
Sarah. “How Anita Hill’s Testimony Made America Cringe—and
Change.” </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">History, </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">updated February 9, 2021. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.history.com/news/anita-hill-confirmation-hearings-impact" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.history.com/news/anita-hill-confirmation-hearings-impact</a></p>
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</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-49966859210318268572022-06-09T13:10:00.003-07:002022-06-09T13:10:52.476-07:00The Radical Right Supreme Court: Part One, Introductory Opinions<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Justice
Amy Coney Barrett is offended by those questioning the impartiality
of the Supreme Court.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
Court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks,” she </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">announced
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">at
a recent event at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center,
named for Senator Mitch McConnell. “Judicial philosophies are not
the same as political parties.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
Barrett to insist on her nonpartisanship at a center named for the
legislator whose procedural hardball was instrumental in securing her
seat suggests that, although Barrett’s peers have praised her legal
mind, her sense of irony leaves something to be desired. But then,
it’s not much more absurd than her colleague Justice Brett
Kavanaugh insisting on his impartiality days after </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">vowing
revenge against the left </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">while
under oath. Similarly, Justice Clarence Thomas recently </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">warned
against </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“destroying
our institutions because they don’t give us what we want, when we
want it,” complaining that “the media makes it sound as though
you are just always going right to your personal preference.” Next
month, Thomas will give a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">keynote
address </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">at
a symposium celebrating his years on the Court at the right-wing
Heritage Foundation, alongside McConnell. </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
insistence—that justices are simply following the law—is a common
rhetorical tool in the partisan conflict over the Court. The most
partisan judges will not admit to being hacks, instead framing their
actions as consistent with the rule of law. No one wants to admit to
being a hack; even hacks have to sleep at night, and resting is much
easier if you’ve convinced yourself that you are an infallible
tribune guided by the infinite wisdom of the ages. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
current makeup of the Roberts Court is itself the outcome of a
partisan battle that has spanned decades, one in which the
conservative legal movement has won a tremendous victory that is
certain to shape American life for generations to come. Anticipating
their future triumphs, though, the very justices championed by this
movement have taken to denying both this victory and its
implications, insisting that this casino is resolutely opposed to
gambling—in fact, it’s not a casino; it’s a church, and its
critics are engaging in acts of civil blasphemy. With absolute
control of the Court, the conservative legal</span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">movement’s
main obstacle is the fact that its extreme views are unpopular. When
those views are imposed on the public in the future, the justices
want to be able to claim that their decisions are the result of
impartial legal reasoning, rather than motivated reasoning by
committed right-wing ideologues. But that doesn’t make the
proposition that the justices are free of partisanship any less
ridiculous.</span></span></span></span></p><p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">In
the 1970s, in the aftermath of Supreme Court decisions on due
process, segregation, abortion, Church-and-state separation, business
regulations, and pornography, conservatives sought to recapture the
Court and bend it to their will. Conservative legal organizations
helped groom generations of conservative attorneys whose decisions
would more often reflect the political and policy views of the
Republican Party. Where judges and justices have diverged from those
preferences, the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">conservative
movement has reacted with outrage</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">As
the political scientist Steven Teles writes in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
Rise of the Conservative Legal Movement</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
in 1972 Patrick Buchanan, then an aide to President Richard Nixon,
exulted that “the president has all but recaptured the institution
from the Left; his four appointments have halted much of its social
experimentation; and the next four years should see this second
branch of government become an ally and defender of the values and
principles in which the President and his constituency believe.”</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">That
turned out not to be true at the time—a fact that would inspire the
rise of the powerful conservative legal infrastructure that has led
to a 6–3 majority on the Supreme Court, despite the fact that a
Republican president has won the popular vote only once in three
decades. As Teles writes, the failure of Nixon appointees to
“transform the Supreme Court taught conservatives that electoral
success was not enough.” The </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">immensely
powerful Federalist Society </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">was
founded as part of an effort to create a right-wing alternative to
what conservatives saw as the dominance of legal liberalism, forming
a community where conservative legal philosophy could be debated and
developed, from which could emerge activists, attorneys, and judges
who would ultimately shape the law and the courts. In short, a
movement.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Take
Clarence Thomas. Then-President George H. W. Bush chose Thomas in
part to shore up his right flank in the aftermath of his appointment
of Justice David Souter, who would end up siding more often with
Democratic appointees. In that respect, Thomas has not disappointed
the activists who ensured his placement on the Court; he called for
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>Roe
v. Wade </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">to
be overturned after less than a year on the bench. As Jeffrey Toobin
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">writes
in The Nine</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
when Sandra Day O’Connor retired, in 2005, the conservative
activist Manuel Miranda began warning George W. Bush against
appointing his attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, to the Court.
“It’s really no more Souters and no more Kennedys. And that does
not add up to an appointment for Gonzales,” Miranda wrote. Toobin
adds that Miranda “helped popularize the devastating quip ‘</span><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Gonzales
</span></em><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">is</span></span></em><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
Spanish for </span></em><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Souter</span></em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.’”
The point here is as clear as the Caribbean in the summer: Only
justices who will reliably ensure the outcomes desired by the
conservative movement can be appointed.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span> </span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">By
“no more Kennedys,” Miranda meant Anthony Kennedy, a conservative
justice like O’Connor who would </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">o</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>ccasionally
</i></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">side
with Democratic appointees in big cases. Samuel Alito, Bush’s
chosen replacement for O’Connor, had worked in Ronald Reagan’s
Justice Department, where, in a 1985 abortion-rights case, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">he
wrote a memo advising </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
“we should make clear that we disagree with </span><em>Roe
v. Wad</em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">e
and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and
if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled.” Alito
isn’t the only Supreme Court justice with a paper trail that
illustrates long-held political views; as a young attorney, Chief
Justice John Roberts </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">wrote
a memo complaining </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
the Voting Rights Act’s anti-discrimination provisions were too
strong, and then gutted them in an opinion as chief justice </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">without
ever describing what part of the Constitution </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">they
violated.</span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
public is meant to look at these justices’ records on abortion and
voting rights and assume that it is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>just
a coincidence </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
their legal reasoning lines up with their policy preferences.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
day Thurgood Marshall retired, he issued a furious dissent to a
decision that strengthened the death penalty. “Power, not reason,
is the new currency of this Court’s decision-making,” Marshall
wrote, dissenting from the majority opinion in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Payne
v. Tennessee</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.
“Neither the law nor the facts … underwent any change in the last
four years, only the personnel of this court did.” The same is true
of every precedent overturned by the Roberts Court, from voting
rights to labor law.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
conservative movement seems to have secured the Court for a
generation at least, but that is insufficient. The right-wing
justices also demand their decisions be seen as the outcome of
dispassionate legal reasoning, not partisan warfare. They do not want
the legitimacy of their proclamations, or the institution itself,
questioned to the point where their liberal counterparts might
consider paths as drastic and radical as the ones they took to get
here. They wish to be admired and celebrated as the sagacious
intellectual giants they believe themselves to be </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Serwer
1-3)</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Justice,
as we’re frequently told, is supposed to be blind. But court seats
have never been filled by blind picks. “A judge is a lawyer who is
a politician who has a friend,” Judge Paul Leahy once </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">told
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">his
then-clerk Floyd Abrams, piercing his way to the truth. Liberal
presidents pick liberal nominees and conservative presidents pick
conservative ones. It’s built into the system. Filling the Supreme
Court with partisan nominees is one of the reasons parties campaign
so hard to win the presidency!</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">After
almost two centuries of decrying partisan courts, why can’t we
accept the Supreme Court has always been and always will be a
political playground? “Partisan fidelity — not legal ability —
was the primary consideration in presidents’ Supreme Court
appointments,” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">writes
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">historian
Rachel Shelden of the 19th-century court. “Most nominees had served
in federal, state or local political positions,” she continues.
Back then, Senate majorities often declined to confirm or even
consider nominations by presidents from the opposing party on
political principle. In 1800, the lame-duck Congress of Federalists
went so far as to delete one seat from the Supreme Court to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">block
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">President
Thomas Jefferson, who was from an opposing party, from filling an
opening. As everybody knows, in the early 1930s, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt affirmed the political nature of the Supreme Court by
attempting to recast its majority by expanding the court
(“court-packing”). Some of today’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">liberals</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
displeased by the Republicans’ 6-3 dominance of the court, want
President Joe Biden to pack the court.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">You
don’t find Supreme Court justices at the </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.playgroundtothestars.com/2013/06/schwabs-drug-store-where-lana-turner-was-not-discovered/" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Schwab’s
soda fountain</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Most Supreme Court justices come up through partisan politics. John
Roberts worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Elena Kagan was a President Bill Clinton hand. Neil Gorsuch and Brett
Kavanaugh labored for President George W. Bush. The striving begins
in law school, where young aspirants find politically connected legal
mentors and join organizations like the Federalist Society, where
future Republican Supreme Court justices are groomed. The big sort
goes on as aspirants campaign for clerkships and then judgeships,
join politically connected law firms and make themselves known to
power brokers they hope will someday help them reach the high court
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Shafer
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Asked
to name a famous Supreme Court case, many Americans would probably
initially think of three that are the best known for expanding the
constitutional rights of individuals: Brown v. Board of Education,
which said children have a right to attend desegregated schools in
1954; Roe v. Wade, which said women have a right to have abortions in
1973; and Obergefell v. Hodges, which said gays and lesbians have a
right to get married in 2015.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">These
landmark decisions helped to create a political mythology of the
Supreme Court as an institution that has always protected the rights
of Americans. However, the politicization of the courts magnified by
President Trump and Senate Republicans has ironically highlighted a
truth often ignored: The nation's highest court is inherently
undemocratic.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Since
the election, Trump has made it clear he </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">believes
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
court and the three justices he appointed — Neil Gorsuch, Brett
Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — should deliver an electoral
victory for him. This is despite the fact that Joe Biden won with 306
electoral votes and by a margin of more than </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">7
million </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">votes.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Not
only will the court have the power to block the policy agenda of a
popularly elected president, but the very process of choosing
justices has become widely undemocratic. Republicans have won the
popular vote only once since 1988, but they have appointed </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">six
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">out
of the last 10 justices. The senators who voted against Barrett
represent </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">13.5
million </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">more
people than do the senators who voted for her.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">despite
widespread faith in the Supreme Court, the institution has not always
stood on the side of expanding individual rights and democracy. Brown
v. Board overturned Plessy v. Ferguson, which found segregation
constitutional six decades before. Korematsu v. United States upheld
the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Buck v.
Bell, a 1927 ruling that's never been technically overturned, upheld
forced sterilization of those considered "feebleminded."</span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
its part, the court under Chief Justice John Roberts has seriously
weakened democratic rights. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Shelby
County v Holder </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gutted
the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Votting
Rights Act </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
ushered in a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">new
era </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
voter suppression since 2013. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Citizens
United v. FEC </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">has
made it difficult to effectively regulate campaign financing for the
past decade. And last year's Rucho v. Common Cause said federal
courts had no business placing limits on partisan gerrymandering</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Ultimately,
Democrats should make the argument that in a democracy the will of
the majority should not be so wholly subjected to nine unelected
officials. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Scofield
(1-2).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">even
before the current gaggle of right-wing legal operatives took over,
the court was rarely a democratic bastion of justice and equality.
Rather, in its 233-year history, members have most often served as
tenacious protectors of wealth, property, privilege, and the
corporate order, fending off the egalitarian aspirations and demands
of riffraff like you and me.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today’s
six-member super majority has surrendered all claim to being an
impartial moral force for blind justice. Instead, the GOP’s small
network of corporate and right-wing operatives has painstakingly
fabricated and weaponized the court as its own political oligarchy.
In only a couple of decades, backed by a few billionaires, these
anti-democracy zealots have incrementally been imposing on America an
extremist political agenda that they could not win at the ballot box.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Their
Eureka! Moment–the startling development that opened the eyes of
the moneyed elites and ideologues to the raw power they could grab by
politicizing the judiciary–was the Supreme Court’s illegitimate
Bush v. Gore ruling. In December 2000, that five-person GOP majority
abruptly crashed Florida’s presidential vote count, storming over
both democracy and judicial propriety to install George W in the
White House. Appalled, dissenting Justice John Paul Stevens mocked
the five, pointing out that while their trumped-up ruling didn’t
really establish whether Bush or Gore won, it did make the loser
“pellucidly clear: It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as
an impartial guardian of the rule of law.”</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">One
of those who helped run the court’s blatant political power play
over the Florida vote was an obscure corporate lawyer who had long
been an aggressive, behind-the-scenes Republican monkey wrencher
pushing to restrict voting by people of color, the poor, and other
Democratic constituencies: John Roberts. Shortly
thereafter–</span></span></span></span><em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-style: normal;">surprise</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">!–Bush
elevated Roberts to a top federal judgeship, and just two years later
moved him on up to America’s ultimate judicial power spot, chief
justice of the Supremes.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">From
this lofty roost, Roberts has orchestrated an expansive political
docket for the court, handpicking cases created and advanced by
far-right interests. He then has manipulated precedents and
procedures to produce convoluted decisions that impose plutocratic,
autocratic, and theocratic domination over the American people’s
democratic rights and aspirations.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">To
date, Chief Justice John Roberts has cobbled together slim,
all-Republican majorities to hand down more than 80 blatantly
partisan rulings, fabricating law that We the People have never voted
for and don’t support. They include these infamous decrees:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the Kafkaesque </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Citizens United </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">dictate of 2010, the court’s
5-4 right-wing clique embraced the absurdity of “corporate
personhood,” asserting that giant, autocratic corporations (paper
constructs with no body, brain, breath, voice, or morality–</span><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">but
lots of money</em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">) have a constitutional right equal or even
superior to actual persons to spend unlimited, often secret, sums of
their corporate cash to dominate our elections.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Spending
on elections, they insisted, is just a form of speech and is thus
protected by the Constitution. (This ruling conveniently slides past
the obvious conclusion that those with the most money get the most
speech, meaning that “free speech” is not free at all.) Their
ridiculous play on words has produced a geyser of corrupt money from
huge corporations intended to install their chosen agents in high
office, defeat direct-democracy ballot initiatives proposed by
grassroots progressives, and–not coincidentally–further pack our
courts with judges who will serve their special interests over the
public interest.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">While
the federal judiciary has aided corporate bosses and rich
shareholders for decades by chipping away at hard-won legal
protections for working families, the chisel has become a jackhammer
in the last few years. GOP judges routinely pound precedents, logic,
truth, and the Constitution itself beyond recognition, not merely to
rule against unions, but to demolish the structural pillars of labor
rights and organizing.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a 2018 case, for example, the GOP Five undermined the funding of
unions by arbitrarily striking down their process for collecting
dues–a practice the court itself had authorized 41 years earlier.
As Justice Elena Kagan bluntly put it in her dissenting opinion,
there was no reason for the court to barge into this matter of
long-settled law … except that the corporate-backed Republican
majority simply didn’t like the previous decision and overruled it
“because it wanted to.” This was yet another open-and-shut case
of five black-robed partisans supplanting America’s hallowed rule
of law with their own anti-labor whim.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Roberts Court has become the linchpin of the Republican Party’s
nationwide attack on the voting rights of African Americans, Latinos,
and other constituencies inclined to support Democrats. Mass-scale
voter suppression depends on a compliant network of starkly partisan
judges to legalize it, and the Republican Supremes have willfully
made the moral stain of this suppression the indelible emblem of
their tenure. In a 2012 North Carolina case, Roberts led the charge,
glibly gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965. To nearly everyone’s
astonishment, he decreed from on high that racism was over, no longer
presenting a barrier to Black voters in the South! … </span><em style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">abracadabra</em><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">–he
and his four regulars merrily ruled that the core protections against
voter suppression in the Voting Rights Act were henceforth null and
void.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">This
action unleashed GOP legislatures and white supremacists to do their
own thing regarding access to the polls. And they leapt at the
chance. Since then, dozens of new barriers have been erected in every
state covered by the Voting Rights Act. But Roberts and his
right-wing cohorts have never admitted an error or apologized,
instead pushing case after case to further undercut democratic access
to the polls.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Since
the Supreme Court’s 1973 </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Roe v. Wade </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">case established that
women have a constitutional right to control their own reproduction
decisions, including the right to choose a safe abortion, a
nay-saying minority has ceaselessly pushed to take away this right.
They insist that state and federal governments–not women –can
make these decisions. Today, all GOP judges on the top court are in
lockstep, and they’ve now rigged the system to bring up a case that
might let them impose their political will. …</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">...</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Throughout
Roberts’ reign, the court has sided with the Chamber of Commerce
(the chief front group for US corporate giants) a staggering 70% of
the time! Indeed, three members–Roberts, Samuel Alito, and Clarence
Thomas–now rank among the five most-corporate-friendly justices of
the past 75 years.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
a Quinnipiac survey last November </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2021]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
more than six in ten Americans said they believe Supreme Court
decisions are motivated primarily by politics, not by unbiased
readings of the law. Rather than instilling a modicum of humility,
however, the bad reviews have stirred embarrassing outbursts of
judicial pique and vitriol. Justice Alito, for example, whined loudly
last year that critics are engaged in “unprecedented efforts to
intimidate the court or damage it as an independent institution.”
Likewise, Justice Barrett was so stung that she felt it necessary to
go public with a strained denial, pleading for the public to believe
that “this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Today’s
tightly knit Republican majority on the court did not come together
by happenstance–and certainly not because any one of them was the
brightest, most fair-minded choice in the land. All were handpicked …
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">because
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">they
could be counted on the use their lifetime appointments to make our
laws accord with the GOP’s right-wing agenda and to return to their
imagined ideal of the Grand Old Days of pre-1930s corporate
supremacy. </span></span></span></span><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
is a direct special-interest assault on workaday Americans and on the
very idea of America.</span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong>…</strong></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lisa
Graves, a corporate watchdog and advocate of fair courts, reminds us
that “the choice of who interprets the US Constitution and the laws
of our land is every bit as important as electing those who make the
laws in the first place.” </span></span></span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
moneyed elites figured this out years ago and have captured the top
court. Now, democracy champions must free it from their corporate
grip</span></span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Hightower
1-4).</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">ightower,
Jim. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">How
the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">R</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">ight
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">ing
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">C</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">aptured
the Supreme Court.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>The
Hightower Lowdown, March 31, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/how-the-right-wing-captured-the-supreme-court/">https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/how-the-right-wing-captured-the-supreme-court/</a></i></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">cofield,
Katie. “</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">New
</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">Y</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ear,
</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">T</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ime
for </a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">N</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ew
</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">T</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">hinking
about the </a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">U</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ndemocratic
</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">N</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ature
of the </a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">H</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">igh
</a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">C</a></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices">ourt</a><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Fulcrum, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">December
23, 2020. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://thefulcrum.us/balance-of-power/supreme-court-justices</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
</span></span><br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Serwer,
Adam. “</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
Lie about the Supreme Court Everyone Pretends To Believe.” </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>The
Atlantic, </i></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">September
28, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/lie-about-supreme-court-everyone-pretends-believe/620198/">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/lie-about-supreme-court-everyone-pretends-believe/620198/</a></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Shafer,
Jack. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Opinion:
Let’s Be Real: The Supreme Court Is Political and Always Has Been.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
28, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/28/supreme-court-is-political-always-has-been-00003224">https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/28/supreme-court-is-political-always-has-been-00003224</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p><p> </p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-81441680577124507922022-06-05T14:39:00.001-07:002022-06-05T14:39:09.423-07:00The Amoralists: Tucker Carlson, Part Seven; Much More Now Than a Dick<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">But
as Mr. Trump thrashed through his first months in office, Mr. Carlson
found himself with an unexpected programming challenge: Fox was too
pro-Trump. The new president watched his favorite network
religiously, and often tweeted about what he saw there, while Fox
broadcasts reliably parroted White House messaging. No one was more
on message than Sean Hannity, then Fox’s </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">highest-rated</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
who frequently devoted his show to Mr. Trump’s daily battles with
Washington Democrats and the media.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Newly
planted in Fox’s newly vacated 8 p.m. time slot — previously held
by the disgraced star Bill O’Reilly — Mr. Carlson told friends
and co-workers that he needed to find a way to reach the Trump
faithful, but without imitating Mr. Hannity. He didn’t want to get
sucked into apologizing for Mr. Trump every day, he told one
colleague, because the fickle, undisciplined new president would
constantly need apologizing for.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
solution would not just propel Mr. Carlson toward the summit of cable
news. It would ultimately thrust him to the forefront of the
nationalist forces reshaping American conservatism. “Tucker Carlson
Tonight,” the host and his producers decided, would embrace
Trumpism, not Mr. Trump. The show would grasp the emotional core of
Mr. Trump’s allure —white panic over the country’s changing
ethnic composition— while keeping a carefully measured distance
from the president himself. For years, as his television career
sputtered, Mr. Carlson had adopted increasingly catastrophic views of
immigration and the country’s shifting demographics. Now, as Mr.
Trump took unvarnished nativism from the right-wing fringe to the
Oval Office, Mr. Carlson made it the centerpiece of “Tucker Carlson
Tonight.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stories
about the threat of immigration had long been a feature of Fox. But
Mr. Carlson dialed up the intensity, expertly weaving tropes borrowed
from the far right into a narrative that would come to define “Tucker
Carlson Tonight”: falling birthrates among the native-born,
big-city crime, lax immigration policies designed to forcibly alter
American society — all engineered or encouraged by a “ruling
class” desperate to censor public discussion of its own failures.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;">… </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
forged a relationship with Lachlan Murdoch, the Murdoch family’s
heir apparent, who would become his most public </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">supporter
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">at
Fox.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
… </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">From
the beginning, Mr. Carlson’s on-air provocations have been part of
a painstaking, data-driven campaign to build and hold Fox’s
audience, according to former Fox executives and employees — an
experiment that has succeeded wildly in bolstering Mr. Murdoch’s
profit machine against the long-term decline in cable news
subscriptions.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Today,
Mr. Carlson’s influence reaches far beyond the channel he works
for, or the audience that tunes in to his show. Mr. Trump is out of
office and banned or suspended from the leading social media
platforms. But Mr. Carlson remains, both high priest and champion of
Mr. Trump’s most ardent followers. Each night, Mr. Carlson channels
the passions and grievances that have replaced the Reagan-era
conservatism he grew up on, from the tyranny of mask mandates to the
grave danger posed by critical race theory in schools. He has
aggressively defended the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on
Jan. 6 — an attack that Mr. Carlson, borrowing the former
president’s “deep state” canards, has portrayed as a false-flag
operation masterminded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Ambitious Republican lawmakers now echo his embrace of the “great
replacement” conspiracy theory, once relegated to the far-right
fringe, that Western elites are importing immigrants to disempower
the native-born.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;">… </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson has continued to promote doubt about the vaccines’
efficacy, even likening mandates to Nazi medical experiments.</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong>
</strong></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
the Jan. 6 anniversary, Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican, set
out to walk back his comments </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">accurately
calling </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
Trump-inspired riot a “violent terrorist attack.” He didn’t
apologize to Mr. Trump. He apologized to Mr. Carlson, in a cringing
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">appearance
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">on
“Tucker Carlson Tonight.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Fox
had always excelled not just at attracting more viewers than its
rivals but at getting them to stick around longer, giving an added
bump to its Nielsen ratings. To maintain its dominance in the
post-Ailes era, the teams working on Fox’s evening lineup began to
make wider use of expensive ratings data known as
“minute-by-minutes.” Unlike the “quarter-hour” ratings more
commonly used in cable newsrooms, which show how each 15-minute
“block” performed, the minute-by-minutes allow producers to
scrutinize an audience’s real-time ebb and flow. Mr. Carlson,
determined to avoid his fate at CNN and MSNBC, was among the
network’s most avid consumers of minute-by-minutes, according to
three former Fox employees.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
new direction — Trumpism without Trump — took shape that summer.
The lighter segments faded from view. Notably, Mr. Trump was
mentioned less often than on “Hannity,” and Mr. Carlson sometimes
even criticized the president, particularly when he deviated from
campaign promises like building the border wall and avoiding what he
had once called “stupid” wars. In private, Mr. Carlson mocked the
president’s habit of calling to head off his on-air attacks. (When
Mr. Trump called to pre-empt criticism of one foreign-policy move,
Mr. Carlson declined the call, according to a former Fox employee who
witnessed it.)</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Most
strikingly, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” began devoting more and more
airtime to immigration and to what its host depicted as the looming
catastrophe of demographic change. “He is going to double down on
the white nationalism because the minute-by-minutes show that the
audience eats it up,” said another former Fox employee, who worked
frequently with Mr. Carlson.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
covered protesters’ attempts to pull down Confederate monuments
with hyperbolic intensity; one such episode, he told his viewers,
marked the beginning of “the destruction of America’s delicate
social fabric.” His producers scavenged local news for
under-covered items about refugees and migrants, which Mr. Carlson
blew up into national news. He also began to venture farther afield
than other hosts. He mocked Austria as the soon-to-be “caliphate of
West Arabia.” The immigration backlash and migrant crimes in
countries like Sweden and Germany became forewarnings of America’s
future. “The country’s</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong>
</strong></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
decline,” he told viewers in the fall of 2017. He added: “Everyone
knows that. It’s not racist to note that.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Fox’s
news shows began to more closely mimic its highly rated prime-time
opinion shows in both tone and topic. Guests brought on to analyze
the day’s stories would instead find themselves asked to respond to
clips of provocative comments made by Mr. Carlson and other hosts or
guests the night before — a backdoor way for Fox to inject
prime-time material into the lower-rated dayside shows. …</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">As
the midterm elections approached and Mr. Trump’s unpopularity
threatened to sink down-ballot Republicans, Fox began </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">nonstop
coverage </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">of
a migrant caravan wending its way through Central America to the U.S.
border. Mr. Carlson and other prime-time hosts and guests called the
caravan — mostly women and children — an “invasion” dozens of
times in the weeks before the election, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">according
to tallies </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">by
Media Matters and CNN. They continued to do so even after a man
walked into a Pittsburgh synagogue in late October and murdered 11
people, leaving behind a trail of social media posts railing against
immigrants and Jews and applauding how people were now calling
illegal immigrants “invaders.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shortly
after the attack, the longtime anchor Shepard Smith, a beloved figure
in the Fox newsroom, threw a brushback pitch at his own network.
“There is no invasion,” he told viewers of his afternoon news
show. “No one’s coming to get you.” Whether or not the caravan
threatened America, however, it was a boon to Fox: That October,
ratings </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">were
even higher </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">than
they had been right before the 2016 presidential election. Network
executives soon began retooling the dayside shows, applying the
approach that had worked for Mr. Carlson and his prime-time
colleagues. …</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="text-indent: 0.01in;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">Fox
executives wanted to focus on “the grievance, the stuff that would
get people boiled up,” said one current Fox employee. “They’re
coming for you, the Blacks are coming for you, the Mexicans are
coming for you.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="text-indent: 0.01in;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">That
February, Mr. Carlson hosted the Hungarian foreign minister, Peter
Szijjarto, who touted Mr. Orban’s hard line against immigration and
his efforts to encourage families to have more children. And last
summer, Mr. Carlson traveled to Budapest to produce what was in
effect an extended infomercial for the Orban government. In a series
of segments and a gentle interview with the prime minister himself,
Mr. Carlson employed a sanitized version of Mr. Orban’s Hungary to
frame his own arguments about an American civilization under attack
by alien forces.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">Where
South Africa was a warning of the hell that America could become,
Hungary was a vision of the paradise that could be had by taking
America back. “You don’t have to watch your country collapse,”
Mr. Carlson told viewers. “You don’t have to have leaders who
hate the population or divide their own people against each other.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
day after the 2018 midterms, as darkness fell over Washington’s
leafy Kent neighborhood, members of a local antifa group appeared
outside Mr. Carlson’s home to protest his coverage of the migrant
caravan. Standing in his driveway, yelling through bullhorns, they
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">chanted</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
“We know where you sleep at night.” Mr. Carlson was not at home,
but his wife, Susie Andrews, was. According to the Carlsons, someone
banged on the door. Panicked, she locked herself in the pantry and
dialed 911.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mr.
Carlson had lived in Washington for most of his adult life, and loved
it. Two longtime friends said he was deeply shaken by the protests
outside his home. “All of a sudden, it just became impossible to
live there,” Mr. Carlson </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">said
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
an interview last fall with Dave Rubin, a conservative YouTube
personality and occasional guest on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” He
added, “I felt like we were really part of the city and then, next
thing you know, people are showing up at the house.” He worried
that “you’re going to wind up shooting somebody.” …</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">In
March 2019, Mr. Carlson set out to buy a dilapidated town garage in
Bryant Pond, Maine, where his family had owned a vacation getaway for
decades. In a letter to town officials, he pledged that Fox would
install a state-of-the-art studio there. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">by
the following spring, The Sun Journal reported that his new studio
was complete. He </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">put
his Washington house up for sale</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
began living in Maine much of the year, taping “Tucker Carlson
Tonight” from Bryant Pond. ...</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="text-indent: 0.01in;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson seemed to be testing his boundaries. In August 2019, days
after a 21-year-old white man killed 22 people at an El Paso Walmart
to protest what he called the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Mr.
Carlson declared on the air that white supremacy was largely a
“hoax.” Even more advertisers fled; Mr. Carlson embarked on what
Fox described as </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
preplanned vacation</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
While he was gone, a Fox producer named Cristina Corbin tweeted an
indirect rejoinder to the prime-time star. “White supremacy is
real, as evidenced by fact,” Ms. Corbin wrote. “Claims that it is
a ‘hoax’ do not represent my views.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">She
had not mentioned Fox’s star by name, but Mr. Carlson appeared to
catch wind of her tweet almost immediately. A few hours later, while
still on vacation, he called Ms. Corbin at work from a blocked
number, then berated her for airing her disagreement publicly. “Shut
your mouth,” he yelled, according to a former</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong>
</strong></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Fox
executive briefed on the episode. …</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">When
Ms. Corbin reported the incident to Fox management, Mr. Carlson
denied making such a call, according to the former executive. He was
soon </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">back
to explaining </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
his viewers how liberals and Big Tech wanted them to “just shut
up.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
was a frequent refrain on “Tucker Carlson Tonight”— and a
calculated one. According to former Fox employees, Mr. Carlson and
his team had learned to work the calls for boycotts and cancellation
into their programming playbook. Mr. Carlson would grab third rails
on race or immigration, then harvest the inevitable backlash,
returning the next evening to roast his critics for trying to
suppress an obvious truth. The feedback loop didn’t just drive up
ratings. It boosted the audience’s loyalty to Fox, while
encouraging audiences to identify with Mr. Carlson himself, now
playing victim to the same forces he was warning them about. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To
compensate for the lost advertising, Fox turned “Tucker Carlson
Tonight” into a promotional engine for the network itself. It
replaced the fleeing sponsors with a torrent of in-house promos,
leveraging Mr. Carlson’s popularity to drive viewers to other, more
advertiser-friendly offerings. …</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Blue-chip
advertisers would never return to the show in force. But thanks in
part to the large audiences he could provide for those advertisers
who remained, and the premium prices Fox could charge them, Mr.
Carlson’s ad revenue began to recover. Every year since 2018,
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” has brought more annual ad revenue to
Fox than any other show, according to estimates by iSpot. Last May,
after promoting the white supremacist “replacement” theory, Mr.
Carlson had half as many advertisers as in December 2018 but brought
in almost twice as much money.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">As
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” became more toxic to advertisers, it
also began featuring fewer guests who disagreed with the host, and
more guests who simply echoed or amplified Mr. Carlson’s own
message. It wasn’t just that liberals didn’t want to debate him,
though some now refused to appear on the show, as Mr. Carlson
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">complained
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">during
a Fox appearance last summer; Fox was learning that its audience
didn’t necessarily like hearing from the other side. …</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
as advertisers fled, Mr. Carlson’s opening monologue grew. Where
once he spoke for only a few minutes, sometimes in a neutral
just-asking-questions mode, he now often opened the show with a
lengthy stemwinder, addressing his audience as “you” and the
objects of his fury as a shadowy “they.” Ratings data showed that
the monologues were a hit with viewers, according to one former and
one current Fox employee, and by 2020, Mr. Carlson regularly spoke
directly to the camera for more than quarter of the hour long show.
Instead of less Tucker, the audience got more.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Mr.
Trump’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[2020]
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">defeat
was the ultimate glitch in Fox’s Trump narrative, one that couldn’t
be so easily spun or papered over by its prime-time hosts. Despondent
Trump supporters began to look elsewhere for news, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">encouraged
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">by
anti-Fox tweets from Mr. Trump himself. In early December, the
upstart conservative network Newsmax, which had positioned itself as
even more devotedly pro-Trump, scored its </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">first
ratings win </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">over
Fox. It was a minor crack in Fox’s cable dominance — fewer than
30,000 viewers in one audience segment on a single December night in
the 7 p.m. hour — but it sent shudders through the Fox executive
suites. The network might shrug off the complaints of a few
advertisers; losing audience to a right-leaning rival was another
thing. That month, according to one former Fox executive, Rupert
Murdoch delivered a message to the network’s chief executive, Ms.
Scott: Clean house. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
purge would not come until early January, as CNN and MSNBC overtook
Fox, the cable-news ratings leader for </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">two
decades</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
and as Washington reeled from the violent, Trump-inspired effort to
overturn Mr. Biden’s victory. In the intervening weeks, Mr. Carlson
and other Fox prime-time hosts would pump out </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">a
steady stream of attacks </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">on
the election results, often drawing on claims of voter fraud from Mr.
Trump and his new legal team, led by Rudolph W. Giuliani. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Much
as Mr. Carlson’s vast cable audience had grown to encompass the
white nationalist fringe, it now drew in some of the hundreds who
would go on to attack the Capitol. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Trumpism
without Trump had begun as a programming strategy. Now, with Mr.
Trump gone from the White House and cut off from Twitter and
Facebook, it has become a reality. Mr. Carlson, more successfully
than any other figure on the right, has filled the vacuum, picking up
the banner of Mr. Trump’s movement and the followers who insist he
was cheated of victory. Last year, according to The Times’s
analysis, nearly half of Mr. Carlson’s shows — more than 100
episodes — included segments playing down the Capitol riot,
lurching into ever more fantastical terrain. Much as he once recast
the country’s racial hierarchy to make white Americans an oppressed
class, Mr. Carlson has inverted the story of Jan. 6 into a modern-day
Lost Cause. On “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the rioters were not
aggressors; they were victims. Last June, he floated a conspiracy
theory that the riot was an inside job, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">claiming
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a government court filing was
“almost certainly working for the F.B.I.” …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
past fall, Mr. Carlson and his team distilled the show’s Jan. 6
fantasia into “Patriot Purge,” a three-part “documentary” for
the Fox Nation streaming channel. After a trailer aired in late
October, two longtime Fox contributors </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">quit
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
protest. Mainstream media outlets and fact-checking sites inevitably
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eviscerated
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson’s work for its </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">factual
errors and dubious assertions</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
but that was beside the point. After starting the year with the
lowest ratings in cable news, Fox ended 2021 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">back
on top</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
And Mr. Carlson’s inverted, invented narrative of the Jan. 6
insurrection has become a new Republican orthodoxy: This February,
members of the Republican National Committee approved a resolution
calling investigations into the attack a “persecution of ordinary
citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">censuring
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">two
Republicans who sit on a congressional panel scrutinizing the riot.
“Propaganda tends to bewilder people, to confuse them when they
first hear it,” Mr. Carlson observed last fall, in a monologue
accusing liberals and mainstream outlets of themselves misleading the
public about Covid-19, Jan. 6 and the 2020 elections. “It is so
completely and obviously untrue,” he continued. “‘What is
this?’ you think. And yet for that very reason, because it’s so
ridiculous, so absurd, propaganda tends to be effective”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Confessore
1-12).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Confessore,
Michael. “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">How
Tucker Carlson Reshaped Fox News — and Became Trump’s Heir.”
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
30, 2022. Net.
</span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-fox-news.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-fox-news.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-69349022743835461582022-06-02T15:38:00.004-07:002022-06-02T15:38:17.478-07:00The Amoralist:s Tucker Carlson, Part Six; White Supremacist<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tucker
Carlson burst through the doors of Charlie Palmer Steak, enfolded in
an entourage of producers and assistants, cellphone pressed to his
ear. On the other end was Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of the Fox empire
and his de facto boss.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Most
of Fox’s Washington bureau, along with the cable network’s top
executives, had gathered at the power-class steakhouse, a few blocks
from the office, for their annual holiday party. Days earlier, Mr.
Carlson had set off an uproar, claiming on air that mass immigration
made America “poor and dirtier.” Blue-chip advertisers were
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">fleeing</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
Within Fox, Mr. Carlson was widely viewed to have finally crossed
some kind of line. Many wondered what price he might pay.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
answer became clear that night in December 2018: absolutely none.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">When
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aired</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
Mr. Carlson </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">doubled
down</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
playing video of his earlier comments and citing a report from an
Arizona government agency that said each illegal border crossing left
up to eight pounds of litter in the desert. Afterward, on the way to
the Christmas party, Mr. Carlson spoke directly with Mr. Murdoch, who
praised his counterattack, according to a former Fox employee told of
the exchange.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We’re
good,” Mr. Carlson said, grinning triumphantly, as he walked into
the restaurant.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most
racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some
measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself
an enemy of prejudice — “We don’t judge them by group, and we
don’t judge them on their race,” Mr. Carlson explained to an
interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of
making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night
after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they
inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter
protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the
border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies
and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if
they complain. When refugees from Africa, numbering in the hundreds,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">began
crossing </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">into
Texas from Mexico during the Trump administration, he warned that the
continent’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon
“overwhelm our country and change it completely and forever.”
Amid nationwide outrage over </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">George
Floyd’s murder </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">by
a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Carlson dismissed those protesting
the killing as “criminal mobs.” Companies like Angie’s List and
Papa John’s dropped their ads. The following month, “Tucker
Carlson Tonight” became </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">the
highest-rated cable news show </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in
history.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
encyclopedia of provocations has only expanded. Since the 2020
presidential election, Mr. Carlson has become the most visible and
voluble defender of those who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol to
keep Donald J. Trump in office, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">playing
down the presence </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">of
white nationalists in the crowd and claiming the attack “barely
rates as a footnote.” In February, as Western pundits and
politicians lined up to condemn the Russian president, Vladimir V.
Putin, for his impending invasion of Ukraine, Mr. Carlson invited his
viewers to shift focus back to the true enemy at home. “Why do I
hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist?” Mr. Carlson
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">asked</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">.
“Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?” He
was roundly labeled an apologist and Putin cheerleader, only to press
ahead with segments that parroted Russian talking points and promoted
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Kremlin
propaganda </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">about
purported Ukrainian bioweapons labs.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Alchemizing
media power into political influence, Mr. Carlson stands in a
nativist American tradition that runs from Father Coughlin to Patrick
J. Buchanan. Now Mr. Carlson’s on-air technique — gleefully
courting blowback, then fashioning himself as his aggrieved viewers’
partner in victimhood — has helped position him, as much as anyone,
to inherit the populist movement that grew up around Mr. Trump. At a
moment when white backlash is the jet fuel of a Republican Party
striving to return to power in Washington, he has become the
pre-eminent champion of Americans who feel most threatened by the
rising power of Black and brown citizens. To channel their fear into
ratings, Mr. Carlson has adopted the rhetorical tropes and exotic
fixations of white nationalists, who have watched gleefully from the
fringes of public life as he popularizes their ideas. Mr. Carlson
sometimes refers to “legacy Americans,” a dog-whistle term that,
before he began using it on his show last fall, appeared almost
exclusively in white </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">nationalist
outlets like The Daily Stormer, The New York Times found. He takes up
story lines otherwise relegated to far-right or nativist websites
like VDare: “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has featured a string of
segments about the gruesome murders of white farmers in South Africa,
which Mr. Carlson suggested were part of a concerted campaign by that
country’s Black-led government. Last April, Mr. Carlson set off yet
another uproar, borrowing from </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">a
racist conspiracy theory</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
known as “the great replacement” to argue that Democrats were
deliberately importing “more obedient voters from the third world”
to “replace” the current electorate and keep themselves in power.
But a Times analysis of 1,150 episodes of his show found that it was
far from the first time Mr. Carlson had done so.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To
a degree not broadly appreciated outside Fox, “Tucker Carlson
Tonight” is the apex of a programming and editorial strategy that
transformed the network during the Trump era, according to interviews
with dozens of current and former Fox executives, producers and
journalists. Like the Republican Party itself, Fox has sought to
wring rising returns out of a slowly declining audience: the older
white conservatives who make up Mr. Trump’s base and much of Fox’s
core viewership. To minimize content that might tempt them to change
the channel, Fox News has sidelined Trump-averse or left-leaning
contributors. It has lost some of its most respected news
journalists, most recently Chris Wallace, the longtime host of Fox’s
flagship Sunday show. During the same period, according to former
employees and journalists there, Fox has leaned harder into stories
of illegal immigrants or nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime
or violence, often plucked from local news sites and turbocharged by
the channel’s vast digital news operation. Network executives
ordered up such coverage so relentlessly during the Trump years that
some employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson has led the network’s on-air transformation, becoming Fox’s
most influential employee. Outside Fox, Mr. Carlson is bandied about
as a potential candidate for president. Inside the network, he
answers solely to the Murdochs themselves. With seeming impunity, Mr.
Carlson has used his broadcast to attack Fox’s own news coverage,
helping drive some journalists off the air and others, like the
veteran Fox anchor Shepard Smith, to leave the network entirely. In
Australia, the editors of some Murdoch-owned newspapers watch Mr.
Carlson’s show religiously, believing it provides clues to Mr.
Murdoch’s own views. According to former senior Fox employees, Mr.
Carlson boasts of rarely speaking with Fox’s chief executive,
Suzanne Scott, but talking or texting regularly with Mr. Murdoch. And
in an extraordinary departure from the old Fox code, Mr. Carlson is
exempt from the network’s fearsome media relations department,
which under Roger Ailes, Fox’s founder, served to both defend the
channel’s image and keep its talent in line.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">But
Fox Nation is also a kind of programming cocoon. Its lineup has
included shows about patriotism and national parks, the nostalgic
series “Who Can Forget?”</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">and
a category called, simply, “Conspiracies.” In September, it
acquired “Cops,” the police reality show canceled by its previous
owner in the wake of the Floyd protests. There is almost no
traditional news at all on Fox Nation, but lots of Mr. Carlson — a
thrice-weekly talk show called “Tucker Carlson Today” and goading
documentaries like “Patriot Purge,” which presented the Jan. 6
insurrection as a false-flag operation by shadowy actors determined
to persecute innocent Americans; </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">two
longtime Fox contributors quit in protest.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Almost
from the beginning of his career, he has been marching away from the
puckish libertarianism of his young adulthood. Increasingly
sympathetic to the nativist currents raging through American politics
after the Sept. 11 attacks, and twice cast from the heights of cable
news stardom, Mr. Carlson ultimately turned on the old conservative
intelligentsia, his hometown and many of his friends. His fall and
rise trace the transformation of American conservatism itself. When
Mr. Trump ran for president and won, thrusting anti-immigration
fervor to the heart of American politics, Mr. Carlson finally found
his moment. At Fox, he found his platform.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Mr.
Carlson declined to be interviewed for this article. Virtually
everyone who did speak asked to remain anonymous in order to speak
candidly about Mr. Carlson or his employer; the host is vengeful
toward critics, and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">officials</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
or media figures Mr. Carlson attacks on his show are sometimes
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">threatened
with violence</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.
On his show Thursday night, shortly before The Times received Fox’s
statement praising the program, Mr. Carlson sought to weave this
article into his nightly narrative. He called journalists at the
newspaper “obedient little establishment defenders” and asked:
“Why do they keep calling us racist? Well, to make us shut up,
obviously.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Accuracy
isn’t the point on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” On the air, Mr.
Carlson piles up narrative-confirming falsehoods and misleading
statements so rapidly — about George Floyd’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">death,
while supremacists who took part </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
the Jan. 6 riot, </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">falling
testosterone levels </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
men, Covid </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">v</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">accines</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Texas
power grid </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">and
more — that The Washington Post’s media critic, Erik Wemple, has
made a sideline of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">cataloging
them</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.
Though Mr. Carlson claims his show to be “the sworn enemy of
lying,” Fox’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">lawyers
acknowledged </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
2020, in a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">lawsuit
accusing the host of slander</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
that “spirited debate on talk-show programs does not lend itself
well to statements of actual fact.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
if Mr. Carlson has not always been truthful, he has been remarkably
consistent. Almost from the beginning, “Tucker Carlson Tonight”
has presented a dominant narrative, recasting American racism to
present white Americans as an oppressed caste. The ruling class uses
fentanyl and other opioids to addict and kill legacy Americans,
anti-white racism to cast them as bigots, feminism to degrade their
self-esteem, immigration to erode their political power. Republican
elites, however improbably, help to import the voters Democrats
require at the ballot box. The United States, Mr. Carlson tells his
viewers, is “ruled by mercenaries who feel no long-term obligation
to the people they rule.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">He
leaves little doubt who these mercenaries are. Among the most
frequent recurring characters on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” are
Black politicians like the Democratic congresswomen Maxine Waters and
Ilhan Omar and Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Mr. Carlson has
portrayed, against the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">available
evidence</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
as a kind of shadow president. He regularly disparages Black women as
stupid or undeserving of their positions. “No one outside of her
own neighborhood had ever heard of Kamala Harris before she showed up
as Willie Brown’s girlfriend,” Mr. Carlson said last November,
referring to Ms. Harris’s long-ago relationship with the California
politician. “Then a few years later, she became Montel Williams’s
girlfriend. Interesting.” When President Biden nominated Judge
Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Mr. Carlson demanded that
the White House release her law school admissions test scores to
prove she was qualified.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Seemingly
every social ill is laid at the feet of immigrants and refugees —
not just working-class unemployment, but rising home prices,
out-of-wedlock births among native-born Americans, even the
supposedly sorry state of his favorite Beltway fishing spots. With
pastoral care, Mr. Carlson reassures his viewers. “It’s OK for
you to say: ‘What is this?’ and ‘Maybe I don’t want to live
in a country that looks nothing like the country I grew up in,’”
Mr. Carlson told a guest in 2017. “Is that bigoted?”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">economists
broadly reject Mr. Carlson’s central argument that immigration to
the United States “drives down wages for low-skilled workers
nationwide,” as he said in a 2019 segment. As </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">one
review of the relevant literature </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">put
it, “Decades of research have provided little support for the claim
that immigrants depress wages by competing with native workers.”
Immigrants compete for jobs but also help generate new ones, not only
by raising demand for goods and services but also by helping fill out
workplaces as they expand to hire native-born workers with different
skills. While some studies have found that earlier waves of low-skill
immigration may have had short-term impacts on the wages of one
relatively small group — high school dropouts — other studies
have found “small to zero effects,” …</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
as televised theater, the formula works.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson was a heavy drinker until his 30s, something he has
attributed in part to his early childhood. But by his own account,
his mother’s abandonment also provided him with a kind of
pre-emptive defense against the attacks that have rained down on his
Fox show. “Criticism from people who hate me doesn’t really mean
anything to me,” Mr. Carlson told Megyn Kelly, the former Fox
anchor, on </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">her
podcast </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">last
fall. He went on to say: “I’m not giving those people emotional
control over me. I’ve been through that. I lived through that as a
child.” One lesson from his youth, Mr. Carlson told </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">one
interviewer</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
was that “you should only care about the opinions of people who
care about you” </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Confessore
“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">How”
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">1-</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">8</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
New York Times examination of Mr. Carlson’s career, including
interviews with dozens of friends and former colleagues, and an
analysis of more than 1,100 episodes of his Fox program, shows how he
has grown increasingly sympathetic to the nativist currents coursing
through U.S. politics, and how intertwined his rise has been with the
transformations of his network and of American conservatism.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Here
are some key takeaways from “American Nationalist,” The Times’s
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">three-part
series </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
Mr. Carlson.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">Years
of talking points from the far-right fringe</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Last
spring, Mr. Carlson caused an uproar when he promoted on air the
notion of the “great replacement” — a racist conspiracy theory,
once relegated to the far-right fringe, that Western elites are
importing “obedient” immigrant voters to disempower the
native-born. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 13pt;">B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ut
this was hardly something new for Mr. Carlson. In more than 400
episodes, the Times analysis found, he has amplified the idea that a
cabal of elites want to force demographic change through immigration.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson’s producers often trawl the web for supporting material. …</span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
put Trumpism over Trump</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the White House, Mr. Trump had a symbiotic relationship with Fox:
watching, tweeting, talking frequently to the network’s hosts. But
that presented Mr. Carlson with a programming problem as his new show
ascended to Fox’s marquee 8 p.m. time slot: He wanted to reach the
Trump base, he told friends and co-workers, but without being
beholden to the mercurial president. The solution: embrace Trumpism,
not Mr. Trump.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
show would grasp the emotional core of Mr. Trump’s allure —</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">white
panic over the country’s changing ethnic coomposition</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">—
while keeping a carefully measured distance from the president. Mr.
Carlson sometimes even criticized the president, and in private, he
mocked Mr. Trump’s habit of phoning to head off on-air attacks.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
sought out stories, one friend observed, that were sometimes “really
weird” and often inaccurate but tapped into viewers’ fears of a
trampled-on American culture. He inveighed against </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Macy’s,
for instance, for introducing a line of hijabs</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
likening it to promoting genital mutilation.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">As
Tucker goes, so goes Fox</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson forged a relationship with Lachlan Murdoch, heir apparent of
the Fox empire, and cultivated a perception within the network that
the two men were close. As his show became the highest-rated cable
news program in prime time, Fox looked to its success as a model for
a broader transformation.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Inside
the network, journalists and commentators clashed over what many saw
as a creeping invasion of the news division by allies of the
higher-rated, pro-Trump prime-time hosts.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">While
Mr. Murdoch and Fox executives have</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">often couched their defense of</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">“Tucker Carlson Tonight” as a protection of free inquiry
and controversial opinions, Mr. Carlson’s on-air provocations have
long been something else: part of a painstaking, data-driven
experiment that has succeeded wildly in bolstering Fox’s profit
machine against the long-term decline in cable news subscriptions.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">According
to three former Fox employees, Mr. Carlson was among the network’s
most avid consumers of what are known as minute-by-minutes —
ratings data on an audience’s real-time ebb and flow. “He is
going to double down on the white nationalism because the
minute-by-minutes show that the audience eats it up,” said a former
employee who worked frequently with Mr. Carlson.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Network
executives soon began applying the approach to the daytime news
shows. They pitched it as “Moneyball” for television: an
audience-first approach to deciding what to cover and how to cover
it.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Journalists
on Fox’s daytime shows discerned a pattern to what the audience
didn’t like: segments featuring Fox’s own reporters, stories
deemed unfavorable to Mr. Trump, left-leaning or independent guests.
Immigration, on the other hand, was a hit.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Network
executives ordered up so much coverage of illegal immigrants or
nonwhite Americans caught in acts of crime or violence that some
employees referred to it by a grim nickname: “brown menace.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Going
after his critics</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Carlson’s popularity among viewers has allowed him to fend off
critics outside Fox and shut down those within, from news anchors to
junior employees who have objected to his rhetoric.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">After
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">an
on-air feud </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
Mr. Carlson in 2019 over the impeachment inquiry and Mr. Trump’s
efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials, Shepard Smith was </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">reportedly
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">warned
against criticizing his fellow host. He </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">departed
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fox
that October.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">After
a Fox producer, Dan Gallo, expressed concerns to human resources
executives about recordings of Mr. Carlson defending statutory rape
and calling Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys,” and on-air
comments by Jeanine Pirro </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">questioning
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
Muslim congresswoman’s loyalty to the Constitution, Mr. Carlson
learned about his complaints and confronted him face to face in Los
Angeles, demanding that Mr. Gallo “do the honorable thing” and
call him if he had a disagreement. Mr. Gallo offered to talk then and
there, but Mr. Carlson wasn’t interested. “I’m busy,” the
host said, and walked off.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; text-indent: 0.01in;">Days
after a mass shooting in El Paso by a white man protesting what he
called the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” Mr. Carlson declared
that white supremacy was largely a “hoax.” A young Fox reporter,
Cristina Corbin, tweeted, without mentioning Mr. Carlson: “White
supremacy is real, as evidenced by fact. Claims that it is a ‘hoax’
do not represent my views.” The host called Ms. Corbin and yelled
at her to “shut your mouth,” according to a former Fox executive
briefed on the episode. When asked about the incident by Fox
management, Mr. Carlson denied making the call.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
playbook sent sponsors fleeing, yet nearly doubled ad dollars</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Here
is the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” playbook: Go straight for the
third rail, be it race, immigration or another hot-button issue;
harvest the inevitable backlash; return the next evening to skewer
critics for how they responded. Then, do it all again. This feedback
loop drove up ratings and boosted loyalty to Fox and Mr. Carlson.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
it did not do was endear Mr. Carlson to advertisers. As blue-chip
sponsors fled, Fox filled the space with in-house promos — using
Mr. Carlson’s popularity to push other Fox shows — and
direct-to-consumer brands like MyPillow, whose chief executive is a
major promoter of Mr. Trump’s stolen-election lie.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Last
May, after promoting the white supremacist “replacement” theory,
Mr. Carlson had half as many advertisers as in December 2018. But he
brought in almost twice as much money (Confessore “What” 1-4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fox
News host Tucker Carlson says he has not read and does not plan to
read the wide-ranging examination of his career arc, editorial
strategy and prominence at the network published by The New York
Times over the weekend.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
Sunday, Carlson told Axios he has not read any of the Times piece and
does not plan to. He also denied its reporting relative to his
obsession over ratings.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I’ve
never read the ratings a single day in my life. I don’t even know
how. Ask anyone at Fox,” Carlson told Axios. “Most of the big
positions I’ve taken in the past five years — against the
neocons, the vax and the war [in Ukraine] — have been very
unpopular with our audience at first.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Earlier
on Sunday, Carlson </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">posted
a picture of himself </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
Twitter holding the front page of Sunday’s Times with a smile.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carlson’s
show airs weeknights and last week he alluded to the forthcoming
Times opus, calling Times journalists “obedient little
establishment defenders,” who “will say anything to please their
bosses, they’re suck-ups, brown-nosers, lickspittles, not people
you’d want to have dinner with.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you don’t obey them, they denounce you as a racist,” Carlson
said. “Why do they do this? They do it because it works. But here’s
the thing. It can only work if you play along with it. And we don’t
plan to” </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Mastrangello
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Confessore,
Nicholas. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">How
Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
Conquer Cable.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
30, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-gop-republican-party.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/us/tucker-carlson-gop-republican-party.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onfessore,
Nicholas. “</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
Know </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bout
Tucker Carlson’s Rise.” </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times,</i></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
April 30, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/business/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news-takeaways.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/30/business/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news-takeaways.html</span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">astrangello,
Dominick. “</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Tucker
Carlson </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rushes
off 20,000-</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ord
NY Times </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">tory
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ubbing
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">im
‘American Nationalist’.” </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Hill, </i></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">May
2, 2022. Net.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://thehill.com/news/media/3473699-tucker-carlson-brushes-off-20000-word-ny-times-story-dubbing-him-american-nationalist/">https://thehill.com/news/media/3473699-tucker-carlson-brushes-off-20000-word-ny-times-story-dubbing-him-american-nationalist/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-63645763687655409652022-05-29T13:25:00.002-07:002022-05-29T13:25:13.874-07:00The Amoralists: Ron DeSantis, Part Four; Battling with Trump<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eyeing
a possible White House bid, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declined on
Monday to weigh in on one of the most divisive issues in the GOP:
Could then-Vice President Mike Pence have “overturned” the 2020
presidential election?</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Former
President Donald Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">has
repeatedly </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">insisted</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
that Pence could have changed the outcome of the election by upending
the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">congressional
certification </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
the results, overturning President Joe Biden's win. On Friday, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Pence
rebutted </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">his
former boss, saying Trump was "wrong" to suggest he had the
authority to change the outcome of the election.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Asked
Monday with whom he sides, DeSantis wouldn’t say.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’m
not. I … ,” DeSantis told reporters at an immigration-related
media event at the American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora in Miami
before he cut himself off.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pressed
by a reporter, DeSantis changed the subject to say he had a “great
working relationship” with the Trump administration during the two
years his administration overlapped with it. And he then criticized
the Biden White House for obstructing his agenda.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Trump
remains the odds-on favorite to win the GOP nomination if he runs
again in 2024. DeSantis is a distant second, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">according
to </span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/14/desantis-poll-2024-president-499670" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">early
primary polls</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
which show him leading the pack if Trump doesn't run. Pence, who is
also laying the groundwork for a presidential run, comes in third
place in a crowded field that also includes Trump allies like Sen.
Ted Cruz of Texas.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Although
talk of a DeSantis-Trump feud has ebbed and flowed for months, both
men say they have a good relationship — underscored by DeSantis’
reticence in crossing Trump on the issue of Pence's power to
interfere in the Jan. 6, 2021, tally. Polls indicate that a
significant proportion of GOP primary voters nationwide believe the
election was stolen — despite numerous audits, investigations and
court cases that found that no widespread fraud occurred to prevent
Trump's victory </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Caputo
1).</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">For
months, former President Donald J. Trump has been grumbling quietly
to friends and visitors to his Palm Beach mansion</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">about
a rival Republican power center in another Florida mansion, some 400
miles to the north.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Gov.
Ron DeSantis, a man Mr. Trump believes he put on the map, has been
acting far less like an acolyte and more like a future competitor,
Mr. Trump complains. With his stock rising fast in the party, the
governor has conspicuously refrained from saying he would stand aside
if Mr. Trump runs for the Republican nomination for president in
2024.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
magic words,” Trump has said to several associates and advisers.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
long-stewing resentment burst into public view recently in a dispute
over a seemingly unrelated topic: Covid policies. After Mr. DeSantis
refused to reveal his full Covid vaccination history, the former
president publicly acknowledged he had received a booster. Last week
[January 2022], he seemed to swipe at Mr. DeSantis by blasting as
“gutless” politicians who dodge the question out of fear of
blowback from vaccine skeptics.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis shot back on Friday, criticizing Mr. Trump’s early
handling of the pandemic and saying he regretted not being more vocal
in his complaints.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
back and forth exposed how far Republicans have shifted to the right
on coronavirus politics. The doubts Mr. Trump amplified about public
health expertise have only spiraled since he left office. Now his
defense of the vaccines — even if often subdued and almost always
with the caveat in the same breath that he opposes mandates — has
put him uncharacteristically out of step with the hard-line elements
of his party’s base and provided an opening for a rival.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
that it was Mr. DeSantis — a once-loyal member of the Trump court —
wielding the knife made the tension about much more.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
its core, the dispute amounts to a stand-in for the broader challenge
confronting Republicans at the outset of midterm elections. They are
led by a defeated former president who demands total fealty, brooks
no criticism and is determined to sniff out, and then snuff out, any
threat to his control of the party.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
includes the 43-year-old DeSantis, who has told friends he believes
Mr. Trump’s expectation that he bend the knee is asking too much.
That refusal has set up a generational clash and a test of loyalty in
the de facto capital of today’s G.O.P., one watched by Republicans
elsewhere who’ve ridden to power on Mr. Trump’s coattails.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr.
Trump has made no secret of his preparations for a third run for the
White House. And while Mr. DeSantis, who is up for re-election this
year, has not declared his plans, he is widely believed to be eyeing
the presidency.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Trump and his aides are mindful of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Republicans’
increasingly public fatigue with </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></u></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">the
drama that trails Mr. Trump</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
The former president’s false claims about fraud in the 2020
election — which Mr. DeSantis has not challenged — and his role
in the events leading to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol have some
Republicans looking for a fresh start.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis is often the first name Republicans cite as a possible
Trump-style contender not named Trump.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
would be a formidable 2024 candidate in the Trump lane should Trump
not run,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor. “He’s Trump
but a little smarter, more disciplined and brusque without being too
brusque.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis has $70 million in the bank for his re-election, a war chest
he stocked with help from the Republican rank-and-file and donor
class, alike. He has raised his profile in the same spaces Mr. Trump
once dominated. The governor is ubiquitous on Fox News, where he is
routinely met with the sort of softballs that once arced toward Mr.
Trump. And he frequently mixes with the well-tanned Republican donor
community near the former president’s winter home in South Florida.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
was not always this way.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis was a little-known Florida congressman in 2017, when Mr.
Trump, who was then the president, spotted him on television and took
keen interest. Mr. DeSantis, an Ivy League-educated military veteran
and smooth-talking defender of the new president, was exactly what
Mr. Trump liked in a politician.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
wasn’t long before Mr. Trump blessed Mr. DeSantis’s bid for
governor and sent in staff to help him, lifting the lawmaker to a
victory over a better-known rival for the party’s nomination.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis survived the general election and has often governed in a
style that mirrors his patron, slashing at the left and scrapping
with the news media. But that alone doesn’t placate Mr. Trump. As
with other Republicans he has endorsed, the former president appears
to take a kind of ownership interest in Mr. DeSantis — and to
believe that he is owed dividends and deference.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Look,
I helped Ron DeSantis at a level that nobody’s ever seen before,”
Mr. Trump said in an interview for a forthcoming book, “Insurgency,”
on the rightward shift of the Republican Party, by the New York Times
reporter Jeremy W. Peters. Mr. Trump said he believed Mr. DeSantis
“didn’t have a chance” of winning without his help.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
former president’s expectation of deference from Mr. DeSantis is a
reminder to other Republicans that a Trump endorsement comes with a
price …</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
times, Mr. Trump has sought to kindle his relationship with Mr.
DeSantis. He has suggested the governor would be a strong choice for
vice president. Similar courtship has helped win deference from other
potential rivals. But Mr. DeSantis has not relented </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Martin
and Haberman 1-4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Longtime
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Donald
Trump </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">advisor
Roger Stone is dumping on </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Florida
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Gov.
Ron DeSantis as an Ivy League 'fat boy' – in the latest sign of
split between DeSantis and Trump.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stone,
who has known Trump for decades and advised him informally during the
2016 campaign – then got a presidential pardon following a long
legal saga amid the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Russia
p</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">robe
– tore into DeSantis following a report the former president
considers the potential rival 'dull.'</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">'Trump
sometimes President Donald Trump hits it right on the nose. Ron
DeSantis Yale Harvard fat boy can’t get out of his own way,' he
wrote.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'Not
smart. Not honest and not going to be president,' Stone wrote on
social media.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
called DeSantis, 43: 'An unknown congressman with a bad haircut and
an ill-fitting suit until Donald Trump made him governor' ...</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
attack came days after Trump addressed a rally in Arizona and stoked
conspiracy theories about Jan. 6th – as he positions for a
potential run to reclaim the White House in 2024.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Trump </span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">is </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">said
to have branded DeSantis a 'dull' charisma free-zone as rumors swirl
the former president is angry the popular </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Florida
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">governor
hasn't said that he won't challenge Trump for the 2024 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">GOP
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">presidential
nomination.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sources
close to the former president who have recently talked to him about
DeSantis said Trump has grown increasingly irked by DeSantis in
recent months, with Trump beginning to voice his frustrations to
those in his inner circle.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">'In
the context of the 2024 election, he usually gives DeSantis a pop in
the nose in the middle of that type of conversation,' said a source
who recently spoke to Trump about DeSantis.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">'He
says DeSantis has no personal charisma and has a dull personality,'
the source told </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Axios.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
root of Trump's ire towards DeSantis appears to stem from the fact
that the Florida governor 'won't say he won't run [in 2024]. ... The
others have stated pretty clearly they won't challenge him,' the
source went on to say.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
Trump was president, DeSantis was a frequent guest at Mar-a-Lago,
Trump's private club in Palm Beach. The two would often dine together
when Trump was in town (Earle and McNulty 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
DeSantis has … been careful to avoid direct confrontation with
Trump, especially given the fact that he’s facing reelection this
year and needs to maintain the support of the former president’s
loyal voter base. In the interview with “Ruthless,” DeSantis
dismissed the notion that his relationship with Trump had soured,
blaming the media for fueling such rumors. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">You
cannot fall for the bait,” he said. “You know what they’re
trying to do, so just don’t take it. Just keep on keeping on. We
need everybody united for a big red wave in 2022. We’ve got to
fight the left, and not only fight, but beat the left. And that’s
what we’re doing in Florida.” </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis’s
appeal among Republicans — including Trump’s base — is clear.
Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist and former
congressional candidate, said the governor has been successful in
taking aspects of Trump’s political brand and making them his own,
especially amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">What
he’s done is he’s taken </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Donald
Trump’s </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">America
First playbook and crafted it as a Florida First playbook,”
O’Connell said.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you had told me that </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ron
DeSantis </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">would
display more political courage than </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Greg
Abbott</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
I wouldn’t have believed it,” he added, referring to the
Republican governor of Texas. “The idea that DeSantis gave all the
other Republicans a backbone and cover to do what’s best for their
states is why conservatives are rewarding him now.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One
Republican consultant with ties to Florida said that part of the
interest in DeSantis as a future presidential candidate stems from
the perception among many in the party that the Florida governor is
effectively “Trump without the baggage.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He’s
a little more polished, I think. He’s got the Harvard credentials,
he served in the military, he’s the governor of the third largest
state, but he can still speak the language of the MAGA crowd,” the
consultant said. “With Trump, there’s still a lot of drama, so I
think it probably worries him that there’s this other guy who’s
getting a lot of attention” (Greenwood 1). </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump
holds sizable margins in pretty much every poll you can find, but
some of the numbers are tightenng. Last week, the polling firm
Echelon Insights published a raft of data on the Florida governor. It
found that</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump’s lead over DeSantis among G.O.P.
voters, which, according to its own poll, was 62 percent to 22
percent of respondents in October, had shrunk to 57 percent to 32
percent as of late January. Perhaps the most compelling bit of
information Echelon found was that while 54 percent of Republicans
thought “Trump was a great president and should remain the leader
of the Republican Party,” 22 percent said Trump “was a great
president but it is time for the Republican Party to find a new
leader” and 18 percent said Trump “was not a great president and
the Republican Party would be better off without his influence.”
Which means that 40 percent of G.O.P. voters are at least open to the
possibility of someone new.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">...</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis’s
recent rise to national prominence has come from his handling of the
pandemic — he has become the loudest anti-lockdown voice in the
national conversation and can point to his repeated refusal to shut
down his state. This might be a popular stance in 2022, but it’s
hard to imagine how it will play in two years. If Covid is shutting
down schools and businesses in two years, we will most likely be
looking at a vastly different country. If we have returned to some
semblance of normalcy, it’s quite possible that nobody will really
care how DeSantis handled the pandemic (Kang 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis chastised a group of students wearing face masks on
Wednesday, saying, “Honestly, it’s not doing anything and we’ve
got to stop with this Covid theater.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">How
much of a</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><em>
</em></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><em>[expletive]</em></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><em>
</em></span></i></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">do
you have to be to yell at a bunch of high school students who are
just trying to be safe?” Seth Meyers said. “They’re actually
doing the right thing and you’re scolding them for it; you’re
like an old man who sees a bunch of innocent teens walking by and
screams, ‘Hey, you kids get on my lawn!’”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Also,
what the hell is Covid theater? Those plays where all the actors have
to stand six feet apart? </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>[imitating
theatergoer]</i></span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><em>
</em></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">‘I
just saw the Covid theater production of “Les Mis” — the stage
was the size of a football field!’” </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><em>—
</em></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><em>SETH
MEYERS </em></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><em>(Bendix
1)</em></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
feels like a state running a fever, its very identity changing at a
frenetic pace.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once
the biggest traditional presidential battleground, it has suddenly
turned into a laboratory of possibility for the political right.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Discussions
of sexual orientation and gender identity </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">prohibited
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
early elementary school. Math textbooks </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rejected
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">en
masse for what the state called “indoctrination.” Schools and
employers limited in what they can teach about racism and other
aspects of history. Tenured professors in public universities
subjected to new reviews. Abortions </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">banned
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">after
15 weeks. The creation of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">law
enforcement office </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
investigate election crimes. A congressional map </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">redrawn
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
give Republicans an even bigger advantage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And,
perhaps most stunning of all, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Disney</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
long an untouchable corporate giant, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">stripped
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-indent: 0.01in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
the ability to govern itself for the first time in more than half a
century, in retaliation for the company’s opposition to the
crackdown on L.G.B.T.Q. conversations with young schoolchildren.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
does have this feeling of, ‘Oh, what the hell just happened?’”
said Kristen Arnett, a novelist and Orlando native who now lives in
Miami. “It’s overwhelming.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
has transformed over the past two years as Gov. Ron DeSantis </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">has
increased and flexed his power </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">to
remarkable effect, embracing policies that once seemed unthinkable.
That has made the Republican governor a favorite of the party’s Fox
News-viewing base and turned him into a possible presidential
contender </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Maxxei
1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Gov.
Ron DeSantis vowed on Friday [April 30, 2022] that he would make
Florida a so-called constitutional carry state, which would allow
people to publicly carry firearms without permits.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The
legislature will get it done," DeSantis said during a news
conference in north Florida. "I can't tell you if it's going to
be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I am done
as governor, we will have a signature on that."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
DeSantis, successfully ushering a constitutional carry measure into
law would be another conservative victory as he builds a resume that
could appeal to Republican primary voters if he decides to run for
president. …</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Responding
to DeSantis' announcement on Twitter, US Rep. Charlie Crist, ...
running for governor as a Democrat, said, "The last thing
Florida needs during a gun violence epidemic is a governor who wants
dangerous people carrying guns on the street without so much as a
background check."</span></span></span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Though
DeSantis has voiced support for constitutional carry in the past,
Friday's declaration was his most vocal assurance to gun rights
groups that he intends to make it a priority. If it's approved,
Florida would become the second-largest state to allow permitless
concealed carry of guns. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot signed a bill last
year that allows people to carry guns most places without licenses or
safety training.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
permit is not required to carry a handgun in 23 states, according to
the National Conference of State Legislatures (Contorno 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="link-1d54c6b4"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bendix,
Trish. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">Seth Meyers
Roasts Ron DeSantis for Berating Teens.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">March
4, 2-22. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/arts/television/ron-desantis-kids.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/arts/television/ron-desantis-kids.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">C</span><span style="font-size: small;">aputo,
Marc. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis
</span><span style="font-size: small;">R</span><span style="font-size: small;">efuses
</span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">o
</span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">ake
</span><span style="font-size: small;">S</span><span style="font-size: small;">ides
in Trump-Pence </span><span style="font-size: small;">C</span><span style="font-size: small;">lash
as 2024 </span><span style="font-size: small;">S</span><span style="font-size: small;">peculation
</span><span style="font-size: small;">G</span><span style="font-size: small;">rows.”
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>NBC News, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">updated
February 8, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/desantis-refuses-take-sides-trump-pence-clash-2024-speculation-grows-rcna15185">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/desantis-refuses-take-sides-trump-pence-clash-2024-speculation-grows-rcna15185</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">C</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ontorno,
Steve. “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">V</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ows
Florida </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">W</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ill
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">A</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">llow
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">P</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">eople
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">T</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">o
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">C</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">arry
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">F</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">irearms
without </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">P</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">ermits
'</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">B</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">efore
I </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">A</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">m
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">D</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">one
as </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">G</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">overnor'.”
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>CNN,
</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">April
29, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politics/desantis-concealed-firearms/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/29/politics/desantis-concealed-firearms/index.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Earle,
Goeff and McNulty, Matt. </span><span style="font-size: small;">
“'Ron's a Yale Harvard </span><span style="font-size: small;">F</span><span style="font-size: small;">at
</span><span style="font-size: small;">B</span><span style="font-size: small;">oy,
</span><span style="font-size: small;">N</span><span style="font-size: small;">ot
</span><span style="font-size: small;">H</span><span style="font-size: small;">onest
and </span><span style="font-size: small;">N</span><span style="font-size: small;">ot
</span><span style="font-size: small;">G</span><span style="font-size: small;">oing
</span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">o
</span><span style="font-size: small;">B</span><span style="font-size: small;">e
</span><span style="font-size: small;">P</span><span style="font-size: small;">resident':
Roger Stone </span><span style="font-size: small;">S</span><span style="font-size: small;">ides
with Trump in </span><span style="font-size: small;">R</span><span style="font-size: small;">ift
with De Santis.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Daily
Mail UK, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">updated
January 18, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10412149/Roger-Stone-calls-DeSantis-Yale-Harvard-Fat-Boy.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10412149/Roger-Stone-calls-DeSantis-Yale-Harvard-Fat-Boy.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">G</span><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">reenwood,
Max. “</span>Trump-DeSantis Tensions Ratchet Up.” <i>The Hill,
</i>January 18, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/590071-trump-desantis-tensions-ratchet-up/">https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/590071-trump-desantis-tensions-ratchet-up/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="link-22446812"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Kang,
Jay Caspian. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">Does
Ron DeSantis Really Have a Shot </span><span style="font-size: small;">a</span><span style="font-size: small;">gainst
Trump?” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>New York
Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">February 3,
2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/opinion/desantis-trump-republicans.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/03/opinion/desantis-trump-republicans.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="link-6311d076"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Martin,
Jonathan and Haberman, Maggie. “</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">Who
Is King of Florida? Tensions Rise </span><span style="font-size: small;">b</span><span style="font-size: small;">etween
Trump and a Former Acolyte.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">January
16, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us/politics/trump-desantis.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/16/us/politics/trump-desantis.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="link-7df681"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">M</span><span style="font-size: small;">azzei,
Patricia. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">How
DeSantis Transformed Florida’s Political Identity.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">April
28, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-politics.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-politics.html</a></span></span></span></p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-24704189323508551592022-05-26T12:16:00.000-07:002022-05-26T12:16:22.377-07:00The Amoralists: Ron DeSantis, Part Three; Extreme Right Wing Legislation<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
DeSantis, the pandemic offered the opportunity to distinguish himself
from Trump. In January [2022], Jonathan Chait described his strategy
in New York magazine:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.39in; margin-right: 0.39in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Where
Trump was tiptoeing around vaccine skepticism, DeSantis jumped in
with both feet, banning private companies like cruise lines from
requiring vaccination, appointing a vaccine skeptic to his state’s
highest office, and refusing to say if he’s gotten his booster
dose.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
“may or may not actually be more delusional on Covid than Donald
Trump,” Chait wrote, “but it is a revealing commentary on the
state of their party that he sees his best chance to supplant Trump
as positioning himself as even crazier” (Edsall 2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[Here
are some of the far-right bills that DeSantis has championed to
become Florida law.]</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Intimidating
University Students and Faculty</u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Gov.
Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation into law on Tuesday [June 2021]
that requires students and faculty of public Florida universities to
report their political views to the state starting this July. [It] …
requires university students and faculty to fill out a survey from
the government about their political beliefs in what Gov. DeSantis
has called an effort to monitor “intellectual diversity” on
campus. Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R), echoing the
Governor’s sentiments, said that there was a “great risk” that
the state’s universities had become “socialism factories.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
and university faculty have attempted to get answers from state
Republicans on how these survey results will be used, as the bill
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">provides
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">no
guarantees or protections against partisan targeting of campuses and
staff and does not protect student confidentiality. The move to
“diversify” campus speech comes just a few days after Gov.
DeSantis publicly supported the banning of critical race theory and
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">announced
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">he
would campaign against any school board members who promote teaching
the history of racism in America to Florida students.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Moment
of Silence Bill</u></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed [June 2021] a new law mandating that
public schools in the Sunshine State have a daily moment of silence.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bill,
which DeSantis signed into law on Monday, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">requires
teachers to set aside at least one minute each day in the first
period of school for a moment of silence.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Teachers
are prohibited “from making suggestions as to the nature of any
reflection that a student may engage in during the moment of
silence,” the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">law
states</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
spoke about the new law in religious terms when signing it on Monday,
saying it allows students to “reflect and be able to pray as they
see fit,”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">according
to local television station WJXT</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
governor, a close ally of former president Trump, signed the bill at
a Jewish community center while behind a placard that read “protect
religious liberty,” the local outlet reported (Oshin 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Anti-Riot
Bill</u></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
legislation is one of many attempts to monitor and silence dissent
that Florida Republicans have passed into law this year. In April
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2021],</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
Gov. DeSantis signed </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">HB
1 into law</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
an “anti-riot bill” that Democrats say will stifle First
Amendment rights to protest and is purposely written broadly to allow
police significant leeway to arrest and convict protest</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rs
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Florida
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida's
new "anti-riot" law championed by Republican Gov. Ron
DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests, is unconstitutional, and
cannot be enforced; a federal judge ruled Thursday.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee
found the recently-enacted law "vague and overbroad" and
amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and
assembly as well as the Constitution's due process protections.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">People
engaged in peaceful protest or innocently in the same area when a
demonstration turned violent could face criminal charges and stiff
penalties under the law, the judge said.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
said during an appearance in New Port Richey that the state will take
its case to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
lawsuit was filed against DeSantis and other state officials by the
NAACP Florida conference, Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter,
Alliance Broward and other groups who argue the law appears
specifically aimed to halt protests by Black people and other
minorities.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
measure was passed earlier this year by the GOP-led Legislature and
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">signed
into law </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">2021]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">by
the governor. It was a reaction to demonstrations around the country
following last year's killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd,
a Black man, that stirred passions nationwide under the banner of the
Black Lives Matter movement </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Associated
“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Judge”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nti-Sanctuary
Cities Bill</span></span></span></span></u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
September 22, 2021, a federal judge ruled that sections of a 2019
Florida immigration enforcement law were racially motivated. The law
generally banned so-called sanctuary cities, which is a city, county,
or state that limits its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in order to protect low-priority
undocumented immigrants from deportation.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Governor
Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in 2019 as one of his
administration’s priorities. His administration said it would
appeal the ruling.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">U.S.
Southern District of Florida Judge Beth Bloom struck down portions of
SB 168 that bans local and state officials from adopting “sanctuary”
policies for undocumented immigrants and requires law enforcement
agencies and officers to “use best efforts to support the
enforcement of immigration law” when actively performing their
duties. She also blocked a provision that enables local and state
agencies to transport detainees to federal custody outside of their
jurisdiction.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Judge
Bloom repeatedly said that the law was racially motivated and that
its supporters provided no evidence that such law was necessary to
lower crime. Additionally, she said anti-immigrant hate groups such
as Floridians for Immigration Enforcement guided the bill, citing
numerous correspondence between the organization and staff members of
State Senator Joe Gruters, who sponsored the bill.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
case began after the city of South Miami, the Florida Immigration
Coalition, and other organizations filed a lawsuit against Gov.
DeSantis in order to void the law. The plaintiffs’ witnesses
testified that more people were victims of domestic violence because
they were afraid of being deported if they involved the police.
Others said undocumented immigrants did not access social services or
healthcare clinics because of the same fear.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">According
to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and federal
data on ICE arrests, which was presented by the plaintiffs,
approximately 73 percent of ICE arrests in Florida between 2015 and
2018 involved individuals with no criminal history or a record of
minor offenses.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
the other hand, only 0.4 percent of these arrests involved
individuals with serious criminal offenses, such as sexual assault
and murder. Therefore, the bill sponsors’ claim that the law would
improve public safety and reduce crime rates are not supported by
statistical data, despite the increase in undocumented immigration
(Hubbs 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Anti-Mandate
Law Protecting Workers and Children’s Parents</u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Open Sans, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">T</span></span></span></span></u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oday
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[November
18, 2021]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and
Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect
Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates
and protect parents' rights to make healthcare decisions for
students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the
Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor's signature.
The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom,
anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<strong>✓
</strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Private
Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong>✓
</strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Employers
who violate these employee health protections will be fined.</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">✓
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Government
entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including
employees.</span></span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">✓
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Educational
institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.</span></span></strong></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">✓
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">School
districts may not have school face mask policies.</span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">✓
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">School
districts may not quarantine healthy students.</span></span></span></span></strong></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">✓
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Students
and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and
attorney's fees </span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span></strong><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Florida
1-2).</span></span></strong></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><u>“</u></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><u>Don’t
Say Gay” Bill</u></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Gov.
Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Monday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[March
2022] </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
prohibits classroom instruction and discussion</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></u></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">about
sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school
grades, a law that opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an
education, not an indoctrination,” Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, said
from a classroom at a charter school in Spring Hill, Fla., north of
Tampa.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
law, titled “Parental Rights in Education,” has drawn national
criticism from L.G.B.T.Q. organizations that fear it will have a
chilling effect among teachers and young students.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Workers
at Disney, one of the state’s major employers and corporate
political donors, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">staged
walkouts in protest </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">after
the bill passed the Legislature, even after the company’s chief
executive had apologized to employees for not taking a stronger stand
against the legislation and paused contributions to political
campaigns. </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
Monday, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Disney
released a statement </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><u><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span></u></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">condemning
the new law and urging lawmakers to repeal it or the courts to strike
it down.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
is attempting to censor and exclude an entire community of people
from our public schools for his own political gain,” State
Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat and the
state’s first openly gay Latino lawmaker, said in a statement.
“This law doesn’t solve any problem that exists.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
uproar did little to move the governor or lawmakers in the
Republican-controlled Legislature, who spent much of their annual
session passing legislation to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">put
Florida at the forefront of the nation’s culture wars</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
including a 15-week abortion ban, while avoiding pressing issues such
as the state’s lack of affordable housing and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">shaky
insurance market</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’
rights, I wear that like a badge of honor,” he </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[DeSantis]
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">said
at the bill signing. “I don’t care what corporate media outlets
say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big
corporations say. Here I stand. I’m not backing down” </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Mazzei
1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hospital
Visitation Bill</u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a COVID-19-linked bill requiring health
care centers to allow in-person visitations, as the Republican
announced he approved dozens of other measures passed during this
year’s legislative session.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
visitation bill requires that health care facilities, including
nursing homes, allow in-person visits during end-of-life situations
and in most other cases.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
and other state health officials said the measure was inspired by
hospitals limiting visits during the coronavirus pandemic (Associated
“DeSantis” 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">No
CRT in the Classroom Bill</u></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
lawmakers on Thursday [March 2022] passed a bill that would limit how
educators discuss certain racial issues in classrooms.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
bill, known as </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">HB
7/Individual Freedom</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
was passed by the Senate along party lines Thursday and now goes to
Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was expected to sign it into law.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
and Republican lawmakers in the state have pushed for legislation to
prevent Critical Race Theory instruction in schools, with the
governor proposing a "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" last year to take
aim against CRT in schools. The acronym stands for "Stop the
Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Proponents
said the bill simply states that teachers and businesses can't force
students and employees to feel they are to blame for racial
injustices in America's past.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Opponents
said the legislation was designed to create racial division and would
have a chilling effect on the discussion of injustices past and
present.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
bill reads in part, "A person should not be instructed that he
or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological
distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in
the past by other members of the same race or sex."</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Critical
race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through
the lens of racism. It was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in
response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress
following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on
the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and
that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in
society (Florida Senate 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><u>A</u></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><u>nti-Abortion
Law</u></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Thursday [April 2022] a
Mississippi-style anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure after
15 weeks of pregnancy without exemptions for rape, incest or human
trafficking.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
bill, which goes into effect July 1, does allow exemptions in cases
where a pregnancy is "serious risk" to the mother or a
fatal fetal abnormality is detected if two physicians confirm the
diagnosis in writing.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Previously,
Florida had allowed abortion through the second trimester of a
pregnancy, making it one of the most permissive states for abortion
in the southeast. Abortion advocates said many women from neighboring
states often traveled to Florida for the procedure, meaning changes
to Florida's law could be felt all throughout the region.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"We
are here today to defend those who can't defend themselves,"
DeSantis said Thursday on a stage surrounded by several female
lawmakers, anti-abortion advocates and children. "This will
represent the most significant protections for life that we have seen
in a generation."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
signing of the bill comes days after a Tallahassee circuit court
judge ruled that Florida can require a 24-hour waiting period to get
an abortion, ending a seven-year legal battle over another
contentious anti-abortion measure (Contorno 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
Wants Stronger Gerrymander Bill</u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republican
legislative leaders in Florida say they're going to give up trying to
redraw the state's new map of congressional districts and instead
consider one offered by Gov. Ron DeSantis during a special session
next week [April 2022].</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis,
a potential Republican presidential aspirant, has been pushing a map
that's considered more advantageous to his party.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
announcement on Monday by state Senate President Wilton Simpson and
House Speaker Chris Sprowls came two weeks after DeSantis </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">vetoed
a map </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
had been approved by the legislature.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
is one of just three states with more than one congressional district
that hasn't yet finalized its new map, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">according
to FiveThirtyEight</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
state could prove crucial to determining control of the U.S. House.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thanks
to massive population growth, Florida gained a congressional seat as
a result of the last U.S. census, for a total of 28 districts
(Hernandez 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><u style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Stop
Woke Act</u></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Friday that aims to regulate
how schools and businesses address race and gender, the state’s
latest effort to restrict education about those topics.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
law, which has become known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” prohibits
workplace training or school instruction that teaches that
individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether
consciously or unconsciously”; that people are privileged or
oppressed based on race, gender, or national origin; or that a person
“bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or
other forms of psychological distress” over actions committed in
the past by members of the same race, gender, or national origin. The
law says such trainings or lessons amount to discrimination.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">No
one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed
because of their race,” DeSantis said in a statement on Friday
[April 22, 2022]. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke
agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for
indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to whitewash history and
chill free speech in classrooms and workplaces,” Amy Turkel,
interim executive director of the ACLU of Florida, </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">said
in a statement</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
“It will infringe on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment
rights and chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism
and gender discrimination to teach about and discuss important
American history.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">it
prohibits lessons or trainings in schools and workplaces that teach
that individuals “should be discriminated against or receive
adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion,” an
apparent reference to affirmative action policies, which
traditionally benefit Black and Latino students or employees in an
effort to offset centuries of racial discrimination. They may also
not advance the idea that concepts like merit or racial
colorblindness “were created by members of a particular race,
color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race,
color, sex, or national origin” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Reilly
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Associated
Press. “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">A Judge Has
Blocked </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">t</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">he
'Anti-Riot' Law Passed </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">i</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">n
Florida </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">a</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">fter
George Floyd Protests.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>NPR,
</i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">September 9, 2021. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/1035687247/florida-anti-riot-law-ron-desantis-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-protests" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/1035687247/florida-anti-riot-law-ron-desantis-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-protests</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Associated Press. “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">igns
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ospital
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">V</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">isitation
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ill,
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ther
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">egislation.”
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Local
10, </i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
8, 2022. Net.
</span></span><a href="https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2022/04/08/desantis-signs-hospital-visitation-bill-other-legislation/" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2022/04/08/desantis-signs-hospital-visitation-bill-other-legislation/</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ontorno,
Steve. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">
“</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">igns
Florida's 15-</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eek
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bortion
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">an
into </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aw.”
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN,
</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
14, 2022. Net.
</span></span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/desantis-signs-abortion-ban-florida/index.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/desantis-signs-abortion-ban-florida/index.html</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Edsall,
Thomas B. </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">‘”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
Want People That Are Going </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">March
16, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/opinion/ron-desantis-is-gambling-on-out-trumping-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/opinion/ron-desantis-is-gambling-on-out-trumping-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Health. “ </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ICYMI-
Governor Ron Desantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida Jobs.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Florida
Health, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">November
18, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2021/11/20211118-icymi-legislation-protect-florida-jobs.pr.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2021/11/20211118-icymi-legislation-protect-florida-jobs.pr.html</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Senate Passes Race Education Bill, Goes to DeSantis for Signature.”
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>NBCMiami,
</i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
10, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-senate-passes-race-education-bill-goes-to-desantis-for-signature/2710663/">https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-senate-passes-race-education-bill-goes-to-desantis-for-signature/2710663/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: var font-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Students Must Register Their Political Views </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">w</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ith
the State.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Democracy
Docket, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">June
23, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.democracydocket.com/alerts/florida-students-must-register-their-political-views-with-the-state/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.democracydocket.com/alerts/florida-students-must-register-their-political-views-with-the-state/</span></span></a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Hernandez,
Joe. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Florida
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">awmakers
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">et
DeSantis </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">raw
a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ongressional
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ap
after </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">V</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">etoed
the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ast
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ne.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>NPR,
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
12, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092290277/florida-lawmakers-let-desantis-draw-a-congressional-map-after-he-vetoed-the-last" style="font-family: "var font-serif";"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092290277/florida-lawmakers-let-desantis-draw-a-congressional-map-after-he-vetoed-the-last</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ubbs
Law Firm. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Federal
Judge Rules Florida's SB 168 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
Racially Motivated.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Hubbs
Law, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
15, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.hubbslawfirm.com/blog/2021/october/federal-judge-rules-floridas-sb-168-was-racially/">https://www.hubbslawfirm.com/blog/2021/october/federal-judge-rules-floridas-sb-168-was-racially/</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "var font-serif"; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">azzei,
Patricia. “</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
Signs Florida Bill </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">t</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hat
Opponents Call ‘Don’t Say Gay’.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
28, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-bill.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-bill.html</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">shin,
Olafimhan</span></span></span><span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: Graphik Web, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 8pt;"><b>.</b></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">igns
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aw
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">andating
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aily
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oment
of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ilence
in Florida </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">chools.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Hill, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">June
15, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/558563-desantis-signs-law-mandating-daily-moment-of-silence-in-florida-schools/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/558563-desantis-signs-law-mandating-daily-moment-of-silence-in-florida-schools/</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Reilly,
Katie. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Florida’s
Governor Just Signed the 'Stop Woke Act.’ Here’s What It Means
for Schools and Businesses.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><i>Time,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">April
22, 2022. Net.
</span></span><a href="https://time.com/6168753/florida-stop-woke-law/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=newsletter+brief+default+ac&utm_content=+++20220425+++body&et_rid=207222382&lctg=207222382" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://time.com/6168753/florida-stop-woke-law/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=newsletter+brief+default+ac&utm_content=+++20220425+++body&et_rid=207222382&lctg=207222382</a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><br /></p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-17510482329783403472022-05-22T13:53:00.000-07:002022-05-22T13:53:33.920-07:00The Amoralists: Ron DeSantis, Part Two; The Governor<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">President
Trump delivered an urgent warning to his staunchest supporters in
Florida Wednesday night at a </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">pulsating
political rally</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">:
Don’t le</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">t
Ron DeSantis </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">lose
the governor’s race next week. Not with Mr. Trump’s 2020
re-election plans potentially hinging on the country’s biggest
presidential battleground state.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">This
is my state also,” Mr. Trump reminded them, alluding to his golf
properties and winter home in Palm Beach and his one-point victory in
2016.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That
Mr. DeSantis </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">is
the Republican nominee </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">for
governor is a testament to Mr. Trump’s strong endorsement and
popularity with conservatives. That Mr. Trump’s support has not
been enough to make Mr. DeSantis the favorite on Tuesday — in one
of the most high-profile and symbolically important races in the
country — is evidence not only of the president’s shaky footing
with independents, but also of Mr. DeSantis’s shortcomings as a
candidate, political strategists from both parties say.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Trump has expended more political capital on Mr. DeSantis than on
most other candidates this year, so the president would inevitably
own a loss. Neither party is counting out Mr. DeSantis, but he is
slightly trailing Andrew Gillum, the Democratic </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">mayor
of Tallahassee</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
in most public polls; the president has scheduled another rally on
Saturday in Pensacola.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
seemed a winnable race for Republicans against Mr. Gillum, an
outspoken progressive who supports impeaching Mr. Trump, has instead
become neck-and-neck, with the charismatic Democrat drawing far
larger crowds than Mr. DeSantis, a telegenic Fox News regular who has
proved uneven on the trail.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the closing weeks of the campaign, what has separated the two
candidates most is how each has dealt with issues of race and
identity. Mr. Gillum, who would become Florida’s first
African-American governor, has talked about both matters at length;
Mr. DeSantis, who is white, has struggled to address questions about
his past political associations with racists and xenophobes.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis and his team never prepared to run against Mr. Gillum; they
thought they would face one of the more traditional, centrist
Democrats running in the primary. The Republican fumbled early on
with how to criticize his unexpected opponent and how to deal with a
contender who, more than other Democrats who ran for governor, knew
how to make moments go viral.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">One
reason Mr. DeSantis may have stumbled is where he had come from: the
conservative cocoon of the political right, where his rise to
national prominence — lifted by stoking fears of terrorism — went
little noticed because Mr. DeSantis was only a congressman in a
reliably Republican seat. (He </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">resigned
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">after
winning the August primary.)</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Over
nearly three terms in office, Mr. DeSantis, a 40-year-old Yale and
Harvard graduate and former Navy prosecutor, became a familiar face
on Fox, doing hits from Capitol Hill and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">flying
to New York </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">to
appear from the network’s flagship studio. He attended conferences
billed as conservative gatherings where he made his name known in
political circles that mattered.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Thrust
into a marquee race in a purple state, however, Mr. DeSantis
floundered.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
a Fox interview the day after the Aug. 28 primary, he said electing
Mr. Gillum, 39, could “monkey this up,” which Democrats </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">denounced
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
a racist dog whistle. (Mr. DeSantis denied that.) News reports
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">exposed
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">how
far-right extremists were among the organizers and attendees of some
of the conferences he frequented. A white supremacist group targeted
Mr. Gillum with offensive </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">robocalls</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
A campaign contributor </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">apologized
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">for
referring to former President Barack Obama with a racist slur, but
Mr. DeSantis declined to return his donation.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">managed
to regroup </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">from
that rough start. But the controversies have cast a shadow over his
campaign.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">During
the candidates’ </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">last
debate</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
Mr. DeSantis angrily rejected a question about his ties to a
conservative author, David Horowitz, who has made incendiary
statements.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Are
you going to play the McCarthy-ite game?” Mr. DeSantis asked,
suggesting he was being found guilty by association. “How the hell
am I supposed to know every single statement someone makes?”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis has pounded Mr. Gillum over a continuing </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">FBI
investigation </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">into
possible corruption in Tallahassee’s community redevelopment
agency, and over inappropriate gifts Mr. Gillum </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">appears
to have accepted </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">during
several trips with a lobbyist friend. Mr. Trump has gone as far as to
label Mr. Gillum, without evidence, a “thief.” On Thursday, the
Gillum campaign was also dealing with criticism after the
conservative undercover journalism operation, Project Veritas,
released a video in which a Gillum volunteer calls Florida “a
cracker” state. (The campaign has cut ties with the volunteer.)</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Gillum and his supporters have tried to turn those accusations of
corruption — as well as claims by Mr. DeSantis that Mr. Gillum is
anti-police — against Mr. DeSantis and Republicans, saying the
attacks are fueled by racism against a successful black politician.
Mr. DeSantis’s campaign has countered that resorting to accusations
of racism is a way for Mr. Gillum to avoid scrutiny on his lobbyist
dealings.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis first outlined his conservative ideology in a 2011 book that
turned him into a popular speaker at Florida Tea Party and Republican
gatherings. The book, “Dreams From Our Founding Fathers: First
Principles in the Age of Obama,” borrowed from the title of Barack
Obama’s 1995 memoir, “Dreams From My Father.” Mr. DeSantis
dwelled on socialist and radical mentors in Mr. Obama’s life,
arguing that, under their influence, the former president steered the
country on a path divergent from what the founding fathers intended.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
anti-Obama message appeared to resonate with some Fox viewers. By
mid-2012, even before his first election, he was a guest on Sean
Hannity’s show; by the time he got to Washington the next year, Mr.
DeSantis had bypassed the obscurity of most rank-and-file freshman
members of Congress.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Since
2013, Mr. DeSantis has appeared at four conferences sponsored by Mr.
Horowitz — which was first reported by The Washington Post — and
had praised his organization as one that “shoots straight, tells
the American people the truth and is standing up for the right
thing.” He has continued to defend his speeches there, noting that
the keynote address at one of the gatherings was given by a Medal of
Honor recipient.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
Mr. Trump recently tweeted that “criminals and unknown Middle
Easterners” had joined a large caravan of Central Americans heading
to the United States, he was repeating an idea advanced on Capitol
Hill in 2016 by Mr. DeSantis, who called a hearing to discuss the
threat posed by Islamic terrorists crossing the Mexican border</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">(Mazzei
and Saul 5).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Determined
to show his independence in his first months in office, he [De
Santis] appointed a chief science officer and pledged billions for
the Everglades.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
pardoned four wrongfully accused Black men. He lifted a ban on
medical marijuana in smokable form.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
was hardly a moderate: Mr. DeSantis also </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gutted
a voter-approved measure </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">meant
to restore felons’ right to vote. He allowed some teachers to carry guns in schools</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
He banned so-called </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">sanctuary
cities </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
a state where there were none.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
the mix pleased voters, and his approval ratings surged. Might the
man who had shown his diaper-age daughter building a wall in </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">campaign
ad </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">actually
be a pragmatist?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Then
came the pandemic.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis centralized power in his office early in the pandemic,
ceding little of the spotlight to public health officials. The state
Department of Health’s weekly Covid-19 recaps are titled “Updates
on Florida’s Vaccination Efforts Under Governor DeSantis’s
Leadership.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis’s slowness in </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">locking
down the state </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">last
year </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2020]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hurt
his approval ratings. So did </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">deadly
summer surge </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
the virus. But then, far earlier than most other governors, he
pledged tha</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">t
schools would open </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
the fall and life would start returning to normal.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">His
policies were contrarian, and he was defiant,” said Tony Fabrizio,
a Republican pollster who has tracked Mr. DeSantis’s popularity and
saw it rebound beginning last summer. “The more he stands his
ground, the more he speaks his mind, the more the affinity grows for
him.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
critics see the governor as stubborn and unwilling to hear dissent.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
governor we have today is the governor we anticipated after the
election,” said Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture commissioner
and the only Democrat elected statewide, who looks likely to run
against Mr. DeSantis.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
surprised everybody in 2019,” she added, “but obviously that is
not truly who he is.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
some ways, Mr. DeSantis has filled the void left by Mr. Trump, minus
the tweets. He remains a Fox News regular. He counts among his
scientific advisers Dr. Scott W. Atlas</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
the former Trump adviser who has promoted dubious theories.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
the governor’s favorite foes are the “corporate media,” against
whom he has scored political points.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
recent tangle with “60 Minutes” centered on the extent to which
political connections have helped white, wealthy Floridians get
vaccinated.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Local
news outlets have </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">chronicled
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">how
vaccine access has been slower for Black, Latino and poorer
communities. Some pop-up vaccination sites were opened in
neighborhoods that had many older residents — and that also had
ties to DeSantis campaign donors.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
“60 Minutes” focused on how Publix supermarket pharmacies
received doses and left out relevant details, including an extended
response from the governor at a news conference.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
Wednesday, in Mr. DeSantis’s words, he “hit them back right
between the eyes,” accusing “60 Minutes” of pursuing a
malicious narrative (Maxxei 6).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Referred
to as “DeathSantis” and mocked for allowing “Florida Morons”
to pack state beaches, Mr. DeSantis faced national scorn for his
resistance to shutdowns. Last fall [2020], he lifted all
restrictions, keeping schools open for in-person learning and
forbidding local officials from shutting down businesses or fining
people for not wearing masks.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
see, in many parts of our country, a sad state of affairs: schools
closed, businesses shuttered and lives destroyed,” Mr. DeSantis
said, offering a rousing defense of his pandemic response at the
opening of Florida’s legislative session this week. “While so
many other states kept locking people down, Florida lifted people
up.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
same could be said about Mr. DeSantis’s political ambitions.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
Republicans, loyalty to the former president and his pet issues has
become the ultimate litmus test. Mr. DeSantis checked all the boxes:
fighting with the media, questioning scientific experts, embracing
baseless claims of election fraud and railing against liberals.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Conservatives
rewarded the governor for his fealty. His approval rating rose above
water in recent weeks, with some polling of Republicans showing Mr.
DeSantis with higher ratings than Mr. Trump. He finished first in a
straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference last
weekend covering a field of potential presidential candidates that
did not include Mr. Trump, fueling chatter about a 2024 bid (Lerer
1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis passed conservative red-meat legislation like voting reform
and an “anti-riot” law (a federal judge recently blocked
enforcement of it) and picked fights with proponents of mask and
vaccine mandates, Big Tech, the media and even some Florida cruise
lines.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis’s moves were not a complete surprise. In our partisan
political atmosphere, there’s a rationale for firing up your base
to maximize turnout. Since 2018, the proportion of registered
Republicans in Florida has inched up and moved closer to Democrats’
share. As Steve Schale, a Florida election expert, recently </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">noted</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
“Sometime before the end of this year, there will be more
Republicans registered in Florida than Democrats” — which, he
said, has never happened before.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis’s approval numbers have … </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[now]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">declined.
A late August </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2021]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Morning
Consult poll </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">showed
him down to 48 percent approval from 54 percent in late June — with
the biggest shift coming from independents. Another survey of the
governor’s approval from Quinnipiac now stands 12 points lower than
it did in 2019. And while he opposed vaccine mandates for cruise
ships — a significant industry in the</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">state,
with a lot of Republican customers — over 60 percent of Floridians
supported them </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Mair
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday [December 2020] told a private
gathering of political donors and corporate executives that he has
urged President Donald Trump to “fight on” to overturn November’s
election results.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
wide-ranging remarks made in person behind closed doors at a meeting
of the Associated Industries of Florida, DeSantis dismissed the risks
of the coronavirus, contradicted science and targeted U.S. Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Roberts. He also defended Trump’s attempt
to fight the results of the election.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
told the president to fight on,” DeSantis told the group gathered
at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes resort hotel in Orlando, according to
a recording of the speech obtained by POLITICO. “In reality, none
of this stuff has succeeded yet. Time is running out.”</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
defended his response to the coronavirus pandemic, during which he
has resisted imposing state-level restrictions on gatherings and
mask-wearing. Florida has reported more than 1 million cases as of
this week.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
have, I think, really saved the livelihoods of millions and millions
of students, parents, workers, business owners by approaching this in
an evidence-based way and a way that focused on facts not fear, and
in a way that was more moderate,” said DeSantis.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
also took shots at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for
its “ridiculous” studies on the Covid-19 outbreak, which he said
were more about “affirming” the positions of “bureaucrats”
than science.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
questioned the need for contract tracing, saying most people are
either infected in their homes or medical authorities can’t figure
out the source of infections.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">People
can engage in most outdoor activities, including sports, because the
virus doesn’t spread at such events, DeSantis told the group. He
insisted that Trump’s huge rallies did not contribute to the spread
of Covid-19, countering a Stanford University study released in late
October that traced 30,000 cases and hundreds of deaths to Trump
rallies (Dixon 1).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">An
exchange in August 2021 is a typical example of how DeSantis
interacts with the press — with a combination of bluster and
grievance modeled on Donald Trump, his political mentor and potential
rival.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Delta variant of the coronavirus had just arrived, and a question
about the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rising
number of Covid-19 cases </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
the state set him off. There was plenty of room in Florida’s
hospitals, he explained.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Then,
with a jerky, almost robotic forward-chopping motion, he </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gestured
at the reporters </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gathered
in front of him. “I think it’s important to point out because
obviously media does hysteria,” he said. “You try to fearmonger.
You try to do this stuff.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Awkward
and ineloquent as the moment was, it was vintage DeSantis — a
frequently underestimated politician who has made the media his focal
point and foil throughout his rapid rise. The clash, not the case
numbers, which averaged </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nearly
25,000 a day </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
Florida at the peak of the Delta surge, led that day’s headlines.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Former
aides say that DeSantis views the press as just another extension of
the political process — a tool to weaponize or use for his own
benefit. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
mainstream press, which DeSantis invariably describes with epithets
like “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">the
corporate media” or ‘the Acela media,” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">tends
to get brass-knuckle treatment — when it gets access to him at all.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">His
former aides as well as his critics describe his approach to the
media as methodical and ruthless, in contrast to Trump’s haphazard,
seat-of-the-pants approach.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
has studied what has worked and left behind what doesn’t,” said
David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who has contemplated
running against him for governor. “He’s very good at maximizing
the Trump benefit without bringing along the liabilities”
(Hounshell
and <span style="color: #333333;">Askarinam
1-4).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Susie
Wiles, a Republican consultant who helped guide the last month of
DeSantis’s 2018 campaign for governor, described the candidate as a
“workhorse.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
like watching an actor who can film the whole scene in one take,”
Wiles </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">told
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Miami Herald. “He can gobble up a whole issue in one briefing, and
when I saw that on my second day, I thought, ‘This is a whole
different kind of thing.’” Wiles added, “If he doesn’t have a
photographic memory, it’s close” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Edsall
2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republican
politics have become oppositional politics: Deny the science, demean
the media, own the libs. Conservatives are less defined by what they
are for than by what they are against.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">at
the peak of their intransigence and callousness, his </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[Trump’s]
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">party
catastrophically mishandled the pandemic. They refused to follow the
science or act with caution. And, because of their reflexive
opposition to the facts, untold numbers of people who didn’t have
to die did.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Perhaps
no politician has taken the reins from Trump with more vigor — and
disastrous effects — than Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a man who
thinks he could be the next Republican president. But to supplant the
last leader of his party, he has to out-Trump Trump.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">To
accomplish this meteoric rise, he needed to do two things. First,
become the darling of the Trump freedom fighters, fighting for the
right to get sick and die. And second, he has to be the opposite of
the establishment, in this case Joe Biden and his administration. If
Biden swerves left, DeSantis must swerve right, even if the hospitals
in his state are overrun and the funeral parlors reach capacity.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
The Times reported on Wednesday [August 2021]: “More people in
Florida are catching the coronavirus, being hospitalized and dying of
Covid-19 now than at any previous point in the pandemic.” The Times
continued, “This week, 227 virus deaths were being reported each
day in Florida, on average, as of Tuesday, a record for the state and
by far the most in the United States right now.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
citizens of Florida do not even support DeSantis’s politically
calculated pandemic positions. A </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Quinnipiac
University poll </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">released
last week </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[August
2021] </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">found
that “six in 10 Floridians support requiring masks in schools,”
and “61 percent say recent rise in Covid-19 cases in Florida was
preventable.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
there are two things more important to DeSantis than those numbers.
First, a different Quinnipiac poll </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">found
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
regardless of how few Floridians approve of his performance, his
approval rating is still higher than Biden’s in the state.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Second,
DeSantis is playing to an electorate beyond the panhandle. As long as
he is still mentioned in the same breath as Biden, even if the
coverage is negative, he is playing well among Republicans. As long
as he is fighting Washington and Democrats and experts, it doesn’t
matter to entrenched Republicans that he’s not fighting the plague.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Some
bodies must be sacrificed to appease the gods of partisan resistance.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To
keep the spotlight, DeSantis is employing many of the same tricks as
Trump: fighting with the media about coverage, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">deflecting
blame </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onto
Biden and convincing his followers that folding to facts is the same
as forfeiting freedoms.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">As
DeSantis said </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
early August [2021]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
“We can either have a free society, or we can have a biomedical
security state.” He continued, “And I can tell you: Florida,
we’re a free state. People are going to be free to choose to make
their own decisions.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Yes,
Florida, DeSantis is allowing you to choose death so that he can have
a greater political life (Blow 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">he
has championed a smorgasbord of policies — some of dubious
constitutionality — seemingly designed to make progressives’
heads explode. In recent months, he has signed legislation curtailing
voting access, cracking down on protesters and punishing social media
firms for deplatforming political candidates. … He pushed to ban
the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. He issued an
executive order, and later signed legislation, barring businesses and
government agencies from requiring vaccine passports.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Recent
polls show Mr. DeSantis with </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">solid
job approval numbers </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">heading
into his 2022 re-election race — a position strengthened by his
ability to rake in piles of campaign cash from his </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nationwide
network of donors</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
He is a familiar face on Fox News and Fox Business.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
pro-Democratic group </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Remove
Ron </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">has
produced </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">an
ad </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">with
this theme, taunting the former president for being overtaken by a
“rookie congressman” who was a “nobody” until Mr. Trump “made
him governor of America’s third largest state.” The ad mocks,
“Ron must think you’re past your prime or that you’re a loser,
Donald,” before warning that if Mr. DeSantis wins re-election in
2022, neither he nor Florida will have any more use for Mr. Trump.
“The clock is ticking, Donald. What are you going to do about it”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Cottle
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Blow,
Charles M. “</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis, How Many Covid Deaths Are Enough?” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
29, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/opinion/ron-desantis-covid-death.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/opinion/ron-desantis-covid-death.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ottle,
Michelle. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Can
One Florida Man Wrest Control of the G.O.P. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">f</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rom
Another?” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">July
2, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/opinion/donald-trump-ron-desantis-republican-party.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/02/opinion/donald-trump-ron-desantis-republican-party.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Dixon,
Matt. “</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ells
Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
'</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ight
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">n,'
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">akes
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">im
at </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">cience
and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eef
with John Roberts.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">December
3, 2020. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/12/03/desantis-tells-trump-to-fight-on-takes-aim-at-science-and-has-beef-with-john-roberts-1341031"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/12/03/desantis-tells-trump-to-fight-on-takes-aim-at-science-and-has-beef-with-john-roberts-1341031</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><a name="link-2791efe9"></a>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Edsall,
Thomas B. </span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘”</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
Want People That Are Going </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">New
York Times, </span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">March
16, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/opinion/ron-desantis-is-gambling-on-out-trumping-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/opinion/ron-desantis-is-gambling-on-out-trumping-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Hounshell,
Blake </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Askarinam</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Leah.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
“DeSantis and the Media: (Not) a Love Story.” </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">New
York Times, </span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">January
31. 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/desantis-media.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/us/politics/desantis-media.html</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Lerer,
Lisa. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
Is Ascendant and Cuomo Is Faltering.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
April 10, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us/politics/desantis-cuomo-political-future.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/06/us/politics/desantis-cuomo-political-future.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">air,
Liz. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis Was a Slam Dunk. Until He Wasn’t.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">September
24, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/ron-desantis-florida.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/opinion/ron-desantis-florida.html</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mazzei,
Patricia. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Could
Ron DeSantis Be Trump’s G.O.P. Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">updated
August 15, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ron-desantis-republican-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ron-desantis-republican-trump.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mazzei,
Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come
to Fore.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times. </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November
1, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-trump-gillum.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-trump-gillum.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-51926610992261995382022-05-19T14:03:00.001-07:002022-05-19T14:03:06.983-07:00The Amoralists: Ron Desantis, Part One; Not Yet Governor<p> </p><p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">DeSantis
was born on September 14, 1978, in </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jacksonville,
Florida</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
the son of Karen (</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">nee
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Rogers)
and Ronald Daniel DeSantis. He is of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Italian
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">descent,
as his great-great-grandmother and great-great-grandfather were from
Italy. His great-great-grandfather Salvatore Storti immigrated to the
United States in 1904, eventually settling in Pennsylvania. His
great-great-grandmother Luigia Colucci moved to the U.S. to be with
her husband in 1917. DeSantis's mother was a nurse and his father
installed </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nielsen
TV </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rating
boxes. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">His</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
family moved to </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Orlando,
Florida</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
before relocating to </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dunedin,
Florida</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
when he was six years old. … </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
was a member of the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Little
League </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">team
from Dunedin National that made it to the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1991
Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
attended Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School and Dunedin High School,
graduating in 1997. He then attended Yale University</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
DeSantis was captain of Yale's varsity baseball team</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
joined the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Delta
Kappa Epsilon </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">fraternity
… </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Ron
2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
Dunedin High School, classmates knew him as a super jock and a
brilliant student.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
Yale, the baseball coach barely hesitated naming the former team
captain when an interviewer in 2002 asked if he ever managed someone
of presidential material.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Yale
baseball coach John Stuper says he stood out on the field (a
four-year starting outfielder and .313 hitter, compared to .230 for
another former Yale team captain, George H.W. Bush), and off. Among
the many privileged Yalies, DeSantis worked as an electrician's
assistant, baseball camp coach, and other odd jobs to cover expenses.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"You
look at his transcript his last two years, there wasn't a B on it.
How he could work 20 hours a week at baseball, probably that many
hours a week at various jobs and still kill it in the classroom like
he did is pretty amazing," said Stuper (Smith and Leary 4).</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">You
don’t need three years for law school,” [Governor] DeSantis, a
Harvard Law product, said in Naples Friday …</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #181818;">“</span><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">Some
of these degrees you see. You know, I went to law school; you don’t
need three years for law school,” DeSantis divulged. “I mean,
seriously, you don’t. You could do it probably in one. Definitely
in two. You don’t need three.”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="justify" style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It’s
a waste,” DeSantis continued. “And there’s other degrees where
they make you do more years than you need to. We don’t want them
toiling for no reason. Get the skills and go out there and put them
to use” </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Gancarski
1).</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
Harvard [Law School], DeSantis began to earn notice in conservative
circles through involvement with the Federalist Society, an
influential network of lawyers.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I
certainly became introduced to him through that, and I suspect a lot
of other people did, too," said Leonard Leo, executive vice
president of the group in Washington.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Leo
said DeSantis has a rare ability — he likened him to ardent
conservative Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and
Mike Lee of Utah — to boil down complex, esoteric conservative
principles and capture broad public attention.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
cum laude Harvard Law degree is a ticket to virtually any job.
DeSantis chose military service, joining the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate
General's Corps while at Harvard.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"You
gravitate toward a handful of people and a handful of people end up
taking leadership roles. Ron was one of those," said Nevada
Attorney General Adam Laxalt, DeSantis' roommate at Naval Justice
School in Rhode Island and a Republican candidate for governor there.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
worked at Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, where he met his
wife, local television host Casey Black. (They have a daughter and
another child on the way.) He served at the terrorist detention
center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and in 2007, he volunteered for and
won a coveted and highly competitive assignment with SEAL Team One,
deploying to Iraq.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Helping
advise the SEALS on rules of engagement, such as when to shoot and
whether to go into certain areas, DeSantis deployed to Fallujah as
part of the troop surge. He earned a Bronze Star (meritorious
service), usually reserved for senior officers.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Outside
of his Federalist Society activities, friends say DeSantis'
conservatism and interest in politics rarely surfaced in high school,
college or his military career. He has said it rose from a lifelong
passion for history and studying the Founding Fathers.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
tea party movement was exploding as DeSantis left active duty, and he
turned his attention to a political career (Smith and Leary 5).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After
exploring a run for state House, DeSantis in early 2012 pivoted to an
open congressional seat in the Jacksonville area, joining a crowded
Republican primary with better-known candidates.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
DeSantis had powerful factors in his favor: the military record, Ivy
League connections and conservative bona fides from a book he wrote
in 2011, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Dreams
From Our Founding Fathers</span></span></span></span><em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-style: normal;">:
First Principles in the Age of Obama</span></span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
The book excoriates the president </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[Obama]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
a European-style leftist abandoning the principles of the founding
fathers.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
hawked the self-published book at tea party gatherings, while
contacts from Yale and Harvard provided early fundraising.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"He
came to my attention because he's a Yalie," said Joseph Fogg, a
1968 graduate who led financial firms and now lives in Naples. Fogg
hosted early fundraisers for DeSantis, impressed by his strong views
about Obama. "Those of us on the conservative side of the ledger
were looking for some bright young people that would be taking the
country in a different direction."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Another
Yale connection, former DeSantis roommate Nick Sinatra, provided
inroads to Trump. Sinatra worked on Carl Paladino's 2010
gubernatorial campaign in New York alongside Roger Stone, who
composed a tweet that Trump fired off on March 20, 2012: "Ron
DeSantis, Iraq vet, Navy hero, bronze star, Yale, Harvard Law,
running for Congress in Fla. Very impressive."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
was Fox News — advertising, not appearances — that brought
DeSantis from obscurity in his first campaign. His team gambled on
heavy advertising while DeSantis began to walk neighborhoods and
introduce himself to voters.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
began to pay off in polls, and that summer DeSantis was taken to
Washington for a round of meetings with conservative groups,
including FreedomWorks, Heritage Foundation, the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce and the Club for Growth.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Crucial
to that endeavor was Daniel Faraci, a Washington lobbyist and
campaign consultant who helped prep DeSantis and pitched the
candidate as rock solid ideologically.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">During
a sit-down with the Club for Growth, DeSantis impressed with a
command of the Bill of Rights and the issues. The book helped, too.
"Right off the bat he was scoring positive points with us,"
said Andy Roth, a club vice president. "It was a no-brainer that
we endorsed him and then, as they say, the rest is history."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
first FedEx full of checks provided resources to buy more ads,
including attacks on primary rivals, who complained they were
misleading or false. The club's wealthy members kicked in more than
$100,000 and have since contributed $500,000 to DeSantis' campaigns.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
won the GOP primary by 16 percentage points and easily dispatched a
Democrat in the general election (Smith and Leary 4,6-7).</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
most memorable part of Mr. DeSantis’s six years in Congress might
be the platform they gave him to heighten his profile on Fox News,
where he frequently represented the hard-line Freedom Caucus. Later,
he would staunchly defend Mr. Trump over the Russia investigation.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
was a policy wonk with an ability to really identify a few areas
within his committees, responsibilities which he knew would give him
the political opportunity to get on television,” said Scott
Parkinson, who was Mr. DeSantis’s chief of staff in 2018. Mr.
DeSantis was appearing on cable TV multiple times a day, Mr.
Parkinson recalled.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DeSantis often slept in his office and walked the Capitol halls
wearing headphones, avoiding unwanted interactions. He made few
friends and struck other lawmakers as aloof.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
brief Senate run in 2016 proved critical: It exposed him to a
national network of wealthy donors he would later tap in his
long-shot bid for governor (Mazzei 4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Much
of Mr. DeSantis’s attention in Congress was on terrorism. From his
perch as chairman of a national security subcommittee, he delivered
attention-grabbing statements that stoked fear of Muslims. Following
the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, for example, he speculated
that there were “thousands” of potential terrorists on federal
watch lists in Florida.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He’s
willing to tolerate and even utilize prejudice to advance his
agenda,” said Hassan Shibly, executive director of the Florida
Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil-liberties
organization (Mazzie
and Saul 5).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
January 29, 2014, DeSantis introduced into the House the </span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;">Faithful
Execution of the Law Act of 2014 (H.R. 3973; 113th Congress)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
a bill that would direct the United States Department of Justice to
report to the United States Congress whenever any </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">federal
agency </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">refrains
from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. In the report, the
government would have to explain why it had decided not to enforce
that law. DeSantis spoke in favor of the bill, arguing that
"President Obama has not only failed to uphold several of our
nation's laws, he has vowed to continue to do so in order to enact
his unpopular agenda... The American people deserve to know exactly
which laws the Obama administration is refusing to enforce and why."</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
2013, DeSantis signed a pledge sponsored by </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Americans
for Prosperity </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">promising
to vote against any global warming legislation that would raise
taxes.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
August 24, 2017, DeSantis added a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rider
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
the proposed fiscal 2018 spending bill package that would end funding
for the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">2017
Special Counsel investigation </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"or
for the investigation under that order of matters occurring before
June 2015" (the month Trump announced he was running for
president) 180 days after passage of the bill. The amendment would
counter a bipartisan bill authored by two Democratic and two
Republican U.S. Senators that was meant to limit the president's
power to fire the special counsel. The DeSantis amendment would
potentially cut off funding for the investigation by November 2017.
It was also a response to Deputy Attorney General </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Rod
Rosenstein</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">'s
statement that the DOJ, "...doesn't conduct fishing
expeditions." Rep. DeSantis said that the May 17, 2017 DOJ order
"didn't identify a crime to be investigated and practically
invites a fishing expedition."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
opposed the </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Iran
nuclear deal framework</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
calling it "a bad deal that will significantly degrade our
national security." DeSantis said "the Iran deal gives
Ayatollah Khamenei exactly what he wants: billions of dollars in
sanctions relief, validation of the Iranian nuclear program, and the
ability to stymie inspections."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">During
a line of questioning, DeSantis told Secretary of State </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">John
Kerry </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
the executive branch had a legal obligation to provide Congress with
the details behind any side deals made between world leaders and
Iran. DeSantis accused President Barack Obama of giving better
treatment of Cuba's </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Raul
Castro </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
Iran's Ayatollah </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ali
Khamenei </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">than
of Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">In
2015, DeSantis introduced the Guantanamo Bay Recidivism Prevention
Act, which would cut off foreign aid to countries that receive
detainees if they show back up on the terrorism recidivism list.
DeSantis opposed President Obama's plan to shut down the </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Guantanamo
Bay detention camp</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
saying "Bringing hardened terrorists to the U.S. homeland harms
our national security."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.25in; margin-top: 0.25in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Regarding
the formal restart of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba,
DeSantis said "Raising the Cuban flag in the United States is a
slap in the face to those who have experienced the brutality of the
Castro regime."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.25in; margin-top: 0.25in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
2013, DeSantis introduced the Palestinian Accountability Act, which
would halt U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority until it formally
recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and cuts off
all ties with the terror group Hamas.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
2016, DeSantis co-introduced the Non-Discrimination of Israel in
Labeling Act, which will defend the right of Israeli producers to
label products manufactured in the West Bank as “Israel,” “Made
in Israel,” or “Product of Israel.” DeSantis believes that the
U.S. Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">DeSantis
is opposed to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He has
called for the "full and complete repeal" of the act. </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
was a critic of President Obama's immigration policies; he opposed
Obama's deferred action programs (</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;">Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> and Deferred Action for
Parents of Americans (DAPA)) and accused him of failing to enforce
immigration laws. DeSantis opposes "sanctuary cities."</span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He is a co-sponsor of the Establishing Mandatory
Minimums for Illegal Reentry Act of 2015, also known as Kate's Law,
which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to increase
penalties applicable to aliens who unlawfully reenter the United
States after being removed.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.25in; margin-top: 0.25in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis
opted not to receive his <span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;">congressional
pension</span>, and he filed a measure that would eliminate pensions
for members of Congress.<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">
</span></span>After introducing the End Pensions in Congress Act,
DeSantis said "The Founding Fathers envisioned elected officials
as part of a servant class, yet Washington has evolved into a ruling
class culture." DeSantis supports a constitutional amendment to
impose term limits for members of Congress, so that Representatives
would be limited to three terms and senators to two terms.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
sponsored the </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Faithful
Execution of the Law Act of 2014</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
which would direct the United States Department of Justice to report
to the United States Congress whenever any federal agency refrains
from enforcing laws or regulations for any reason. Speaking about the
bill, DeSantis said "You can not have rule of law when people
don’t know what the law is." The bill passed the U.S. House in
March 2014.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.25in; margin-top: 0.25in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis
introduced a proposed 28th Amendment to the Constitution that would
provide that "Congress shall make no law respecting the citizens
of the United States that does not also apply to the Senators and
Representatives."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.25in; margin-top: 0.25in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DeSantis
has said that the debate in Washington, D.C. over how to reduce the
deficit should shift emphasis from tax increases to curtailing
spending and triggering economic growth. DeSantis supports a “no
budget no pay” policy for Congress to encourage the passage of a
budget. He believes the Federal Reserve System should be audited.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">opposes
abortion </span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
has denounced Planned Parenthood.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">DeSantis
was endorsed by the socially conservative </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Family
Research Council Action PAC </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
2015. DeSantis agreed with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Burwell
v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.</span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
saying "This case does not concern the availability or legality
of contraceptives, and individuals can obtain and use these as they
see fit. The question is simply whether the government can force the
owners of Hobby Lobby to pay for abortifacients in violation of their
faith."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
opposes gun control</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
He received an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
opposes federal education programs such as </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">No
Child Left Behind Act </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">and
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Race
to the Top</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
saying that education policy should be made at the local level.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">DeSantis
proposed an amendment that would halt funding for Mueller’s </span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: #3a3a3a; display: inline-block; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">2017
Special Counsel investigation </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">probe
six months after the amendment’s passage. In addition, this
provision also would prohibit Mueller from investigating matters that
occurred before June 2015, when Trump launched his presidential
campaign</span></span></span><span style="border: none; color: #3a3a3a; display: inline-block; font-family: rubik, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Ron
5-7).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">U.S.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) today
proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to impose term limits
on members of Congress. The amendment would limit U.S. senators to
two six-year terms and members of the U.S. House of Representatives
to three two-year terms.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D.C.
is broken,” said Sen. Cruz. “The American people resoundingly
agreed on Election Day, and President-elect Donald Trump has
committed to putting government back to work for the American people.
It is well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that
has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
continued: “The time is now for Congress, with the overwhelming
support of the American people, to submit this constitutional
amendment to the states for speedy ratification. With control of a
decisive majority of the states, the House of Representatives, and
the Senate, we have a responsibility to answer the voters’
call-to-action. We must deliver.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Term
limits are the first step towards reforming Capitol Hill,” said
Rep. DeSantis. “Eliminating the political elite and infusing
Washington with new blood will restore the citizen legislature that
our Founding Fathers envisioned. The American people have called for
increased accountability and we must deliver. Senator Cruz has been
instrumental in efforts to hold Congress accountable, and I look
forward to working with him to implement term limits.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
December, Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis published an op-ed in the
Washington Post announcing their intention to introduce a term limits
amendment in the 115th Congress </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Ted
Cruz 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Gancarski,
A. G. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ays
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hree
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Y</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ears
of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">La</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">w
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">chool
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">s
a ‘waste’</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.”
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Florida
Politics,</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
October 15, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/465049-ron-desantis-says-three-years-of-law-school-is-a-waste/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://floridapolitics.com/archives/465049-ron-desantis-says-three-years-of-law-school-is-a-waste/</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mazzei,
Patricia and Saul, Stephanie. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis, a Trump Ally, Struggles in Florida as Racial Flare-Ups Come
to Fore.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times. </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November
1, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-trump-gillum.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/us/politics/ron-desantis-florida-trump-gillum.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mazzei,
Patricia. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">G.O.P.
Heir? He’s Certainly Trying.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">updated
August 15, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ron-desantis-republican-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/us/politics/ron-desantis-republican-trump.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia.
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeSantis"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_DeSantis</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Military
Wikipedia. </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
<a href="https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Ron_DeSantis">https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Ron_DeSantis</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Smith,
Adam C. and Leary, Alex. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ron
DeSantis: Capitol Hill </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oner,
Fox News </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ixture,
Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">avorite
in Florida </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">G</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">overnor’s
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ace.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Tampa
Bay Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
February 10, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/09/ron-desantis-capitol-hill-loner-fox-news-fixture-trump-favorite-in-florida-governors-race/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2018/02/09/ron-desantis-capitol-hill-loner-fox-news-fixture-trump-favorite-in-florida-governors-race/</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz. “Sen. Cruz and Rep. DeSantis Introduce Constitutional
Amendment To Impose Term Limits on Members of Congress</span></span></span><span style="text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.8pt;">.”
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>cruz.senate.gov,
</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
3, 2017. Net. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-and-rep-desantis-introduce-constitutional-amendment-to-impose-term-limits-on-members-of-congress"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-and-rep-desantis-introduce-constitutional-amendment-to-impose-term-limits-on-members-of-congress</span></span></a></p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-64006805606962953982022-05-15T13:43:00.003-07:002022-05-15T13:43:23.137-07:00The Amoralists: Jim Jordan, Part Five; "It's Intentional"<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">President
Joe Biden has already ordered significant changes to US immigration
policy. But he has not issued an order that Republican Ohio Rep. Jim
Jordan claims he did.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jordan
said on </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Facebook
and Twitter </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
Saturday </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[January
202</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">1</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">]
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
Biden issued a new order to release "all" undocumented
immigrants. Similarly, Jordan said in a Monday interview with Fox
News host Maria Bartiromo that Biden "has decided he's going to
release 14,000 illegals." Fourteen thousand is the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">approximat</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">e</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
number of </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">people
in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention around the country.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jordan's
source for these </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">assertions
was a viral article on conservative website Breitbart News – which
has been shared tens of thousands of times</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
Facebook alone -- about an email sent on Thursday morning by an ICE
official in Houston.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">email
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">included
the words "release them all, immediately." But Breitbart
and then Jordan took the words way out of context.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Facts
First</b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">:
</span></span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Neither
Biden nor his administration has ordered the release of everybody in
ICE detention; ICE confirmed to CNN that the viral claim is
inaccurate. The Department of Justice said in a Monday court </span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">filing</span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
certain immigrants recently released by ICE in Texas were people
particularly vulnerable to harm from Covid-19, who have special
pandemic-era protections under a court order from last year. The
"release them all, immediately" directive in Houston --
which was rescinded in another internal email the next day -- was
about these high-risk detainees in particular, an ICE official </span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">said
</span></span></span></span></em><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
yet another internal email.</span></span></span></span></em></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
don't have the full story about what happened with these Texas
releases or with the email exchange. But it's already clear that
there is no basis for the claim that Biden has mandated a mass
release of every single person in ICE facilities across the US.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: CNN, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">CE
said in a statement that it "continues to make custody
determinations on a case by case basis." An ICE official who
spoke to CNN on condition of anonymity confirmed explicitly that
there is no Biden order to release everyone.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
spokesman for Jordan did not immediately respond to a request for
comment.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Thursday email that sparked the controversy was written by an
"assistant officer in charge" of enforcement and removal
operations in ICE's Houston field office, whose name was redacted in
the Justice Department court filing. The email said that they needed
to stop removing immigrants from the country by midnight -- Biden's
administration had ordered a 100-day deportation freeze to take
effect no later than Friday -- and then continued: "Check the
HRD at 1300hrs for new review decisions. Release them all,
immediately."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Contrary
to the Breitbart article, that did not mean that all undocumented
immigrants around the country, or even at any Houston facility, were
to be released immediately. Rather, according to another internal
email released by the Justice Department in court, "HRD means
High risk detainees" -- specifically, detainees at high risk for
Covid-19.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
Friday email, written by an ICE assistant director whose name was
also redacted, explained that the high-risk detainees "are
Fraihat cases." Faour Abdallah Fraihat is the lead plaintiff in
the lawsuit that led a judge to order ICE last year to identify,
monitor, and consider the release of detainees at elevated risk of
severe harm from the coronavirus.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
Friday email said that ICE had been keeping some high-risk people in
detention because "their removal was imminent." After
Biden's freeze prevented these imminent deportations, however, ICE
had to decide whether to keep the people in detention or let them go
within the US. (Releasing people from detention does not mean they
will never be deported.) (Dale 102).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">House
Republicans are planning to use an oversight hearing next week to
attack the Biden administration on its immigration policies,
according to a memo obtained by The New York Times that offers a road
map for how the G.O.P. intends to further weaponize an issue that is
already a main thrust of their midterm campaign message against
Democrats.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
detailed, 60-page guidance memo includes misleading and provocative
talking points that seek to portray migrants and refugees as
perpetrators of gruesome crimes, especially those involving sexual
assault, echoing the language that former President Donald J. Trump
used to denigrate immigrants. It also argues that the Biden
administration has been lax on illegal immigration, seeking to put
Democrats on the defensive on the issue.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
comes as Democrats are growing increasingly concerned that President
Biden’s immigration policies, including the recent decision to lift
pandemic-era border restrictions next month, could pose a political
liability for them ahead of the midterm elections.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
memo — which is marked “CONFIDENTIAL — FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY”
— repeatedly insinuates that immigrants could be sex offenders,
highlighting a handful of arrests at the southwestern border and of
Afghan evacuees. It also misrepresents a Biden administration policy
designed to humanely enforce immigration laws as one that would bar
law enforcement from surveilling sex offenders near schoolyards.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Studies
show that the estimated 40 million immigrants living in the United
States commit crimes at rates far lower than native-born Americans.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Alejandro
N. Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, is set to testify
Thursday [April 28, 2022] for the first time in front of the House
Judiciary Committee, just as the administration is bracing itself for
a surge of migrants expected to make asylum claims at the border in
late May. That is when a public health rule limiting border crossings
because of the pandemic, known as Title 42, is scheduled to be
lifted, unleashing a two-year backlog of claims on top of the high
volume of migrants who typically come to the southwestern border in
the spring.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
memo for Republicans, prepared by Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio,
the ranking member on the committee, details how the right plans to
use the hearing to portray Democrats as pushing “far-left policies”
that seek to abolish all immigration enforcement and even “encourage”
illegal immigration.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">While
Mr. Jordan’s memo was circulated confidentially among Republicans,
he posted on Twitter that he planned to grill Mr. Mayorkas on Title
42 and other immigration issues (Karni and Broadwater 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
the past two years, the federal government has turned away migrants
at the U.S.-Mexico border, including those who are seeking asylum,
using a public emergency health order known as Title 42. It was
launched by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic and
continued under the Biden administration.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently announced
that it plans to end Title 42 on May 23 because COVID-19 cases have
decreased and vaccines are widely available. But that date is now in
question because of Republican-led lawsuits aimed at keeping the
policy in place.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
started as an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 across the border
has turned into a fierce debate over whether Title 42 should be
continued as an immigration tool to block migrants from claiming
asylum.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">According
to The New York Times, Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to former
President Donald Trump, had pushed the idea to invoke Title 42 at the
U.S.-Mexico border as early as 2018, long before COVID-19 emerged. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">[If
Title 42 is rescinded] rather than sending migrants directly to
Mexico, immigration officials will process migrants arriving and
determine if they have a credible asylum case or whether they qualify
for any other immigration benefits that allow them to enter the
country. If not, immigration agents will hold the migrants and deport
them to their home countries.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Some
asylum-seekers will be placed in the Migrant Protection Protocols,
another Trump-era policy that forces migrants to wait in Mexico as
their immigration cases make their way through U.S. courts. The Biden
administration has sought to scrap the program, known as “remain in
Mexico,” only to have a federal judge order it to be reinstated
following a lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments on whether the White
House has the right to end it and is expected to issue a ruling this
year (Garcia 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
… program, known commonly as Remain in Mexico and formally as the
Migrant Protection Protocols, applies to people who left a third
country and traveled through Mexico to reach the U.S. border. After
the policy was put in place at the beginning of 2019, tens of
thousands of people waited in unsanitary tent encampments for
immigration hearings. There have been widespread reports of sexual
assault, kidnapping and torture.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Soon
after he took office, President Biden sought to end the program.
Texas and Missouri sued, and lower courts have reinstated it, ruling
that federal immigration laws require returning immigrants who arrive
by land and who cannot be [returned] be detained while their cases
are heard (Liptak 1).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Many
of the attack lines previewed in the memo are not new. Rather, they
appear to be pulled from the same political playbook that Republicans
have used in recent election cycles. In 2018, Mr. Trump embraced a
dark, anti-immigrant message to energize conservative voters ahead of
the midterm elections, raising concerns about caravans of migrants he
claimed were dangerous making their trek to the southern border. The
method yielded mixed results: Democrats retook control of the House
that year, while Republicans gained seats in the Senate.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
Republicans have continued to hammer on an issue that not only
instills fear but has the added appeal for them of causing a split
within the Democratic Party. According to Mr. Jordan’s memo, he
plans to accuse the administration of prioritizing “illegal aliens
over American citizens” by ending Title 42.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">More
than 100 </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">mostly
progressive Democrats have demanded that Mr. Biden lift the border
restrictions</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">,
which they say his administration has used to abuse Black migrants,
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">while
centrist Democrats, including nearly a dozen in the Senate, have
called for the restriction to stay in place</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; text-indent: 0.01in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">White
House officials have noted that ending the restriction simply means
reverting to a standard immigration processing system that has been
in place across multiple administrations. They have also pointed out
that the result will be that more people are deported.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Still,
the decision to end the pandemic-era border restrictions has sown
worry among many Democratic lawmakers running for re-election in
competitive districts. They have warned the administration that a
surge in border crossings could feed voter anxiety in their districts
about crime and chaos at the border.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Progressive
Democrats counter that any effort to further extend the restrictions
could depress turnout among Latino voters. In a recent poll conducted
by the Immigration Hub, about 20 percent of Latino respondents said
that immigration was the issue that would decide their vote.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan’s document … suggests that just months after Republicans
joined Democrats in pushing for legislation to help rush to the
United States thousands of Afghans who were facing retribution for
having helped American troops, the G.O.P. is demonizing such refugees
(Karni and Broadwater 2-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Jim Jordan accused on Thursday the Biden administration of
'deliberately' and 'intentionally' causing the southern border crisis
as Republicans tore into Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas for being 'out of touch' and a 'traitor.'</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member said during his opening
statement that Mayorkas will face questions on why he implemented
policies that led to the chaos.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'It's
intentional, it has to be,' Jordan said at the top of his remarks to
the body on Thursday morning.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="mol-9831de30-c70d-11ec-a12f-a3d14c4136be"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'The
chaos on our southern border is not an accident,' the Ohio Republican
congressman continued. 'It's deliberate, it's on purpose, it's by
design.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'President
Biden on Day One said there'll be a moratorium on deportations, he
ended Remain in Mexico, he terminated agreements with Northern
Triangle countries and he stopped building the wall,' Jordan rattled
off. 'Those policies, done intentionally, have led to all kinds of
bad outcomes.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
said: 'Americans want legal immigration. President Biden and
Secretary Mayorkas want illegal immigration. They want illegal
migrants to come, stay and never go home. Now, the secretary won't
say that. In fact, he says everything's just fine. He said it
yesterday in two congressional hearings. He said it last September.
Quote, 'The border is secure,' he told us.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mayorkas
appeared before the House Appropriations DHS Subcommittee and House
Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday to justify the
administration's request for $97.3 billion for the department's
budget in Fiscal Year 2023.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
said the money would go toward investing in meeting the 'the shifting
field landscape' at the border and on other national security fronts
– like from domestic and foreign terrorism and cyber attacks.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During
those hearings, Mayorkas was lambasted by Republicans after he said
the administration is 'effectively managing' the situation at the
southern border.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
March alone, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encountered 221,303
migrants crossing the southern border. This figure is the highest in
more than two-decades and the biggest spike since President Joe Biden
took office in January 2021.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
previous high was in July 2021, when CBP encountered 213,593
migrants.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Colorado
Republican Representative Ken Buck told Mayorkas during the Judiciary
hearing on Wednesday: 'My constituents want you impeached because
they believe you've committed treason.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Two
months after the highest crossings of 2021, Mayorkas insisted that
the border was secure and said that the administration was carrying
out its plan at the southern crossings.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'Mr.
Secretary, if over 200,000 a month and all of the ramifications that
has with drugs coming into the country and other people coming into
the country because our agents are so focused on that – if that's a
secure border, then you are completely, completely out of touch with
the American people,' Jordan charged.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'We
have a secretary of Homeland Security who is intentionally,
deliberately, in a premeditated fashion executing a plan, his words,
executing a plan to overwhelm our country with millions and millions
of illegal migrants,' he added.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'Executing
a plan that causes all kinds of harm to people who make the journey,
executing a plan that results in record levels of fentanyl and other
drugs entering our nation, executing a plan that stresses our border
agents, stresses our education and healthcare system, stresses out
nation.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">'All
done intentionally,' he concluded.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jordan
then played a three-and-a-half-minute video montage that ended with
two slides reading: 'Every town is a border town' and 'The Biden
administration owes you answers.'</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
video featured news reports from local stations, Fox News and
NewsNation that showed migrants dying trying to cross the border,
terrorists making it through the barriers, U.S. border agents dying
in the line of duty and a slew of drugs intercepted from smugglers
(Caralle 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Caralle,
Katlyn. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republicans Tear into 'Out of Touch' DHS Secretary
Mayorkas for 'DELIBERATELY Trying To Overwhelm the US with Millions
of Illegal Migrants', Accuse Him of 'Treason' and Ask: 'Are You
Ashamed of What You Have Done to This Country?'.” </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Daily
Mail.com, </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">April 28, 2022. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10763645/Jim-Jordan-tears-touch-DHS-Secretary-Mayorkas-DELIBERATELY-overwhelming-US.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10763645/Jim-Jordan-tears-touch-DHS-Secretary-Mayorkas-DELIBERATELY-overwhelming-US.html</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">D</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">ale,
Daniel. “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fact check:
Jim Jordan </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">F</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">alsely
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">laims
Biden </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">O</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">rdered
the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">R</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">elease
of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ll
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">U</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ndocumented
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">mmigrants.”
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN, </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">January
28, 2021. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politics/fact-check-biden-order-release-immigrants-ice-jim-jordan-breitbart/index.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/27/politics/fact-check-biden-order-release-immigrants-ice-jim-jordan-breitbart/index.html</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Garcia,
Uriel J. “</span><span style="font-size: small;">Here’s
</span><span style="font-size: small;">W</span><span style="font-size: small;">hat
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Y</span><span style="font-size: small;">ou
</span><span style="font-size: small;">N</span><span style="font-size: small;">eed
</span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">o
</span><span style="font-size: small;">K</span><span style="font-size: small;">now
about Title 42, the </span><span style="font-size: small;">P</span><span style="font-size: small;">andemic-</span><span style="font-size: small;">E</span><span style="font-size: small;">ra
</span><span style="font-size: small;">P</span><span style="font-size: small;">olicy
</span><span style="font-size: small;">T</span><span style="font-size: small;">hat
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Q</span><span style="font-size: small;">uickly
</span><span style="font-size: small;">S</span><span style="font-size: small;">ends
</span><span style="font-size: small;">M</span><span style="font-size: small;">igrants
to Mexico.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">April 29,
2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/29/immigration-title-42-biden/">https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/29/immigration-title-42-biden/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Karni,
Annie and Broadwater, Luke. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">G.O.P.
Memo Shows Road Map for Attacking Democrats on Immigration.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">April
21, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/jim-jordan-republicans-memo-immigration.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/us/jim-jordan-republicans-memo-immigration.html</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Liptak,
Adam. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Supreme
Court Struggles </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ver
Biden’s Bid </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
End ‘Remain in Mexico’ Program.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">April
26, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/us/politics/supreme-court-remain-in-mexico.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-immigration&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/us/politics/supreme-court-remain-in-mexico.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-us-immigration&variant=show&region=MAIN_CONTENT_1&block=storyline_top_links_recirc</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><br /></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-81677208346370329622022-05-12T12:24:00.001-07:002022-05-12T12:24:19.706-07:00The Amoralists: Jim Jordan, Part Four: January 6<p> </p><p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Over
the course of the past year, congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH), the
ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, has engaged in a
systematic effort to cast doubt on the integrity of the 2020 U.S.
presidential election. He also led efforts to create an image in the
minds of Trump supporters of Jan. 6 as the “ultimate date of
significance” (his words, repeated several times). He helped
spearhead the effort to oppose certification of the election in
Congress. He has continued to promote the “Big Lie” even after
the events on Jan. 6 and subsequent FBI and Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) warnings that this conspiracy is propelling domestic
violent extremists.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
follows is a comprehensive Timeline of Rep. Jordan’s public
statements (in Congress, in public, on social media, and in media
interviews) and his known activities related to the presidential
election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
following fifteen highlights are from the Timeline below.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Congressman
Jordan took the following actions:</span></p>
<ol>
<li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Suggested
Democrats will try to steal the election (starting Aug. 22, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Suggested
and directly alleged the election was stolen (starting Nov. 5, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Endorsed
Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell’s call to investigate Dominion and Smartmatic (starting Nov. 15, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p></li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ca</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">lled
for immediate congressional investigations of alleged election fraud
(starting Nov. 18, 2020)</span></p></li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Endorsed
state legislators’ picking their own electors (starting Dec. 7,
2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Said
Trump should not concede (starting Dec. 7, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Started
public call to object to certification on Jan. 6 (starting Dec. 13,
2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Supported
call for “special counsel” to investigate alleged election fraud
(starting Dec. 10, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Called
Jan. 6 the “ultimate date of significance” (Dec. 16, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Met
with President Trump and small group of House Republicans to
coordinate plans to object to certification on January 6 (Dec.
21, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Raised
Trump supporters’ expectations by saying he hoped a majority of
Congress will object on January 6 (Jan. 5, 2021)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Helped
lead the effort to vote against certification on January 6 (starting
Dec. 13, 2020)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Called
for Trump supporters to remain peaceful, but does not say to
disperse (Jan. 6, 2021 3:02 PM)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Made
false claims about Speaker Pelosi and security preparations for
January 6 (starting Feb. 15, 2021)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li><li><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Revealed
for the first time that he spoke with President Trump on Jan. 6
(July 28, 2021)</span></span></span></span></p>
</li></ol>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">This
course of conduct arguably sets Rep. Jordan apart from every other
Republican member of Congress who supported the Big Lie, voted to
object to the certification of the election, or engaged in other
related activities.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Jordan’s
impact on broadcast and social media is extraordinary. He is a
frequent guest on Fox News, as well as Newsmax and OAN, and advanced
false claims about the election on all three networks. Of the 147
Republican members of Congress who opposed the certification of the
election, Jordan was “the most prolific Fox guest,” according to
an analysis by</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"> Media Matters, a non-profit organization that monitors conservative
misinformation. He fielded close to 10% of all appearances by those
GOP members since January 6. And while Jordan lost nearly 150,000
Twitter followers in a </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">post-January
purge </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">of
accounts associated with the QAnon conspiracy, the most of any
Republican lawmaker, he retains more than 2 million followers. Many
of his tweets have been shared more than 10,000 times and liked over
50,000 times.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">On
or before Jan. 4, President Donald Trump reportedly </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">decided
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">to
award Rep. Jordan the Medal of Freedom. On Jan. 11, Jordan received
his </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Medal
of Freedom </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">at
the White House in a ceremony with no media present </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Hendrix,
Tonckens, Venkatachalam 1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">GOP
Rep. Jim Jordan slammed the “double standards” of Democrats on
Wednesday morning as the House moves to impeach President Trump </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">for
a second time </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">—
noting their own efforts to undermine the 2016 election.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a fiery speech on the House floor, Jordan (R-Ohio), an ardent Trump
confidante, noted that many of the Democrats leading the impeachment
charge objected to Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
president is accused of inciting an insurrection when thousands of
his supporters stormed Congress last Wednesday to interrupt a vote
certifying President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory,
leaving five people dead.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Several
Republican lawmakers </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">objected
to Biden’s victory </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
key swing states and called for a commission to be established to
investigate election fraud, something Jordan is still pushing for.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Americans
are tired of the double standard. They are so tired of it,” he
said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
objected to more states in 2016 than Republicans did last week, but
somehow we’re wrong?” he went on, noting that Democrats had spent
four years investigating Trump but refused to look at an election
that millions of people had doubts about.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McGovern
immediately pushed back on Jordan, claiming that their 2016 protest
vote was intended to “raise concerns about what all of our
intelligence agencies had stated clearly that Russia interfered in
our election.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
the gentleman fails to acknowledge is that we all acknowledged that
Donald Trump was the president the day after the election,”
McGovern said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Hillary
Clinton conceded the day after the election and none of us pushed
conspiracy theories like some of my friends on the other side of the
aisle and has the president that somehow the president won in a
landslide. Give me a break,” he went on (Bowden
1).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
J. Trump on Wednesday became the first American president to be
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">impeached
twice</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
as 10 members of his party joined with Democrats in the House to
charge him with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in
egging on a violent mob that stormed the Capitol last week.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Reconvening
in a building now heavily militarized against threats from pro-Trump
activists and adorned with bunting for the inauguration of
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lawmakers
voted 232 to 197 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
approve a single </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">impeachment</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
It accused Mr. Trump of “inciting violence against the government
of the United States” in his quest to overturn the election
results, and called for him to be removed and disqualified from ever
holding public office again.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the House, Democrats and Republicans who supported his ouster made no
attempt to hide their fury at Mr. Trump, who was said to have enjoyed
watching the attack play out on television as lawmakers pleaded for
help. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">After
four years of nearly unquestioning alliance with him, few Republicans
defended Mr. Trump’s actions outright. Those who did resorted to a
familiar set of false equivalencies, pointing to racial justice
protests last summer that turned violent and accusations that
Democrats had mistreated the president and were trying to stifle the
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">74
million Americans who voted for him</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
always been about getting the president, no matter what,”
Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, shot across the room
at Democrats. “It’s an obsession — an obsession that has now
broadened. It’s not just about impeachment anymore, it’s about
canceling, as I’ve said. Canceling the president and anyone that
disagrees with them” (Fandos
“Trump” 3).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
House voted mostly along party lines on Wednesday to create a select
committee to investigate the </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Jan.
6 riot at the Capitol</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
pushing ahead over near-unanimous </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Republican
opposition </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">with
a broad inquiry controlled by Democrats into the deadliest attack on
Congress in centuries.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
panel, established at the behest of Speaker Nancy </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Pelosi
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">after
Senate Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan independent
commission to scrutinize the assault, will investigate what </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">its
organizing resolution </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">calls
“the facts, circumstances and causes relating to the Jan. 6, 2021,
domestic terrorist attack.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
13-member panel, which has subpoena power, will have eight members
named by the majority party and five with input from </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Republican</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
and is meant to examine President Donald J. Trump’s role in
inspiring the riot. While the measure creating it does not mention
him, it charges the committee with looking at the law enforcement and
government response to the storming of the Capitol and “the
influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American
representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Broadwater
“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">House”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
two House Republicans Speaker </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Nancy
Pelosi </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">barred
from a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Capitol
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">are
both staunch defenders of former President Donald J. Trump who backed
his efforts to invalidate the election and have opposed investigating
the assault on Congress.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ms.
Pelosi said she had decided to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">disqualify
Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks of Indiana </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">because
of widespread Democratic dismay about “statements made and actions
taken by these members.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Her
decision enraged Republican leaders, who announced that they would
boycott the investigation altogether. But Democrats insisted that the
pair’s support for the election lies that fueled the deadly attack
and their subsequent statements downplaying the violence that
occurred that day were disqualifying.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Here
is [some] … of what … Jordan] said.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Americans
instinctively know there was something wrong with this election,”
Mr. Jordan said, arguing for invalidating electoral votes for Mr.
Biden on Jan. 6. “During the campaign, Vice President Biden would
do an event and he’d get 50 people at the event. President Trump at
just one rally gets 50,000 people.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan has repeatedly sought to equate the attack on the Capitol to
unrest around last summer’s racial justice protests, and accused
Democrats of hypocritically trying to punish Mr. Trump for the riot
while refusing to condemn left-wing violence. He signaled that he
would use the Jan. 6 investigation to push that narrative.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
think it’s important to point out that Democrats created this
environment, sort of normalizing rioting, normalizing looting,
normalizing anarchy, in the summer of 2020, and I think that’s an
important piece of information to look into,” Mr. Jordan said this
week.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
also said the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">select
committee </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">was
a politically motivated effort to harm Mr. Trump, calling it
“impeachment Round 3” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Fandos
“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was
refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating
the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of
former President Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance
toward the panel’s questions.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
an effort to dig into the role that members of Congress played in
trying to undermine the 2020 election, the committee informed Mr.
Jordan in December </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2021]
by Letter </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
its investigators wanted to question him about his communications
related to the run-up to the Capitol riot. Those include Mr. Jordan’s
messages with Mr. Trump and his legal team as well as others involved
in planning rallies on Jan. 6 and congressional objections to
certifying Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan — who in November told the Rules Committee that he had
“nothing to hide” regarding the Jan. 6 committee’s
investigation — on Sunday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">denounced
the bipartisan panel’s inquiry </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
among what he called the Democrats’ “partisan witch hunts.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
amounts to an unprecedented and inappropriate demand to examine the
basis for a colleague’s decision on a particular matter pending
before the House of Representatives,” Mr. Jordan wrote in a letter
to Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and
chairman of the committee. “This request is far outside the bounds
of any legitimate inquiry, violates core constitutional principles
and would serve to further erode legislative norms.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan was deeply involved in Mr. Trump’s effort to fight the
election results, including participating in planning meetings in
November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">a
meeting at the White House </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in
December 2020.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
Jan. 5, Mr. Jordan forwarded to Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s chief of
staff, a text message he had received from a lawyer and former
Pentagon inspector general outlining a legal strategy to overturn the
election.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence, as president of the Senate,
should call out all the electoral votes that he believes are
unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all — in accordance with
guidance from founding father Alexander Hamilton and judicial
precedence,” the text read.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan has </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">acknowledged
speaking with Mr. Trump </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">on
Jan. 6, though he has said he cannot remember how many times they
spoke that day or when the calls occurred.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the
committee, has said that Mr. Jordan is a “material witness” to
the events of Jan. 6 (Broadwater “Jim” 2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rep.
Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just had a very telling little meltdown on Fox
News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” ranting against the makeup of the
House Jan. 6 select committee staff. His big concern? The committee
has brought in too many former prosecutors. This is not a criminal
investigation, he says.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Jordan’s
criticism is both irrelevant and ignorant; perhaps, more generously,
he’s playing provocateur.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
committee has </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">staffed
up with 14 or so ex-prosecutors </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">because:
a) the task is vast; b) they have the resources to hire well-trained
lawyers who have handled complex federal cases; and c) typical
congressional staffers just can’t handle such a colossal
undertaking. In other words, Jordan and other Trump World lackeys are
facing their worst possible nightmare in the mother of all
congressional investigations.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Jordan’s
rant comes after </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
infamous, tongue-tied “hummina, hummina” moment </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">when
an Ohio reporter asked him on camera if he had spoken to the
president on Jan. 6 “before, during or after the attack on the
Capitol.” Jordan’s squirming response suggested that he was
afraid the reporter was going to pin him down </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">where
Jordan didn’t want to be pinned</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
also comes after </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
Just Security report </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">from
August detailed just how central a role Jordan played in aiding and
abetting Trump’s misinformation campaign before and after the
election, his lead role in spreading Trump’s “Big Lie,” and his
furtive efforts to stop the certification of </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Joe
Biden </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">as
president.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
recent weeks, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">details
have emerged </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">about
what happened leading up to and on Jan. 6. Many are surprised at how
clear the picture is becoming. I’m sure that hasn’t been lost on
Jordan and other likely culprits in Trump World.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the weeks ahead, as that picture becomes ever clearer, I expect the
decibel level of the squealing to go higher (Kolesnik 1,3).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">Bowden,
Ebony. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jim
Jordan </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lams
Dems’ ‘</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ouble
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">tandards’
at Trump </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">mpeachment
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">V</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ote.”
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New York Post,
</i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January 13, 2021.
Net.
<a href="https://nypost.com/2021/01/13/jim-jordan-slams-dems-double-standards-at-impeachment-vote/">https://nypost.com/2021/01/13/jim-jordan-slams-dems-double-standards-at-impeachment-vote/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">Broadwater,
Luke. “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">House
Opens Jan. 6 Investigation </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ver
Republican Opposition.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
July 27, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/us/house-jan-6-capitol-riot.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/us/house-jan-6-capitol-riot.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">roadwater,
Luke. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jim Jordan
Refuses </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
Cooperate </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">w</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ith
Jan. 6 Panel.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>January
9, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us/politics/jim-jordan-jan-6-panel.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/us/politics/jim-jordan-jan-6-panel.html</a></i></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">F</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">andos,
Nicholas. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump
Impeached for Inciting Insurrection.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">updated
April 22, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/trump-impeached.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/trump-impeached.html</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">Fandos,
Nicholas. “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Why
Jim Banks and Jim Jordan Were Blocked </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">f</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rom
the Capitol Riot Panel.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
July 27, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us/politics/jim-banks-jim-jordan.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/us/politics/jim-banks-jim-jordan.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Hendirx,
Justin; Tonckens, Nicholas; Venkatachalam, Sruthi. “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Timeline:
Rep. Jim Jordan, a Systematic Disinformation Campaign, and January
6.”</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Just
Security.</span></i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
August 29, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/timeline-rep-jim-jordan-a-systematic-disinformation-campaign-and-january-6/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.justsecurity.org/77852/timeline-rep-jim-jordan-a-systematic-disinformation-campaign-and-january-6/</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kolesnik,
Kris. “</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eal
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eason
Jim Jordan </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">s
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">anting
against Jan. 6 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ommittee
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">taff.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Hill, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
15, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/594261-the-real-reason-jim-jordan-is-ranting-against-jan-6-committee-staff/">https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/594261-the-real-reason-jim-jordan-is-ranting-against-jan-6-committee-staff/</a></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><br /></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-42231419196598270162022-05-08T18:51:00.008-07:002022-05-08T18:51:59.640-07:00The Amoralists: Jim Jordan, Part Three: Firebrand Defender<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Jim Jordan, a scrappy former wrestler and firebrand founder of the
conservative House Freedom Caucus, has always relished a fight. So it
was no surprise this week [November 2019] when, as President Trump’s
chief defender in the impeachment inquiry, he interrupted the staid
tone of the first public hearing and let it rip.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
you’re their star witness?” he thundered at William B. Taylor
Jr., the top diplomat in Ukraine, after prodding Mr. Taylor on
Wednesday to say that he had never met the president, and that his
information was secondhand. “You’re their first witness! You’re
the guy?! I’ve seen church prayer chains that are easier to
understand than this.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
Mr. Jordan of Ohio, it was both an attention-grabbing moment and a
chance to redeem himself with Republican leaders after years of being
on the outs. The party is relying on him to frame the narrative
Republicans offer to the public as Mr. Trump faces the gravest threat
yet to his presidency.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
is one in which the president is a victim, witnesses are trafficking
in hearsay at best, and working to undercut the duly elected
president at worst, and Mr. Trump’s campaign to press Ukraine to
investigate his political rivals was a perfectly appropriate exercise
of executive power.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
Friday, Mr. Jordan’s gloves-off style — part pit bull, part
rat-a-tat auctioneer — was put to the test when Marie L.
Yovanovitch, the ousted ambassador to Ukraine, testified in deeply
personal terms about how she felt “threatened” by Mr. Trump after
it emerged that he had told President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine
that she was “bad news” and would “go through some things.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan, apparently working to avoid appearing to bully her, treaded
relatively lightly in addressing Ms. Yovanovitch. He reserved his
tart tongue for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
Representative Adam B. Schiff, who tried to force the Ohio
congressman to wrap up his questioning as he blew through the
five-minute limit.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">My
indulgence is wearing out,” Mr. Schiff said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Our
indulgence wore out with you a long time ago, Mr. Chairman,” Mr.
Jordan shot back. A rumble emerged from the audience, which uttered a
collective “Oooooh.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan was installed on the intelligence panel at the last minute by
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, so that he
could take a prominent role in the public questioning. He and other
Republicans on the panel spent part of Thursday in “murder boards”
— mock hearings — to prepare.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
just like adding a pinch-hitter or a relief pitcher,” Mr. McCarthy
said in an interview.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">With
polls showing the public deeply split on whether Mr. Trump deserves
to be impeached, and views hardening along party lines, Mr. Jordan is
unlikely to change any minds. But for now, his presence on the panel
is assuaging the Republican base, which is looking for someone tough
to go up against Mr. Schiff, Democrat of California, a strait-laced
former federal prosecutor.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
think it is helpful in a setting dominated by Schiff to have somebody
who’s willing to be the equivalent of a middle linebacker in
football,” said Newt Gingrich, who was speaker during the
impeachment of President Bill Clinton. “He’s willing to plunge in
and make the tough case, and do it in very understandable language.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Reading
Mr. Taylor’s own testimony back to him</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
Mr. Jordan reminded the witness that he had said it was his “clear
understanding” that Ukraine would not receive nearly $400 million
in military aid from the United States until Mr. Zelensky announced
the investigations. That is the essence of Democrats’ case that Mr.
Trump abused his power.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Now
with all due respect ambassador, your clear understanding was
obviously wrong, because it didn’t happen,” Mr. Jordan said
sharply, going on to note that Mr. Zelensky never made such an
announcement and that the aid was ultimately released. (He neglected
to say that Mr. Trump released it under pressure from lawmakers on
Capitol Hill.)</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So
I’m wondering, where’d you get this clear understanding?” Mr.
Jordan said, wrapping up. Mr. Taylor was unbowed: “As I testified,
Mr. Jordan, this came from Mr. Sondland,” he said, referring to
Gordon D. Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union and an ally
of Mr. Trump.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan, in a brief interview, said he was simply trying to get at the
truth — at least as Republicans see it.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Our
job is to get out the facts, the truth, and let the American people
know that the facts are on the president’s side, strongly on the
president’s side, and let the American people see what they already
know, which is that the process is unfair,” he said. “We will
just keep doing that.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Democrats,
both here in Washington and in his home state of Ohio, see Mr. Jordan
as bomb-thrower who is more interested in theatrics and obfuscation
than substance. Julian Epstein, who served as the Democrats’ lead
counsel in the impeachment of Mr. Clinton, called Mr. Jordan a
“carnival barker who peddles dopamine to the base.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jerry
Austin, a Democratic strategist in Ohio, called Mr. Jordan “a
colossal jerk,” adding, “He basically is an actor, playing the
part of this right-wing conservative congressman that whatever Donald
Trump does, he’s defending” (Stolberg 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
their questioning </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of the special counsel Robert Mueller
last July or the transcripts of the closed-door hearings are any
guide, Jordan and his colleagues will engage in grandstanding with
speeches that complain about due process and, taking their cue from
Trump, portray the whole impeachment effort as a partisan sham – an
effort by the deep state, or swamp, to stage “a coup” against the
duly elected president.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">They
have put forward </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">their
own list of witnesses </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">they
would like to call, including former vice-president Joe Biden’s son
Hunter, whose business dealings in Ukraine are the subject of
baseless allegations of corruption, and the unnamed whistleblower who
first brought Trump’s phone call to national attention.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kurt
Bardella,</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
political commentator and former spokesman and senior adviser for the
House oversight committee from 2009-13, said: “Republicans will try
to disrupt the hearings and make motions to subpoena people like
Hunter Biden. They’ll do everything they can to stop the
proceedings even starting, and to promote conspiracy theories that
insulate Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Smith
2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Jim Jordan is one of five Republicans serving on a new House Select
Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis — just a few weeks after he
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">testified
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">against
it being created.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
select committee was not established to cast blame on past failures,
foreign or domestic, or to search for the virus’s origin,” Rep.
Jim Clyburn (D-South Carolina) said in his opening statement. “But
rather to pursue future success.”</span></span></p><p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But Clyburn’s
message was not well-received by the Republicans on the
panel.<br />
<br />
Jordan (R, 4th Congressional District), who was
named to the group by House Republican leadership, has said the
committee shouldn’t exist because Congress already has other forms
of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oversight
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Jordan
is the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee).<br />
<br />
He’s
also claimed this new select committee is politically motivated
because Clyburn, who was named chair by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
is a prominent supporter of former Vice President Joe Biden’s
presidential campaign.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
was inadequate testing that precipitated the national shutdown,”
Dr. Ashish Jha testified [May 2020]. “We must not make the same
mistakes again as we open up our nation.”</span></span></p><p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jha, who is
the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, was singled out
by Jordan minutes later.<br />
<br />
“It’s a committee designed to
go after the president,” Jordan said. "The very first witness,
who just a few minutes ago, said it was inadequate testing that
initiated the shutdown. I thought the shutdown was initiated to bend
the curve to make sure our health care system wasn’t overwhelmed.
But we already got a political statement from the very first
witness.”<br />
<br />
That prompted Jha to then respond.<br />
<br />
“Every
expert on the left, right and center agrees that we had to shut our
economy down because the outbreak got too big,” Jha said. “The
outbreak got too big because we didn’t have a testing
infrastructure that allowed us to put our arms around the outbreak.
And so testing was the fundamental failure that forced our country to
shut down.” </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
say I’m going to focus on the truth,” Jordan said ... “I’m
going to focus on the amazing response we’ve seen from the
administration. I’m going to focus on the fact that this president
shut down travel from China and all these folks on this committee and
Democrats and folks in the media criticized the president for doing
it at the time, and it turned out to be a great decision. I’m going
to focus on the truth that the World Health Organization took our
money and lied to us.”</span></span></p><p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan did not ask the witnesses
any questions during his speaking time.<br />
<br />
In various parts
of their testimony, the witnesses called for increased testing and
contact tracing before the country could safely reopen </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Popielarz
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
modern society already has plenty of vaccine mandates, and they're
widely seen as uncontroversial, what's wrong with defeating a deadly
pandemic with one more?</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">To
resolve the incongruity, opponents of Covid-19 vaccine requirements
have two choices: They can accept the effective policies, or they can
start pushing back against mandates that predate the current crisis.
As The Washington Post </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">noted
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[October
2021]</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
one far-right congressman prefers the latter.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>The
clash over mandates is playing out far beyond Texas.... Rep. Jim
Jordan (R-Ohio), an outspoken conservative, tweeted that "Ohio
should ban all vaccine mandates."</i></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
checked the Ohio Department of Health's website, </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">which
features </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">an
"immunization summary for school attendance." It's not an
especially short list: Before children can attend schools in Ohio,
they must be fully immunized against, among other things, polio,
measles, hepatitis B, chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">This
is not a new policy. It's existed for years and it's proven
effective. But according to Jordan, the state of Ohio should
nevertheless "ban all vaccine mandates" — because whether
these requirements work well in preventing the spread of serious
illnesses is less important than whether these requirements are
ideologically satisfying </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Benen
1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jim
Jordan, who represents Ohio’s highly gerrymandered 4</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">th</span></span></sup></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
District in the US House of Representatives</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
said in an interview on Tuesday that he had Covid "early in the
summer" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2021]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
without giving details.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I’ve
had the virus," he said in response to a question from Spectrum
News about whether he had been vaccinated. "I don’t talk about
my health status with reporters, but I’ve had the coronavirus and
recovered, and actually had that antibody test done, and it showed my
antibodies were strong."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"I
think we’re way past this," he insisted then. "I think
the country is ready to move on and we’re done with this, but you
guys just keep wanting to talk about it. I have not [been
vaccinated], but I have been tested, I don’t know how many umpteen
dozens of times" (Dodds 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><a name="block-61"></a><a name="61:7"></a>
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[Here
are excerpts from a <i>Frontline </i>interview conducted by Michael
Kirk June 16, 2020]</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
happened in Minneapolis is a tragedy. It’s just wrong as wrong
could be. And those killers deserve swift justice, and Mr. Floyd’s
family deserves swift justice for those killers.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
president also understands that peaceful protest is—it’s part of
the American experience; it’s part of our First Amendment
liberties. And we’re all for it. We’ve all engaged in it. But
there is a big difference—and the president was clear about
this—there is a big difference between peaceful protests and
rioting and violence and mayhem and going after police officers, in
some cases killing police officers. Big, big difference.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
the president has, I think, you said in your question or your
comments, that the president understands that the vast majority of
law enforcement people are good folks and they are risking their
lives every day in our communities to protect our communities.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So
those are sort of the fundamental principles. And finally the fourth
one I would throw in is, the president understands, and so do the
American people, that this idea of defunding the police and
dismantling and getting rid of police departments is crazy. It is
completely crazy.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">…</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To
walk across to a church that just the night before rioters were
trying to burn down, to walk across to that church where so many
presidents had actually worshiped in, and to show the American people
the church is still standing, the leader of our country is standing
right here, holding a Bible, holding the Holy Scripture, I thought it
was exactly the right thing and the right message to send. ...</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">…</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><a name="71:0"></a><a name="71:1"></a><a name="71:2"></a>
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">I
think that’s all it is. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">I
think that, you know, there are some who want to make it more than
that. </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">But
I think it’s a positive message sent to the country at an important
time. </span></span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Well,
you want to go back to some of the policies that I think failed under
the Obama administration, you go with Joe Biden. You want someone who
will do what they said and get things done, you vote for President
Trump. I think it’s really that clear. This president is doing what
he said he would do. Joe Biden has switched positions to appease the
far left in his party and everything else, and that to me is the
clear choice. And again, I think people in Ohio and the Midwest, they
see it. They see it just as plain as day. And it’s going to be a
big win for the president </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Kirk
15-18).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Congressman
Jim Jordan, from Ohio’s 4th Congressional District, touted
President Trump as the “pro-America candidate” and lambasted
Democrats for what’s happening in some U.S. cities.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Republican party is the pro-America party. President Trump is the
pro-America candidate,” said Jordan, who represents Ohio’s 4th
Congressional District, which includes Auglaize, Champaign, Logan,
Shelby counties.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
election is about who can preserve the values, principles, and
institutions that Make America Great,” the 56-year-old Congressman
from Troy said Monday night [August 2020]. The party planned a mix of
virtual and in-person events in North Carolina and Washington, D.C.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Don’t
believe me? Look at what’s happening in America’s cities – all
run by Democrats. Crime, violence, mob rule. Democrats refuse to
denounce the mob.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
their response to the chaos? Defund the police, defund border patrol,
defund the military. And while they’re doing all of this, they’re
also trying to take away your guns.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee and member of the
House Committee on Oversight and Reform listed several decisions made
by Democrats that have harmed the nation.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
won’t let you go to church, but they’ll let you protest,” he
said. “Democrats won’t let you go to work, but they’ll let you
riot. Democrats won’t let you go to school, but they’ll let you
loot.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus said Trump has fought against
what the congressman called the Democrat’s “crazy ideas.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
president has taken on the swamp, the Democrats, the press, and the
Never Trumpers, Jordan said.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
when you take on the swamp, the swamp fights back. They tried the
Russia hoax, the Mueller investigation, and the fake impeachment. But
despite this unbelievable opposition, look what this President has
accomplished.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
then listed accomplishments Trump has achieved.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Taxes
cut, regulations reduced, economy growing, lowest unemployment in 50
years, out of the Iran deal, embassy in Jerusalem, hostages home from
North Korea, new USMCA agreement, and he’s building the wall, and
rebuilding the economy,” Jordan said.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
love the president’s intensity and his willingness to fight. But
what I also appreciate is something most Americans never see – how
much he truly cares about people,” Jordan said … (WHIO
1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
final days before Election Day could be some of the most important in
the country's history, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana, told a crowd
of more than 100 Saturday outside the Crawford County Courthouse
[October 2020].</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"There
are moments that really count," the congressman said. "I
think we're at one of those moments of real magnitude."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Next
to Jesus, the best thing that has happened to this planet is the
United States of America," Jordan said. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"I
wish every American could meet the president," Jordan said.
"When you're around him, you can't help but like him. There's a
charisma about him. He loves this country."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
said he and Trump had spoken five times in the 13 days prior. It was
during those conversations that Jordan said he realized how important
it was for voters to show up on Election Day. If they don't, he said
America risks being fundamentally destroyed by the Democrat Party.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"The
good thing is I think he's going to win," Jordan told the crowd.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
congressman said the political left of America has been radicalized,
saying that even sporting events have been infiltrated by socialist
ideas that were once left to the opinion pages.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Now
you turn on ESPN and they're giving political commentary,"
Jordan said.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Voters
who choose not to cast a ballot this election should remember that,
he said, because if they don't, that radicalization will spread.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"What's
at stake is so critically important," Jordan said. "I know
you all know that, that's why you're out here on a Saturday morning."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Don't
ever, don't ever let anyone tell you this isn't the greatest nation
in history," Jordan said. "It's worth fighting for and
that's why the next 17 days are so important" (Tuggle 1-2). </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Benen,
Steve. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Why </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">t
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">atters
that Jim Jordan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ants
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
'</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">an
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ll
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">accine
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">andates'.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>MSNBC, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">October
13, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-it-matters-jim-jordan-wants-ban-all-vaccine-mandates-n1281403">https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/why-it-matters-jim-jordan-wants-ban-all-vaccine-mandates-n1281403</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">odds,
Io. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republican
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">accine
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">andate
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">O</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">pponent
Jim Jordan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">R</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">eveals
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">e
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ad
Covid over the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ummer.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Yahoo Sports,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November 24, 2021.
Net.
<a href="https://sports.yahoo.com/republican-vaccine-mandate-opponent-jim-060036190.html">https://sports.yahoo.com/republican-vaccine-mandate-opponent-jim-060036190.html</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kirk,
Michael. “Jim Jordan.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Frontline,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>June
16</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
2020. Net. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/jim-jordan/">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/jim-jordan/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Popielarz,
Taylor. “Rep. Jim Jordan Expresses Frustrations in First
Coronavirus Oversight Hearing.”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>
Spectrum News 1,</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
May 14, 2020. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2020/05/14/rep--jim-jordan-expresses-frustrations-in-first-coronavirus-oversight-hearing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://spectrumnews1.com/oh/columbus/news/2020/05/14/rep--jim-jordan-expresses-frustrations-in-first-coronavirus-oversight-hearing</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Smith,
David. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jim Jordan: the
Republican in '</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ttack
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">og
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ode'
for </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">mpeachment
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">earings.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>The Guardian,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November 13, 2019.
Net.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/trump-impeachment-hearings-republicans-jim-jordan">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/trump-impeachment-hearings-republicans-jim-jordan</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stolberg,
Sheryl Gay. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
Brings Pugnacious Style to Impeachment Defense of Trump.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November
15, 2019. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/politics/jim-jordan-impeachment-hearings.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/us/politics/jim-jordan-impeachment-hearings.html</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">uggle,
Zack. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jim
Jordan: Upcoming </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lection
a </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oment
of '</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eal
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">agnitude.'
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Mansfield
News Journal, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
19, 2020. Net.
<a href="https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2020/10/19/jim-jordan-upcoming-election-moment-real-magnitude/3697340001/">https://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/story/news/2020/10/19/jim-jordan-upcoming-election-moment-real-magnitude/3697340001/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">HIO
Staff. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">RNC
2020: U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">outs
President Trump as ‘</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">P</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ro-America
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">andidate’.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>WHIOTV7,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
24, 2020. Net.
<a href="https://www.whio.com/home/rnc-2020-us-rep-jim-jordan-touts-trump-pro-america-candidate/WDE4BY3XBJFLLBEI3WCQKEU6MU/">https://www.whio.com/home/rnc-2020-us-rep-jim-jordan-touts-trump-pro-america-candidate/WDE4BY3XBJFLLBEI3WCQKEU6MU/</a></span></span></p>
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<br />
</p><p> </p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-77844766349160126712022-05-05T13:03:00.002-07:002022-05-05T13:03:26.560-07:00The Amoralists: Jim Jordan, Part Two; Hear No Evil, See No Evil<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Representative
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Jim
Jordan </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">is
facing the kind of slowly percolating scandal that would bring down
other politicians in other times, as new accusers step forward by the
day to say the wrestling coach turned politician was aware of sexual
misconduct at Ohio State University but did nothing to stop it.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
like the man Mr. Jordan doggedly supports, President Trump, the Ohio
Republican has the kind of stalwart supporters who do not lose faith
easily, and they are already defending the conservative powerhouse,
saying he is the victim of the same “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">deep
state</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">”
conspirators — liberal bureaucrats embedded in the government —
who are trying to bring down the president.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan, a 54-year-old congressman in his sixth term, was defiant
Friday night [July 2018] on Fox News, in his first extended response
to the emerging charges. He disparaged some of the former college
wrestlers who have come forward to say he knew of allegations that
the team doctor, Richard H. Strauss, had fondled them. He said he
could not explain why other more friendly wrestlers had leveled
similar charges.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
never saw, never heard of, never was told about any kind of abuse,”
said Mr. Jordan, whose in-your-face brand of politics has made him
the choice for speaker of the House by an array of conservative
groups. “If I did I would have dealt with it. A good coach puts the
interests of his student-athletes first.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan continued to fan conspiracy theories connecting the emergence
of the charges to his aggressive questioning last month of Deputy
Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, the man many Trump supporters
hold responsible for the Russia investigation.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
think the timing is suspect when you think about how this whole story
came together after the Rosenstein hearing and the speaker’s race,”
he said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
president weighed in with his unqualified support. “Jim Jordan is
one of the most outstanding people I’ve met since I’ve been in
Washington,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Thursday. “I believe him
100 percent. No question in my mind.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan served as an assistant coach on the Ohio State wrestling team
in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which time Dr. Strauss is
accused of showering with athletes and touching them inappropriately.
The university announced in April that it had begun investigating the
allegations against the doctor, who killed himself in 2005.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Coleman and four other wrestlers have now said that Mr. Jordan was
aware of the abuse but did nothing to stop it. Another former Ohio
State wrestler, Mike Schyck, said in an interview on Friday that he
and other former team members planned to “collectively say some
things together,” adding that the scandal is not about Mr. Jordan.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
even as more wrestlers step forward, Mr. Jordan’s base has mounted
a defense. The conservative news media has questioned the motives and
truthfulness of his accusers.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One
of those accusers, Mike DiSabato, scoffed at suggestions that his
motivation in calling out Mr. Jordan was political or part of a
personal vendetta.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">There
were two choices for Jim when he was asked about this situation: He
could have told the truth that he saw it, he was there, he was in the
showers and saunas with us,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He could have
told the truth and stood with us, or he could have played politics.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
DiSabato said he was saddened by the congressman’s response.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’m
sorry, I love Jim Jordan, but he doesn’t get to call me a liar to
the entire world,” Mr. DiSabato said. “He doesn’t get to call
the victims of systemic sexual abuse liars. He doesn’t get to act
like he wasn’t in the sauna with us every day being subject to
voyeurism.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
allegations have cast a cloud over the congressman at a time when he
is ascendant. Mr. Jordan has emerged as one of the president’s
staunchest defenders, helping to lead a Republican
counterinvestigation of F.B.I. and Justice Department officials who
are looking into potential connections between the Trump campaign and
Russian election interference. A founder of the House Freedom Caucus,
Mr. Jordan has also been floated as a possible successor to Speaker
Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who has announced he will retire at the
end of the year </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Edmondson
“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Defiant”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the past few days, Mr. Jordan has evoked his own reputation as a
Trump ally and enemy of the so-called deep state — liberal
bureaucrats embedded in the government — reminding his base of
where his loyalty lies.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
stood up to the speaker of the House from my home state, to the
I.R.S. and to the F.B.I.,” Mr. Jordan told reporters on Wednesday.
“To think that I would not stand up for my athletes is ridiculous”
(Edmondson
“Unshaken” 3).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a sign that Representative Jim Jordan is unlikely to shake a sexual
misconduct scandal anytime soon, five former wrestlers sued Ohio
State University this week [July 2018], accusing university officials
of knowing that a team doctor was abusing student athletes and doing
nothing to stop him.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One
of the lawsuits specifically mentions Mr. Jordan, Republican of Ohio,
who served as the wrestling team’s assistant coach in the late
1980s and early 1990s, citing news reports that wrestlers had
informed him of the abuse. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eight
wrestlers have come forward and accused Mr. Jordan of turning a blind
eye to the abuse of the team physician, Richard H. Strauss, who
killed himself in 2005.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan has maintained that he never saw or heard any reports of
misconduct and has attacked some of the former wrestlers who have
spoken out against him.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
lawsuits, filed on Tuesday, describe abuse that was widespread and
often public. Dr. Strauss’s conduct is at the heart of a university
investigation spanning 14 different sports teams and more than 150
athletes.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">More
Ohio State alumni — both former athletes and students — have come
forward in recent days to say Mr. Strauss had abused them, Mr. Estey
said, either as team doctor or at the university’s student health
center. The lawyer said he expected an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs
to sign onto Tuesday’s class action.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Together,
the lawsuits say that Ohio State officials received at least three
complaints about Mr. Strauss from wrestlers: in 1978, after the
captain of the wrestling team told a doctor at the university’s
health center that Mr. Strauss had fondled him; in 1993, when a
wrestler complained to the team’s head coach, Russ Hellickson; and
in 1994, when two wrestlers confronted the university’s athletic
director.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
lawsuit also cites a recent interview in which Mr. Hellickson told
USA Today that he confronted Mr. Strauss and told him that he was
making the athletes “uncomfortable” by showering with them. Mr.
Hellickson said the doctor responded that the coach also showered
with athletes.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
said, ‘Not for an hour, Doc,’” Mr. Hellickson said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Hellickson has maintained that he did not know Mr. Strauss was
abusing athletes, and has defended Mr. Jordan’s role in the matter.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One
of the lawsuits notes that many of the athletes competing for the
university were afraid to complain because the university required
that they receive physicals from Dr. Strauss before being allowed to
compete. Many of those athletes were receiving scholarships.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
plaintiffs in both lawsuits seek unspecified damages, stating that
the wrestlers “were prevented and will continue to be prevented
from performing daily activities” and have incurred expenses for
medical and psychological treatment as a result of the abuse
(Edmondson “Lawsuits” 2-4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
lawsuits filed on Tuesday describe how the misconduct committed by
Dr. Strauss was frequently under the guise of medical treatment
...Regardless of the ailment, one lawsuit states, his treatment
“almost always included examination, touching and fondling of their
genitalia, and it frequently included digital anal penetration under
the guise of checking for hernias.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
university at the time required that athletes submit to a physical,
administered by Dr. Strauss, before being allowed to compete, “which
meant that systematic sexual abuse from Dr. Strauss was inevitable,”
the lawsuit said.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Wrestlers
who have spoken about the abuse have said that the doctor’s conduct
during physicals was an open secret in the locker room, with athletes
referring to him as “Dr. Jellypaws.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">News
reports cited in the lawsuit also detail how the facility where
wrestlers practiced, Larkins Hall, was home to a “cesspool of
deviancy,” in which men affiliated with the university would ogle
athletes in the showers.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Stephen
Estey, a lawyer representing four former wrestlers who have filed a
lawsuit against the university, said on Friday that he was getting
“inundated” with calls from people saying they had been abused by
Dr. Strauss. He expects that an additional 20 to 25 plaintiffs will
join the lawsuit, and that hundreds of former students will
eventually come forward (Edmondson “More” 3-4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Congressional
Republicans are playing a dangerous game in their rush to defend Jim
Jordan, the Ohio congressman facing accusations that, as an assistant
wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he ignored athletes’
complaints of sexual abuse by the team doctor.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">By
attacking Mr. Jordan’s accusers, dismissing the accusers as
politically motivated and spinning deep-state conspiracy theories —
even as the accusations pile up and Mr. Jordan’s denials grow more
dubious — lawmakers are opting for tribal loyalty over concern for
the public good. While this kind of blind partisanship may feel like
a necessity to Republicans in the age of Donald Trump, it has real
potential to come back and bite them on their backsides. Also, it’s
morally wrong.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Among
Mr. Jordan’s early defenders was President Trump. “I don’t
believe them,” he said a couple of days into the uproar. “No
question in my mind. I believe Jim Jordan 100 percent. He’s an
outstanding man.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Congressional
Republicans have followed the same script, rejecting the very idea
that someone of Mr. Jordan’s character would turn a blind eye to
abuse. On Tuesday, the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted to
officially support Mr. Jordan, its former chairman. The caucus’s
current chairman, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, has praised his
colleague as “a man of the utmost character, honor, and integrity.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Representative
Steve </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Scalise</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
the conference’s chief whip, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">declared</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
“I have always known Jim Jordan to be honest, and I’m confident
he would stand up for his athletes, just like he’s always stood up
for what’s right.” Speaker Paul Ryan too has </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">vouched
for </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity.” Indeed, the cascade of
references to Mr. Jordan’s “honesty” and “integrity” has
achieved a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Manchurian
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Candidate-like
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ubiquity.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">If
Mr. Jordan was a Democrat, does anyone doubt all these men would be
singing a different tune?</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Even
more troubling are Mr. Jordan’s defenders who have </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gone
on the offense a</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gainst
his accusers. Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, tweeting
admiringly of Mr. Jordan’s “tremendous integrity,” also
expressed “faith” in the American people’s ability to
“recognize a baseless smear campaign [when] they see it.” Other
members have made dark references to the accusers’ “questionable
background,” suggesting that true victims would not have waited so
long to come forward, and sneering at the notion that adult men could
be victimized in such a fashion. (Seriously? Were these guys napping
during the #MeToo horror stories?)</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">multiple
members have noted that the law firm handling the abuse investigation
for Ohio State has contracted with a Washington-based firm that
previously did work for the Democratic Party on the infamous Steele
dossier. (Don’t you see? It all goes back to Hillary!) Following
Republicans down that rabbit hole leads only to madness.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Since
first denying that he ever had an inkling of any abuse, the
congressman has felt moved to draw a distinction between specific
reports of misconduct and bawdy chatter. “Conversations in the
locker room are a lot different than someone coming up to you and
saying there was some kind of abuse,” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">he
explained </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
Fox News viewers.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
congressman clearly fancies himself a fearless crusader willing to
stand up to power. But what we have seen of him in the Trump era
paints a different picture, of a man absolutely willing to look the
other way when things around the workplace get weird and icky.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">During
the dark days of the “Access Hollywood” tape, as many Republican
officeholders were distancing themselves from the nominee, Mr. Jordan
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">made
clear </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that,
while he found such vulgar talk unacceptable, he nonetheless would
stand by his man.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
stand by Mr. Trump he has, uttering not one critical peep as this
president has engaged in such egregious acts as defending neo-Nazis
and separating migrant children from their parents. (Even many of Mr.
Trump’s most obsequious apologists choked on that one.) As for Mr.
Trump’s habitual lying, Mr. Jordan has not simply averted his gaze;
he has </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">publicly
claimed </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">—
even when confronted with specific examples — never to have heard
Mr. Trump utter a falsehood. Never. Not once.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">As
a powerful congressman in his mid-50s, Mr. Jordan has repeatedly
failed to stand up to a president whose morally sketchy behavior he
witnesses on a daily basis. Can anyone really discount, with 100
percent certainty, the possibility that a 20-something Jim Jordan
might have heard but chosen not to pursue horrifying rumors, or even
specific allegations, that could have engulfed his entire university
in scandal </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Editorial
1-4).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Ohio
representative and former Ohio State University wrestling coach Jim
Jordan aided and abetted in the university's cover-up of sexual abuse
within the program, </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">a
former team captain said in front of Ohio State legislators on
Wednesday </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[February
2020]</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Jim
Jordan called me crying, groveling, begging me to go against my
brother, begging me, crying for a half-hour," DiSabato </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">said
Wednesday</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
"That’s the kind of cover-up that’s going on there."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Adam
DiSabato, captain of the team during the early 1990s, told members of
the Ohio House Civil Justice Committee that Jordan and other
officials ignored former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss's </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">sexual
abuse of wrestlers from 1979 to 1997</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
DiSabato said that Jordan and other team officials knew about
open-shower facilities that facilitated sexual harassment and abuse
of team wrestlers. Jordan </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">has
previously denied the allegation.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Wednesday's
testimony is a part of a hearing on legislation that would permit
survivors of Strauss's abuse to sue the university for damages.
Currently, the statute of limitations disallows them from doing so. </span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
university study found that Strauss </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">abused
at least 177 people during his tenure as the wrestling team’s
doctor</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Strauss
was never charged and died by suicide in 2005.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A
former Ohio State wrestler </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">told
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
university's lawyers in 2018 that, “Based on testimony from victim
athletes from each of the aforementioned varsity sports, we estimate
that Strauss sexually assaulted and/or raped a minimum of 1,500/2,000
athletes at OSU.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
November 2019, </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">NBC
News reported</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
around 350 men were suing Ohio State, saying they were abused.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">DiSabato
and his brother, Mike, were among the initial whistleblowers that
prompted the university to launch an investigation in 2018.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Eight
wrestlers have said publicly that Jordan was aware of—and did not
do anything to stop—Strauss's systemic abuse.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">One
former wrestler, Dunyasha Yetts, recounted to </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">NBC
News </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">an
instance in which he was abused and told Jordan directly. Another
former wrestler, Shawn Dailey, later corroborated the story.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
remember I had a thumb injury and went into Strauss’ office and he
started pulling down my wrestling shorts,” he said. “I’m like,
what the f--- are you doing? And I went out and told Russ and Jim
what happened. I was not having it. They went in and talked to
Strauss.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Yetts
said he and his teammates talked to Jordan numerous times about
Strauss.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">For
God’s sake, Strauss’s locker was right next to Jordan’s and
Jordan even said he’d kill him if he tried anything with him,”
Yetts said.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">DiSabato
has </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">said </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">that
Jordan gave out a certificate each year called “King of the Sauna,”
to the person with the most clever banter while in the shower—a
shower where Strauss allegedly performed the bulk of his sexual
abuse. Jordan, DiSabato </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">said</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
hung out in the sauna daily.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Since
these allegations surfaced in 2018, Jordan has apparently tried to
cover-up the cover-up.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
May 2019, Mike DiSabato </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">stated
in a Title IX lawsuit against Ohio State</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">that
Jordan's second cousin aimed to "intimidate and retaliate"
against him for speaking out publicly. Later that year, Jordan, his
younger brother and another former wrestling coach were accused of
witness tampering and intimidation in their attempt to suppress
accusations from a former wrestler, according to </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">NBC
News </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Yang
1-3).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Editorial
Board. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Is
the G.O.P. Following Jim Jordan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ver
a Cliff?” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">July
12, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/opinion/editorials/republicans-jim-jordan.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/opinion/editorials/republicans-jim-jordan.html</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Edmondson,
Catie. “</span></span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Jim
Jordan </span></span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I</span></span><span style="color: #121212; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">s
Defiant as Allegations Mount, and Supporters Point to ‘Deep
State’</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times,</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
July 6, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/politics/jim-jordan-sexual-misconduct.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/us/politics/jim-jordan-sexual-misconduct.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">dmondson,
Catie. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">More
Than 100 Former Ohio State Students Allege Sexual Misconduct.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">July
20, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/sexual-misconduct-ohio-state.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/us/politics/sexual-misconduct-ohio-state.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">dmondson,
Catie. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Two
Lawsuits </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gainst
Ohio State Keep Jim Jordan in the Cross Hairs.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">July
18, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/us/politics/jim-jordan-ohio-state-sexual-abuse.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/18/us/politics/jim-jordan-ohio-state-sexual-abuse.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">dmondson,
Catie. "</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Unshaken
by Abuse Scandal, Conservatives Are Sticking </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">w</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ith
Jim Jordan.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jul
11, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us/politics/jim-jordan-sexual-abuse-scandal.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/us/politics/jim-jordan-sexual-abuse-scandal.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Y</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ang,
Avery. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #0a1529;"><span style="font-family: industry, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ex–Ohio
State Wrestler Says Rep. Jim Jordan Asked Him </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #0a1529;"><span style="font-family: industry, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #0a1529;"><span style="font-family: industry, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
Deny Abuse Allegations.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #0a1529;"><span style="font-family: industry, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Sports
Illustrated, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #0a1529;"><span style="font-family: industry, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
12, 2020. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/02/12/jim-jordan-accused-cover-up-sexual-abuse-ohio-state" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.si.com/more-sports/2020/02/12/jim-jordan-accused-cover-up-sexual-abuse-ohio-state</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-68247030197833041062022-05-01T11:58:00.007-07:002022-05-01T11:58:36.826-07:00The Amoralists: Jim Jordan, Part One; Be on the Offense<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Jordan
was born and raised in </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Champaign
County, Ohio,</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
the son of Shirley and John Jordan. He attended and wrestled for
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Graham
High School, </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">graduating
in 1982. He won state championships all four years he was in high
school and compiled a 156–1 win–loss record. He then enrolled at
the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">University
of Wisconsin-Madison,</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
where he became a two-time </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">NCAA
Division I wrestling champion</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Jordan
won the 1985 and 1986 NCAA championship matches in the 134-pound (61
kg) weight class. He graduated with a </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">bachelor’s
degree in economics </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
1986. He lost the 126–137-pound (57–62 kg) featherweight
semifinal match at the 1988 US Olympic wrestling trials and failed to
make the Olympic team.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
earned a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">master’s
degree</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
education from Ohio State University </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Juris
Doctor </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">from
the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Capital
University Law School</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
In a 2018 interview, Jordan said he never took the bar examination</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
was an assistant wrestling coach with </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ohio
State University’s wrestling program </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">from
1987 to 1995. </span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
was elected to the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ohio
House of Representatives</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
November 1994 and represented the 85th Ohio House district for three
terms.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
2000, Jordan was elected to the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ohio
Senate </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">over
independent candidate Jack Kaffenberger with 88% of the vote. In
2004, Jordan defeated Kaffenberger again, with 79% of the vote.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
represents </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%27s_4th_congressional_district"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ohio's
4th congressional district</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
He won the Republican primary for the 4th district in 2006 after
26-year incumbent </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mike
Oxley </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">announced
his retirement. Jordan defeated Democratic nominee Rick Siferd in the
general election with 60% of the vote </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Jim
2-3).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
described himself as one of the most conservative legislators in the
Ohio Legislature — and surely will chart a rightward course in
Congress. When evaluating legislation, he says he will ask himself,
"Will this decision benefit families?"</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
introduced numerous anti-</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">abortion
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bills
as a state legislator and says he will strongly support federal
efforts to ban abortion and same-sex marriage.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan,
though, will not be a reflexive vote for the leadership, particularly
if he thinks GOP fiscal policy does not cut taxes and spending
enough. Endorsed by the free-market-oriented Club for Growth, Jordan
supports permanently extending the Bush administration tax cuts.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
health care issues, Jordan supports expanding health savings
accounts. On energy policy, he supports oil drilling and streamlining
the process to build new refineries.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Still,
partisan enmity is not his style. He said he is a "happy warrior
. . . the guy who is fighting for the things I believe in and the
things that I think make this country special — but do it with a
smile" (CQ Staff 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
was reelected in 2008, defeating Democratic nominee Mike Carroll with
65% of the vote. In 2010, he was again reelected, defeating Democrat
Doug Litt and Libertarian Donald Kissick with 71% of the vote. Jordan
was reelected in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Jim
2-4).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[Jordan
began his rise through Republican ranks in the House when he was
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">elected
chair of the Republican Study Committee</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
December 2010. Jordan announced that]</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">
under his leadership, the group will "fight for conservative
principles, develop policy and be a forum for common sense solutions
and ideas."</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;"><a name="Q426FR2CSNBGNP6CXAOSFFJWKM"></a>
<span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"It
is important that the new Congress remembers the message the American
people sent on election day," Jordan said in a press release
that announced his selection. "People want Congress to stop the
out-of-control spending, reverse the expansion of government into
people's personal lives, and put America back on a
fiscally-responsible track."</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; padding: 0in;"><a name="BGPD5BOT4RG2RGOLGJI57DTTSA"></a>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">To
win the position, Jordan beat a challenge from Texas Republican </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">Louie
Gohmert</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">,
who </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">accused
him </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;">of
being a "wing man" for House GOP Leader John Boehner.
Jordan and Boehner represent adjacent Ohio congressional districts.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><a name="ZTFXF3VBNRAF7DDYCRDULSU77U"></a>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">As
he geared up to run for the post, Jordan began appearing more
regularly on conservative radio and television shows. On Tuesday, he
told radio host Laura Ingraham that President Barack Obama was
“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">unpresidential</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: #1565c0;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">for
attacking Republicans at a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">press
conference </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
defend his tax compromise </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Eaton
“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Selected”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">During
the U.S. government shutdown of 2013, he was considered the
committee's most powerful member. That group was the primary
proponent and executor of the Republican congressional strategy to
bring about a government shutdown in order to force changes in the Patient Protection and Afflordable Care Act</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
also known as Obamacare </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Jim
5).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[The
Republican Party having regained control of the House as a result of
the 2014 midterm election] a conservative group of nine Congress
members including Champaign County GOP Rep. Jim Jordan announced
Monday that they'll start a new organization called the House Freedom
Caucus "to advance an agenda of limited constitutional
government" in Congress.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">According
to a statement released by Jordan's office, the group's mission will
be to give "a voice to countless Americans who feel that
Washington does not represent them. We support open, accountable and
limited government, the Constitution, and the rule of law and
policies that promote liberty, safety and prosperity of all
Americans" (Eaton “Co-Found” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">1</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">According
to a </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Roll
Call </span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">account
confirmed by Jordan's office, the new group selected Jordan as its
chairman at a Tuesday night Capitol Hill meeting. He was unopposed.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
an interview last week, Jordan told Northeast Ohio Media Group the
new organization's immediate priority will be to lobby the U.S.
Senate to adopt a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">House-passed
bill </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
defunds President Obama's November actions to give work permits to
millions of immigrants who are in the United States illegally and to
temporarily halt some deportations.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
said the new group will also come up with legislation to replace
Obamacare, which conservatives hope will be gutted by an </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">upcoming
Supreme Court case</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Eaton
“Official” 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
only have 13 days left,” Jordan, R-Urbana, 4th District, said </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[at
a Sidney, Ohio, VFW Shelby County Liberty Group political rally Oct.
26] in </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">referring
to the Nov. 8 </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[2016]
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">presidential
election. Jordan left no doubt in touting Republican candidate Donald
Trump as the best choice and asked those in attendance to urge others
to vote likewise.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; orphans: 4;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; orphans: 4;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
down to two people. It’s going to be Trump or (Democrat Hillary)
Clinton. There’s just one clear choice. We all know what he’s
said. And some of it has been bad, but he’s still the best choice
we have,” Jordan said.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Congressman said the current tax policy, foreign policies and
Affordable Care Act fallout is in disarray. He said political
wrangling has allowed Clinton to dodge prosecution regarding security
issues with her email.</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">There
is a double standard. There is one set of rules for ‘we the
people’; and another set of rules for those who are connected in
Washington.”</span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
Clinton gets elected, the Justice Department will remain political.
If Trump gets elected, the Justice Department will become focused on
justice.”</span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
spoke of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi
where four people were killed. He told of how the lack of military
response and Clinton’s involvement in creating “a spin” on the
story due to a presidential election being just 56 days away. He
claims that alone should be cause for her disqualification as a
presidential candidate.</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
was quizzed on the uneven media coverage of the campaign. He said,
“The liberal media is supposed to be the referee when it comes to
candidates, not the cheerleaders. I’ve never seen it this blatant.”</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
was asked to list three things he would support that Trump intends to
make happen in Washington. Choosing five items, he said eliminating
Obamacare, fixing border security, improving tax laws, chose proper
Supreme Court Justices and improving veteran’s services.(Painter
1-2).</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[Excerpts
from an interview conducted by Michael Kirk on <i>Frontline</i> June 16,
2020]</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He’s
just tough. I mean, he’s tough. I remember, I typically don’t get
into many details of conversation I have with the president, but one
time I was talking with the president. I said: “Mr. President, I
know what I have to live through. </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I
know the attacks I get, the lies that get told about me.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
I said, “You get it a thousand times worse, and you get it every
second of every day.” And he just said: “Yeah, Jim, but what are
you going to do? You’ve just got to keep fighting.”</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
so it’s just this rugged toughness that he has, that he’s able to
keep fighting through it and trying to get done what he told the
American people he was going to do. …</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">this
president is as real as it gets. I mean, I think that’s why so many
Americans appreciate him. That’s why these rallies … They’re
amazing. <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">They’re truly amazing. …
</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">p</span>eople appreciate a
fighter, and they appreciate someone that they think is fighting for
them.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
have business guys in our district and others in our district who
have been supporters of me in the various campaigns I’ve been in
over the years, and they really appreciate the president. They
appreciate his straightforwardness, his frankness and his toughness.
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">And some of them were for the
president as soon as he announced; it was after the, you know, after
he secured the nomination. </span>So they wanted someone who’s
going to shake this town up, and that’s exactly who they got.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">You
had that Tea Party wave that was building, that sort of culminated in
2010, taking back the House, then the frustration with us not getting
some things done that we told the American people we were going to do
relative to repealing Obamacare, relative to certain spending issues,
relative to holding people accountable for the scandals in the Obama
administration, like Lois Lerner targeting the conservatives and Tea
Party members around the country. All that builds, and along comes
this guy who says he’s going to take it all on, take on the swamp.</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">And
it’s like, that movement and that momentum, I think, coalesced
behind President Trump and was a big reason why he won, because we
all saw someone in him that, you know what, this guy is going to
change this town. He is going to fight against and do the things that
we thought we were going to get down in ’10, ’11, ’12, ’13,
’14, in those era—in those years. He’s going to have a chance
to get that done, and that’s why I think people supported him.</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">…
</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
he gets in office, you see how, in ’17, you saw this town when it
was the whole Russian collusion narrative, which was a bunch of
baloney, but every Democrat said, “Oh, we need a special counsel,”
and all the press said, “We need a special counsel,” and a bunch
of Republicans said, “We need a special counsel,” and this whole
move to go after the president based on something that we now know
was completely bogus. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">So
you just—you just saw it all. And yet you saw him persevere through
it all. Again, I’ve said it several times, but that’s what I
really appreciate about the guy.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">it’s
this can-do attitude that he has. You know, you think about what
happened during that time. We still got taxes cut, still addressed
regulations, still did the embassy in Jerusalem, still did the
pulling out of the Iran deal, still did all those things he told the
American people he was going to do. He just did his job, and he did
it well. And I think that’s the way you have to deal with all these
kind of things, I think in any business, but certainly in this
business.</span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">When
you’re getting attacked from the press on things that aren’t
true, you’ve just got to stay focused on doing what you told the
people you were going to get done. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
he did that. And there’s some—I think that’s just the only way
you can deal with it. And he certainly did.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
always say the best way is to be on the offense. That’s how you
score points; that’s how you win. And the president has that
mindset, that he’s going to be on the offense. </span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
the example you gave, when it’s dealing with the press in these
press scrums on, when he’s getting ready to get on Marine One, on
the White House lawn, he’s on the offense. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
I like it. I really do. I think it’s the proper mindset. I think
it’s a mindset that’s consistent with America. It’s an American
mindset, and it’s a mindset that I think the American people
appreciate as well </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Kirk
2-5).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One
of the House’s most conservative lawmakers has announced his bid
for Republican House Speaker: Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, a founding member
of the House Freedom Caucus, said Thursday that he will join the race
to replace House Speaker Paul Ryan — a campaign that might
complicate the Republican speakership fight in the months ahead.</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">President
Trump has taken bold action on behalf of the American people,”
Jordan said in a statement. “Congress has not held up its end of
the deal, but we can change that.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ryan,
who is not running for reelection, says he plans to keep his
leadership post until he retires in January, but top House
Republicans are already trying to position themselves as his heir
apparent.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan,
a close ally of President Trump, is one of the loudest conservative
voices against the FBI’s investigation into Russian election
meddling and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">backed
a resolution to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
The Ohio Republican has been under intense scrutiny in recent months
after several former Ohio State wrestlers accused </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jordan
of turning a blind eye to rampant sexual abuse </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">at
the university while he was an assistant wrestling coach there in the
late 1980s — allegations that Jordan has vehemently denied.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Jordan
has been floating a leadership run for some time, but even his
conservative colleagues admit that as one of the most right-wing
members of the party, it’s unlikely Jordan has enough support in
the House to win the speakership altogether. But he does have the
votes to sway who the speaker is </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Golshan
1-2).</span></p>
<p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 4; padding: 0in;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">CQ
Staff. “Rep.-Elect Jim Jordan (R—Ohio).” <i>New York Times,
</i>November 8, 2006. Net.
<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/11/08/cq_1866.html">https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/cq/2006/11/08/cq_1866.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eaton,
Sabrina. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It's
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">O</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">fficial:
Rep. Jim Jordan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">N</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ow
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">hairs
the House Freedom Caucus.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>clevelend.com,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">February 11, 2015.
Net.
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190216113136/https://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/02/its_official_rep_jim_jordan_no.html">https://web.archive.org/web/20190216113136/https://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2015/02/its_official_rep_jim_jordan_no.html</a></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Eaton,
Sabrina. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rep.
Jim Jordan </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">elected
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hair
Republican Study Committee.”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>cleveland.com,</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
December 8, 2010.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.cleveland.com/open/2010/12/rep_jim_jordan_selected_to_cha.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cleveland.com/open/2010/12/rep_jim_jordan_selected_to_cha.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Eaton,
Sabrina. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Rep.
Jim Jordan </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">o
co-found </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">N</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">ew
GOP "House Freedom Caucus." </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>cleveland.com,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">January
26, 2015. Net.
<a href="https://www.cleveland.com/open/2015/01/rep_jim_jordan_will_head_new_g.html">https://www.cleveland.com/open/2015/01/rep_jim_jordan_will_head_new_g.html</a></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">G</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">olshan,
Tara. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Trump
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lly
and </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">uper-</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onservative
Jim Jordan </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">s
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">unning
for House </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">peaker.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Vox,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">July
26, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/7/26/17617178/jim-jordan-house-speaker-republican-paul-ryan">https://www.vox.com/2018/7/26/17617178/jim-jordan-house-speaker-republican-paul-ryan</a></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jim
Jordan (American Politician).” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Net. </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jordan_(American_politician"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jordan_(American_politician</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kirk,
Michael. “Jim Jordan.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Frontline,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>June
16</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
2020. Net. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/jim-jordan/">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/interview/jim-jordan/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Painter,
Jim. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Presidential
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ampaign
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">raws
to a </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lose.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Sydney
Daily News, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
27, 2016. Net.
<a href="https://www.sidneydailynews.com/news/49977/jordan-touts-trump">https://www.sidneydailynews.com/news/49977/jordan-touts-trump</a></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><br /></p><p> </p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-36090234398002303522022-04-28T12:38:00.006-07:002022-04-28T12:38:31.401-07:00The Amoralists: Lindsey Graham, Part Five; Yearning for Relevance<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">hroughout
his time in the White House, </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Donald
Trump </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">collected
a number of exceedingly reliable footstools. There was Attorney
General </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">William
Barr</span></span></span><strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>,
</b></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">who
basically </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">served
as the former president’s personal lawyer</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
Treasury Secretary </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Steven
Mnuchin, </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">who
regularly </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">shedded
his dignity </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">on
the guy’s behalf. </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Mike
Pence, </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">other
than </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">that
one time</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
And, of course, the vast majority of the Republican Party, which
lived in constant fear of getting on the wrong side of the then
president.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">One
member of the GOP who consistently stood out from the bunch in his
fealty to 45 was Senator </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham.</span></span></span></span><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>
</b></span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">After
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">declaring
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
June 2016 that he wouldn’t support Trump’s bid for office,
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">referring
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
the then Republican candidate as a “jackass,” a “kook,” “a
race-baiting bigot,” and “the most flawed nominee in the history
of the Republican Party,” Graham subsequently became one of Trump’s
most ardent and obsequious fans.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">When
Democrats were getting ready to impeach the guy the first time
around, over his attempt to extort another country for his personal
gain, Graham </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">told
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">reporters
the whole thing should be “disposed of very quickly” by the
Senate. When people brought up the fact that Trump regularly
slandered Graham’s friend John McCain </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">even
after McCain was dead</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
the senator from South Carolina said he was willing to overlook the
attacks because “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">when
we play golf, it’s fun</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">.</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">”
Two months after a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>literal
insurrection</i></span></span></span></span><em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
</span></span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">told
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Axios:
“Donald Trump was my friend before the riot and I’m trying to
keep a relationship with him after the riot. I still consider him a
friend.” Pressed on the fact that he’d already been reelected for
another six years, so politically, he didn’t have to keep this
relationship going, Graham doubled down, telling reporter </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jonathan
Swan </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">it
would be “too easy” to simply dump the guy, before claiming, in a
highly worrisome way, that while there was a “dark side” to the
man who incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol, there was also
“some magic there.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
short, Graham has more than proved his servility to Trump over the
last six years, and should probably be inducted into some kind of
Hall of Fame for boot-licking hacks, or given a key to Mar-a-Lago.
Unfortunately, Graham forgot the cardinal rule of serving at the
pleasure of Trump, which is that one must vigorously and without fail
agree with every single thing the guy does and says, at all times,
forever and always. Instead, God help him, the Republican lawmaker
expressed an independent thought, and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">this
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">happened:</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Yes,
Trump dubbed Graham, a lifelong Republican, a Republican in Name
Only, in an interview with Newsmax that aired Tuesday night </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[February
2022]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
That may not sound so bad to some people, but as Trump made clear in
2020, it’s among the worst things he can think to accuse someone
of. (“Do you know what RINO is?” he </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">asked
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
crowd in Arizona. “A RINO may be the lowest form of human life.”)
Why is Graham, in Trump’s eyes, a RINO? Because Graham had claimed
it was “inappropriate” for Trump to say over the weekend that he
might pardon some of the January 6 rioters if reelected in 2024, a
move that effectively would allow Trump supporters to get away with
waging a violent insurrection.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Which
is not a very nice thing to say about someone who’s basically had
his head lodged inside your ass for over half a decade now! Though if
we know Lindsey, and we think we do, it’ll all be water under the
bridge by the end of the month. Last week, the South Carolina senator
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">said
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
an interview with Fox’s </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Brian
Kilmeade </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
he’d spent the “whole weekend” with Trump and suggested that
the ex-president apparently has total control over the Republican
Party. “He will be the nominee in 2024 if he wants it. Stay tuned,”
Graham said, adding: “From my point of view, there’s nobody
that’s going to beat Donald Trump if he wants to run” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Levin
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">has
some advice, and a warning, for Donald Trump: Focus on the future and
making peoples’ lives better, and drop the constant 2020 election
claims. But the former president doesn’t appear to be listening.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump is the most consequential Republican in the Republican Party
today. He has a great chance of being president again in 2024. He’ll
start comparing what he did as president versus what’s going on
now, and how to fix the mess we’re in,” Graham, R-S.C., told ABC
News on Sunday [February
2022].
“If he looks backward, I think he’s hurting his chances.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
nearly 10 statements released since ABC’s “This Week” program
aired Graham’s comments, Trump has made clear he has no intention
of taking his sometimes golfing partner’s advice.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Among
the messages that have replaced his banned Twitter account are
declarations pushing his latest conspiracy theory — this one
featuring new claims that Hillary Clinton’s campaign spied on his
2016 campaign and early presidency, which already has been vehemently
denied in court.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham,
when pressed by “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos,
reiterated his stance that Trump, by focusing so intensely on his
false “rigged” 2020 election claims and trying to whitewash the
circumstances before and during the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, is
threatening to “hurt his cause” for a potential 2024 run.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Then
came the warning. “I do believe that if he talked about what he’s
capable of doing and remind people what he did in the past, he has a
chance to come back,” Graham said. “If he continues to talk about
the 2020 election, I think it hurts his cause, and quite frankly,
hurts the Republican Party” (Bennett 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
took only 24 hours for </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
hail </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> dismembering
of independent, democratic, sovereign Ukraine as an act of "genius."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
former President often accuses his enemies falsely of treason, but
his own giddy rush to side with a foreign leader who is proving to be
an enemy of the United States and the West is shocking even by
Trump's </span></span></span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/21/politics/trump-fundraising-save-america-pac/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">self-serving
standards</span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;">…
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Trump's
remarks on a conservative radio show on Tuesday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[February
2022] </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">will
not only find a warm welcome in the Kremlin. They also will concern
allies standing alongside the US against Russia who fear for NATO's
future if Trump returns.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"I
went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said,
'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine, of
Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that's wonderful,"
Trump said in an interview on "The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton
Show."</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
ex-President added: "So Putin is now saying, 'It's independent,'
a large section of Ukraine. I said, 'How smart is that?' And he's
going to go in and be a peacekeeper. That's the strongest peace
force," Trump said. "We could use that on our southern
border. That's the strongest peace force I've ever seen. ... Here's a
guy who's very savvy. ... I know him very well. Very, very well."</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">...</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;">…
</span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Trump's
status as the likely favorite for the Republican nomination in 2024
-- and the possibility that he could return to power -- takes his
latest crowing over Putin's gangsterism to a new level. He's sending
the promise of future favors and approval of Putin's illegal land
seizures, which suggest he would do little to reverse them as
president.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Trump
lauded Putin in the interview Tuesday as a "tough cookie"
who loves his country and he insisted that he had stopped Putin from
invading Ukraine on his watch.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"I
knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I
said, 'You can't do it. You're not going to do it.' But I could see
that he wanted it," the former President said. In reality, Trump
suggested during his 2016 campaign that Russia could keep Crimea,
another Ukrainian territory which Putin had annexed in 2014. "The
people of Crimea, from what I've heard, would rather be with Russia
than where they were," Trump said, parroting a Kremlin talking
point (Collinson 1-3).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">On
Wednesday, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham insisted that former President
Donald Trump </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">had
made a “mistake”</span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><u>
</u></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">when
he referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "genius"
for his invasion of Ukraine.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">But
a mistake implies that Trump did it once -- unintentionally
misspeaking in a way that didn't represent his actual views.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Which
is, um, </span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/24/politics/donald-trump-praises-putin/index.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">not
what Trump did</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
day after he made … </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[his
initial comments]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
he effectively doubled down on them. "They say, 'Trump said
Putin's smart.' I mean, he's taking over a country for two dollars'
worth of sanctions," Trump told a crowd at a fundraiser at
Mar-a-Lago, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">according
to a recording of the event. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"I'd
say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country -- really a vast,
vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just
walking right in."</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Then,
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
a speech </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">at
the annual Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[March
2022]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
Trump, again, repeated his praise of Putin. "Yesterday reporters
asked me if I thought President Putin was smart," he said. "I
said, 'Of course, he's smart,' to which I was greeted with 'Oh,
that's such a terrible thing to say.'" I like to tell them,
'Yes, he's smart.'"</span></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fool
me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three
times, well, I must be just plain clueless.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
it's not just these three times that Trump has praised Putin. Not
even close!</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;">…<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">See,
the thing is, Trump's praise for Putin is a feature, not a bug. He
has long admired Putin's strongman tendencies and the power he exerts
over his people.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Which
means you shouldn't buy what Graham is selling here. Mistakes are
things people do unintentionally and then try to fix. Trump's praise
for Putin's invasion doesn't fit that bill (Cillizza “Donald” 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">S</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">en.
Lindsey Graham’s call for a Russian citizen to perform a </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">hit
job </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">on
Vladimir Putin is such a self-evidently terrible idea that even Ted
Cruz, himself a bottomless lode of 24-carat </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">wretched
thinking, </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">d</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">unked
on its </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">stupidity.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Graham
proposed Putin’s assassination on both a Thursday </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">broadcast
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[March
2022] </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">of
“Hannity” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">and
on his </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/lindseygrahamsc/status/1499574209567199235" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Twitter
feed</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
“Is there a Brutus in Russia?” Graham asked on Twitter. “The
only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country — and the world — a great
service.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
if addressing a five-year-old, Cruz used his brief tweet to explain
to his fellow Republican senator that the assassination of a foreign
head of state was not something that belonged in the American
playbook. Sanction Russia, Cruz argued, provide military aid to the
Ukrainians, boycott Russian gas and oil, but don’t encourage
someone to whack him.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
pitch to terminate Putin, Julius Caesar-style, may sound appealing.
Who among us has never wished a maximally violent end on an evil
dictator who is committing monstrous acts? But that’s not the way
our government works anymore. Assigning Putin’s death might be
plausible if we were already at war with Russia, but we’re not —
yet! And the unintended consequences of murdering Putin need our
consideration before we think of locking and loading.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">…</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
might be a different matter had Graham called for the assassination
of Putin after the United States declared war on Russia. In times of
absolute war, heads of state are legitimate targets. But no such
state of war currently exists between our two countries.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"> …</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">U.S.
sponsorship of Putin’s assassination also could easily backfire if
Russians interpreted his killing as an act of American escalation
that would unite them in favor of new acts of counter-escalation.
Russian citizens who share little affinity with Putin or his war
today could become patriotic Putinites overnight.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
horrible as the Ukraine war is, there are still ways for it to end
far better or far worse. Today, only one person in Russia appears to
have the power to end the invasion, and that’s the man who started
it. In the short term, Putin should be viewed — perversely — as a
potential asset of peace. The quick end to this war requires the West
to build more exit ramps for him than can be found on the Santa
Monica Freeway. Marking Putin for death would provide a prompt exit
for the Russian leader but not the exit ramp we need (Shafer 1-2).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday defended calling for Russians to
assassinate President Vladimir Putin, saying it would be the quickest
way to end the war in Ukraine.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
an interview on Fox News' "Fox and Friends," Graham said he
hopes someone in Russia will understand that Putin is "destroying
Russia and you need to take this guy out by any means possible."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
comment came after he floated the suggestion in a Fox News interview
Thursday night and again on Twitter.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"The
only people who can fix this are the Russian people," he wrote
in a second tweet. "Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to
live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest
of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step
up to the plate."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Russian
officials pounced on Graham's comments, with Kremlin press secretary
Dmitry Peskov telling reporters, "Unfortunately, in such an
extremely tense atmosphere, there is a hysterical escalation of
Russophobia. These days, not everyone manages to maintain sobriety, I
would even say sanity, and many lose their mind."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Russian ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said on Facebook
that Graham's statement was "unacceptable and outrageous"
and said the degree of Russophobia and hatred of Russia in the U.S.
is "off the scale."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"It
is impossible to believe that a senator of a country that promotes
its moral values as a 'guiding star' for all mankind could afford to
call for terrorism as a way to achieve Washington’s goals in the
international arena," he continued, demanding an official
explanation and condemnation of the "criminal" comments.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
responded to the ambassador in the Friday interview, saying he is
supporting a war criminal who is engaged in war crimes in front of
the world.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Republican senator also faced backlash from conservative members of
his own party.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">that the world needs leaders with "calm minds &
steady wisdom. Not blood thirsty warmongering politicians trying to
tweet tough by demanding assassinations."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">And
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., </span></span></span></span><a href="https://twitter.com/mattgaetz/status/1499589030907895818" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">tweeted</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
"When has Sen. Graham encouraging regime change ever ended
badly" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Shabad
1)?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mark
Sanford thinks the state of the Republican Party at the moment can be
explained entirely through the actions of his one-time colleague:
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"We
started in Congress together and he's very much of a different school
on these kinds of things and adapts where he needs to adapt to hold
power," the former South Carolina governor and House member
writes in a memoir – </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">titled
“Two Roads Diverged” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">--
out Tuesday, adding: "But I would use him as a canary in the
coalmine and the degree to which he has doubled, tripled and
quadrupled down on Trump says everything. Whether you like him or
not, he has a good political nose for his base."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That
is a correct assessment of Graham. And it's the only one that
explains how Graham went from an understudy to Sen. John McCain in
the early part of this decade to a full-fledged Trumper by the end of
it.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As
The New York Times put it in a recent profile of Graham:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"What
emerges from interviews with more than 60 people close to him, and
with the senator himself, is a narrative less of transformation than
of gyration — of an infinitely adaptable operator seeking
validation in the proximity to power. It is that yearning for
relevance, rooted in what he and others described as a childhood of
privation and loss, that makes Mr. Graham's story more than just a
case study of political survival in the age of Trump."</span></span></span></span></em></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Put
more simply: Graham likes to be close to power and influence -- and
will do (and say) whatever it takes to get there. His beliefs are,
generally speaking, fungible (Cillizza “How” 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lindsey
Graham is not very comfortable with the truth. That’s my “bless
your heart” genteel Southern way of saying the senior senator from
the great state of South Carolina is full of it. He’s a comfortable
liar. He’s shameless. He’s unprincipled. Untruth pours out of his
every pore, except when a blatant self-righteousness seeps out of
them first. He’s gotten worse over the years.<br />
<br />
…</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">The
examples have been piling up for years. The latest example of
Graham’s cravenness was on full display during hearings for Supreme
Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson. When he wasn’t grilling
Jackson about her faith, about how real was her Christianity, he was
making dubious remarks about race while his colleagues tried to
suggest Jackson was a friend of sexual predators. He blamed his
childishness on Democratic treatment of conservative nominees such as
Brett Kavanaugh. Never mind that a woman came forward with an ugly
allegation against Kavanaugh and that it would have been unseemly to
have not considered that in his nomination process. Graham and others
voted for him even though 4,500 tips to the FBI on Kavanaugh only led
to 10 interviews </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">(Bailey
1).</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
issue of child-pornography sentences is ripe for bad-faith partisan
exploitation for several reasons. It is hard to talk about, or
perhaps too easy to speak about demagogically—as when Senator
Lindsey Graham, in the hearing, interrupted Jackson to say that he’d
be happy to see anybody caught looking at any quantity of child
pornography on a computer sent to prison for fifty years—and added,
in reference to that criminal behavior itself, “You don’t think
that’s a bad thing.” (She noted that, of course, she thinks it’s
a horrible thing; she also noted that each of the perpetrators they’d
been talking about was someone whom “I sent to jail.”) When
Jackson noted that the tools judges have when sentencing include
supervised release, Graham expressed amazement that she would think
such a measure was “a bigger deterrent... versus putting them in
jail.” “No, Senator, I didn’t say ‘versus,’” Jackson
said. “That’s exactly what you said!” Graham responded. (It is
not what she said.) (Sorkin 3).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<br />
Never
mind that Graham voted to appoint Jackson to U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District Circuit. He now claims she’s a victory for the
“radical left.”<br />
<br />
Men like him can’t be shamed; only
men with a shred of integrity can be. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
can’t be reasoned with. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All
he cares about is power and proximity to even more power. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
isn’t fighting for better health care for needy residents of one of
the poorest states in the nation. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
isn’t fighting for the working-class, black, white or Latino. He
doesn’t care that thousands of vulnerable kids were forced back
into poverty when extended child tax credit payments were discounted
in January. He doesn’t care about everyday South Carolinians. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All
he cares about is Lindsey. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">He’s
in his element during Supreme Court hearings because he can act a
fool. That’s all he knows. That’s all he wants to know </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">(Bailey
2).</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Works
c</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">ited:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">B</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ailey,
Issac. “</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Lindsey
Graham </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">lays
the </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">F</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">ool
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">A</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">gain
at Kentanji Brown Jackson </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">H</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">earing.”
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i>Charlotte
Observer, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">March
25, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article259764145.html">https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article259764145.html</a></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ennett,
John T. “</span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">s
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gnoring
Lindsey Graham’s </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">arnings
about 2020 </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lection
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">bsession.”
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
16, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://rollcall.com/2022/02/16/donald-trump-is-ignoring-lindsey-grahams-warnings-about-2020-election-obsession/" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://rollcall.com/2022/02/16/donald-trump-is-ignoring-lindsey-grahams-warnings-about-2020-election-obsession/</a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Cillizza,
Chris. “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">alling
Vladimir Putin a '</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">G</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">enius'
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">as </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">N</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">istake.”
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN, </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">March
3, 2022. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-ukraine-graham/index.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/03/politics/trump-putin-russia-ukraine-graham/index.html</a></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cillizza,
Chris. “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">How Lindsey Graham </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">s
the </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">P</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">erfect
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">V</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">essel </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">U</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">nderstand
Donald Trump's </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">eath
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">G</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">rip on the
GOP.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN, </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">August
24, 2021. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/24/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-mark-sanford-2022/index.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/24/politics/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-mark-sanford-2022/index.html</a></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Collinson,
Stephen. “</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ides with
Putin as Biden </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ries
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">top
a </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ar.”
</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN, </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">February
23, 2022. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-joe-biden/index.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/23/politics/donald-trump-vladimir-putin-joe-biden/index.html</a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Levin,
Bess. “Lindsey Graham Spent Six Years with His Head up Trump’s
Ass for Nothing.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Vanity
Fair, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
2, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/02/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-rino"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/02/lindsey-graham-donald-trump-rino</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Shabad,
Rebecca. </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Lindsey Graham </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">efends
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">alling
for Russians to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ssassinate
Putin.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>NBC
News, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
4, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-lindsey-graham-defends-calling-russians-assassinate-putin-rcna18703"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/sen-lindsey-graham-defends-calling-russians-assassinate-putin-rcna18703</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Shafer,
Jack. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On the
Stupidity of Lindsey Graham’s Putin Death Sentence.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">March 4, 2022.
Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/04/lindsey-graham-assassination-putin-dumb-00014309">https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/04/lindsey-graham-assassination-putin-dumb-00014309</a></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">orkin,
Amy Davidson. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Republicans’ Wild Attacks at Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation
Hearing.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>The New
Yorker, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">March 24,
2022. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-republicans-wild-attacks-at-ketanji-brown-jacksons-confirmation-hearing" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-republicans-wild-attacks-at-ketanji-brown-jacksons-confirmation-hearing</span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-61044228880589550212022-04-24T14:29:00.005-07:002022-04-24T14:30:42.801-07:00The Amoralists: Lindsey Graham, Part Four; Back and Forth<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Senator
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., couldn't care less if you think he is a
hypocrite for working with the president.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Graham
sat down with CNN's Kate Bolduan </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[June
2018]</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
who asked the senator when he could trust the words coming out of
President Trump's mouth. She also highlighted Graham's </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">past
scuffles and his current coziness </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
the president.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"I'm
going to sum it up," Bolduan said. "You went from hating
him, making fun of him, finding peace with trying to work with him
where you can work with him. Then, he comes out and hits you again on
whatever he decided to on a given day. Do you trust him now?"</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
senator responded that it's not about trusting the president — it's
about working together to get "things that are big and matter"
done. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Here's
what I got: I got a relationship with the president at a time when I
think he needs allies," Graham said. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bolduan
interrupted, asking, "People say this is two-faced. Where's the
Lindsey Graham of standing up to Donald Trump? What do you say?"</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Graham
responded that he would let the president know when he thinks he's
wrong, but that he didn't receive this kind of criticism when working
with President Obama.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
know how the game’s played and I don’t give a damn. I’m going
to do what’s best for the country."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Graham
has recently criticized Trump for his approach of handling Russia and
the Mueller investigation. Earlier this week, Graham disagreed with
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-russia-g7_us_5b1d314be4b09d7a3d73c3dc" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Trump's
desire to add </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></a><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-russia-g7_us_5b1d314be4b09d7a3d73c3dc" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">Russia
back into G-7 and called the move "a mistake."</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
also </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">distanced
himself from the president after his #spygates tweets.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
Graham had </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">pointed
out that “a confidential informant is not a spy” and said he is
not buying </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
Rudy Giuliani's claim that Mueller is trying to frame Trump.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"So
if you don’t like me working with President Trump to make the world
a better place," Graham said, "I don’t give a shit”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Ramirez
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[September
2019] </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Senator
Lindsey Graham, once among Donald Trump’s harshest critics, is set
to lead the charge to defend him in the court of public opinion as
Democrats make the case for </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">impeachment</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
Republican senator from South Carolina has rejected the allegation
that Trump betrayed America’s national security interests </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">by
pressing the Ukrainian president </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"> Volodymyr
Zelenskiy, to investigate political rival Joe Biden days after
freezing some military aid to the country.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Graham
and other allies of the president have sought to fight back by
arguing that a whistleblower who raised the alarm was not on the call
between Trump and Zelenskiy but based his complaint on officials’
recollections of it.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
America you can’t even get a parking ticket based on hearsay
testimony,” Graham tweeted on Saturday.<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;">
</span>“But you can impeach a president? I certainly hope
not.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
senator played golf with Trump, as well as professionals Gary Player
and Annika Sörenstam, at the president’s club in Sterling,
Virginia on Saturday morning, according to a White House pool report.
It seemed likely Trump and Graham had plenty of time to strategise
how to reclaim the political narrative.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
was overheard saying: “This is Kavanaugh on steroids! This is
hearsay – and this person has bias” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Smith
1, 2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">In
2016, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina praised the integrity
of the nation’s elections system, criticizing claims by </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Donald
J. Trump </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
the vote was “rigged.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Like
most Americans, I have confidence in our democracy and our election
system,” Mr. Graham </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">said
in a statement on Twitter</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
“If he loses, it will not be because the system is ‘rigged’ but
because he failed as a candidate.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
a difference four years makes.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Graham, who </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">has
transformed </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">during
that time to become one of Mr. Trump’s most loyal allies, now seems
determined to reverse the election’s outcome on the president’s
behalf. On Friday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[November
2020]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
he phoned Brad Raffensperger, the secretary of state of Georgia and a
fellow Republican, wondering about the possibility of a slight
tinkering with the state’s elections outcome.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">What
if, Mr. Graham suggested on the call, according to Mr. Raffensperger,
he had the power to toss out all of the mail-in votes from counties
with high rates of questionable signatures on ballots?</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">In
an </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">interview
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">with
The Washington Post, Mr. Raffensperger said he was stunned that Mr.
Graham had appeared to suggest that he find a way to toss legally
cast ballots.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
sure looked like he was wanting to go down that road,” Mr.
Raffensperger said of the call from Mr. Graham, the chairman of the
powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr.
Graham seems bent on making every attempt to engineer a second term
for Mr. Trump, despite President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s clear
victory. The senator has suggested that this year’s vote represents
the Republican Party’s last gasp, unless something is done to
reverse the current state of election operations — the same system
he praised in 2016.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system,
there will never be another Republican president elected again,”
Mr. Graham said on Sunday on Fox News.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
phone call to Mr. Raffensperger was one in a string of episodes in
which Mr. Graham, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">who
won his own re-election bid </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">t</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">his
month, has tried to cast doubt on the presidential election’s
outcome, demanding that Mr. Trump not concede the race to Mr. Biden
despite the Democrat’s decisive Electoral College victory —</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">306
to 232 electoral votes</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
an appearance last week on Fox News, Mr. Graham claimed that Nevada’s
vote-counting system had failed to verify signatures because the
software was turned off, an accusation that had been refuted.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
Tuesday, Mr. Graham’s office said he had raised concerns about vote
counting in Georgia as well as in Arizona and Nevada “as a United
States senator who is worried about the integrity of the election
process nationally, when it comes to vote by mail” (Saul 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Regarding
the Attack on the Capitol Building January 6, 2021</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Let's
see what Lindsey Graham thought on the evening of January 6, a speech
that sounds a lot like what many Republican leaders were saying that
week.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump
and I have had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way. Oh my
God, I hate it. From my point of view, he's been a consequential
president. But today...first thing you'll see.</span></p>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">All
I can say is: Count me out. Enough is enough. I've tried to be
helpful. But when the Wisconsin supreme court ruled 4 to 3 that they
didn't violate the constitution of Wisconsin, I agree with the 3 but
I accept the 4. If Al Gore can accept 5-4 he's not president, I can
accept Wisconsin 4-3.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pennsylvania—it
went to the second circuit. So much for all the judges being in
Trump's pocket. They said, "No, you're wrong." I accept the
Pennsylvania second circuit, that Trump's lawsuit wasn't right.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Georgia—they
say the secretary of state took the law in his own hands, that he
changed the election laws unlawfully. A federal judge said no. I
accept the federal judge, even if I don't agree with it.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fraud—they
say there's 66,000 people under 18 voted. How many people believe
that? I asked, "Give me 10." And they had one. They said
8,000 felons in Arizona voted. "Give me 10." Haven't gotten
one. Does that say there's problems in every election? I don't buy
this. Enough's enough. We've got to end it.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
path from Trump's attempts to overturn the election loss to January 6
was completely and abundantly clear to everyone. The mob stormed the
Capitol to stop the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden and keep
Trump in office. But now, we hear, this is all being politicized
</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">(Holmes
1-2).</span></span></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">As
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">lawmakers
were being evacuated from the Capitol on Jan. 6, Sen. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Lindsey
Graham </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">(R-S.C.)
reportedly told the Senate sergeant-at-arms to use guns to quell the
people who had breached the building.</span></span></blockquote>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">According
to a long-form piece </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">published
by The Washington Post on Sunday</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
the Republican senator was furious that lawmakers were being forced
to evacuate and yelled at the Senate sergeant-at-arms, "What are
you doing? Take back the Senate! You’ve got guns. Use them.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">We
give you guns for a reason,” Graham reportedly continued. “Use
them.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">According
to the Post's report, Graham also called former </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">President
Trump’s </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">daughter
</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ivanka
Trump</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
giving her suggestions on what her father should say to appeal to the
rioters to calm down and vacate the Capitol.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
need to get these people out of here,” Graham reportedly said to
Ivanka Trump over the phone. “This thing is going south. This is
not good. You’re going to have to tell these people to stand down.
Stand down.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
South Carolina senator was reportedly enraged by former President
Trump's subsequent video message to the rioters, in which he said,
"We have to have peace. So go home. We love you, you’re very
special."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"They
could have blown the building up. They could have killed us all. They
could've destroyed the government," Graham said to reporters one
day after the breach. "Lethal force should have been used. ...
We dodged a major bullet. If this is not a wake-up call I don't know
what is." </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Graham
was among the most vocal Republican lawmakers to decry the
insurrection and to tie Trump to the incident, though he ultimately
did not vote to convict the former president in his second
impeachment trial (Choi 1, 2). </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">With
Trump now out of office, banned from social media, and fresh off a
trial in which a bipartisan majority of senators voted for his
conviction, the Republican Party is polarized. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a name="Ja5ljE"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
the pro-Trump side stands Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). Graham was one
of Trump’s most loyal supporters during his time in office, but
that momentarily changed following the January 6 insurrection when
Graham gave a speech distancing himself from Trump.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="wBfCAJ"></a>
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Count
me out. Enough is enough.” Graham </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">said</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
quickly had second thoughts about this stance, traveling with Trump
during his last trip as president and shamelessly defending Trump on
TV.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">If
Graham’s Sunday morning appearance on Fox News Sunday [February
2021] is an indication, his loyalty to the former president is
stronger than ever.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump is the most vibrant member of the Republican Party,” Graham
said, distancing himself from former UN ambassador Nikki Haley’s
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">comments
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">about
Trump not having a future in the GOP. “The Trump movement is alive
and well ... all I can say is that the most potent force in the
Republican Party is President Trump.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Those
comments came at the end of an interview that began with Graham
suggesting Republicans will go as far as to retaliate for Trump’s
second impeachment by impeaching Vice President Kamala Harris if they
take back the House next year.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), an avid Trump supporter who voted to acquit
the former president during his second impeachment trial, joined
lawmakers' calls for a 9/11-style commission into the Jan. 6 Capitol
siege while on "Fox News Sunday."</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
seems to be calculating that Trumpism represents the Republican
Party’s best bet to retake one or both chambers of Congress next
year </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Rupar
2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Momentum
has been </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">growing
since last month </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">for
a bipartisan commission to investigate the lethal attack on the
Capitol, and is one of the last ways Congress could attempt to hold
Trump accountable for the violence, the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">New
York Times reports</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it
never happens again, and I want to make sure that the Capitol
footprint can be better defended next time,” Graham said on Fox
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[February
2021]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
He also </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">made
clear on Sunday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
he believes Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">condemnation
of Trump fo</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">llowing
his acquittal was a mistake and could come back to haunt Republicans
in 2022 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Rummier
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">n
the immediate aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, a number of
Republicans, even those who protected </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">from
impeachment, paid lip service to the idea of a probe into the events
of that day. “We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened,”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">said
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
February, “and make sure it never happens again.” But it was
always obvious they didn’t </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>actually
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">support
such an undertaking. Any real investigation into the deadly riot and
everything that led to it would surely find </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">fault
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">not
only in their demagogic leader, but in themselves. Graham and the
rest of the Senate GOP shot down legislation to establish such a
commission in May </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lutz
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #1d2228; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sandra
Garza, the longtime partner of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick,
recalled confronting Sen. Lindsey Graham while advocating for a
bipartisan commission to investigate January 6.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: "Yahoo Sans", YahooSans, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Garza
told The New York Times that she and Sicknick supported former
President Donald Trump and had doubts about the 2020 election. She
met with Graham and other Republican senators in May [2021],
alongside other officers, as the Senate considered approving the
commission.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But,
Garza said, Graham appeared bored and distracted while D.C.
Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone recounted his experiences
during the riot, so she confronted the South Carolina senator.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
feel like you're being very disrespectful, and you're looking out the
window and tapping your fingers on the desk,'" she recalled
telling Graham. Another Republican senator then tried to tell her she
was misreading Graham's body language, further infuriating her,
according to The Times.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">South
Carolina's junior senator, Tim Scott, was also at the meeting and
said that both he and Graham were in favor of accountability, but not
a commission.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a statement at the time, Graham said that he would not support the
commission, because its "approach will turn into a partisan food
fight." … (Metzger 2).</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a name="page-title"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Choi,
Joseph. “Graham Told Officers on Jan. 6 To Use Their Guns on
Rioters: Report.” <i>The Hill, </i>November 1, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/579453-graham-told-officers-on-jan-6-to-use-their-guns-on-rioters-report">https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/579453-graham-told-officers-on-jan-6-to-use-their-guns-on-rioters-report</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Holmes,
Jack. "Let's </span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Compare What Lindsey Graham Said on January 6 to What He Said One
Year Later.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Esquire,
</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">January
6, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a38684158/january-6-anniversary-wall-street-journal-lindsey-graham/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a38684158/january-6-anniversary-wall-street-journal-lindsey-graham/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">L</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">utz,
Eric. Republicans Are Already Turning the January 6 Investigation
into a Clown Show.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Vanity
Fair, </span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">July
20, 2021.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">
Net.
</span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: #55308d;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2021/07/republicans-already-turning-january-6-investigation-into-a-clown-show</span></span></u></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><u><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span></span></u></span></span></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">M</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">etzger,
Bryan. “</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Fallen
Capitol Police </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">O</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">fficer
Brian Sicknick's </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">artner
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">C</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">alled
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">O</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">ut
Sen. Lindsey Graham for </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">B</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">eing
'</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">V</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">ery
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">D</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">isrespectful'
during a Jan. 6 </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">C</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">ommission
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">M</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">eeting.”
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">Yahoo
News, </span></span></i></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">January
4, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://news.yahoo.com/fallen-capitol-police-officer-brian-203018252.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://news.yahoo.com/fallen-capitol-police-officer-brian-203018252.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ramirez,
Izzie. “Lindsey Graham on Being Called a Hypocrite for Cozying Up
to Trump: ‘I Don’t Give a Sh*t’.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Salon,
</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">June
15, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2018/06/15/lindsey-graham-on-being-called-a-hypocrite-for-cozying-up-to-trump-i-do-not-give-a-sht/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.salon.com/2018/06/15/lindsey-graham-on-being-called-a-hypocrite-for-cozying-up-to-trump-i-do-not-give-a-sht/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">R</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ummier,
Orion. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lindsey
Graham </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">V</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">oices
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">upport
for 9/11-</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tyle
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">robe
into Capitol </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">iege.”
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Axios,
</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">February
14, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.axios.com/capitol-siege-trump-republicans-bf26f1cf-f7fa-456b-9629-252c80d5dd8d.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.axios.com/capitol-siege-trump-republicans-bf26f1cf-f7fa-456b-9629-252c80d5dd8d.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">R</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">upar,
Aaron. “</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lindsey
Graham’s </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">L</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">atest
Fox News Sunday </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ppearance
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">H</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ighlights
the GOP’s </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">dentity
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">C</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">risis.”
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Vox,
</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">February
14, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/2/14/22282840/lindsey-graham-bill-cassidy-impeachment-votes"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">https://www.vox.com/2021/2/14/22282840/lindsey-graham-bill-cassidy-impeachment-votes</span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><a name="link-4c8bde63"></a>
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">aul,
Stephanie. “</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Lindsey
Graham’s Long-Shot Mission </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">T</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o
Unravel the Election Results.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">New
York Times, </span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">November
17, 2020. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/us/politics/lindsey-graham-georgia-trump-biden.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/us/politics/lindsey-graham-georgia-trump-biden.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mith,
David. G</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">raham
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">repares
Trump </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">efence
as </span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">mpeachment
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">F</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ury
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ntensifies.”
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Guardian, </span></i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">September
28, 2019. Net.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/28/donald-trump-impeachment-lindsey-graham-republicans-jared-kushner-ivanka">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/sep/28/donald-trump-impeachment-lindsey-graham-republicans-jared-kushner-ivanka</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
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</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-1793358789264305852022-04-21T12:57:00.004-07:002022-04-21T12:57:37.343-07:00The Amoralists: Lindsey Graham, Part Three; Slow Motion Transformation<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nobody
is a bigger thorn in President Obama's side right now than Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). And nothing could be better for Graham's
political prospects in 2014.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
has been such an outspoken critic of Obama on Libya that the
president called him out by name at last week's press conference</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
"If Sen. (John) McCain and Sen. Graham, and others want to go
after somebody, they should go after me," Obama said after
Graham and McCain criticized U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham's
response? He very quickly released </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
full-throated statement </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">saying
Obama "failed as Commander in Chief before, during, and after
the attack." Graham then upped the ante even more, appearing on
NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday to repeatedly accuse the Obama Administration of burying bad news before an election.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham,
of course, is a top GOP voice on matters of foreign policy, so to see
him jousting with the president isn't terribly surprising.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
it's hard not to look at these things in a political context, and
Graham has lots to gain personally by becoming a high-profile critic
of Obama.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After
two election cycles in which tea party and conservative groups have
taken down a number of incumbent senators and establishment
candidates who were viewed as insufficiently conservative, Graham now
finds himself as the RINO-du-jour for many of these groups in the
2014 primary season.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">While
Graham is a pretty down-the-line conservative on matters of foreign
policy, socially and economically conservative groups have never been
happy with him -- particularly coming from a reliably red state --
and Graham has irritated conservatives by voting for Obama's Supreme
Court nominees on the Senate Judiciary Committee and working with
Democrats on climate change.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[It
becomes tougher to primary out] the guy you're trying to unseat [when
he’s] on TV every day saying something hugely critical of the
Democratic president (Blake 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republican
Sen. Lindsey Graham is continuing his criticism of the president and
the Obama administration, saying he [Obama] is on his way to earn
another “lie of the year.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Last
year he got the lie of the year award for saying, ‘If you like your
health care, you can keep it.’ He’s going to have back-to-back
titles by saying this,” Graham said Monday on Fox News’s
“Cavuto.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham’s
latest attack — referencing Politifact declaring President Barack
Obama’s health care comment “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lie
of the Year</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
2013 — follows the president’s </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">pre-Super
Bowl interview</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">with
Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
the interview, Obama dismissed charges that they did not call it [the
Benghazi killing] a “terror” attack to benefit his reelection
campaign.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That’s
what folks like you are telling them. And what I’m saying is, that
is inaccurate,” Obama said. “We revealed to the American people
exactly what we understood at the time. The notion that we would hide
the ball for political purposes when a week later we all said in fact
there was a terrorist attack taking place and the day after I said it
was an act of terror, that wouldn’t be a very good cover-up.”</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">However,
Graham said the American people were misled and that Benghazi isn’t
a story pushed by Republicans or Fox News.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
will catch up with him because they’re misleading us and the
president is still misleading us. You would have to suspend
disbelief, as someone famously said, to believe what the president
said to Bill O’Reilly,” the senator said (McCalmont 1).</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Senator
Lindsey Graham of South Carolina returned Monday [June 1, 2015] to
the neighborhood where he was raised to announce that he is running
for president, injecting a hawkish foreign policy voice into a
crowded field of Republican contenders.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Graham, 59, has said his fear that the world is “exploding in
terror and violence” inspired him to run for the White House. He
will try to convince voters that a platform of pragmatism at home and
“security through strength” abroad is the formula to give
Republicans the best chance to beat Hillary Rodham Clinton if she
becomes the Democratic nominee (Rappeport 1).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">South
Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham hit back against the far right wing of
his party a day after the CNN Republican debate in Las Vegas, saying
Barack Obama “is my President” and calling the anger against him
“unhealthy.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">To
those people who think Obama’s a Muslim who was born in Kenya, I
lost you a long time ago,” Graham said Wednesday on CNN’s “New
Day.” “There’s a dislike of Obama in my party that’s
unhealthy, there was a dislike for President (George W.) Bush in the
Democratic party that was unhealthy. He is my President.”</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
said Obama called him Tuesday to talk about working with Iraq’s new
prime minister, but the South Carolina senator was also candid about
Obama’s handling of ISIS.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
think he has screwed this up 10 ways to Sunday, but Bush made his
fair share of mistakes too,” Graham said.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
accepted some credit for his one-liners and strong performance </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">during
Tuesday’s undercard debate</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
saying “I am hilarious.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Throughout
the night he attacked Donald Trump’s proposal to temporarily ban
Muslims from entering the country and warned against pushing more
Muslims into the arms of ISIS.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
has consistently been a standout performer on the undercard stage,
but he has yet to earn enough support in the polls to force his way
onto the main stage (LoBianco 1).</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Since
Trump’s Presidential campaign announcement last June, Sen. Graham
has repeatedly warned about the dangers Trump poses not only to the
Republican Party, but America as a whole:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b><span style="font-variant: normal;">July
2015: </span></b></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">“I
think [Donald Trump is] uninformed about the situation regarding the
illegal immigrant population. I think he has hijacked the debate. I
think he is a wrecking ball for the future of the Republican party
with the Hispanic community and we need to push back.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background: transparent;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/12/lindsey-graham-donald-trump_n_7779564.html?"><br />
</a></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><br /></span></span></b></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">August
</span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><a href="http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2015/08/25/sen-graham-calls-gop-rival-trump-immigration-plan-stupid-and-illegal/">2015:</a></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“Well,
Donald Trump’s plan on immigration is stupid. … You’re not
going to get 11 million people out of this country. That’s just not
practical, that’s going to kill the Republican Party. It’s
self-deportation on steroids.”</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">December
2015:</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“You
know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to
hell. He’s a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn’t
represent my party. He doesn’t represent the values that the men
and women who wear the uniform are fighting for. … He’s the ISIL
man of the year.”</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">December
2015:</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“I
believe Donald Trump is destroying the Republican chances to win an
election that we can’t afford to lose. I believe we’re losing
the Hispanic vote because they think we don’t like them…</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">January
2016, on choosing between Trump and Cruz:</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“It’s
like being shot or poisoned. What does it really matter?”</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>March 2016:</b></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“The
bottom line is that I believe Donald Trump would be an absolute,
utter disaster for the Republican Party, destroy conservatism as we
know it. … </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Nobody
is going to listen to you about your economic plan or your ability
to defend the nation if you’re going to deport their grandmother.
… Mr. Trump has taken every problem we have had with Hispanics and
poured gasoline on it.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">March
2016:</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“If
Trump is the standard bearer, it’s not about 2016, it’s about
losing the heart and soul of the conservative movement. … So it’s
no longer about winning the election for me, it’s trying to
salvage a party that I love and conservatism as I know it.”</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><b>April 2016,</b> o</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">n
running as Trump’s VP:</span></b></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
“That’s like buying a ticket on the Titanic.”</span></span></span></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;">…</p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">May
2016</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/lindsey-graham-never-trump">:</a><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span></span></b></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“…
I think Donald Trump is going to places where very few people have
gone and I’m not going with him. Eating a taco is probably not
going to fix the problems we have with Hispanics. I think embracing
Donald Trump is embracing demographic death” </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Ortiz
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[In
Volume One of Obama’s </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">third
book,</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“A
Promised Land,” Obama compared Lindsey Graham to] </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
guy in a heist movie “who double-crosses everyone to save his own
skin” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Grady
3).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">If
they ever write the history of the phrase “too little, too late,”
Lindsey Graham ought to get his own chapter.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This
might be a good time to remember what Graham said in a tweet in May
2016, when Trump was still just running for president: “If we
nominate Trump, we will get destroyed … and we will deserve it.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Trump
did get nominated. Then he got elected. And Lindsey Graham, senator
from South Carolina, supposedly a man of power and integrity, has
spent the last four years running as fast as he could from what he
knew was true.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He’s
one of many Carolinians who helped enable Trump like bartenders
serving a drunk. …</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once,
Graham was known as an independent thinker. But under Trump, Graham
fulfilled his apparent destiny: He became one of those little birds
that eats bugs off the back of a rhino.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">For
four years, he had a perfect view of what the rhino did to our
country. And by the time he hopped off, it was too little, too late
(Tomlinson 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">perhaps
nothing has cemented Mr. Graham’s standing in Mr. Trump’s world
as much as his performance at the divisive Supreme Court confirmation
hearing for the future Justice Kavanaugh, who faced allegations of
sexual assault from Christine Blasey Ford. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">His
finger-wagging, lip-curling performance — “Boy, you all want
power — God, I hope you never get it,” he snarled — was
lampooned<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><u>
</u></span>on “Saturday Night Live.” But Mr. Trump loved it.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wow!
Remind me not to make you mad,” the president told Mr. Graham on a
private call, the senator said </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Stolberg
2).</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-right: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Senator
Lindsey Graham, the blunt-speaking South Carolina Republican, vented
to reporters on Thursday outside the hearing room where the Senate
Judiciary Committee was hearing explosive testimony about sexual
assault allegations against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President
Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Then
he went back inside and really let loose.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
you want to do is destroy this guy’s life, hold this seat open and
hope you win in 2020,” Mr. Graham, red-faced and dropping all
pretenses of legislative comity, yelled at his Democratic colleagues.
“This is the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">With
those words, Mr. Graham all but cemented a slow-motion public
political transformation over the past two years — from an
anti-Trump, maverick Republican senator who often sought legislative
compromise to Mr. Trump’s closest ally and most ardent defender.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
one of Mr. Trump’s rivals for the presidency in 2016, Mr. Graham
called him “the world’s biggest jackass,” a “race-baiting
xenophobic religious bigot” and a “kook” unfit to be president.
For his part, Mr. Trump responded by calling Mr. Graham “an idiot”
and “not as bright, honestly, as Rick Perry.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
after Mr. Trump was inaugurated, Mr. Graham gradually changed his
tune. He was spotted playing golf with Mr. Trump and chatting on the
phone with the president. He has occasionally taken issue with Mr.
Trump’s tweets, but has largely supported his agenda.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
longtime observers of politics in Washington, it has been a
remarkable change, underscored recently by the death of Senator John
McCain of Arizona, who was Mr. Graham’s best friend in Washington
and one of the president’s fiercest critics.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There
were those in both parties who might have once thought that Mr.
Graham would assume Mr. McCain’s mantle as the straight-talking
Republican in the Senate, challenging his own party and frequently
working with Democratic colleagues to reach bipartisan compromises.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
Mr. Graham’s increasingly cozy relationship with Mr. Trump suggests
that such expectations are misplaced.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">During
the first two years of the administration, Mr. Graham has supported
the president’s plans to build up the military, end the Iran
nuclear deal, cut taxes, eliminate regulations and reorient the
nation’s foreign policy.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">on
Thursday, Mr. Graham became the fiercest defender of the president’s
choice to replace Anthony M. Kennedy on the Supreme Court in the face
of explosive allegations of sexual misconduct.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
almost two hours, Mr. Graham — and the rest of the Republicans on
the Judiciary Committee — sat silently during the testimony of
Christine Blasey Ford, the research psychologist who has accused
Judge Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her in high school.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
when it came time for Mr. Kavanaugh to testify, Mr. Graham, who is a
former Air Force lawyer, could no longer sit still.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">With
Mr. Kavanaugh sitting before him, Mr. Graham assailed the Democrats
on the panel. He accused them of merely wanting to accumulate power.
And he dared his Republican colleagues to vote against Mr.
Kavanaugh’s nomination.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">If
you vote no, you’re legitimizing the most despicable thing I have
seen in my time in politics,” Mr. Graham said, his voice rising in
a way that is rarely seen in Senate hearings. Turning again to the
Democrats to his left, he fumed: “You want this seat. I hope you
never get it.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
position is a reversal of sorts for Mr. Graham; throughout 2016, he
supported Republican political tactics to block former President
Barack Obama from filling a similar vacancy on the Supreme Court.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Graham is up for re-election in 2020, and there is certainly no
political harm for him in binding himself to the president in one of
the most Trump-friendly states in the country.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
is not yet known whether the dramatic and emotional performance will
help persuade his Republican colleagues to vote for Judge Kavanaugh’s
nomination in the face of the allegations by Dr. Blasey and two other
women.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
one thing is clear: The unleashed anger is certain to be noticed by
the president, who had pledged the evening before that he would watch
the testimony of Mr. Kavanaugh and his accuser (Shear 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Blake,
Aaron. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham: Obama’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">orst
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">E</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">nemy
— and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">B</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">est
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">F</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">riend.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Washington Post,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November 19, 2012.
Net.
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2012/11/19/lindsey-graham-obamas-worst-enemy-and-best-friend/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2012/11/19/lindsey-graham-obamas-worst-enemy-and-best-friend/</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">G</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">rady,
Constance. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">is
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">N</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ew
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">emoir,
Obama </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">efends
— and </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ritiques
— </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">is
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">L</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">egacy.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Vox, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November
19, 2020. Net.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21573728/barack-obama-memoir-promised-land-review">https://www.vox.com/culture/21573728/barack-obama-memoir-promised-land-review</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oBianco,
Tom. “</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">alls
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ut
‘</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">U</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nhealthy’
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">islike
of </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">is
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">P</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">arty
toward Obama.” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN,</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
December 16, 2015. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/16/politics/lindsey-graham-obama-unhealthy/index.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cnn.com/2015/12/16/politics/lindsey-graham-obama-unhealthy/index.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ortiz,
Gabe. “</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">12
Times Lindsey Graham Rebuked Donald Trump’s Candidacy.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>America’s
Voice, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">May
24, 2016. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://americasvoice.org/blog/12-times-lindsey-graham-rebuked-donald-trumps-candidacy/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://americasvoice.org/blog/12-times-lindsey-graham-rebuked-donald-trumps-candidacy/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rappeport,
Alan. “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham Enters White House Race </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">w</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ith
Emphasis on National Security.” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">June
1, 2015. Net.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/us/politics/lindsey-graham-presidential-campaign.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer">https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/02/us/politics/lindsey-graham-presidential-campaign.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">cCalmont,
Lucy. “</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham:
Obama's '</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ack-to-</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ack'
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ies.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
3, 2014. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/lindsey-graham-barack-obama-103050"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/lindsey-graham-barack-obama-103050</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Shear,
Michael D. “</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Furious
Lindsey Graham Calls Kavanaugh Hearing ‘the Most Unethical Sham’.”
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">September
27, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/us/politics/lindsey-graham-kavanaugh-hearing.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/us/politics/lindsey-graham-kavanaugh-hearing.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stolberg,
Sheryl </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Gay</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
“</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
Happened to Lindsey Graham? He’s Become a Conservative ‘Rock
Star’.” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times,</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">November
2, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/us/politics/lindsey-graham-trump-midterms.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/us/politics/lindsey-graham-trump-midterms.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tomlinson,
Tommy. “</span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
My Mind: Lindsey Graham Tops </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
Wall </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">f
Shame </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">o</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">f
Trump Enablers </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">f</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rom
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">t</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">he
Carolinas.” </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">WFAE
90.7 Charlotte, </span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">January
11, 2021. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.wfae.org/opinion/2021-01-11/on-my-mind-lindsey-graham-tops-the-wall-of-shame-of-trump-enablers-from-the-carolinas"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.wfae.org/opinion/2021-01-11/on-my-mind-lindsey-graham-tops-the-wall-of-shame-of-trump-enablers-from-the-carolinas</span></span></a></p>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span>
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<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-60731347722170392832022-04-17T11:23:00.002-07:002022-04-17T11:23:21.135-07:00The Amoralists: Lindsey Graham, Part Two; Where Senators Used To Be<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
one thing I've learned from being John McCain's friend, you can
survive that dynamic if you're really committed to what you believe
in and don't sell people short. I have been in so many scrapes with
John, whether it be detainee policy, campaign finance reform, the
Gang of 14 or immigration and the war. What allowed John to go from
all of those issues to being the nominee [is] just a sense of purpose
and a belief in your position, and a core belief [that] this is the
best for the country. And those beliefs are tested the most when you
argue with your friends. The easiest thing in politics is to beat on
your political foes, because there's a reward from your base. The
hardest thing -- ask [Sen.] Joe Lieberman [I-Conn.] -- in politics is
to tell that base of yours for many years, "I can't help you
here." … (Interview 2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a campaign that needs all the laughs it can get, much of the mirth
among [2008] Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s band of
travelers is generated by his close friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
often as not recently, Graham has been the warm-up act for McCain at
campaign rallies in battleground states, and the South Carolina
Republican comes out with laughers, like this one in talking about
McCain’s wife, Cindy:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">She
is classy, she is beautiful, she is smart, she owns a beer
distributorship. For a Navy guy, John McCain has hit the mother
lode.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
Durango, Colorado, in an event on a high school football field,
Graham pointed to his own lack of athletic prowess when he was
growing up.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">You
know, I played high school football for four years -- first time I’ve
ever been on the field,” he said.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
when the crowd cheered him on in Zanesville, Ohio, he said: “I
didn’t realize how big I was in Ohio. Yeah, I’ve gained 20 pounds
on this campaign. I’m getting bigger every day.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Graham
is able to hang around McCain so much in the days leading up to
Election Day November 4 because he is coasting along in his bid for a
new six-year term against a weak Democratic opponent, Bob Conley.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So
instead of campaigning for himself in South Carolina, Graham over the
past week has been at McCain’s side at rallies in Colorado, New
Mexico, Iowa and North Carolina.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cindy
McCain describes Graham as McCain’s best friend and McCain himself
in the past has affectionately introduced him as “that little jerk”
and teased him about his Southern drawl.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He’s
goofy,” said McCain senior adviser Nicolle Wallace. “He just
lights up McCain’s spirit with his performance on the trail and his
mood.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
a campaign that is basically a family feud among three members of the
clubby 100-member U.S. Senate -- McCain of Arizona versus Democrats
Barack Obama of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware -- Graham is
enjoying taking shots at his opponents on the other side of the
aisle.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
takes special pleasure in skewering “Joe the Biden” for the
loquacious Biden’s tendency to talk himself into trouble, such as
his recent comment that Obama would be bound to face an international
crisis early in his presidency, which gave McCain a new line of
attack.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He’s
the sound-bite machine that keeps on giving,” Graham says. “Keep
it up, Joe!”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
on Obama himself: “You’ve seen his book, ‘The Audacity of
Hope?’ He’s got a sequel coming out: ‘The Times I Stood Up To
The Left.’ It’s a short read.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">McCain
had an ally in Graham when they tried to get Republicans to support
an immigration deal in 2007 that triggered a conservative revolt and
almost derailed McCain’s presidential bid.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.31in; margin-top: 0.31in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
have been hanging around this guy for about 10 years now,” Graham
said. “I have been into every fight he’s got me involved in
Washington, and I’ve got a few scars to show for it, but I wouldn’t
have it any other way” </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Holland
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">By
the 2008 campaign, the two [Graham and McCain] were inseparable.
Graham found a role as the court jester who kept things light even
when there seemed little to laugh about. He remained by the
candidate’s side on election night. The following day, Graham
stayed with the McCains at their ranch outside Sedona, Ariz. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
month later, Graham flew with McCain to the Chicago campaign
headquarters of President-elect Obama to discuss issues like
immigration and detainee policy and how the two of them might be able
to work with the new administration. Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm
Emanuel, was there. Graham and Emanuel each served as their
candidates’ negotiators for the presidential debates, and Graham
recalled: “We were able to knock this thing out pretty quickly. And
I really respected him because if he told me he’d do something, he
would.” That day in Chicago, according to both men, Emanuel pulled
Graham aside and expressed admiration for how he had stuck by his
friend, especially during the bleakest moments. It became immediately
apparent that the White House chief of staff and Graham would be
doing business, with or without McCain.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Whenever
Graham</span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><strong><b> </b></strong></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">speaks fondly
of other legislators, Ted Kennedy’s name invariably comes up. He
admired the Massachusetts senator’s energy and passion, but above
all his practicality. According to Graham, Kennedy claimed that,
while working behind the scenes to garner support from fellow
senators across the aisle, he would publicly lambaste the same
Republicans for one reason or another, so that back home they would
not be tarred as bedfellows of the liberal icon.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
similar element of kabuki theater attends Graham’s relationship
with the Obama administration. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Certain
elements of Graham’s dance routine with the White House are
available for public viewing. Graham has already signaled that he
would be receptive to confirming Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court
this summer. First, however, he will extract his pound of flesh. “I
want to make the case that she’s a liberal,” he told me. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
other matters, Graham has unabashedly supported the Obama
administration. He credits the president for his attentiveness to
Pakistan, for sending more troops to Afghanistan and for recently
declaring a moratorium on deep-water drilling while remaining open to
future domestic oil exploration. These, of course, are among the
issues on which Obama has disappointed his liberal supporters. I
asked Graham if he felt that he had taken the full measure of the
president. “No, I don’t,” he said. “I got comfortable with
Bush. I’m not comfortable with Obama.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… “<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">some
people, when it comes to the tough decisions, back away.” …
(Draper 2).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So
the immigration comprehensive bill was a big moment a couple years
ago.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's
where [Sens.] Ted Kennedy [D-Mass.], Lindsey Graham, Jon Kyl
[R-Ariz.] and Ken Salazar [D-Colo.], along with Secretary [of
Commerce Carlos] Gutierrez and [Secretary of Homeland Security
Michael] Chertoff sit in a room for about three months going over
every line of a bill, giving and taking like you thought the
ninth-grade civics class would be. It was a bill where the senators
actually get involved. We probably had 30, 40 senators coming in and
out of those meetings.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Obama was one of those senators. He'd come in at times and make a
contribution. We were at the very last part of the negotiations. He
shows up. He's not a regular participant, but he shows up at the end,
and he's got three things he wants or two things he wants. Jon Kyl
didn't want to give it to him; I did. It was some change; I can't
remember what it was. But I wanted him in, because I know he's
somebody that people pay attention to. We needed every vote we could
get, and we needed all the people we could to push this ball, because
immigration's tough. The left hated the bill because of the labor
unions. Labor unions hated the temporary worker program. They didn't
want a temporary worker program to allow outside people to come in
and work. The right didn't like the path to citizenship, the ability
of allowing people to come out of the shadows and have a legal
status. …</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So
we get on the floor. You get some people doing the union bidding,
trying to undo the temporary worker program. They reduce the numbers
in half, but we could live with it, fix it in conference. So Sen.
Obama started voting in a way to undercut the temporary worker
program. I went to him at least once and said: "We can't do
this. This will destroy the deal." …</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Finally
it all blew up. Not only had he started voting the wrong way to undo
the deal, he offered an amendment himself that would have sunsetted
the temporary worker program after five years. What do you go tell
the people on your side, the business people who need access to
labor, "Your program goes away after five years"? …</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
just made me very, very mad. ... I thought instead of sticking to the
deal, he gave in to pressure from the left, and the pressure from the
left and right was enormous. So that did not sit well with me
(Interview 4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Obama’s
performance in 2008 left Graham impressed — “I thought this guy
did a masterful job of beating Clinton, feinting to the left, coming
back to the middle” — and hopeful that the new president would
depart from the intransigence of the previous one. (“Bush made it
hard for anybody to work with him,” Graham told me.) In Chicago,
Obama and Graham agreed to stay in touch about the matter of detained
suspected terrorists. Graham was therefore chagrined to read a couple
of weeks later that Obama intended to close the Guantánamo Bay
prison without having first established an alternative facility.
Graham recalls telling Rahm Emanuel: “This is a mistake. You need
to get people on board for why you should close it.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Two
weeks ago, </span></span></span></strong></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">I
found Graham in his office contemplating a coming scheduled visit to
the White House to explore potential areas of agreement on energy and
climate legislation. To him, consensus building is a game of inches,
and the meeting (which was later postponed) would likely amount to no
more and no less than a positive increment. “I fully understand 70
to 80 percent of my [Republican] conference is going to reject any
idea of putting a price on carbon anywhere,” he told me. For that
matter, he said, “the environmental groups are great to deal with —
but they think the planet’s gonna melt in five years. I don’t. I
think carbon pollution, all things considered, is bad for human
beings. But it’s not what I think of when I wake up in the morning.
. . . I offer myself as a bridge, and I take a beating for that, and
I get rewarded for that. It’s a business. Politically, it is who I
am now. There’s no use for me to try to play another game”
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Draper
5-</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">6</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
years past, Graham’s deal-making forays typically featured his
close friend, Senator John McCain of Arizona, as the front man.
Nowadays McCain has shucked his maverick ways in order to court his
state’s G.O.P. primary voters, while Graham’s reflexive displays
of bipartisanship have made him something of a scourge among South
Carolina Tea Partiers. Harry Kibler fingered Graham as major prey in
Kibler’s “RINO hunt” (Republicans in Name Only). The South
Carolina chapter of Resist.net warns constituents that Graham “is
up to his old reach-across-the-aisle tricks again!” Among the
conservative activists who have called for censuring Graham as a
quisling of the right is the state’s G.O.P. gubernatorial nominee
and Tea Party favorite, Nikki Haley.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Everything
I’m doing now in terms of talking about climate, talking about
immigration, talking about Gitmo is completely opposite of where the
Tea Party movement’s at,” Graham said as Cato drove him to the
city of Greenwood, where he was to give a commencement address at
Lander University later that morning. …</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a previous conversation, Graham told me: “The problem with the Tea
Party, I think it’s just unsustainable because they can never come
up with a coherent vision for governing the country. It will die
out.” Now he said, in a tone of casual lament: “We don’t have a
lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan
Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.”
Chortling, he added, “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting
elected as a Republican today.”</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
is now accustomed to sporadic heckling and the occasional icy stare
in his native state, where he was re-elected to a second term in 2008
by a 15-point margin. His give-and-take brand of conservatism has
never been an obvious fit in blood-red South Carolina, and even more
so during the past Tea-Party-agitated year.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: nyt-imperial, georgia, times new roman, times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">
...</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">The
White House </span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><strong><b></b></strong></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">logs do
not record visits paid by U.S. senators. According to his office’s
records, however, Lindsey Graham has been to the West Wing 19 times
since Barack Obama became president. When I asked the White House
chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, if any other Republican senator was so
frequent a guest, he thought for a moment before responding, rather
doubtfully, “Maybe Susan Collins.”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Emanuel
went on to say: “He’s willing to work on more things than the
others. Lindsey, to his credit, has a small-government vision that’s
out of fashion with his party, which stands for no government. . . .
He’s one of the last big voices to give that vision intellectual
energy.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[Graham
characterized] </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">the
president of the United States as “a good role model” or “an
American just as much as anybody else.” Graham made both comments
on “Meet the Press” in March. His greater transgression, however,
has been his willingness — even eagerness — to seek common ground
with Democrats. For his sins, Glenn Beck termed the senator Obama
Lite, while Rush Limbaugh labeled him Lindsey Grahamnesty. Less tame
are the blogosphere monikers, like “Miss Lindsey,” that play off
of Graham’s never-married status. During a South Carolina Tea Party
rally this spring, one speaker created an uproar by postulating that
Graham supported a guest-worker program out of fear that the
Democrats might otherwise expose his homosexuality. (Graham smirked
when I brought this up. “Like maybe I’m having a clandestine
affair with Ricky Martin,” he said. “I know it’s really gonna
upset a lot of gay men — I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be
jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge — but I ain’t available. I
ain’t gay. Sorry.”)</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
feels a strong personal connection to a handful of issues. Saving
Social Security from financial collapse by reforming its benefit
structure is one: as a college student, he and his teenage sister
depended on their recently deceased parents’ Social Security
benefits. Additionally, devising a framework for where and how to
adjudicate cases of suspected terrorism has natural appeal to Graham,
who as a judge advocate general has served as a military lawyer for
the past 25 years. Otherwise, it’s a mix of intellectual curiosity,
statesmanship, opportunism and maybe even loneliness that compels
Lindsey Graham — who admits, “I don’t have a life” — to
thrust himself into the innermost core of American policy making.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><strong><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
think I’m where </span></span></span></span></strong></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">senators used to be,”
Graham said one evening at a German restaurant on Capitol Hill. “I
think I’m where they were before 24/7 news. It gets a little old
after a while trying to explain yourself. I don’t think I’m
overly complicated. I’m unique, but I’m not complicated.”</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
senator — who stripped off his jacket and tie even before sitting
down — leaned over his potato pancake, and his customarily glazed
eyes widened just a bit. “My God, look what I’m involved in!”
he said. “By default, if for no other reason. How do you close
Gitmo without working with me now? How do you do immigration?” He
added: “What if I walked away from climate change tomorrow? . . .
You know, all politicians like to be thought of in their own mind as
somebody special. I’m past that now. I’m a little worried. This
is not healthy for the country. It’s really not.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">…
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A
few days earlier, he told me that his party’s unwillingness to work
with the Obama administration amounted to an “opportunity” for
him to be the Hill’s deal-maker in chief, adding with a laugh, “I
mean, I’m not having to push through people to get to the front of
the line” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Draper
2-4).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Draper,
Robert. “Lindsey Graham, This Year’s Maverick.” </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">New York
Times,</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> July 1, 2010. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html</a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">olland,
Steve. “</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McCain's </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">aster
of </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">irth,
Lindsey Graham.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Reuters, </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">October
30, 2008. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-graham/mccains-master-of-mirth-lindsey-graham-idUSTRE49T6D720081030" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-politics-graham/mccains-master-of-mirth-lindsey-graham-idUSTRE49T6D720081030</a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Interview:
Sen. Lindsey Graham.”<i> PBS,</i> October 14, 2008. Net.
<a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/interviews/graham.html">https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/interviews/graham.html</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-15416229367146059032022-04-14T12:02:00.000-07:002022-04-14T12:02:01.871-07:00The Amoralists: Lindsey Graham, Part One; Reach-across-the-Aisle Moderate<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Lindsey
Olin Graham was born in </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Central,
South Carolina,</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
where his parents, Millie (Walters) and Florence James "F.J."
Graham, ran a restaurant/bar/pool hall/liquor store, the Sanitary
Cafe. His family is of </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Scots-Irish
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">descent.
After graduating from </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">D.
W. Daniel High School</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
Graham became the first member of his family to attend college, and
joined the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Reserve
Officers’ Training Corps</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.
When he was 21, his mother died of </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Hodgkin’s
lymphoma</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
aged 52, and his father died 15 months later of a </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">heart
attack</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
aged 69. Because his then-13-year-old sister was left orphaned, the
service allowed Graham to attend the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">University
of South Carolina </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">in
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Columbus
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">so
he could remain near home as his sister's legal guardian. During his
studies, he became a member of the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Pi
Kappa Phi </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">social
fraternity.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
graduated from the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">University
of South Carolina</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">with
a B.A. in </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">psychology
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
1977, and from the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">University
of South Carolina School of Law </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">with
a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">J.D.
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
1981 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Lindsey
2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Friends
and relatives credit Graham's plain speaking and wry humor to his
father, F.J. Graham -- the proprietor of the oddly named Sanitary
Cafe, a combination restaurant-bar-liquor store-pool hall in Central,
S.C. (pop. 2,000). Lindsey's mother, Millie, was a savvy
businesswoman who cooked hamburgers and served Cokes behind the
counter while F.J. -- for Florence James -- generally presided over
things. The elder Graham, a barrel-chested man with a crew cut and a
dry wit, was known around town as "the Dude."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"My
dad was a hoot," Graham says. "Being 5 foot 7 inches and
full of a mouth, you got to really stay on your toes. . . . This is a
textile town. My dad never finished high school and neither did my
mom. And we had a restaurant/bar and later on he got a liquor store
next door and a pool hall downstairs and as a young guy I ran the
pool hall. I've heard every story and then some. But at 3 o'clock in
the afternoon the first shift would get off from the mill and people
would come in just full of cotton and dust and they'd drink beer till
midnight. And I've heard 'Satin Sheets to Lie On and Satin Pillows to
Cry On' a thousand times."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
says he doesn't drink, probably because alcohol consumption has never
held any exotic allure for him. "I've seen the bad side of
drinking. I've seen a lot of drunks throwing up," he says. "A
small-town community bar is what it was. I know what it's like to be
thought of as the kid of the guy that owned the bar -- and
everybody's so sanctimonious -- so I took all that stuff in stride.
So it was a great place to learn about life. I had wives call up
wanting to know if their husband's there and I'm answering the phone
at 9 years of age. And I'd say, 'Well, he said he isn't here.' So I
learned the hard way about a little bit of diplomacy. But it was a
great upbringing."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">You
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">assume
everything's going to be like Ozzie and Harriet," Graham says.
"That doesn't mean it's going to happen that way. So here I've
got a teenager on my hands. She's turned out great in spite of me. I
was probably a nut. I never let her date. I smelled her clothes if
she smoked. I listened in on her phone calls. I was probably pressing
too hard, just 'cause I felt such responsibility for her. I paid for
her college and I did all the financial deals when I got in the Air
Force. I thought that was my job and I felt very happy to have done
it. She is the light of my life."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After
obtaining his law degree from the University of South Carolina in
1981, he joined the Air Force's Judge Advocate General staff,
spending four years as a prosecutor and defense attorney in Europe.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"One,
he was very intelligent, and two, he understands people," says
Air Force Maj. Gen. Bryan Hawley, who was chief trial judge for
Europe when he saw Capt. Graham work in courts-martial. "He has
more common sense than I do."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
1984, defending an Air Force pilot accused of marijuana use, Graham
attracted national attention when he was featured in a CBS "60
Minutes" report that exposed the Air Force's faulty drug-testing
procedures.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
recalls his Air Force tour as terrific fun for a young bachelor
swinging his way through Paris and Rome. "Don't believe anything
anybody tells you about my Air Force exploits," jokes Graham,
still unhitched and a roommate of Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.),
another single guy. "I was very heterosexual, that's all you
need to know."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
returned home to the more sedate life of a small-town trial lawyer in
Seneca amid the cotton mills of western South Carolina (Grove 2-4).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
1992, Graham was elected to the South Carolina House of
Representatives from the 2nd district, in Oconee County. He defeated
Democratic incumbent Lowell W. Ross by 60% to 40% and served one
term, from 1993 to 1995.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
1994, 20-year incumbent Democratic U.S. Congressman Butler Derrick of
South Carolina's northwestern-based 3</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">rd</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> congressional
district</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">decided to
retire. Graham ran to succeed him and, with Republican U.S. Senator
Strom Thurmond campaigning on his behalf, won the Republican primary
with 52% of the vote, defeating Bob Cantrell (33%) and Ed Allgood
(15%). In the general election, Graham defeated Democratic State
Senator James Bryan Jr., 60% to 40%. As a part of that year's
Republican Revolution, Graham became the first Republican to
represent the district since 1877.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
1996, he was challenged by Debbie Dorn, the niece of Butler Derrick
and daughter of Derrick's predecessor, 13-term Democratic Congressman William Jennings Bryan Dorn</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Graham was reelected, defeating Dorn 60% to 40% </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Lindsey
3)</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Graham
-- whose middle-aged spread and laid-back manner cushion knifelike
intelligence and a sizzling ambition -- has been something of a
firebrand during his career on Capitol Hill. He took part in last
year's abortive coup against House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.),
staged by Young Turks exasperated with Gingrich's tendency to
unilaterally compromise with the White House. More recently, he stood
on the House floor and scolded a deeply annoyed Rep. Bud Shuster
(R-Pa.), chairman of the pork-rich Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure, about the evils of budget-busting </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Grove
5).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">January
26, 1998</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"I
want you to listen to me. I did not have sex with that woman, Monica
Lewinsky. I never told a single person to lie, not a single time,
never," an angry President Clinton declares to an invited media
audience at the White House.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">August
17, 1998</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Bill
Clinton</span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">testifies
in the grand jury, acknowledging "inappropriate intimate
contact" with Ms Lewinsky. But he insists the evidence he gave
to the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[Paula]
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Jones
case in January suit had been accurate.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p><p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">October
8, 1998</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
House of Representatives vote for impeachment proceedings to begin
against Clinton. The House judiciary committee will be given wide
powers to draw up detailed charges against Mr Clinton, based on 11
allegations by the independent counsel Kenneth Starr in his report on
the Monica Lewinsky affair </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Barkham
2-3).</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
</span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"Everybody
is sick to death of this!" Lindsey Graham says in his
country-lawyer twang. "Count me in that category."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He's
a partisan Republican from South Carolina. When he landed in Congress
with the revolutionary shock troops of 1994, ending four decades of
Democratic rule, he was intent on cleansing the body politic of all
traces of big-government liberalism. But at least in one respect,
Graham's views on the impeachment ordeal are surprisingly compatible
with President Clinton's.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He's
a very junior member of the House Judiciary Committee -- 20th among
21 Republicans -- but the 43-year-old Graham has positioned himself,
for now, as the panel's preeminent voice of reason. It's the
singular, humorous and highly quotable voice of a former Air Force
prosecutor who grew up helping out in his father's saloon. In a world
where media exposure often equals power, Graham is claiming star
status and a share of influence with his uncanny gift for the
camera-ready aphorism.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"Is
this Watergate or Peyton Place?" Graham declared at Monday's
historic hearing -- cutting to the heart of the matter (and through
the clutter of 36 other opening statements) as the Judiciary
Committee launched its impeachment inquiry. Yesterday's New York
Times, for one, enshrined Graham's incisive question in a four-column
headline. In its loopy way, the quip recalls former Tennessee senator
Howard Baker's much graver challenge during Watergate: "What did
the president know and when did he know it?"</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham's
droll touch suggests that unlike many in the GOP, he believes that
the current White House scandal is not necessarily a constitutional
crisis. In a process sharply polarized by cultural values and
ideology, he has served as an occasional bridge between warring
factions, sometimes even voting with the Democrats, as he did last
week on whether to release further embarrassing details of Clinton's
escapades with Monica Lewinsky. Temporarily joining the losing side,
Graham voted no. He is also the sole committee Republican to have
publicly countenanced the possibility of censure -- a solution the
White House dearly desires as a way of preempting an impeachment
trial.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"The
other scenario is that this guy just has a problem and he can't
control himself and it's about human failings and censure is
appropriate. We don't need to turn the country upside down,"
Graham ad-libbed on Monday (while every other committee member clung
for dear life to a text). "Nobody can tell me yet whether this
is part of a criminal enterprise or a bunch of lies which build upon
themselves based on not wanting to embarrass your family. If that's
what it is, about an extramarital affair with an intern, and that's
it, I will not vote to impeach this president no matter if 82 percent
of the people back home want me to, because we will destroy this
country."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Graham
says he's not particularly swayed by the president's verbal
contortions in the effort to explain his misleading testimony about
the affair with Lewinsky.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"What
I want to make sure I do," he says, "is pull back and
understand: What is this all about? Not just the minutiae of who
touched who, where and all that kind of stuff. If it truly is just
about the president telling one lie that compounded itself to another
lie that was even harder to believe, going from one stupid story to a
goofy story to an unbelievable story where he tried to get his
friends to follow him -- well, I'm not willing to overturn the
election for that."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
the other hand, Clinton shouldn't take too much comfort in Graham's
apparent open-mindedness. Graham, after all, was one of only 19
sponsors of last year's then-controversial impeachment inquiry
resolution. He says he's especially troubled by evidence -- such as
the grand jury testimony of perennial Clinton adviser Dick Morris --
suggesting that Clinton operatives have regularly intimidated "Jane
Does" to keep mum about their affairs with the president. Morris
called these people -- who the White House contends simply don't
exist -- Clinton's "secret police" (Grove 1-2, 5).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
October 8, 1998, Graham voted in favor of legislation to open an
impeachment inquiry. He was a member of the Judiciary Committee,
which conducted the inquiry. In both the Judiciary Committee vote on
forwarding articles of impeachment, and the full House vote on those
articles of impeachment, Graham voted for three of the four articles
of impeachment. He voted against the second count of perjury in the
Paula Jones case. This made him the only Republican on the Judiciary
Committee to vote against any of the articles of impeachment. During
the inquiry, Graham asked, "Is this Watergate or Peyton Place?"
The House passed two of the impeachment articles</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">.
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham served as an impeachment manager in the impeachment
trial</span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
2002, longtime U.S. Senator </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Strom
Thurmond</span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> decided
to retire. Graham ran to succeed him and won the Republican primary
unopposed. In the general election, he defeated Democratic
nominee </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Alex
Sanders</span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
the former President of the </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">College
of Charleston</span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> and
former Chief Judge of the </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">South
Carolina Court of Appeals</span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
600,010 votes (54%) to 487,359 (44%). Graham thus became South
Carolina's first new U.S. senator since 1965 </span><span style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Lindsey
5, 6).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Graham
once told me that he was fascinated by “people who can handle fear
and do brave, difficult things.” He was referring to the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr. — “If you wanted to have a Martin Luther
King Month, it would be fine with me” — but could just as easily
have been talking about [John] McCain, a former P.O.W. Their
friendship grew out of McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, when
Congressman Graham threw his support behind McCain during the ugly
South Carolina primary, and defiantly stuck with him even after his
state went for George W. Bush. As a newly elected senator, Graham
relied on McCain to show him the ropes. His foreign policy and
immigration positions were soon indistinguishable from those of his
mentor (Draper 3).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">It
all started years ago, during the push for then-President Bill
Clinton's impeachment, when Lindsey Graham, then a House member, was
presenting the case to senators, including Arizona's Sen. John
McCain.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"Congressman
Graham, on the most solemn occasion, said, 'You know, where I come
from, any man calling a woman at 2 a.m. is up to no good,'"
McCain said in March of 2017, explaining the history of their
friendship on CNN. "I knew right then that Lindsey Graham was a
guy I wanted to spend time with."</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
was a friendship that would remain strong to the very end. …</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
two men hit the campaign trail together in 2000, during McCain's
first presidential bid for the GOP nomination. That race didn't go
McCain's way, but when South Carolina voters promoted Graham to
Congress' upper chamber in 2003, they collaborated on legislation
that would have major impacts on foreign policy. Their Senate gang
once included now-former Sen. Joe Lieberman, an
Democrat-turned-independent, until his retirement announcement in
2012. They were, "the three Amigos." When Lieberman left
the Senate, that trio became a duo (Watson 1). </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">McCain
was the central figure, really, of the three of us,” Lieberman told
ABC News in a recent interview. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Over
his time in the Senate, McCain formed a close working relationship
with Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Graham, the
longtime Republican from South Carolina. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">They
staked their claim as prominent hawkish voices on foreign policy, an
issue that took them on travels around the globe and led to the
cultivation of a long-lasting friendship that lasted beyond the halls
of the Senate.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-top: 0.26in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We’ve
traveled the world together. I’ve seen these guys in action. I’ve
learned a lot from both of them and we had so much fun,” Graham
told ABC News. …</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
time really to get to know your colleagues is when you were fortunate
enough to travel with them somewhere because you were on the plane
together, you were talking, you were reading,” Lieberman, whom
McCain even considered naming as his running mate during his 2008
presidential campaign, said. “That’s when I first found out of
McCain’s love of Hemingway.”</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">After
the 9/11 attacks, the trio made routine visits to Afghanistan and
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Iraq</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
It was on one of those trips when General David H. Petraeus gave the
nickname to the triumvirate, which became vocal proponents of
President George W. Bush’s “surge” strategy in Iraq.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">They
were the three amigos. They were three inseparable friends,”
Petraeus told ABC News. “At some point, I just started saying we
had the three amigos coming in again” (Saenz 1-2).</span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Saenz,
Arlette. “</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Inside
John McCain's 'Three Amigos' </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">riendship.”
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>ABC
News, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
26, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/inside-john-mccains-amigos-friendship/story?id=57392266">https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/inside-john-mccains-amigos-friendship/story?id=57392266</a></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Barkham,
Patrick. “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Clinton
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">mpeachment
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">imeline.”
</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The Guardian,
</i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">November 18, 1998.
Net. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/nov/18/clinton.usa">https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/nov/18/clinton.usa</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;"><a name="link-52c42334"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">raper,
Robert. “</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham, This Year’s Maverick.” </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times,</i></span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> July 1,
2010. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/04/magazine/04graham-t.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Grove,
Lloyd. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham, a Twang of Moderation.”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Washington
Post,</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
7, 1998. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/graham100798.htm"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/graham100798.htm</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Lindsey
Graham.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia.
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Lindsey+Graham&cref=&ie=utf-8&hl=&submit=Search"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.google.com/search?q=Lindsey+Graham&cref=&ie=utf-8&hl=&submit=Search</span></span></a></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Watson,
Kathryn. </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
“</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">asting
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">riendship
of John McCain and Lindsey Graham.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>CBS
News, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
25, 2018. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-storied-friendship-of-john-mccain-and-lindsey-graham/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-storied-friendship-of-john-mccain-and-lindsey-graham/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;">
</span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p><p> </p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-89818793258241324742022-04-10T15:09:00.008-07:002022-04-10T15:09:52.932-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part Six; Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If
you are disposed to hold Sen. Ted Cruz in minimal high regard — a
sentiment shared by more than a few of his colleagues in the United
States Senate, among others — then his performance at the Ketanji
Brown Jackson confirmation hearings was fully in character: a
demagogic, bad-faith effort on Tuesday to imply that she would bring
a racially focused agenda to the Supreme Court, coupled with a “soft
on child pornographers” assault today.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
same can be said of Missouri’s Josh Hawley, whose attempts to link
Jackson to her clients as a public defender have been condemned even
by many conservatives. Ditto for Arkansas’ Tom Cotton, whose
“do-you-think-criminals-should-be-in-prison?” rants made him seem
like Inspector Javert after the Adderall had run out. …</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
a critique of the nominee, the arguments of Cruz and his fellow
Republicans did not border on the absurd — they fell over the
cliff. If, for instance, there was any evidence that Jackson brought
any affinity for critical race theory into her judicial work, you
might have thought someone would have unearthed it in Jackson’s
decade-plus service on the federal bench.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
judging Cruz and company by that standard misses the point. This was
not a group of senators engaging in skeptical or serious questioning
of a Supreme Court nominee. This was a trio of presidential
candidates appealing to the base that will choose the next Republican
White House nominee. And from that perspective, the trio accomplished
what they set out to do. More broadly, these efforts fit perfectly
into an approach that has rewarded the GOP for more than half a
century: peeling away traditional Democratic voters with the twin
factors of race and crime.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[It’s]
important to understand the dynamic that is playing out at these
hearings. This was the chance for a trio of presidential aspirants to
display their embrace of the most toxically powerful currents flowing
through our politics, and to do it while confronting a nominee who
symbolizes that primal fear of “replacement” — the sense that
“they” are taking power from “us,” which has made Tucker
Carlson a powerful political presence and which continues to make
Trump his party’s likely next nominee.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
an inquiry into the merits of a Supreme Court nominee, the
performances of Cruz and company was a disgrace. As political
stagecraft, it was “mission accomplished” (Greenfield 1-3).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">t
was Wednesday, the third day of Judge </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ketanji
Jackson’s confirmation hearings </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">for
a seat on the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Supreme
Court</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
and Senator </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">had
finally run out of time. Each member of the Judiciary Committee had
been given a ten-minute opening statement, a half hour to ask
questions in a first round, and twenty minutes more in a second.
(Since there are twenty-two committee members, that added up to a
marathon.) Cruz had used his time to wave in the air children’s
books on a reading list at the private school that one of Jackson’s
daughters attends, and where the judge sits on the board, demanding
to know whether she thinks “that babies are racist”; asking her
to speculate about whether he could sue Harvard if he were to “decide
I was an Asian man”; and, most of all, to claim that he </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">had
discerned a disturbing “pattern” in the sentences that Jackson
had handed down, as a federal judge, in cases involving child
pornography. He had brought a chart, with several of the cases
listed, on which he made various calculations. He wasn’t getting
anywhere—perhaps because Jackson’s sentencing record is not, in
fact, radical or outside the mainstream, and also because she had
done a good job of standing up to him—but that didn’t stop his
hectoring.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That
was the situation when Senator Dick Durbin, the committee chair,
banged his gavel. Cruz gestured as if to wave him away, and demanded
more time. “I know you don’t like this line of questioning,” he
said. Durbin answered, “I just want you to play by the rules.” He
tried to recognize Senator Chris Coons, but Cruz kept at it—“You
can bang it as loud as you want!”—with each sentence he directed
at Durbin seeming to move to a more accusatory, more conspiratorial,
and more irresponsible level: “You don’t want her to answer that
question?”; “Why do you not want the American people to know what
happened in the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stewart
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">case,
or any of these cases?”; and “Apparently, you are very afraid of
the American people hearing the answer to that question.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Tell
Ted Cruz to be quiet and he’ll insinuate that you’re part of a
scheme to hide the truth about the sexual abuse of children from the
American public. As it happens, that is one of the key themes in the
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Qanon
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">family
of conspiracy theories, as Cruz and his fellow-Republicans certainly
know. Similarly, they know what they are doing in trying to paint
Jackson, who would be the first Black woman on the Court, as someone
whose sympathies and loyalties are with criminals, not victims—and
who perhaps has some hidden agenda regarding the exploitation of
children. There has always been something off-putting, to say the
least, about Cruz’s self-important approach to peddling muck, but
his performance at the Jackson hearings was sordid even by his
standards. (He blithely recited descriptions of the materials in the
various cases, for example</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">sadomasochistic
images of infants and toddlers.”) And he was not alone: Senator
Josh Hawley had taken an early lead in hyping the question of
Jackson’s child-pornography sentencing record, and the Republican
senators on the committee jumped in, with most at least referring to
that concocted issue.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
and Hawley are both potential 2024 G.O.P. Presidential contenders;
the fact that they see this line of attack as an opportunity says
something about the current market of ideas in their party.</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
…</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Confirmation
hearings are often said to be shadow plays in which nominees
concentrate on giving noncommittal answers. The haranguing,
besmirching, and condescension directed at Jackson called for
something more. The various moments when she seemed to decide that
she was not going to let herself be bullied were fascinating to
watch. Facing Cruz, she didn’t just dodge his questioning. She
firmly, calm</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">l</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">y,
smartly pushed him away, rhetorically speaking. (Interestingly, the
two of them overlapped on the </span></span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Harvard
Law Review</span></span></span></em><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">;
Jackson, who is a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, said
that, if confirmed, she planned to recuse herself from a case
involving </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">affirmative
action </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
the university.) She took the opportunity to show who both she and
Cruz are. And yet, the experience must have been rough. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Sorkin
1-3).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Tensions
flared between Republican U.S. Sen. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
his Democratic colleagues on the third day of Judge Ketanji Brown
Jackson’s U.S. Supreme Court confirmation hearings, as Cruz
criticized how the proceedings were being run and one senator in the
hearing accused him of performing for television cameras.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
caught heat from Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, a
Democrat from Illinois, on two separate occasions in the daylong
proceeding. Durbin tried twice to move on to questions from other
members over Cruz’s objections.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">At
some point, you have to follow the rules,” Durbin told Cruz at one
point, banging his gavel.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
was nearing the end of his 20-minute questioning of Jackson, where he
repeatedly asked her to explain her sentencing of child porn
offenders. However, he interrupted Jackson — who appeared to grow
increasingly frustrated with the exchange — multiple times while
she was responding to his questions.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Why
did you sentence someone who had child pornography … to 28 months —
64% below what the prosecutors asked for?” Cruz asked.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jackson,
a former federal trial judge, said Cruz had picked a few cases out of
her entire sentencing record to pursue his argument. Cruz —
alongside several of his Republican colleagues — has scrutinized
Jackson’s sentencing record in an attempt to paint the nominee as
soft on crime. The senator has not voted for any of Biden’s
judicial nominees.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fact
checkers from multiple news outlets have said Republicans’ comments
on her sentencing record are misleading.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
is to assign proportional punishment,” Jackson said when asked to
explain her view of sentencing in cases. “It is to do justice in
cases where you have defendants who are convicted of the same
conduct, but have different, differing levels of culpability.”</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Even
as his allotted time to speak ran out, Cruz continued to ask
questions on sentencing in the cases, leading Durbin to step in to
force the hearing forward and allow the next person to speak. Cruz
accused the chair of being afraid the American people would hear
Jackson’s response.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Later
in the hearing, Cruz attempted to enter into record a letter signed
by all but one of the Republican committee members to receive more
information on pre-sentencing probation records on the child porn
cases in question. Democrats on the committee shut the effort down,
noting that it was someone else’s turn to ask questions and that
Cruz could submit the letter by hand.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
know the junior senator from Texas likes to get on television, but
most of us have been here a long time trying to follow the rules,”
said U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democratic from Vermont and senior
member of the committee and currently the longest-serving senator
with 47 years of service.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
comment echoed the vague frustrations of another senator from earlier
in the day.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around
here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera
opportunities,” said U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from
Nebraska who sits to the right of Cruz on the committee bench. Sasse
was explaining why he didn’t believe cameras should be in the
Supreme Court, shortly after Cruz’s first confrontation.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
another point in Cruz's questioning of Jackson, he appeared to
dismiss the ability of transgender people to sue for gender
discrimination, suggesting that a man could decide to change his
gender simply to challenge a gender-based restriction in court.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Tell
me, does that same principle apply to other protected
characteristics? For example, I am a Hispanic man. Could I decide I
was an Asian man. Would I have the ability to be an Asian man and
challenge Harvard’s discrimination because I made that decision?"</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
was referring to a lawsuit pending before the court alleging that
Harvard University’s affirmative action policies violate the rights
of Asians. Jackson replied that she couldn’t answer the question
because it was based on hypotheticals (Zhand 1-2).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz thrust several books into the spotlight after his puzzling line
of questioning at Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation
hearing.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
a hearing ostensibly meant to assess whether Jackson is qualified to
serve on the highest court in the land, the Republican senator
brought up </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">critical
race theory </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">--
an academic concept taught primarily at the university and graduate
levels that has since turned into a political flash point -- in K-12
schools.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">As
part of his questioning, Cruz presented a handful of books that he
claimed were taught at Georgetown Day School -- an elite, private
school in Washington, DC whose board Jackson serves on. Among the
titles he mentioned were "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"
by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; "The End of Policing</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"
by Alex S. Vitale and "How to be an Antiracist</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"
by Ibram X. Kendi.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
focused the bulk of his questions, however, on two children's books
-- "Antiracist Baby" and "Stamped (For Kids)."
And his characterizations of those titles were largely distorted.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">…</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>The
book: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Antiracist Baby</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,"
written by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. It's
a picture book for children.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>The
claim: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
said he was "stunned" by the ideas in the book.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"One
portion of the book says, 'Babies are taught to be racist or
antiracist -- there is no neutrality.' Another portion of the book:
They recommend that babies 'confess when being racist,'" he said
at the hearing. Cruz added that the book is taught to students at
Georgetown Day School to children ages 4 to 7, asking Jackson, "Do
you agree with this book that is being taught with kids that babies
are racist?"</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The
reality: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cruz's
characterization takes the ideas found in the book out of context.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
"Antiracist Baby," Kendi contends that children are not
born racist but learn racist attitudes from an early age from the
world around them. To counter those messages, Kendi writes, parents
and caregivers should help children learn to be antiracist.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
book encourages children to openly acknowledge differences in skin
color, rather than pretending they don't exist. It asks them to
celebrate differences across cultures, to not see any one group as
better or worse than another and to be constantly learning and
growing. It invites them to talk openly about race and admit where
they might have fallen short.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Crucially,
"Antiracist Baby" advises children to "point at
policies as the problem, not the people" and proclaims that
"even though all races are not treated the same, we are all
human."</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>The
book: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"Stamped (For Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,"
adapted by Sonja Cherry-Paul and illustrated by Rachelle Baker.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
book is a children's version of the history book for young adults
"Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"
by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi -- which, in turn, is an
adaptation of Kendi's bestseller "Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racisut Ideas in America</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>The
claim: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
called this book "astonishing."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Turning
open the book, he said to Jackson, "On page 33, it asks the
question, 'Can we send White people back to Europe?' That's what's
being given to 8- and 9-year-olds."</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
senator continued, "It also on page 115 says, 'The idea that we
should pretend not to see racism is connected to the idea that we
should pretend not to see color. It's called colorblindness.'"</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
skipped ahead and cited other sentences from the book, including
"Here's what's WRONG with this: It's ridiculous. Skin color is
something we all absolutely see" and "So to pretend not to
see color is pretty convenient if you don't actually want to stamp
out racism in the first place."</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Finally,
Cruz invoked </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
argued that the ideas contained in "Antiracist Baby" and
"Stamped (For Kids)" contradict the values of the civil
rights icon -- a notion that scholars who have studied King say is a
distortion of his work.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><b>The
reality: </b></span></span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Again,
the passages read aloud by Cruz are a serious mischaracterization.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
sentence "Can we send White people back to Europe?" that
Cruz references on page 33 appears as an aside in a chapter about the
contradictions in how Thomas Jefferson talked about slavery and how
he acted. The book explains how some White assimilationists,
including Jefferson at one point, advocated sending Black people back
to Africa and the Caribbean -- places foreign to many of the people
in question.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
explaining the problems inherent in that idea, the book includes this
aside: </span></span></span></span><em><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Do
you see how racist ideas of today are tied to racist ideas of the
past? The phrase "Go back to where you came from" that is
sometimes said to Black and Brown people today connects to the "go
back" ideas of the past. Now you can trace the origins right
back to Thomas Jefferson. (By the way, just imagine what Native
Americans and Black people must have wished about their White
oppressors: Can we send White people "back" to Europe?)</span></span></span></span></em></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Here,
the sentence "Can we send White people back to Europe?"
clearly demonstrates how illogical the idea of sending people "back
to where they came from" is.</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
page 115, the sentence referenced by Cruz ("The idea that we
should pretend not to see racism is connected to the idea that we
should pretend not to see color. It's called colorblindness")
again appears in an aside in a chapter about the inequities in
standardized testing. Although standardized testing appears equal on
the surface, the authors argue, not all schools and students have the
same resources -- meaning that rewarding schools based on test
results deepens existing inequalities. The authors also critiqued the
idea that the way to address racism in education was to not focus on
it, which is when they pause to address the idea of "colorblindness."</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
point that the authors are making in that passage is that ignoring
differences in skin color is akin to ignoring racism. It's only by
acknowledging those differences upfront, they argue in the book, that
society can begin to chip away at the problem (Kaur 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Texas
Republican Senator Ted Cruz said on Thursday that Judge Ketanji Brown
Jackson will "undermine" constitution rights as an
associated justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Based
on her record, I believe she will prove to be the furthest left of
any justice to have ever served on the Supreme Court," he said
</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">during
a press conference</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Based
on her record, I think we can anticipate that she will vote
consistently to undermine the constitutional rights of Americans, to
undermine our rights to free speech, to undermine our rights to
religious liberty, to undermine our rights under the Second Amendment
to keep and bear arms."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">In
a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">historic
vote </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">on
Thursday </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">[April
7, 2022] </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">afternoon,
Jackson was confirmed, 53-47, as the first Black woman on the Supreme
Court. …</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
also criticized Jackson's sentencing record in which he accused her
of being lenient when ruling in child pornography cases, saying that
she sentenced defendants for short prison terms.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"There
is no area of law where her record is more extreme than in criminal
law," he said Thursday. "When it concerns criminal law,
judge Jackson's record is far, far, far out of the mainstream.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Not
only is her record consistently in favor of very, very lenient
sentences for violent criminals, for drug dealers, for those who have
committed horrific crimes, but she has a particular pattern of
leniency for sex offenders" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Khaled
1).</span></span></span></span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">Greenfield,
Jeff. “</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">For
Ted Cruz and Company, the Jackson Hearing Was ‘Mission
Accomplished’.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Politico,
</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">March 23, 2022.
Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/23/ted-cruz-gop-jackson-hearing-racial-backlash-00019812">https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/03/23/ted-cruz-gop-jackson-hearing-racial-backlash-00019812</a></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">K</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aur,
Harmeet. “</span></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
the </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hildren's
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ooks
Ted Cruz </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eferenced
at Ketanji Brown Jackson's </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onfirmation
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">earing
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eally
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ay</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.”
</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>CNN,
</i></span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
24, 2022. Net.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/us/ted-cruz-books-ketanji-brown-jackson-cec/index.html"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/24/us/ted-cruz-books-ketanji-brown-jackson-cec/index.html</span></a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Khalad,
Fatma. “</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz Says KBJ Will 'Undermine' Constitution as Senate Confirms
Judge.” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Newsweek,
</i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
7, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-says-kbj-will-undermine-constitution-senate-confirms-judge-1696117"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.newsweek.com/ted-cruz-says-kbj-will-undermine-constitution-senate-confirms-judge-1696117</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">orkin,
Amy Davidson. “</span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Republicans’ Wild Attacks at Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Confirmation
Hearing.” </span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
New Yorker, </i></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
24, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-republicans-wild-attacks-at-ketanji-brown-jacksons-confirmation-hearing"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-republicans-wild-attacks-at-ketanji-brown-jacksons-confirmation-hearing</span></span></a></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Z</span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hang,
Andrew. “</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lashes
with Democrats during </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eated
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onfirmation
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">earing
for Ketanji Brown Jackson.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">March
23, 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/23/ted-cruz-confirmation-ketanji-brown-jackson/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/23/ted-cruz-confirmation-ketanji-brown-jackson/</span></span></a></p>
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</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-14373142499686611032022-04-07T15:01:00.003-07:002022-04-07T15:01:43.535-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part Five; The Big Lie<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Ted
Cruz of Texas, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and nine other Republican US
senators or senators-elect </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">said
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">on
Saturday they will reject presidential electors from states where
Donald Trump has contested his defeat by Joe Biden, “unless and
until [an] emergency 10-day audit” of such results is completed.</span></span></span>
</span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Trump
has </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">refused
to concede</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
though Biden won more than 7m more votes nationally and took the
electoral college by 306-232, a margin Trump called a landslide when
he won it over Hillary Clinton in 2016.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
Trump campaign has lost the vast majority of more than 50 lawsuits it
has mounted in battleground states, </span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1345404682655707136">alleging
electoral fraud</a></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
and before the supreme court. On Saturday night, Trump urged his
Twitter followers to “be a part of history” and join a protest
march in Washington DC against the election result on Wednesday.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
Friday, a federal judge dismissed a suit lodged by a House Republican
which attempted to give Pence, who will </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">preside
over the certification </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
the electoral college result on Wednesday, the power to overturn it.
An appeal was rejected Saturday night.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Nonetheless,
the senators and senators-elect who issued a statement on Saturday
followed Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri in </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">committing
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
challenging the result.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">...</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
Saturday, Utah Senator Mitt Romney described as “</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.romney.senate.gov/romney-statement-certification-presidential-election-results">nonsense</a></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">”,
the idea that a congressional audit would restore trust in the
election, saying the American people trusted federals judges more
than Congress.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a statement, he said: “The egregious ploy to reject electors may
enhance the political ambition of some, but dangerously threatens our
Democratic Republic … President Trump’s lawyers made their case
before scores of courts; in every instance, they failed.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
Cruz and Johnson were joined by Senators James Lankford (Oklahoma),
Steve Daines (Montana), John Kennedy (Louisiana), Marsha Blackburn
(Tennessee) and Mike Braun (Indiana). Senators-elect Cynthia Lummis
(Wyoming), Roger Marshall (Kansas), Bill Hagerty (Tennessee) and
Tommy Tuberville (Alabama) also signed on.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
election of 2020,” they said, “like the election of 2016, was
hard fought and, in many swing states, narrowly decided. The 2020
election, however, featured unprecedented allegations of voter fraud,
violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting
irregularities.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">No
hard evidence for such claims has been presented. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Regardless,
the senators said Congress “should immediately appoint an electoral
commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to
conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the
disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the
commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative
session to certify a change in their vote, if needed.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
senators made reference to the contested election of 1876, which
ended in the appointment of such a commission.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We
should follow that precedent,” they said.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz,
like Hawley, is prominent among Republicans expected to run for
president in 2024, and thus eager to appeal to supporters loyal to
Trump. On Saturday, Christine Pelosi, daughter of House speaker Nancy
Pelosi and a member of the Democratic National Committee, referred to
the bitter 2016 primary when she </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">tweeted</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">:
“Ted Cruz is defending Trump’s assaults on democracy with more
energy than he defended his own family against Trump’s assaults on
his wife and father” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Pengelly
and Bryant 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
didn’t address the mob that stormed the Capitol and he has
forcefully denounced the violence.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
he was one of the leading voices amplifying President Donald Trump’s
demand to overturn the election. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Video
published by </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
New Yorker</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
shows rioters</span><span style="border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(25, 123, 193); border-left: none; border-right: none; border-top: none; display: inline-block; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; padding: 0in 0in 0.02in;"><a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/video-dept/a-reporters-footage-from-inside-the-capitol-siege"><i><u><span style="background: #ffffff;"> </span></u></i></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">saying
Cruz was on their side as they occupied the Senate. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Spotting
Cruz’s notes </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">objecting
to Biden electors, one says: “Cruz would </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">want
</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">us
to do this, so I think we’re good.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">...</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
pegged his objection to Biden electors to a demand for Congress to
create an emergency commission to investigate allegations of
election misconduct.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
10-day delay would help the country accept the outcome, he insisted,
though critics pointed out he could have demanded an inquiry without
trying to invalidate tens of millions of votes and President-elect
Joe Biden’s victory.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
didn’t just lend a vote, though. He led a group of 11 senators
whose objections triggered the challenges, trying to outflank
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, the first senator to declare that he would
object to Biden electors when Congress reviewed the Electoral College
votes.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
two months, Cruz joined Trump in beating the drum of election fraud
until Trump loyalists were deaf to anyone — Republican, Democrat or
nonpartisan journalists, not to mention state and federal courts —
telling them otherwise,”wrote
the Houston Chronicle in
one of several Texas editorials calling on him to resign. “And yet,
Cruz insists he bears no responsibility for the deadly terror
attack.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a round of damage control interviews with Texas TV stations in the
days after the riot, Cruz distanced himself from Trump in a way he
hadn’t done since they reconciled after the bitter 2016 primaries.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
president’s language and rhetoric often goes too far,” he told
KTRK-TV in Houston, calling Trump’s speech to the crowd that would
soon storm the Capitol “reckless” and then asserting that “I
have disagreed with the president’s language and rhetoric for the
last four years.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">[GOP
strategist Alex] Conant said Cruz’s efforts now to put distance
between himself and Trump come across as “inauthentic” in a way
voters aren’t likely to reward.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Any
politician who appears calculating at a moment of national crisis is
doing himself no favors,” he said (Gillman 1-2, 5-6).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><strong><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;">John
Oliver</span></span></strong><span style="color: black;"><strong><b> </b></strong></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="color: black;">returned from a
lengthy hiatus on Sunday night, lambasting Sen.Ted Cruz<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><strong><b>
</b></strong></span>(R-TX) and the Republican Party for treating
Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial as “a complete charade.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Oliver
missed quite a bit of news while away — </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">his
last show </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aired
in mid-November when the news was still focused on Trump’s refusal
to concede and his allies’ shameless support of his baseless voter
fraud claims.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
been a weird time. But we have to start with the impeachment trial
that took place this week,” Oliver began, adding, “Democrats put
on a compelling forensic case about Trump’s clear role as
instigator of the January 6th riots, and in response, his attorneys
mounted a defense that could be charitably characterized as
‘incoherent.’”</span></span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
host later condemned Cruz, whose role in the impeachment trial was to
essentially act as a juror, for meeting with Trump’s lawyers in the
middle of the trial.</span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oliver
then cut to a video of Cruz explaining what he said to Trump’s
lawyers in the middle of the trial: “I said, ‘Look, you’ve
gotta remember you’ve already won.’ There are not 67 votes to
convict. There are 55 votes to convict, plus-minus two.” </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Oliver
went after the senator for admitting that Republicans treated the
impeachment trial as “a complete charade,” noting how
disheartening it is to hear that come from a member of the “world’s
most deliberative body.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
said to them, ‘You gotta remember, the outcome is predetermined,
nothing means anything and this entire process is a complete
charade,” Oliver said mimicking Cruz. “‘Now, hands in everyone:
Dead eyes, empty hearts, Ted Cruz.'”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
fact that Republicans were going to acquit the former president no
matter what is a pretty depressing sign of just how deep Trumpism
runs in their party,” he continued, adding that support for Trump
is “even worse” at a state level, as legislators even
participated in the Stop the Steal rally on Jan. 6 </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Idliby
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: #fefefe; border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">On
Monday, Senator Ted Cruz urged his constituents to “stay home,”
warning that winter weather beating down on Texas could be deadly. On
Tuesday, he offered a shrug emoji and pronounced the situation “not
good.” Then, on Wednesday, he </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">decamped
for a Ritz-Carlton resort </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
sun-drenched Cancún, escaping with his family from their freezing
house.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">And
on Thursday, many Americans who had been battered by </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a
deadly winter storm</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
on top of a nearly yearlong pandemic, finally found a reason to come
together and lift their voices in a united chorus of rage.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">FlyinTed,
a homage to Donald J. Trump’s “Lyin’ Ted” nickname, began
trending on Twitter. TMZ, the celebrity website, published
photographs showing a Patagonia-fleece-clad Mr. Cruz waiting for his
flight, hanging out in the United Club lounge and reading his phone
from a seat in economy plus. The Texas Monthly, which bills itself as
“the national magazine of Texas,” offered </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
list of curses </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
mutter against Mr. Cruz.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
a politician long reviled not just by Democrats but also by many of
his Republican colleagues in Washington, Mr. Cruz is now the
landslide winner for the title of the least sympathetic politician in
America. After leaving freezing Texans </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
m</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lt
snow for water </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">while
he traveled to go work at the beach, Mr. Cruz offered little more
than the classic political cliché — time with family — as an
explanation, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">citing
his daughters’ desire </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
go to Cancún as the reason for his trip. Even his dog became a
player in the drama after </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
report </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
the Cruz family had left the aptly named Snowflake behind with a
security guard, stirring fresh outrage on social media.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He’s
a person that people enjoy disliking,” said Bill Miller, a veteran
Texas lobbyist and political consultant who has worked with members
of both parties. “And now he’s been mortally wounded. It’s like
he bailed out on the state at its most weakened moment. It’s an
indefensible action.” </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">His
opportunism often enraged fellow Republicans. After voting against
federal aid for Hurricane Sandy, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">Mr.
Cruz lobbied Congress five years later </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">for
billions of dollars as Texas cleaned up from Hurricane Harvey.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
in his moment of crisis, Mr. Cruz’s four-year campaign to reclaim
his position as a darling of conservatives appeared to be paying off,
as several of Mr. Trump’s allies rushed to his defense. …</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Sean
Hannity, the Fox News host and a friend of Mr. Trump’s, cast the
trip as akin to Mr. Cruz’s dropping his daughters off at soccer
practice — never mind that this outing involved a plane flight to a
$309-per-night resort.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Now,
you went and you took your daughters to Cancún and you came back,”
Mr. Hannity told Mr. Cruz in a Thursday night interview. “I think
you can be a father and be the senator of Texas all at the same time
and make a round-trip, quick drop-off, quick trip, and come home.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
it came to explaining his visit to a Mexican resort, Mr. Cruz showed
unusual restraint. After pictures circulated online of him boarding a
flight, aides said the trip was a previously planned vacation. Then,
his office said he was simply escorting his daughters down to Cancún
to join friends — like any “good dad” in the midst of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">an
enorm</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">us
meltdown of basic societal infrastructure </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">—
and had always planned to return on Thursday.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After
nearly a day of uncharacteristic silence, Mr. Cruz returned home on
Thursday, bearing a Texas flag mask, a suspiciously large suitcase
and a classic political excuse.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
was obviously a mistake and in hindsight I wouldn’t have done it. I
was trying to be a dad,” he told reporters on Thursday, a striking
admission from a politician who built his career on ceding little
ground. “From the moment I sat on the plane, I began really
second-guessing that decision.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
others in his home state, there was little to guess about the
incident.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Nothing
brings Texans together quite like the opportunity to rip Ted Cruz a
new one,” Gene Wu, a Democratic state representative in Texas,
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">wrote
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">on
Twitter </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Lerer
1-4).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">U.S.
Sens. </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">John
Cornyn and Ted Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">joined
with their Republican colleagues Friday to block a commission tasked
with investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol</span></span></span></span><strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></strong><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
a 54-35 vote.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">While
the bill establishing the commission passed the Democratic-controlled
U.S. House last week, Senate Republicans effectively killed the
proposal by way of the filibuster. In the Senate, 60 members are
needed to move a bill to an up-or-down vote, breaking the filibuster,
and Republicans successfully stopped that from happening.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
released a statement after the commission was defeated, saying that
he opposed it because it was "politically motivated."</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">“…
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">With
multiple investigations already underway, I do not support the
politically motivated January 6 Commission led by Sen. [Chuck]
Schumer and Speaker Pelosi."</span></span></span></span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
bill was modeled on </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
9/11 Commission</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">,
which led to sweeping government reforms in order to prevent
terrorist attacks.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Republicans
in both chambers are trying to rewrite history and claim that Jan. 6
was a peaceful protest that got a little out of hand. And now this,"
Schumer, the Senate Majority Leader, said on the Senate floor after
Republicans blocked the commission. "We all know what's going on
here. ... Republicans chose to defend the big lie because they
believe anything that upsets Donald Trump might hurt them
politically" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Livingston
1, 2).</span></span></span></span> </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">After
spending a day being slammed by TV pundits and fellow conservatives
for describing last year’s U.S. Capitol insurrection as a “violent
terrorist attack,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz walked back his comments on
Thursday.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Texas Republican attempted to clarify his intent on FOX News program
“Tucker Carlson Tonight,” calling his own words “sloppy” and
“frankly dumb.” Cruz insisted he was referring only to the
rioters who attacked police during the breach of the historic
building.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
a decade, I have referred to people who violently assault police
officers as terrorists. I’ve done so over and over and over again,”
Cruz said Thursday.</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">His
appearance came one day after </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Carlson
lambasted </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the
junior Texas senator for his choice of words during a </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Wednesday
U.S. Senate committee hearing </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">about
the oversight of the Capitol Police during the 2021 riot. During that
hearing, Cruz acknowledged the “solemn anniversary” of what he
called a “violent terrorist attack on the Capitol where we saw the
men and women of law enforcement … risk their lives to defend the
men and women who serve in this Capitol.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
mob — made up of President Donald Trump supporters attempting to
interrupt certification of the 2020 election — attacked police
officers and caused millions of dollars of damage to the Capitol.
Lawmakers and staff inside hid in fear for their lives as protesters
breached the building carrying zip ties and wearing tactical gear.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
was objecting to the certification of Arizona’s election results at
the moment the Capitol was overrun. He was among several Texas
Republicans who tried to cast doubt on President Joe Biden’s
victory over Trump, who continues to peddle baseless claims of
widespread voter fraud.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Many
conservatives have spent the past several months downplaying the
seriousness of the Capitol attack, which led to thousands of injuries
and five deaths. About 140 officers were injured, and two officers
involved in the response have died by suicide, according to a report
in the New York Times.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
his program Wednesday, Carlson accused Cruz of echoing Democratic
talking points at that day’s Senate committee hearing.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What
the hell’s going on here?” Carlson said.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> “You’re making us think maybe the Republican Party is as
worthless as we suspected it was. That can’t be true. Reassure us,
please, Ted Cruz.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
Thursday, Cruz said he asked to come on Carlson’s show so he could
better explain himself. Cruz said he understood why people were angry
at his use of the word “terrorist” but insisted that he would
never use the same word that “Democrats and the corporate media
have so politicized” to describe the “patriots” that were at
the Capitol that day to protest the results of the presidential
election.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
the time of the breach, Cruz argued, he was asking for Congress to
investigate potential voter fraud in accordance with the law.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">It
would be ridiculous for me to be saying that the people standing up
and protesting to follow the law were somehow terrorists,” he said.
“I was talking about people who commit violence against cops.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
and the media, Cruz said, “are trying to paint everyone as a
terrorist, and it’s a lie” (Harper 1-2).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Three
weeks after groveling to Tucker Carlson to beg forgiveness for
calling the Jan. 6 insurrection what it was — a "violent
terrorist incident" — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has sent out a
fundraising email suggesting the FBI orchestrated the attack.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Far-right
conspiracy mongers including Fox News host Carlson have repeatedly
pushed the bullshit notion that Deep State actors, including FBI
agents, ginned up the Jan. 6 mob assault to discredit then-President
Donald Trump.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That
crackpot theory, of course, has been widely debunked.</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> But that didn't stop Cruz, R-Texas, from seizing on it in a bid to
separate far-right conspiracy kooks from their hard-earned lunch
money.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"What
are they trying to hide now about the events of January 6, 2021?"
Cruz asked in the Jan. 22 fundraising message. "I’m working
hard to expose the full truth and shine a light on whether there was
any FBI involvement on that day… </span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>and
the liberal media can't stand it!</i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
is a skilled enough rhetorician to give himself wiggle room by
framing his insinuations as questions rather than statements. Even
so, the intent is crystal clear.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>"Did
ANY FBI agents or confidential informants actively participate in the
events that day?"</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><i>
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Cruz
ponders before falsely claiming the agency regularly abused its power
to do the Democrats' bidding. "We know the FBI has been misused
in the past to target President Trump and our conservative movement
and run interference for the Democrats."</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Then
Cruz drills down deep on a specific Jan. 6 theory popular in
far-right circles, asking </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>"Who
is Ray Epps? Was Ray Epps a federal agent or informant?"</i></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Right-wing
pundits, including Carlson, have repeatedly, and without supporting
facts, claimed Epps, a 60-year-old business owner who took part in
the Jan. 6 pro-Trump rally was working for the FBI. The </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Washington
Post</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">recently
spent more than 2,000 words </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">explaining
in excruciating detail why this has zero grounding in reality. But,
hey, who needs facts </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Nowlin
1-2)?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">
</span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Gillman,
Todd. ‘Ted’s Been Canceled’: Cruz’s 2024 Ambitions Hobbled by
Capitol </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Riot,
but He Could Rebound in Biden Era.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Dallas
Morning News, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
16. 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/01/16/ted-cruzs-2024-ambitions-hobbled-by-capitol-riot-but-in-a-twist-biden-era-could-help-him-rebound/">https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/01/16/ted-cruzs-2024-ambitions-hobbled-by-capitol-riot-but-in-a-twist-biden-era-could-help-him-rebound/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">arper,
Karen Brooks. “ </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">alled
the Jan. 6 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">iot
a “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">errorist
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ttack.”
Now </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ays
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">isspoke.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
6, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-capitol-attack/">https://www.texastribune.org/2022/01/06/ted-cruz-tucker-carlson-capitol-attack/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">dliby,
Leia. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">John
Oliver Mocks Senate GOP’s Impeachment Trial ‘Charade’: ‘Hands
in Everyone! Dead Eyes, Empty Hearts, Ted Cruz!’” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Mediaite,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
15, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.mediaite.com/entertainment/john-oliver-mocks-senate-gops-impeachment-trial-charade-hands-in-everyone-dead-eyes-empty-hearts-ted-cruz/">https://www.mediaite.com/entertainment/john-oliver-mocks-senate-gops-impeachment-trial-charade-hands-in-everyone-dead-eyes-empty-hearts-ted-cruz/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">erer,
Lisa. “</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">How
Ted Cruz Became the Least Sympathetic Politician in America.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
19, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/us/politics/ted-cruz-mexico.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/us/politics/ted-cruz-mexico.html</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ivingston,
Abby. “</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">U.S.
Sens. Ted Cruz, John Cornyn </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">V</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ote
against </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ommission
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nvestigate
January </span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nsurrection.”
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">May
28. 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/27/ted-cruz-john-cornyn-senate-insurrection-commission/">https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/27/ted-cruz-john-cornyn-senate-insurrection-commission/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">N</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">owlin,
Sanford. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ends
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">F</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">undraising
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">mail
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">uggesting
the FBI </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
behind the Jan. 6 </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nsurrection.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>San
Antonio Current, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
28. 2022. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/ted-cruz-sends-fundraising-email-suggesting-the-fbi-was-behind-the-jan-6-insurrection/Content?oid=28093202">https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/ted-cruz-sends-fundraising-email-suggesting-the-fbi-was-behind-the-jan-6-insurrection/Content?oid=28093202</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Pengelly,
Martin and Bryant, Miranda. “Ted Cruz and Other Republican
Senators Oppose Certifying Election Results.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Guardian, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">January
2, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/02/ted-cruz-republican-senators-reject-election-result-biden-trump">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/02/ted-cruz-republican-senators-reject-election-result-biden-trump</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><br /></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-34302663657292459712022-04-03T12:06:00.000-07:002022-04-03T12:06:07.939-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part Four; Trump's Wing Man<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ted
Cruz on Friday said he would vote for Donald Trump for president and
that he would encourage others to do the same, reversing months of
opposition to his bitter primary rival.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"After
many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own
conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the
Republican nominee, Donald Trump," he wrote in a Facebook post.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
said he endorsed both because of his primary pledge to support the
party nominee, as well as his concerns about Democratic nominee
Hillary Clinton.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
had previously gone as far as to tell Republicans to “vote your
conscience” at the Republican National Convention, rather than
urging them to get behind the nominee. Since then, Cruz, who may face
a primary challenge in his 2018 Senate reelection campaign, has come
under mounting pressure to get behind Trump, though many Cruz
loyalists see an endorsement as unacceptable.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">At
the outset of the Republican [presidential] primary, Cruz went out of
his way to praise Trump, expecting that the real estate mogul’s
support would crumble, and Cruz would be the beneficiary. But as the
primary continued and Trump moved into an increasingly strong
position in the race, Cruz sought to fashion himself as the
conservative alternative to Trump, repeatedly describing his opponent
as a liberal who had few differences with Hillary Clinton.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
race turned increasingly personal between the two, with Trump
attacking Cruz’s wife and seeking to link Cruz’s father to
conspiracy theories about assassinating former President John F.
Kennedy. On the day that he dropped out of the race, Cruz took his
criticism of Trump to a new level, accusing him of being a
“pathological liar,” a “serial philanderer” and an “utterly
amoral” “bully.”</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz’s
unwillingness to support Trump has become an issue in his home state
as he prepares for Senate re-election. The morning after he refused
to support Trump at the RNC, the Texas delegation breakfast broke out
into chaos as delegates split over whether or not Cruz should support
the nominee.</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since
then, Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas), a possible Cruz primary challenger
for Cruz’s Senate seat, has been using the senator’s
unwillingness to support Trump as a means of attacking Cruz.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">The
Texas senator has been gradually making moves to soothe his often
poor relations with fellow senators since his primary loss, helping
raise money for at-risk Republicans and donating $100,000 to the
Senate GOP’s campaign arm. But many Republicans on Capitol Hill
have prodded him to go further and hold his nose with an endorsement.
While several Republicans said Cruz’s bloc of conservative voters
could make the difference for Trump, others said any endorsement
would be more about helping secure Cruz’s own political standing
than Trump’s </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Glueck
and Everett 1-2).</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">U.S.
Sen. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Ted
Cruz,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">
R-Texas, is aligning with President Donald Trump in highlighting the
lack of evidence in recently issued indictments that Russia's
government colluded with Trump's 2016 campaign to influence the
election.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">"On
the face of these indictments, they say that the American side of it
was unwitting — that there was not collusion. That's pretty
significant," Cruz told reporters here Saturday night while
emphasizing he is still waiting to see the results of congressional
probes into Russia's role in the election. Those investigations, Cruz
said, "need to be continued."</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Unveiled
Friday, the indictments allege that 13 Russian nationals sought to
interfere in the election and boost Trump over his Democratic
opponent, Hillary Clinton. The indictments came from special counsel
Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether Trump's campaign had any
connection to Russian meddling in the election — an issue that has
overshadowed the president's first year in office.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Trump's
reaction to the indictment — which has largely focused on the
collusion debate instead of the actual content of the charges — has
revived questions about whether the president is taking a tough
enough stance toward Russia. Asked whether the president needed to be
more forceful, Cruz contrasted Trump's approach with the "eight
years of weakness we had seen with Barack Obama," the Democratic
former commander in chief.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
have been very encouraged by the strength and resolve demonstrated by
the president," Cruz said. "I think we need to continue to
show strong resolve" (Svitek
1,2).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republican
Sen. Ted Cruz locked in a second term Tuesday by defeating Democratic
Rep. Beto O’Rourke, seeing off Democrats’ most aggressive attempt
in decades to win a statewide office in Texas.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
had 51 percent of the vote to 49 percent for O’Rourke when three
networks called the race with less than a quarter of the precincts
reporting.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">O’Rourke’s
campaign forced Cruz, who feuded with fellow Republicans for long
stretches of his first term, to run hard for a second six-year term.
He attacked O’Rourke as a liberal out of step with Texas’
traditional conservatism on immigration, drugs and a host of other
issues.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
in a sign of a changing Cruz, his campaign also touted bipartisan
work bringing home federal aid after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
also leaned on help from the rest of the Republican Party, including
President Donald Trump, whom Cruz famously called a “pathological
liar” and “utterly amoral” during the 2016 presidential
primaries. In July, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">urged
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">White
House officials to airdrop the president into the Lone Star State to
keep O’Rourke at bay, and Trump came to the state to rally voters
for Cruz in October, ditching the “Lyin’ Ted” moniker he had
deployed during the primary fight and instead labeling Cruz
“Beautiful Ted” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Dixon
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">O'Rourke
catapulted into the national spotlight after a video of him answering
a question about whether NFL players should be allowed to kneel in
protest during the national anthem went viral.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">In
the clip, O'Rourke takes a question from an audience member (who,
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">according
to Politico</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">,
was planted by Cruz's campaign) on the issue.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"And
so non-violently, peacefully, while the eyes of this country are
watching these games, they take a knee to bring our attention and our
focus to this problem to ensure that we fix it," O'Rourke said
at the Houston event.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"That
is why they are doing it," he said. "And I can think of
nothing more American than to peacefully, standing up, or taking a
knee, for your rights, anytime, anywhere, in any place."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cruz
immediately fired back </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">with
an attack ad </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">featuring
a double amputee who served in Vietnam, making the issue one of the
biggest in the race.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
gave two legs for this country. I’m not able to stand," says
the veteran, </span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Tim
Lee</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.
"But I sure expect you to stand for me when the national anthem
is being played.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">O'Rourke's
viral NFL video captured the attention of athletes, celebrities and
other national figures.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">O'Rourke
landed a guest spot on the Ellen DeGeneres show after the video and
also did </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Late Show with Stephen Colbert</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cruz
has criticized O'Rourke for this recognition, frequently referencing
the Democrat's Hollywood support </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">M</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">eckelburg
2-3).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.15in; margin-top: 0.15in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sen.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ted
Cruz</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(R-Texas)
on Sunday joined </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">President
Trump </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">in
lashing out at the New York Times over the paper’s coverage of the
president.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
NYT is destroying itself w/ Trump hatred. And it’s ultimately bad
for freedom of the press when ‘journalists’ openly revel in being
partisan propagandists. When our Nation is so trib</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">l</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">i</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">z</span></span><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">ed
that each side has their own ‘news’ & ‘facts’ and we
don’t even talk to each other,” Cruz tweeted.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
called the paper a “propaganda outlet by liberals, for liberals.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz,
citing a story published on the conservative blog Red State, claims a
New York Times editor said “(in effect) ‘for 2 yrs, we covered
‘Russia, Russia, Russia,’ facts be damned; now we’ll scream
‘racism, racism, racism’ for 18 mos, and the rest of the media
follow us.’”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">That’s
not journalism,” Cruz tweeted.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
and the blog he cited are referencing a meeting New York Times
executive editor Dean Baquet had with staff regarding the paper’s
coverage and a recent controversial print headline that said “TRUMP
URGES UNITY VS. RACISM” in describing Trump’s response to a mass
shooting in El Paso, Texas, that killed 22 people earlier this month.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">During
the meeting, Baquet did discuss how the paper should focus its
coverage going forward, based on the reported transcript.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Chapter
1 of the story of Donald Trump, not only for our newsroom but,
frankly, for our readers, was: Did Donald Trump have untoward
relationships with the Russians, and was there obstruction of
justice? That was a really hard story, by the way, let’s not forget
that...And I think we covered that story better than anybody else,”
Baquet said, according to Slate’s transcript of the meeting.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
think that we’ve got to change. I mean, the vision for coverage for
the next two years is what I talked about earlier: How do we cover a
guy who makes these kinds of remarks?...How do we write about race in
a thoughtful way, something we haven’t done in a large way in a
long time? That, to me, is the vision for coverage. You all are going
to have to help us shape that vision. But I think that’s what we’re
going to have to do for the rest of the next two years,” he added.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Trump
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tweeted
earlier </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">calling
out the Times, seemingly referencing the same meeting, calling the
coverage a "racism witch hunt" </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Klar
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Republican
U.S. Sen. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">launched
a podcast this week, saying he'll use it to air his daily musings
about the historic Senate impeachment trial of President Donald
Trump. Cruz is a juror along with the other members of the U.S.
Senate.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">His
first episode of the podcast, titled "Verdict,"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> was recorded at 2:42 a.m. Wednesday, after the first day of the
trial.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Throughout
the first episode, Cruz referred to the trial as highly partisan and
argued that the impeachment was a political attack. He also expressed
hope that the president's counsel would get more into the
"substantive argument" that Trump's actions did not
constitute a high crime or misdemeanor. There are two episodes so
far.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the first episode, Cruz said that the impeachment managers —
members of the House acting as prosecution in the trial — had "some
good moments" early in the trial but that as time wore on, their
arguments grew "redundant." He said that impeachment
managers' cases failed to demonstrate proof of "treason, bribery
or other high crimes or misdemeanors." </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
House voted largely along party lines in December to impeach Trump
over allegations he used his office to pressure the Ukrainian
president to investigate a family member of his [Cruz’s] political
rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. ... </span></span></span>
</p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p align="left" style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
has repeatedly defended Trump and dismissed the seriousness of the
impeachment allegations. He has falsely claimed that there is
evidence of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election and defended
Trump's actions in the call with the Ukranian president. In response,
he's received praise from the president — including a retweet of
Cruz’s announcement of “Verdict” (Manas 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Under
President Donald Trump's leadership, the United States has the
highest COVID-19 death count in the world — and states with
Republican governors, including Florida and Texas, had some of the
worst coronavirus surges over the summer. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas
tried to defend the GOP response to the COVID-19 pandemic during a
Monday, September 28 appearance on ABC's "The View" — and
it didn't go well for the GOP senator.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Grilling
Cruz forcefully, liberal co-host Joy Behar noted that Republican
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis "recently lifted all restrictions on
businesses, allowing bars and restaurants to operate at full capacity
without a mask mandate. He said they won't be closing anything going
forward." Behar asked Cruz if Texas should do the same thing,
and he responded by trying to blame Democrats for coronavirus deaths
— especially New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Cruz claimed that the
death rates have been "much, much lower" in Florida than in
states with Democratic governors, failing to mention how quickly
Cuomo enacted a stay-at-home policy.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Behar,
however, reminded Cruz that New York was "hit early" by the
pandemic. And when Cruz wouldn't say anything about DeSantis'
policies, Behar told the senator, "You are deflecting, sir. You
are deflecting the question." </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Whoopi
Goldberg, another co-host, jumped in, reminding Cruz how disastrous
Trump's response to the pandemic has been at the federal level.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Had
the man who is running the country right now given us this
information in January when he had it — when we could have maybe
done something a little differently — it might have worked
differently," Goldberg told Cruz. "I just wanted to point
that out. It's not about whose people died more. People died, and
they didn't have to" (Henderson 1-2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dixon,
Darius. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">W</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ins
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">R</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">eelection
over Beto O’Rourke.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">November 6, 2018.
Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/06/ted-cruz-vs-beto-orourke-texas-senate-race-results-2018-963527">https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/06/ted-cruz-vs-beto-orourke-texas-senate-race-results-2018-963527</a></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Glueck,
Katie and Everett, Burgess. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz:
I'm Voting for Trump.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">September
23, 2016. Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-rival-cruz-to-throw-support-to-gop-nominee-228584">https://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/trump-rival-cruz-to-throw-support-to-gop-nominee-228584</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">enderson,
Alex. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"’The
View’ </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">osts
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">orner
Ted Cruz over </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ttempt
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">B</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lame
Democrats for COVID-19 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eaths.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Salon,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">September
29, 2020. Net.
<a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/the-view-hosts-corner-ted-cruz-over-attempt-to-blame-democrats-for-covid-19-deaths_partner/">https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/the-view-hosts-corner-ted-cruz-over-attempt-to-blame-democrats-for-covid-19-deaths_partner/</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">K</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lar,
Rebecca. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz:
New York Times '</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">estroying
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">tself'
with Trump '</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">atred'.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Hill, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
18, 2019. Net.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/457882-cruz-new-york-times-is-destroying-itself-with-trump-hatred">https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/457882-cruz-new-york-times-is-destroying-itself-with-trump-hatred</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">anas,
Sam. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Ted Cruz </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aunches
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aily
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">P</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">odcast
about Trump </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">mpeachment
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">rial.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
23, 2020. Net.
<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/23/sen-ted-cruz-launches-daily-podcast-about-trump-impeachment-trial/">https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/23/sen-ted-cruz-launches-daily-podcast-about-trump-impeachment-trial/</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eckelburg,
Madlin. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Beto
2020: Key </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oments
from the O'Rourke, Ted Cruz Senate </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">R</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ace
in Texas.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>El
Paso Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
March 4, 2019. Net.
<a href="https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/05/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-texas-senate-election-key-moments/1823103002/">https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/05/beto-orourke-ted-cruz-texas-senate-election-key-moments/1823103002/</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">vitek,
Patrick. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz,
like Trump, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">P</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">oints
to </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">L</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ack
of </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ollusion
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">E</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">vidence
in Russia </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ndictments.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Texas
Tribune, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
17, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/17/cruz-trump-highlights-lack-collusion-evidence-russia-indictments/">https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02/17/cruz-trump-highlights-lack-collusion-evidence-russia-indictments/</a></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-58712447850596010202022-03-31T12:43:00.001-07:002022-03-31T12:43:07.518-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part Three; The Freshman Senator<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
AP projects that Tea Party star Ted Cruz will win the Texas
Republican Senate primary, defeating "establishment"
candidate and longtime Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the past several weeks victory for Cruz, the former solicitor
general, had begun to look increasingly likely, with polls showing
him ahead of Dewhurst, and major national Tea Party stars like Sarah
Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint turning out to campaign for him in the
final days leading up to the runoff. However, for the bulk of the
race Cruz had been the underdog, lacking in the wealth and name
recognition enjoyed by Dewhurst, who has been the lieutenant governor
under Rick Perry since 2003.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0.21in; margin-top: 0.21in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While
Cruz, 41, may have had the majority of national star power on his
side, Dewhurst, 66, had the backing of many in the Texas political
establishment, including Perry. Dewhurst enjoyed a huge financial
advantage over Cruz. According to the Center for Responsive Politics,
Dewhurst poured $11 million of his own personal fortune- he founded a
successful energy company called Falcon Seaboard- into his campaign,
spending a total of $19 million, as compared to Cruz's $7 million
spent. But ultimately Dewhurst's wallet was no match for Cruz's
political prowess.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Cruz
painted his opponent as a moderate who would be willing, if not
eager, to compromise with Democrats in Congress. Dewhurst has a very
conservative record- he's anti-abortion rights, he supports a
balanced budget amendment, and on Monday morning he stopped by a
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Chick-Fil-A
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
show his support for the restaurant embroiled in a controversy
regarding their president's recent comments on gay marriage.
Nevertheless, Cruz and his supporters pointed to compromises Dewhurst
had made with Democrats in the state legislature, and argued that his
record was merely a reflection of Rick Perry's conservative agenda
and did not provide an accurate representation of Dewhurst's own
governing style </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Hartfield
1-2).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
the November 6 general election, Cruz faced </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Democratic</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nominee
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Sadler"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Paul
Sadler</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
an attorney and a former state representative from </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henderson,_Texas"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">Henderson</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
in east Texas. Cruz won with 4.5 million votes (56.4%) to Sadler's
3.2 million (40.6%). According to a poll by Cruz's pollster Wilson
Perkins Allen Opinion Research, Cruz received 40% of the Hispanic
vote, outperforming Republican presidential candidate </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Mitt
Romney </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">among
Hispanics in Texas </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Ted
4).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Texas
Republican Senator Ted Cruz potentially violated ethics rules by
failing to publicly disclose his financial relationship with a
Caribbean-based holding company during the 2012 campaign, a review of
financial disclosure and company documents by TIME shows. The
relationship originated with a $6,000 investment Cruz made more than
a decade ago in a Jamaican private equity firm founded by his college
roommate.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
Cruz later reported the financial relationship in 2013, he failed to
comply with Senate rules requiring full identification of the holding
company and its location, triggering an inquiry by Senate Select
Committee on Ethics staff and a second amended disclosure. After
additional inquiries by TIME this week, Cruz said he is now in the
process making further corrections to his disclosure (Calibressi 1).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">As
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ted
Cruz </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">tells
it, the story of how he financed his upstart campaign for the United
States Senate four years ago is an endearing example of loyalty and
shared sacrifice between a married couple.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sweetheart,
I’d like us to liquidate our entire net worth, liquid net worth,
and put it into the campaign,” he says he told his wife, Heidi, who
readily agreed.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
the couple’s decision to pump more than $1 million into Mr. Cruz’s
successful </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Tea
Party</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">-darling
Senate bid in Texas was made easier by a large loan from Goldman
Sachs, where Mrs. Cruz works. That loan was not disclosed in campaign
finance reports.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Those
reports show that in the critical weeks before the May 2012
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Republican
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> primary,
Mr. Cruz — currently a leading contender for his party’s
presidential nomination — put “personal funds” totaling
$960,000 into his Senate campaign. Two months later, shortly before a
scheduled runoff election, he added more, bringing the total to $1.2
million — “which is all we had saved,” as Mr. Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">described
it in an interview with The New York Times several years ago</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
review of personal financial disclosures that Mr. Cruz filed later
with the Senate does not find a liquidation of assets that would have
accounted for all the money he spent on his campaign. What it does
show, however, is that in the first half of 2012, Ted and Heidi Cruz
obtained the low-interest loan from Goldman Sachs, as well as another
one from Citibank. The loans totaled as much as $750,000 and
eventually increased to a maximum of $1 million before being paid
down later that year. There is no explanation of their purpose.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Neither
loan appears in reports the Ted Cruz for Senate Committee filed with
the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Federal
Election Commission</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
in which candidates are required to disclose the source of money they
borrow to finance their campaigns. Other campaigns have been
investigated and fined for failing to make such disclosures, which
are intended to inform voters and prevent candidates from receiving
special treatment from lenders. There is no evidence that the Cruzes
got a break on their loans.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
spokeswoman for Mr. Cruz’s presidential campaign, Catherine
Frazier, acknowledged that the loan from Goldman Sachs, drawn against
the value of the Cruzes’ brokerage account, was a source of money
for the Senate race. Ms. Frazier added that Mr. Cruz also sold stocks
and liquidated savings, but she did not address whether the Citibank
loan was used.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
failure to report the Goldman Sachs loan, for as much as $500,000,
was “inadvertent,” she said, adding that the campaign would file
corrected reports as necessary. Ms. Frazier said there had been no
attempt to hide anything (McIntire 1-2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><b style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hey,
Notice Me!</b></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Back
in 2013, Cruz -- then a junior member of the Senate’s minority
party -- had tried to end funding for the Affordable Care Act. He
pushed for language to defund Obamacare in spending bills, which
would have forced then-President Barack Obama to choose between
keeping the government open and crippling his signature legislative
achievement.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
the high-stakes legislative game played out, Obama and his fellow
Democrats refused to agree to gut the law, and the Republicans, as a
minority party, didn’t have the numbers to force their will.
Following a 16-day shutdown, lawmakers voted to fund both the
government and the Affordable Care Act.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
was widely identified at the time as the leader of the defunding
effort. Most famously, Cruz spoke about defunding Obamacare on the
Senate floor during a 21-hour speech, punctuated by Green Eggs and
Ham as a bedtime story for his children.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Many
in Cruz’s own party, even those sympathetic with his goals, blamed
him for a tactical blunder. During the spending impasse, his
Republican colleagues </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">launched
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"a
barrage of hostile questions" at a GOP-only lunch, questioning
whether Cruz had thought through the endgame.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Cruz
… </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[maintained]
t</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">hat
his motivation was not to keep the government from being funded, but
rather to defund Obamacare, and that the only reason people believe
this is because of the biased media </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Jacobson
1-2).</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Republicans
were largely blamed for the shutdown. Cruz’s theatrics inspired the
ire not just of Democrats, but of his Republican colleagues in the
Senate, who felt Cruz knew </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">his
self-righteous gambit </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">was
doomed to fail, but </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">went
ahead with it anyway </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">to
raise his own political profile at his party’s expense. … </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">(Kirby
2, 3).</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz came to Washington two-and-a-half years ago pledging to be the
anti-senator. But he’s been more like the no-show senator.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Texas Republican seriously lags most of his colleagues in attending
hearings and casting votes in what has been a Senate career long on
rhetoric and short on Senate business.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He’s
skipped the vast majority of Armed Services Committee hearings, is
below-average in attendance on his other major committees and ranks
97th during the first three months of this year in showing up for
roll call votes on the Senate floor.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Last
month, Cruz dismissed concerns about all the Armed Services Committee
hearings he’s missed over the past few months by saying he’s been
busy planning a presidential campaign. But a POLITICO review has
found that his attendance problems date back to his first few months
as a senator in 2013, when he skipped congressional hearings on
immigration, the war in Afghanistan and across-the-board spending
cuts.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Sen.
Cruz remains incredibly active on the issues important to the 27
million Texans he represents and takes care to make sure his
constituents know where he stands on these matters,” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">[</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz’s
communications director, Amanda</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">]</span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Carpenter
said in a statement. “In a short time, Sen. Cruz has become a
leading voice in our debates about commerce, constitutional rights
and national security and will continue advocating ways to make
Americans more prosperous and free.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
Cruz, another priority has been speaking out on conservative causes
around the country — a clearly different way to leverage his
influence as a senator and, not coincidentally, pump up his name
recognition among the kind of activists who can propel a campaign for
higher office.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">For
instance, on March 6, 2014, Cruz was at National Harbor, Md., roaring
to an audience of defense-minded conservative voters organized by
Breitbart News about U.S. missteps in dealing with Iran, Israel and
the bloody civil war in Syria. “What this administration doesn’t
understand is that weakness and appeasement only invite military
conflict,” he thundered.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Meanwhile,
back on Capitol Hill that day, other members of the Armed Services
Committee were asking tough questions of the top U.S. general in the
Middle East, covering violence in Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan and
the “perennial fight against Al-Qaeda,” according to transcripts
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Wright
1,2).</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>Attack
Obama, Attack, Attack!</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">According
to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with
Iran is essentially financing terrorism. And he’s not backing down
after the president called his comments “outrageous.”</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">If
this deal is consummated, it will make the Obama administration the
world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism,” Cruz
said during a </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">round
table </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Tuesday.
“Billions of dollars under control of this administration will flow
into the hands of jihadists who will use that money to murder
Americans, to murder Israelis, to murder Europeans.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
has said the remarks before.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
Monday, Obama </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">responded
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
criticism of the deal. He also addressed Cruz’s comments, and
others from members of GOP lawmakers, calling them “outrageous
attacks” that crossed the line.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">We’ve
had a sitting senator, who also happens to be running for president,
suggest that I’m the leading state sponsor of terrorism,” Obama
said during a press conference from Ethiopia. “Maybe this is just
an effort to push Mr. Trump out of the headlines, but it’s not the
kind of leadership that is needed for America right now.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">During
the round table, Cruz said Obama had “belittled and attacked” his
remarks, and invited the president to debate the merits of the deal.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Yesterday,
I invited President Obama to participate in a debate, I would be
happy to debate him … anywhere in the country in the next 60 days,
to discuss the substance of this deal. If he believes that this deal
can be defended, I would encourage him to defend it in front of the
American people,” Cruz said. “If he’s unwilling to do so, then
he can send as his proxy Secretary of State John Kerry because on the
merits, this deal is catastrophic for the American people” </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Collins
1,2).</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican presidential candidate, argued on
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Twitter
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">that
Justice Antonin Scalia should not be replaced until after the winner
of the 2016 presidential election takes office.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Justice
Scalia was an American hero. We owe it to him, & the Nation, for
the Senate to ensure that the next President names his replacement.”</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">On
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Facebook</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
Mr. Cruz hailed Justice Scalia as “a stalwart defender of the
Constitution” and an opponent of “judicial activism” who played
an important role in upholding the Second Amendment.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">He
was an unrelenting defender of religious liberty, free speech,
federalism, the constitutional separation of powers, and private
property rights,” Mr. Cruz wrote. “All liberty-loving Americans
should be in mourning” (Stack
1).</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
June 2016, Cruz blamed the Obama administration for the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Orlando
nightclub shooting</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
reasoning that it did not track the perpetrator </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Omar
Mateen </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">properly
while he was on the terrorist watch-list. Following the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">terrorist
attack on</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Nice,
France</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
Cruz said in a statement that the country was at risk as a result of
the Obama administration having a "willful blindness" to
radical Islamists. With the passing of </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Fidel
Castro </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in
November, Cruz charged Obama with celebrating and lionizing Castro in
public statements he made addressing the death. On December 28, after
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Secretary
of State John Kerry </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">gave
a speech defending the U.S.'s decision to allow a U.N. resolution to
pass that condemned Israeli settlements "on land meant to be
part of a future Palestinian state", Cruz denounced the speech
as "disgraceful", and said that history would remember
Obama and Kerry as "relentless enemies of Israel". Cruz
also accused the Obama administration of having a "radical
anti-Israel agenda" </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Comments
1).</span></p>
<p style="font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-style: normal;">B</span><span style="font-style: normal;">attling
Trump</span></b></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">From
his home at Mar-a-Lago, Donald J. Trump stirred up new controversy
this week in the Republican presidential primary — and new alarm
among party leaders that the front-runner for the nomination will
drive away women from candidates running farther down the ballot in
the fall.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All
week, Mr. Trump has slowly escalated a war of words on Twitter
against Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, his main competition in the
Republican race, based on an ad by a “super PAC” started by
people who want to stop the New York developer from getting the
nomination. The spot featured an old nude photo shoot of Mr. Trump’s
wife Melania Trump, a former model, posing on his jet.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr.
Cruz has no affiliation with the super PAC, and he has denounced the
ad. But Mr. Trump has continued to express disbelief. After
threatening to “spill the beans” on Mr. Cruz’s wife, Heidi
Cruz, who suffered a bout of depression years ago, he retweeted a
post from someone who made a side-by-side photo comparison of Mrs.
Cruz at an unflattering angle, and Mrs. Trump.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">On
Wednesday, Mr. Cruz repeatedly quoted from the movie “The American
President” to defend his wife, as she held an event and faced
questions about Mr. Trump’s threats. But that was before Mr.
Trump’s Twitter post with the pictures of the two women. And Mr.
Cruz had finally had enough.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Calling
Mr. Trump a “sniveling coward,” Mr. Cruz told his rival to “leave
Heidi the hell alone” (Haberman 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Frank
Bruni’s Scorn </b></span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.16in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
spoke out of both sides of his scowl, itching to be the voice of the
common man but equally eager to demonstrate what a highfalutin,
Harvard-trained intellect he possessed. He wed a populist message to
a plummy vocabulary. And while the line separating smart and smart
aleck isn’t all that thin or blurry, he never could stay on the
winning side of it.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
wore cowboy boots, but his favorites are made of ostrich.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Two
peacocks in a pod, he and Trump, and what ghastly plumage they showed
on Tuesday.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Trump
somehow saw fit to bring up a National Enquirer story linking Cruz’s
father to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cruz exploded,
branding Trump a “pathological liar” and “serial philanderer.”
He also brought up an interview from many years ago in which Trump
told Howard Stern that his effort to steer clear of sexually
transmitted diseases was his “personal Vietnam.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Where
was this rant six months ago, when the Republican field was crowded
and Cruz played footsie with Trump? Back then he was wagering that
Trump would fade, and he wanted to be in a friendly position to
inherit the billionaire’s supporters.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
by Tuesday, Trump was the main obstacle between Cruz and the
Republican presidential nomination, and Cruz has just one true
compass: his own advancement.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
nakedness of his vanity and transparency of his ambition were always
his biggest problem. He routinely excoriated other politicians for
self-centeredness while repeatedly hogging center stage, his remarks
interminable — after his Iowa victory, for example, or when he
presumptuously introduced Carly Fiorina as his running mate — and
his pauses so theatrically drawn out that you could watch the
entirety of “The Revenant” during some of them.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
trashed “the establishment” and wore its rejection of him as a
badge of honor only until it stopped rejecting him and its help was
his best hope to wrest the nomination away from Trump. At that point
he did dizzy cartwheels over every prominent endorsement that came
his way.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
took great pride in an adversarial relationship with the media,
decreeing us irrelevant, until he went in hunt of a fresh excuse for
losing to Trump and decided over the last few days that it was all
our fault. We didn’t matter and then we did, depending on which
estimation flattered him.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He
purported to be more high-minded than his peers but pettily mocked
Michelle Obama for urging schoolchildren to eat leafy greens. When
Heidi Cruz is first lady, he pledged, “French fries are coming back
to the cafeteria.” Heidi Cruz is not going to be first lady, so
she’ll need some other platform for the promotion of calorie bombs
and second chins.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
where in her husband was the humility that a Christian faith as
frequently proclaimed as his should encompass? It wasn’t evident
when he stormed into the Senate in early 2013, an upstart intent on
upstaging the veterans.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">There
were flickers of it on Tuesday night, as he conceded defeat not just
in Indiana but in the presidential contest, announcing that he was
suspending his campaign “with a heavy heart.” He articulated
gratitude to those Americans — no small number of them — who had
buoyed him.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
left Trump out of his remarks. There were no congratulations. There
was no indication of whether he’d publicly back Trump in the months
to come. There was nothing to purge the memory of what he’d said
earlier Tuesday, when he described Trump as “a narcissist at a
level I don’t think this country has ever seen.” Yes, we have,
and so has he, every day, in the mirror.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That’s
why he’ll undoubtedly be back to try for the presidency again. But
this bid is moribund. It’s time for Cruz to rest in peevishness
(Bruni 2-4).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Bruni,
Frank. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz’s Bitter End.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">May
3, 2016. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/ted-cruzs-bitter-end.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/opinion/ted-cruzs-bitter-end.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">alibressi,
Massimo. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz Failed To Disclose Ties To Caribbean Holding Company.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Time,
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">October
18, 2013. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://swampland.time.com/2013/10/18/ted-cruz-failed-to-disclose-ties-to-jamaican-holding-company/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://swampland.time.com/2013/10/18/ted-cruz-failed-to-disclose-ties-to-jamaican-holding-company/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Collins,
Eliza. “</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">tands
by </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">alling
Obama a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ponsor
of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">errorism.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico,</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
July 29, 2015. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/ted-cruz-calls-barack-obama-sponsor-terrorism-iran-nuclear-deal-120780"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/ted-cruz-calls-barack-obama-sponsor-terrorism-iran-nuclear-deal-120780</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Comments
on President Obama.” </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia.
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#U.S._Senate_(2013%E2%80%93present">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#U.S._Senate_(2013%E2%80%93present</a>)</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">aberman,
Maggie. “</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/25/arguments-get-personal-between-donald-trump-and-ted-cruz/">Arguments
Get Personal </a></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/25/arguments-get-personal-between-donald-trump-and-ted-cruz/">b</a></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/25/arguments-get-personal-between-donald-trump-and-ted-cruz/">etween
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz</a><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">.”</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">New
York Times,</span></span></span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">March
25, 2016. Net. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-variant: normal;">
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/25/arguments-get-personal-between-donald-trump-and-ted-cruz/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/03/25/arguments-get-personal-between-donald-trump-and-ted-cruz/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Proxima-Nova, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hartfield,
Elizabeth. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz Wins In Texas GOP Senate Runoff.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>ABC
News, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">August
1, 2012. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/ted-cruz-wins-in-texas-gop-senate-runoff/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/ted-cruz-wins-in-texas-gop-senate-runoff/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Jacobson,
Louis. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ays
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e's
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">pposed
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hutdowns,
but </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">asn't
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">lways.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politifact,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
22, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/jan/22/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-says-hes-opposed-shutdowns-he-hasnt-alway/">https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2018/jan/22/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-says-hes-opposed-shutdowns-he-hasnt-alway/</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">K</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">irby,
Jen. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz, </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ascot
of the 2013 </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hutdown,
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ays
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">e
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
“</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">onsistently
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">O</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">pposed
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">S</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">hutdowns.”
</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Vox,
</i></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
22, 2018. Net.
<a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/1/22/16921166/ted-cruz-2013-shutdownsays-he-has-consistently-opposed-shutdowns">https://www.vox.com/2018/1/22/16921166/ted-cruz-2013-shutdownsays-he-has-consistently-opposed-shutdowns</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">cIntire,
Mike. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz Didn’t Report Goldman Sachs Loan in a Senate Race.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">January
13, 2016. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/politics/ted-cruz-wall-street-loan-senate-bid-2012.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Stack,
Liam. </span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">“</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz Says President Obama Should Not Name Scalia’s Successor.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">February
13. 2016. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-dies-at-79/ted-cruz-president-obama-should-not-name-scalias-successor/">https://www.nytimes.com/live/supreme-court-justice-antonin-scalia-dies-at-79/ted-cruz-president-obama-should-not-name-scalias-successor/</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">T</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ed
Cruz.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia.
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#U.S._Senate_(2013%E2%80%93present"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#U.S._Senate_(2013%E2%80%93present</span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">)</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Wright,
Austin. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ted
Cruz the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">enator:
Heard but </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">N</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">ot
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">S</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">een.”
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><i>Politico,
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">April
21, 2015. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150424002247/http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/ted-cruz-2016-senate-vote-record-117201.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://web.archive.org/web/20150424002247/http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/ted-cruz-2016-senate-vote-record-117201.html</span></span></a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: proxima-nova, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<br />
</span></span></span><br />
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-11532904979928703922022-03-27T12:50:00.003-07:002022-03-27T12:50:28.087-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part Two; Law Career<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">After
law school, Cruz served as a law clerk to </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">J.
Michael Luttig </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">of
the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 1995 and
Chief Justice </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">William
Rehnquist </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">of
the United States in 1996. Cruz was the first Hispanic American to
clerk for a Chief Justice of the United States. Both Judge Luttig and
Justice Rehnquist were giants of the conservative legal bench. These
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">prestigious
clerkships </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">at
the Circuit Court level and U.S. Supreme Court are just about the
plummiest any law school graduate could possibly get </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">(Ted
1)</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Cruz, the most ardent death penalty advocate of Chief Justice William
H. Rehnquist’s clerks in the 1996 term, became known at the court
for his signature writing style. Nearly two decades later, his
colleagues recall how Mr. Cruz, who frequently spoke of how his
mentor’s father had been killed by a carjacker, often dwelled on
the lurid details of murders that other clerks tended to summarize
before quickly moving to the legal merits of the case.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">That,
I think, was a special interest of his,” said Renée Lerner, then a
clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who said she was impressed with
how deeply Mr. Cruz delved into the facts and history of a murder
case. “It was unusual for a Supreme Court clerk to do that.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Other
clerks, however, had a less admiring view. In interviews with nearly
two dozen of Mr. Cruz’s former colleagues on the court, many of the
clerks working in the chambers of liberal justices, but also several
from conservative chambers, depicted Mr. Cruz as “obsessed” with
capital punishment. …</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Melissa
Hart, who clerked for one of the liberal justices, John Paul Stevens,
said Mr. Cruz’s … writing approach “made a lot of people really
angry.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
Mr. Cruz’s time as a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Supreme
Court clerk</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
a coveted step in a legal career that he had meticulously plotted
out, he showed his now familiar capacity to infuriate colleagues. He
also worked hard to please his boss, delved into the nuances of
constitutional law for long, grueling hours and sought to smooth over
harsh feelings at clerk happy hours.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
when he left, he was most remembered by his fellow clerks for his
fervor for capital punishment cases, a cause that would define his
legal career and help him break into politics.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
Cruz … clearly loved his time in a workplace rife with ideological
differences. In the glass-encased room of the cafeteria where clerks
could discuss cases in confidence, he sharpened his arguments.
Playing basketball in the building’s “highest court in the land,”
he said “my bad” to the colleagues he elbowed wildly on his way
to the hoop. He organized a poker game with conservative clerks, and
in the courtyard, he participated in the weekly happy hour, with
alternating chambers taking on catering duties. (Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor’s clerks impressed with fajitas. Justice Thomas’s
clerks did not with cereal.)</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Neal
Katyal, a clerk for Justice Stephen G. Breyer who went on to become
the principal deputy and later acting solicitor general of the United
States under President Obama, said he had befriended Mr. Cruz on
their first day at the cafeteria. He said that it was “superfun”
debating politics and law with Mr. Cruz, and that they had also hit
the library with legal pads together and discussed life, love and
“who we wanted to spend our lives with.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
Mr. Cruz mostly had time for Chief Justice Rehnquist. Mr. Cruz and he
played croquet together, and on Thursday mornings, Mr. Cruz struggled
through doubles matches with the tennis-loving chief and his two
other clerks. (So as not to disappoint his boss, Mr. Cruz had taken
lessons before officially starting the job.) (Horowitz 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">After
a brief one-year stint as a law firm associate, Cruz joined the
George W. Bush presidential campaign in 1999 as a domestic policy
adviser. Cruz devised strategy and drafted pleadings for the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Bush
v Gore case </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">during
the 2000 Florida presidential recounts </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Ted
1).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Once
Bush took office, Cruz worked at the Justice Department as an
associate deputy attorney general in 2001, but he had developed a
reputation as “abrasive” during the campaign and ended up moving
to the "unglamorous" position as the director of the Office
of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission in 2002, a job
Cruz saw as "penance" for rubbing people the wrong way on
the campaign.</span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
married Heidi Nelson, whom he met working on the Bush campaign, in
2001 (Levy 1).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">I
just don’t like the guy,” Bush has said since. The solicitor
general role in his home state of Texas, offered to him by Greg
Abbott—then the attorney general of Texas, now the governor—was a
political lifeline </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">(Kruse
2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
then returned to his home state of Texas to serve as Solicitor
General of Texas from 2003 to 2008. As Solicitor General, Cruz was
the state’s chief appellate lawyer. He was also the youngest, the
first Hispanic, and the longest-serving, solicitor general in Texas
history. As Solicitor General, Cruz argued before the Supreme Court
of the United States nine times, winning five cases and losing four
(Ted 2).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
five-plus years he served as the solicitor general of Texas remain
the most important period in his public résumé. They’re the
record he ran on when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012—and
they represent significantly more of his working life than the three
years he has served so far in the Senate. They're also a prime source
of fodder for liberal and moderate critics, should he become the
Republican presidential nominee.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; page-break-before: auto; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">A
Politico review of Cruz’s record as solicitor general shows he used
the role in a new and far more ideological way than his predecessors,
taking a relatively low-profile job that had traditionally been used
mostly to defend the state government and turning it into a stage for
pushing national conservative causes. Cruz argued eight cases in
front of the U.S. Supreme Court—far more than his predecessors and
successors—using each of them to advance a position endorsed by
conservative thinkers. He also was the counsel of record on some 70
friend-of-the-court briefs, or <i>amicus </i>briefs, weighing in on
cases across the country, … in which Texas had no direct stake, but
which similarly offered a chance to argue ideological points.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz’s
time as solicitor general built him a powerful allegiance among the
conservative donors necessary to launch a national campaign. …</span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
it came to cases that allowed him to argue for things like the
forceful application of the death penalty and expressions of religion
in the public arena and against things like abortion and gun control,
Ho told me, Cruz “was on constant watch for opportunities to press
a conservative vision of the Constitution.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">One
person with intimate knowledge of the office described Cruz to me as
a “show horse.” Others told me Cruz simply was discerning and
strategic and had no qualms about delegating…. Cruz, ...compared
with his predecessors, ratcheted up the writing of </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">amicus </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">briefs.
And of the cases to which he or the more than a dozen attorneys who
worked for him had to respond, he tended to prioritize those he felt
would have the most impact, the most buzz, the best shot at ending up
in front of the Supreme Court.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-size: 15pt;">T</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">he
first high-profile case along these lines—and often the first on a
list that Cruz hits in speeches—was </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Van Orden v. Perry</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, one
of a handful of key fights around the country over whether a public
institution can display the Ten Commandments.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A
homeless former lawyer named Thomas Van Orden sued Texas on account
of a Ten Commandments monument on the capitol grounds in Austin. His
contention was that this was an unconstitutional injection of
religion into such a shared public space. Cruz fought him up the
chain of courts. After the case, in interviews with reporters, at
forums at conservative think tanks and in an appearance in a short
documentary about the case made by the law school at Duke, Cruz
painted the case as a pivotal battle against godless liberals who
seek to rub out what he sees as religion’s rightful role in
American culture. He said in a panel discussion at the Heritage
Foundation that </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Van Orden </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">was “a significant victory from
the perspective of keeping away the chisels and sandblasters.” He
fretted in the </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dallas Morning News </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">about efforts to “read
into our Constitution a hostility toward religion.” Besides, he
said in the Duke documentary, “nobody is forcing the passerby to
confront this. If an individual is offended, don’t look at it.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
the case went to the Supreme Court in 2005, it was Abbott, not Cruz,
who argued on behalf of Texas—even though Cruz had argued in front
of the appeals court in New Orleans, and Erwin Chemerinsky, who
argued on behalf of Van Orden, told me he had dealt with Cruz almost
exclusively throughout the case. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court
sided with Texas—with Cruz—saying it was OK to have a Ten
Commandments monument on the state’s capitol grounds.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
eight other cases, though, as solicitor general, Cruz gave oral
arguments himself at the Supreme Court. Not all of them were wins,
but all were chances for Cruz to showcase his particular brand of
vigorously argued movement conservatism.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
2004, in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Dretke v. Haley</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, Cruz argued against leniency for a
man who had been unjustly sentenced for a series of thefts—basically
because the man’s attorney hadn’t objected when he was supposed
to. Cruz worried it would set a bad precedent if the Supreme Court
essentially let him out. He faced withering skepticism for putting
the principle ahead of the case itself. “So a man does 15 years so
you can vindicate your legal point in some other case?” Justice
Anthony Kennedy said to Cruz. The justices kicked the case back to
Texas courts, which ultimately resentenced the man to the time he had
already served.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">But
the case Ted Cruz talks about the most is </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Medellin v. Texas</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">.
In 2005 and again in 2007, Cruz was put in the intriguing position
of, in essence, going up against President George W. Bush. The
specifics were compelling: Jose Medellin, a Mexican citizen who had
grown up in Texas, raped and killed two teenage girls in Houston. His
appeal centered on the fact that he hadn’t been given the chance to
talk to the Mexican consulate, violating an international treaty. The
International Court of Justice ordered a retrial, not just for
Medellin but 50 other Mexican citizens with similar situations. Bush,
stunning Cruz and others, penned an executive memorandum siding with
the court.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
argued in front of the Supreme Court that the president had
overreached. The case, he said, was a question of U.S. sovereignty
and of the foundational issue of separation of powers. The president,
Cruz said, did not have the power to do what he did. No president
would. Not in this country. Cruz, in polite understatement, called it
“a very curious assertion of presidential power.” …</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
court ruled 6-3 for Texas in June 2005. Medellin was executed a
little more than three years later.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
had four other oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court. In
</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">League of United Latin American Citizens v Perry </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in 2006, he
emphasized the importance of separation of powers in defending a
congressional redistricting case that made Texas a friendlier state
in which to run for Republicans. In </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Smith v Texas </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">and </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Panetti
v Quarterman </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in 2007 and </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Kennedy v Louisiana </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">in 2008, he
argued pro-death-penalty positions in one case in which the defendant
was borderline insane, and another in which the defendant had raped
but not killed an 8-year-old girl.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
even more telling portion of what he did as solicitor general is the
</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">amicus </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">briefs. …</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a brief in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Elk Grove v. Newdow</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, a case out of California, he
argued that children in public schools should be able to say the
words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, citing “the
undeniable link between our Nation and her religious foundation.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a brief in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Lopez v. Gonzales</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, a case out of South Dakota, he
wrote, “Our Nation must secure its borders, especially against
convicted felons who enter illegally.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a brief in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">,
a case out of New Hampshire, he stressed the need for parental
notification before abortion.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
a brief in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Gonzales v. Carhart</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, a case that came through
courts in California, Nebraska and New York, he argued for the
defense of a federal law banning the procedure known by critics as
"partial-birth abortions" because “they draw a bright
line that clearly distinguishes between abortion and infanticide.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
then there was what he wrote in his brief in </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">District of Columbia
v. Heller</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">, the seminal Second Amendment case from 2008, when the
Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects an individual
right, as opposed to a collective, militia-related right, to have and
use guns.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Every
year from 2003 to 2007, Cruz was the counsel of record on briefs that
won a Best Brief Award from the National Association of Attorneys
Generals. He wasn’t the only winner—in 2007, for instance, NAAG
gave a Best Brief Award to 17 people—but Cruz was a named winner
five years in a row.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Around
then, according to his book, Cruz had a four-hour breakfast with
veteran Republican political strategist Karl Rove. “I asked his
advice,” Cruz wrote, “on eventually running for office—whether
I should stay on longer as solicitor general or go to private
practice.” Rove, Cruz said, told him to keep doing what he was
doing: “stay on the job as solicitor general, keep building my
record, and find opportunities to systematically build political
support for a future run.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
Cruz left the solicitor general position, in 2009, to join the
international law firm Morgan Lewis—now Morgan, Lewis &
Bockius—Abbott praised him effusively.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
began running for attorney general in 2009—a logical next step—but
then-Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison didn’t resign her seat to
run for governor, as everybody was expecting, which meant certain
dominoes didn’t fall, leaving Abbott as attorney general. That left
Cruz stuck at Morgan Lewis, which wasn’t the worst, considering he
made more than a million dollars a year every year he was there,
according to his financial disclosure forms. But still, Ed Burbach,
who worked in the office next to Cruz when he was solicitor general,
told me, “I don’t think Morgan Lewis was his goal.”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">So
in 2011, a year in which he made $1,573,543 from Morgan Lewis, he
launched a long-shot run for the U.S. Senate, challenging in the
Republican primary David Dewhurst, Texas’ well-known lieutenant
governor.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">That
June, in New Orleans, in a Hilton ballroom at the annual Republican
Leadership Conference, he made his pitch. He was polling at less than
10 percent. He told the small crowd about his record.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">During
the five and a half years I served as solicitor general, over and
over again, Texas stood up and led the nation defending conservative
principles,” Cruz said. “We defended the Ten Commandments,” he
said, not telling them that Abbott had been the one to actually argue
in front of the Supreme Court. “We defended the Pledge of
Allegiance,” not telling them that what he did was write an <i>amicus
</i>brief. “We defended the Second Amendment,” he said, not
telling them that what he did in the case, too, was write a brief.
“We went to the Supreme Court, and we won,” he kept telling them,
and they kept clapping, and the clapping was getting louder. He told
them about <i>Medellin</i>. He told them all of this before he talked
about his anti-Obamacare stance, before he told them about his
family’s history, his father fleeing from Cuba and pursuing the
American dream.</span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Two
months later, in South Carolina at the RedState Bloggers Conference,
it was the same: “Over and over again Texas stood up …”</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">That’s
the record I’m running on,” he told 70 people in folding chairs
at a candidates forum put on by the Republican Women of Kerr County,
Texas, that fall.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">He
chased down Dewhurst, getting enough votes in the primary to force a
runoff.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"> …</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">And
during his run for the U.S. Senate, throughout 2011 and 2012, putting
the finishing touches on that bridge from elite legal nerd to
right-wing politician, Cruz settled on his two sentences.</span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I’m
not running as a lawyer,” he said in a radio interview in San
Antonio. “I’m running as a fighter” (Kruse 4-15).</span></span></p>
<p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><br /></span></p><p style="background: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-right: -0.06in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><a name="link-418a4978"></a>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">Horowitz,
Jason. “</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">As
Supreme Court Clerk, Ted Cruz Made Death Penalty His Cause.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-size: small;">January
20, 2016. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/as-supreme-court-clerk-ted-cruz-made-death-penalty-his-cause.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/as-supreme-court-clerk-ted-cruz-made-death-penalty-his-cause.html</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">K</span><span style="font-size: small;">ruse,
Michael. “How Ted Cruz Became Ted Cruz.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Politico,
</i></span><span style="font-size: small;">January 5, 2016.
Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/ted-cruz-supreme-court-conservative-213497/">https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/ted-cruz-supreme-court-conservative-213497/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Levy,
Gabrielle. “</span></span></span></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">10
Things You Didn't Know </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">a</span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">bout
Ted Cruz.” </span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>U.S.
News,</i></span></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
May 3, 2017. Net.
</span></span></span><a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-05-03/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-ted-cruz">https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2017-05-03/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-ted-cruz</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ted
Cruz’s (Brilliant) Legal Career.”<i> The Reeves Law Group.</i>
Net. <a href="https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/ted-cruz-legal-career/">https://www.robertreeveslaw.com/blog/ted-cruz-legal-career/</a></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.33in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-39782891295146829902022-03-24T14:14:00.004-07:002022-03-24T14:14:37.865-07:00The Amoralists: Ted Cruz, Part One; School Debater<p> </p><p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Rafael
Edward Cruz was born on December 22, 1970, … in </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Calgary,
Alberta</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">,
Canada, to Eleanor Elizabeth (</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">nee
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Darragh)
Wilson and </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Rafael
Cruz. </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">
Eleanor Wilson was born in </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Wilmington,
Delaware</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">.
She is of three-quarters </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Irish
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">and
one-quarter </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Italian
</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">descent,
and earned an </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">undergraduate
degree </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">in
mathematics from </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Rice
University </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;">in
the 1950s.</span></span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cruz's
father was born and raised in Cuba, the son of a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Canary
islander</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">who
immigrated to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Cuba</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">as
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">child.
As a teenager in the 1950s, he was beaten by agents of </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Fulgencio
Batista</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">for
opposing the Batista regime. He left Cuba in 1957 to attend the
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">University
of Texas at Austin</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
obtained </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">political
asylum</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
the United States after his four-year </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">student
visa</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">expired.
He earned Canadian citizenship in 1973 and became a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">naturalized</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">United
States citizen in 2005.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">At
the time of his birth, Ted Cruz's parents had lived in Calgary for
three years and were working in the oil business as owners of a
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">seismic-data
processing</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">firm
for oil </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_drilling"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">drilling</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Cruz has said that he is the son of "two mathematicians/computer
programmers." In 1974, Cruz's father left the family and moved
to Texas. Later that year, Cruz's parents reconciled and relocated
the family to Houston. They divorced in 1997. Cruz has two older
half-sisters, Miriam Ceferina Cruz and Roxana Lourdes Cruz, from his
father's first marriage. Miriam died in 2011.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
began going by Ted at age 13.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
junior high school Cruz went to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Awty
International School </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
Houston. Cruz attended two private high schools: Faith West Academy</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
near Katy, Texas</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">;
and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Second
Baptist High School</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in Houston</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
from which he graduated as </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">valedictorian</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">
</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">in
1988. During high school, Cruz participated in a Houston-based group
known at the time as the Free Market Education Foundation, a program
that taught high school students the philosophies of economists such
as </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Milton
Friedman </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and Frederic Bastiat</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Wikipedia
2-</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">3</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">In
his early teens, Cruz was a member of the Constitutional
Corroborators, part of a five-strong “unit” of high-achieving,
politically minded students managed by Rolland Storey, a retired gas
executive from Houston. Storey ran an after-school programme under
the banner of a conservative thinktank called the Free Enterprise
Education Center (now the Free Enterprise Institute). It was crucial
in honing Cruz’s public speaking skills and economic views.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">...</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Corroborators toured Rotary clubs and chambers of commerce in Houston
and across Texas. Their star turn was in setting up easels and
writing summaries of the constitution from memory – along with a
definition of socialism, so that everyone was clear on the enemy. In
his 2015 autobiography, A Time for Truth, Cruz recalled that they
gave half-hour presentations on the constitution that ended with a
patriotic poem, I Am an American.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Midway
through junior high school, I decided that I’d had enough of being
the unpopular nerd,” he wrote in his book. “I remember sitting up
one night asking a friend why I wasn’t one of the popular kids. I
ended up staying up most of that night thinking about it. ‘Okay,
well, what is it that the popular kids do? I will consciously emulate
that.’”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">He
embraced sports and replaced his glasses with contact lenses. His
braces came off and he saw a dermatologist who improved his acne.
According to this book, he was suspended from high school for several
days for going to a party, drinking and smoking pot.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">On
other occasions, he wrote, he was beaten up by drunk older kids at
2am, and reprimanded by the principal for a prank that involved
covering a rival school’s building in toilet paper and shaving
cream, then fleeing in a 1978 Ford Fairmont with Wagner’s Ride of
the Valkyries blaring out of the car stereo.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
had become popular and respected when, seeking more academic
stimulation than he had found at his previous school, he transferred
midway through his junior year of high school to Second Baptist, a
small private establishment on the campus of a megachurch in one of
Houston’s greenest and most desirable areas. Today, Cruz’s family
home and campaign headquarters are only a couple of miles away.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Former
students and teachers contacted by the Guardian said that Cruz was a
brilliant student whose political plans were already crystallizing.
“He was very intelligent, a valedictorian the year he graduated. He
knew early on he wanted to be in politics and government,” said
Gary Moore, a Second Baptist pastor. A classmate, Laurie Rankin Carl,
said: “He fit right in … he was head of our class.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Cruz
was heavily involved in extracurricular activities, including the
drama club, the public speaking team and sundry school publications.
He played American football, soccer and basketball. He was twice
class president and vice-president of the student body. “He was
very well liked by the teachers and his classmates and was generally
considered a prodigy,” said John Fuex, who was a year below Cruz.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="color: #121212; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
a fellow Constitutional Corroborator, Laura Calaway spent a week
during spring break travelling around Texas in a van with Cruz in
1988. “In hindsight it was all very exciting and I felt important
to be a part of this educational group,” she said.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Still,
he did not make a good first impression on her. As a high school
senior from the blue-collar Houston suburb of Deer Park, she felt
that Cruz – a veteran Corroborator whose reputation as a formidable
debater preceded him – was aloof.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Calaway
has few other memories of Cruz, but recalled that he found it hard to
bond with the others during the road trip. The suggestion echoes
critics’ claims that Cruz, for all his eloquence and Texan swagger,
can seem stilted in public, too calculating to connect emotionally
with his audience.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
think this is a lifetime struggle of his; he couldn’t relate to us
as a group of teenagers. He really struggled in trying to be part of
a group dynamic, and the jokes,” she said (Dart
2-3).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">When
Craig Mazin first met his freshman roommate, Rafael Edward Cruz, he
knew the 17-year-old Texan was not like other students at Princeton,
or probably anywhere else for that matter.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"I
remember very specifically that he had a book in Spanish and the
title <i>was Was Karl Marx a Satanist</i>? And I thought, who is this
person?" Mazin says of Ted Cruz. “Even in 1988, he was
politically extreme in a way that was surprising to me.” </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">By
Mazin’s account and those of multiple members of Princeton’s
class of 1992, the Ted Cruz who arrived as a college freshman in 1988
was nearly identical to the man who arrived in Washington as a
freshman Republican senator in 2013: intelligent, confident, fixated
on conservative political theory, and deeply polarizing.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It
was my distinct impression that Ted had nothing to learn from anyone
else,” said Erik Leitch, who lived in Butler College with Cruz.
Leitch said he remembers Cruz as someone who wanted to argue over
anything or nothing, just for the exercise of arguing. “The only
point of Ted talking to you was to convince you of the rightness of
his views."</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
addition to Mazin and Leitch, several fellow classmates who asked
that their names not be used described the young Cruz with words like
“abrasive,” "intense," “strident,” “crank,” and
“arrogant." Four independently offered the word “creepy,”
with some pointing to Cruz’s habit of donning a paisley bathrobe
and walking to the opposite end of their dorm’s hallway where the
female students lived.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">I
would end up fielding the [girls’] complaints: 'Could you please
keep your roommate out of our hallway?'" Mazin says.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
also angered a number of upperclassmen his freshman year when he
joined in a regular poker game and quickly ran up $1,800 in debt to
other students from his losses. Cruz’s spokeswoman, Catherine
Frazier, said Cruz acknowledges playing in the poker games, which he
now considers “foolish.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">He
went to his aunt, who worked at a bank in Dallas, and borrowed $1,800
from her, which he paid in cash and promptly quit the game,”
Frazier told The Daily Beast, explaining that Cruz worked two jobs
and made monthly payments to his aunt for the next two years to repay
the debt.</span></span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While
Cruz may have been disliked, and intensely so, by many of his
classmates, he found a close and longtime friend in a gregarious,
popular student from Jamaica named David Panton, who became Cruz’s
tag-team partner on Princeton’s renowned debate squad, as well as
his roommate for the remainder of their time at Princeton and when
they both attended Harvard Law School. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unlike
what others may say, I consider Ted to be very kind. He is a very,
very gentle-hearted person,” Panton told The Daily Beast. "He
took me under his wing and was a mentor to me. He was very kind to
me. I am a much smarter and much better person today because of Ted
Cruz."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
and Panton debated together for four years at Princeton and came to
dominate the collegiate parliamentary debate circuit, winning the
North American championships in 1992 and being named the top two
collegiate debaters in the country (Cruz was No. 1). The competitive
debate world also gave Cruz a different social circle, with fellow
debaters congregating in his room to hang out and play Super Mario
Bros. Debate weekends included Friday night parties that Cruz often
attended, where he was remembered to be "sort of a stud"
with girls on the debate circuit. Princeton debaters also said he
spent extra time mentoring them to improve their skills, even though
they competed against each other.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Cruz
ran for student government president unsuccessfully more than once,
but rose to lead the conservative portion of the college’s
Whig-Cliosophic Society, a high-minded political club that was
co-founded by James Madison (class of 1771). To other students, Cruz
seemed singularly interested in ideological life, and Whig-Clio
proved the natural outlet for it. Other members of Whig-Clio have
included Aaron Burr, Woodrow Wilson, Samuel Alito, and Mitch Daniels.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">From
Princeton, Cruz joined the intellectual and ideological elite—Harvard
Law School, where he finished magna cum laude; a clerkship for Chief
Justice William Rehnquist; a stint on the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign
working for Josh Bolten (class of ’76); and two jobs in the Bush
administration before being appointed Texas’s solicitor general in
2003 and later launching his campaign for Senate.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">He's
not someone who shifts in the wind,” Panton says. “The Ted Cruz
that I knew at 17 years old is exactly the same as the Ted Cruz I
know at 42 years old. He was very conservative then, and an outspoken
conservative. He remains strongly conservative today." </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;">…</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
time-capsule quality of Cruz’s politics is lost on no one who knew
him at Princeton, none of whom could point to a political position
that he held 25 years ago that he does not seem to still hold today.
For some, that amounts to a laudably consistent belief system. For
others, it reveals a man of calcified thinking, dangerously
impervious to facts, reality, and a changing world.</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">"More
than anyone I knew, Ted seemed to have arrived in college with a
fully formed worldview,” Butler College colleague Erik Leitch said.
“And what strikes me now, looking at him as an adult and hearing
the things he's saying, it seems like nothing has changed. Four years
of an Ivy League education, Harvard Law, and years of life experience
have altered nothing."</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">While
Cruz’s friends from the debate team foresaw a successful career in
politics for Cruz, many of the Princeton alums offered that they were
deeply troubled by the possibility of Cruz running for president, a
notion that one, who did not want to be quoted speaking against a
former classmate who is now a senator, called “horrifying.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Craig
Mazin said he knew some people might be afraid to speak in the press
about a senator, but added of Cruz, “We should be afraid that
someone like that has power.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And
the idea that his freshman roommate could someday be the leader of
the free world? “I would rather have anybody else be the president
of the United States. Anyone,” Mazin said. “I would rather pick
somebody from the phone book" (Murphy 2-3).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0.17in; orphans: 2; padding: 0in; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
his book, “A Time for Truth” Cruz describes his time in college.
His parents, who had previously been well off, were in a difficult
financial situation at that time, and he needed to work two jobs to
help pay his tuition. He also talks about being more interested in
debating than schoolwork. He would spend many hours each week
preparing for debates, traveling to debates, and analyzing his
mistakes after the debates. He became an award winning debater, but
this didn't help him earn top grades. At the time, his classes were
not his biggest priority. He recalls earning a number of B’s which
are not bad grades for Princeton, especially if you consider his lack
of effort. Later, in his junior year, he began to take his classes
more serious. He quit his jobs and took out student loans to finance
his education. He realized that in order to get accepted by a top law
school, he needed to boost his GPA. He buckled down, and graduated
cum laude. After graduating from Princeton, he attended Harvard Law
School, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude (Balsam 1). </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Several
debaters [interviewed] recalled incidents in which Mr. Cruz used a
story about his father coming to America from Cuba with $100 sewn
into his underwear for emotional effect. I started asking sources
about this. One debater recalled having fun with Mr. Cruz’s Cuban
non sequitur, prompting Mr. Cruz, a super-serious debater, to shout,
“How dare you insult my father!”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Monica
Youn, a teammate who edited the school’s liberal newspaper, said
that at the Friday night keg parties, if Mr. Cruz slipped into speech
mode, “You would tease him a little bit about it, and he’d stop.”
She also said that Mr. Cruz’s over-the-top style held back his
debating partner, David Panton, who many described as a “teddy
bear.”</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Acknowledging
that Mr. Cruz was a decorated speaker, Ms. Youn added that his
“winning record was never on par with his speaking record. At the
end of the day I think being persuasive is somewhat different than
being a good speaker in that sometimes you have to rein it back and I
don’t think that Ted ever had a really good sense of when to rein
it back.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">This
basic idea, which I often heard from Republican Senators, was echoed
in dozens of on-the-record phone calls. One judge recalled that Mr.
Cruz angrily blamed her for coughing and throwing him off his game.
Others marveled at his ability to project an aura of absolute
conviction, no matter what side of a topic he argued.</span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
any debate round, he would act like what he was telling you was
something he believed to his core,” said Deborah J. Saltzman, an
Amherst debater who is now a judge with the United States Bankruptcy
Court in California. Judges who watched him enough became annoyed by
his style, she said, adding that opponents had the impression “he
would say just about anything, whatever would win the debate.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">When
Mr. Cruz moved on to Harvard Law School, he returned to the circuit
as a so-called dinosaur; some of the Harvard undergraduates were
annoyed and reported watching in disbelief as the older Mr. Cruz beat
his school in minor tournaments. They remembered too that as a
debater, Mr. Cruz often concluded his oratory by telling the judge,
“Frank Sinatra says dooby dooby do, and we’re going to say do —
the right thing” (Horowitz 2).</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
</p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Balsam,
Pinchas. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">How
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ell
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">id
Ted Cruz </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">D</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">o
in </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">C</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ollege?”</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Quora.</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
Net. </span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.quora.com/How-well-did-Ted-Cruz-do-in-college"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.quora.com/How-well-did-Ted-Cruz-do-in-college</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: black;"> </span>
</p>
<p style="line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Dart,
Tom. “Te</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">d
Cruz in </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">H</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">igh
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">S</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">chool:
a '</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">rodigy'
with </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">P</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">lans
for </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">W</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">orld
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">D</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">omination.”
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Guardian, </span></i></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">February
3, 2016. Net.
</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/03/ted-cruz-high-school-teenager-yearbook-constitutional-corroborators"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/03/ted-cruz-high-school-teenager-yearbook-constitutional-corroborators</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">orowitz,
Jason. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Digging
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">i</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">nto
Ted Cruz’s Debating History: Reporter’s Notebook.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">April
24, 2015. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/04/24/digging-into-ted-cruzs-debating-history-reporters-notebook/"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/04/24/digging-into-ted-cruzs-debating-history-reporters-notebook/</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">M</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">urphy,
Patricia. “</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz at Princeton: Creepy, Sometimes Well-Liked, and Exactly the
Same.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Daily
Beast, </i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">updated
July 11, 2017. Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-at-princeton-creepy-sometimes-well-liked-and-exactly-the-same?ref=scroll"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://www.thedailybeast.com/ted-cruz-at-princeton-creepy-sometimes-well-liked-and-exactly-the-same?ref=scroll</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Ted
Cruz.” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><i>Wikipedia.
</i></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Net.
</span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#Early_life_and_family"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Cruz#Early_life_and_family</span></span></a></p>
<p style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 100%; orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<br />
<br />
</p>
<p align="left" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br />
</p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5935230680168379798.post-70397112070919863492022-03-20T13:51:00.002-07:002022-03-20T13:51:15.528-07:00The Amoralists: Mitch McConnell, Part Five; Fixated on Regaining Power<p align="left" style="line-height: 100%;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">Then
came the </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">[2020]
</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">election.
Mr. Trump refused to accept the results, making wild and
unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Mr. McConnell indulged him and
refused to recognize President Biden as the winner </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">until
he could avoid it no longer </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">after
the states </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">certified
their electoral votes </span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">on
Dec. 14. He congratulated Mr. Biden the next day.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
interests of Mr. McConnell and Mr. Trump now sharply diverged, with
Mr. McConnell fixated on regaining power in 2022 while Mr. Trump was
stuck on 2020, making outlandish allegations that threatened to drive
off more suburban voters and imperiled two Georgia seats that went to
Democrats on Jan. 5. Then the riot the next day found marauders in
the Senate chamber, Mr. McConnell’s sanctum sanctorum.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">This
mob was fed lies,” Mr. McConnell declared on Jan. 19, accusing Mr.
Trump of provoking the rioters and </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">prompting
rumblings </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">that
he of all people might vote to convict Mr. Trump in the coming
impeachment trial. But he did not. Instead, he voted to acquit Mr.
Trump then tried to bury him minutes later while distinguishing
between Mr. Trump’s responsibility for the riot and the Trump
voters Mr. McConnell and Republican Senate candidates would need next
year.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Seventy-four
million Americans did not engineer the campaign of disinformation and
rage that provoked it,” Mr. McConnell said. “One person did. Just
one.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
[Karl] Rove said Mr. McConnell handled it well.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
reads his conference and he knows that, like him, they thought
simultaneously that this was a highly partisan process and not good
for country, but also that Trump had played a significant role in
fomenting Jan. 6,” he said (Hulse
“Relationship”
6).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Senate
minority leader Mitch McConnell said on Saturday that Donald Trump
was “practically and morally responsible” for the insurrection at
the US Capitol on 6 January – minutes after voting to acquit the
former president in </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">his
impeachment </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">trial
for that very same act.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell,
like the senators who voted in favor of impeachment, was deeply
critical of Trump’s conduct leading up to </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">the
attack</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">.
“They [the mob] did this because they’d been fed wild falsehoods
by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an
election,” McConnell said.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
McConnell argued the Senate could not convict Trump because he had
left office before the Senate trial began – a timeline McConnell
orchestrated as Senate majority leader after refusing </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Democrats’
requests</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
call the Senate into an emergency session in January.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The House impeached Trump</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> for a second time in his final days in office, but McConnell delayed
starting the Senate trial until after Joe Biden was sworn in.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
said the Senate was not meant to serve as a “moral tribunal” and
said Trump could still be open to criminal prosecution.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;">“</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">President
Trump is still liable for everything he did while he’s in office,”
McConnell said. “He didn’t get away with anything yet.”</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">House
majority leader </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Nancy
Pelosi</span></span></span></span><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; padding: 0in;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">criticized
McConnell’s remarks in a press conference on Saturday and said the
issue of timing “was not the reason that he voted the way he did;
it was the excuse that he used”.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">“</span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">For
Mitch McConnell – who created the situation where it could not have
been heard before the 20th, or even begun before the 20th in the
Senate – to say all the things he said, oh my gosh, about </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
how horrible he was and is, and then say, ‘But that’s the time
that the House chose to bring it over’ – Oh, no. We didn’t
choose. You chose not to receive it,” Pelosi said.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Pelosi
was also critical of the “cowardly” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Republicans
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">who
voted against impeachment after the attack.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
salute the Republican senators who voted their conscience and for our
country,” Pelosi said. “Other Senate Republicans’ refusal to
hold Trump accountable for igniting a violent insurrection to cling
to power will go down as one of the darkest days and most
dishonorable acts in our nation’s history” (Holpuch
1-2).</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mitch
McConnell’s opposition to a bipartisan proposal to independently
investigate the Capitol insurrection is turning GOP senators against
the bill, potentially dooming its prospects in the Senate.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Senate minority leader informed Republicans on Wednesday that he is
opposed to the 9/11-style commission that would probe the deadly Jan.
6 riot, as envisioned by the House. And in the wake of McConnell’s
remarks, Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) — who had expressed support on
Tuesday for the idea — said he could no longer back the commission
in its current form.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
had signaled on Tuesday that he was undecided but came down more
firmly after another day of deliberations and explained his views in
a Wednesday floor speech. The Kentucky Republican called the House’s
proposal “slanted and unbalanced” and said the ongoing
congressional investigations are sufficient to probe the pro-Trump
riot at the Capitol.</span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">It’s
not at all clear what new facts or additional investigation yet
another commission could lay on top of the existing efforts by law
enforcement and Congress,” McConnell said (Levine
and Everett 1).</span></span></p>
<p align="left" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Shortly
before members of Congress left Capitol Hill for their holiday break,
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked what he hoped to
learn from the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. I assumed
he'd dismiss the bipartisan panel and its relevance.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">But
he didn't. "I read the reports every day," the Kentucky
Republican </span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?516821-1/senate-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-news-conference" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">told
reporters</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
"and it'll be interesting to see what [investigators] conclude."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Let's
not forget that the original plan was for an independent, 9/11-style
commission that would be responsible for investigating the attack.
Democratic and Republican leaders negotiated the terms of how such a
commission would be structured, and the expectation was that Congress
would move forward in a bipartisan way after Democrats effectively
endorsed all of the GOP's requests.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
balked anyway. On May 19, the minority leader </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">denounced
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">the
bipartisan plan, suggesting an independent investigation wouldn't
produce any "new facts."</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">A
week later, McConnell told his members a Jan. 6 probe was </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">likely
to undermine t</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">he
party's midterm election message. By May 28, the top Senate
Republican was reportedly telling his members he'd consider it "</span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/jan-6-commission-mcconnell-seeks-personal-favor-gop-n1268911" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="background: #ffffff;">a
personal favor</span></span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">"
if they opposed the legislation to create an independent Jan. 6
commission.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">here
we are, seven months later, watching McConnell sing a very different
tune. The minority leader who went out of his way to block an
independent investigation is now publicly endorsing the House select
committee's probe, telling Americans that what investigators "are
seeking to find out is something the public needs to know."</span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">What's
far from clear is why in the world the Kentuckian's perspective has
changed. </span></span></span>
</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Did
McConnell learn important new intelligence as a member of the </span></span></span></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_Eight_(intelligence)" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">gang
of eight</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">?
Is this a rhetorical shot across the bow at Donald Trump, who's
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">working
desperately</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">
</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
replace McConnell as the top Senate Republican?</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">I
won't pretend to know what the senator is thinking, but as a recent
Washington Post analysis </span></span></span></span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/17/mitch-mcconnell-is-suddenly-legitimizing-jan-6-committee-why/" target="_blank"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">concluded</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">,
"[What McConnell is] saying is a departure from his party that
significantly hamstrings efforts to undermine the committee. And it's
certainly worth keeping an eye on" </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Benen
1-2).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Top
Republican senator Mitch McConnell has attacked Joe Biden’s push
for a voting rights bill, underscoring the difficulty the Democrats
face attempting to steer legislation through Congress with a narrow
majority.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
US president [Joe Biden] has called for his party to jettison the
Senate’s longstanding “filibuster” rule, which requires 60 of
the 100 senators to agree to advance most legislation, a move that
McConnell said would irreparably damage the chamber.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">The
president’s rant yesterday was incoherent, incorrect and beneath
his office,” McConnell said on the Senate floor on Wednesday,
referring to Biden’s speech in Atlanta the day before in which he
appealed for voting-rights legislation and called Republicans
cowardly for not supporting it.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
accused the president of giving “a deliberately divisive speech
that was designed to pull our country further apart”.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Donald
Trump’s false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result
of fraud inspired a wave of new restrictions on voting in
Republican-controlled states last year.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
see their voting rights bills as a last chance to counter those
before the 8 November elections, when they run the risk of losing
their razor-thin majorities in at least one chamber of Congress.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Since
Trump’s defeat, Republican lawmakers in 19 states have passed
dozens of laws making it harder to vote. Critics say these measures
target minorities, who vote in greater proportions for Democrats.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act
together would make election day a holiday, expand access to postal
voting and strengthen US justice department oversight of local
election jurisdictions with a history of discrimination.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Twelve
months ago the president said that politics need not be a raging fire
destroying everything in its path,” McConnell said. “But
yesterday he poured a giant can of gasoline on the fire.“</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Republicans
argue that the bills Democrats are proposing are an infringement of
states’ rights to run their elections. They come as Trump
supporters who have embraced the former president’s false claims of
election fraud are running for offices that could give them oversight
over local elections. Democrats and election analysts have raised
concerns that they could use those posts to influence election
outcomes </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">(Incoherent 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Senator
Mitch McConnell is extending an open invitation to Senator Joe
Manchin III — come on over to our side.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Why
in the world would they want to call him a liar and try to hotbox him
and embarrass him?” Mr. McConnell, who is just one Senate seat away
from regaining the majority leader title, asked in an interview. “I
think the message is, ‘We don’t want you around.’ Obviously
that is up to Joe Manchin, but he is clearly not welcome on that side
of the aisle.”</span></span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
McConnell’s appeal to Mr. Manchin came as the Republican leader
celebrated the year coming to a close without Democrats advancing two
of their most ambitious priorities: legislation to bolster voting
rights and the sprawling domestic policy bill that Mr. McConnell
characterized as part of a “socialist surge that has captured the
other side.”</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Considering
how Republicans began 2021 — in the minority in Congress, a newly
elected Democrat poised to move into the White House and a public
worn down by a pandemic and alarmed by an assault on the Capitol —
Mr. McConnell and his colleagues say they have had a successful year.
In some respects, it was all the things they did not do that may have
served them best.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">They
did not maneuver themselves into shutting down the government as they
have in the past — despite demands from the right that they never
work with Mr. Biden. And they did not allow the government to
default, with Mr. McConnell providing Democrats a circuitous path to
raising the debt ceiling. Either could have created a backlash for
Republicans.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">As
Democrats spent months trying to hammer out the huge policy bill
among themselves, Republicans were relegated to the sidelines. Mr.
McConnell said Democrats’ inability to come together on it so far
reflected a misreading of the 2020 elections, when voters gave them
the White House but bare majorities in both the Senate and the House.</span></p>
<p style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">They
did not have a mandate to do anything close to what they tried to
do,” said Mr. McConnell, suggesting that progressive “ideology
overcame their judgment.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
decision by Mr. McConnell and other Republicans to help Democrats
write and pass a separate, $1 trillion public works bill was, Mr.
McConnell said, a smart one, even though Republican supporters of the
measure took heat from others in the party, notably Mr. Trump.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">… <span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Senator
Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, also
intends to press forward with voting rights measures fiercely opposed
by Mr. McConnell and is threatening to try to change Senate rules if
Republicans try to filibuster it again.</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Democrats
say Mr. McConnell is being complicit in allowing some states to
impose new voting restrictions meant to target voters of color, a
charge he rejects, saying that the impact of the new laws is being
exaggerated. He said he was relying on Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the
Arizona Democrat who recently reaffirmed her opposition to changing
filibuster rules, to hold steady.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Kyrsten
Sinema has been quite unequivocal that she is not going to break the
Senate and eliminate the legislative filibuster,” he said. “Thank
goodness for that.”</span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
McConnell said he believed his party’s performance this year and
the struggles of the Democrats were setting Republicans up for a
strong midterm election next year and his potential return to running
the Senate no matter what party Mr. Manchin is in. Despite Mr.
Trump’s efforts to encourage candidates he favors in key Senate
races, Mr. McConnell said he was intent on avoiding the type of
primary contests that in the past have hurt Republicans by saddling
them with primary winners who falter in general elections (Hulse
“McConnell” 1-3).</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Senator
Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">pushed
back hard </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">on
Tuesday against the </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Republican
Party censure </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">of
Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and its
characterization of the Jan. 6 riot as “legitimate political
discourse,” saying the riot was a “violent insurrection.”</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">The
remarks from Mr. McConnell, the normally taciturn Kentucky
Republican, added to a small but forceful chorus of G.O.P. lawmakers
who have decried the action that the Republican National Committee
took on Friday, when it officially rebuked Ms. Cheney and Mr.
Kinzinger for participating in the House investigation of the Jan. 6
attack, accusing them of “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged
in legitimate political discourse.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
McConnell repudiated that description, saying of the events of Jan.
6, 2021: “We saw it happen. It was a violent insurrection for the
purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a
legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next.
That’s what it was.”</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">…</p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mr.
McConnell’s comments were a rebuke of how far the party has gone to
deny the reality of the violence that unfolded during the bloody
assault on the Capitol, sending lawmakers from both parties running
for safety. More than 150 people were injured in the attack, which
led to several deaths, and nearly 750 individuals have been
criminally charged in connection with it.</span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">In
the days since the Republican National Committee passed the
resolution at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City, a handful of
Republicans have criticized the move as everything from a political
distraction to </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">a
shame on the party</span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">.
Mr. McConnell, who orchestrated the impeachment acquittal of former
President Donald J. Trump </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">and
blocked the naming of an independent, bipartisan commission </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">to
examine the attack, was among the most blunt in his defense of the
only Republicans serving on the committee that rose from that
proposal’s ashes.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;">“<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Traditionally,
the view of the national party committees is that we support all
members of our party, regardless of their positions on some issues,”
he said. “The issue is whether or not the R.N.C. should be sort of
singling out members of our party who may have different views of the
majority. That’s not the job of the R.N.C” </span></span></span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">(Weisman
and Karni 1-3).</span></span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><br /></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Works
cited:</span></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Benen,
Steve. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mitch
McConnell </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">hanges
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">H</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">is
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">une
about the Jan. 6 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">I</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">nvestigation.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>MSNBC,
</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">December
28, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mitch-mcconnell-changes-his-tune-about-jan-6-investigation-n1286683">https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mitch-mcconnell-changes-his-tune-about-jan-6-investigation-n1286683</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Holpuch,
Amanda. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Mitch
McConnell </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">S</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">avages
Trump – </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">M</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">inutes
after </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">V</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">oting
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">A</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">cquit.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>The
Guardian, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">February
13, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/13/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republicans">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/13/mitch-mcconnell-trump-republicans</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">ulse,
Carl. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
to Manchin: We’d Love </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">o
Have You, Joe.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">December
21, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/mcconnell-manchin-republican.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/21/us/politics/mcconnell-manchin-republican.html</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">Hulse,
Carl. “The Relationship between McConnell and Trump Was Good for
Both — Until It Wasn’t.” </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">New York Times, </i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">February 19,
2021. Net.
</span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/us/trump-mcconnell-republicans.html" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/us/trump-mcconnell-republicans.html</a></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;">“‘<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Incoherent,
Incorrect’: McConnell Dismisses Biden’s Push for US Voting Rights
Bill.” <i>The Guardian, </i>January 13, 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/13/us-senator-attacks-bidens-rant-in-favour-of-voting-rights-bill">https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/13/us-senator-attacks-bidens-rant-in-favour-of-voting-rights-bill</a></span></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">L</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">evine,
Marianne and Everett, Burgess. “</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">T</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">urns
Senate Republicans against Jan. 6 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">ommission.”
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>Politico, </i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">May
19, 2021. Net.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/19/mcconnell-opposes-houses-bipartisan-jan-6-commission-bill-489573">https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/19/mcconnell-opposes-houses-bipartisan-jan-6-commission-bill-489573</a></span></p>
<p style="border: none; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">W</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">eisman,
Jonathan and Karni, Annie. “</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">McConnell
Denounces R.N.C. Censure of Jan. 6 Panel Members.” </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"><i>New
York Times,</i></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;">
February 8. 2022. Net.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/republicans-censure-mcconnell.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/us/politics/republicans-censure-mcconnell.html</a></span></p>
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</p><p> </p>Harold Titushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14572102330741061935noreply@blogger.com0