Author: PolitCens

U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar won her Democratic primary election Tuesday, defeating a well-funded challenger. Voters in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district backed Omar with about 58% of the vote compared to 39% for Antone Melton-Meaux. Omar represents a solidly liberal district and is likely to win another term in Congress in the November general election. In another Minnesota race, Republican Michelle Fischbach won her party primary and will face incumbent Democratic Congressman Collin Peterson in a race Republicans are targeting as a chance to flip a Democratic seat to their party.  Voters in the district supported President Donald Trump by a 30-point margin in 2016, but Peterson is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress and was first elected to represent the district in 1990.In this Nov. 22, 2019 photo, GOP congressional candidate Michelle Fischbach discusses Minnesota’s 7th District race at a coffee shop in Minneapolis.In the southern state of Georgia, voters in the Republican primary for the 14th congressional district chose Marjorie Taylor Greene, a gun rights activist and staunch supporter of QAnon, a far-right group that believes a “deep state” of people are working to undermine Trump’s presidency.  She defeated John Cowan, who had the support of several high-profile Republicans, with 57% of the vote to Cowan’s 43%. Greene is almost assured of winning election to Congress from the heavily Republican district. Voters also cast primary ballots in the state of Wisconsin on Tuesday.  In the 3rd congressional district, incumbent Democratic Congressman Ron Kind easily won his primary. In the district’s Republican race, former Navy Seal Derrick Van Orden defeated public relations professional Jessi Ebben.  House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker have endorsed Van Orden. The general election is November 3, with the president, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for election.  Democrats currently hold the majority in the House, while Republicans are the majority in the Senate. 
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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has chosen California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, making her the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for a major party’s ticket.“I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate,” Biden tweeted Tuesday afternoon. “Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.”Harris was one of nearly two dozen presidential candidates who challenged Biden for the 2020 Democratic nomination.After winning enough primaries to secure the nomination, Biden promised to pick a female vice presidential candidate. There was much speculation he would choose a Black woman to run with him.Former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris shake hands before the start of the second night of the second 2020 presidential Democratic candidates debate in Detroit, July 31, 2019.Harris, 55, was born in California to a Jamaican-born father and an Indian American mother. She gained prominence after she was elected California’s attorney general in 2010, winning the praise of civil rights activists for refusing to defend the state’s Proposition 8 ballot that banned same-sex marriage.Her presidential campaign faded quickly when many progressives and liberals questioned her staunch support for law enforcement while attorney general. She was accused of being out of touch over issues of police violence — questions that are bound to be raised again as Americans protest police brutality against Black people and other people of color.According to some polls, many Black voters hoped Biden would choose the more progressive Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren as his running mate.Harris is the third woman to run for vice president on a major party ticket.Democrat Geraldine Ferraro was Walter Mondale’s running mate in 1984 when they lost by a landslide to the Republican ticket of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ran with Republican John McCain in 2008 but lost to Democrats Barack Obama and Biden.
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Five U.S. states are holding an array of elections on Tuesday, with Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, a staunch critic of President Donald Trump, facing a stiff challenge in a Democratic primary in her Minneapolis district.Omar, a Somali American, is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. She is seeking nomination for a second two-year term against Antone Melton-Meaux, a Black lawyer who, like Omar, has raised more than $4 million in campaign funds but has outdistanced her in recent weeks.Omar is one of four Democratic congresswomen of color who call themselves The Squad. They have often derided Trump during his three-and-a-half years in the White House, while also at times clashing with Democratic leaders over policies they do not consider progressive enough.Fifth Congressional District candidate, Democrat Antone Melton-Meaux, answers questions during an interview in his Minneapolis office, July 22, 2020.Melton-Meaux has cast Omar as too controversial for her congressional district, but Omar has won the support of other House Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.Both Omar and Melton-Meaux describe themselves as progressives but differ in their stance on Israel. Omar supports the effort to divest from the Jewish state over its treatment of the Palestinians, while Melton-Meaux has won the support of several pro-Israel groups.Voters are also casting ballots in local, state and congressional races in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Vermont and Georgia.In the southern state of Georgia, Republicans are awaiting the outcome of a congressional primary contest that includes Marjorie Taylor Greene, a gun rights activist and staunch supporter of QAnon, a far-right group that believes a “deep state” of people are working to undermine Trump’s presidency. She is opposed by John Cowan, a conservative physician who does not believe the QAnon conspiracy theories.The winner of the Greene-Cowan contest is almost assured of winning election to Congress from the heavily Republican district. 
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U.S. Vice President Mike Pence has weathered storms that have shaken the Trump White House, standing by the president through an impeachment trial and many Cabinet reshuffles. He has served as an international envoy and taken a leading role in the COVID-19 response. Mike O’Sullivan spoke with two analysts about Pence’s performance so far.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has announced he is likely to give the acceptance speech for his party’s nomination at either the White House or 115 kilometers to the north at the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.   Asked by a reporter at a briefing on Monday why he is considering Gettysburg, which Trump said he had visited numerous times, the president replied, “It’s the history. It’s incredible, actually to me. It was a very important place and is a very important place in our country.”  The White House location, however, would be easier in terms of expense and security, according to Trump.  The president did not clearly indicate whether he is planning to invite an audience for the event, but noted: “You have plenty of room at both locations.”   Other venues are also under consideration, according to Trump.   We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, July 28, 2020.The Democrats have also drastically downscaled their party convention next week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced he will not travel to Milwaukee and will deliver an acceptance speech in his home state of Delaware.Both the White House and the historic battlefield are federal properties, raising legal and ethical concerns about their use for what will be a political event by the president.After the White House was first mentioned as a possible venue, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it an idea that “should be rejected right out of hand,” predicting “It won’t happen, let’s put it that way.”Trump administration and campaign officials are obviously not rejecting it.The alternative to the White House, which is a national park in Pennsylvania, commemorates the decisive July 1863 Union victory that ended Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North during the Civil War, the years-long fight over states’ rights regarding slavery in the United States. Four months after the battle, President Abraham Lincoln delivered what came to be known as the Gettysburg Address, which is one of the best-known speeches in American history. Lincoln said that the soldiers who died there helped preserve U.S. liberty and that America’s “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The battlefield, however, may not provide the best political optics for such a speech by Trump, acknowledge some Republican sources, because of the president’s recent defense of generals from the losing side.Both the White House and Gettysburg could be risky sites for some White House staff asked to help organize the event, as the Hatch Act limits the political activities in which they can be involved.Certain executive branch appointees are allowed to engage in limited political activity while on duty in the executive residence portion of the White House, and political parties have to reimburse the federal government for all costs.“Whether Trump holds this event at the White House or at Gettysburg, he’s sending a message that there is no line between private gain and public responsibility in this administration,” said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.“Trump is helping himself to a public resource to advance his personal political ambitions. It is not a resource that is available to his opponent, and it is one that should not be available to him. But the consistent theme of the Trump administration has been abuse of power, so it’s no surprise that he’s abusing power again,” Shaub, who became a harsh public critic of Trump after leaving his post in mid-2017, told VOA.As for any administration officials or career staff not subject to Hatch Act exemptions to participate, Shaub added, “I hold out little hope that anyone responsible for enforcing that law will take appropriate action.”Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1979 — while 50 Americans were being held hostage in Iran — decided to make his reelection announcement during a brief East Room ceremony. His campaign also used the Oval Office as a setting for an advertisement for a campaign that saw him lose to Ronald Reagan. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from a White House media briefing Monday afternoon by a U.S. Secret Service agent because of a shooting outside the building. Returning to the briefing room lectern minutes later, Trump said, “There was an actual shooting, and somebody’s been taken to the hospital.”  The shots were fired by law enforcement, the president said. A male subject and a Secret Service officer “were both transported to a local hospital,” a Secret Service statement said. “At no time during this incident was the White House complex breached or were any protectees in danger.”Two gunshots were heard by at least one reporter who was in the briefing room.  “I heard two shots in rapid succession just after you took the podium,” Fox News White House correspondent John Roberts told the president when Trump asked the journalist what he had heard. Here’s audio of the shots being fired: https://t.co/zrARtsyy6b@SecretService
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) U.S. Secret Service Police stand outside the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, in Washington, as a news conference by President Donald Trump was paused, Aug. 10, 2020.“You were surprised, I was surprised also,” Trump told reporters when he returned to the briefing room, saying he had been taken to the Oval Office.  “I do want to thank the Secret Service. They are fantastic,” Trump said, adding that he was not certain the incident “had to do anything with me.” Asked by a reporter if he was rattled by the extraordinary event, he responded. “I don’t know. Do I seem rattled?”  Trump told reporters he gave no thought to not resuming the briefing once the Secret Service told him it was safe to do so. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump has announced he will give his acceptance speech for his party’s nomination at either the White House or 115 kilometers to the north at the Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.“We will announce the decision soon!” the president tweeted on Monday afternoon. We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) FILE – Democratic presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about his plans to combat racial inequality at a campaign event in Wilmington, Delaware, July 28, 2020.The Democrats have also drastically downscaled their party convention next week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Former Vice President Joe Biden has announced he will not travel to Milwaukee and will deliver an acceptance speech in his home state of Delaware.Both the White House and the historic battlefield are federal properties, raising legal and ethical concerns about their use for what will be a political event by the president.After the White House was first mentioned as a possible venue, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it an idea that “should be rejected right out of hand,” predicting “It won’t happen, let’s put it that way.”Trump administration and campaign officials are obviously not rejecting it.The alternative to the White House, which is a national park in Pennsylvania, commemorates the decisive July 1863 Union victory that ended Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s second and most ambitious invasion of the North during the Civil War, the years-long fight over the South’s futile effort to legalize slavery in the United States. Four months after the battle, President Abraham Lincoln delivered what came to be known as the Gettysburg Address,  which is one of the best-known speeches in American history. Lincoln said that the soldiers who died there helped preserve U.S. liberty and that its “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” The battlefield, however, may not provide the best political optics for such a speech by Trump, acknowledge some Republican sources, because of the president’s recent defense of generals from the losing side.Both the White House and Gettysburg could be risky sites for some White House staff asked to help organize the event, as the Hatch Act  limits the political activities in which they can be involved.Certain executive branch appointees are allowed to engage in limited political activity while on duty in the executive residence portion of the White House and political parties have to reimburse the federal government for all costs.“Whether Trump holds this event at the White House or at Gettysburg, he’s sending a message that there is no line between private gain and public responsibility in this administration,” said Walter Shaub, former director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.“Trump is helping himself to a public resource to advance his personal political ambitions. It is not a resource that is available to his opponent, and it is one that should not be available to him. But the consistent theme of the Trump administration has been abuse of power, so it’s no surprise that he’s abusing power again,” Shaub, who became a harsh public critic of Trump after leaving his post in mid-2017, told VOA.As for any administration officials or career staff not subjection to Hatch Act exemptions to participate, Shaub added, “I hold out little hope that anyone responsible for enforcing that law will take appropriate action.”Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1979 — while 50 Americans were being held hostage in Iran — decided to make his re-election announcement during a brief East Room ceremony. His campaign also used the Oval Office as a setting for an advertisement for a campaign that saw him lose to Ronald Reagan.
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