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  • Tim Scott launches 2024 presidential bid seeking optimistic contrast with other top rivals

    Tim Scott launches 2024 presidential bid seeking optimistic contrast with other top rivals

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    NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott launched his presidential campaign on Monday, offering an optimistic and compassionate message he’s hoping can serve as a contrast with the political combativeness that has dominated the early GOP primary field.

    The Senate’s only Black Republican, Scott kicked off the campaign in his hometown of North Charleston, on the campus of Charleston Southern University, his alma mater and a private school affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. He repeatedly mentioned his Christian faith in his kickoff speech, crying, “Amen! Amen! Amen!” and at several points elicited responses from the crowd, who sometimes chanted his name.

    But Scott also offered a stark political choice, saying “our party and our nation are standing at a time for choosing: Victimhood or victory.” He added that Republicans will also have to decide between “grievance or greatness.”

    “I choose freedom and hope and opportunity,” Scott said. He went on to tell the crowd that ”we need a president who persuades not just our friends and our base” but seeks “commonsense” solutions and displays “compassion for people who don’t agree with us.”

    That was a far cry from former President Donald Trump, who has played to the GOP’s most loyal supporters with repeated lies about his 2020 election loss as he campaigns for a second term in office. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who could launch his own bid as soon as this week, has pushed Florida to the right by championing contentious new restrictions on abortion and LGBTQ rights and by seeking to limit the corporate power of Disney, one of his state’s most powerful business interests.

    Scott, 57, planned to huddle with home-state donors Tuesday, then begin a two-day campaign swing to Iowa and New Hampshire, which go first on the GOP presidential voting calendar.

    His announcement event featured an opening prayer by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, who said, “I think our country is ready to be inspired again.” Republican Sen. Mike Rounds, South Dakota’s other senator, has already announced his support for Scott.

    A number of high-profile GOP senators have backed Trump’s third bid for the White House, including Scott’s South Carolina colleague, Lindsey Graham. Trump nonetheless struck a conciliatory tone Monday, welcoming Scott to the race and noting that the pair worked together on his administration’s signature tax cuts.

    A source of strength for Scott will be his campaign bank account. He enters the 2024 race with more cash on hand than any other presidential candidate in U.S. history, with $22 million left in his campaign account at the end of his 2022 campaign that he can transfer to his presidential coffers.

    Scott also won reelection in firmly Republican South Carolina — which has an early slot on the Republican presidential primary calendar — by more than 20 points less than six months ago. Advisers bet that can make Scott a serious contender for an early, momentum-generating win.

    But Scott is not the only South Carolina option. The state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, who once served as Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, is also running.

    Ben LeVan, a business professor at Charleston Southern who attended Monday’s event, said he hadn’t decided whom to support in the GOP primary but didn’t plan to back Trump.

    “I really do hope that we can bring some civility back in politics,” LeVan said. “That’s one of the nice things about Tim Scott, and quite frankly, Nikki Haley, and some of the other candidates as well. They’re more diplomatic, and that is something that I appreciate.”

    Like others in the GOP race, including former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and “Woke, Inc.” author Vivek Ramaswamy, Scott’s initial task will be finding a way to stand out in a field led by Trump and DeSantis.

    One way Scott hopes to do that is his trademark political optimism. Scott often quotes Scripture at his campaign events, weaving his reliance on spiritual guidance into his speeches calling his travels before the campaign’s official launch, the “Faith in America” listening tour.

    Scott said Monday that America’s promise means “you can go as high as our character, our grit, and our talent will take you.”

    The Democratic National Committee responded to Scott’s announcement by dismissing the notion that Scott offers much of an alternative to Trump’s policies. DNC chair Jaime Harrison, who ran unsuccessfully for Senate in South Carolina in 2020, released a statement calling the senator “a fierce advocate of the MAGA agenda,” a reference to the former president’s “Make America Great Again” movement.

    On many issues, Scott does indeed align with mainstream GOP positions. He wants to reduce government spending and restrict abortion, saying he would sign a federal law to prohibit abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy if elected president.

    But Scott has pushed the party on some policing overhaul measures since the killing of George Floyd, and he has occasionally criticized Trump’s response to racial tensions. Throughout their disagreements, though, Scott has maintained a generally cordial relationship with Trump, saying in his book that the former president “listened intently” to his viewpoints on race-related issues.

    When he was appointed to the Senate by then-governor Haley in 2012, Scott became the first Black senator from the South since just after the Civil War. Winning a 2014 special election to serve out the remainder of his term made him the first Black candidate to win a statewide race in South Carolina since the Reconstruction era.

    He has long said his current term, which runs through 2029, would be his last.

    Scott has long rejected the notion that the country is inherently racist. He’s also routinely repudiated the teaching of critical race theory, an academic framework that presents the idea that the nation’s institutions maintain the dominance of white people.

    “Today, I’m living proof that America is the land of opportunity and not a land of oppression,” he said Monday.

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    This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the DNC chair’s first name. It is Jaime, not Jamie.

    ___

    Weissert reported from Washington. Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

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  • Montana trans lawmaker fights on during 1st day of exile

    Montana trans lawmaker fights on during 1st day of exile

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    HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr spent her first day in legislative exile Thursday relegated to a bench in a noisy hallway across from a snack bar outside the state House chambers where she is no longer allowed.

    Zephyr defiantly stayed put even after the Republican House speaker said she couldn’t be there and a House security officer threatened to move the bench where she had set up her laptop. She listened to debate and voted remotely from there, with a gold sticky note on the wall above her head that read “Seat 31,” her seat assignment in the house. The note was placed there by transgender and nonbinary Rep. SJ Howell.

    Republicans had wanted Zephyr to participate from behind the doors of the House Minority’s offices a day after they voted to ban her from the House floor for the rest of the session, which ends early next week.

    Her refusal to do so came as Democrats sought to keep Zephyr’s banishment in plain view after a week’s worth of nationwide public scrutiny over Republicans’ unprecedented actions to silence her, which continued Thursday.

    Republicans moved to sideline Zephyr further by shutting down the two committees she serves on and moving the bills they were to hear to other committees, Democratic Rep. Donavon Hawk said in a statement.

    “I walked out yesterday with my head held high and I walked in with my head held high today, ready to do my job,” Zephyr told The Associated Press.

    As cameras snapped and espresso beans churned in a machine nearby, Zephyr and Democratic leaders promised she would remain in the public eye unless Republicans elected to further limit where she could go in the Capitol.

    “There are many more eyes on Montana now,” Zephyr said. “But you do the same thing you’ve always done. You stand up in defense of your community and you … stand for the principles that they elected you to stand for.”

    The motion Republicans passed bars Zephyr from the marble-pillared House, the gallery above it and a waiting room, but not the public space in the hall where she set up. Minority Leader Kim Abbott said the lawmaker would be voting there, within public view.

    The showdown began last week, when Zephyr told lawmakers backing a bill to ban gender-affirming medical care for minors that they would have blood on their hands. The phrase has been used recurrently by both Republicans and Democrats discussing the nation’s most polarizing issues, but Montana House leaders said they would block Zephyr from participating further in the debate until she apologized for saying it.

    Zephyr did not back down, instead participating in a protest that disrupted Monday’s House session as observers in the gallery chanted, “Let her speak!” — an action that led to Wednesday’s vote to banish her from the floor.

    The Republican response to her comments, and her refusal to apologize for them as demanded, have transformed Zephyr into a prominent figure in the nationwide battle for transgender rights and placed her at the center of the ongoing debate over the muffling of dissent in statehouses.

    “Silencing an elected representative, in an attempt to suppress their messages, is a denial of democratic values. It’s undemocratic,” White House Press Secretary Kaine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

    The attention is a new phenomenon for Zephyr, a 34-year-old serving her first term representing a western Montana college town after being elected in November.

    In her interview with the AP, Zephyr likened efforts to silence her to the decision by Tennessee lawmakers to expel two Black representatives for disrupting proceedings when they participated in a gun control protest after a school shooting in Nashville. The two were quickly reinstated.

    Tennessee lawmakers not only rejected gun control laws, but by expelling the lawmakers they sent a message saying: “‘Your voices shouldn’t be here. We’re going to send you away,’” Zephyr said.

    As in Montana, GOP leaders in Tennessee had said their actions were necessary to avoid setting a precedent that lawmakers’ disruptions of House proceedings through protest would be tolerated.

    Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson, one of the lawmakers who was expelled earlier this month, has called the Montana standoff anti-democratic and Nebraska state Sen. Megan Hunt likened her fight to Zephyr’s after being served notice Wednesday of a complaint filed against her that she said was an effort to silence her voice on a gender-affirming care ban under consideration.

    “It’s so important that we not be silent about this from state to state to state. And it’s so important that people stand up against this rising movement, this radical movement, and say it is not welcome,” she said.

    Zephyr is undeterred. She said throughout the events of the past week, she has both aimed to rise and meet the moment and continue doing the job she was elected to do: representing her community and constituents.

    “It’s queer people across the world and it’s also the constituents of other representatives who are saying, ‘They won’t listen’ when it comes to these issues. It’s staff in this building who, when no one is looking, come up and say ‘Thank you,’” she said.

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    The story has been edited to correct that the color of the sticky note is gold not pink.

    ___

    Metz reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press reporter Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

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  • New wave of GOP candidates poised to join 2024 campaign

    New wave of GOP candidates poised to join 2024 campaign

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    NEW YORK (AP) — The opening phase of the Republican presidential primary has largely centered on the escalating collision between former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

    But a new wave of GOP White House hopefuls will begin entering the 2024 race as soon as this coming week after a monthslong lull. They include former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who will formally launch his campaign Wednesday.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence has said he will finalize his plans in “weeks, not months.” He has kept a busy schedule of early state visits and policy speeches as aides have discussed details of an announcement including dates as early as May, but more likely in June. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who has formed a presidential exploratory committee, is expected to join the race in a similar time frame.

    Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been meeting with former aides and he returned to New Hampshire this past week, where he said at a town hall in the first-in-the-nation primary state, “Tonight is the beginning of the case against Donald Trump.” Christie has said he will make a decision “in the next couple of weeks.”

    The contenders will enter the race at a critical moment as DeSantis, who hasn’t officially announced a campaign, has struggled to live up to sky-high expectations among some early backers. He has been losing support among elected Republicans in his own state to Trump and is prompting concern among some in the party that his positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights, among other issues, could render him unelectable in a general election.

    Trump in recent weeks has solidified his status as the early front-runner, even after he was indicted in New York. He remains the subject of intensifying investigations in Atlanta and Washington and persistent concerns about his electability after losing to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.

    Would-be rivals hope that dynamic leaves an opening for one of the fresh entrants to emerge as an alternative to the current polling leaders. Some strategists hope Trump and DeSantis will attack one another so viciously that they will turn off voters, who will search for an alternative.

    “It’s not uncommon for a third candidate who’s not involved in the kerfuffle to rise,” said Bryan Lanza, a former Trump adviser, who has been informally advising Larry Elder, the conservative talk radio host who announced his campaign Thursday.

    Lanza said he expects a robust race to be the “leader of the second tier” of candidates currently polling at under 10%.

    Beyond Trump and Elder, the current field of official GOP presidential candidates includes Trump’s U.N. ambassador, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Both announced their bids in February.

    Biden is expected to announce his 2024 campaign as soon as this coming week. He faces minimal competition for the Democratic nomination.

    Among Republicans, the early debates that are slated to begin this summer could be crucial in determining who builds momentum, particularly given DeSantis’ expectations.

    That means candidates may need to cement their planning soon, even if they would prefer to wait longer. The Republican National Committee has scheduled the first debate for August and is expected to set strict benchmarks that candidates must satisfy to participate, including amassing tens of thousands of individual donors.

    “That takes a little time to do and so if you’re gong to be serious about this — and I think you have to be on the stage to be serious about it — then you probably have to make the decision by May,” Christie said this past week during an interview with the media outlet Semafor.

    Candidates-in-waiting have seen little reason to jump in sooner, particularly given Trump’s propensity to attack. Instead, they have been biding their time, visiting early voting states, delivering speeches and wooing donors as they assess the field. Pence, for instance, was in California this past week meeting with potential backers and will host another donor retreat for his nonprofit group in late May.

    “If I was in their shoes, I would wait as long as possible,” said former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was considered an early favorite for the Republican nomination when he ran against Trump in 2016. He remembers realizing, in those early weeks, how dramatically Trump had upended the race, dominating everything.

    “There was no way around it then,” he said. “And right now, anybody who thinks they’re somehow going to go in and change that is missing the reality.”

    The rivalry between Trump and DeSantis has been turning uglier by the day, with political groups supporting both men already spending millions on attack ads.

    While DeSantis has largely ignored Trump’s jabs questioning his commitment to Social Security, his relationship with young girls as a teacher decades ago and even his sexuality, a pro-DeSantis super political action committee, Never Back Down, began to respond in its first round of paid ads last weekend.

    “Trump should fight Democrats, not lie about Gov. DeSantis,” the narrator says in an ad that ran on Fox News. “What happened to Donald Trump?”

    The spot ran in conjunction with an online ad, which described Trump as “a coward” and a “gun grabber,” that was aimed at those attending an RNC donor retreat in Indiana.

    Trump’s super PAC, MAGA Inc., has been airing its spots on cable news channels highlighting DeSantis’ votes to cut Social Security and Medicare and raise the retirement age.

    “The more you learn about DeSantis, the more you see he doesn’t share our values. He’s just not ready to be president,” said the narrator in one. Another, seizing on a report that DeSantis once ate pudding with his fingers, urged the governor “to keep his pudding fingers off our money.”

    Trump and his campaign have long seen DeSantis as his only serious challenger and believed the more crowded the field, the better for Trump, as candidates split the anti-Trump vote. But a repeat of 2016′s massive field hasn’t materialized, with potential candidates such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan passing on campaigns.

    There are still plenty of unknown dynamics, including whether governors such as Kristi Noem of South Dakota or Chris Sununu of New Hampshire will enter the contest. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin have not explicitly ruled out running.

    Mike DuHaime, a Republican strategist and longtime Christie adviser, believes that Trump is the favorite but nonetheless beatable. He cautioned that races are complicated, with unexpected outcomes.

    “I do think that DeSantis is right now firmly the alternative to Trump, but I don’t know if it stays that way. There’s still way too long to go,” he said, arguing that a debate moment or news story could change the trajectory.

    “Somebody’s just got to get momentum,” he said. “It’s just so wide open even with Trump being the prohibitive favorite.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Steve Peoples in New York and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

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  • Biden signs order prioritizing ‘environmental justice’

    Biden signs order prioritizing ‘environmental justice’

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an executive order that would create the White House Office of Environmental Justice.

    The White House said it wants to ensure that poverty, race and ethnic status do not lead to worse exposure to pollution and environmental harm. Biden tried to draw a contrast between his agenda and that of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. GOP lawmakers have called for less regulation of oil production to lower energy prices, while the Biden administration says the GOP policies would give benefits to highly profitable oil companies and surrender the renewable energy sector to the Chinese.

    “Environmental justice will be the mission of the entire government woven directly into how we work with state, local, tribal and territorial governments,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.

    The order tells executive branch agencies to use data and scientific research to understand how pollution hurts people’s health, so that work can be done to limit any damage. Under the order, executive agencies would be required to inform nearby communities if toxic substances were released from a federal facility.

    As part of the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris is separately traveling to Miami, Florida, to announce $562 million to help protect communities against the impacts of climate change.

    The EPA last year formed its own Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights, merging three existing EPA programs to oversee a portion of Democrats’ $60 billion investment in environmental justice initiatives created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

    The order puts more pressure on federal agencies — and the White House itself — to deliver on promises the Biden administration has made to clean up the environment in communities of color and poor communities and prepare them for the effects of climate change.

    The administration has had mixed results in fulfilling this promise. There has been unprecedented spending on environmental and climate justice issues. But there have also been disagreements over how to gauge which communities are most in need of the funding and the administration’s greenlighting of controversial drilling projects as Republicans have criticized Biden for high gasoline prices.

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  • Leaving drama behind, GOP warms to McCarthy in debt fight

    Leaving drama behind, GOP warms to McCarthy in debt fight

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The last Republican holdout in the grueling race for Kevin McCarthy to become House speaker, firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, may be a surprisingly easier vote to get when it comes to passing the House Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling.

    That’s because the 320-page debt ceiling package McCarthy has drafted includes many long-sought conservative priorities — a rollback of current spending levels, a cap on future spending, work requirements for government aid recipients — that Gaetz, the House Freedom Caucus and other factions demanded.

    Rather than drag McCarthy down with painstaking internal party battles over the debt ceiling bill, House Republican lawmakers are looking to prop up their leader, get behind the bill and take the spending fight to President Joe Biden at the White House.

    “I’m not looking to spit in the face of the gift horse,” Gaetz, R-Fla., told reporters at the Capitol as he weighs how he will vote.

    “If you took this plan, and the plan that the House Freedom Caucus laid out some weeks ago, and held them up to a lamp, you would see a lot of alignment,” he said.

    What seemed almost politically impossible just a few short months ago, when House Republicans were nearly coming to blows on the chamber floor, now appears surprisingly on track as McCarthy pushes, prods and pulls his slim majority to coalesce around a debt ceiling plan ahead of next week’s expected vote.

    Republican lawmakers, some who have never before voted to raise the nation’s debt limit, now are seriously considering doing just that. They say McCarthy has built up goodwill by listening to — and accepting — many of their proposals. Rather than fight amongst themselves, they want to force Biden to the negotiating table.

    To be sure, McCarthy does not yet have the 218 votes in hand for passage. The GOP leadership team is furiously whipping the tally ahead of next week’s vote. Many Republicans are wavering, and the proposal is expected to win almost no votes from Democrats, all but dead on arrival in the Senate.

    Biden said the “wacko” ideas in the Republican plan would hurt Americans. Biden’s senior advisers have doubted the speaker will be able to bring the bill to passage.

    Even though the Republican package has almost no chance of becoming law, it is a political strategy designed to put an offer on the table. Republicans want to shift the blame and draw a reluctant White House into negotiations Biden has refused to have over the debt ceiling. In some ways, this is the easy part, with the real lift still to come.

    “I think we’re in very good shape,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters Thursday.

    McCarthy scoffed at the political drama ahead of the upcoming vote. “I want you to see as the clock goes up, I want you to write stories like, I’m teetering, whether I can win or not, and the whole world hangs in the balance,” he said sarcastically. “And then I want you to write a story after it passes, Would the president sit down and negotiate?”

    The package is a wish-list of conservative priorities. In exchange for lifting the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion into March 2024, it would roll back federal spending to fiscal 2022 levels and slap a 1% cap on future federal spending increases, in what Democrats argue would become painful cuts to programs and services Americans rely on.

    Additionally, the Republican plan would impose stricter work requirements for recipients of food stamps, Medicaid and direct cash assistance, and rescind Biden’s plans to relieve up to $20,000 in individual student loan debt.

    The proposal from Republicans would repeal funds to bolster the Internal Revenue Service to audit tax cheats and do away with Biden’s signature tax breaks to fight climate change. It adds Republican plans to boost oil, gas and coal production and ease regulations for permitting pipelines and other energy projects.

    “This week has once again been clarifying in terms of what the extreme MAGA Republicans are all about,” said Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

    Jeffries expects all Democrats to vote against it. “I haven’t spoken to a single person yet that supports the extreme MAGA Republican proposal,” he said.

    For the House Republicans, just as important as the policy they crafted are the optics of managing their new majority: They don’t want to be seen in chaos and disarray, as they were at the start of the year with the speaker’s vote.

    “It’s important for the American people to know that Republicans can lead,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., the chairman of the powerful Republican Study Committee.

    Hern said he personally texted all 175 members of the Republican Study Committee last weekend, explaining the contours of the emerging plan ahead of its roll out, and heard no opposition. The consensus, he said, was they wanted to “get it done.”

    Republicans have historically been blamed for the federal shutdowns and standoffs that have punctuated the budget battles ever since the tea party came to Congress after the 2010 election and launched a new era of brinksmanship over raising the debt ceiling.

    That battle led to the 2011 debt ceiling crisis that resulted in the first ever downgrade of the nation’s credit rating when House Republicans, under then Speaker John Boehner, and the White House failed to reach a deal. Boehner later chose early retirement.

    The nation’s debt is now $31 trillion. For now, the Treasury Department says it is taking “extraordinary measures” to keep paying the bills. But money is expected to run out by summer. The borrowing limit needs to be raised to avoid a potentially devastating default on already accrued debt.

    Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., was among those sitting in the back rows during McCarthy’s grueling fight to become House speaker, the history-making weeklong showdown that finally settled on the 15th vote.

    Burchett says he’s never voted to raise or suspend the debt ceiling — not during the Trump era and certainly not with Biden.

    But as he looks over the package — he has another meeting scheduled with McCarthy’s leadership team next week — he is seriously considering his vote.

    “I’m leaning, but I’m still a no,” Burchett said Thursday. “They’re counting heads and they’re very close.”

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  • Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals

    Haley vs. Scott: From South Carolina allies to 2024 rivals

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    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — As she introduced South Carolina’s next senator, then-Gov. Nikki Haley said her decision to appoint Tim Scott was “pretty simple.”

    “This man loves South Carolina,” Haley said of Scott, a congressman at the time. “He is very aware that what he does and every vote he makes affects South Carolina and affects our country. And so it was with that that I knew he was the right person.”

    Scott was just as effusive, praising Haley as someone who governed with “conviction” and “integrity.” He pledged to “get on the team with Nikki Haley to make sure that all of America continues to hear the great things about South Carolina.”

    Haley and Scott are forever linked by that announcement at the South Carolina Statehouse on a winter day in 2012, cementing their status as rising stars in a Republican Party frustrated by Barack Obama’s reelection just a month earlier. But nearly a dozen years later, they find themselves poised to run against each other for the GOP presidential nomination. Haley has already launched a campaign, and Scott took steps last week toward initiating a bid of his own.

    Both carry historic potential, with Haley aiming to become the first woman and first person of Indian descent to win the presidency. Scott would be the first Black Republican president. But much of the race’s early attention has focused on former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is presumed to be on the cusp of announcing his own bid.

    As the GOP field begins to take shape, the potential of a Haley-Scott faceoff is putting some of their mutual supporters in the critical early voting state of South Carolina in a conundrum as they weigh which candidate to support.

    One of those longtime donors and backers is Mikee Johnson, a South Carolina businessman who has known Haley since high school and serves on the board of her Original Six Foundation, which provides after-school programming and literacy resources for children in rural South Carolina school districts. But like many Republicans across the state, Johnson has also been a friend and ally of Scott, whom he said he’ll back over Haley in the presidential race.

    “I really admire all the things Nikki’s done, her friendship’s important to me, but at this point, I think his style is more what I would like to see our leaders — not just our president — aspire to getting things done in the style and approach that he goes about it,” Johnson said.

    Another is David Wilkins, who was South Carolina’s state House speaker when Haley was in the Legislature, later chairing her gubernatorial transition team and now serving alongside her on the board of Clemson University. Saying he has the “greatest respect” for Scott, whom he has supported in his Senate bids, Wilkins — who also served as ambassador to Canada under President George W. Bush — said his bond is stronger with Haley.

    “He’s an outstanding senator, and we’re very proud of him here in South Carolina,” Wilkins said, of Scott. “I just have a very strong friendship with her. It’s not choosing one person over another. It’s just going with the person that I believe in, that I’m dear friends with, somebody I’ve known for 20 years.”

    The intertwined relationships of those who have supported both Haley and Scott mirror the politicians themselves, whose shared political history dates back further than the pivotal Senate appointment. The two worked alongside each other for a single term in the state House of Representatives, after Scott joined Haley in the chamber following the 2008 election.

    That next session, they both signed onto a number of resolutions and bills, including a constitutional amendment — ultimately approved by the state’s voters — guaranteeing workers the right to voting by secret ballot on union representation.

    They also teamed up, along with a number of co-sponsors, on other less successful bills, including measures to audit state education funds, endow “rights of due process and equal protection” at fertilization and a “truth in spending” measure for all state and local government entities. Other measures that didn’t pass would have made several statewide positions like the agriculture commissioner, secretary of state and education superintendent appointed, not elected, positions.

    In 2010, Scott briefly ran for lieutenant governor, ultimately abandoning that pursuit to seek the 1st District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Henry Brown. At that time, South Carolina’s governor and lieutenant governor were elected separately; had Scott stayed in that race and won it, he and Haley would have served together as South Carolina’s top officeholders.

    But two years later, when Jim DeMint abruptly announced his resignation from the Senate, the paths of Haley and Scott crossed yet again. Rob Godfrey, a longtime Haley adviser who served for a time as her chief spokesperson, said the governor’s process was deliberate, making a short list that included Scott, Rep. Trey Gowdy and former first lady Jenny Sanford, ex-wife of former Gov. Mark Sanford, who was Haley’s predecessor.

    Also on the short list was former Attorney General Henry McMaster, one of Haley’s 2010 rivals who went on to become one of her biggest backers and eventual successor. Catherine Templeton, a labor lawyer who Haley appointed to lead the state’s labor and then public health agencies, was under consideration as well.

    “She took every one of those candidates and their background and their credentials and what they offered the state seriously during this process, and at the end of the day determined that there was one person who was best suited to take on the job and carry on the legacy of Sen. DeMint but also blaze his own trail,” Godfrey said.

    In picking Scott, Haley said she wanted to appoint someone she felt could retain the seat in subsequent elections, and who was in the same ideological vein as DeMint.

    “It’s not how much political experience you have, it’s about the fight,” Haley said at the time. “It’s about the philosophical beliefs. It’s about knowing what you’re sent to Washington to do.”

    Scott more than proved Haley correct, winning a 2014 special election to fill the remaining two years of DeMint’s term, then winning a full one of his own two years later. Last fall, Scott won reelection by more than 20 percentage points, a Senate race he had long said would be his last.

    “Absolutely, she was thinking into the future,” said Chad Connelly, who was state GOP chair at the time.

    That future is now, as Haley and Scott both prepare to compete against each other for the nation’s highest office. A day after Haley’s announcement, Scott embarked on a “listening tour.” Haley declined to comment about Scott when asked by The Associated Press.

    “I have such great respect for Nikki Haley,” Scott said in a recent interview, adding he hadn’t spoken with Haley before launching his exploratory committee. “She is a strong, powerful force for good.”

    He also dismissed any awkwardness in running against the Republican who appointed him to the Senate, and with whom he would be in direct competition in vying for the very voters that had elected them both statewide.

    “You put your uniform on, you shake hands, and you go on the field. You fight for good. You fight to win the game,” Scott said. “You take your uniform off, you shake hands and you continue down the road.”

    “We were friends before,” he added. “We’ll be friends after.”

    ___

    Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

    ___

    Associated Press writer Tom Beaumont in Marion, Iowa, contributed to this report.

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  • Trump’s House GOP allies take fight to Manhattan DA’s turf

    Trump’s House GOP allies take fight to Manhattan DA’s turf

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans upset with Donald Trump’s indictment are escalating their war on the prosecutor who charged him, trying to embarrass Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his home turf partly by falsely portraying New York City as a place overrun by crime.

    The House Judiciary Committee, led by Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, held a field hearing Monday near Bragg’s offices to examine the Democrat’s “pro-crime, anti-victim” policies.

    New York City has “lost its way when it comes to fighting crime and upholding the law,” Jordan said. “Here in Manhattan, the scales of justice are weighed down by politics. For the district attorney justice isn’t blind — it’s about advancing opportunities to promote a political agenda — a radical political agenda.”

    Democrats said the hearing was a partisan stunt aimed at amplifying conservative anger at Bragg, Manhattan’s first Black district attorney, and pressed Republicans to instead focus on curbing the proliferation of guns. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police captain, called the hearing an “in-kind donation” to the Trump campaign and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, called it “a circus.”

    New York Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the committee’s ranking Democrat, said: “Jim Jordan engages in a lot of political theater in Washington, but he should know better than to take his tired act to Broadway. New Yorkers see through this transparent attempt to defend Donald Trump at all costs while ignoring the real public safety needs of our community.”

    In a statement, Bragg’s office said that “ending violence, stopping crime, and supporting victims and their families” are his most sacred duties and that he will “always work with any local, state or federal partner who is serious about achieving lasting public safety.”

    “For outside politicians to now appear in New York City on the taxpayer dime for a political stunt is a slap in the face to the dedicated NYPD officers, prosecutors and other public servants who work tirelessly every day with facts and data to keep our home safe,” Bragg’s office said.

    Interrupted several times by outbursts from protesters, Monday’s hearing was the latest salvo in Jordan’s weekslong effort to use his congressional powers to defend Trump from what he says is a politically motivated prosecution.

    Jordan has sent letters to Bragg demanding testimony and documents, claiming Bragg’s office is subject to congressional scrutiny because it gets federal grants. He subpoenaed a former prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, who previously oversaw the Trump investigation. Bragg then sued Jordan, calling the subpoena a “transparent campaign to intimidate” him.

    Pomerantz said in court papers Monday that the subpoena leaves him in an “impossible position” and, if enforced, will require him to violate his ethical obligations or risk being held in contempt of Congress if he refuses. A federal judge scheduled an initial hearing for Wednesday.

    Attacking New York City and its mostly Democratic leaders over crime is an old trick for politicians who represent rural and suburban districts, and the punch can still land with some audiences.

    But in reality, the city’s violent crime rate remains substantially below the U.S. average.

    In 2022, Bragg’s first year in office, there were 78 homicides in Manhattan, a borough of 1.6 million people. That was a drop of 15 percent from the year before. Palm Beach County, Florida, where Trump is one of about 1.5 million residents, had 96 killings.

    “People hear New York and they think crime, and that’s because they’ve been trained to think that way,” said Dr. Jeffrey Butts, the director of the Research & Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. “It’s not real. It’s just the stories that people tell.”

    “If you’re living in some predominantly small, white county in Iowa, you hear New York and you just imagine all the scary movies and TV shows you’ve seen,” Butts said. “I think that’s what Congress is playing off of.”

    For Bragg, scrutiny from Republicans — and even some Democrats — is nothing new.

    A Harvard-educated former federal prosecutor, chief deputy state attorney general and civil rights lawyer, Bragg won an eight-way Democratic party primary and then soared to victory with 83% of the general election vote.

    Soon after taking office, Bragg authored an internal memo announcing that, among other things, his office would not prosecute certain low-level misdemeanors.

    That set up some early clashes with NYPD leadership, and some Republicans outside the city quickly made Bragg a poster child for Democratic permissiveness.

    Republican Lee Zeldin, then representing eastern Long Island in Congress, made Bragg a focal point of his losing campaign for governor, repeatedly promising to remove the independently elected prosecutor from office. The rhetoric resonated in the suburbs, helping Republicans defeat Democrats in a number of key New York seats.

    New York, in fact, wasn’t immune from the nationwide spike in crime that happened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and most categories remain above 2019 levels. Burglaries, car thefts and assaults rose in Manhattan during Bragg’s first year before falling again this year.

    The House Judiciary Committee didn’t invite Bragg to testify, nor was anyone from his office expected to participate. Instead, the committee heard from crime victims, the head of the city’s detectives union, the head of an anti-gun violence group and a crime policy expert who — under questioning by Democrats — ticked off a long list of cities and states with higher violent crime rates than New York and Manhattan.

    Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana said the committee is considering holding field hearings on crime in other places and “has about five or six cities on the list,” though none have been scheduled.

    Jose Alba, a former convenience store clerk, testified about his arrest after stabbing an attacker to death in his shop. Bragg dropped the charges but critics said he should have done so sooner. Madeline Brame blamed Bragg for seeking long prison sentences only for two of four people involved in her son’s killing. Jennifer Harrison — whose boyfriend was killed in New Jersey in 2005, outside Bragg’s jurisdiction and long before he took office — spoke as a victim advocate and Bragg critic.

    “I want to thank all the witnesses including the victims of crime,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said. “I fear that you were being used for a political purpose despite your sincerity.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporters David B. Caruso and Karen Matthews in New York and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.

    ___

    Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/.

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  • Biden issues first veto, taking on new Republican House

    Biden issues first veto, taking on new Republican House

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden issued the first veto of his presidency Monday in an early sign of shifting White House relations with the new Congress since Republicans took control of the House in January — a move that serves as a prelude to bigger battles with GOP lawmakers on government spending and the nation’s debt limit.

    Biden sought to kill a Republican-authored measure that would ban the government from considering environmental impacts or potential lawsuits when making investment decisions for people’s retirement plans. In a video released by the White House, Biden said he vetoed the measure because it “put at risk the retirement savings of individuals across the country.”

    His first veto represents a more confrontational approach at the midway of Biden’s term in office, as he faces a GOP-controlled House that is eager to undo parts of his policy legacy and investigate his administration and his family. Complicating matters for Biden, several Democratic senators are up for re-election next year in conservative states, giving them political incentive to put some distance between them and the White House.

    The measure vetoed by Biden would have effectively reinstated a Trump-era ban on federal managers of retirement plans considering factors such as climate change, social impacts or pending lawsuits when making investment choices.

    The veto could also help calm some anger from environmentalists who have been upset with the Biden administration for its recent decision to greenlight the Willow oil project, a massive and contentious drilling project in Alaska.

    “The president vetoed the bill because it jeopardizes the hard-earned life savings of cops, firefighters, teachers, and other workers,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said.

    But critics say so-called environmental, social and governance investments allocate money based on political agendas, such as a drive against climate change, rather than on earning the best returns for savers. Republicans in Congress who pushed the measure said environmental or social considerations in investments by the government are just another example of being “woke.”

    “In his first veto, Biden just sided with woke Wall Street over workers,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tweeted on Monday. “Tells you exactly where his priorities lie.” He said “it’s clear Biden wants Wall Street to use your retirement savings to fund his far-left political causes.”

    Biden’s veto is likely to prevail. Just three Democrats in Congress — one in the House, and two in the Senate — supported Republicans in the matter, making it unlikely a two-thirds majority in both chambers could be assembled to overcome Biden’s veto.

    Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, was the sole Democrat to back the resolution in the House, while Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., supported it in the Senate. Golden is a perennial target of Republicans seeking to oust him from his conservative district, while Tester and Manchin are both up for re-election next year.

    “This administration continues to prioritize their radical policy agenda over the economic, energy and national security needs of our country, and it is absolutely infuriating,” Manchin said in a statement.

    Though Biden swiftly vetoed the investment resolution, other measures coming from Capitol Hill in the weeks and months ahead could be a tougher call for the White House.

    The administration initially signaled that Biden would reject a Republican-authored measure that would override a crime measure passed by the District of Columbia Council, but the president later said he would sign it and did so Monday. He also signed a bill directing the federal government to declassify intelligence related to the origins of COVID-19.

    Biden’s immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, vetoed 10 bills during his term in office, while Barack Obama vetoed 12, according to the the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Both had one of their vetoes overridden by Congress.

    The president with the most vetoes was Franklin Delano Roosevelt — who was elected to four terms before a constitutional amendment limited all presidents to two — with 635 vetoes. Six U.S. presidents never vetoed any legislation in office.

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  • DeSantis visits Iowa as interest in likely Trump rival rises

    DeSantis visits Iowa as interest in likely Trump rival rises

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Ahead of a widely expected presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced himself to eager audiences of Iowa Republicans on Friday with a message that leaned into the antagonism toward the left that has made him a popular figure among conservatives.

    “We will never surrender to the woke mob,” DeSantis told an audience of more than 1,000 at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in the eastern Iowa city of Davenport, his first Iowa stop as he moves toward seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. “Our state is where woke goes to die.”

    With the Iowa caucuses less than a year away, Republicans in the state are taking a harder look at DeSantis, who is emerging as a leading rival to Donald Trump. The former president, who is mounting his third bid for the White House, will be in Davenport on Monday as early signs warn that some Republicans may be looking for someone else to lead the party into the future.

    Trump mocked DeSantis’ trip on social media, asking “why would people show up?”

    And White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre took issue with the Florida governor’s threatening language that criticized young transgender people and their parents.

    “When … these MAGA Republicans don’t agree with an issue or with policy, they don’t bring forth something that’s either going to have a good faith conversation. They go to this conversation of ‘woke.’ … What that turns into is hate; what that turns into is despicable policy.”

    But show up they did, including more than 1,000 Friday evening in the capital city, Des Moines, where DeSantis ignited his biggest ovation by accusing schools of seeking to impose a leftist agenda on students on issues of gender and race.

    “I think we really have done a great job of drawing a line in the sand and saying the purpose of our schools is to educate kids, not indoctrinate them,” DeSantis said in the auditorium on the Iowa state fairgrounds. “Parents should be able to send their kids to school without having somebody’s agenda shoved down their throat.”

    DeSantis appeared alongside Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in Davenport and Des Moines and met with a small contingent of GOP lawmakers in the capital city. He was also promoting his newly released book, “The Courage to be Free.”

    The visit is an early test of DeSantis’ support in the state that will kick off the contest for the Republican nomination next year. Trump remains widely popular among Iowa Republicans, though positive views of the former president have slipped somewhat since he left the White House. Now, 80% say they have a favorable rating of him, down slightly from 91% in September 2021, according to a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll released Friday. Eighteen percent have unfavorable views of Trump.

    The poll’s movement suggests Iowa Republicans are not singularly committed to Trump for 2024 and are open to considering other candidates. Though slightly behind the well-known Trump, DeSantis gets a rosy review from Iowa Republicans — 74% favorable rating. Notably, DeSantis has high name recognition in a state over 1,000 miles away from his own; just 20% say they aren’t sure how to rate him.

    Sandy Bodine said she was impressed with DeSantis as the ballroom emptied out after Friday’s morning event.

    “He’s very articulate, uses common sense it seems in governing,” the retired human resources worker for 3M Co. said.

    Bodine would consider attending the 2024 caucuses and supporting DeSantis, though she is registered to neither major political party and has never caucuses before. Regardless, Trump is out of the running for Bodine, who is from nearby Clinton.

    “I don’t like Trump,” she said. She “unfortunately” voted for Biden in 2020, she said. “He’s not a statesman and we need a statesman. I can see DeSantis as a statesman.”

    But others in the crowd suggested they would stick with the former president. Retiree Al Greenfield, of Davenport, said he came out of curiosity but “I don’t particularly care for” the Florida governor. “He doesn’t have the experience,” said Greenfield, who’s 70. “He doesn’t know the swamp.”

    Greenfield is ardently for Trump and plans to caucus for him next year.

    Nearby stood Diana Otterman, of Bettendorf, who was still considering her options.

    “Gov. DeSantis is a wonderful man. I’m for DeSantis, but I’m also for Trump. I haven’t decided yet,” the 70-year-old retiree said. “So we’ll see how God works it out and how the people vote.”

    While DeSantis was making his presence known in Iowa, several prominent former Trump supporters called on him to take the next step and announce he’s running.

    “More than ever our country needs strong leadership, someone that gets things done & isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right,” tweeted former Pennsylvania Rep. and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lou Barletta. “Come on, Ron, your country needs you!”

    Barletta had accused Trump of disloyalty after the former president endorsed a rival in his gubernatorial primary.

    DeSantis’ visit coincided with a trip to the state by former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who announced her 2024 candidacy last month. Trump’s stop on Monday will be his first visit to the state since launching his latest presidential bid.

    In recent weeks, DeSantis’ team has begun holding conversations with a handful of prospective campaign staffers in key states. Late last month, he gathered privately with donors, elected officials and national conservative activists to discuss his views, which include limiting how race and sexuality are taught in schools.

    DeSantis is expected to announce his candidacy in late spring or early summer, after the conclusion of the Florida legislative session in mid-May.

    The anticipation is reminiscent, to an extent, of the support in Iowa for George W. Bush ahead of the 2000 election, though with significant differences, said veteran Iowa GOP activist David Oman.

    DeSantis is seen, as Bush was, as a next-generation, big-state Republican governor who won reelection resoundingly, said Oman, who was among Iowa Republicans who helped recruit Bush to run.

    Bush swooped into Iowa amid fanfare in June 1999 and sailed to victory in the Iowa caucuses the following year en route to the 2000 GOP nomination and the White House. Not insignificantly, Bush enjoyed the hands-on campaign outreach in Iowa of his father, former President George H. W. Bush, who had built lasting relationships during his 1980 and 1988 Iowa caucus campaigns.

    “There’s another former president in this cycle. Only he is not interested in helping a first time candidate,” Oman said, referring to Trump. “W was the overwhelming favorite in Iowa. I believe there is not an overwhelming favorite this time.”

    ___

    AP writers Jill Colvin and Darlene Superville contributed from Washington.

    ___

    The second paragraph of this story has been corrected to make the quote “where woke goes to die,” not “where woke mob goes to die.”

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  • DeSantis argues US should be like Florida ahead of 2024 bid

    DeSantis argues US should be like Florida ahead of 2024 bid

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    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis positioned himself as the architect of a new conservative vision for the nation during a State of the State address on Tuesday that championed his aggressive stances through the pandemic and culture wars as a blueprint for Republican leadership.

    The address came at the outset of a 60-day legislative session that has added political significance because it is expected to serve as a platform for DeSantis’ highly expected presidential campaign.

    “We defied the experts. We bucked the elites. We ignored the chatter. We did it our way, the Florida way,” DeSantis told lawmakers in Tallahassee. “And the result is that we are the number one destination for our fellow Americans who are looking for a better life.”

    The Legislature’s Republican supermajority is eager to promote DeSantis’ political prospects and is expected to rubber stamp virtually all of his agenda, which is packed with issues ranging from race to immigration to gender that could prove popular in a GOP presidential primary.

    Instead of focusing on rising rents and cost of living, a property insurance market that’s in distress and preparing for rising sea levels in a state vulnerable to climate change, DeSantis kicked off a session where the GOP will push issues like telling teachers which pronouns they can use for students, making guns more available to Floridians, keeping immigrants that are in the country illegally out of the state, and criminalizing some drag shows as Tennessee recently did.

    In his speech, DeSantis ran through the conservative accomplishments of his tenure thus far and highlighted upcoming measures that will be popular with some Republican primary voters, such as a proposal to eliminate concealed firearms permits.

    In a signal of the Republican policy schedule to come, a GOP lawmaker on Tuesday introduced a bill to ban abortions after six weeks, with Democrats denouncing the move not long after DeSantis finished his speech. DeSantis previously indicated that he would sign such legislation.

    Though the governor is unlikely to formally announce a presidential campaign before the Legislature wraps up its work in May, he’s already making big moves toward a White House bid. He participated in a high-profile donor retreat last week in Florida before traveling to California, where he delivered a broadside against what he argued were excesses of liberalism. Later this week, he’ll travel for the first time this year to Iowa, which will host the nation’s first Republican presidential caucus in 2024.

    Even without an official campaign in place, DeSantis is emerging as a leading alternative to former President Donald Trump, a fellow Floridian who has already announced his third White House bid. DeSantis’ strength is fueled in part by commanding a nearly 20 percentage point reelection victory last year in a state that’s often infamous for close elections.

    He’s done so by limiting how issues such as race and sexuality can be taught in schools, banning transgender girls and women from school sports, rewriting the state’s political maps to favor Republicans and dismantle a congressional district that favored Black voters, attacking private businesses that disagree with his ideology and cracking down on Black Lives Matter protests.

    “Our governor is truly America’s governor. He has defended our conservative values, challenged the individuals and institutions who pose threats to others, and posed innovative solutions to better our state,” Republican state Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said Tuesday. “It is often said that states are laboratories for democracy. Under the leadership of Gov. DeSantis, Florida is more than a laboratory. We are a model.”

    DeSantis acknowledges that his decisions as governor are based on what he thinks is right and not necessarily what’s popular in the mainstream. He said that’s why he was able to turn a 32,000-vote, recount-confirmed victory in 2018 into a 1.5 million vote victory last year — the largest margin a Republican governor has ever won in the state.

    “November’s election results represent a vindication of our joint efforts over these past four years. The results also vest in us the responsibility to lead and provide us the opportunity to shoot for the stars,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “Boldness be our friend in this endeavor, we have a lot we need to accomplish.”

    The governor has been the frequent target of jokes on late night shows such as “Saturday Night Live” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” but the more critics mock DeSantis, especially those he calls the “liberal elite,” the more he galvanizes support among his base.

    While most candidates who jump into a presidential race two years out spend early campaigning days raising money, traveling the country building support and boosting their name recognition, DeSantis still has $70 million in a political committee just four months after his reelection.

    And he’s already a star de jour at GOP events nationally.

    “You don’t see the flag of Florida standing behind him anymore. They’re all American flags,” said Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo.

    DeSantis released a book last week titled, “The Courage to be Free,” and its subtitle foreshadows his 2024 plans: “Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.” Instead of the Trump slogan of “Make America Great Again,” DeSantis is building the case to make the nation look more like Florida and less like states such as California and New York.

    “We have the opportunity, and indeed the responsibility, to swing for the fences so that we can ensure Florida remains number one,” DeSantis said in his speech. “Don’t worry about the chattering class, ignore all the background noise, keep the compass set to true north. We will stand strong, we will hold the line, we won’t back down, and I can promise you this: You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

    But Democrats see it as intolerance and misdirected priorities. They point to efforts to build off a new law that critics call “Don’t Say Gay” that limits discussion of gender and sexuality in schools. A new GOP proposal would limit how schools can use gender pronouns, while another would criminalize some drag shows.

    Democrats are not only resigned to the fact that the GOP supermajority will prevent them from voting down legislation they oppose, but they’re also concerned their Republican counterparts have abdicated responsibility to DeSantis.

    Democratic House Leader Fentrice Driskell said that while Republicans have controlled the governor’s office and Legislature for 24 years, in that time she’s never seen a governor wield so much power over lawmakers.

    “All of this being driven by his ambition. I think there are those in leadership who want to be close to this governor because they view him as rising in power,” she said. “But the people who pay the cost and the brunt of all of this is everyday Floridians. Every one of the governor’s culture wars has an economic cost built into it. Every single one of them.”

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  • Biden warns of ‘MAGA’ Republicans’ desire to cut spending

    Biden warns of ‘MAGA’ Republicans’ desire to cut spending

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    VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday said GOP lawmakers could put millions of people’s health care at risk, honing his message ahead of the release of his budget plan next week as Republicans push for him to negotiate over spending levels.

    The Democratic president spoke at a recreation center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. His remarks were part of a broader effort this week to contrast his administration’s priorities with those of Republicans who have yet to spell out their budget cuts. Using past proposals, Biden said the GOP could try to slash Medicaid and Obamacare benefits, as well as Social Security and Medicare.

    “What are they going to cut? That’s the big question,” Biden said Tuesday. “For millions of Americans, health care hangs in the balance.”

    Biden said that many Republicans are “really good.” But, he said, the GOP lawmakers who are part of the “Make America Great Again” movement started by former President Donald Trump have shown a willingness to cut funding for health care and allow the federal government to default on its financial obligations.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has called for the government to be on a path toward a balanced budget, but he has yet to offer an outline of which spending he would cut. The president has been using the absence of a GOP plan against them, choosing to highlight past proposals.

    Biden is expected to build on that message in a meeting with House Democrats in Baltimore on Wednesday and before Senate Democrats on Thursday. The effort to highlight major differences with Republicans comes as Biden is expected to launch a reelection campaign this spring.

    Rep. Jen Kiggans, the GOP congresswoman from Virginia Beach, said that Biden came to spread “partisan rumors,” since Republican lawmakers have already ruled out cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

    “The president has shown that his talk of bipartisanship is simply political theatre,” said Kiggans, who has worked as a geriatric nurse. “Healthcare should never be used as a partisan publicity stunt.”

    The president is due to release his budget plan on March 9, promising to trim the national debt by $2 trillion over 10 years. He’s pledged to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid and defend Social Security from reductions in spending, saying that his goal is to bring down medical costs for families “so you have a little bit of breathing room.”

    “That’s what all Americans deserve: peace of mind,” Biden said. “That comes from knowing that an illness if it strikes or an accident occurs, you can get quality medical care and recover and heal.”

    In the absence of a specific GOP plan, Biden administration officials are sketching worst-case scenarios for what Republicans might do, based on past statements, including what the White House warns could be deep cuts to Medicaid, which covers roughly 84 million people and has grown by 20 million since January 2020, just before the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Administration officials also said potential cuts to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act could jeopardize coverage for more than 100 million people with preexisting medical conditions and imperil free preventative care and cut back prescription drug coverage.

    However, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Biden in the White House, there is virtually no chance of major GOP health care legislation being enacted. The greater challenge is whether lawmakers can find common ground, as the government needs to raise its legal borrowing authority by this summer in order to keep operating.

    Biden has said the debt limit should be raised without conditions because it reflects previous spending commitments while McCarthy is pushing for negotiations on the debt that would include spending cuts.

    White House officials are trying to draw attention to the lack of an overall blueprint from the GOP. Republican leaders kept their distance from an earlier proposal by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that would have left Social Security and Medicare up for renewal every five years, along with other federal programs. Scott has now revised his plan to exempt Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits and other essential services.

    There are some Republican lawmakers who want to repeal Biden’s 2022 climate change and health care law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act. The law capped insulin costs at $35 per month for older adults on Medicare and enabled the government insurance program to negotiate on prescription drug prices. It also beefed up funding for the IRS and created incentives to move away from fossil fuels.

    A majority of adults in the U.S. already say that health care is not handled well in the country, according to a poll last fall from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    And about two-thirds of adults think it is the federal government’s responsibility to make sure all people have health care coverage, with adults ages 18 to 49 more likely than those over 50 to hold that view. The percentage of people who believe health care coverage is a government responsibility has risen in recent years, ticking up from 57% in 2017 and 62% in 2019.

    And about half of U.S. adults think that Medicare and Medicaid should play a larger role in paying for living assistance. But that would mean more government funding, not less.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Fatima Hussein contributed to this report.

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  • Election conspiracist to lead Michigan GOP through 2024

    Election conspiracist to lead Michigan GOP through 2024

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    LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Election conspiracist Kristina Karamo, who was overwhelmingly defeated in her bid to become Michigan’s secretary of state, was chosen Saturday to lead the state’s Republican Party for the next two years.

    Karamo defeated a 10-candidate field dominated by far-right candidates to win the Michigan GOP chair position after a state convention that lasted nearly 11 hours. A former community college professor, she lost her secretary of state race in the 2022 midterms by 14 percentage points after mounting a campaign filled with election conspiracies.

    Karamo inherits a state party torn by infighting and millions in debt. She will be tasked with helping win back control of the Legislature and flipping one of the nation’s most competitive Senate seats, while attempting to help a presidential candidate win the battleground state.

    Addressing delegates before the vote, Karamo said that “our party is dying” and it needs to be rebuilt into “a political machine that strikes fear in the heart of Democrats.”

    Karamo rose to prominence following the 2020 presidential election when she began appearing on conservative talk shows saying that as a poll challenger in Detroit, she saw “ballots being dropped off in the middle of the night, thousands of them.”

    The decision to elect Karamo, who will lead through the 2024 elections, solidifies the hold that far-right activists have on the state party after Michigan Republicans suffered sweeping electoral losses last year.

    It took three rounds of voting at the convention in Lansing for locally elected delegates to pick Karamo over former attorney general candidate Matthew DePerno, who had been endorsed by Trump in the race.

    With a field dominated by grassroots activist candidates running on far-right messaging, many longtime Michigan Republicans had given up on a state party before Saturday’s vote even took place.

    “We lost the entire statehouse for the first time in 40 years, in large part, because of the top of the ticket. All deniers. It turned off a lot of voters,” former longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Fred Upton said last week. “As I look at the state convention, it looks like it could well be more of the same.”

    The party may take “a cycle or two to correct itself and to get out of the ditch that we’ve been in for the last couple of years,” Upton told The Associated Press.

    The state party previously has been led by former U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and current national Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel. The party built a large volunteer base of grassroots activists, former Chair Bobby Schostak said, while also raising “$30 to $35 million each cycle.”

    In Schostak’s time as chair from 2011 to 2015, Republicans maintained control of the Legislature and Rick Snyder, a Republican, was reelected as governor. Trump won the state in the 2016 presidential election.

    Democrats now control all levels of power in the state for the first time since the 1980s. They won control of both houses of the Legislature and defeated Republicans by significant margins for governor, attorney general and secretary of state in the 2022 midterms.

    Longtime donors withheld millions in donations as the Republican party grew increasingly loyal to Trump, nominating his handpicked candidates, DePerno and Karamo. Tudor Dixon, who lost her race for governor to Whitmer, said her campaign was hurt by the state party not having as much money as in the past.

    “I’d love to say that it is just a movement of going and knocking doors. But you’ve got to be able to put the money behind it,” Dixon said.

    Following the midterms, Michigan GOP Chair Ron Weiser and co-Chair Meshawn Maddock said they would not seek reelection.

    Prior to the vote Saturday, Schostak, now a major donor in the state, said the next leader will need to prove “they have the capability to be good stewards of the donor money.”

    If donors once again decide in large numbers not to give to the state party, they will need to find other ways of helping candidates ahead of a 2024 presidential election in which Republicans will look to flip the state House and win a U.S. Senate seat for the first time in more than two decades.

    “The state party’s a little bit weaker, and they’re not going to have the influence in races that they had before,” state House Republican Floor Leader Bryan Posthumus noted. “That being said, there are a lot of other avenues to pick up that slack and to make sure that we are still effective with or without the party.”

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  • GOP on GOP: Romney scolds Santos, ‘You don’t belong here’

    GOP on GOP: Romney scolds Santos, ‘You don’t belong here’

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. George Santos positioned himself in a prime location for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address — an uncomfortably prominent place for the embattled new lawmaker who faces multiple investigations and has acknowledged embellishing and even lying about his life story.

    Santos’ presence at the center aisle to see and be seen with the arrivals was met with a stern rebuke from a fellow Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney.

    More on the State of the Union

    “You don’t belong here,” the Utah Republican scolded Santos as he entered the House chamber and spotted the New York Republican on the aisle.

    Words were exchanged, it was reported, though Romney said later he did not hear it all.

    “He shouldn’t be in Congress, and they are going to go through the process and hopefully get him out,” Romney told reporters afterward, his office confirmed. “But he shouldn’t be there, and if he had any shame at all he wouldn’t be there.”

    The exchange was an unusual lashing by the more reserved Romney, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012, but shows the discomfort Santos is bringing among traditional conservatives critical of the rightward drift of more extremist elements of the GOP.

    Santos retorted with a tweet: “Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!”

    The arrival of Santos has been a problem for the Republicans since he won a New York congressional seat, which helped to deliver the party a slim majority, once his personal story began to unravel.

    Santos has acknowledged fabricating, and at times lying, about parts of his education, work experience and even his family’s own religion and history.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy met privately with the congressman last week amid a swirl of potential investigations on and off Capitol Hill. Santos announced he would step aside from his committee assignments ahead of an expected House Ethics Committee probe.

    McCarthy said Tuesday the situation with Santos would work its way through the House Ethics Committee. Fellow New York Republicans have called for Santos to resign from Congress. Santos faces other investigations beyond Congress.

    Other Republicans heard the exchange and one Republican lawmaker who was told about it said there was widespread displeasure that Santos had situated himself in such a prominent spot. The lawmaker requested anonymity to discuss what others said about the subject.

    The center aisle basically gave Santos the chance to seize the limelight by greeting the president and other prominent officials as they entered the House chamber and made their way down the aisle.

    As senators entered the House in a line, it was then that Romney spotted Santos and delivered his message.

    “I didn’t expect that he’d be standing there, trying to shake hands with every senator and the president of the United States,” Romney told reporters later.

    Romney said that given the investigations, Santos “should be sitting the back row and staying quiet, instead of parading in front of the president and people coming into the room.”

    But Santos, as is often the case, had his moment, becoming for a time the face of the GOP.

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  • Analysis: Biden confronts doubters with State of the Union

    Analysis: Biden confronts doubters with State of the Union

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden stepped to the rostrum for his State of the Union address at what should be a high point of his presidency. He’s repeatedly beaten the odds with a string of legislative accomplishments and a historically strong midterm election where Democrats held the line against Republicans. His steadfast support for Ukraine has won praise. The cloud of the pandemic has lifted.

    But on Tuesday night, he found himself facing a problem that has shadowed him for years — doubt.

    More on the State of the Union

    Polls show a majority of Americans are largely unaware of his successes and don’t approve of his job performance. Even Democrats question whether he should run for reelection amid concerns about his age.

    It all added up to a particularly high-stakes moment for Biden, providing him with his last, best opportunity to make his case for why he deserves a second term before a formal campaign announcement.

    He left no doubt that he believes he has more work to do as president. Addressing Republicans who recently won control of the House, Biden said “the people sent us a clear message” about the need to find common ground.

    “We’ve been sent here to finish the job,” he said.

    Although Biden frequently used the language of cooperation, he slipped in a few digs at the other party, such as when he talked about Republicans who voted against his infrastructure law but still celebrate the money being used in their districts.

    “Don’t worry,” he said. “I promised to be the president for all Americans. We’ll fund these projects. And I’ll see you at the groundbreaking!”

    At another point, Biden accused Republicans of trying to curtail Social Security and Medicare benefits for older Americans, provoking shouts of “liar” from his critics.

    Veering from the text of his speech, Biden responded with a grin. “Anybody who doubts it, contact my office, I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.” It was a thrust and parry more likely to be found on a debate stage than in a State of the Union.

    Now it’s just a matter of waiting for Biden to reveal his decision on whether he’ll run again. He’s promised an announcement early this year.

    “Until the moment when he makes that pronouncement, that’s still that question that hangs over every word that he utters,” said Patrick Gaspard, a former White House political director and top official at the Democratic National Committee.

    Gaspard, who is currently president of the liberal Center for American Progress, said the State of the Union “is often considered the opening bid in an argument for reelection. And in this situation, it’s certainly the case.”

    American presidents almost never forgo a shot at a second term. The last one was Lyndon Johnson, who did not seek reelection in 1968 after his presidency became unmoored by the Vietnam War.

    But there’s also never been a president as old as Biden. He’s 80, and would be 86 at the end of a second term. He first ran for the White House in 1988.

    “I’m not new to this place,” Biden acknowledged in his speech. “I stand here tonight having served as long as about any one of you has ever served here.”

    Lyndsay Chervinsky, a presidential historian, said Biden’s age is “the X factor” that differentiates him from his predecessors. Even when other presidents faced low approval ratings during their first term, “no one was suggesting that they not run.”

    “If he was ten years younger, none of these conversations would be happening,” she said.

    Biden gave a glimpse of his campaign pitch on Friday in Philadelphia, when he spoke at a Democratic National Committee meeting. He rattled off legislative accomplishments, some of which were achieved after they were left for dead in Congress, and blasted Republicans as “extremists,” even calling them “nuts” at one point.

    “Let me ask you a simple question. Are you with me?” he said to the cheering crowd, which responded by chanting, “Four more years!”

    Political appearances rarely draw the same attention as the State of the Union. Last year, 38 million people tuned in, compared to nearly 100 million who watched the Super Bowl.

    Presidential historian Michael Beschloss said the challenge is to find the right way to harness that fleeting focus.

    “The speech will probably be remembered for two or three lines,” he said. “He has to decide which he wants those to be.“

    Judging by the text, Biden wants that line to be “finish the job,” a phrase included no less than a dozen times. Whether it’s increasing taxes on billionaires, preventing police brutality or lowering insulin costs, Biden said he wants to “finish the job.”

    It may not have been a campaign announcement, but it’s an implicit request for voters to stick with him.

    Biden plans to travel to Wisconsin on Wednesday and Florida on Thursday to continue pushing his agenda, part of an administration-wide plan for top officials to fan out across the country this week.

    After a Democratic midterm showing that was strong by historical averages in a president’s first term, Biden has successfully tamped down handwringing within his party over whether he should seek another term. No primary opponent has emerged.

    And he has a record to build upon. He’s also secured investments in infrastructure, computer chip manufacturing and financial incentives to encourage Americans to adopt cleaner technologies for fighting climate change.

    “At the end of the day, you can’t argue with the extraordinary accomplishments, more than almost any other modern president, that President Biden has achieved, again, under the toughest of circumstances,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a Sunday interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”

    However, Biden still faces skepticism from the country at large.

    Only 37% of Democrats say they want Biden to seek a second term, down from 52% before the midterm elections in November, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    Victories in Congress to the contrary, many Americans don’t see him making progress either.

    A new Washington Post-ABC News poll said 36% of Americans believe Biden has accomplished “a great deal” or “a good amount” since taking office, while 62% said he’s done “not very much” or “little or nothing.”

    Cedric Richmond, a former top White House official who is now a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, says the numbers don’t concern him.

    “When you hit a campaign, and you’re going to spend the kind of money that campaigns cost now, people will get inundated” with reminders of changes that Biden has made during his administration, he said.

    Right now, Richmond said, “people are more focused on their lives than political commentary and polls and all of those things.”

    Now the question is whether Biden’s big speech shifted voters’ focus to him — and got them to see the country his same way.

    ___

    EDITORS: Chris Megerian covers the White House for The Associated Press.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the State of the Union address at: https://apnews.com/hub/state-of-the-union-address

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  • State of the Union live updates: Latest on Biden’s speech

    State of the Union live updates: Latest on Biden’s speech

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    By The Associated Press

    February 8, 2023 GMT

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Follow along for real-time updates on President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address from The Associated Press. Live updates are brought to you by AP journalists at the White House, on Capitol Hill and beyond.

    ___

    SAVORING THE MOMENT

    President Joe Biden spoke for 73 minutes during his State of the Union address in the House chamber.

    But he’s also a creature of the Senate, where he served for decades, and Capitol Hill.

    And so the president lingered for 20 minutes more after he had finished speaking in prime time to a national audience. He took selfies, shook hands and basked in the moment on the House floor.

    Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York yelled “Mr. President! That was awesome.”

    Biden grinned.

    The House chamber started to clear out, but not Biden — not yet, at least.

    “I’m going to get in trouble,” Biden said.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gaveled the House to adjourn the moment the president walked out of the chamber.

    ___

    REPUBLICAN RESPONSE

    Giving the Republican response to the State of the Union, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she didn’t believe “much of anything” she heard from President Joe Biden and suggested he was unfit for the office he holds.

    A onetime press secretary for President Donald Trump, Sanders was elected in November to the job that her father, Mike Huckabee, once held.

    Sanders told her audience that Biden and the Democratic Party, “failed you. You know it, and they know it.”

    “Democrats want to rule us with more government control,” Sanders said. She also noted that, at age 40, she was half Biden’s age.

    ___

    SHOUTING BACK

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who made waves for shouting during President Joe Biden’s State to the Union last year, was back at again.

    The Georgia Republican jumped to her feet, pointed a finger and shouted down Biden on Tuesday night when the president said Republicans wanted to cut Medicare and Social Security as part of budget talks. Those are programs for mostly older Americans.

    And she yelled “China is spying on us,” as Biden said the United States was willing to take action in the aftermath of a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that had drifted through American airspace.

    ___

    IN BIDEN’S WORDS

    “Two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken”

    —President Joe Biden, alluding to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and the midterm losses last November by some candidates who spread election lies.

    ___

    WAS THAT A BALLOON?

    President Joe Biden made a blink-and-you-might-miss-it reference to the suspected Chinese spy balloon that U.S. fighter jets shot down last week.

    He was talking in the State of the Union address about working with China in an effort to advance American interests.

    But make no mistake, he said, “as we made clear last week, if China’s threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”

    ___

    A DIFFICULT SHOT

    It’s not easy to capture the president entering the House chamber for the big speech.

    The photojournalist doing it must walk backward as the president walks forward, shaking hands and waving, to his place on the rostrum in the House.

    For this year’s State of the Union, that journalist is AP’s Jacquelyn Martin. The Senate Press Photographers Association rotates which organization gets the honors. It’s the first time AP has done it in seven year

    ___

    IN BIDEN’S WORDS

    “American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products,”

    — President Joe Biden, announcing new federal standards requiring that all construction materials used in federal infrastructure projects be made in the United States He said buying American products has been the law since 1933, but past administrations have found ways to circumvent it.

    The standards could have a big impact. As part of the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law passed last year, Congress allocated $550 billion for roads, bridges, water infrastructure, broadband internet and other projects.

    ___

    ‘THE TALK’

    President Joe Biden says he’s never had to have “the talk” with his kids — the discussion about how to behave when pulled over by police.

    It’s a talk that many Black parents must have in order to protect their children from harm.

    Biden, in his State of the Union address, asked people in his audience to imagine how some parents feel, worrying their children may not come home. As he spoke, the president acknowledged the parents of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old man who was beaten to death by police officers in Memphis, Tennessee.

    Nichols’ parents sat with first lady Jill Biden during the speech in the House chamber.

    The president said he knows that most police officers are good, “decent people” who risk their lives when they go to work. But he urged better training for them and more resources to reduce crime.

    “What happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often. We have to do better,” Biden said.

    ___

    OIL STILL NEEDED

    President Joe Biden drew derisive laughter from Republicans when he said the United States will need oil “for at least another decade.″

    Biden made the comment in his State of the Union address as he promoted a landmark law to slow climate change. That law authorizes hundreds of billions to boost renewable energy such as wind and solar power and help consumers buy electric vehicles and energy-efficient appliances.

    Republicans have criticized Biden for seeking greater oil production from OPEC and other countries even as he had sought to boost renewable energy. Biden appeared to be trying to reassure critics that he recognizes the need for continued oil production, although the 10-year time frame seems far short of what experts expect — that oil will be needed for decades to come.

    ___

    GETTING ROWDY

    Republicans got riled up when President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech touched on Medicare and Social Security.

    Biden suggested Republicans had fallen in line behind a proposal to put the continued existence of those two program to a vote every five years. In response, Republicans in the House chamber hollered, booed and shouted “liar!”

    Some Republicans even jumped to their feet to object.

    The proposal comes from Florida Sen. Rick Scott, but it hasn’t been endorsed by the majority of the Republican Party.

    In response, Biden said: “Anybody who doubts it, contact my office.”

    And he told his audience, “So we all agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the table.” That drew a standing ovation from members of both parties.

    ___

    TRUMP WEIGHS IN

    Donald Trump has been heard from.

    He released a brief online video minutes before President Joe Biden’s State of the Union. The former president ticked through a familiar list of grievances, blaming Biden and Democrats for things such as the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border and inflation.

    Trump also went after the Justice Department. It’s been investigating the unlawful retention of top secret records at Trump’s Florida home after Trump left the White House.

    Trump is the only major Republican so far who’s announced a 2024 presidential campaign.

    ___

    ‘NOT ANYMORE’

    Members of Congress rose to their feet and briefly chanted “not anymore” as President Joe Biden cited Democratic-led efforts to cap the cost of insulin to $35 per month for older Americans who use Medicare.

    In his State of the Union address, the president urged Congress to extend that price limit to millions of people on private insurance. That idea was scratched in Congress last year and is unlikely to gain traction now.

    Roughly 8.4 million Americans use insulin, according to the American Diabetes Association. About 1 million of those people, who have type 1 diabetes, can die without access to insulin.

    ___

    IN BIDEN’S WORDS

    “I’ll see you at the groundbreaking”

    — President Joe Biden, promising that money from his big infrastructure package will go to projects in Republican parts of the country as well as Democratic ones. Biden used much of his State of the Union speech to call for bipartisanship. This quip was a nice way to reach out Republicans. Democrats have criticized some Republicans who opposed the infrastructure plan but still want the dollars in it to cover projects in their districts.

    ___

    WARM WELCOME

    President Joe Biden began the speech with friendly remarks to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The president turned to briefly shake hands with McCarthy.

    “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you,” Biden told McCarthy with a chuckle.

    Biden is urging both parties to to find bipartisan unity during his speech.

    Before Biden began speaking, McCarthy said he wouldn’t tear up his copy of Biden’s speech. That was a reference to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doing just that with her copy of President Donald Trump’s speech in 2020 just after he finished giving it.

    ___

    THINK PINK

    Pink — and its shades — appears to be the color of the evening — at the State of the Union.

    There’s first lady Jill Biden’s purplely pink and Vice President Kamala Harris’ magenta pantsuit. And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has a reddish-pink tie.

    Aides insist it’s all just a coincidence — just the color of preference this evening.

    Remember that cherry blossom season in Washington is on the horizon, so perhaps it’s just a nod to the time of year.

    ___

    DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

    For this year’s State of the Union, it’s Labor Secretary Marty Walsh who’s the “designated survivor.”

    The Cabinet member isn’t at President Joe Biden’s address in the House chamber. Walsh instead is at an undisclosed location.

    The idea is to preserve the government’s succession in case of an attack or other incident at the Capitol where the president, vice president, speaker of the House and the rest of Biden’s Cabinet are gathered.

    Walsh is an interesting choice. He’s set to leave the Biden administration to run the National Hockey League Players’ Association. Six NHL games were being played Tuesday night and overlapping with Biden’s speech.

    Last year, when Biden gave his first State of the Union, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was chosen for the role.

    ___

    COURT’S IN SESSION

    A majority of the nine-member Supreme Court is attending the speech.

    Among the justices in the House chamber is Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the high court. She was nominated by President Joe Biden.

    Also in attendance are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.

    For the first time since 1997, retired justices are at the address.

    Stephen Breyer, who retired last year, giving Biden the opportunity to nominate Jackson, and Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018, are even wearing robes.

    Four members of the Supreme Court are absent: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.

    ___

    PLAYING NICE

    Vice President Kamala Harris and new Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California are playing nice —for now.

    The two shook hands as they took their seats behind where President Joe Biden soon will deliver his State of the Union speech in the House chamber. Harris and McCarthy were smiling and chatting as they waited for the speech to begin.

    Last year, Harris sat next to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi at what was the first State of the Union address with two women in those seats of power.

    ___

    SANTOS’ SEAT

    George Santos’ lies about his resume and family background have cost him his place on House committees and intensified bipartisan calls for his resignation.

    But that didn’t stop the newly elected Republican congressman from New York from snagging one of the prime seats for Biden’s speech.

    Santos grabbed a mid-aisle seat in the House chamber. That means he could be seen on national television during wide camera shots and he’ll get a chance to catch a close glimpse of Biden when the president arrives for the address.

    Members of Congress generally sit together by party. But the seats in the House chamber aren’t assigned during the State of the Union. So Santos only had to get there early to stake out a prime location.

    ___

    BIDEN BINGO

    Given Biden’s penchant for frequently repeating his favorite phrases, supporters and detractors are assembling bingo cards of what reliable words and phrases he’s most likely to use during the speech.

    From the League of Women Voters to the National Constitution Center and the Washington media outlet Punchbowl News, groups have produced their versions of the cards. When “Bidenisms” come up, especially attentive viewers can cross them off.

    Some card list common one such as “folks,” “not a joke” and “inflection point.” Others are more policy focused. Think ”Ukraine,” “gas,” “inflation” and “tax cuts.”

    Many versions of the cards make the center square a free space. But even that can come with a dose of ideology. The conservative Americans for Tax Reform’s bingo card referred to it as “tax-payer funded ‘free’ space.”

    ___

    REPUBLICAN RESPONSE

    The last time many in Washington saw Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she was sparring with reporters in White House briefings as President Donald Trump’s press secretary. Now she’s the newly elected Republican governor of Arkansas, and on Tuesday night, she’s her party’s pick to give the response to Biden’s speech.

    In excerpts of those remarks, Sanders is denouncing what she calls the “radical left” agenda and Biden’s policies. She’s using her national platform to carry on conservatives’ fights on social issues, including how race is taught in public schools.

    The Sanders-Biden contrast is more than just ideological. Sanders is 40 years old and she’s the youngest governor in the country right now. Biden is twice her age.

    ___

    ‘FINISH THE JOB’

    Biden will ask the country he leads to give him more time to accomplish his biggest goals.

    “That’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America — the middle class — to unite the country.” That’s what the president plans to say in his State of the Union address, according to excerpts released by the White House before the prime-time speech.

    And also this: “We’ve been sent here to finish the job.”

    In the coming weeks, Biden is expected to formally announce his 2024 reelection campaign. A majority of Democrats now think one term is plenty for him, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

    ___

    FLURRY OF PREPARATIONS

    Preparations are underway at the Capitol with the president’s State of the Union address only a few hours away. And that means a flurry of behind-the-scenes operations to transform the stately building for the prime-time event.

    The House chamber is cleared out now that lawmakers have completed most of their business for the day. Crews are beginning their work.

    The gilded Statuary Hall is filling up with lights, cameras and broadcast teams for the many interviews that will air before before and after the speech.

    It’s the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the Capitol has been fully reopened for the event. Security is tight. People have begun filling the Capitol halls

    ___

    THE BALLOON

    Biden has taken lots of heat from Republicans over his handling of the suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted across the United States before being shot down on Saturday over the Atlantic Ocean. GOP lawmakers had talked about introducing a resolution, just as the president was set to give his prime-time speech, that would have condemned the administration over the matter.

    Those plans have been scrapped, and instead a bipartisan proposal condemning China is being considered.

    “It’s too important of an issue. And we want to stand strong together against China instead of having our own internal fights,” Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press. The Texas Republican is sponsoring the bipartisan resolution.

    Not everyone is on board, it seems. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, showed up at the Capitol on Tuesday with a big white balloon.

    ___

    MIC DROP

    “We’re not going to do childish games tearing up a speech”

    — Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That was a reference to his predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who made a point of publicly ripping her copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address just after he finished speaking in 2020.

    ___

    INVITED GUESTS

    Keep an eye out for guests invited to the speech by the White House and members of Congress.

    Among those sitting with first lady Jill Biden will be the family of Tyre Nichols and the parents of a 3-year-old girl who has a rare form of cancer. There’ll be U2 frontman Bono, who has worked to combat HIV/AIDS, and Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the accused gunman in a mass shooting last month in California.

    Some Democratic lawmakers are bringing relatives of Black men and boys who have died at the hands of police.

    Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has invited former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, who changed name from Enes Kanter after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2021. He grew up in Turkey and has been critical of Turkey’s president, Tayyip Erdoğan, and says a bounty has been issued against him in that country.

    —-

    HERE WE GO

    It’s State of the Union time, that day when the president delivers a speech to Congress that tries to accomplish a lot.

    Biden will want to talk about his accomplishments, toss out some goals for this year, tick off things that need fixing and do some cheerleading for the nation. And, of course, characterize the state of the union.

    Doing all of that can take a while. Biden’s 2022 State of the Union address ran just over 62 minutes. Bill Clinton gave the longest one ever, clocking in at one hour, 28 minutes in 2000. The award for the shortest speech goes to Republican George W. Bush, who spoke for 47 minutes in 2002.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the State of the Union address at: https://apnews.com/hub/state-of-the-union-address

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  • Biden, McCarthy, once breakfast mates, wrangle over US debt

    Biden, McCarthy, once breakfast mates, wrangle over US debt

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Not so long ago, Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy used to talk things over at breakfast in Biden’s vice presidential home at the Naval Observatory.

    Biden was intent in those days on “keeping up relations with the opposition party,” as he writes in his memoir, and the new House majority leader often arrived with fellow GOP lawmakers in tow.

    But now, with a potential national debt crisis l ooming, those morning meetings in 2015 seem a political lifetime ago as Democratic President Biden and McCarthy, the new House speaker, prepare for their first official meeting Wednesday at the White House.

    “You know, when I met with him as the vice president, he was always eager to sit down and talk,” McCarthy recalled to The Associated Press ahead of the meeting. “He was always a person who would like to try to find solutions, work together.”

    Biden has signaled no such open-ended hospitality this time as newly emboldened House Republicans court a risky debt ceiling showdown.

    At a fundraiser Tuesday in New York, Biden called McCarthy a “decent man” who was being pulled by demands from restive Republicans.

    “He made commitments that are just absolutely off the wall” in order to win the speaker’s gavel, Biden said.

    Two affable leaders known for their willingness to strike deals, Biden and McCarthy find themselves charging headlong into uncomfortable political terrain in hardball negotiations over the nation’s debt limit.

    A generation apart — McCarthy, 58, has been in Congress just a third of the time that Biden, 80, has held elected office — the two men are deeply familiar with the ways of Washington and positions of power.

    Both have built political brands on their ability to meet with all comers, forging deals where none seemed likely. They’ve shown mutual respect during their limited interactions in Biden’s presidency, according to one senior White House official. And both have been here before, veterans of the last fiscal showdown, in 2011, when Biden, as vice president to Barack Obama, tried to negotiate an endgame to a standoff with McCarthy’s predecessors in Congress.

    The political as well as economic stakes are apparent this time as Biden considers another run for the White House and McCarthy strains to keep his new job as speaker of the House, including its right-flank Republicans.

    “Just like in 2011, it’s not going to be real kumbaya,” said Neil Bradley, vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a former top aide to former House GOP Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Bradley, who was part of earlier Biden talks, said, “These are both seasoned leaders who understand what it takes to get things done in Washington.”

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has notified Congress that it will need to raise the debt ceiling, now set at $31 trillion, to allow continued borrowing to pay the nation’s already accrued bills. While the Treasury Department has been able to launch “extraordinary measures” to temporarily avoid a debt default, that’s only expected to last until June.

    The debt ceiling showdown carries echoes, but also differences, from 2011, when the House Republican “tea party” majority rose to power, demanding budget cuts and threatening a potentially catastrophic federal debt default.

    Recalling those difficult negotiations, Biden has been reluctant to negotiate with the new House Republicans under McCarthy. Ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, the White House released a memo outlining the “two questions” Biden will pose to the Republican leader.

    “Will the speaker commit to the bedrock principle that the United States will never default on its financial obligations?” reads one of the questions, in part. And: “When will Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans release their Budget?”

    The memo, from White House National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Shalanda Young, the Office of Management and Budget director, noted that Biden will be releasing the administration’s budget on March 9 — notably blowing past a February deadline — and called on McCarthy to detail precisely how Republicans would cut the government spending that they insist is too high.

    McCarthy all but invited himself to the White House as he pushed for the meeting with Biden. And he has made it clear he is willing to bargain, announcing over the weekend he will not be proposing cuts to Medicare or Social Security as Republicans try to slash federal spending as part of any debt ceiling deal.

    While McCarthy comes to the negotiating table with the power of the new House majority behind him, he is also viewed as coming somewhat empty-handed.

    It’s not at all clear the new speaker will be able to deliver the votes needed from divided Republicans in Congress on any debt deal. He has promised his GOP hardliners a return to fiscal 2022 spending levels, but even that might not be enough budget cutting for some of them.

    It’s a potential repeat of the 2011-12 fiscal showdown, when the Obama administration negotiated with Republicans before finally settling on a deal that Biden negotiated with the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to ease the crisis.

    “We’re all behind Kevin, wishing him well in the negotiations,” McConnell said Tuesday, his own Senate Republicans in the minority.

    “The deal has to be cut, obviously, between the House majority and the Democratic president, in order for it to have a chance to survive over here.”

    Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., said that Biden and McCarthy “don’t have the historic relationship that Senator McConnell and Biden have had through the years, but I do think circumstances necessitate and dictate at times that people have to come together — whether they like it or not.”

    Like the Republicans, Democrats are skeptical of dealing with the opposing party. They’re pushing Biden to drive a hardline bargain against any trade-offs.

    Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal said Biden “has seen over the last two years who he’s negotiating with — these are not people who are actually about negotiating something that makes sense for the working people.”

    The president, she added, has been “such a champion of working people and reversing inequality” that any budget-slashing deal with Republicans “would reverse all of that work.”

    Refusal to negotiate with Republicans has been off-brand for Biden, who has championed his decades of experience in building relationships with lawmakers, governors and administrations of both parties.

    In many ways, Biden and McCarthy are picking up where they left off from those breakfast meetings.

    “I think he’ll start by listening more than he talks, by getting to know Speaker McCarthy a little bit more as a person and by exploring what their common priorities might be,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of the president.

    Republican Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a former history professor, said of the two: “They’re career public servants. They’re both intensely political. I think they’re both hail-well-met fellows. It seems to me that they’ll have a reasonably good discussion.”

    ___

    Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed from New York.

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  • Inside McCarthy’s House: Famous friends and hard realities

    Inside McCarthy’s House: Famous friends and hard realities

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — In an almost forgotten slice of marbled real estate at the Capitol, the Kevin McCarthy era is taking shape in Congress.

    It was here that the new House speaker was chatting last week with Donald Trump Jr. on the former president’s son’s podcast, their laughter spilling into the halls from behind closed doors. And it was in this modest outpost, with its grand vistas of the National Mall and easy proximity to the action on House floor, that the Republican leader from California had met with his lieutenants brokering deals in the grueling race to become speaker.

    Away from the glare of the speaker’s official office, McCarthy is conducting some of the most exhilarating but also difficult business of leadership. Yet McCarthy is also confronting the limits of his slim hold on power as the promises of a new style of running the House run into the hard realities of governing.

    This past week, an immigration bill that was supposed to be easy work for a Republican Party intent on sealing the U.S. border with Mexico was shelved for quick action, kicked back to committees for changes.

    A Republican proposal for a 23% national sales tax that would take the place of income taxes rose and quickly fell from favor, turned into a punchline for President Joe Biden’s attacks on extreme elements in the GOP.

    McCarthy booted two prominent Democrats, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell of California, from the House Intelligence Committee, but his promise to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee ran into resistance from a couple of Republicans.

    “You watch,” McCarthy told The Associated Press as breezed through the halls, signaling he had the votes in hand to remove the Somali-born Omar.

    Three weeks into the new Republican majority, the risks of McCarthy’s leadership style are clearly taking hold: In the interest of opening up the legislative process, with more seats at the table for far-right lawmakers, the GOP agenda will be subjected to prolonged debates and delays — and the chance that nothing gets done at all.

    McCarthy appeared upbeat as he exited the Trump podcast, brushing off the scrapes over the immigration bill and others as part of the process with his bottom-up way of governing.

    “I don’t view that as at risk,” McCarthy said.

    “Say you passed the bill early here, but it just it’s not perfect,” he said. “I want to get it right.”

    So far, Republicans have been able to get about 10 pieces of legislation through the House, including one abortion-related measure that was a party priority. Some other bills and resolutions had sweeping bipartisan backing, largely symbolic actions including one to commend Iranian human rights protesters.

    But several of the top proposals the Republicans lined up for quick passage as part of their rules package have stalled out amid differences between the hard-right Freedom Caucus and pragmatic conservatives. As McCarthy celebrated his birthday with a visit from Elon Musk at the Capitol, lawmakers were grinding through a two-day debate on a routine oil-and-gas leasing bill.

    “At some point in time, they have to belly up to the bar, make a decision, and go,” said Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the seasoned Democratic leader and former House whip.

    As part of the opening up the House process, lawmakers on Thursday dove into a freewheeling debate over an oil and gas leasing bill that would limit the president’s ability to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as Biden did during soaring fuel prices, without first developing an Energy Department plan to increase resource production on federal lands.

    One of the first amendments came from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who used her precious few minutes of debate to also mention she was the first in Congress to file legislation calling for Biden’s impeachment.

    “The people’s House has been broken for too long,” she said, extolling the new system.

    But House Republicans acknowledge some grumblings from their constituents back home at the slow start to their new majority. The prolonged speaker’s race consumed the first week of the new Congress as McCarthy endured 15 votes before finally seizing the gavel.

    Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said he heard from a caller to his office demanding to know why House Republicans hadn’t yet launched investigations into Biden’s son Hunter.

    “Everybody gets so emotional,” Nehls said.

    “Let’s just breathe a little bit. Take a step back,” he said. “Let’s develop the situation and see what comes out of these committees.”

    But the challenges ahead for the House Republican majority are as much philosophical as organizational.

    The immigration bill proposed by Rep. Chip Roy of Texas was supposed to be an easier lift, centered in the GOP’s political wheelhouse of priorities clamping down on migrants at the border.

    Pushed by the Freedom Caucus member, the legislation would require the Homeland Security zecretary to deny migrants, including those seeking asylum, conditional entry into the U.S. without valid documents, instead holding them in detention.

    The immigration bill had been green-lighted in the House rules package for action, but it ran into resistance from the pragmatic wing of conservative Republicans from the Main Street caucus.

    Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a former chairman of that group, which calls itself conservatives who want to govern, said he and others were tapped by colleagues to notify McCarthy’s team that some had concerns with the immigration bill as well as the proposed legislation for a national sales tax.

    “These things got to go through committee,” Bacon told reporters at the Capitol.

    Still, McCarthy’s efforts to open up the legislating process have drawn interest from Democrats as well as Republicans, as lawmakers offered dozens of amendments to the oil and gas drilling bill in a first test of the new system.

    “We are about to do something we haven’t done in a long time,” announced Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., who was presiding over the chamber late Thursday, as he gaveled the start of rapid-fire voting. “Two minute votes!”

    Cheers erupted from the lawmakers.

    Twenty four amendment votes later, they wrapped by dinnertime.

    Lawmakers were back at it on Friday, another several dozen amendments for rapid two-minute voting, before Republicans pushed the oil and gas bill to passage, almost strictly on party line with just one Democrat joining.

    But the bill has almost no chance of becoming law.

    It is unlikely to be considered in the Senate. And Biden has threatened a veto.

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  • Kemp done being underestimated, aims to steer GOP past Trump

    Kemp done being underestimated, aims to steer GOP past Trump

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    ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is done being underestimated.

    Having vanquished both a Donald Trump-backed Republican challenger and Democratic star Stacey Abrams to win reelection, Kemp is looking to expand his influence in his second term, free from the caricature of the gun-toting, pickup-driving, migrant-catching country boy that emerged during his first campaign for governor.

    A new vision of Kemp steering his party toward a non-Trumpian conservatism made its debut in his November victory speech after it became clear that he had defeated Abrams by a much larger margin in their rematch than he had in their tight 2018 matchup.

    “This election proves that when Republicans stay focused on real-world solutions that put hardworking people first we can win now, but also in the future, y’all,” Kemp said.

    Kemp pledged that night to “stay in the fight” and followed with concrete steps: He kept his political operation running and lent it to the unsuccessful Senate runoff campaign of Herschel Walker, while forming a federal political action committee that lets the governor influence races for Congress and president. He hasn’t ruled out running for the U.S. Senate in 2026 or even seeking the White House.

    Beyond his own advancement, Kemp’s victory could provide a blueprint for Republicans in competitive states after voters rejected many of the Trump-molded candidates in 2022. It’s a less showy approach, aimed at luring independents and moderates while still achieving conservative policy goals.

    “If Republicans looking forward are focused on winning, I think a lot of folks will be calling Gov. Kemp and wanting his advice, but also trying to replicate the things he did here,” said Cody Hall, Kemp’s political adviser.

    Kemp, now 59, was a real estate developer and state senator before Gov. Sonny Perdue appointed him secretary of state in 2010. Eight years later, Kemp was on his way to defeating an establishment candidate for the GOP nomination for governor when Trump’s endorsement supercharged his campaign, which focused on gun rights and opposition to illegal immigration.

    After Kemp defeated Abrams in the 2018 general election by just 1.4 percentage points, she accused him of using the secretary of state’s office to improperly purge likely Democratic voters. A federal court later rejected legal claims questioning Kemp’s actions.

    In his first term, Kemp logged some big conservative achievements, including signing stringent abortion limits in 2019. He also made a diverse slate of appointments and kept his promise of $5,000 raises for public school teachers, moves aimed at solidifying his appeal to the middle in an anticipated Abrams rematch.

    Kemp’s relationship with Trump began to deteriorate after the governor appointed Kelly Loeffler to the Senate instead of Trump’s preferred pick. Trump later took shots at Kemp over his decision to reopen businesses early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and the president’s rage boiled over when Kemp refused to help Trump and his allies overturn Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia in the 2020 election — efforts that are now the subject of investigations by state and federal prosecutors.

    Trump vowed revenge against Kemp, but the governor pressed forward. In 2021, Kemp signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections inspired by Trump’s false claims of fraud in the 2020 election. He also pushed through a bill loosening gun laws.

    Trump endorsed former Sen. David Perdue as a primary challenger to the governor. Kemp, who never publicly challenged Trump or even responded directly to his tirades, ended up crushing Perdue in the primary. In the meantime, his distance from Trump provided Kemp with credibility among independents and even some Democrats.

    “It’s just given him a gravitas you can’t buy,” said Brian Robinson, a Republican political consultant.

    Even some Democrats acknowledge Kemp’s increasing political strength after his nearly 8 percentage-point victory over Abrams. State Rep. Al Williams, long close to Abrams, said Kemp is “at the height of his powers” going into a second term. His inauguration is Thursday.

    Williams and other backers say that Kemp’s incumbency, plus the billions in federal COVID-19 aid that he alone decided how to spend under Georgia law, were factors in his win. “He spent it very effectively and spread the net wide,” Williams said.

    As the Senate race turned to overtime, Kemp was called on to help Walker in his runoff against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. Kemp, who had secured GOP donors and built his own political organization independent from a state party run by Trump acolytes, turned over his voter data operation to allow the Walker campaign to tailor messages to different factions of Republican voters.

    Still, Kemp largely maintained his distance from Walker, whose campaign was beset by accusations that he had paid for abortions, behaved violently toward women and lied about his education, work history and personal background. Shortly before the runoff, Kemp agreed to appear in a television ad endorsing Walker but made sure that it was his own political team that wrote the script.

    Steven Law, who leads the political action committee aligned with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, said Kemp did what savvy political heavyweights do: He helped his party while establishing and protecting his own brand.

    “We’ve had a party where Trump has had a decisive gravitational pull, and here’s a person in Brian Kemp who just stayed apart from that orbit, made his own calls, decided things his way — not in opposition to Trump, but at the same time not in obedience to him,” Law said, calling Kemp’s balancing act “remarkable.”

    Kemp’s future political path remains unclear, but he has options.

    In Georgia, he’s never been identified as having open national ambitions, either for the presidency or Senate, and Robinson noted that Kemp “has never spoken of Washington fondly.”

    Law demurred when asked whether McConnell or his team has broached the possibility of Kemp running for the Senate in 2026, when Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff would face voters again.

    There’s also the possibility of a vice presidential bid or a future Cabinet post. Perhaps most likely is a larger role in the Republican Governors Association: He’s now on the RGA’s executive committee and could become chair in 2025 or 2026.

    Hall said Kemp wants to help other states elect conservatives who advocate “freedom and liberty and personal responsibility” while promoting education, a strong economy and good jobs. “Whatever he can do to help more folks like that get elected, I’m sure he will,” Hall said.

    At home, Kemp is the paramount party leader and unchallenged boss of state government in a way that’s new for him. With a new House speaker and lieutenant governor leading the General Assembly, Kemp is unlikely to meet resistance from GOP majorities.

    So far, though, he’s offered a minimalist second-term agenda: income tax and property tax rebates, some criminal justice measures and minor education changes. His biggest promise is continuity, adding four more years to 20 years of Republican rule in Georgia.

    The governor could also take firmer control of GOP machinery if he backs an effort to push out Georgia Republican Chair David Shafer, a Trump ally.

    “He is carrying around bags of political capital like the Monopoly man,” Robinson said, marveling at what he calls Kemp’s “clear and very empowering” mandates from the primary and general election. “Go ahead and put a monocle and top hat on him.”

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  • Biden’s new year pitch focuses on benefits of bipartisanship

    Biden’s new year pitch focuses on benefits of bipartisanship

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    CHRISTIANSTED, U.S. Virgin Islands (AP) — President Joe Biden and top administration officials will open a new year of divided government by fanning out across the country to talk about how the economy is benefiting from his work with Democrats and Republicans.

    As part of the pitch, Biden and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell will make a rare joint appearance in McConnell’s home state of Kentucky on Wednesday to highlight nearly $1 trillion in infrastructure spending that lawmakers approved on a bipartisan basis in 2021.

    The Democratic president will also be joined by a bipartisan group of elected officials when he visits the Kentucky side of the Cincinnati area, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, the White House said.

    Biden’s bipartisanship blitz was announced two days before Republicans retake control of the House from Democrats on Tuesday following GOP gains in the November elections. The shift ends unified political control of Congress by Democrats and complicates Biden’s future legislative agenda. Democrats will remain in charge in the Senate.

    Before he departed Washington for vacation at the end of last year, Biden appealed for less partisanship, saying he hoped everyone will see each other “not as Democrats or Republicans, not as members of ‘Team Red’ or ‘Team Blue,’ but as who we really are, fellow Americans.”

    The president’s trip appeared tied to a recent announcement by Kentucky and Ohio that they will receive more than $1.63 billion in federal grants to help build a new Ohio River bridge near Cincinnati and improve the existing overloaded span there, a heavily used freight route linking the Midwest and the South.

    Congestion at the Brent Spence Bridge on Interstates 75 and 71 has for years been a frustrating bottleneck on a key shipping corridor and a symbol of the nation’s growing infrastructure needs. Officials say the bridge was built in the 1960s to carry around 80,000 vehicles a day but has seen double that traffic load on its narrow lanes, leading the Federal Highway Administration to declare it functionally obsolete.

    The planned project covers about 8 miles (12 kilometers) and includes improvements to the bridge and some connecting roads and construction of a companion span nearby. Both states coordinated to request funding under the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure deal signed in 2021 by Biden, who had highlighted the project as the legislation moved through Congress.

    McConnell said the companion bridge “will be one of the bill’s crowning accomplishments.”

    DeWine said both states have been discussing the project for almost two decades “and now, we can finally move beyond the talk and get to work.”

    Officials hope to break ground later this year and complete much of the work by 2029.

    Biden’s visit could also provide a political boost to Beshear, who is seeking reelection this year in his overwhelmingly Republican state.

    In a December 2022 interview with The Associated Press, Beshear gave a mixed review of Biden’s job performance. Biden had joined Beshear to tour tornado- and flood-stricken regions of Kentucky last year.

    “There are things that I think have been done well, and there are things that I wish would have been done better,” Beshear said of Biden.

    Other top administration officials will also help promote Biden’s economic policies this week.

    In Chicago on Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris will discuss “how the President’s economic plan is rebuilding our infrastructure, creating good-paying jobs – jobs that don’t require a four-year degree, and revitalizing communities left behind,” the White House said in its announcement.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was delivering the same message in New London, Connecticut, also on Wednesday.

    Mitch Landrieu, the White House official tasked with promoting infrastructure spending, will join soon-to-be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday in San Francisco, which she represents in Congress.

    Biden was scheduled to return to the White House on Monday after spending nearly a week with family on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

    The president opened New Year’s Day on Sunday by watching the first sunrise of 2023 and attending Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Christiansted, where he has attended religious services during his past visits to the island.

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  • Santos should consider resigning, veteran GOP lawmaker says

    Santos should consider resigning, veteran GOP lawmaker says

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as the House GOP leadership keeps silent, a veteran Republican lawmaker said Sunday that George Santos should consider resigning after the congressman-elect from New York admitted to lying about his heritage, education and professional career.

    Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, a former House Ways and Means chairman who has served in Congress for 25 years, told “Fox News Sunday” that Santos would have “to take some huge steps” to regain trust and respect in his district. Santos is set to be sworn in Tuesday when the new Congress begins.

    “This is troubling in so many ways. Certainly, he’s lied repeatedly,” said Brady, who is retiring from the House. “He certainly is going to have to consider resigning.” Brady said a decision about whether Santos steps down is one “to be made between he and the voters who elected him.”

    In November, Santos, 34, was elected in the 3rd Congressional District, which includes some Long Island suburbs and a small part of the New York City borough of Queens. He became the first non-incumbent, openly gay Republican to win a seat to Congress. But weeks after helping Republicans secure their razor-thin House majority, Santos is now under investigation for fabricating large swaths of his biography. His campaign spending is also being scrutinized.

    He has shown no signs of stepping aside. Last week, Santos was asked on Fox News about the “blatant lies” and responded that he had “made a mistake.”

    The top House Republican, Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, who is running to become House speaker now that the GOP will hold the majority, has not said what action, if any, he might take against Santos.

    Brady said if he headed a committee that Santos was set to serve on, “right now, he would not be on the committee.”

    The congressman also said that “we’re a country of second chances. And when people are willing to turn their life around and own up to this and do what it takes and earn respect and trust again, you know, we’re willing to do that.” Brady said he was hopeful that Santos “chooses the right path here.”

    Questions were raised about Santos last month when The New York Times published an investigation into his resume and found a number of major discrepancies. Since then, Santos has admitted lying about having Jewish ancestry, lying about working for Wall Street banks and lying about obtaining a college degree.

    Democrats are expected to pursue several avenues against Santos, including a potential complaint with the Federal Election Commission and introducing a resolution to expel him once he’s a sitting member of Congress.

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