by tyler | Oct 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
Californians are paying their respects to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday, as the political titan lies in state at San Francisco City Hall.
Feinstein, who died last week at 90, was born in San Francisco and was the first female mayor of the city, a position she held for 10 years. She later served in the US Senate for more than 30 years.
The public can pay their respects from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. PT. A funeral service will be held at city hall on Thursday, with the public invited to attend. Previously, the service was planned to be closed to the public due to limited space.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is expected to speak at Feinstein’s memorial service, and the Senate floor will close on Thursday so members can attend the service.
A live stream link for those unable to attend will be provided. Following the service, the longtime senator will be buried at a private, family-only ceremony.
A plane from the president’s military fleet carrying the body of Feinstein, accompanied by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, arrived in San Francisco on Saturday evening.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s seat on an interim basis, and she was sworn in on Tuesday.
by tyler | Oct 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s political operation announced raising $15 million for his Republican presidential bid during the third quarter of this year, but only $5 million of that haul was available to spend in the bruising primary fight ahead, a senior campaign official said.
This will likely extend DeSantis’ reliance on a deep-pocketed outside group, which has spent heavily to advance his ambitions. His third-quarter haul represents a drop-off from the $20 million his outfit raised during the second quarter as he works to retool his presidential campaign.
The DeSantis campaign is also moving a third of its staff from Tallahassee, Florida, to Des Moines, Iowa, according to the campaign official, with the hopes that a strong showing in the state’s Republican caucuses will boost the Florida governor’s effort to defeat former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The $15 million announced Wednesday was raised across three political committees – his campaign account, a political action committee and a joint fundraising account that directs money to the other two accounts, his campaign said.
The campaign entered October with $13.5 million in cash on hand, the official said.
DeSantis aides suggested his third-quarter fundraising haul would help stabilize the governor’s campaign – after a sharp reduction in staff earlier this year – and fend off his critics.
“This significant fundraising haul not only provides us with the resources we need in the fight for Iowa and beyond, but it also shuts down the doubters who counted out Ron DeSantis for far too long,” campaign manager James Uthmeier said in a statement.
DeSantis’ third-quarter fundraising numbers were first reported by The New York Times.
The Florida governor is in South Carolina on Wednesday for the first time since mid-July as he seeks to reengage with Republicans voters in the early-nominating state.
This story has been updated with additional information.
by tyler | Oct 4, 2023 | CNN, politics
The US will transfer thousands of seized Iranian weapons and rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, in a move that could help to alleviate some of the critical shortages facing the Ukrainian military as it awaits more money and equipment from the US and its allies, US officials said.
US Central Command has already transferred over one million rounds of seized Iranian ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces, it announced on Wednesday. The transfer was conducted on Monday, CENTCOM said in a press release.
“The government obtained ownership of these munitions on July 20, 2023, through the Department of Justice’s civil forfeiture claims against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC),” the statement says.
The Justice Department announced in March that it was seeking the forfeiture of one million rounds of Iranian ammunition, thousands of proximity fuses for rocket-propelled grenades, and thousands of pounds of propellant for rocket-propelled grenades that the Navy seized from Iran as it was in transit to Yemen.
“These munitions were originally seized by U.S. Central Command naval forces from the transiting stateless dhow MARWAN 1, Dec. 9, 2022. The munitions were being transferred from the IRGC to the Houthis in Yemen in violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2216,” the statement says.
The Biden administration has for months been weighing how to legally send the seized weapons, which are stored in CENTCOM facilities across the Middle East, to the Ukrainians.
Over the past year, the US Navy has seized thousands of Iranian assault rifles and more than one million rounds of ammunition from vessels used by Iran to ship weapons to Yemen. The seizures, frequently carried out with regional partner forces, target small stateless vessels on routes historically used to smuggle weapons to the Houthis in Yemen.
In mid-January, the US assisted French forces in the seizure of 3,000 assault rifles headed from Iran to Yemen, as well as 23 anti-tank guided missiles. Following the seizure, the US took custody of the confiscated weapons.
That illegal weapons interdiction capped a two month period in which the US and its partners seized a total of 5,000 weapons and 1.6 million rounds of ammunition, according to Central Command.
Justice Department and defense officials have been working together to find a legal pathway to send the weapons to Ukraine, officials said, and one way is through the US’ civil forfeiture authorities.
The Justice Department has filed at least two forfeiture complaints against seized Iranian ammunition and weapons this year. Apart from the announcement in March, DOJ announced in July that that it was seeking the forfeiture of “over 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, approximately 194 rocket launchers, over 70 anti-tank guided missiles, and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition” seized from Iran by the US Navy.
“At the end of the day, Ukraine needs various supplies for the war effort, and while this isn’t a solution to all of Ukraine’s military needs, it will provide critical support,” said Jonathan Lord, a senior fellow and director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security who pushed the US to send the seized Iranian weapons to Ukraine in an op-ed in February.
Lord added that the move could also have implications for Iran’s relationship with Russia.
“For over a year, Iranian UAVs in the hands of the Russian military have been used to attack and murder Ukrainian civilians,” Lord said. “There is poetic justice in Ukraine utilizing seized Iranian weapons to defend its people against Russia’s criminal invasion and abuses. Additionally, this policy may put greater pressure on the burgeoning relationship between Moscow and Tehran.”
The decision could drive a wedge between Iran and Russia, which have formed a de facto defense partnership over the last several months, with Iran supplying Russia with drones for its war in Ukraine and Russia cooperating with Iran on missile and air defense production.
by tyler | Oct 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
After declaring Donald Trump “missing in action” at last week’s Republican presidential primary debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis followed up by taking shot after shot at the former president. He challenged Trump to a one-on-one debate, asserted the GOP front-runner’s political shortcomings “turned Georgia and Arizona blue” and accused him of hiding from the campaign trail, a criticism akin to one Republicans levied against Joe Biden in 2020.
And at his campaign’s online store – where DeSantis used to sell flip flops attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci and a sleeve of two golf balls proclaiming “Florida’s governor has a pair” – people can now purchase “Trump’s veto pen” for $7.8 trillion, a joke intended to draw attention to the Trump White House’s contributions to the national debt.
It’s all a part of a more aggressive approach DeSantis has taken in recent weeks, after months of dancing around whether to ignore or engage with the former president and as a fresh sense of urgency hangs over the race to try and slow Trump’s march to the nomination.
Driving this stepped up offensive are messages intended to convince Republicans that Trump is somehow unrecognizable compared to the figure who upended politics in 2016, nor the same person as the president who left the White House after defeat in 2021. Other 2024 hopefuls have similarly hoped to contrast Trump with his previous campaigns.
Noticeably absent, though, is any semblance of a clear frontal attack on Trump’s pending criminal indictments and civil lawsuits from DeSantis – even as Trump on Monday was seated in a Manhattan courtroom for a trial over his company’s alleged gross inflation of its assets. Instead, DeSantis targeted Trump over a 2016 campaign pledge to force Mexico to pay for a new wall at the border, calling it “an empty campaign slogan.”
This new phase of the DeSantis campaign is taking shape with just over 100 days before the caucuses in Iowa, where a strong showing, if not outright victory, is paramount to DeSantis’ viability. And it comes amid growing worries among conservative donors and operatives that Trump’s lead in national polls and key nominating states is growing harder to overcome.
Still, the DeSantis campaign remains adamant that the race is far from settled and the timing of these recent broadsides is coming as 2024 is only just now coming into focus for many voters.
“The time for contrast was not over the summer when the government was going after (Trump),” said Ryan Tyson, a senior adviser to DeSantis’ campaign.
Trump for his part said over the weekend at an Iowa rally that DeSantis’ career is “toast” and called the Florida governor a “very injured falling bird” in the 2024 presidential race.
DeSantis on Trump: ‘He’s a different candidate’
The shift from DeSantis became apparent on a Monday afternoon in mid-September, when DeSantis called an influential Iowa reporter and, without much prodding, issued one of his most pointed attacks yet on Trump’s position on abortion.
“I think he’s changing in a way that is not consistent with the values of the people in Iowa,” DeSantis told O’Kay Henderson of Radio Iowa, a statewide news network in Iowa, one day after the former president told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Florida’s ban on the procedure after six weeks was “a terrible mistake.”
Before ending his 11-minute interview, DeSantis declared: “I think all pro-lifers should know that he’s preparing to sell you out.”
Two days later, DeSantis doubled down, saying Trump was “taking positions that I think are different from what he took in 2015 when he first came onto the scene, and I do think he’s a different candidate today than he was back then.”
DeSantis is not alone in suggesting to voters that Trump has changed as Republicans search for ways to challenge the former president without alienating those who remember his four years in office fondly – or expose themselves to criticism for their own past support for his administration.
Former New Jersey Gov. Christie told CNN last month that Trump in 2016 “stood on the convention stage and said, ‘I am your voice.’ Today, he says, ‘I am your retribution.’ Those are two very different people.” Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley recently said Trump “used to be good on foreign policy” but has gotten “weak in the knees.” Former Vice President Mike Pence said he and his former running mate “governed like conservatives” but “Donald Trump makes no such promise today.”
The Florida governor’s efforts against Trump are backed up by a DeSantis-aligned super PAC, Never Back Down, which recently released a new ad in Iowa that was illustrative of the escalating push to draw contrasts between the two.
“We have a choice. One man worked his way through Yale and Harvard Law. One did not,” the ad’s narrator says. “One volunteered to serve his nation in wartime. One did not. One man stood up to Fauci and fought for freedom. One did not. One man won historic reelection, and one did not. One man is the right man to defeat Joe Biden.”
The ad hit the airwaves just before the second GOP debate – the same point in the 2016 cycle that the influential conservative organization Club for Growth began running anti-Trump ads intended to slow his ascent.
One of those ads accused Trump of being a fake Republican who was “really just playing us for chumps,” an argument that ultimately proved ineffective. Echoes of that criticism can be found today as Trump’s opponents once again attempt to paint Trump as unprincipled, hoping voters this time will care.
Club for Growth president David McIntosh recently warned about the potential pitfalls of attacking Trump too aggressively. After spending $6 million on ads intended to weaken Trump’s support in Iowa and South Carolina, Win It Back, a political action committee led by McIntosh, found that most traditional attacks left Trump largely unaffected, according to a memo to donors obtained by CNN.
“Every traditional post-production ad attacking President Trump either backfired or produced no impact on his ballot support and favorability,” McIntosh wrote. “This includes ads that primarily feature video of him saying liberal or stupid comments from his own mouth.”
A senior DeSantis campaign official disagreed with McIntosh’s assessment of Win it Back’s ads, telling CNN that the ads were ineffective at changing minds not because the message was poor but because they were tested as Trump faced multiple indictments. Republican support for Trump peaked during those periods, the official noted.
The official also insisted there’s a difference between the 2015 case against Trump and the one DeSantis and others are now making.
“One says don’t believe what you see, the other says the person you remember is no longer there,” the adviser said. “The difference in what we’re saying is that he is someone you remember that did so many wonderful things, when you look at that now, listen to him now, watch him and observe him, he’s not able to do what he used to do. There’s a difference in that.”
The attacks on Trump are also coming sooner and are better funded than they were eight years ago. According to AdImpact data, anti-Trump ad spending has been significantly higher so far this cycle than in 2015, when Trump first ran for office. Republican campaigns and groups have spent about $8.2 million on anti-Trump advertising; through the same point in 2015, that total was just over $700,000.
This new phase of the DeSantis campaign marks a significant departure from the spring and summer, when DeSantis did not always appear comfortable criticizing Trump. At times, DeSantis signaled he had sharpened his attacks, only to pull back punches – like when he poked fun at Trump’s legal troubles stemming from an alleged hush money payment to an adult film star, but declined to do so again after facing blowback.
Before the first debate, Never Back Down advisers encouraged the campaign to defend, not attack, Trump if someone like Christie went after the former president.
That posture has since changed. At the second debate last week, Christie took the first shot at Trump for dodging the debate – and then DeSantis piled on.
“(Trump) should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt,” DeSantis said. “That set the stage for the inflation that we have.”
But challenges remain in changing minds.
Ethan Masters, a 21-year-old Iowan who came away impressed by DeSantis during a recent event in rural northwest Iowa, thought attacking Trump at the debate was a “mistake.”
“Donald Trump’s thing is attacking people,” Masters said. “If you try and match it, you’ll just look like you’re trying to steal his thing.”
Shellie Flockhart, vice chair of the Moms for Liberty chapter in Dallas County, Iowa, also found DeSantis’ assertions that Trump has abandoned conservatives on abortion unconvincing.
“Trump is the one who did the impossible of (overturning) Roe v. Wade,” said Flockhart, who made clear she didn’t speak on behalf of her organization. “Now it’s in the states’ hands. We can’t push too far, too fast. I don’t believe he ever meant that banning abortion is bad. But I do believe he was saying DeSantis’ strategy in that and trying to get voted in as president was a ‘terrible mistake’ – just a bad strategy.”
by tyler | Oct 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
Hunter Biden, the president’s son, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a Wilmington, Delaware, federal court to three firearms charges brought by special counsel David Weiss.
The 19-minute hearing was without drama but still marked an extraordinary moment: the first time that a child of a sitting president will appear in court to fight criminal charges.
His appearance also comes amid the newly launched impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden for allegedly profiting off his son’s foreign business deals, though Republicans have yet to provide any direct evidence that the president financially benefited from Hunter Biden’s career overseas.
Hunter Biden has been charged with lying on federal firearm forms and illegally possessing a firearm while using illicit drugs.
The charges come after a plea agreement between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutors over allegedly failing to pay millions in taxes fell apart in a hearing before a different federal judge in Delaware, who pressed both Justice Department prosecutors and Hunter’s defense team on the full extent of the agreement and its constitutionality.
During the hearing, magistrate Judge Christopher J. Burke will present Hunter Biden with the charges he is facing, and he will have the opportunity to enter a formal not guilty plea. Prosecutors may also ask for certain conditions of his release to be set in place while he awaits trial.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement when the indictment was announced that his client “possessing an unloaded gun for 11 days was not a threat to public safety, but a prosecutor, with all the power imaginable, bending to political pressure presents a grave threat to our system of justice.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
by tyler | Oct 3, 2023 | CNN, politics
Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar was carjacked in Washington, DC, Monday evening, the congressman said. He was physically unharmed.
The armed carjacking took place at the intersection of K Street and New Jersey Avenue in Southeast DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood, according to an alert from the DC Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. Police are searching for three male suspects, the alert said.
Cuellar said his sushi dinner, phone, iPad and car were all stolen, but later recovered. The incident occurred around 9:32 p.m. Monday night while he was parking his car.
“They came out of nowhere and they pointed guns at me. I do have a black belt, but I recognize when you got three, three guns, yeah, I looked at one with a gun another with a gun, no one behind me. So they said they wanted my car, I said, ‘Sure.’ You got to keep calm under those situations and then they took off. They recovered the car, they recovered everything,” Cuellar told reporters on Tuesday.
“What really got me upset was they took my sushi, but anyway, that’s something else,” he said.
Cuellar said he does not believe he was targeted as a member of Congress or that he doesn’t believe the assailants knew who he was.
The safety of lawmakers in the district has been an increasing concern in recent years. In February, Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted in the elevator of her apartment building in Washington, suffering minor injuries. In the spring, Congress overrode police reforms passed by the city’s council over concerns that they were too soft on crime.
This story has been updated with additional details.
