USpolitics

"This was intentional," said U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib. "You don't accidentally kill massive amounts of children and their families over and over again and get to say, 'It was a mistake.'"

President Biden goes by “Scranton Joe,” he references Pennsylvania often in speeches and his campaigns have spent millions of dollars there in political ads.

In 2020, the president set up his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia — before the COVID-19 pandemic — and he visited the state more than any other battleground that cycle.

A Muhlenberg College poll of voters in the state out earlier this month showed Trump leading Biden 44 percent to 41 percent in a head-to-head match-up. The previous survey done by the college showed Biden ahead by 42 percent to 41 percent.

“The most loyal Democratic voters — and the share we see within that group — is lower than what we have traditionally seen and that’s very problematic for Biden,” Borick said.

“They left me because they just couldn’t take a risk on me, because as a woman, I’m supposed to be perfect,” Clinton said in an interview with The New Times, published Saturday. “They were willing to take a risk on [former President Trump] — who had a long list of, let’s call them flaws, to illustrate his imperfection — because he was a man, and they could envision a man as president and commander in chief.”

“Is there a double standard? One hundred percent times 100 percent,” Tracy Sefl, a Democratic consultant and Clinton surrogate, said at the time. “And God forbid if she coughs.”

In the interview with the Times, Clinton also went after members of her party for what she said was a long-term failure in not shoring up abortion rights. She argued that Democrats didn’t fully estimate the power of anti-abortion powers until most of them were “taken by surprise” with the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which ended the federal right to abortion access.

The battle lines over free speech on college campuses were largely entrenched before pro-Palestinian encampments rapidly spread across the country last month.

This left conservative voices on campus and in Congress positioning themselves as the defenders of free speech and, somewhat paradoxically, champions of liberal values around the need for open debate in America’s bastions of higher learning.

In recent months, however, House hearings about college campuses have focused instead on various ways to suppress speech deemed antisemitic or “pro-Hamas” — as protesters rail against U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as the Zionist movement they blame for the historical oppression of Palestinians.

“For a decade, conservatives have been crying foul on that,” Morey said of curbing free speech. “Until you get to post-October 7. And now people are saying ‘From the river to the sea’ or ‘Intifada’ or ‘Free Gaza’ — and a certain crop of conservatives don’t like that. And now suddenly, we have found their free speech limit. They don’t really mean ‘free speech,’ they mean ‘free speech until it’s speech I don’t like.’”

Lawler said slogans such as “From the river to the sea” were clearly antisemitic threats that should not be allowed. But Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), who has also proposed legislation to crack down on anti-Jewish hate speech, said such slogans were protected in her view.

“We’ve seen Jewish students in the encampments who held Shabbat services and Passover Seders with their peers,” said Beth Miller, political director at Jewish Voice for Peace Action, which has helped organize cease-fire protests. “It is not antisemitic to criticize the Israeli government or to protest complicity in genocide.”

“There’s not an armed insurrection where one side is seeking to overthrow another and engages in any means necessary. This is a protest on a college campus in the United States of America. I think it’s entirely possible to proceed with one’s objectives without crossing the line into rhetoric that is either dangerous or antisemitic.”

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/15781650

‘A deranged fringe movement’: what is Maga communism, the online ideology platformed by Tucker Carlson?

Almost 6 in 10 likely voters surveyed — 58 percent — said they were “concerned” about a second Trump term after hearing about the former president’s reported offer to undo broad swaths of President Biden’s climate policies, according to polling by Data for Progress and Climate Power.

The group’s new poll surveyed 1,231 likely voters from May 10-13, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

Seven in 10 voters in a new poll want to see third-party and independent candidates in presidential debates this cycle, as President Biden and former President Trump prepare to go head-to-head.

The latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found 79 percent of voters want Biden and Trump to debate, while 71 percent think those debates should include candidates from outside the major parties if they clear a viable threshold — with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listed as an example of one such candidate.

Seven in 10 voters in the poll also say they’ve made up their mind about who they’ll vote for in the fall — but half of independents say they’re still undecided, which could have an impact in what’s gearing up to be a competitive race.

The survey was conducted from May 15-16 among 1,660 registered voters by The Harris Poll and HarrisX. The margin of error for the total sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

In the latest NH Journal/Praecones Analytica poll, released Monday, Trump received 36.6 percent support, compared to Biden’s 36.5 percent. Kennedy followed the presumptive party nominees in a not-so-distant third place, with 14.6 percent of the vote.

“In comparison to exit polls from the 2020 presidential election, independent/undeclared voters in New Hampshire demonstrate significantly lower support for Biden, as Biden won around 60 percent of these voters in 2020, compared to around a quarter if the election were held today,” he added.

The results come as Biden is slated to travel to New Hampshire this week to campaign.

The poll, conducted between May 15-20, included 862 registered New Hampshire voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.33 percentage points.

• Jared Bernstein, Joe Biden's Chief Economist, faced difficulties explaining money's workings in a documentary or 'Finding The Money,' despite his role.
• He stumbled through concepts, highlighting the confusion around government money printing and borrowing
• Bernstein, who is head of the US Council of Economic Advisers, is not formally trained in economics and appeared bewildered in the clip

“That’s bulls—,” Tester told Punchbowl News. “You can’t on one hand talk about how the border’s not secure, and on the other hand say we’re not going to secure the border because we don’t want it to be secure.”

Tester said last month that he would support the bill as a stand-alone after previously voting against it when it was offered as an amendment to a spending package to fund the departments of Defense and Homeland Security alongside other priorities.

United States President Joe Biden marked World Press Freedom Day by calling for the “immediate and unconditional release of all journalists who have been put behind bars for simply doing their jobs.” He added, “Journalism should not be a crime anywhere on Earth.”

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been in detention in London’s Belmarsh maximum-security prison for more than five years because the Biden administration insists on bringing Assange to the U.S. for a trial on unprecedented Espionage Act charges that were issued under President Donald Trump.

Despite what Blinken claims, the U.S. does not support “free and independent media around the world.” It supports media that help U.S. officials further the agenda of the U.S. government.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll found that economy and inflation were among the top issues for Americans in this upcoming presidential election, with more Americans saying they trust Trump on the issues than Biden. Eighty-eight percent of Americans in the survey said the economy was important when deciding whom to vote for, and 85 percent said the same for inflation.

The ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted online among 2,260 adults April 25-30 and has a margin of sampling error of 2 percentage points.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) mocked the students protesting on college campuses after a report was released stating a Houthi-run university in Yemen will offer slots to those suspended at U.S. universities.

“The board of the university condemns what academics and students of the U.S. and European universities are being subjected to, suppression of freedom of expression,” the school’s board said in a statement.

Since the start of the war, Fetterman has unequivocally backed Israel and its right to defend itself. He criticized the protests, admitting that it’s a “great American value to protest” but thinks the demonstrations are “pup tents” for Hamas.

The protesters have rejected that characterization, saying they are merely exercising their freedom of speech to protest Israel’s war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

But critics warn IHRA’s definition could be used to stifle campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which has claimed the lives of 34,568 Palestinians so far.

In a letter sent to lawmakers on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) urged House members to vote against the legislation, saying federal law already prohibits anti-Semitic discrimination and harassment.

The Biden administration and other top Washington officials have pledged steadfast support for Israel, despite mounting humanitarian concerns over its military campaign.

Jewish Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said she voted against the bill that would crack down on antisemitism on college campuses because, in her view, anti-Zionism is not “inherently” antisemitism, and the measure that passed through the House would “stifle” free speech rights.

“But I do not believe that anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitism. I support Israel’s right to exist, but I also know many people who question whether Israel should exist as a Jewish state who are deeply connected to their Judaism,” Jacobs said.

The bill passed with a 320-91 vote. The 70 Democrats were joined by 21 Republicans in opposing the measure that now heads to the Senate.

“Today, I voted against H.R. 6090, because it fails to effectively address the very real rise of antisemitism, all while defunding colleges and universities across the country and punishing many, if not all, of the non-violent protestors speaking out against the Israeli military’s conduct,” she said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is happy to keep them guessing.

And on Monday evening — after a weeklong recess during which she escalated her threats against the Speaker — Greene was a no-show at the only House votes of the day, raising only more questions about whether she intends to pull the trigger on her motion to vacate.

And Greene herself kept the anticipation in high gear Sunday afternoon, writing on the social platform X that Johnson’s “days as Speaker are numbered” — though she did not provide a more specific timeline.

“One, I don’t think it’s good timing. Two, I don’t think — if it was triggered — I don’t think it would pass,” Crane said. “I’ve publicly said multiple times I think that the Democrats would keep Speaker Johnson, I think they would save him, so I don’t think it would pass. And furthermore, even if it did pass, I don’t have much confidence with the conference that we have that we could get a more conservative Speaker for the American people.”

“Right now, we’re six months out, ish, from the election, and we need to focus on that. But we’ll see. There’s still a lot of work left to be done on [fiscal 2025] levels, on other issues — Farm Bill — other stuff. Let’s see what our priorities are.”

A former naval aviator has launched a last-minute primary challenge against Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), filing last week to run for the House in Florida’s 1st Congressional District.

Aaron Dimmock filed to run as a Republican in Gaetz’s district last Friday, the qualifying deadline for federal and judicial candidates in the Sunshine State.

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Former President Trump is the front-runner in a three-way race with President Biden and Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll shared with The Hill on Monday.

In a race between the three candidates, 44 percent of surveyed voters said they backed Trump, while 38 percent said they would vote for Biden. Another 12 percent said they supported Kennedy, and 5 percent said they did not know or were unsure of whom they were going to support.